DEI

Pearl Young became the first woman to work in a technical role at NASA

The Conversation
December 10, 2024 

Pearl Young, second from left, at the NACA’s Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in 1927. NASA Langley Archives

Thirteen years before any other woman joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics – or the NACA, NASA’s predecessor – in a technical role, a young lab assistant named Pearl Young was making waves in the agency. Her legacy as an outspoken and persistent advocate for herself and her team would pave the way for women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics for decades to come.

My interest in Young’s story is grounded in my own identity as a woman in a STEM field. I find strength in sharing the stories of women who made lasting impacts in STEM. I am the director of the NASA-funded North Dakota Space Grant Consortium, where we aim to foster an open and welcoming environment in STEM. Young’s story is one of persistence through setbacks, advocacy for herself and others, and building a community of support.
Facing challenges from the beginning

Young was a scientist, an educator, a technical editor and a researcher. Born in 1895, she was no stranger to the barriers that women faced at the time.

In the early 20th century, college degrees in STEM fields were considered “less suited for women,” and graduates with these degrees were considered unconventional women. Professors who agreed to mentor women in advanced STEM fields in the 1940s and 1950s were often accused of communism.

In 1956, the National Science Foundation even published an article with the title: “Women are NOT for Engineering.”


Despite society’s sexist standards, Young earned a bachelor’s degree in 1919 with a triple major in physics, mathematics and chemistry, with honors, from the University of North Dakota. She then began her decades-long career in STEM.



An avid traveler, Pearl Young – waving at the top of the stairs – traveled to Hawaii on a UND alumni trip in 1960. Pearl Young Papers collection in UND's Special Collections

Becoming a technical editor

Despite the hostile culture for women, Young successfully navigated multiple technical roles at the NACA. With her varied expertise, she worked in several divisions – physics, instrumentation and aerodynamics – and soon noticed a trend across the agency. Many of the reports her colleagues wrote weren’t well written enough to be useful.

In a 1959 interview, Young spoke of her start at the NACA: “Those were fruitful years. I was interested in good writing and suggested the need for a technical editor. The engineers lacked the time to make readable reports.”

Three years after voicing her suggestion, Young was reassigned to the newly created role of assistant technical editor in the publications section in 1935. After six years in that role, Young earned the title of associate technical editor in 1941.

In 1941, the NACA established the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory, now known as NASA Glenn Research Center, in Cleveland. This new field center needed experienced employees, so two years later, NACA leadership invited Young to lead a new technical editing section there.


Pearl Young, seated in the front row, far right, with the technical editing section at the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory. The AERL’s Wing Tips described Young’s office as one which embodied ‘constant vigilance’ and encompassed a ‘rigidly trained crew.’ NASA Glenn Research Center Archives

It was at the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory that Young published her most notable technical work, the Style Manual for Engineering Authors, in 1943. NASA’s History Office even referred to Young as the architect of the NACA technical reports system.

Young’s style manual allowed the agency to communicate technological progress around the globe. This manual included specific formatting rules for technical writing, which would increase consistency for engineers and researchers reporting their data and experimental results. It was essential for efficient World War II operations and was translated into multiple languages.

But it wasn’t until after this publication that Young finally received the promotion to full technical editor, 11 years after she voiced the need for the role at the agency. She was the first person to hold this role, but she had to start at the assistant level, then move up to associate before receiving the full technical editor designation.
Pearl Young ‘raising hell’

Perhaps the most noteworthy piece of Young’s story is her character. While advocating for herself and her colleagues, Young often had to challenge authority.


She stood up for her editing section when male supervisors wrongfully accused them of making mistakes. She wrote official proposals to properly classify her office in the research division at the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory. She regularly acknowledged the contributions of her entire team for the achievements they shared.

She also secured extra personnel to lessen unbearable workloads and wrote official memorandums to ensure that her colleagues earned rightful promotions. Young often referred to these actions as “raising hell.”



Excerpt of Pearl Young’s letter to colleague and friend Viola Ohler Phillips, stating she’ll ‘raise hell’ if the Washington office refused to follow proper technical editing practices.
NASA Glenn Research Center Archives

The archival documents I’ve analyzed indicate that Young’s performance at the NACA was exemplary throughout her career. In 1967, she was awarded the University of North Dakota’s prestigious Sioux Award in recognition of her professional achievements and service to the university.

In 1995, and again in 2014, NASA Langley Research Center dedicated a theater in her name. The new theater is located in NASA’s Integrated Engineering Services Building.


In 2015, Young was inducted into the inaugural NASA/NACA Langley Hall of Honor. But throughout her career, not all of her colleagues shared this complimentary view of Young and her work.

One of Young’s supervisors in 1930 thought it necessary to assess her “attitude” and fitness as an employee in her progress report – and justified his position by typing these additional words into the document himself.

Later that year, Young requested time off – likely for the holiday season – prompting a different supervisor to draft an official memorandum to the engineer in charge, a position akin to today’s NASA center director. He referred to Young’s “attitude” in requesting to use her vacation days.



A 1930 memorandum to the engineer in charge, from the official personnel folder of Pearl Irma Young, describes her ‘attitude.’ National Archives and Records Administration - National Personnel Records Center

Women not welcome in STEM

While sexism in STEM has shifted its forms over time, gender-based inequities still exist. Women in STEM frequently confront microaggressions, marginalization and hostile work environments, including unequal pay, lack of recognition and additional service expectations.

Women often lack supportive social networks and encounter other systemic barriers to career advancement, such as not being recognized as an authority figure, or the double standard of being perceived as too aggressive instead of as a leader.

Women of color, women who belong to LGBTQ+ communities and women who have one or more disabilities face even more barriers rooted in these intersectional identities.

One of the ways to combat these inequities is to call attention to systemic barriers by sharing stories of women who persisted in STEM – women like Pearl Young.

Caitlin Milera, Research Assistant Professor of Aerospace, University of North Dakota

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

U.S. moves to save once-common monarch butterflies from extinction

REGULATIONS ARE FOR 'GOOD'

Agence France-Presse
December 11, 2024 

A Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) is pictured at the oyamel firs (Abies religiosa) forest, in Ocampo municipality, Michoacan State in Mexico on December 19, 2016 (ENRIQUE CASTRO/AFP)

The United States is moving to grant federal protections to the monarch butterfly -- a once-common species recognizable by its striking black and orange patterns that has faced a dramatic population decline in recent decades.

The Fish and Wildlife Service said Tuesday it has initiated a public comment period to consider listing the insect under the Endangered Species Act.

