Six species of rain frog discovered in Ecuador as one named in honour of slain activist

Lamiat Sabin - Yesterday 

Pristimantis resistance .jpg© Environment ministry of Ecuador

Six new species of rain frogs have been discovered in Ecuador, with one named after a murdered activist.

Scientists found the Pristimantis frogs in two national parks on the eastern slopes of the Ecuadorean Andes.

The discovery was made by Ecuadorean herpetologists Jhael Ortega, Jorge Brito and Santiago Ron, in the Llanganates and Sangay parks.

The scientists have recommended that the frogs be added to the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) red list of threatened species.

The new species of frogs have been named Pristimantis anaiae, tamia, glendae, kunam, resistencia and venegasi.

There are more than 570 Pristimantis species in South America, according to Ecuador’s environment ministry, mainly in Colombia and Ecuador, and many more are believed to yet be found.

One of the previously-discovered species is called Pristimantis jamescameroni after Hollywood director and environmental campaigner James Cameron. It was found in 2012 in Venezuela.

Describing how they came up with the names for the six new species, Mr Ron explained in a tweet that they had decided to name one of them resistencia – meaning resistance – in honour of activist Alba Bermeo.

Ms Bermeo was just 24 when she was shot dead in the early hours of Saturday morning after opposing gold mining in the Ecuadorean province of Azuay. She was five months pregnant, reports say.

Mr Ron also said: “During the last 10 years, Latin America has been the region most dangerous for environmental defenders with 1180 people killed, 68% of the world total. The murders were mostly perpetrated by mining companies.”

According to a report by the advocacy group Global Witness, more environmentalists were killed in Latin America than in any other region last year.

The scientists’ research on their discovery of the frogs has been published in the scientific journal PeerJ.

Rescuing whales on Australia's 'humpback highway'

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1 day ago

IMAGE SOURCE,NSW PARKS AND WILDLIFE SERVICE

Image caption,

Getting tangled in fishing gear can be a death sentence for whales

By Tiffanie Turnbull

BBC News, Sydney

It's like a needle in a haystack: how do you find one entangled whale in a vast expanse of ocean?

Then how do you free the 20-tonne giant from a maze of constraints when it is panicked, sometimes angry, often injured, and always determined to evade you?

That's a riddle that marine rescuers like Wayne Phillips have to solve on an increasingly regular basis.

Each year, an estimated 40,000 humpback whales leave the freezing waters of Antarctica on the world's longest mammal migration.

They make their way up Australia's east and west coasts to the tropics before returning, calves in tow, a couple of months later.

For most Australians, the so-called "humpback highway" from May to November is a fun and exciting spectacle.

But for Mr Phillips and his team at Queensland's SeaWorld, it brings an undercurrent of anxiety.

The need for rescue is constant - and growing. "We always seem to be out looking for whales," he says.

How rescues work

Teams largely rely on reports from the public, using them to guess a troubled whale's movement and trajectory. If it is found, a complex and exhausting task begins.

First, rescuers must essentially immobilise the enormous mammal before it nervously speeds away. Ironically this involves methods originally used to hunt whales, says Susan Crocetti, a rescue specialist with New South Wales Parks and Wildlife.

Teams approach in a dinghy before attaching large floats to whatever the whale is entangled in, to slow the animal and tire it out.

Then they carefully plot which lines to cut and when, before taking to them with a hooked knife attached to a long pole.

Media caption,

Watch marine rescuers free a whale entangled in fishing gear

Much has been made of the impact of shark nets on whales, but rescuers say the real killer is "ghost gear" - commercial fishing nets, lines and even anchors which are lost or abandoned at sea.

"Sometimes the entanglements can be hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of metres of rope wrapped in complicated layers around the whale," Ms Crocetti says.

"And you need to cut it in the right order."

If you don't, you risk freeing the whale enough for it to dive or swim off - a potential disaster.

"Even the smallest amount of gear will slowly cut into the animal," says Mr Phillips. "So if we don't remove everything… it is a slow death and it's not a nice one."

Deadly job

The stakes are extremely high for the rescuers too.

At least two people have died in the past two decades - most recently Canadian veteran Joe Howlett, who was killed moments after successfully freeing a whale in 2017.

Trapped whales are often badly injured and "incredibly stressed out", says Ms Crocetti. "With one swish of a 20-30-tonne animal's tail - if you're in the wrong place - it can be catastrophic."

