Our Best Defense Against Hurricanes Is to Modernize This Coastal Law

Congress must expand on the success of the Coastal Barrier Resources Act to protect people and birds from climate change.


By Portia Mastin

Coastal Conservation Policy Manager

AUDOBON SOCIETY
June 01, 2022

Birds in This Story


American Oystercatcher

Latin: Haematopus palliatus
peeps



Piping Plover

Latin: Charadrius melodus
peeplo calls



Least Tern

Latin: Sternula antillarum
typical shrill calls #1

American Oystercatcher. Photo: Jackie Connelly-Fornuff/Audubon Photography Awards

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Today marks the start of another hurricane season, which the National Weather Service predicts will be busier than usual for the seventh year in a row. Many folks where I live in Louisiana, still recovering from the last two years of storms, are revisiting their evacuation plans and restocking their batteries, flashlights, and other supplies. This year, there’s an important task that should be on Congress’s hurricane season preparation list: modernize and expand the Coastal Barrier Resources Act.

This 40-year-old bipartisan law saves lives and protects coastal habitat and property in a unique way. Undeveloped beaches and coastal wetlands around our country provide important habitat for birds and wildlife, but these areas are particularly prone to flooding and storms that endanger lives. The Coastal Barrier Resources Act (CBRA) discourages development in these hazard-prone areas by removing federal spending like flood insurance, disaster recovery grants, and other federal expenditures on the CBRA’s system of protected areas. This market-based approach is working, as less than 5% of the areas protected by CBRA have been developed, while areas outside of the system have experienced much higher rates of development. CBRA has already saved federal taxpayers nearly $10 billion, and is projected to save another $11-109 billion in the future.

The barrier islands, beaches, inlets, and wetlands that make up the CBRA’s 3.5-million-acre system act as nature’s speed bumps, buffering nearby communities from storms and floodwaters. Nationwide, coastal wetlands provide $23 billion in storm protection services each year, reducing storm recovery costs for communities and taxpayers. Birds like Piping Plovers and American Oystercatchers depend on the beaches and islands in the CBRA system to nest, forage, and rest during migration. The surrounding wetlands and inlets also support recreational and commercial fisheries that are essential to our economy and coastal heritage.

It’s time now to expand these benefits to even more areas on our coasts. In April, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recommended that Congress add over 277,000 acres to the CBRA System along nine states most impacted by Hurricane Sandy. After Sandy struck the East Coast nearly 10 years ago, a study found that coastal wetlands prevented $625 million in additional property damages. Adding new areas to the CBRA system from Virginia to New Hampshire will help buffer these coastal communities from the sea-level rise and storms, while protecting birds and saving even more tax dollars.

This diagram illustrates how marshes can adapt to rising sea levels and naturally "migrate" upland if given enough space. Credit: Julie Rossman/Audubon

Additionally, Audubon urges Congress to update the areas covered by the CBRA system to include coastal bluffs and spits and other related areas. CBRA should also be expanded inland to include wetland migration corridors, where wetlands could naturally “migrate” in response to climate change and sea level rise. Without the space to move inland, we risk losing many of our wetlands, and with them, our birds. CBRA should also be expanded to the Pacific Coast, not yet included in the system. Currently, CBRA protects areas along the Atlantic Coast, Great Lakes, Gulf of Mexico, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Virgin Islands. Including the Pacific Coast would be a major achievement for those coastal communities and for the coastal birds that need those areas, like the California Least Tern. Each of these provisions was included last year in the Ocean-Based Climate Solutions Act, introduced in the House Natural Resources Committee, and we hope to see them re-emerge this year as part of legislation to expand CBRA along the nine states impacted by Hurricane Sandy.

Last but not least, pressure to open up CBRA areas to federally funded sand mining continues to threaten CBRA. Plundering sand from these protected areas would put people and wildlife at risk. Congress must ensure CBRA areas remain intact and fully protected.

It’s time for Congress to introduce new legislation that puts these provisions into action. Expanding and protecting the Coastal Barrier Resources Act will ensure this critically important bipartisan coastal law can continue to deliver benefits to birds and people in the face of climate change.

5 historical U.S. landmarks threatened by climate change

By —Tim McPhillips 

NPR Nation Jun 1, 2022 

America’s historic monuments – both natural landmarks and human-built structures – draw millions each year to witness and pay tribute to our simultaneously rich and painful heritage. But summertime, when many of us get the chance to play tourist, is also the start of hurricane and wildfire seasons – a reminder that the physical markers of our history are at risk from the effects of a changing climate.

“Historic places are primary sources, just like documents, diaries and letters. They tell us about ourselves. And they tell us about the complex and intertwined shared narrative of our country,” said Katherine Malone-France, chief preservation officer for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a nonprofit working to preserve historic places in America.

Unless global carbon dioxide emissions are cut drastically, the Earth will sail past the 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius threshold seen as our best chance to rein in the most severe consequences of climate change. And as the temperature of the planet increases, scientists say, so will the intensity and frequency of heat waves, storms and other extreme weather events, as well as the risk to cultural treasures.

READ MORE: We have the tools to save the planet from climate change. Politics is getting in the way, new IPCC report says

Right now, these landmarks prompt visitors to “think about ourselves and our stories and our actions as part of a larger continuum. We are part of something bigger than ourselves,” Malone-France said. But losing that history to climate change means we also lose a chance at connection with “each other’s heritage and accomplishments and stories.”

Here are five historic places at serious risk.

1. Jamestown

An aerial view of Jamestown from 2016 showing the reconstructed fort walls. The western bulwark (bottom left) has already washed into the river before the 1901 seawall was constructed to halt erosion. Photo by Danny Schmidt/ Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation

When British sailors arrived in 1607 at the strip of land that would become Jamestown, Virginia, it was not an island, but a small peninsula in the James River, just up from where the Chesapeake Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean. The English colonists chose it for their first permanent settlement in North America, in part for its defensive outlook to guard against Spanish forces.

