Young boy dies from flu after his mother asks anti-vaxx Facebook groups for medical advice

Posted 2 days ago by Moya Lothian-McLean in news

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The anti-vaxx movement has gained frightening ground in the last decade.

Thanks to the internet, misinformation surrounding vaccines has spread, leading to a drop in vaccination rates in the US and the UK.

According to a 2019 report, two in five UK parents with children under 18 are exposed to negative messaging about vaccinations online.

And last year, the UK saw its measles-free status revoked after too few people were vaccinated against the disease.

In America, the anti-vaxx movement is more virulent and is causing a serious headache for health authorities trying to combat unsubstantiated rumours and fear-mongering surrounding vaccines.

But now the anti-vaxx movement has been linked to a tragedy.

NBC news reported that a four-year-old boy in Colorado died after contracting flu this week. According to their investigation, his mother had posted in one of the biggest anti-vaccination Facebook groups, asking for advice on how to treat the illness without taking the Tamiflu, the antiviral medication prescribed by their family doctor.

“The doc prescribed tamiflu I did not pick it up,” she wrote, in a now deleted thread.

According to NBC, the woman (whose identity has been reported in other outlets) explained that two out of four of her children had fallen sick.

She said her four year-old – who was later declared brain dead after becoming unconscious at home and being rushed to hospital – had experienced a febrile seizure.

She added she was treating her children with “natural cures,” like peppermint oil and Vitamin C, but that they weren’t working.

Advice given to her by the Facebook group included breastmilk and thyme.

“Perfect, I’ll try that,” she replied.


In 2017, the mother also stated her children were not vaccinated.

Details of her posts began circulating on social media after a GoFundMe was set up to pay for hospital costs following her son’s death.

Confusingly, in a later interview with a local news outlet she implied that the child had been given medicine prescribed by doctors, although it's unclear whether she is referring to the initial Tamiflu prescription or not.

In response to the criticism, the father of the boy has asked people to remember the family is grieving the loss of a child.

“We don’t look at none of it,” he told FOX6 News.

“The negative comments — keep [them] to yourself because at the end of the day, what’s important is that each one of these parents goes home and kisses their kids”.

Please vaccinate.

Modern-day witches still facing ‘endless abuse and threats’
‘We have had somebody come into the shop and say they will burn it down with people inside’

‘Witchcraft isn’t worshipping the devil, it’s not cursing people, it’s not black magic. It’s a belief in the planet’ ( Getty )

They were once ducked in water, burnt at the stake and hanged – but modern-day witches say that even in 2020 they are still facing persecution.

Abuse, intimidation, property damage and threats of murder are all common, a new investigation has found.

“We have had somebody come into the shop and threaten to burn it down with the people in it,” said Toni Hunter, who runs a witching store in Gloucester. “We have had very intimidating people stand outside and prevent customers coming in and accost the customers outside with their Christian leaflets.

“We have had eggs pelted at the windows, I’ve had my car keyed. It’s endless.”

The issue is raised in a BBC investigation due to be aired on its Inside Out West programme on Monday.

“Witchcraft isn’t worshipping the devil, it’s not cursing people, it’s not black magic,” Ms Hunter said. ”It’s a belief in the planet, it’s a respect for everything, it’s positive thinking, cosmic ordering.”

She added: “Lots of people don’t know they are witches – they’ll be into holistic therapies, they’ll be into crystals for remedial stuff.

“They’ll see spirits or they may have a high intuition that means that they can think of a person and they turn up or they know who’s on the end of the phone, so they have all these different abilities but they have never been able to speak about because it would have been still so controversial.

“People like me would probably have been sectioned years ago because if I admitted that I was psychic they wouldn’t have seen it as psychic, they’d have seen it as mad.”

Witchcraft has its origins in pre-Christian Europe. Followers worship the planet, use herbal remedies for healing and believe in the power of positive energy to cast spells.

An estimated 200,000 women accused of practising witchcraft were tortured and killed across western Europe from 1484 to the 1750s after Pope Innocent VIII denounced it as heresy. It became a capital offence in England in 1563.

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BOOK LOVER
I spent a week becoming a witch and the results were worrying
Inspired by Luna Bailey’s new book ‘The Modern Witch’s Guide to Happiness’, our columnist Ceri Radford set herself a New Year, New Me challenge


Sunday 12 January 2020 06:00

109 comments

Ceri Radford gets down to some witching business

It’s the new year. I could have given up booze and bacon, or embarked on a punishing new fitness regime. But these seemed too harsh for the drab days of January and besides, I had more ambitious plans for personal transformation. Namely, to turn myself into a witch.

At this opening of a scary new decade, we’re in the midst of a resurgent interest in all things mystic, superstitious or more than a little bit woo. As the New Yorker magazine observed, “astrology is currently enjoying a broad cultural acceptance that hasn’t been seen since the 1970s”. And its cousin in dogged resistance to logic, specifically witchcraft, is also having something of a moment, refitted for the age of self-care as a way for women to reconnect with themselves and the natural world. Think crystals, not cauldrons. Last summer, Publishers Weekly noted that witchcraft was one of the strongest trends in the “mind-body-spirit” category, and the interest shows no sign of abating.
While never knowingly on trend – it took me five years to attempt a jumpsuit – I decided, for once, to seize the cultural zeitgeist. I picked up a copy of the newly published The Modern Witch’s Guide to Happiness by Luna Bailey and set my cynical self a New Year, New Me challenge

Monday

Right. This witching business. One of the things I need, along with a suspension of belief in the scientific underpinnings of the universe, is an altar. Not to sacrifice a goat upon – no, this book is whiter than a student union snowflake – but to claim a space for “creativity, spiritual growth and guidance”. Recommendations include some bright cloth, salt (“protective and purifying and represents the Earth’s energy”), plus objects to suggest earth, fire, air, water and spirit. I manage a pot plant, a small bottle of Polish plum vodka (spirit and fire in one – boom) and a stripy scarf. It doesn’t look anything like the Instagrammable extravaganza in the book, but at least it made me tidy my bedside table. By the end of the day, though, it has been joined by a light smattering of cat hair and my four-year-old’s lego T rex. Is the universe trying to tell me something?

Witches collect objects that suggest earth, fire, air, water and spirit (Joanna Kosinska/Unsplash)

Tuesday

Crystal-shopping time: no self-respecting witch in this new age of Aquarius would be without these ubiquitous lumps of pretty rock. I take myself to a gift shop. The book informs me that I should allow myself to be drawn to the crystal that has meaning for me. I position myself in front of a stand of crystal bracelets. Will it be the pastel-pink rose quartz, with qualities of “love, peace and tenderness” apparently laced into its silicon and oxygen atoms; or the “playful” inky-black bornite? I close my eyes, then open them. I found myself uncannily drawn to something, after all. It’s the price tag. Ten quid! I am propelled out of the shop by unseen forces.

