After years of construction, Shell ethane cracker starts up


Tue, November 15, 2022 

MONACA, Pa. (AP) — Years in the works, a massive petrochemical refinery in western Pennsylvania fed by the vast natural gas reservoir underneath Appalachia became fully operational Tuesday, oil and gas giant Shell plc said.

The refinery, built on the site of a former zinc smelter along the Ohio River some 30 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, will produce 3.5 billion pounds of polyethylene annually when it ramps up to full production by the second half of 2023, Shell said.

The refinery brings in ethane from natural gas wells and chemically “cracks” the liquid fuel by heating it in furnaces to create ethylene, which is used to produce everything from plastics to tires to antifreeze.

Shell, the British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, had projected to spend $6 billion on the plant, making it one of the largest — if not the largest — industrial developments in Pennsylvania.

The plant’s promoters have promoted it as the key to reindustrializing Pennsylvania, where many towns and cities have suffered from the loss of the steel and coal industries.

Environmental advocacy groups, however, have fought it and predicted that it will generate more plastic pollution, compounds that form smog and planet-warming greenhouse gases.

A leading gas exploration trade association, the Marcellus Shale Coalition, hailed the opening of the refinery, calling it an “historic day for Pennsylvania.”

The natural gas boom in the vast Marcellus Shale gas reservoir beneath Appalachia attracted Shell to the area. In 2012, the state signed off on a tax break of up to $1.65 billion over 25 years to lure it, and later issued air and water permits to Shell, which began construction in 2017.

The plant looks very similar to a gasoline refinery, with miles of pipes and large storage tanks. The core manufacturing and logistics area covers about 385 acres (186 hectares), with an overall site footprint of about 800 acres. It includes its own power generation and water treatment plants.

The plant is the first major polyethylene manufacturing complex in the northeastern United States, according to Shell.

Most ethylene production is on the Gulf Coast in Texas and Louisiana. Shell says the location gives it a competitive advantage, with more than 70% of the U.S. polyethylene market within 700 miles (1,127 kilometers) of Pittsburgh.

Annual U.S. ethane consumption has doubled in the past decade as demand for ethylene has grown. Ethane consumption recently rose above 2 million barrels per day, according to the Energy Information Administration, an arm of the U.S. Department of Energy.

Shell's plant in western Pennsylvania is estimated to add 96,000 barrels per day of ethane feedstock capacity, the agency said.

NIMBY
US offshore wind energy industry faces blowback from locals

WAYNE PARRY
Tue, November 15, 2022 

OCEAN CITY, N.J. (AP) — It's just one cable meant to bring electricity from an offshore wind farm to a former coal-burning power plant in southern New Jersey, but it symbolizes a big challenge facing the renewable energy industry.

The cable has been fought over for nearly three years, with no end in sight in a state whose officials are eager to get offshore wind power up and running.

Thousands of wind turbines have been proposed for areas along the U.S. coastline as the nation tries to meet an ambitious goal of deploying enough of them offshore by 2030 to power 10 million homes.

So far, just one project is up and running, in Rhode Island, while another is under construction off Virginia, where two of an expected 176 turbines are operating.

But obstacles like the single contentious cable in New Jersey show the challenge the offshore wind energy industry must overcome — quickly — if it is to come anywhere close to meeting its goals.

Josh Kaplowitz, a vice president with American Clean Power, a federation of renewable energy companies, said offshore wind is crucial to addressing climate change, generating electricity and creating new jobs. But before any of that can happen, the energy needs to reach land.

“The fact is, realizing these benefits requires the construction of onshore infrastructure that allows the power to come ashore and feed into the electrical grid,” he said.

Plenty of people in Ocean City, a popular beach community south of Atlantic City, are dead-set against a project proposed by Orsted and PSEG that still needs state approval to bring a power line onshore.

“We don't want this here in any way, shape or form,” said resident Suzanne Hornick, a leader of local opposition to the plan.