At the time, the area had already been home to Indigenous people for thousands of years, and the Powhatan tribe clashed with the hostile British newcomers as they tried to form a new colony and took over more land. Jamestown is also significant for its role in the tragic history of American slavery; in 1619, the first Africans who had been captured, enslaved and brought to English-controlled North America arrived in Jamestown.

Today, low-lying Jamestown is surrounded by water. Visitors in 2022 can still see the ruins of the original British fort, as well as the town settlement that formed after the fort, operated through a partnership between the U.S. National Park Service and Historic Jamestowne, a nonprofit organization.

Depending on what climate action is taken, the Chesapeake could rise 1 to 5 feet in the coming century, according to the University of Maryland’s state sea level rise report, and data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration suggests a 1 to 2 foot rise would submerge a significant portion of the island.

Preserving Jamestown, which is on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 2022 list of Most Endangered Historic Places, is as complex and intertwined as its history, said Malone-France. Plans are already in place to rebuild seawalls, raise land, and install pumps. But “we are going to have to make decisions, too, about what we can’t save,” she added.

2. Ponce Historic Zone

Catedral de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, Plaza Munoz Rivera, in Ponce, Puerto Rico. Photo courtesy the Library of Congress

The Ponce Historic Zone, which made the National Trust’s 2020 most endangered list, is a collection of more than 1,000 structures in Puerto Rico’s second-largest city, ranging from schools to businesses to civic buildings.. According to Malone-France, this architectural treasure trove represents a “rich combination of cultural resources that tell the stories of Puerto Rico and its history.”

But buildings erected in the 1800s are not equipped to handle the storms of today and beyond. Hurricane Maria made landfall on the island in September 2017 as a Category 4 storm. Ponce, located on the southern coast, got 5 to 10 inches of rain and was struck by wind gusts nearing 100 miles per hour, damaging many of the buildings. Earthquakes that have rattled the island have also taken a toll.

Investment in these buildings is needed now, before the next direct hit from a hurricane, Malone-France said. “We have to do even more preparation in our preservation because the storms that impact places like Ponce, they are incredibly unpredictable. But we know that they are not going to stop.”

For this city, that means mapping the existing edifices, then working to improve resiliency against high winds, as well as improving drainage systems.

3. Boston Harbor Islands

Boston Light, located in Boston Harbor. Photo by Boston Harbor Now

The islands that are located in Boston Harbor are a sacred site of commemoration for Indigenous Americans and, Malone-France said, “the most intact Native American archeological landscape within the city.” According to the U.S. National Park Service, Indigienous people lived on the islands from spring until late fall, fishing, hunting and planting crops before European colonizers arrived. As European settlers arrived and took over more land, they forced an unknown number of Native people to relocate to the islands in the 1670s. There, they were kept captive and many died of starvation.

Decades later, colonists built the Boston Light, the first lighthouse in North America, on Little Brewster Island. During the Revolutionary war, it was a target of both American and British forces and was completely destroyed in 1776 before being rebuilt in 1783.

Today, the islands still serve a key environmental purpose, helping shield the inner Boston Harbor from large waves rolling in from the Atlantic Ocean. But storms and sea level rise are chipping away the coast, taking history with it.
According to Mallone-France, “The threat to the Boston Harbor Islands really comes from storm surges, which are intensifying, which means that coastal erosion is intensifying.”

In response, Boston has developed an “archeology climate plan,” to survey and manage the harbor’s archeological assets, while working to find solutions for restoring the islands’ coastlines.

4. Olivewood Cemetery

Photo courtesy Descendants of Olivewood

Houston’s oldest plotted Black cemetery, Olivewood, was incorporated in 1875, 10 years after the end of chattel slavery in Texas. Buried there are many prominent figures from the community, including some who had been enslaved.

“They are the graves of Black citizens who built Houston and who were critical to its history and its development,” Malone-France said. The cemetery is also listed as UNESCO Site of Memory on the Slave Route Project, which recogonizes places associated with the international slave trade.

The Descendants of Olivewood, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving the grounds, has worked to restore and maintain the cemetery for over 30 years. But the land and the gravesites face rising threats of erosion caused by storms and flooding, which is why the National Trust for Historic Preservation highlighted it as a most endangered place this year.

“First, they had to fight against the fact that it had been neglected and overgrown,” Malone-France said about the group dedicated to Olivewood. “Then they had to fight against encroaching development all around it… Now they are facing increasingly severe storms, whether they are single storms like Hurricane Harvey or a succession of smaller, more severe storms.”

An increase in the frequency and severity of wet weather poses a unique risk for Olivewood Cemetery, Malone-France said. “These storms put graves under water for significant periods of time. They deposited silt and other erosion throughout the cemetery, and they damage the tombstones and other markers.”

5. New Mexico monuments

Bandelier National Monument. Photo by Sally King/ NPS

In Bandelier National Monument, around 40 miles northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, evidence of human habitation dates back 11,000 years. More recently, Ancestral Puebolans lived there until about 1550, when they moved on to other areas, due in part to severe drought, according to the National Park Service. Today, 23 Indigenous tribes consider it to be tribal or ancestral land.

It’s not water or storms that most endanger this landscape, but wildfires fueled by extreme heat and drought. While wildfire is a natural part of the ecosystem in the American West, climate change is driving conditions for more frequent, severe fires. As of late May, nearly the entire state of New Mexico was experiencing severe or exceptional drought, and that has helped lead to one of the worst fire years in the state’s history.