Wednesday

Finally, some advice I can wholeheartedly embrace: five tips for making simple connections with nature, from touching leaves to noticing sights and sounds. Tricky but not impossible if you’re schlepping to work on the tube; easy where I live and instantly soothing. A frail yellow autumn leaf clinging by a thread; a rubbery weed poking through a desert of gravel; you get the picture. Another edict is to appreciate the seasons, including picking up an acorn or pine cone in autumn and keeping it through winter. Turns out I was witchy all along, as some colleagues would probably attest: in my coat pocket I still have a perfect, hard conker that I found in October. I don’t believe it offered me protection through the winter months, as the book claims; I just like the feel of it. I suspect a large part of the appeal of witchcraft today is the emphasis it places on slowing down, switching off from your phone and taking notice of the natural world.


Crystals are essential – but they don’t come cheap (Dan Farrell/Unsplash)

Thursday

Since I am well into my first week as a witch, I decide the time has come to attempt my first spell. None of the “magick” incantations listed involve putting a pox on my enemies, which will be a relief to the landlord who has failed to fix my broken boiler; they’re all perky personal growth exercises. After a skim, I settle on a “burning and banishing spell”. This involves writing down worries or unwanted personality traits on a piece of paper, then setting fire to it. Next to “tax return” I put “knee-jerk scoffing cynicism”. I would have set it on fire but I was too cynical to waste a match.

In fairness, there is a reasonable body of evidence to suggest that “journaling” is good for us. Taking time to think about and articulate what we want to let go of is no doubt psychologically healthy; for me, it’s the puff of smoke that’s a step too far.

The Modern Witch’s Guide to Happiness (Michael O’Mara Books Ltd)

Friday

The last weekday, and time to take it up a level: I open the chapter on tarot and prepare to dabble in divination. I don’t have an actual set of cards, but witchcraft has a relaxed, homespun kind of vibe so I improvise. I raid my daughter’s toy drawer, find a set of sea-creature playing cards, and get reading. I must focus on my personal objectives, then hold the cards or lay them on a surface. The book suggests I start by selecting three cards and using them to answer three questions: “What is my dream? What is stopping me? What is the reality?”
If you go looking for a pattern in tarot cards, you will find it (Getty)

I turn three cards over: dolphin, shark, dolphin. The interpretation should apparently come from my own intuition. Dolphins are playful creatures; sharks are scary. For an actual moment, I find myself thinking: this makes sense! I want to spend more time on creative work; fear is holding me back; but the reality is I’m still a creative person underneath.

And there we have it: confirmation bias. You go looking for a pattern, and you will find it, even in a pack of deeply non-mystic marine-animal cards bought to entertain a small child on a rainy holiday in France. Our brains are built to leap to conclusions, to see what’s not really there – helpful if the twitching leaves might hold a crouching sabre-toothed tiger; misleading in modernity. It’s part of the reason we’re all such credulous suckers, still seduced by superstition at a time when we have the technology to make a space probe orbit Saturn.

Saturday and Sunday

I spend the weekend pondering all things witchy. On the one hand, it’s hard not to snort coffee through your nostrils when you read that water that has had rose quartz soaking in it can be given to soothe traumatised animals. On the other, witchcraft is no less irrational than any other religion and many of its practices are in fact a fairly reasonable response to the major challenges of our time. Rediscovering nature, reclaiming the sexist trope of the witch as a symbol of female empowerment, switching off from the constant thrum of social media and consumerism: what’s not to like?
Many of witchcraft’s practices are a fairly reasonable response to the major challenges of our time (Getty)

The answer, of course, is that however benign or even beneficial the rituals, it’s all built on a wobbling base of bats***. No matter how many spells we cast to ask the universe for help, the universe isn’t listening. On a personal level, it’s probably better for us to just accept that life doesn’t always go our way and lower our expectations: Catherine Gray’s wonderful The Unexpected Joy of the Ordinary is a lovely new year read on finding the magic (no k needed) in the mundane. And on a broader level, the recent zest for the mystic is part of a worrying backlash against the enlightenment values that have driven human progress. On the one end of the political spectrum, you get the anti-vaxx movement; on the other, climate change deniers. Standing in the light of a full moon to recite our resolutions may be harmless, but as a society we shun science at our peril.

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Comments

Iliana Adler3 weeks ago
Dear Independent, As a witch of 30 years, that had to study hard to try to become one, and that still feels that there is so much more that I need to learn, I found this article ridiculous and childish. A biased review of one single new age book does not a witch makes. I wonder if she would ever consider spending a week to become a pianist, or even better she should spend a week becoming an astronaut, by Sunday morning she should be able to launch herself to Outerspace and never subject any of us to another inane article such as this one. I am particularly offended by her obvious attempt to join in different agendas from anti-vaxxers to climate change deniers with the Craft; she climbed into her high horse named science and proceeded to give us her condescending opinion after one week of not being able to follow simple directions from one simple book but somehow she is an expert now. Journalism is dead, lazy 5-minute penup essays seem to be the norm, nowadays. My deepest condolences for the death of your art. We Witches will make sure to protect ours by voicing our opinions on garbage like this. Have a good day.
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231

David Cox3 weeks ago
I could only skim through the self-congratulatory, disingenuous, intellectually and journalistically barren, common click bait drivel. This intentionally offensive, smug dismissal of something that brings peace and joy to a wide diversity of practitioners can only lead me to belive that The Independent took its name because the content is independent of thought, independent of empathy, independent of any shred of integrity. The derisive smirk of the author would be equally fitting in any photograph of a biased judgemental bigot wearing the garb of any belief system or culture as cheap drag while touting their own superiority. I make these comments not as someone who has ever self-identified as any variety of witch, but as someone who supports all people who embrace a guiding principle -- whether religious or philosophical -- that brings them comfort and pushes them to be better people. It is utter irony that this piece, which pales in comparison to hundreds of thousands of works written by journalistically-minded secondary school children worldwide, conflates belief with a rejection of science, when Ms. Radford is utterly devoid of any scientific approach to her inane rambling.
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200