She cites concerns about damage to the environment, the possibility of higher rates being charged to consumers, and the general lack of certainty about what is a brand new industry in this country.

The U.S. has 27 wind farm projects in development, with an additional five locations up for auction in California next month, according to the Business Network for Offshore Wind, a nonprofit dedicated to helping develop the offshore wind industry.

If even a small portion of them were to face protracted legal or regulatory challenges, it could pose a serious obstacle to the industry.

Sam Salustro, a vice president with network, said the industry needs to use as few cable landings as possible if it wants to meet its ambitious goals.

“Cable landings have become a focal point of opposition to offshore wind’s progress,” he said. “Avoiding these conflicts in the first place should be a top industry priority.”

That can be done through long-term planning of transmission projects, and the federal government should encourage cooperation among states and transmission authorities, he added.

Anticipating such opposition, New Jersey changed its law to effectively wrest control of offshore wind projects from local governments, empowering its state Board of Public Utilities to approve them when the locals balk.

Nine Jersey Shore towns are challenging the cable plan, which would come ashore under a popular beach and then run underground along a highway to connect to the electrical grid at the site of a former fossil fuel-burning power plant that has been shut down.

Maryland has similar language in its offshore wind law exempting underground power cables coming ashore from a prohibition on construction work on beaches in a certain zone.

In August 2021, a group of citizens filed a lawsuit opposing wind development off the coast of Massachussetts over concerns it would reduce endangered whale species. Fishing groups are suing over proposed projects in Massachusetts and New York.

David Stevenson, a former DuPont executive who served on the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency transition team, has been fighting offshore wind projects off the Delaware coast. He said local opposition prevented a power line from coming ashore in a state park.

Stevenson formed a multistate group last year called the American Coalition for Ocean Protection that wants a permanent exclusion zone on any wind projects closer than 33 miles (53 kilometers) to shore along the country's entire East Coast. Many of the proposed wind farms would be located between 10 and 15 miles (16 and 24 kilometers) offshore, which would make them visible from the beach on clear days.

“I and many others assume both state and federal agencies will ignore us,” Stevenson said. “So we make public comments and created the Ocean Environment Legal Defense Fund, assuming we will win in the end suing over violations of a list of protective federal acts and regulations.”

Offshore wind companies are throwing money at the shoreline; some of the payments are required by law but others are voluntary. Orsted and PSEG say they'll pay $205,000 for the impact on just over a half-acre of public land in Ocean City that is preserved for open space and recreational use — 13 times the appraised value of the land.

On Tuesday, oil companies Equinor and bp created a $5 million community grant fund in New York.

The Offshore Wind Ecosystem Fund will provide grants for job education and training, provide historically marginalized communities access to workforce and small business opportunities, and assist minority and women-owned business enterprises in New York City to foster innovation that contributes to the growth of the offshore wind industry.

Iranians strike to mark 2019 protests in fresh rebuff to ruling clerics

Tue, November 15, 2022 

DUBAI, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Iranians went on strike in several cities on Tuesday to commemorate the 2019 protests over fuel prices, a display of dissent that was crushed by security forces in one of the bloodiest crackdowns in the history of the Islamic Republic.

The move will add to pressure on Iran's clerical rulers, who have been battling two months of nationwide protests triggered by the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police.

In 2019, Reuters reported 1,500 people were killed in that wave of unrest, including at least 17 teenagers and about 400 women as well as some members of the security forces and police.

In the latest protests, the rights activist HRANA news agency said 344 people have been killed, including 52 minors. The news agency also reported 40 members of the security forces being killed, in addition to 15,820 people being arrested.

The demonstrations have turned into a legitimacy crisis for the clerical establishment, in power for more than four decades.

Videos shared on social media showed strikes and gatherings. Footage shared by activist 1500tasvir Twitter account showed closed shops in the Tehran Bazaar, with people gathering there to shout anti-government slogans.

Hengaw also reported mass strikes in several Kurdish-populated cities of northern and northwestern Iran, adding that universities in these locations had also gone on strike.