Then there's the other challenges: fatigue, rough sea conditions, bad light, and sometimes even sharks. It's not a job for the faint-hearted or inexperienced.

Training involves swim tests, protective gear, and practice cutting lines from a boat out on the water. SeaWorld rehearses with a 600kg fibreglass dummy whale nicknamed Moby.

"But it's still dangerous for anybody, no matter how much experience you have," Mr Phillips says.

IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES

Image caption,

Mr Phillips has been rescuing whales for almost 30 years

Sometimes the task spans multiple days. Ms Crocetti's team once followed a whale for months - over thousands of kilometres and two states.

They frequently lost track of the whale and were hamstrung by terrible weather, but finally succeeded in cutting the last entangling line. Ms Crocetti describes it as a career highlight.

"Anyone who disentangles a whale would say that it's the best thing they've ever done," she says. "[But] that was a really sweet one."

Growing problem

Humpback whales were hunted to near extinction last century. In Australia, numbers off the east coast had dwindled to "a little over 100" by 1963, according to previous government estimates.

Since bans on whaling, however, the local population has bounced back into the tens of thousands, experts say.

But this also means more and more humpbacks are becoming ensnared in the estimated 640,000 tonnes of ghost gear that's dumped in the world's oceans each year.

And most rescue attempts don't end happily.

Last year Mr Phillips' team received reports of 30 whales caught in ghost gear. They could locate and help only two.

IMAGE SOURCE,NSW PARKS AND WILDLIFE SERVICE

Image caption,

A crew attempts to free a whale

In one instance, he recalls spending two days trying to remove 70kg of chain from a distressed whale. But with no technique for removing chain, there was ultimately little the team could do.

"We did our best," says Mr Phillips. "[But] it's disheartening when we don't get the job done."

It's moments like those that can make the battle against commercial fishing waste feel impossible, but Mr Phillips can't imagine doing any other job.

"It's a rollercoaster," he says. "Sometimes you're excited, you think you're making progress, and then the next minute, you may have lost the whale.

"But it's quite exhilarating once we get the job finished… to see them swim off, free of any gear, is quite overwhelming."

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’Not my business’: how workplace racism goes unchallenged

by Adam McCulloch 25 Oct 2022

Perceptions of racism in the workplace have remained static since 2018 despite the rise of Black Lives Matter protests that took place in response to police killings of black people in the US in 2020.

Almost two thirds (61%) of black employees in the UK experienced racism in the workplace in 2021, according to a report published today by business psychology consultancy Pearn Kandola.

Of those who witnessed racism at work, a quarter did not report the incidents out of fear of the consequences and a third of white respondents decided it “was not my business”, a 20% rise since 2018 when the same questions were asked.

The Racism at Work 2021 research found that over half of UK employees were not seeing racial equality promoted at work.

Employees, found the study, were still not comfortable having discussions around race at work. In 2021, the average comfort level was only 59/100 – a number that had barely changed since 2018. Perceptions of racism in the workplace also changed little between 2018 and 2021. Last year, 88% of employees believed racism existed in their workplace, a rise of 2% from 2018.

Conducted in 2021, Pearn Kandola’s report replicated a 2018 study to explore experiences and changes in perceptions of racism in modern UK workplaces. It revealed that despite several significant global events over the last four years – including the death of George Floyd and the widespread racial equity movement it sparked in 2020 – very little had changed when it came to discussing and promoting racial equality in work environments.

Pearn Kandola said the report shows there has been a lack of progress in combating racism in the workplace, citing figures showing three-quarters (75%) of employees considered racism to be a problem in 2021, a minor shift from 73% in 2018.

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Binna Kandola, business psychologist and co-founder of Pearn Kandola, said: “We’ve not seen enough change since our previous research in 2018, despite the global conversations that have taken place since 2020.

“We are still as wary, if not apprehensive, about conversations around race as we ever were.

“If we are to make progress on race, it will be achieved by discussion. It’s time for us all to take a good, hard look at how we perceive racism at work, as well as inclusion as a whole, to ensure we are able to talk to one another in an environment of mutual respect.”

‘It wasn’t my business’

Pearn Kandola said half of respondents reported that their organisation was not doing anything to promote racial equality in the workplace in 2021.