To the east of Bandelier, the state’s largest wildfire – sparked by a prescribed burn – has been spreading for almost two months, and has destroyed more than 315,000 acres. In late April, the park was shut down due to danger from the Cerro Pelado fire, which is now 95 percent contained.

While it can take years to notice rising sea levels, wildfires are unpredictable and fast-moving.

“We’re going to have to let landscapes change and evolve in sensitive ways,” Malone-France said, and preserving monuments like Bandelier is about being good stewards of the land.

The first step, she added, is to “make sure we understand the full extent of the resources that are threatened.” From there, investments and changes, like cutting firebreaks and clearing understory growth in forests, can help protect cultural landscapes from fires.

NO ONE IS ILLEGAL

Syrian refugees to be on first deportation flight from UK to Rwanda, charity says

The UK partnership with Rwanda has been criticised by rights groups and is expected to face pushback before the first scheduled flight on 14 June

Migrants picked up at sea while attempting to cross the English Channel are helped by a member of the UK Border Force to disembark from a boat at Dover on 3 May 2022 (AFP)

By MEE staff
Published date: 1 June 2022

A group of Syrian refugees will be sent to Rwanda later this month as part of the UK government's controversial deportation scheme, a charity has said.

Zoe Gardner, head of policy and advocacy at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), said on Twitter on Tuesday that 15 Syrians had been told they would be sent to Rwanda on 14 June.

Protect Civilians, a Syrian refugee advocacy group, said refugees from Syria and Afghanistan would be on the list of people set to be deported, Sky News reported.

The Home Office said on Tuesday that an initial group of migrants have started to receive formal letters telling them they are being sent to Rwanda to "rebuild their lives in safety".

"The Removal Direction confirms that they will be going to Rwanda and when," Britain's Home Secretary Priti Patel said in a statement. "The first flight is expected to take place next month, on the 14th of June."


The Home Office did not confirm how many asylum seekers would be on the first flight, but one official told BBC News all those to be issued with the direction are currently in asylum detention.

One group threatening legal action is Detention Action, which noted that the June 14 date had been announced in the week that Britain celebrates 70 years since Queen Elizabeth II ascended the throne, AFP reported.

"What a way to mark the Platinum Jubilee weekend, by telling torture and slavery survivors who have travelled thousands of miles to reach safety that they will be expelled to an oppressive dictatorship," it said.

UK policy to send asylum seekers to Rwanda criticised as 'cruel'

Read More »

In April, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that some migrants who arrived without authorisation would be sent to Rwanda where their applications will be processed.

Those who fail in their asylum bids in Rwanda will be offered the chance to apply for visas under other immigration routes if they wish to return to the country, but they could still face deportation, BBC reported.

In 2021, Middle East and North African countries made up 11 of the top 20 countries for those who came to the UK via small boats, according to data from the Home Office, MEE reported last month.

Iran was the highest with 7,874 arrivals, followed by Iraq with 5,414. Syria came in fourth.

Johnson’s policy - which will affect people from countries such as Syria, Iraq, Sudan and Yemen, who arrived in the UK in small boats and were likely to be fleeing persecution - was widely condemned by politicians, charities, and rights groups and is expected to have significant impacts on those fleeing persecution in the Middle East and North Africa.

"We cannot sustain a parallel illegal system. Our compassion may be infinite, but our capacity to help people is not," Johnson said at the time.

According to Reuters, Johnson had been under pressure to deliver on his promise to "take back control" of Britain's borders.

"There is a deliberate attempt to paint people seeking asylum as jumping the queue," Enver Solomon, CEO of the Refugee Council, told Middle East Eye in a statement last month.

"Yet this ignores the fact that the government's own data shows that two-thirds of men, women and children arriving in small boats across the channel come from countries where war and persecution have forced them from their homes."

A similar deal to the UK's new policy was also struck between Rwanda and Israel between 2014 and 2017, but it resulted in most of the 4,000 asylum seekers reportedly leaving the African country soon after arrival.

CORAL REEFS 'SING,' AND THEY CHANGE THEIR SONG WHEN THEY’RE SICK

If we start hearing coral reef techno, we might have another problem entirely.

By Cassidy Ward

Coral reef scenery with Red Sea bannerfish (Heniochus intermedius), golden butterflyfish (Chaetodon semilarvatus), orange face or hooded butterflyfish (Chaetodon larvatus) and lyretail anthias or goldies (Pseudanthias squamipinnis). 

Photo: Georgette Douwma/Getty Images


The animated world of the Trolls universe hinges on the titular characters’ love for music. In the sequel, Trolls World Tour we learned that Trolls have significant diversity, with disparate groups living in separate regions of their world, each with their own genre preferences. Among them, living in an underwater aquatic environment, are the Techno Trolls who make their music at Techno Reef.

The bombastic electronic musical stylings of the Techno Trolls were seemingly at odds with the peaceful silence we often think of when we consider coral reef ecosystems in the real world. It turns out, we might have been wrong about that. Not only do coral reef systems make sounds, but scientists can use those sounds to gauge the overall health of the ecosystem. Now, new research has taken the music of the reef and given it a decidedly electronic bent by introducing artificial intelligence.

Ben Williams from the College of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Exeter, and colleagues, trained an artificial intelligence to listen to audio recordings of reef systems and determine from the sounds alone whether or not the reef is healthy. Their findings were published in the journal Ecological Indicators.

To be clear, the corals themselves aren’t making much noise, and if they are, we aren’t picking it up with our hydrophones, but the communities they support are alive with the sound of music.

“We hear snapping shrimp everywhere, it’s like the crackling of a campfire in the background,” Williams told SYFY WIRE. “On a thriving reef, there will be a lot of fish sounds. They make all kinds of whoops and grunts. Sometimes they even chorus, you’ll hear them for minutes or hours at a time, producing the same sounds across the reef.”