Marcus Katz3 weeks ago
Dear Independent I am writing in response to the article "I spent a week becoming a witch and the results were worrying" by your columnist Ceri Radford, published 12th January 2020. I am writing as an initiated Witch of forty years, author on Tarot and co-director of the Tarot Association. I wanted to register our response to the article, which we found misleading, non-factual, poorly researched and which I found personally offensive to my own spiritual practice. It is unclear that the column or article is a review, and at that, a review of a book by a likely pseudonymous author whose own credentials to write on the subject matter are not clarified. The purpose of an altar, for example, is not merely to look like an “Instagrammable extravaganza”. It is a religious or spiritual space made sacred by intent. To rubbish this on the basis of a half-hearted attempt to poke fun at it is beneath standards of both review and journalism. I would go so far as to suggest that the ‘Lego T-Rex” which appeared on the altar might be considered a magical comment on the childishness of the article and the way in which such articles are now themselves, extinct. The columnist misses the point that the universe not only listens but has a sense of humour. Similarly, the columnist attempts to conduct a tarot reading - not necessarily part of witchcraft per se - by not using a tarot deck, on the pre-conceived basis that it is all “confirmation bias”. Which, I guess, she does manage to prove to herself. The review cannot be based on not following the book, surely. The click-bait title of the article itself - that the practice of our beliefs is “worrying”, leads to an ill-informed and potentially dangerous slant on our life choices. If a journalist had spent a year exploring pagan practices worldwide, consulted authors and teachers, and then made this conclusion, it would only then bear the weight of the title. The “review” does not mention any of the many hundred other books on the subject, seemingly to give the practice given in one book the value that would give rise to the reviewer claiming they were “becoming a witch”. I would advise at least one academic book on the subject for future articles or reviews, such as ‘The Triumph of the Moon’ (1999) by Ronald Hutton. The lazy conflation of a spiritual practice with the “anti-vaxx movement” and “on the other [end of the spectrum], climate change deniers” is simply absurd. The columnist cannot suggest that her bad practice from one book represents any knowledge of the beliefs of “a witch” (from the title) and that those beliefs are associated in any way with the movements she references. There is much else to say on this poor and misleading article, and I am sure that many others will add to the response. I will at least follow one recommendation of the reviewer, and that is to “lower my expectations”, in this case, with deep sadness, of modern journalism. Bio Marcus Katz is an author of over fifty books on Tarot, Witchcraft and the Western Esoteric Initiatory System. He was initiated into the Witchcraft tradition of Gerald Gardner over forty years ago. He holds an M.A. in Western Esotericism (University of Exeter). He is co-director of the Tarot Association and course author for Magicka School.
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220

TSuarez3 weeks ago
The universe is listening but not to something you try for a week. It listens over years and decades. Magic is getting information from "the cloud" through our intuition, dreams, visions etc. Sometimes a peak into the future, sometimes a warning, sometimes a symbol. Pay attention to messages that pop into your head as if out of nowhere, pay attention to synchronicity and recurring dreams.
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60

madtom19994 weeks ago
A week? I wont bother reading this then.
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230

Scientists discover mysterious virus with no recognisable genes

Bizarre organism found in amoebae in Brazil is named after mythical sea siren


The newly identified Yaravirus is unlike any recorded before 

( J. ABRAHÃO AND B. LA SCOLA/IHU-MARSEILLE/MICROSCOPY CENTRE UFMG-BELO HORIZONTE )

Viruses are some of the world’s smallest life-forms – and the jury is still out as to whether they actually are life-forms at all, as they cannot live or reproduce outside a host organism.

A new form of virus is currently causing scientists to scratch their heads after it emerged the organism had almost no recognisable genes.

This “mysterious” virus collected from amoebae in an artificial lake in Brazil was considerably smaller than the viruses usually known to infect amoebae.

The team named it “Yaravirus”, after Yara, also known as “Iara”, meaning “mother of all waters” and representing a beautiful mermaid-like figure from Brazilian mythology who would lure sailors underwater to live with her forever.

When the scientists sequenced the yaravirus genome – the process of determining the complete DNA sequence which makes up an organism – they discovered over 90 per cent of it was formed of the genes had never been found before.

Writing in the open access bioRxiv biological sciences website, the team which examined the virus said: “Here we report the discovery of Yaravirus, a new lineage of amoebal virus with a puzzling origin and phylogeny.

Jônatas Abrahão, a virologist at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, in Brazil, said the results were indicative of just “how much we still need to understand” about viruses.
Watch more

Some of Yaravirus’s genes look like those in a giant virus, but it is still unclear how the two are related, Professor Abrahão told ScienceMag.org.

He and his colleagues are now investigating other features of the novel virus’s existence.

One scientist unconnected with the study suggested the findings represented “a whole new treasure chest of previously-unseen biochemical processes”.

Masked neo-Nazi white supremacists march in Washington DC

Demonstrators yell ‘Reclaim America!’ and ‘Life, liberty, victory!’

Members of the group were accompanied by police ( REUTERS )

Masked members of a neo-Nazi white supremacist group called Patriot Front marched through Washington’s National Mall on Saturday.

Patriot Front, which is part of the so-called “alt right” movement, was established by disillusioned members of another white supremacist group called Vanguard America in September 2017 in the wake of a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville.

Members of the group were accompanied by police as they marched but officials said no violence erupted and no arrests took place.

More than 100 members of the Patriot Front, dressed in khaki trousers and caps, blue jackets and white face masks, yelled “Reclaim America!” and “Life, liberty, victory!” footage of the march showed.

Video of Saturday’s march in Washington posted on the News2Share Facebook page showed occasional hecklers, but there appeared to be no organised counter-protest movement waiting for the Patriot Front as the group marched from the Lincoln Memorial to the US Capitol grounds and later a nearby Wal-Mart parking garage.
Watch more

White supremacist who praised ‘psychedelic Nazis’ arrested

They were accompanied by dozens of police officers, some on bicycles, but it was not clear whether the group had acquired a permit for the march.

A spokesperson for District of Columbia Metropolitan Police said it had no record of a permit for the march. Capitol Police and the National Park Service could not immediately be reached for comment.

The police spokesperson said that the “First Amendment demonstration was peaceful with no incidents or arrests”.

The white supremacist rally in Charlottesville in August 2017 saw anti-fascist activists clash with neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan members and alt-right supporters.

Violence on the streets of Charlottesville
Show all 9





James Fields, a self-described neo-Nazi, drove his car into a crowd of peaceful anti-fascist demonstrators and killed a 32-year-old civil rights activist called Heather Heyer. He was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison in 2018.

Donald Trump drew criticism from his fellow Republicans as well as Democrats for saying that “both sides” were to blame for the deadly 2017 incident.

While the problem of white supremacy has gained increasing attention since the election of Mr Trump in 2016 and then Charlottesville, it has been an ongoing and persistent problem America.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, a manifesto posted to Patriot Front’s website soon after it was established called for “American Fascism” which it referred to as a “return to the traditions and virtues of our forefathers”.

The manifesto also made it obvious people who were not white were not deemed to be Americans.

---30---

Anne Sacoolas: Harry Dunn’s alleged killer a more senior spy than husband, report claims

‘I do not know what the government think they are doing or why they are treating us the way they are,’ teen’s mother says

Vincent Wood @wood_vincent
2 hours ago

The mother of teenager Harry Dunn has hit out at the UK government after it was reported his alleged killer had served in the CIA.

The family of the motorcyclist have struggled with both US and UK officials as they push for Anne Sacoolas to stand trial, having been accused of driving on the wrong side of the road when she allegedly collided with the 19-year-old near RAF Craughton in Northamptonshire .