This lack of action was evident in the way employees responded to racism in the workplace, found the study. While 52% witnessed someone being racist in work last year, over a quarter (28%) took no action, with the most cited action being “I feared the consequences”. Almost a third (31%) of white respondents selected “It wasn’t my business” as a reason for not taking action – rising by nearly 20% since 2018.

Binna Kandola commented: “The fear of getting it wrong is hindering the fight against racism. We’re still seeing concerns in the workplace around how to challenge racist behaviour constructively and how colleagues will respond if challenged. Despite everything that has happened in the world over the past two years, we have a long way to go in making race a topic that is able to be discussed openly and empathetically.”

Half (49%) the employees surveyed said their organisation was actively promoting racial equality, with education being the most frequently cited action.

Educational activities included: workshops, seminars and talks, and learning, training and development courses. Championing equality in the workplace, culture and communication, and changing internal policies and practices were also underlined as actions being rolled out in the workplace to promote racial equality.

Binna Kandola said education was a start, but implementable solutions should be the aim for employers. “This can include: recognising different experiences between racial groups, as well as differences within racial groups; skill development in creating environments of psychological safety; and having a clear dignity and respect at work policy. Ultimately, challenging racism is everyone’s business.”

Other recent reports have offered a more sanguine appraisal of racism in the workplace. In 2021 the Race and Ethnic Disparities commission report under Tony Sewell found that, while racism and racial injustice still existed, “we no longer see a Britain where the system is deliberately rigged against ethnic minorities”. It rejected the use of unconscious bias training at businesses but recognised bias at work, citing figures showing that people with names that suggest they come from an ethnic minority have to write 1.6 letters of application before getting a call back for every letter for people with “white” names.

Earlier this year a study by right-of-centre think tank Civitas, published a report claiming that ethnic minority British workers are just as likely as their white counterparts to be employed in a professional role. It found that a quarter of British workers with Indian and Chinese origins (24%) were in the top “higher managerial and professional” classes – twice the proportion of white British people. However, only 7% of black British workers occupied top roles.

Another think tank, the Runnymede Trust, responded to Civitas saying: “As these new figures suggest, a tiny minority of black British workers occupy top jobs, which correlates with the stark employment disparities facing black people in our society.”

Workplace culture

Prof Kandola earlier this month said that to create truly inclusive workplaces, discussions around race at work needed to happen continually, which means listening to the experiences of employees and implementing actionable solutions. “As part of this,” he said, “leaders need to take accountability, fostering inclusive behaviours, setting an example when it comes to challenging stereotypical attitudes, and being open to being challenged. It also requires having effective policies and procedures in place, for example on recruitment, selection and promotion.

He added: “For organisations to create sustainable DE&I practices they need to use their learnings to improve inclusivity for everyone. This means closely examining the organisation’s culture as well as tackling issues such as harrassment, unconscious bias, and religious and disability discrimination.”

Flood waters can cause electric vehicles to catch on fire — And some did after Ian. Here's why experts aren't particularly alarmed.

Elizabeth Weise
USA TODAY

In rare cases, flooded electric vehicle batteries can catch fire and burn
Eleven EV fires have been confirmed in Florida after Hurricane Ian caused extensive flooding.

An EV that has been flooded should not be driven until it's been checked out by a certified technician.

A small number of electric vehicles in Florida burst into flame during flooding caused by Hurricane Ian, and the fires are raising awareness about a previously little-known safety issue for the millions of Americans who have bought or are thinking of buying an EV.

They are also generating political heat, with some Florida Republican lawmakers calling for more regulatory oversight for electric vehicles.

Florida's State Fire Marshal Jimmy Patronis tweeted, "there's a science experiment taking place in Florida with EVs and salty storm surge waters."

But experts note all vehicles use concentrated power sources — whether gasoline, diesel or electricity — making them all vulnerable to ignition.

Statistics compiled by AutoInsuranceEZ found that for every 100,000 EVs there are about 25 fires, compared with 1,530 car fires in the same number of gas-powered vehicles. Gas-powered cars typically catch fire due to fuel leaks or crashes.

Here's what to know about the fires in Florida:

What happened to flooded EVs in Florida?

Hurricane Ian struck Florida's Gulf Coast on Sept. 28, killing at least 136 people, causing catastrophic damage worth more than $50 billion and flooding large areas.