All of those sounds are an indication of the reef’s health. As a reef’s health starts to decline, many of those sounds disappear. Scientists might still pick up the sound of snapping shrimp, but all of those extra layers, the sounds of fish communicating and interacting with the environment, are gone.

In the past, scientists have analyzed recordings of reefs manually in a process that requires a certain amount of expertise and a lot of patience. For this study, they wanted to pass off some of that work to a computer. Perhaps surprisingly, the artificial intelligence learned to correctly differentiate between healthy and unhealthy reefs almost immediately.

“We didn’t need to feed it many recordings. WE had about 150 minutes from our healthy and degraded reefs, split about 50/50 and that’s all we needed. Then we started trying new recordings and it was able to get about 92% accuracy,” Williams said.

That means that researchers could drop hydrophones around reef systems all over the world and collect data over the course of days or months then play those recordings to the A.I. and get data about the health of the reef over time.

Scientists hope they might be able to use this system to monitor restoration efforts and get an idea of when reefs reach a tipping point at which the A.I. starts to recognize them as healthy again. At present, it’s unclear precisely what the system is listening for to make its determinations.

“With artificial intelligence, it’s kind of a black box. It does its job really well, but we don’t always know what patterns it has learned. Currently, it’s a binary healthy or unhealthy signal,” Williams said.

Going forward, scientists want to pair their artificially intelligent listening system with visual surveys to try and pinpoint exactly when and why a reef moves from unhealthy to healthy or vice versa. It could be the return of a specific species of fish or when coral growth reaches a certain density, or it could be something we’re not even aware of yet, but a better listening system could help unlock those mysteries.

“Typically, when we’re monitoring, we’re only getting a snapshot of the time when we’re there. A real bonus of this is we can just drop the hydrophone in the water, disappear, and come back later. That allows us to get long-term continuous data sets,” Williams said.

Marine ecosystems are particularly well-suited for this sort of work because water is a perfect medium for sound to travel in, but there is potential to take this eavesdropping A.I. into terrestrial environments as well. Animal ecosystems in rainforests and grasslands might also give us hints as to their health based on the richness of their song. We just need to sit back and listen.

Ukraine defeats Scotland in World Cup playoff as Scottish fans sing Ukrainian national anthem

A Ukrainian fan holds his flag aloft while wearing a kilt at Hampden Park, Glasgow.

(Getty Images: Andrew Milligan/PA Images)

Ukraine has taken a step forward in its emotion-filled quest to qualify for the World Cup amid an ongoing war, winning 3-1 win over Scotland in a pulsating playoff semifinal on Wednesday.

Key points:

Ukraine defeated Scotland 3-1 after the World Cup playoff semifinal was delayed due to war

The loss means Scotland's World Cup drought extends to 24 years

Ukraine now faces Wales in order to earn a spot in the Qatar World Cup in November

Veteran captain Andriy Yarmolenko lifted his nation by scoring a deft lobbed goal in the 33rd minute and then helped set up Roman Yaremchuk's header in the 49th.

Ukraine dominated for much of a deserved win though had to resist a Scotland revival as risk-filled attacks brought a goal in the 79th by Callum McGregor, before Ukraine substitute Artem Dovbyk broke clear to score with the last kick of the game.

Dovbyk led teammates toward the corner of the stadium to share the celebration with 3,000 Ukraine fans in the 51,000 -strong crowd, applauding each other with hands raised high above their heads.

Now Ukraine moves on to face Wales on Sunday with a place at the World Cup at stake.

The winner in Cardiff will go to Qatar in November to play in a group against England, the United States and Iran.

Ukraine put in a slick display despite using six starters who had not played a competitive game of any kind since December.

Most of Ukraine's squad play for home-based clubs whose league was shut down after Russia's invasion, and the playoff in Glasgow was postponed in March. FIFA and Scotland agreed to give the Ukrainian team a fair chance to prepare for games that have become a focus of national identity and pride.

Scotland lacked the class needed. Its wait for World Cup soccer now extends beyond the 24 years since it went to the 1998 tournament.

Ukraine's win could have been sealed earlier but for saves early and often by 39-year-old Scotland goalkeeper Craig Gordon. When the Scots chased a way back into the game, John McGinn placed a 67th-minute header inexplicably wide from close range.

Ukraine is riding a wave of global goodwill as the victim of Russian aggression and its players' intense motivation to reward the nation with a place on soccer's biggest stage was clear.

The Ukrainian players all walked onto the field with a blue and yellow national flag draped on their shoulders.

The warm welcome saw Ukraine's national anthem, Shche ne vmerla Ukrainas, applauded loudly by Scotland fans. Many of those same fans stayed after the game to salute their victorious opponents off the field.

Some of the Ukrainian fans had travelled far and had made plans to stay in Britain for the decisive playoff on Sunday.

George Butromeyev said before the game he came from Toronto with friends to support the players who "need to show the people of Ukraine that we are warriors".

Ukrainian players celebrate Roman Yaremchuk's goal to make it 2-0 against Scotland.

(Getty Images: Ross MacDonald/SNS Group)

"It's not only about football," Yaroslav Grygorenko, who travelled from Amsterdam, said.

"It's important to be on the top of the discussions here in Europe, to not let [people] forget what is happening in Ukraine."

Scotland-born Alex Demianczuk wore a kilt in Ukrainian yellow and blue colours and wanted his parents' nation to advance. Ukraine playing at the World Cup, he said, would be "something that's really going to get on (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's nerves".

In Kyiv, fans determined to get together to see the match had the war-time curfew to contend with, which kicked in at 11pm local time, before the start of the second half.