Now Dunn’s mother Charlotte Charles has said the family is “full of anger” following claims Ms Sacoolas, who was able to flee the country after claiming diplomatic immunity due to her husband’s work as an intelligence analyst, was employed as an agent by the CIA.

As first reported by the Mail on Sunday, who cited officials on both sides of the Atlantic, Ms Sacoolas is believed to have been more senior in intelligence circles than her husband, but had reportedly not been conducting spy operations in the UK at the time of the incident.

Ms Charles said the claim took her back to the early days following her son’s death when she claims the British government was “trying to kick this all under the carpet”.

The family is understood to have written to the Foreign Office asking for an explanation as to what it knew about Ms Sacoolas’s history with the CIA.

She added: “We are determined to make sure that this never happens to another family again. I do not know what the government think they are doing or why they are treating us the way they are.

“It is an absolute scandal and I know [family spokesman Radd Seiger] is calling for a full public inquiry and an action plan from the government.

“We will not rest until Anne Sacoolas is back and we have secured the safety of the nation in so far as so-called diplomats committing crimes here in the UK is concerned.”

Harry Dunn’s family hail ‘huge step’ as US suspect charged over his death

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said: “Anne Sacoolas was notified to us as a spouse with no official role.”l

Since leaving the country Ms Sacoolas has been charged with causing death by dangerous driving – but the US is refusing to extradite the 42-year-old, and last month US secretary of state Mike Pompeo refused to explain why.

On a visit to London the official was asked why he was allowing “a US citizen to run over and kill an English boy and evade justice”, but declined to say what lay behind the decision.

Instead, he said London and Washington were “doing everything we can to make it right” and seeking “a resolution that reflects the tragedy that took place”.

Watch more
Epstein’s accusers demand Prince Andrew is exchanged for Anne Sacoolas

Speaking on Sunday, former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt said the US should treat the UK like an ally and extradite Ms Sacoolas.

Speaking on Sky News, he said: “I think we just need to ask what would have happened if the boot had been on the other foot, if a British diplomat had been involved in a road accident in the United States where someone had died and had fled on a private plane back to the UK and was evading justice – I don’t think President Trump would stand for that for one second.

“And I would just say to the United States, I’m someone who is the strongest supporter of the special relationship, I think in a very uncertain world the democracies of the world need to stand together, but if we’re going to be in an alliance we need to treat each other like allies and that is not happening.”

Additional reporting by Press Association

Spectacular Sinn Féin victory reshapes Ireland's political landscape
Party leaders turn attention to how next government might be formed


Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald arrives at the Dublin election count centre at the RDS. Photograph: Crispin Rodwell

Sinn Féin candidates stormed to a series of spectacular victories in general election counts on Sunday, reshaping Ireland’s political landscape as party leaders begin to turn their attention to how the next government might be formed.

Though many seats remain to be filled and counts will continue this morning, a hung Dáil, which will be dominated by three big parties – Sinn Féin, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael – is inevitable.

Sinn Féin candidates all over the country won huge victories, with many elected on the first count with huge surpluses, catapulting the party into the front rank of Irish politics and making it a contender for government.

Fine Gael seems certain to suffer losses, while Fianna Fáil looks set to be the largest party in the new Dáil, analysts were projecting last night.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar reiterated that he would not form a government with Sinn Féin, but indicated that a coalition with Fianna Fail could be possible, saying “we are willing to talk to other parties about the possibility of forming a new government, one that would lead the country forward for the next five years”.
Potential coalition

Fianna Fáil sources reported an emerging debate in the party about potential coalition with either Fine Gael or Sinn Féin. Party leader Micheál Martin appeared to soften his pre-election refusal to contemplate coalition with either of his two rivals, declining to explicitly rule out a coalition deal with either.

Mr Martin said that for any government to be sustainable, the policy platforms between the participating parties have to be compatible.

“It has to be coherent and it has to be sustainable and deliverable. They’re very significant issues that can’t be glossed over in the euphoria of an election day and all of the tension, interest and excitement around it,” he said.

Later, Mr Varadkar seemed to echo Mr Martin’s views when he said that to form a government together “you need to have roughly the same views around the courts of the criminal justice system, around how the economy and society should be run and also how democracy should function and that’s what makes my party, Fine Gael, not compatible with Sinn Féin”.
Fintan O’Toole: Election 2020 shows old political system in Ireland is finished
Detailed election 2020 exit poll results: How voters answered 15 questions
Meath West results: Surprise at Fianna Fáil loss as seismic shift to left



Election 2020 SEE FULL RESULTS
Results Hub
Seats by party
Party Seats  % 1st Pref
SF 29 24.53%
FG 11 20.86%
FF 10 22.18%
IO 6   15.39% 

GP 47.13%
SPBP 22.63%
SD 12.90%
LAB 04.38%
63 of 160 seats filled
7 of 39 constituencies complete
62.9% national turnout

Opinion was divided in Fianna Fáil on whether it should enter coalition with Sinn Féin or Fine Gael, or stay out of government entirely.

The divide was evident on the party’s backbench and among the frontbench of Mr Martin’s most senior TDs. “Government with Fine Gael isn’t a radical gesture,” said one member of the party’s frontbench. “I don’t see how Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael can be seen as reflecting a radical general election result. Sinn Féin is a mixture of Brexit Party populism and nationalism that kinda has to be tempered in my view – or else the centre collapses.”

Another TD said he would prefer coalition with Sinn Féin rather than Fine Gael, adding that Mr Martin “needs to swallow his pride” or step down as party leader.
Consider coalition

Galway TD Éamon Ó Cuív has suggested that Fianna Fáil must consider coalition government with Sinn Féin rather than a grand coalition with Fine Gael.

Mr Ó Cuív, who topped the poll in Galway West, said he has always been open to a coalition with Sinn Féin and that he would be “totally opposed” to any arrangements which would see Fine Gael retain power.

“There is great arguments going on all day about whether we are nearer Sinn Féin or Fine Gael,” Mr Ó Cuív said.

“My heart is much nearer the Sinn Féin side of the argument in terms of services for the people and putting the people before economic theory.”

Another senior Fianna Fáil TD last night said that if the party was to share power with Fine Gael, “We may as well shut up shop.” However, the TD also added that Sinn Féin should be allowed to form a government of the left.

But others in Fianna Fáil are more open to coalition with Fine Gael, perhaps including one of the small parties, such as the Greens.
A grand coalition

Senior Fine Gael sources said that they expected Mr Varadkar would approach Fianna Fáil about entering into a grand coalition.

But Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, while hailing her party’s successes around the country, took steps to contact other left-wing parties to arrange talks on government formation. Speaking at Dublin’s RDS, she said she wants to explore whether such a new government would be possible.

“I also have consistently said that I will talk to and listen to everybody, I think that is what grown-ups do and that is what democracy demands.”