But the looming presidency of Donald Trump, who rolled back numerous wildlife protections during his first term, casts uncertainty over the decision.


"The iconic monarch butterfly is cherished across North America, captivating children and adults throughout its fascinating lifecycle," said FWS Director Martha Williams in a statement.

"Despite its fragility, it is remarkably resilient, like many things in nature when we just give them a chance."

The proposed listing comes at a critical time for the species, which has been designated as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature since 2022.

Monarchs are divided into two migratory populations in North America. The larger eastern group has declined by approximately 80 percent since the 1980s, while the western population has plummeted by 95 percent.

According to the FWS, the species faces a host of threats, including the loss and degradation of its breeding, migratory, and overwintering habitats, exposure to insecticides, and the growing impacts of climate change.

As part of its conservation efforts, the FWS is also recommending the designation of critical habitat at specific overwintering sites along California's coast. These habitats serve as vital winter refuges, providing monarchs the resources needed to rest and prepare for spring breeding.

"The fact that a butterfly as widespread and beloved as the monarch is now the face of the extinction crisis is a tri-national distress signal warning us to take better care of the environment that we all share," said Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity.

"For thirty years, we've watched the population of monarch butterflies collapse. It is clear that monarchs cannot thrive -- and might not survive -- without federal protections," added Dan Ritzman, director of conservation at Sierra Club.

The Endangered Species Act of 1973 is widely credited with saving iconic American species such as the gray wolf, bald eagle, and grizzly bear.

During Trump's first administration, however, key provisions of the law were weakened. These changes, later reversed by President Joe Biden, included measures that allowed industrial projects like roads, pipelines and mines in areas designated as critical habitat for vulnerable species.

Trump's administration also removed endangered species protections for gray wolves across most of the United States and slashed critical habitat designated for northern spotted owls.

'Landmark Victory': US Proposes Endangered Species Protections for Monarch Butterfly

"We're hoping that this is a call to everybody to say this species is in decline, and now is our opportunity to help reverse that decline," said one federal scientist.


A monarch butterfly seeks nectar on a flowering plant in this August 26, 2017 photo.
(Photo: Sue Thompson/flickr/cc)

Julia Conley
Dec 10, 2024

COMMON DREAMS


Biodiversity defenders on Tuesday welcomed a "long overdue" move by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service toward protecting the monarch butterfly under the Endangered Species Act—the result, the Center for Biological Diversity said, of a lawsuit filed by several groups to safeguard the pollinators and their fragile habitat.


The FWS proposed designating the butterfly as threatened with extinction, four years after monarchs were placed on a waiting list for protection.

"For too long, the monarch butterfly has been waiting in line, hoping for new protections while its population has plummeted. This announcement by the Fish and Wildlife Service gets this iconic flier closer to the protections it needs, and given its staggering drop in numbers, that can't happen soon enough," said Steve Blackledge, senior director of conservation campaigns for Environment America.

Monarch butterflies journey from Mexico each spring to points across the United States east of the Rocky Mountains to pollinate and reproduce. When cooler weather arrives they migrate back to the south for the winter.

But their populations have declined by more than 95% from over 4.5 million in the 1980s, leaving the western monarch with a 99% chance of becoming extinct over the next six decades, according to federal scientists.


The decline has been driven by the widespread use of herbicides like Roundup on milkweed, the monarch's sole food source, as well as the use of neonicotinoid insecticides. Millions of monarchs are also killed by vehicles annually during their migration, and in their winter habitats they face the loss of forests due to logging.

"The monarch butterfly is an iconic North American species and like other such iconic species, including the bald eagle and American peregrine falcon, it too deserves a chance at recovery."

Rising temperatures have also disrupted the monarch's reproduction and migration, with warmer weather tricking them into staying in the north later in the year.


"The species has been declining for a number of years," FWS biologist Kristen Lundh toldThe Washington Post. "We're hoping that this is a call to everybody to say this species is in decline, and now is our opportunity to help reverse that decline."

Western monarchs are down to an estimated 233,394 butterflies, while experts say there are several million eastern monarchs in existence.

"The protections that come with Endangered Species Act listing increase the chance that these precious pollinators will rebound and recover throughout their historic range," said Andrew Carter, director of conservation policy for Defenders of Wildlife. "The monarch butterfly is an iconic North American species and like other such iconic species, including the bald eagle and American peregrine falcon, it too deserves a chance at recovery."

The FWS is also proposing to designate 4,395 acres of the western monarch's overwintering sites as a critical habitat.


If the butterfly's protections are finalized—a process that could be completed by the end of 2025—landowners would be required to get federal approval for development that could harm the monarch.

During his first term, President-elect Donald Trump weakened the Endangered Species Act, limiting the definition of a "critical habitat."

"Today's monarch listing decision is a landmark victory 10 years in the making. It is also a damning precedent, revealing the driving role of pesticides and industrial agriculture in the ongoing extinction crisis," said George Kimbrell, legal director at the Center for Food Safety. "But the job isn't done... The service must do what science and the law require and promptly finalize protection for monarchs."

S. Africa’s new research guidelines not a green light for heritable human genome editing

The Conversation
December 11, 2024

DNA ktsdesign/Shutterstock.com

The recently updated South African Ethics in Health Research Guidelines have been a recent cause of concern, with some researchers and bioethicists interpreting them as allowing what’s known as heritable human genome editing.

Heritable human genome editing involves editing the DNA of sex cells (eggs, sperm) or early embryos in a manner that may be inherited by offspring. Because the impacts on future offspring and society are unknown, there is vigorous and active ongoing debate on the ethics of such interventions.

Rather than allowing heritable human genome editing, the guidelines acknowledge the reality that South African law already allows human genome editing. The only change lies in how the guidelines provide a framework on oversight into heritable human genome editing. This guidance should not be interpreted as a green light for heritable human genome editing.

From this perspective, the guidelines provide much-needed clarity on how research ethics committees can go about ensuring that research and clinical applications of genome editing in humans are carried out safely.


Human genome editing involves changing the DNA of sex or embryo cells. (Shutterstock)

The law in South Africa

The current controversy relates to one particular statutory provision: Section 57(1) of the South African National Health Act. The provision reads as follows:
A person may not —
(a) manipulate any genetic material, including genetic material of human gametes, zygotes or embryos; or
(b) engage in any activity, including nuclear transfer or embryo splitting,
for the purpose of the reproductive cloning of a human being.

What stands out from this provision is that it prohibits a number of acts, including the manipulation of genetic material, zygotes and embryos. One might interpret this provision as including heritable human genome editing. Viewed in this way, the guidelines are problematic in that they allow something the law prohibits.