The Beer & Meet bar in downtown Kyiv got around the restriction on movement by offering fans the possibility to stay there until 5am.

Police swung by the bar in a patrol car a few minutes before kick-off, asking fans who had gathered outside to go down into the drinking hole's basement rooms because of an air-raid warning.


Oleksii Safin, 40, who works as a voice actor, stood with his right hand over his heart as he belted out the national anthem. He and other supporters erupted in celebration when Ukraine scored first. But the war raging in the east of the country was not forgotten.

"It looks like we are having lots of fun but, actually, we are not," he said.

"We are trying to look normal, as far as we can, but we still remember what is going on out in the east.

"It's a good fight, just like the fight that we have right now with the Russians.

"We can show that we can do it."

AP

Federal ethics commissioner flooded with emails calling for investigation into WEF conspiracy

Christopher Nardi -National Post

6/1/2022


OTTAWA – The federal ethics commissioner’s office was flooded with over 1,000 emails, calls, letters and even faxes this winter from people asking it to investigate a conspiracy theory claiming some parliamentarians and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland are beholden to the World Economic Forum.

Founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab arrives on stage during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, on May 25, 2022. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

“In February and March 2022, the Office received over 1,000 requests from members of the public asking the Commissioner to investigate the participation of Members and ministers in the World Economic Forum,” says a short line in the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner’s (CIEC) latest annual report published Monday.

The document notes that the requests “did not provide sufficient evidence to warrant an investigation.”

But the CIEC is just the latest government institution to see its email and phone lines flooded with people driven by “misinformation” or conspiracy theories demanding impossible action such as dissolving government or removing members of Parliament from their posts.

For example, the National Post revealed in February that “Freedom convoy” supporters convinced that the Governor General could dissolve Parliament on a whim flooded Rideau Hall with calls to register a “non-confidence” vote towards the prime minister.

That prompted Rideau Hall to later put out a statement saying that the campaign was “misinformation” and that the Governor General could do no such thing.

CIEC director of communications Melanie Rushworth said communications, mostly by email but sometimes by call, letter and even fax, began arriving at the office at the end of February and poured in until early March.

It quickly became evident to her staff that this was a coordinated campaign, as all the messages seemed taken from the same template accusing Freeland and other MPs of being under the shadowy influence of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

The WEF is best known for its annual meeting in the ritzy Swiss town of Davos, where politicians, businesspeople and other global elites meet behind closed doors to discuss world affairs.


During early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the WEF and its founder Klaus Schwab became the focus of an increasingly mainstream conspiracy theory that claims they are at the centre of efforts to restructure society into a “new world order” through a project called “The Great Reset”.

The conspiracy theory claims that WEF’s influence extends to the Canadian government and that it controls the Trudeau Liberal government — and even the prime minister directly.

Recent discourse from politicians like Maxime Bernier or Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre — who recently promised that if he is elected prime minister he would not permit his ministers to attend a WEF meeting — is feeding the theory, said disinformation expert Carmen Celestini, who teaches a course on conspiracy theories at the University of Waterloo.

AND I WILL CUT OFF MY NOSE TO SPITE MY FACE

“By fostering that discussion, saying, ‘Well, we won’t do that,’ you’re giving validation and credence to this idea of the great reset,” she said.

In a copy of the messages provided to National Post, writers asked the CIEC to investigate MPs who have ties to “World Economic Forum and the Young Global Leaders,” because they are “promoting foreign interference in our government.”

These organizations, they claim, aim to “intentionally dismantle the existing societal structure and Bill of Rights in Canada and install a foreign-controlled digital banking system.”

The message then claims that Canada’s National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) concluded in a 2019 report that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland are “under the influence and control” of foreign states. (The NSICOP report did not make that claim, except to say that “some” elected and appointed government officials are “wittingly or unwittingly subject to foreign interference activities.”)

The missive ends by stating that MPs who are representing a “private foreign agenda” should be removed from office.

Rushworth said it was the first time since she started working for the CIEC three years ago that she’s had to deal with such a coordinated campaign. The WEF-related correspondences represented roughly one third of the 3,500 public and media communications received in 2021-2022.

“We basically wrote back to all of the people that had emailed us with general information about what it is that the commissioner does, and that without specific, clear information, we don’t know what they’re asking us to look at,” she said.

Celestini says there will only be more of these kinds of campaigns if authorities and governments across the world don’t seriously begin to address the rampant spread of disinformation and misinformation online.

“It’s something we should absolutely be concerned about, because what we see with conspiracy theories is a lot of xenophobia, we see a lot of racism, we see a lot of classism that’s happening,” Celestini said.

“So, if we don’t actually confront these ideas, and build trust in our institutions again, it can actually have very significant effects in people joining white nationalist groups or very right-wing extremist groups.”

THE PANDEMIC IS STILL HERE

Two million people estimated to be suffering from long COVID-19 in the UK, official data shows

The Office for National Statistics' assessment found nearly a third of the two million people reporting long-lasting symptoms first had COVID-19, or suspected they had it, during the Omicron wave which began late last year.

Paramedics unload a patient from an ambulance parked outside the emergency department at The Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel in London, England, on 19 December, 2021. Source: Getty / Hollie Adams/Getty Images

An estimated two million people in the UK, which represents around three per cent of the population, have reported experiencing so-called long COVID-19, official statistics showed Wednesday.

Around 1.4 million of them said they first had COVID-19, or suspected they had the virus, at least 12 weeks previously, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

It also found 826,000 of them first had coronavirus at least a year earlier, while 376,000 said they first had it at least two years previously.


Here's what we know about the long-term symptoms of COVID-19
The ONS figures are based on people's own reports of suffering from long COVID-19 from a representative sample of private households in the four weeks to 1 May.