The Azad University of Karaj near Tehran did the same, with 1500tasvir sharing a video of the university's empty corridors and closed doors. The Twitter account also showed a video of people at a metro shouting "death to the dictator", a popular slogan referring to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Reuters could not verify the authenticity of the videos.

In the central Iranian city of Isfahan, steel workers stood outside their factory and joined the strike. 1500 Tasvir said the workers were using the slogan "enough with promises, our table is empty."

Support for the protest movement is pouring in from various parts of Iranian society, with famous retired footballer Ali Daei saying on Instagram that he refused FIFA's invitation to attend the World Cup in Qatar.

"In these difficult days when most of us are unwell, I have given a negative response to FIFA's invitation and prefer to stay alongside my compatriots and share my condolences to families who have recently lost their loved ones," Daei said.

Iran, which said Amini's death was due to pre-existing conditions, has blamed its foreign enemies, including the United States, for the unrest.

On Monday, the European Union imposed additional sanctions on the Islamic Republic over the crackdown on protests and French president Emmanuel Macron characterising the unrest as a revolution. (Writing by Michael Georgy, Editing by William Maclean)

Shops in Iran, including Grand Bazaar, close over protests









Iran Protests People walk through closed shops of Tehran's Grand Bazaar, Iran, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2022. Many shops at Grand Bazaar in Iran's capital city were closed Tuesday amid strike calls following the September death of a woman who was arrested by the country's morality police.

 (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

JON GAMBRELL
Tue, November 15, 2022 

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranian shops in Tehran's historic Grand Bazaar and elsewhere across the country closed their doors Tuesday amid protests gripping the nation, as two prominent soccer stars also announced they would not be attending the upcoming World Cup over the demonstrations.

The shop closures came amid calls for a three-day national strike to mark earlier protests in 2019 against Iran's theocracy that ended in a violent crackdown by authorities. However, this round of demonstrations after the September death of a 22-year-old woman earlier detained by the country's morality police have continued despite activists recording at least 344 deaths and 15,820 arrests so far.

The protests have seen prominent former players Ali Daei and Javad Nekounam both say they've declined a FIFA invitation to attend the World Cup in Qatar, where Iran will play.

Shuttered storefronts could be seen across Tehran, Iran's capital, on Tuesday. Several shops did remain open, however, as a heavy security presence could be seen on the streets.

In the Grand Bazaar, the beating heart of Tehran for hundreds of years that long has served as a political bellwether for Persian dynasties, store fronts were closed as a lone woman and a man pushing a cart walked among its narrow alleyways. A stray cat nibbled at trash down one of its silent warrens.

Videos taken earlier Tuesday showed crowds gathered outside of the closed shops, some shouting: “This year is a year of blood; Seyyed Ali will be toppled!” The chant, heard in other protests, refuses to use the title ayatollah to refer to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. An ayatollah is a high-ranking Shiite cleric and such calls targeting Khamenei can bring a death sentence in Iran's closed-door Revolutionary Courts.

Other online videos purported to show shops closed elsewhere in the country as well, with some scattered demonstrations taking place.

Like the other protests after the Sept. 16 death of Mahsa Amini, the demonstrations appeared largely leaderless. A call on social media had gone out demanding a national strike not to buy or sell anything to mark the 2019 protests in Iran that followed a hike in government-subsidized gasoline prices that activists say saw at least 321 people killed in a subsequent crackdown.

Strikes may increasingly put pressure on the Iranian government, which so far has dismissed the demonstrators' demands as a foreign plot by its enemies as opposed to an outpouring of public frustration.

Already, U.S. officials have said they received information from Saudi Arabia saying an attack by Iran on the kingdom may happen. The U.S. Navy said Tuesday it intercepted 70 tons of a missile fuel component on a ship heading from Iran to Yemen, where the country's Houthi rebels have repeatedly targeted Saudi Arabia with ballistic missile fire.