However, such an interpretation of Section 57(1) conflicts with the rules of statutory interpretation in South Africa.
Statutory interpretation

Statutes in South Africa must be interpreted purposively. How to interpret Section 57(1) does not depend on whether the text can be read as applying to heritable human genome editing, but rather whether the apparent purpose of the provision was to prohibit heritable human genome editing, considering the context within which the words appear.

There is no mystery around why Section 57(1) exists, which is to prohibit human reproductive cloning. That this was the purpose is evidenced by the language of the provision itself, which prohibits “manipulation of genetic material” only “for the purposes of the reproductive cloning of a human being.”

Other principles of statutory in South African law point to the conclusion that Section 57(1) does not apply to heritable human genome editing. Where a provision in a statute features the word “include,” the words after it define the general class of things that fall within the scope of that provision.

Section 57(1) prohibits “reproductive cloning,” which it defines as “the manipulation of genetic material in order to achieve the reproduction of a human being and includes nuclear transfer or embryo splitting for such purpose.” The general class of things this section applies to are clarified to be “nuclear transfer or embryo splitting,” which are both cloning techniques.

Therefore, the rules of statutory interpretation require that the definition of what Section 57(1) prohibits (reproductive cloning) not be read as including heritable human genome editing.

Another feature of statutory interpretation in South Africa that is relevant here is the presumption that where a provision is linked with a criminal sanction — as is the case with Section 57(1) — the narrowest possible interpretation of that statutory provision is to be preferred. So if Section 57(1) can reasonably be interpreted as limited only to human reproductive cloning and not heritable human genome editing, such an interpretation is the one our law gives effect to.

The guidelines reflect an accurate understanding of South African law by its drafters. South African law may prohibit genetic manipulation, but this only applies for the purposes of human reproductive cloning.

Genetic manipulation for other purposes, including heritable human genome editing, is not prohibited; there is nothing in the law preventing heritable human genome editing.



Research into genetic manipulation aims to prevent genetic health conditions or provide immunity against tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. (Shutterstock)

Not a green light

It is important to note that the guidelines should not be taken as endorsing the use of heritable human genome editing technology. South Africa’s health research ethics guidelines serve as a “minimum benchmark of norms and standards for conducting responsible and ethical research in South Africa.” They are a tool meant to inform, guide and empower research ethics committees (RECs).

RECs ultimately decide whether or not to approve research. The guidelines simply provide guidance on how RECs should analyze research protocols including heritable human genome editing, but ultimately such research will not occur unless the relevant committee is convinced that doing so is safe and effective.

The inclusion of a form of research in the guidelines should not be understood as a green light for that kind of research or its clinical applications. There is no reason to believe that South African RECs will permit heritable human genome editing in South Africa before there is compelling evidence that doing so is safe.

Looking towards the future

Concerns have been expressed about the extent to which South Africa may be pushing the envelope with the new guidelines, given that other countries have not explicitly permitted heritable human genome editing. It is worth noting, however, that research on policies relating to heritable human genome editing reveals that most of the countries with restrictive policies are in the West, and are predominantly in Europe.

An important factor to consider in why South Africa — or any other country — may seek to plot a path forward when it comes to heritable human genome editing has to do with how those countries perceive the ethical considerations in question.

There is hardly consensus on the ethics of heritable human genome editing, and we have relatively little insight into non-western perspectives on editing the human genome editing. What research does exist suggests there may be material differences on what aspects, if any, of heritable human genome editing people consider ethically problematic and a cause for concern.

In the context of South Africa, a deliberative public engagement study found that an overwhelming majority of participants supported allowing the use of heritable human genome editing to prevent genetic health conditions or provide immunity against tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, provided it was conducted in a safe and effective manner.

The guidelines do well to adopt an open-ended approach to the future of heritable human genome editing, by remaining open to the possibility that there may come a time where at least some applications are found to be both safe and ethically acceptable in South Africa.


Bonginkosi Shozi, Fellow, Center for Law and the Biosciences, Stanford University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Fishing gear threatens Hawaii's already endangered false killer whales

Marcel Honore, 

Honolulu Civil Beat
December 12, 2024 

Injuries such as this to a false killer whaleʻs dorsal fin typically happen as the dolphin struggles to free itself from fishing gear. The fin often gets damaged against the taut fishing line. (Courtesy: Robin Baird/Cascadia Research)

A concerningly high number of endangered false killer whales are being injured when they get hooked by fishing gear in waters off the main Hawaiian islands, according to a new research paper released Thursday.

Published in the scientific journal Endangered Species Research, the research concludes there should be closer monitoring of that unique but dwindling local population and how the creatures — actually dolphins, not whales, and not killers — interact with the small-scale commercial and recreational boats that fish in those waters.

That could include installing cameras to record encounters with the false killer whales, which feed on the same large fish those boats catch and often go after what is already on the hook, said Robin Baird, a research biologist with the nonprofit Cascadia Research Collective, which led the study.

Injuries such as this to a false killer whaleʻs dorsal fin typically happen as the dolphin struggles to free itself from fishing gear. The fin often gets damaged against the taut fishing line. (Courtesy: Robin Baird/Cascadia Research)

“We have an idea of where these interactions are likely occurring, but we donʻt know when theyʻre occurring or with what type of gear,” Baird said Wednesday. “Being able to come up with solutions requires (this) information.”

Cascadia, along with two Hawaii-based wildlife foundations and federal fisheries officials, analyzed photographs taken between 1999 and 2021 of three false killer whale populations found near or around the Hawaii archipelago, including the endangered group that inhabits the waters off the main islands.


The researchers flagged the photos that showed clear fishing-related injuries to the animalsʻ mouths and dorsal fins. The endangered group had the most documented injuries by far, the study showed.

Researchers were able to find photos of both the dorsal fin and the mouth for 153 individual dolphins for that group. Out of those 153, some 44 dolphins had been injured by fishing gear, the study found — nearly one in every three.
False killer whales hunt the same large species of fish coveted by local fishers in Hawaii, including ahi and mahimahi.

The rate of injury was drastically lower for the other two Hawaii populations, which arenʻt endangered. One of them is a pelagic, roaming group of several thousand dolphins. The other, which inhabits the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, has nearly 500 individuals, according to the study.

The endangered group near the main islands is down to an estimated 138 dolphins, according to the study. Itʻs the only endangered population of false killer whales in the world, according to Baird. Theyʻre found anywhere from just off the beach to tens of miles offshore.