Fatigue is the most common symptom - experienced by 55 per cent of those with self-reported long COVID-19 - followed by shortness of breath (32 per cent), a cough (23 per cent) and muscle ache (23 per cent).

The biggest proportion were people aged 35 to 69, females, those living in more deprived areas and those working in certain professions such as social care, teaching and education or health care, the ONS said.

Those with another activity-limiting health condition or disability were also more prevalent among the long COVID-19 sufferers, it added.

The UK, which was one of the worst-impacted countries by the pandemic, has eased all restrictions this year as cases and hospital admissions have fallen amid relatively high vaccination rates.

The country of around 67 million people has recorded nearly 18.8 million cases, and almost 178,000 deaths from the virus, since it hit more than two years ago.

The ONS assessment found nearly a third of the two million people reporting long-lasting symptoms first had COVID-19, or suspected they had it, during the Omicron wave which began late last year.

Its numbers follow another UK study published in April showing that only around a quarter of people have completely recovered from COVID-19 a full year after being hospitalised with the disease.

The research, by the National Institute for Health and Care Research involving more than 2,300 people, also found that women were 33 per cent less likely to fully recover than men.

Michigan adds 19,535 cases, 50 deaths from COVID-19 over last week

Sarah Rahal
The Detroit News

Michigan added 19,535 cases and 50 deaths from COVID-19 on Wednesday, including totals from the previous six days.

The state reported an average of about 2,790 cases per day over the last seven days, a decrease from 3,710 cases per day a week prior.

Hospitalization and new case rates in Michigan declined for the second week after rising for the previous six weeks.

On May 25, the state said it had added 25,968 cases and 139 deaths from the virus in the previous week.

Between May 20-26, about 15% of Michigan's COVID-19 tests returned positive.

The dip in cases was expected but doesn't indicate a long-term downward trend, said Dr. Preeti Malani, professor of infectious diseases and chief health officer at the University of Michigan health system.

"As cases go up, hospitalizations go up and there's always a little bit of a stagger," Malani said. "Cases are a bit lower nationally but it’s because more people are getting COVID more than once and we’re seeing more mild disease. The antivirals are also helping."

With few mitigation measures and no mandates in place, "This is what the world might look like for the foreseeable future," Malani said.

The third booster shot has been shown to prevent severe disease and seniors or immunocompromised people are recommended to get a fourth booster.

"Have a plan for what you’re going to do if you get it," Malani said. "The test and treat program isn’t where it needs to be. Treatment works best if given early, but it doesn't mean the treatment will be easily accessible for long."

All Metro Detroit health departments are following CDC's guidelines to recommend indoor masking for public settings and K-12 schools as the rate of infection has grown from "medium" to "high."

Wednesday's additions bring the state's overall total to 2,54,366 cases and 36,407 deaths since the virus was first detected here in March 2020.

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On Monday, the state reported that 885 adults and 37 pediatric patients were hospitalized with confirmed infections, a decrease from 934 adults and 35 children last week.

Inpatient records were set on Jan. 10, when 4,580 adults were hospitalized with COVID-19.

About 5.7% of the state's hospital beds were filled with COVID-19 patients and there were an average of 1,360 emergency room visits related to COVID-19 per day in the state as of Monday. That compares to 24% of hospital beds being full and 2,889 daily emergency room visits due to the virus in the first week of January.

However, 14 Michigan counties remain at a "high" level for the increased burden on health care or severe disease: Alger, Calhoun, Kalkaska, Livingston, Mackinac, Macomb, Manistee, Marquette, Monroe, Oakland, Schoolcraft, Washtenaw and Wayne. Another 30 counties have a "medium" transmission level, according to the state health department.

► For subscribers: Map shows where Michigan is seeing the highest COVID spread

Case counts are well below early January when the state set a new high mark with more than 20,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 per day.

In Michigan, variants of the virus have moved at a high rate, proving more contagious than past variants and infecting both unvaccinated and vaccinated residents.

A new iteration of the omicron variant, BA.2, is now the dominant across Michigan and the country, but experts say another surge of cases is unlikely.

The Food and Drug Administration expanded its approval of remdesivir on April 25, making it the first COVID-19 treatment for children under age 12.

In Michigan, 298 cases of a rare inflammatory condition in children linked with the coronavirus have been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 65% of kids with the syndrome are admitted to intensive care units and there have been five deaths.

In Michigan, residents ages 30 to 39 currently have the highest case rate of any age group.

As of Monday, 73 new outbreaks were reported over the prior week. The majority, 44 outbreaks, were in long-term care facilities and senior assisted living centers. Another 16 outbreaks were in K-12 schools and seven were in daycare programs. The state is tracking 418 ongoing outbreak cases.

About 66%, or 6.6 million, state residents have received their first doses of a vaccine, and 60% are fully vaccinated. More than 231,000 children ages 5 to 11 in Michigan, or 28%, have received their first dose of the vaccine.

More than 3.1 million, or 36.7% of the eligible population, have received a vaccine booster in Michigan and 5.2 million are fully vaccinated.

srahal@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @SarahRahal_

 Scientists discovered the largest known plant on Earth

And it's 4,500 years old.

BYPRANJAL MEHAR

JUNE 1, 2022

 

SCIENCE

Credit: The seagrass Posidonia australis. Photograph, Rachel Austin.

Shark Bay, Western Australia, is a World Heritage Area dominated by temperate seagrass meadows. Recently, scientists from the University of Western Australia and Flinders University have discovered the most giant planet at Shark Bay. 

They discovered an ancient and incredibly resilient seagrass, Posidonia australis, that stretches 180km and is estimated to be at least 4,500 years old.