The storm's floodwaters also caused at least 11 electric vehicles to catch fire.

As of Oct. 26, USA TODAY has been able to confirm 11 cases in which EVs caught fire in Florida after flooding from Ian, all believed to be due to the cars' battery packs shorting out after being submerged in saltwater or physical damage to the batteries during the flooding.

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Six of the fires were reported by the North Collier Fire Rescue District based in Naples, Florida, and another four by other Collier County fire departments, said Heather Mazurkiewicz, public information officer with the North Collier Fire Control Rescue District. One additional fire was reported in Sanibel Island by the Sanibel Island Fire and Rescue District.

No deaths have been linked to the fires. The Sanibel Island incident caused a fire that gutted the house the car was parked in and the house next door. There have been no reports of electrocutions linked to flooded electric vehicles.

While the danger of fire due to flooding in EVs has been known to experts since at least Superstorm Sandy in 2012, Hurricane Ian has put the issue front and center for the public.

"This is really the first time we had flooding in an area with a lot of electric cars," said John Linkov, deputy auto editor for Consumer Reports. Florida has the second-highest number of EVs in the nation after California.

Americans have had more than 100 years to get used to the safety issues gas-powered vehicles can pose. Now there is a learning curve for vehicles powered by batteries, said Thomas Barth, chief of the special investigations branch of highway safety at the National Transportation Safety Board.

"I don't want to give the impression the sky is falling," he said. "But they have their own set of dangers."

Why do flooded EVs catch fire?

If an electric vehicle’s battery is damaged by a collision or water intrusion from a flood, a short circuit can occur, which causes the cell to discharge energy and heat up. This can lead to an event called “thermal runaway,” in which the heat propagates from one cell to the next, causing them to burn.

In a small number of cases when an EV is submerged in water, contaminants or salt in the water can cause short-circuiting, especially after the water drains from the battery.


Vehicles or batteries that have been damaged also have the potential for short-circuiting to occur due to movement of the vehicle or battery, for example when it's being loaded or unloaded from a tow truck.

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Heat generated from a fire, thermal runaway of an adjacent cell, or shorting of the battery can melt the porous membrane between the battery’s cathode and anode, causing this cell to go into thermal runaway. The heat causes the cell to vent flammable gas, which can ignite and catch fire.

"That heat can get transferred to the next cell and it can become a chain reaction," said Barth.

"If you have a damaged lithium-ion battery and it has energy which remains in the battery pack, we call that stranded energy," he said. "If you initiate a thermal runaway or venting of the flammable gas, the battery can ignite."

Did a high percentage of the EVs in Florida burn?

Social media posts claiming EVs catch fire "often" overstate the problem, say experts.

Collier county, which includes the city of Naples, had 2,490 electric vehicles registered as of July 2021, said Stan Cross, electric transportation policy director for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

That would mean a fraction of a percent of the EVs in the county caught fire after the flooding.

In Lee county, where Sanibel Island is located, there were 2,683 EVs registered last year. The one EV that burned there would mean less than 0.04% of the electric vehicles in the county caught fire.

There was also a report by the local paper, the Island Reporter, that several flooded electric golf carts at The Dunes Golf & Tennis Club also caught fire, on Oct. 16.
What should I do with a flooded EV?

Electrical corrosion may not be visible, and an EV can experience thermal runaway hours or even days after flood waters recede.

This means flooded EVs parked in garages or carports next to homes should be moved away from buildings. These cars should not be driven but must be towed. Experts cautioned that no car, whether electric of gas-powered, should be driven after flooding until it has been checked out by a professional.

"No road vehicle should be considered roadworthy after saltwater flooding, whether it's an EV or anything else," said Haresh Kamath, director of distributed energy resources at the Electric Power Research Institute in Palo Alto, Calif. "If you've experienced saltwater flooding, you should not be driving or trying to drive or even start that vehicle. You shouldn't be getting into the vehicle."

On Sanibel Island, which was heavily damaged by Ian, Sanibel Fire Rescue District crews have towed between 20 and 25 electric vehicles from garages or under residences to prevent possible structure fires, the agency said in a Facebook post.

The cars are being moved at least 15 feet away from buildings.

Are EV fires hard to put out?

EV fires are more difficult to put out than ones in gasoline-powered cars and require different firefighting techniques, say experts.