That swath of ocean generally coincides with Hawaiiʻs federally mandated “exclusion zone” — a region up to 70 miles offshore where the local longliner fleet is prohibited from fishing.

Thus, the dolphins are getting hooked by smaller-scale boats that fish closer to the islands, not the longliners, Baird said.

Thereʻs already a federally organized False Killer Whale Take Reduction Team thatʻs been working since 2010 to try and reduce the number of species deaths, but the fishers represented in that group are all from Hawaiiʻs longline fishing industry.

Baird on Wednesday recommended forming a new, similar hui (group) that would include the nearshore fisherman to address the plight of the endangered false killer whales.

False killer whales typically hunt and feed on ahi, mahimahi and other fish often sought by human fishers in nearby ocean waters. There have even been unique, documented instances in which the marine mammals have attempted to share their catch with people they encounter in the water, according to Baird.

Trump taps election denier to head global media operation VOA


By AFP
December 12, 2024

  

Kari Lake refused to accept her loss in the 2022 election for Arizona governor 

- Copyright TAIWAN COAST GUARD/AFP/File Handout

US President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday appointed election denier Kari Lake to be the new director of Voice of America, the state-funded international media organization.

VOA has reach around the world, with programming in a slew of African, Asian and European languages, including Somali, Dari and French.

It receives US funding but is generally considered a reliable, independent media operation, covering global and US news for international audiences.

However, previous leadership under Trump’s first administration came under fire for politicizing the outlet.

Lake, a former television news anchor, is a hard-line conservative who ran in 2022 as the Republican candidate for governor of the southwestern state of Arizona and for US Senate in 2024, losing both times.

She has repeatedly refused to accept her past election defeats, as well as Trump’s 2020 loss to Joe Biden.

As he prepares to take office in January, Trump’s staffing announcements have consisted of close allies.

“I am pleased to announce that Kari Lake will serve as our next Director of the Voice of America,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social website.

“She will be appointed by, and work closely with, our next head of the US Agency for Global Media… to ensure that the American values of Freedom and Liberty are broadcast around the World FAIRLY and ACCURATELY, unlike the lies spread by the Fake News Media.”

In his first term, Michael Pack, Trump’s head of the US Agency for Global Media, which oversees VOA, raised concerns when he moved in 2020 to strip an internal firewall at the organization meant to insulate the newsroom from political interference.

A VOA White House reporter was also investigated for supposed anti-Trump biases during Trump’s first administration.

Trump team mulls axing Great Depression-era agency that guards against bank failures: WSJ

Matthew Chapman
December 12, 2024 

RAW STORY


President-elect Donald Trump's advisers, alongside tech billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency task force, are soliciting opinions from nominees on whether it would be possible for Trump to abolish the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

For now, at least, the idea appears to be reorganizing its function rather than eliminating it outright. Trump's advisers "have asked the nominees under consideration for the FDIC, as well as the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, if deposit insurance could then be absorbed into the Treasury Department, some of the people said," reported Gina Heeb.

Regardless, such a proposal "would require congressional action," the report noted, and "while past presidents have reorganized and rebranded departments, Washington has never shut down a major cabinet-level agency and rarely closed other agencies like the FDIC that are not."

The FDIC, considered one of the most critical banking regulators in the United States, runs deposit insurance, a program that compensates a bank's account holders up to $250,000 if the bank fails and is unable to dispense the money in their account. Created in 1933 at the height of the Great Depression, the program exists to prevent "bank runs," or cascading panics where most or all of a bank's accountholders try to withdraw their money simultaneously. Prior to the creation of the FDIC, bank runs were common during economic crashes.

It is unclear that there is even support within the banking industry for a drastic change to federal deposit insurance, the report noted.


"FDIC deposit insurance is considered near sacred. Any move that threatened to undermine even the perception of deposit insurance could quickly ripple through banks and in a crisis might compound customer fears," said the report. For example, "after several banks failed last year, customers panicked about whether their deposits were safe at smaller banks. Many fled to the biggest of big banks who are perceived to be so important that the government would never let them fail. Since then, banks have been calling for wider deposit insurance protections to keep smaller banks competitive."

This also comes as Musk has pushed for the elimination of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a corporate misconduct watchdog that since its creation in 2011 has returned billions of dollars to consumers.

Trump floats plan to let billionaire polluters 'bribe their way' past regulations

Jake Johnson,

 Common Dreams
December 12, 2024 

President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday floated a legally dubious proposal to let corporations and individuals who invest $1 billion or more in the U.S. bypass regulations, a scheme that environmental groups and government watchdogs said underscores the corrupt intentions of the incoming administration.

"Corporate polluters cannot bribe their way to endangering our communities and our clean air and water," Mahyar Sorour of Sierra Club said in a statement. "Donald Trump's plan to sell out to the highest bidder confirms what we've long known about him: He's happy to sacrifice the wellbeing of American communities for the benefit of his Big Oil campaign donors."

"We will keep fighting to defend our bedrock environmental protections and ensure they apply to everyone, not just those who can't afford Trump's bribe," Sorour added.

In a Truth Social post on Tuesday, Trump wrote that "any person or company investing ONE BILLION DOLLARS, OR MORE, in the United States of America, will receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including, but in no way limited to, all Environmental approvals."

"GET READY TO ROCK!!!" said Trump, who pledged on the campaign trail to accelerate oil drilling and asked the fossil fuel industry to bankroll his bid for a second White House term in exchange for large-scale deregulation.

As early as May of this year, fossil fuel industry lobbyists and lawyers had already begun crafting executive orders for Trump to sign upon retaking the White House. After winning last month's election, Trump moved quickly to stack his Cabinet with billionaires and other rich individuals with close corporate ties, including those in the fossil fuel industry.


The Associated Pressnoted Tuesday that Trump's push to let large investors evade regulations would itself likely run up against regulatory hurdles, "including a landmark law that requires federal agencies to consider the environmental impact before deciding on major projects."

"While Trump did not specify who would be eligible for accelerated approvals, dozens of energy projects proposed nationwide, from natural gas pipelines and export terminals to solar farms and offshore wind turbines, meet the billion-dollar criteria," AP noted. "Environmental groups slammed the proposal, calling it illegal on its face and a clear violation of the National Environmental Policy Act, a 54-year-old law that requires federal agencies to study the potential environmental impact of proposed actions and consider alternatives."

"Presidents have no authority whatsoever to waive statutory public health and safety protections based upon a dollar value of capital investment."