Ms McDonald, who was re-elected on Sunday evening with a big majority, said it was “not sustainable” for either the Fine Gael leader or the Fianna Fáil leader “to say they will not speak to us, representatives of such a sizeable section of the Irish electorate”.

Though most counts were continuing last night and will resume this morning, there were already some high-profile casualties. Minister for Transport Shane Ross lost his seat in Dublin-Rathdown, while his fellow Independent Cabinet minister Katherine Zappone looked set to lose out in Dublin South-West. Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty lost her seat in Meath East.

Minister of State for Higher Education Mary Mitchell O’Connor lost her seat in Dún Laoghaire, Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger lost her seat in Dublin West and Government chief whip Sean Kyne looks likely to lose his seat in Galway West.

The former Labour leader Joan Burton lost her seat in Dublin West, while high-profile Fine Gael backbenchers Noel Rock and Kate O’Connell are also likely to lose out

Mary Lou McDonald hopes to lead left-wing government without Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald REUTERS/Phil Noble

Hugh O'Connell and Wayne O'Connor

February 09 2020 04:06 PM

SINN Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has said she wants to attempt to become Taoiseach leading a left-wing government without Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.

Ms McDonald has already spoken with the Green Party, Social Democrats and Solidarity-People Before Profit about forming a government without either Leo Varadkar or Micheál Martin’s party.



"The political establishment are still in a state of denial" - Mary Lou McDonald

Ms McDonald said the election result was a “a big statement of change” and that it is no longer a two-party system. She said her first priority was to attempt to deliver a new government without the involvement of the civil war parties.

"We have been in touch with the Greens, Social Democrats, People Before Profit and others. I said throughout the campaign, and I meant it, we need change, we need a new government, the best outcome is a government without Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. So that’s the first thing I want to test, whether or not that is possible,” she said.

“I also have consistently said that I will talk to and listen to everybody. I think that’s what grown ups do. I think that’s what democracy demands.”

Ms McDonald was speaking as she arrived at the RDS count centre in Dublin where she will be re-elected to the Dáil on the first count in Dublin Central. She said the party could have fielded more candidates but that "hindsight is a great thing”.

She hit out at Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael saying she does not accept “the exclusion or talk of excluding our party that represents now almost a quarter of the electorate”.

She said this would be “fundamentally undemocratic”.

“I do not think that it is a sustainable position for Micheál Martin or Leo Varadkar to say that they will not speak to us representatives of such a sizable section of the Irish electorate," Ms McDonald said.

She said a vote for Sinn Féin was not a protest vote. She said it was an election that is “historic in proportion, this is changing the shape and the mould of Irish politics".

She added: “This is not a transient thing, this is just the beginning.”

Asked by Independent.ie if she could be leading a left-wing government and be Taoiseach, she responded: "Yes" and added: "Let’s see how the numbers stack up.

Sinn Fein Irish election surge leaves three main parties tied

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Support for left-wing Irish nationalists Sinn Fein surged in an election on Saturday, leaving it tied with the party of Prime Minister Leo Varadkar but unlikely to emerge with the highest number of seats, an exit poll showed.

Instead Varadkar’s Fine Gael is likely to compete with fellow center-right rival Fianna Fail to secure the most seats and the right to try to form a coalition government - a task analysts called extremely difficult.

RELATED COVERAGE

Factbox: Who's who in Ireland's national election

The Ipsos MRBI exit poll showed Fine Gael on 22.4%, Sinn Fein on 22.3% and pre-election favorites Fianna Fail on 22.2%.

Sinn Fein, the former political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), is likely to fall behind the other two parties because it fielded far fewer candidates.

Still, its breakthrough represents a major realignment of Irish politics, which for a century has been dominated by Fine Gael and Fianna Fail.

“It’s a very, very good result for Sinn Fein... but even though it is a statistical tie, we would expect Fine Gael and Fianna Fail to fight it out to get the most seats,” said Gary Murphy, Professor of Politics at Dublin City University.

Fianna Fail has ruled out going into coalition for the first time with Fine Gael and both parties say they will not govern with Sinn Fein, meaning there is no obvious government to be formed, he added.

Prime Minister Leo Varadkar holds his ballot as he votes in Ireland's national election in Dublin, Ireland, February 8, 2020. REUTERS/Phil Noble

“There are very rocky times ahead,” he said.

“HISTORICAL ELECTION”

Counting begins at 0900 GMT on Sunday with some results expected from early afternoon. The final and potentially decisive seats in Ireland’s 160-member parliament may not be filled until Monday or even later.

Fine Gael and Fianna Fail have said they will look to smaller parties to form what would likely be another minority government requiring support of one of the two main parties from the opposition benches.

The parties have swapped power at every election since emerging from the opposing sides of Ireland’s 1920s civil war. They have similar policies on the economy and Brexit trade talks.

Sinn Fein has moved on from the long leadership of Gerry Adams, seen by many as the face of a bloody IRA war against British rule in Northern Ireland. Its candidates were the biggest gainers by vote share, up from 14% at the last election in 2016.

Slideshow (8 Images)

With Fine Gael and Fianna Fail marginally down, the outcome demonstrated some appetite for change.

“The days of Fine Gael and Fianna Fail dominating Irish politics are over,” Fine Gael parliamentary party chairman Martin Heydon told national broadcaster RTE.

“Our elections are becoming more volatile. More like a lot of other European countries. The ability to form governments is going to be hard after this.”

A new generation of politicians led by Mary Lou McDonald spearheaded the groundswell of support for Sinn Fein, particularly among younger voters on the defining election issue of the cost and availability of housing.

Her deputy leader in the Irish parliament, Pearse Doherty, said the exit poll represented a vote of “a historic nature” for the party.

“You can see in the figures there today that there is a mood for change,” he told RTE.


Irish vote may end Varadkar's spell as PM as Sinn Fein surges

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish voters look likely to dump Prime Minister Leo Varadkar from power on Saturday in an election that could alter the political landscape with a surge by Sinn Fein, which has struck a chord among younger voters.

The nationalist Sinn Fein party is unlikely to enter government, with opinion polls pointing to the main opposition Fianna Fail winning most seats and forming a coalition or minority government.

RELATED COVERAGE 
Factbox: Who's who in Ireland's national election 


Fianna Fail’s policies on the economy and post-Brexit are broadly similar to those of Varadkar’s center-right Fine Gael.

“I think there is a bit of a backlash coming (against Varadkar) from chatting to friends and colleagues,” said Shane Sullivan, a 31-year-old data analyst who voted for Fianna Fail because he wanted a focus on public spending rather than tax cuts. “I think they are just a bit out of touch to be honest.”

Left-wing Sinn Fein, which has moved on from the long leadership of Gerry Adams and is run by a new generation of politicians led by Mary Lou McDonald, could win the popular vote if the vote reflects the polls. On Monday, the former political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) was polling at 25%, ahead of Fianna Fail on 23% and Fine Gael on 20%.