Evolutionary biologist Dr. Elizabeth Sinclair from UWA’s School of Biological Sciences and the UWA Oceans Institute said, “The project began when scientists wanted to understand how genetically diverse the seagrass meadows in Shark Bay were and which plants should be collected for the seagrass restoration.”

“We often get asked how many different plants are growing in seagrass meadows, and this time we used genetic tools to answer it.”

UWA student researcher Jane Edgeloe, a lead author of the study, said, “the team sampled seagrass shoots from across Shark Bay’s variable environments and generated a ‘fingerprint’ using 18,000 genetic markers.”

“The answer blew us away – there was just one! Just one plant has expanded over 180km in Shark Bay, making it the largest known plant on Earth.”

“The existing 200km2 of ribbon weed meadows have expanded from a single, colonizing seedling.”

“What makes this seagrass plant unique from other large seagrass clones, other than its enormous size, is that it has twice as many chromosomes as its oceanic relatives, meaning it is a polyploid.”

“Whole-genome duplication through polyploidy – doubling the number of chromosomes – occurs when diploid ‘parent’ plants hybridize. The new seedling contains 100 percent of the genome from each parent, rather than sharing the usual 50 percent.”

“Polyploid plants often reside in places with extreme environmental conditions, are often sterile, but can continue to grow if left undisturbed, and this giant seagrass has done just that.”

“Even without successful flowering and seed production, it appears to be resilient, experiencing a wide range of temperatures and salinities plus extreme high light conditions, which would typically be highly stressful for most plants.”

Journal Reference:

1. Jane M. Edgeloe, Anita A. Severn-Ellis et al. Extensive polyploid clonality was a successful strategy for seagrass to expand into a newly submerged environment. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2022.0538

The Largest Clone on Earth Is Found in Australia

Jessica Thomson 
Newsweek
© iStock / Getty Images Plus

In a paper released on Tuesday, scientists have announced that they have discovered the largest-known clone on the planet—a giant seagrass plant.

While it's not quite a massive Dolly the Sheep, the clone is actually a single, widespread polyploid clone of the seagrass Posidonia australis, spanning at least 180km (a little over 110 miles) in Shark Bay, Western Australia. According to co-author Dr. Elizabeth Sinclair, a senior research fellow at the School of Biological Sciences & Oceans Institute, University of Western Australia, the previous record-holder was only around 50km across.

In 1996, Dolly the sheep became the first mammal to be successfully cloned.

While animal clones, like Dolly, are grown from adult cells and are genetically identical to the single parent, this giant seagrass plant grew from a single seed. According to Sinclair, the difference is that the seed contained a full set of chromosomes from both the pollen donor and the maternal plant, making it polyploid: it has twice as many chromosomes (40 chromosomes) as its diploid oceanic relatives (20 chromosomes).

"Whole genome duplication through polyploidy occurs when diploid 'parent' plants hybridize. The new seedling contains 100 percent of the genome from both parents, rather than sharing the usual 50 percent, and therefore has lots of genetic diversity. This seagrass plant continued growing, expanding through vegetative or clonal growth, where the new shoots are genetically identical to the original seedling," Sinclair told Newsweek.

The near pristine conditions of Shark Bay, which is an International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Heritage Area, meant that this huge seagrass has remained relatively undisturbed its entire life, including since European settlement. The plant has been able to continue growing so large through vegetative growth, the way a strawberry plant would in your back garden, extending its runners outwards and growing another little clone of itself where it touches back down on the ground.

This giant seagrass clone has gotten so big that it has begun to make its own environment more stressful to grow in.

As Sinclair told Newsweek: "Seagrass meadows modify their local environment. The leaves 'filter' particles (sediment or soil particles, bacteria and so on) out of the water. The particles then accumulate on the seafloor, keeping the waters shallow and crystal clear. Seagrass also reduces water flow—which is great for protecting coastlines—but in a bay, such as Shark Bay, reduced water flow, combined with low rainfall and freshwater input, the high evaporation rates in summer mean the water gets much saltier. The seagrass now grows in high salinity waters (up to about 1.5 time normal seawater), experiences a high annual temperature range (shallow water heats up and cools down quicker than in the deeper ocean), all of which combined with high light conditions makes the environment more stressful."

Despite these self-inflicted setbacks, Posidonia australis will hopefully be okay in its newly stressful home—polyploid plants (and animals) have more copies for genes, which can be a very effective way of increasing genetic diversity, and this one is very diverse: 90 percent of the 18,000 genetic markers were variable, according to Dr. Sinclair. This may give the polyploid an advantage over normal diploid plants, and enable it to cope with a wider range of environments or different environments from diploids.

Sunak’s UK oil subsidy could have insulated 2m homes, says thinktank


The billions now going to fossil fuel exploitation could have funded efficiency measures that cut energy bills for good

E3G calculates that the chancellor handed oil and gas companies between £2.5bn and £5.7bn. 

With £3bn he could have insulted 2m homes and cut energy bills. 

Photograph: ivansmuk/Getty Images/iStockphoto


Damian Carrington

Environment editor

THE GUARDIAN

Tue 31 May 2022 

Billions of pounds given away in a tax break for UK oil and gas exploitation could have permanently cut the energy bills of 2m homes by £342 a year if invested in insulation measures, according to a green thinktank.

Rishi Sunak announced the 91% tax break alongside a windfall tax on the huge profits of oil and gas companies last week. The E3G thinktank calculated that the tax break would hand between £2.5bn and £5.7bn back to the oil companies over three years, while an energy efficiency programme of £3bn over the same period would upgrade 2.1m homes making them less reliant on gas.


Soaring international gas prices are expected to more than double energy bills in a year by October, pushing a third of households into fuel poverty. Proponents of energy efficiency, including loft and wall insulation, say it is a no-regrets investment that cuts bills for good, slashes the carbon emissions driving the climate crisis and boosts jobs. Green groups said the chancellor’s grants to households partly funded by the windfall tax were only a “sticking plaster”.