Lena Moffitt, executive director of Evergreen Action, said Tuesday that "Trump is treating America's energy policy like a cheap knickknack at an estate sale: brazenly offering to auction off our public lands and waters to the highest bidder."

"Trump's promise to fast-track environmental approvals for billion-dollar kickbacks is nothing but an illegal giveaway to fossil fuel special interests," said Moffitt, pointing to federal law requiring "rigorous review processes to protect the public interest, not rubber stamps for corporate polluters."

"Trump's plan would turn a system already rigged in favor of fossil fuel interests into one openly driven by corruption, where special interests dictate policy and everyday Americans pay the price," Moffitt added. "Now he's making it official: If you write a big enough check, his administration will let you break the rules and drive up costs for working families."

Axiosreported that Trump's specific focus on environmental regulations "will put the spotlight on Lee Zeldin," the president-elect's pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.

"Zeldin is considered to have little environmental policymaking experience—but is a strong supporter of Trump's broad deregulatory push," the outlet noted.

Tyson Slocum, director of the Energy Program at Public Citizen, expressed confidence that Trump's plan "will not come to pass," given that "presidents have no authority whatsoever to waive statutory public health and safety protections based upon a dollar value of capital investment."

"Trump's claim deserves ridicule for being so outlandishly illegal and wrong," said Slocum. "However, the statement does highlight Trump's utter disregard for protecting the environment or human health and the imminent peril that he and his cronies will push policies that jeopardize health, safety, and planetary well-being."

Slocum said there are other "more realistic and insidious" Trump schemes worth guarding against, including his "efforts to use national security designations to force bailouts of coal power plants during his firm term."

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) warned in response to the president-elect's Truth Social post that "the Donald Trump-Elon Musk government will be of the billionaire, by the billionaire, and for the billionaire—with one set of rules for the big-money oligarchs and another set for everyone else."

"Clean air and clean water are not and will not be for sale," the senator added.

Trump's FTC head vowed to 'terminate uncooperative bureaucrats' and fight 'DEI wokeism'

Matthew Chapman
December 10, 2024 
RAW STORY

President-elect Donald Trump has named his choice to head the Federal Trade Commission, the agency that oversees antitrust law: Andrew Ferguson, a longtime Republican FTC commissioner who has already pledged to purge the institution of anyone disloyal to Trump.

"Andrew most recently served as Solicitor General of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Prior to Government service, he was an antitrust litigator at several Washington, D.C. law firms. He earned his undergraduate degree and law degree from the University of Virginia. Andrew also clerked for Judge Karen L. Henderson on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas," Trump posted to Truth Social.

"Andrew will be the most America First, and pro-innovation FTC Chair in our Country’s History," he added. "CONGRATULATIONS ANDREW!"

The FTC is currently chaired by Lina Khan, a progressive icon who raised the ire of several wealthy business leaders by cracking down on anticompetitive mergers. This week, she secured a major victory when a federal judge blocked the merger of supermarket chains Kroger and Albertsons, which opponents noted would create a giant grocery retailer with more locations than Walmart that would've resulted in higher prices. Tech billionaire Elon Musk in particular has pushed hard for Khan's removal.

Ferguson appears set to pump the brakes on this effort, stating on a campaign page to lobby Trump for the job, that he would "stop Lina Khan's anti-business agenda" and reverse the "war on mergers." He additionally promised to fight "DEI wokeism" and go after "censorship" on social media platforms.

Perhaps most ominously, however, Ferguson also vowed to "terminate uncooperative bureaucrats" who aren't on board with Trump's agenda — part of a broader push, outlined in the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 plan, to strip merit protections from civil servants and replace them with party loyalists.

American imprisoned in Syria freed following fall of Assad regime
1:32

New Syria leaders vow to search for abducted US journalist Tice

By AFP
December 12, 2024

Austin Tice (L) was detained at a checkpoint in Daraya, a suburb of Damascus, on August 14, 2012 - Copyright AFP JOSEPH EID

Syria’s new leadership said Thursday it was searching for abducted US journalist Austin Tice and had secured the release of another American it said had been held by the ousted government.

In 2022, US President Joe Biden accused Syria of holding Tice, a freelance photojournalist detained near Damascus a decade earlier, and demanded that the government of Bashar al-Assad release him.

The transitional government, which took the helm in Syria after Assad’s ouster on Sunday, said that “the search for American citizen Austin Tice is ongoing”.

“We confirm our readiness to cooperate directly with the US administration to search for American citizens disappeared by the former Assad regime,” the transitional government’s department of political affairs added in a statement on Telegram.

In recent days, Syrian residents and armed men have broken into government prisons, freeing inmates, some of whom have spent decades behind bars.

The political department’s statement said that another US citizen, Travis Timmerman, “has been released and secured”.

Residents of the Al-Zyabiyeh neighbourhood of Damascus said they had found Timmerman wandering around without shoes.

“The municipality guard Mousa Rifai found him, so we brought him to our house and fed him and he slept for about an hour,” said Ziyad Nedda.

“He was held in the Palestine Branch, he wouldn’t stop saying it. ‘I was held in the Palestine Branch in Damascus’,” he said.

The “Palestine Branch”, also known as Branch 235, was a prison operated by the Syrian intelligence services under Assad.



– Release ‘huge Christmas present’ –



According to US media reports, 29-year-old Timmerman was last seen in Budapest, Hungary, in early June.

His sister Pixie Rogers described his release as a “huge Christmas present” and said she “can’t wait for that day” she is reunited with her brother.

Timmerman’s mother “is very, very ecstatic… overwhelmed, and just beyond super excited with this information that we got today,” Rogers told the US network CBS.

Tice was working for Agence France-Presse, McClatchy News, The Washington Post, CBS and other media outlets when he was detained at a checkpoint in Daraya, a suburb of Damascus, on August 14, 2012.

Last week, the missing journalist’s mother, Debra, told reporters her son is believed to be alive and is being “treated well,” without providing further details.

The rebel forces, led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), appointed an interim prime minister on Tuesday to lead Syria until March.

Assad fled the country over the weekend, ending a half-century of his family’s iron-fisted rule.

Sunni Muslim HTS is rooted in Syria’s branch of Al-Qaeda and proscribed as a terrorist organisation by many Western governments including the United States, though it has more recently sought to moderate its rhetoric.

CAPTAGON

Syria’s rebel victors expose ousted government’s drug trade

By AFP
December 12, 2024

Rebel fighters said they found a drug factory linked to Maher al-Assad, widely accused of being the power behind the lucrative captagon trade 

- Copyright AFP Aris MESSINIS
Dave CLARK

The dramatic collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian regime has thrown light into the dark corners of his rule, including the industrial-scale export of the banned drug captagon.