But Sinn Fein, which has appealed to younger voters on the defining issue of the election - the cost and availability of housing - has put forward too few candidates to capitalize, as the groundswell of support caught the party itself off guard after it sunk to 9% at local elections last year.

Analysts say it may only be able to gain a few seats and retain its position as the third largest party in parliament.

While both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael insist they will not govern with Sinn Fein, citing its IRA past and differing economic polices, such an outcome would demonstrate an appetite for change in decades-long centrist Ireland.

The IRA fought against British rule in Northern Ireland in a 30-year conflict in which some 3,600 people were killed before a 1998 peace deal. Sinn Fein’s ultimate aim is to unify Ireland and British-run Northern Ireland, where it shares power.

“I went for Sinn Fein this time because I really do believe it’s time for change,” said Siobhan Hogan, a 40-year-old childcare worker, who cited Fine Gael plans to increase the pension age and its failure to solve a housing crisis.



A lorry showing images of Fina Gael leader and current Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar (R) and Micheal Martin of the Fianna Fail party is seen during the build-up to Ireland's national election in Dublin, Ireland, February 6, 2020. REUTERS/Phil Noble

“I’m lucky enough to have my own place but I look around and I see people struggling. People need a roof over their heads.”

Polls close at 2200 GMT and will be followed by an exit poll giving the first indication of the result. Counting begins at 0900 GMT on Sunday with some results expected from the early afternoon.

Varadkar had hoped the economic upturn his party has overseen since 2011 and his own diplomatic successes on Brexit - helping prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland after Britain’s departure from the EU - would extend his near three-year premiership.

The strategy appears to have fallen flat amid domestic issues such as healthcare and housing.

The immediate beneficiary looks set to be Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin, a 59-year-old former teacher whose party suffered an electoral collapse nine years ago after the government he was a member of had to seek an EU/IMF bailout.

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Astronomers Witness The Dragging Of Space-Time In Stellar Cosmic Dance


An international team of astrophysicists led by Australian Professor Matthew Bailes, from the ARC Centre of Excellence of Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav), has shown exciting new evidence for 'frame-dragging'--how the spinning of a celestial body twists space and time--after tracking the orbit of an exotic stellar pair for almost two decades. The data, which is further evidence for Einstein's theory of General Relativity, is published in the journal Science.

Artist's depiction of 'frame-dragging': two spinning stars twisting space and time
[Credit: Mark Myers, OzGrav ARC Centre of Excellence]

More than a century ago, Albert Einstein published his iconic theory of General Relativity - that the force of gravity arises from the curvature of space and time and that objects, such as the Sun and the Earth, change this geometry. Advances in instrumentation have led to a flood of recent (Nobel prize-winning) science from phenomena further afield linked to General Relativity. The discovery of gravitational waves was announced in 2016; the first image of a black hole shadow and stars orbiting the supermassive black hole at the centre of our own galaxy was published just last year.

Almost twenty years ago, a team led by Swinburne University of Technology's Professor Bailes--director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav)--started observing two stars rotating around each other at astonishing speeds with the CSIRO Parkes 64-metre radio telescope. One is a white dwarf, the size of the Earth but 300,000 times its density; the other is a neutron star which, while only 20 kilometres in diameter, is about 100 billion times the density of the Earth. The system, which was discovered at Parkes, is a relativistic-wonder system that goes by the name 'PSR J1141-6545'.

Before the star blew up (becoming a neutron star), a million or so years ago, it began to swell up discarding its outer core which fell onto the white dwarf nearby. This falling debris made the white dwarf spin faster and faster, until its day was only measured in terms of minutes.

In 1918 (three years after Einstein published his Theory), Austrian mathematicians Josef Lense and Hans Thirring realised that if Einstein was right all rotating bodies should 'drag' the very fabric of space time around with them. In everyday life, the effect is miniscule and almost undetectable. Earlier this century, the first experimental evidence for this effect was seen in gyroscopes orbiting the Earth, whose orientation was dragged in the direction of the Earth's spin. A rapidly spinning white dwarf, like the one in PSR J1141-6545, drags space-time 100 million times as strongly!

A pulsar in orbit around such a white dwarf presents a unique opportunity to explore Einstein's theory in a new ultra-relativistic regime.

Artist's depiction of a rapidly spinning neutron star and a white dwarf dragging the fabric of space time
around its orbit [Credit: Mark Myers, OzGrav ARC Centre of Excellence]

Lead author of the current study, Dr Vivek Venkatraman Krishnan (from Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy - MPIfR) was given the unenviable task of untangling all of the competing relativistic effects at play in the system as part of his PhD at Swinburne University of Technology. He noticed that unless he allowed for a gradual change in the orientation of the plane of the orbit, General Relativity made no sense.

MPIfR's Dr Paulo Friere realised that frame-dragging of the entire orbit could explain their tilting orbit and the team presents compelling evidence in support of this in today's journal article--it shows that General Relativity is alive and well, exhibiting yet another of its many predictions.

The result is especially pleasing for team members Bailes, Willem van Straten (Auckland University of Tech) and Ramesh Bhat (ICRAR-Curtin) who have been trekking out to the Parkes 64m telescope since the early 2000s, patiently mapping the orbit with the ultimate aim of studying Einstein's Universe. 'This makes all the late nights and early mornings worthwhile', said Bhat.

Lead author Vivek Venkatraman Krishnan, Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR): 'At first, the stellar pair appeared to exhibit many of the classic effects that Einstein's theory predicted. We then noticed a gradual change in the orientation of the plane of the orbit.'

'Pulsars are cosmic clocks. Their high rotational stability means that any deviations to the expected arrival time of its pulses is probably due to the pulsar's motion or due to the electrons and magnetic fields that the pulses encounter.' 'Pulsar timing is a powerful technique where we use atomic clocks at radio telescopes to estimate the arrival time of the pulses from the pulsar to very high precision. The motion of the pulsar in its orbit modulates the arrival time, thereby enabling its measurement.'

Dr Paulo Freire: 'We postulated that this might be, at least in-part, due to the so-called "frame-dragging" that all matter is subject to in the presence of a rotating body as predicted by the Austrian mathematicians Lense and Thirring in 1918.'

Professor Thomas Tauris, Aarhus University: 'In a stellar pair, the first star to collapse is often rapidly rotating due to subsequent mass transfer from its companion. Tauris's simulations helped quantify the magnitude of the white dwarf's spin. In this system the entire orbit is being dragged around by the white dwarf's spin, which is misaligned with the orbit.'

Dr Norbert Wex, Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR): 'One of the first confirmations of frame-dragging used four gyroscopes in a satellite in orbit around the Earth, but in our system the effects are 100 million times stronger.'