Firefighters are already training on how to deal with EV battery fires, said Andrew Klock, senior manager of product and development for the National Fire Protection Association.

The biggest difference is that an EV fire cannot be put out with the type of firefighting foam used to smother other fires. Instead, the battery must be cooled to stop the fire and end thermal runaway, he said.

"Lithium-ion batteries generate their own heat and oxygen," said Klock. To stop the fire requires putting water on the battery case to cool it.

Most EV batteries are underneath the vehicle, so pouring water on top of the car or in the engine compartment is not helpful, he said.

"You need to get the water underneath," said Klock, whose organization provides training materials for fire departments on how to deal with all types of fires.

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All car and truck manufacturers are already required to create emergency response guides for first responders on how to deal with everything from safely extricating someone from a crashed car to high-voltage disconnect instructions.

A 2020 report by the National Transportation Safety Board found that more information about dealing with battery fires was needed.

"We’ve had excellent response from that guidance, a lot of the vehicle manufacturers have rewritten their emergency response guides or are in the process of doing that," Barth said.

In addition, a group of federal, state and private company experts has come together to address the issue of EVs and hurricanes and are working on it now, he said.
Aren't there protections built into the batteries?

EV batteries are specifically engineered to make thermal runaway "very, very rare," said Kamath.

"The safety systems inside a lithium-ion battery generally prevent that type of thing happening unless there is some significant physical damage to that battery," said Kamath, who has worked on battery issues for more than 20 years.

In the case of a crash, modern electric cars are designed with fuses that are triggered if the airbags deploy, said Barth.

"Essentially, they're cutting the high voltage lines to the motor that turns the wheel," he said. "If you crash, you don't want the high voltage lines powered up that could energize the chassis and shock someone."

EV batteries are designed with seals to protect against water intrusion, said Stu Fowle, a communications director with General Motors.

"Our tests include extremely dry conditions and water submersions to simulate flooding, validating the safety and isolation of systems," he said in a statement to USA TODAY.

The fact that only eleven EV fires have been associated with Hurricane Ian is telling, said Marc Geller, with the Electric Vehicle Association.

"If a ton of flooded EVs were catching fire, we'd certainly hear about it," he said.
Is it safe to charge an EV in a flooded area?

If the car itself wasn't flooded, then yes, it is safe to charge.

If the charging station flooded, it shouldn't be used – and will not work, said experts. The safety mechanisms built into any system that flooded should have automatically shut it off, said Kamath.

"They have done a lot of engineering to make sure that in the event of flooding or something that would interfere with the operation, the system shuts down," he said.

Are flooded conventional cars ok?

No vehicle, whether powered by gasoline or a battery, is safe to drive after being flooded, multiple experts warned.

"Just like flooding is the end of the road for a gasoline-powered car, it’s the end for electric cars too," said Brian Moody, executive editor for Autotrader.

"Many of the same problems that plague a gasoline-powered car are an issue no matter how the car is powered. The dash, gauges, heating system, brakes, wiring, seats, radio, touchscreen, all those components will be ruined by water, especially salt water," he said.

Better driver education for EV owners

Electric vehicles are increasingly popular in the United States, reaching a record 5.6% of all new cars sold in the United States in the third quarter of 2022, according to Kelley Blue Book. In 2021, there were 321,546 EVs sold in the U.S. So far this year the number stands at 546,664, according to Kelley Blue Book.

Estimates put the number of electric vehicles on U.S. roads at somewhere between one and two million. That's a far cry from the 286 million total cars registered, but does mean an increasing number of Americans are driving battery-powered vehicles. There's a learning curve, say experts.

Florida has the second-highest concentration of electric vehicles after California, said Cross. As the state, and the nation, face the possibility of more floods, getting new EV owners up to speed will be necessary.

Most Americans grew up with gas-powered vehicles and have at least some understanding of their dangers — even if it's only having seen movies where a gas leak from the tank of a damaged car precedes a billowing cloud of flame.

With so many new EVs on the road, and drivers new to electric vehicles, learning about their differences is important.

"With all new technologies, there will be problems to work out. With EVs, though the problems are few, they are headline-catching and life and property-threatening," said Cross. "You can't hide from that. It's a problem, it needs to be addressed."

Elizabeth Weise covers climate and environmental issues for USA TODAY. She can be reached at eweise@usatoday.com.