Victorious Islamist-led fighters have seized military bases and distribution hubs for the amphetamine-type stimulant, which has flooded the black market across the Middle East.

Led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, the rebels say they found a vast haul of drugs and vowed to destroy them.

On Wednesday, HTS fighters allowed Afp journalists into a warehouse at a quarry on the outskirts of Damascus, where captagon pills were concealed inside electrical components for export.

“After we entered and did a sweep, and we found that this is a factory for Maher al-Assad and his partner Amer Khiti,” said black-masked fighter Abu Malek al-Shami.



– Household appliances –



Maher al-Assad was a military commander and the deposed strongman’s brother, now presumed on the run. He is widely accused of being the power behind the lucrative captagon trade.

Syrian politician Khiti was placed under sanction in 2023 by the British government, which said he “controls multiple businesses in Syria which facilitate the production and smuggling of drugs”.

In a cavernous garage beneath the warehouse and loading bays, thousands of dusty beige captagon pills were packed into the copper coils of brand new household voltage stabilisers.

“We found a large number of devices that were stuffed with packages of captagon pills meant to be smuggled out of the country. It’s a huge quantity. It’s impossible to tell,” Shami said.

Above, in the warehouse, crates of cardboard boxes stood ready to allow the traffickers to disguise their cargo as pallet-loads of standard goods, alongside sacks and sacks of caustic soda.

Caustic soda, or sodium hydroxide, is a key ingredient in the production of methamphetamine, another stimulant.

Assad fell at the weekend to a lightning HTS offensive, but the revenue from selling captagon propped up Assad’s government throughout Syria’s 13 years of civil war.

Captagon turned Syria into the world’s largest narco state. It became by far Syria’s biggest export, dwarfing all its legal exports put together, according to estimates drawn from official data by AFP during a 2022 investigation.

Experts — like the author of a July report from the Carnegie Middle East Center — also believe that Assad used the threat of drug-fuelled unrest to put pressure on Arab governments.

Captagon fuelled an epidemic of drug abuse in wealthy Gulf states, even as Assad sought ways to end his diplomatic isolation among his peers, wrote Carnegie scholar Hesham Alghannam.



– ‘Huge amount, brother’ –



Assad, he wrote, “leveraged captagon trafficking as a means of exerting pressure on the Gulf states, notably Saudi Arabia, to reintegrate Syria into the Arab world”, which it did in 2023 when it rejoined the Arab League bloc.

The caustic soda at the warehouse, in the Damascus suburbs, was supplied from Saudi Arabia, according to labelling on the sacks.

The warehouse haul was massive, but smaller and still impressive stashes of captagon have also turned up in military facilities associated with units under Maher Assad’s command.

Journalists from AFP this week found a bonfire of captagon pills on the grounds of the Mazzeh air base, now in the hands of HTS fighters who descended on the capital Damascus from the north.

Behind the smouldering heap, in a ransacked air force building, more captagon lay alongside other illicit exports, including off-brand Viagra impotence remedies and poorly-forged $100 bills.

“As we entered the area we found a huge quantity of captagon. So we destroyed it and burned it. It’s a huge amount, brother,” said an HTS fighter using the nom de guerre “Khattab”.

“We destroyed and burned it because it’s harmful to people. It harms nature and people and humans.”

Khattab also stressed that HTS, which has formed a transitional government to replace the collapsed administration, does not want to harm its neighbours by exporting the drug — a trade worth billions of dollars.

Inside Assad’s Captagon drug-smuggling empire and how it funded brutal Syrian regime

Story by Alex Croft
• 12/13/2024 • THE INDEPENDENT

As the dust settles on the fragments of Bashar al-Assad’s collapsed Syrian dictatorship, the truth about a mass drug empire believed to have brought huge profits to the former regime is being uncovered among the ashes.

The Assad family was long accused by Washington and other international actors of profiteering from the production and sale of captagon, an addictive amphetamine-like stimulant which swept across the Middle East and became known as “poor-man’s cocaine”.

The regime consistently denied links to the global captagon trade, which experts say is worth billions of dollars a year. A stimulant first produced in 1960s Germany to help treat attention deficit disorders and narcolepsy has swept the Middle East across the past decade.

It was discontinued but an illicit version of the drug known as "poor man's cocaine" continued to be produced in eastern Europe and later in the Arab world, becoming prominent in the conflict that erupted in Syria following anti-government protests in 2011.

It staves off sleep and hunger. It has been banned in many countries including the U.S. and can have harmful side effects. Its prevalence has led to growing drug abuse in Gulf Arab states.




Syrian members of the rebel group inspecting electrical components that were used to hide amphetamine pills (AP)

Now that the Assad family has been ousted following a lightning insurgency led by former al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the scale of the trade in captagon is becoming clear.

In the city of Douma, 10 kilometres northeast of Syria’s capital of Damascus, warehouses storing thousands of captagon pills have been unearthed by the rebels scouring areas once controlled by the Assad regime and its allies. The warehouse, according to experts, may be one of the biggest captagon labs ever seen.

Pills were found hidden in furniture, fruit, decorative pebbles and voltage stabilisers. Many had a double crescent logo stamped on them, marking them as captagon pills.




Amphetamine pills, known as Captagon, hidden inside an electrical component at a warehouse where the drug was manufactured (AP)

Inside the warehouse, a pill-press was found along with dozens of barrels holding the various chemicals required to produce captagon. The chemicals came from various countries including the UK, China and India.

The leadership of Syria made an annual profit from captagon of around $2.4 billion, according to Caroline Rose, the director of the New-York-based New Lines Institute Captagon Trade Project. An investigation by AFP news agency found that captagon had become Syria’s largest export, dwarfing its legal businesses.

Ms Rose, whose organisation tracks all publicly recorded captagon seizures and lab raids, said the site appeared to be one of the biggest captagon labs that has been found.

"It’s very possible that it's the biggest one that existed in regime-held Syria," she said.




Captagon helped to prop up Assad’s war effort to the tune of $2.4 billion per year (AP)

Last year, the US Treasury sanctioned a number of Syrians closely associated with the Assad regime for their alleged involvement captagon trade.

“The Syrian regime and its allies have increasingly embraced the production and trafficking of captagon to generate hard currency, estimated by some to be in the billions of dollars,” the Treasury said.