Evan Keane (SKA Organisation): 'Pulsars are super clocks in space. Super clocks in strong gravitational fields are Einstein's dream laboratories. We have been studying one of the most unusual of these in this binary star system. Treating the periodic pulses of light from the pulsar like the ticks of a clock we can see and disentangle many gravitational effects as they change the orbital configuration, and the arrival time of the clock-tick pulses. In this case we have seen Lens-Thirring precession, a prediction of General Relativity, for the first time in any stellar system.'

From Willem van Straten (AUT): 'After ruling out a range of potential experimental errors, we started to suspect that the interaction between the white dwarf and neutron star was not as simple as had been assumed to date.'

Source: Swinburne University of Technology [January 30, 2020]

Showing How The Tiniest Particles In Our Universe Saved Us From Complete Annihilation

Recently discovered ripples of spacetime called gravitational waves could contain evidence to prove the theory that life survived the Big Bang because of a phase transition that allowed neutrino particles to reshuffle matter and anti-matter, explains a new study by an international team of researchers.

Inflation stretched the initial microscopic Universe to a macroscopic size and turned the cosmic energy into matter.
However, it likely created an equal amount of matter and anti-matter predicting complete annihilation of our universe.
The authors discuss the possibility that a phase transition after inflation led to a tiny imbalance between the amount of matter and anti-matter, so that some matter could survive a near-complete annihilation. Such a phase transition is likely to lead to a network of "rubber-band"-like objects called cosmic strings, that would produce ripples of space-time known as gravitational waves. 
These propagating waves can get through the hot and dense Universe and reach us today, 13.8 billion years after the phase transition. Such gravitational waves can most likely be discovered by current and future experiments [Credit: R. Hurt/Caltech-JPL, NASA, and ESA/Kavli IPMU - Kavli IPMU]

How we were saved from a complete annihilation is not a question in science fiction or a Hollywood movie. According to the Big Bang theory of modern cosmology, matter was created with an equal amount of anti-matter. If it had stayed that way, matter and anti-matter should have eventually met and annihilated one to one, leading up to a complete annihilation.

But our existence contradicts this theory. To overcome a complete annihilation, the Universe must have turned a small amount of anti-matter into matter creating an imbalance between them. The imbalance needed is only a part in a billion. But it has remained a complete mystery when and how the imbalance was created.

"The Universe becomes opaque to light once we look back to around a million years after its birth. This makes the fundamental question of 'why are we here?' difficult to answer," says paper co-author Jeff Dror, postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, and physics researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Since matter and anti-matter have the opposite electrical charges, they cannot turn into each other, unless they are electrical neutral. Neutrinos are the only electrical neutral matter particles we know, and they are the strongest contender to do this job. A theory many researchers support is that the Universe went through a phase transition so that neutrinos could reshuffle matter and anti-matter.

"A phase transition is like boiling water to vapor, or cooling water to ice. The behavior of matter changes at specific temperatures called critical temperature. When a certain metal is cooled to a low temperature, it loses electrical resistance completely by a phase transition, becoming a superconductor. It is the basis of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) for cancer diagnosis or maglev technology that floats a train so that it can run at 300 miles an hour without causing dizziness. Just like a superconductor, the phase transition in the early Universe may have created a very thin tube of magnetic fields called cosmic strings," explains paper co-author Hitoshi Murayama, MacAdams Professor of Physics at the University of California, Berkeley, Principal Investigator at the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe, University of Tokyo, and senior faculty scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Dror and Murayama are part of a team of researchers from Japan, US and Canada who believe the cosmic strings then try to simplify themselves, leading up to tiny wobbling of spacetime called gravitational waves. These could be detected by future space-borne observatories such as LISA, BBO (European Space Agency) or DECIGO (Japanese Astronautical Exploration Agency) for nearly all possible critical temperatures.

"The recent discovery of gravitational waves opens up a new opportunity to look back further to a time, as the Universe is transparent to gravity all the way back to the beginning. When the Universe might have been a trillion to a quadrillion times hotter than the hottest place in the Universe today, neutrinos are likely to have behaved in just the way we require to ensure our survival. We demonstrated that they probably also left behind a background of detectable gravitational ripples to let us know," says paper co-author Graham White, a postdoctoral fellow at TRIUMF.

"Cosmic strings used to be popular as a way of creating small variations in mass densities that eventually became stars and galaxies, but it died because recent data excluded this idea. Now with our work, the idea comes back for a different reason. This is exciting!" says Takashi Hiramatsu, a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo, which runs Japan's gravitational wave detector KAGRA and Hyper-Kamiokande experiments.

"Gravitational wave from cosmic strings has a spectrum very different from astrophysical sources such as merger of black holes. It is quite plausible that we will be completely convinced the source is indeed cosmic strings," says Kazunori Kohri, Associate Professor at the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization Theory Center in Japan.

"It would be really exciting to learn why we exist at all," says Murayama. "This is the ultimate question in science."

The paper was published in Physical Review Letters.

Source: Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe [February 03, 2020]

Arctic Permafrost Thaw Plays Greater Role In Climate Change Than Previously Estimated

Abrupt thawing of permafrost will double previous estimates of potential carbon emissions from permafrost thaw in the Arctic, and is already rapidly changing the landscape and ecology of the circumpolar north, a new CU Boulder-led study finds.

Aerial image of interspersed a permafrost peatland in Innoko National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska interspersed with smaller areas of thermokarst wetlands [Credit: Miriam Jones, U.S. Geological Survey]

Permafrost, a perpetually frozen layer under the seasonally thawed surface layer of the ground, affects 18 million square kilometers at high latitudes or one quarter of all the exposed land in the Northern Hemisphere. Current estimates predict permafrost contains an estimated 1,500 petagrams of carbon, which is equivalent to 1.5 trillion metric tons of carbon.

The new study distinguishes between gradual permafrost thaw, which affects permafrost and its carbon stores slowly, versus more abrupt types of permafrost thaw. Some 20% of the Arctic region has conditions conducive to abrupt thaw due to its ice-rich permafrost layer. Permafrost that abruptly thaws is a large emitter of carbon, including the release of carbon dioxide as well as methane, which is more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. That means that even though at any given time less than 5% of the Arctic permafrost region is likely to be experiencing abrupt thaw, their emissions will equal those of areas experiencing gradual thaw.

This abrupt thawing is "fast and dramatic, affecting landscapes in unprecedented ways," said Merritt Turetsky, director of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) at CU Boulder and lead author of the study published in Nature Geoscience. "Forests can become lakes in the course of a month, landslides occur with no warning, and invisible methane seep holes can swallow snowmobiles whole."

Abrupt permafrost thaw can occur in a variety of ways, but it always represents a dramatic abrupt ecological shift, Turetsky added.

"Systems that you could walk on with regular hiking boots and that were dry enough to support tree growth when frozen can thaw, and now all of a sudden these ecosystems turn into a soupy mess," Turetsky said.