Another report published on Tuesday by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) found that a £4bn annual investment in energy efficiency could permanently halve heating bills for households by 2035. Its author said Sunak was handing out “raincoats” but “failing to fix the roof”.

The tax reduction meets official definitions of a fossil fuel subsidy, which the UK and other countries had pledged to phase out. It incentivises new oil and gas production, despite a recent Guardian investigation finding that the fossil fuel industry is already planning projects that would blow the world’s chances of maintaining a liveable climate.

Euan Graham, at E3G, who conducted the tax break analysis, said: “[Sunak] is providing a subsidy to oil and gas producers which will do long-term harm to the energy transition. The government has not grasped what is needed in order to deliver a genuinely resilient and affordable energy system. Instead, it is willing to implement policies that support the interests of oil and gas companies instead of British households.”

Ministers argue that more UK oil and gas supply would increase future energy security, but the fuels are owned by the companies and mostly exported.

The tax break has also been criticised by the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS). “[It means] a massively loss-making investment could still be profitable after tax. It is hard to see why the government should provide such huge tax subsidies and thereby incentivise even economically unviable projects,” said Stuart Adam at the IFS.

The E3G analysis used investment estimates from the industry and data from an insulation plan backed by energy companies and groups. The £342 a year savings in upgraded homes is based on the bills expected in October. The new tax break meets the World Trade Organization and International Monetary Fund definitions of a subsidy, as well as a new UK legal definition.

The TBI report advocates the setting up of an independent “home energy service”, which would provide every home with a simple, practical plan to reduce their bills and decarbonise, along with interest-free loans. It said a 10-year plan would save bill payers a total of £100bn compared to current prices and that similar approaches in Germany and Scotland were already driving down bills.

“Short-term support, such as the measures announced last week are important, but by spending a fraction of that amount per year [Sunak] could cut heating bills in two over the coming decade and insulate the UK from future economic shocks,” said Daniel Newport at TBI. “He is currently handing out much-needed – but very expensive – raincoats. Now we need to fix the roof.”

Sam Hall, director of the Conservative Environment Network, which is supported by more than 100 Tory MPs said: “It was disappointing that the chancellor announced no new measures to help people upgrade the nearly 19m poorly insulated households across the UK.” A green homes grant scheme for England was scrapped in March 2021 and judged a “slam dunk fail” by parliament’s public accounts committee, having only upgraded about 47,500 homes out of the 600,000 originally planned.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy was contacted for comment.

REPORT QUESTIONS QATAR 2022’S CARBON-NEUTRAL CLAIM

Posted by Bradley Rial
on 31st May 2022



Carbon Market Watch, a non-profit association with expertise in carbon pricing, has released a report which questions claims made by organisers of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar that the tournament will be the first carbon-neutral event of its kind.

Research from Carbon Market Watch suggests that Qatar 2022’s goal will be achieved through “creative accounting” rather than actually reaching a carbon footprint of net zero.

The report states that calculations used by World Cup organisers ignore some “major sources of emissions” and that the credits currently being purchased to offset them have a “low level of environmental integrity”.

Carbon Market Watch cites the emissions associated with the construction of permanent new stadiums as one of the main reasons why Qatar 2022’s carbon-neutrality claim appears “far-fetched”. The group says that the emissions impact could be understated by a factor of eight.

The report also suggests that other sources of emissions could have been underestimated, such as those due to the exclusion of emissions from maintaining and operating stadiums in the years following the tournament.

Carbon Market Watch acknowledges that its report does not assess the full extent of the impact of the implemented climate mitigation measures, but the group said that some of the proposed actions also “lack integrity”.

The report notes that World Cup organisers have contributed to establishing a new carbon credit standard, the Global Carbon Council, which is supposed to deliver at least 1.8 million credits to offset World Cup emissions. According to the report, the council has two registered projects and has issued just over 130,000 credits.

Carbon Market Watch’s Gilles Dufrasne, the author of the report, said: “It would be great to see the climate impact of FIFA World Cups being drastically reduced. But the carbon neutrality claim that is being made is simply not credible.

“Despite a lack of transparency, the evidence suggests that the emissions from this World Cup will be considerably higher than expected by the organisers, and the carbon credits being purchased to offset these emissions are unlikely to have a sufficiently positive impact on the climate.”

In September, Qatar 2022 organisers detailed plans to deliver the first carbon-neutral World Cup in the history of the event. Organisers cited the short distance between stadiums and the use of solar power at venues as ways to achieve the carbon-neutral goal.

Following the release of the Carbon Market Watch, a spokesperson for Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy told BBC Sport: “We are on track to hosting a carbon-neutral World Cup.

“The methodology used to calculate the carbon-neutral commitment is best in practice and was designed to be based on actual activity data, after the World Cup has concluded. This will be published, and any discrepancies will be explained and offset.

“No other country has engaged so deeply with its citizens to ensure a sustainable legacy is left behind after a FIFA World Cup.”

A spokesperson also told The Guardian that the criticisms from Carbon Market Watch were “speculative and inaccurate”.

A statement from FIFA added: “The organisers have pledged to measure, mitigate and offset all FIFA World Cup 2022 greenhouse gas emissions, while advancing low-carbon solutions in Qatar and the region. Thus, at no point has FIFA misled its stakeholders, as is claimed by the report.

“FIFA is fully aware of the risks that mega-events pose on the economy, the natural environment and on people and communities. [It] has been making efforts to tackle those impacts and use opportunities that arise to mitigate the negative impacts and maximise the positive impacts of its iconic tournament.”


Image: Ben Sutherland/CC BY 2.0/Edited for size