Related video: Syria's rebel victors expose ousted government's drug trade (AFP)

More videos

France24 (Video)Syrians celebrate the demise of Assad's regime as thousands freed from prison
8:15

France24 (Video)Syrian rebels discover large-scale drug factories
2:05

Among those sanctioned were two cousins of Bashar al-Assad and Khalid Qaddour, a close associate of Maher al-Assad, brother of Bashar, who was described as a “key drug producer and facilitator” of captagon production in Syria.

In the days since Assad's fall, rebel fighters say they have found several sites across the country where the drug was produced and prepared for export.

They have sometimes set fire to the pills or poured them down drains, according to videos shared online by accounts affiliated with them.

Ms Rose noted that her organisation tracked all publicly recorded captagon seizures and lab raids.

"Up until the regime fell, there was not a single incident of a laboratory seizure on the database in regime-held territories," she said.

Speaking in front of a crowd of supporters inside the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, rebel leader Abu Mohammad al-Golani told supporters according to AFP: “Syria has become the biggest producer of Captagon on Earth, and today, Syria is going to be purified by the grace of God.”

Reuters contributed to this report

The Independent stands for many things, often uniquely so. It stands independent of political party allegiance, and makes its own mind up on the issues of the day. The Independent has always been committed to challenge and debate. It launched in 1986 to create a new voice and in that time has run campaigns for issues ranging from the legalisation of marijuana to the Final Say Brexit petition.

What is the drug captagon and how is it linked to Syria’s fallen Assad regime?

THE CONVERSATION

Published: December 13, 2024 

After the fall of the al-Assad regime in Syria, large stockpiles of the illicit drug captagon have reportedly been uncovered.

The stockpiles, found by Syrian rebels, are believed to be linked to al-Assad military headquarters, implicating the fallen regime in the drug’s manufacture and distribution.

But as we’ll see, captagon was once a pharmaceutical drug, similar to some of the legally available stimulants we still use today for conditions including attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Captagon was once a pharmaceutical

Captagon is the original brand name of an old synthetic pharmaceutical stimulant originally made in Germany in the 1960s. It was an alternative to amphetamine and methamphetamine, which were both used as medicines at the time.

The drug has the active ingredient fenethylline and was initially marketed for conditions including ADHD and the sleeping disorder narcolepsy. It had a similar use to some of the legally available stimulants we still use today, such as dexamphetamine.

Captagon has similar effects to amphetamines. It increases dopamine in the brain, leading to feelings of wellbeing, pleasure and euphoria. It also improves focus, concentration and stamina. But it has a lot of unwanted side effects, such as low-level psychosis.

The drug was originally sold mostly in the Middle East and parts of Europe. It was available over the counter (without a prescription) in Europe for a short time before it became prescription-only.

It was approved only briefly in the United States before becoming a controlled substance in the 1980s, but was still legal for the treatment of narcolepsy in many European countries until relatively recently.

According to the International Narcotics Control Board pharmaceutical manufacture of Captagon had stopped by 2009.

The illicit trade took over

The illegally manufactured version is usually referred to as captagon (with a small c). It is sometimes called “chemical courage” because it is thought to be used by soldiers in war-torn areas of the Middle East to help give them focus and energy.

For instance, it’s been reportedly found on the bodies of Hamas soldiers during the conflict with Israel.

Its manufacture is relatively straightforward and inexpensive, making it an obvious target for the black-market drug trade.

Black-market captagon is now nearly exclusively manufactured in Syria and surrounding countries such as Lebanon. It’s mostly used in the Middle East, including recreationally in some Gulf states.

It is one of the most commonly used illicit drugs in Syria.

A recent report suggests captagon generated more than US$7.3 billion in Syria and Lebanon between 2020 and 2022 (about $2.4 billion a year).

What we know about illicit drugs generally is that any seizures or crackdowns on manufacturing or sale have a very limited impact on the drug market because another manufacturer or distributor pops up to meet demand.

So in all likelihood, given the size of the captagon market in the Middle East, these latest drug discoveries and seizures are likely to reduce manufacture only for a short time.

Author

Nicole Lee
Adjunct Professor at the National Drug Research Institute (Melbourne based), Curtin University
Disclosure statement
Nicole Lee works as a paid consultant to the alcohol and other drug sector. She has previously been awarded grants by state and federal governments, NHMRC and other public funding bodies for alcohol and other drug research. She is a Board member of The Loop Australia.

What is Captagon, the addictive drug mass-produced in al-Assad's ...

May 9, 2023 ... An addictive, amphetamine-type stimulant, Captagon has been primarily produced in Syria in recent years and smuggled to the Gulf states. That ...

The secret to living to 110? Bad record-keeping, researcher says


By AFP
December 12, 2024

The Italian island of Sardinia was the original "blue zone", where people were believed to live longer than elsewhere - Copyright AFP Andrea ARIZA
Daniel Lawler

Most of what we know about humans living to very old age is based on faulty data, including the science behind the “blue zones” famous for having a high proportion of people over 100, according to one researcher.

The desire to live as long as possible has driven a booming lifestyle industry selling supplements, books, tech and tips to those wanting to learn the secrets of the world’s oldest people.

But Saul Justin Newman, a researcher at University College London’s Centre for Longitudinal Studies, told AFP that most extreme old age data “is junk to a really shocking degree”.

Newman’s research, which is currently being peer-reviewed, looked at data about centenarians and supercentenarians — people who live to 100 and 110 — in the United States, Italy, England, France and Japan.

Contrary to what one might expect, he found that supercentenarians tended to come from areas with poor health, high levels of poverty — and bad record-keeping.

The true secret to extreme longevity seems to be to “move where birth certificates are rare, teach your kids pension fraud and start lying”, Newman said as he accepted an Ig Nobel prize, a humorous version of the Nobel, in September.

Just one of many examples is Sogen Kato, who was thought to be Japan’s oldest living person until his mummified remains were discovered in 2010.

It turned out he had been dead since 1978. His family was arrested for collecting three decades of pensions payments.

The government then launched a review which found that 82 percent of Japan’s centenarians — 230,000 people — were missing or dead.

“Their paperwork is in order, they’re just dead,” Newman said.

This illustrates the problem Newman has sought to shine a light on — that confirming ages in this field involves triple-checking very old documents that could have been wrong from the start.

The industry that has popped up around blue zones is one “symptom” of this problem, he said.



– ‘Only alive on pension day’ –



Blue zones are regions around the world where people are said to live disproportionately longer and healthier lives.

The term was first used in 2004 by researchers referring to the Italian island of Sardinia.

The following year, National Geographic reporter Dan Buettner wrote a story that added the Japanese islands of Okinawa and the Californian city of Loma Linda.