Trees struggle to remain upright in a lake formed by abrupt permafrost thaw
[Credit: David Olefeldt]

Permafrost contains rocks, soil, sand, and in some cases, pockets of pure ground ice. It stores on average twice as much carbon as is in the atmosphere because it stores the remains of life that once flourished in the Arctic, including dead plants, animal and microbes. This matter, which never fully decomposed, has been locked away in Earth's refrigerator for thousands of years.

As the climate warms, permafrost cannot remain frozen. Across 80 percent of the circumpolar Arctic's north, a warming climate is likely to trigger gradual permafrost thaw that manifests over decades to centuries.

But in the remaining parts of the Arctic, where ground ice content is high, abrupt thaw can happen in a matter of months - leading to extreme consequences on the landscape and the atmosphere, especially where there is ice-rich permafrost. This fast process is called "thermokarst" because a thermal change causes subsidence. This leads to a karst landscape, known for its erosion and sinkholes.

Turetsky said this is the first paper to pull together the wide body of literature on past and current abrupt thaw across different types of landscapes.

The authors then used this information along with a numerical model to project future abrupt thaw carbon losses. They found that thermokarst always involves flooding, inundation, or landslides. Intense rainfall events and the open, black landscapes that result from wildfires can speed up this dramatic process

A massive thaw slump on the Yedoma coast of the Bykovsky Peninsula is inspected by an Alfred Wegener

Institute permafrost team [Credit: Guido Grosse, Alfred Wegener Institute]
The researchers compared abrupt permafrost thaw carbon release to that of gradual permafrost thaw, trying to quantify a "known unknown." There are general estimates of gradual thaw contributing to carbon emissions, but they had no idea how much of that would be caused by thermokarst.

They also wanted to find out how important this information would be to include in global climate models. At present, there are no climate models that incorporate thermokarst, and only a handful that consider permafrost thaw at all. While large-scale models over the past decade have tried to better account for feedback loops in the Arctic, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)'s most recent report only includes estimates of gradual permafrost thaw as an unresolved Earth system feedback.

"The impacts from abrupt thaw are not represented in any existing global model and our findings indicate that this could amplify the permafrost climate-carbon feedback by up to a factor of two, thereby exacerbating the problem of permissible emissions to stay below specific climate change targets," said David Lawrence, of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and a coauthor of the study.

The findings bring new urgency to including permafrost in all types of climate models, along with implementing strong climate policy and mitigation, Turetsky added.

"We can definitely stave off the worst consequences of climate change if we act in the next decade," said Turetsky. "We have clear evidence that policy is going to help the north and thus it's going to help dictate our future climate."

Author: Kelsey Simpkins | Source: University of Colorado at Boulder [February 03, 2020]

New Thalattosaur Species Discovered In Southeast Alaska

Scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks have identified a new species of thalattosaur, a marine reptile that lived more than 200 million years ago.

Artist's depiction of Gunakadeit joseeae [Credit: Ray Troll ©2020]

The new species, Gunakadeit joseeae, is the most complete thalattosaur ever found in North America and has given paleontologists new insights about the thalattosaurs' family tree, according to a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports. Scientists found the fossil in Southeast Alaska in 2011.

Thalattosaurs were marine reptiles that lived more than 200 million years ago, during the mid to late Triassic Period, when their distant relatives -- dinosaurs -- were first emerging. They grew to lengths of up to 3-4 meters and lived in equatorial oceans worldwide until they died out near the end of the Triassic.

"When you find a new species, one of the things you want to do is tell people where you think it fits in the family tree," said Patrick Druckenmiller, the paper's lead author and director and earth sciences curator at the University of Alaska Museum of the North. "We decided to start from scratch on the family tree."

Prior to the discovery of Gunakadeit joseeae, it had been two decades since scientists had thoroughly updated thalattosaur interrelationships, Druckenmiller said. The process of re-examining a prehistoric animal's family tree involves analyzing dozens and dozens of detailed anatomical features from fossil specimens worldwide, then using computers to analyze the information to see how the different species could be related.

Druckenmiller said he and collaborator Neil Kelley from Vanderbilt University were surprised when they identified where Gunakadeit joseeae landed.

"It was so specialized and weird, we thought it might be out at the furthest branches of the tree," he said. Instead it's a relatively primitive type of thalattosaur that survived late into the existence of the group.

"Thalattosaurs were among the first groups of land-dwelling reptiles to readapt to life in the ocean," Kelley said. "They thrived for tens of millions of years, but their fossils are relatively rare so this new specimen helps fill an important gap in the story of their evolution and eventual extinction."



The fossil of Gunakadeit joseeae, which was found in Southeast Alaska. About two thirds of the tail had already
eroded away when the fossil was discovered [Credit: University of Alaska Museum of the North]
That the fossil was found at all is a remarkable. It was located in rocks in the intertidal zone. The site is normally underwater all but a few days a year. In Southeast Alaska, when extreme low tides hit, people head to the beaches to explore. That's exactly what Jim Baichtal, a geologist with the U.S. Forest Service's Tongass National Forest, was doing on May 18, 2011, when low tides of -3.7 feet were predicted.

He and a few colleagues, including Gene Primaky, the office's information technology professional, headed out to the Keku Islands near the village of Kake to look for fossils. Primaky saw something odd on a rocky outcrop and called over Baichtal, "Hey Jim! What is this?" Baichtal immediately recognized it as a fossilized intact skeleton. He snapped a photo with his phone and sent it to Druckenmiller.

A month later, the tides were forecasted to be almost that low, -3.1 feet, for two days. It was the last chance they would have to remove the fossil during daylight hours for nearly a year, so they had to move fast. The team had just four hours each day to work before the tide came in and submerged the fossil.

"We rock-sawed like crazy and managed to pull it out, but just barely," Druckenmiller said. "The water was lapping at the edge of the site."



Once the sample was back at the UA Museum of the North, a fossil preparation specialist worked in two-week stints over the course of several years to get the fossil cleaned up and ready for study.

When they saw the fossil's skull, they could tell right away that it was something new because of its extremely pointed snout, which was likely an adaptation for the shallow marine environment where it lived.

"It was probably poking its pointy schnoz into cracks and crevices in coral reefs and feeding on soft-bodied critters," Druckenmiller said. Its specialization may have been what ultimately led to its extinction. "We think these animals were highly specialized to feed in the shallow water environments, but when the sea levels dropped and food sources changed, they had nowhere to go."

Once the fossil was identified as a new species, it needed a name. To honor the local culture and history, elders in Kake and representatives of Sealaska Corp. agreed the Tlingit name "Gunakadeit" would be appropriate. Gunakadeit is a sea monster of Tlingit legend that brings good fortune to those who see it. The second part of the new animal's name, joseeae, recognizes Primaky's mother, Josee Michelle DeWaelheyns.

Source: University of Alaska Fairbanks [February 04, 2020]