Buettner admitted to the New York Times in October that he only included Loma Linda because his editor told him: “you need to find America’s blue zone”.

The reporter teamed up with some demographers to create the Blue Zones lifestyle brand, and they added Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula and the Greek island of Ikaria to the list.

However, as seen in Japan, later government records have cast doubt on old age data in these regions.

In Costa Rica, 2008 research showed that 42 percent of centenarians had “lied about their age” in an earlier census, Newman said.

For Greece, he found 2012 data suggesting that 72 percent of the country’s centenarians were dead or imaginary.

“They’re only alive on pension day,” Newman said.

Several prominent blue zone researchers wrote a rebuttal earlier this year, calling Newman’s work “ethically and academically irresponsible”.

They accused Newman of referring to broader regions of Japan and Sardinia when the blue zones were smaller areas.

The demographers also emphasised they had “meticulously validated” the ages of supercentenarians in blue zones, double-checking historical records and registries dating back to the 1800s.

Newman said this argument illustrated his point.

“If you start with a birth certificate that’s wrong, that gets copied to everything, and you get perfectly consistent, perfectly wrong records,” he said.



– A clock to measure age –



The only “way out of this quagmire” is to physically measure people’s ages, Newman said.

Steve Horvath, an ageing researcher at the University of California, told AFP he had created a new technique called a methylation clock “for the express purpose of validating claims of exceptional longevity”.

The clock can “reliably detect instances of severe fraud”, such as when a child assumes their parent’s identity, but cannot yet tell the difference between a 115- and 120-year-old, he said.

Horvath has offered to test a DNA sample of France’s Jeanne Calment, who died at 122 in 1997 and holds the record for the oldest confirmed age.

Newman’s analysis “appears to be both rigorous and convincing”, Horvath said, adding that several blue zones are overseen by rigorous scientists.

“I suspect both opinions hold some truth,” he said.

So what can people at home take away from this debate?

“If you want to live a long time, step number one: don’t buy anything,” Newman said.

“Listen your GP (doctor), do some exercise, don’t drink, don’t smoke — that’s it.”

‘Part of Bogota’s soul’: how Colombia fired up the car-free movement


By AFP
December 12, 2024

An estimated 1.7 million Bogotanos walk, cycle, jog, rollerblade, scoot, ride unicycles, push buggies through 128 kilometers (79 miles) of car-free streets each Sunday - Copyright AFP Andrea ARIZA

Clare BYRNE

Fifty years ago, a 28-year-old Colombian with a bushy beard, flares and vintage Raleigh bicycle led a revolution on the streets of Bogota.

Architect Jaime Ortiz Marino got permission to shut down a section of roads and — with 5,000 other two-wheeler radicals — pedaled down the middle of the street on December 15, 1974 in protest over car culture.

The world’s first Open Streets event quickly grew into a weekly fixture named “Ciclovia” that has spawned dozens of imitations in cities worldwide.

“This is the biggest outdoor civics classroom in the world!” Ortiz Marino, now 78, told AFP, surveying his creation with satisfaction on a recent Sunday.

An estimated 1.7 million Bogotanos walk, cycle, jog, rollerblade, scoot, ride unicycles, push buggies through 128 kilometers (79 miles) of car-free streets each Sunday.

The program’s global renown is a huge source of pride in Bogota, helping transform a city blighted by guerrilla and paramilitary violence in the 1980s and 1990s into a Latin American capital of cool.

“Ciclovia is part of Bogota’s soul,” Camilo Ramirez, a migration specialist, told AFP as he and his wife Anny Garcia jogged down the street behind their bike-riding children, aged 5 and 12.

“This is what keeps me alive!” said Jhon Lozano, a spry 89-year-old cycling fanatic, who leaves home at 4:30 am each Sunday to meet up with friends along the route.

– ‘Escape valve’ –

Ortiz Marino describes Ciclovia as an “escape valve” for residents of Latin America’s fourth-biggest city, which has seen its population explode to eight million in the past half-century.

Public transport, which consists almost exclusively of buses — a long-awaited first metro line is still under construction — has failed to keep pace with the growth, resulting in some of the worst traffic jams in the world.

Sundays offer a welcome respite from the gridlock and smog, as a tsunami of fitness enthusiasts pour through the city, from the wealthy north to the poorer south.

The mood is festive, with stalls dotted along the route offering juices, arepas (corn cakes) and other snacks.

For Ramirez and Garcia, who grew up cycling and skating on Ciclovia, having the freedom of the city once a week has become a Bogota birthright.

“If we don’t go out for some reason, for instance because it’s raining, the children miss it,” Garcia said.

– Crazy about bikes –

At an elevation of 2,600 meters (8,500 feet), the world’s third-highest city might seen an unlikely place to start a biking revolution.

But Colombians’ passion for cycling dates back generations, fueled by the exploits of legends such as 1987 Vuelta a Espana winner Luis “Lucho” Herrera and 2019 Tour de France winner Egan Bernal.

In 1974, Ortiz Marino recalled, Bogota was “a city designed for cars, but in which people do not have cars.”

The bicycle became a symbol of emancipation, “allowing everyone to move about in ways that are accessible to all,” psychologist and urbanist Carlos Efe Pardo said.

The city now has nearly 600 kilometers of dedicated cycle lines.

Ciclovia has also helped create employment for thousands of people, including the bicycle mechanics stationed at regular intervals along the route to pump tires and fix punctures.

“Here I have earned what I need to pay for my daughter’s education, my own well-being and my home,” 56-year-old bike mechanic Eladio Gustavo Atis Bernal said.

– Costs brake US rollout –

Ciclovia’s biggest legacy however has been its ability to transcend Colombia’s deep political and social divisions.

Throughout decades of violence, it never came under attack, with the defunct FARC guerrilla group vowing never to target it, according to Ortiz Marino.

The program, which is poised for further expansion into Bogota’s poorer southern districts, has become one of the city’s biggest exports, spawning spinoffs in Chile, Mexico City and Sao Paulo, among others.

But no major US city or European capital has managed to shut out cars each week.

“It’s really about costs,” Aaron Paley, co-founder of Los Angeles’ monthly CicLAvia told AFP.

He cited eye-popping costs for insurance and special water-filled barriers required to be set up.

Colombian-born sustainable mobility consultant Marcela Guerrero Casas also faced challenges in trying to import Ciclovia into the South African city of Cape Town.

Citing that city’s low density — a legacy of the racist apartheid regime which kept communities apart — and the absence of a legal framework for closing streets, she said: “Ultimately, each city must develop a model that suits its unique conditions.”