Widening the demonstrations into strikes and boycotts could further raise pressure on Iran's government, which already has seen its economy suffer under international sanctions after the collapse of its nuclear deal with world powers. So far though, it has yet to affect production in its crucial oil and natural gas industry.

The U.N. human rights office separately called on Iran’s government to immediately release thousands of people who have been detained for participating in peaceful protests.

Iran's theocracy has been trying to solidify its support amid the demonstrations, holding rallies to mark the Nov. 4, 1979, takeover and subsequent hostage crisis at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

It's also focused on Iran's upcoming appearance at the World Cup in Qatar. A prominent billboard in Tehran's Vali Asr Square typically used by hard-liners shows Iran's team heading into a match, apparently supported by warriors of its Persian past.

But two prominent former stars have said they won't go to the matches in Qatar. Ali Daei, a top international goal scorer and Iranian team captain, said he declined to go when his country was “grief-stricken.”

“I want to be with my compatriots and express sympathy with all those who have lost loved ones,” the former center-forward said.

Javad Nekounam, another star, similarly has declined to go to the World Cup, Iran's semiofficial ISNA news agency reported.

Iran may use mass executions to quell anti-hijab protests across country, human rights group warns

Peter Aitken

Tue, November 15, 2022

An Iranian court has issued the first death sentence related to the months-long anti-hijab protests, prompting fears of mass executions to quell the unrest.

A Revolutionary Court in Tehran found an unnamed defendant guilty of "enmity against God" and sentenced the protester to death, drawing criticism and concern from human rights groups such as the Iran Human Rights NGO (IHRNGO) that this execution would be the first of many.

"Underlining the Islamic Republic's history of using the death penalty to create societal fear, Iran Human Rights warns of the possibility of hasty executions without any prewarning," the Norway-based group wrote online. "The organization calls on the international community to prevent such crimes with timely action."

The anti-hijab protester sentenced to death also faced charges of arson of a government building and "corruption on Earth," IHRNGO said, citing the judiciary’s news site Mizan. The group also claimed that at least 20 protesters face security-related charges that could carry the death penalty.

The regime famously pursued mass executions as part of a "death commission" in 1988, which punished dissidents and political prisoners.

A police motorcycle burns during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by the Islamic republic's "morality police", in Tehran, Iran September 19, 2022.

The commission allegedly led to the deaths of roughly 4,500 to 5,000 men, women and children in prisons across Iran, according to Amnesty International. A former deputy of the ayatollah later claimed as many as 30,000 may have died.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi allegedly took part in the commission, with many former victims identifying him as being "in the room" when they were questioned.

Nasser Sharif, president of the California Society for Democracy in Iran, sits in Dag Hammarskjold Park across from the U.N., surrounded by the photos of victims of the regime's "death commission."

Protests broke out across Iran two months ago following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who allegedly breached the country’s laws regarding headscarves, called a hijab. The morality police arrested her and an hour later rushed her to a hospital after claiming she had "slipped into a coma."

But Amini’s family refuted the police report and said she had suffered injuries consistent with physical beatings. She died in hospital a few days later, and her death prompted protests that have now spread to over 140 cities and towns across Iran.

At least 326 protesters have died in violent crackdowns by security forces, IHRNGO claimed.

The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) has put the total at closer to 341 deaths, with around 15,800 detained, according to the BBC.

The Islamic Republic News Agency reported that Judiciary Chief Gholam Hossein Ejei last week issued a statement that "rioters" would be dealt with "firmly and strongly based on law and fairness," claiming the protesters have "disturbed the security of people, disrupted their livelihood and insulted their sanctities."

'Disinformation at the highest level': Prime Minister Justin Trudeau slammed for tweeting, then deleting, false Iran news

Elianna Lev
Tue, November 15, 2022 

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is facing harsh criticism on social media for posting, and then deleting, a tweet about Iran, which contained false information.

The tweet originally read: “Canada denounces the Iranian regime’s barbaric decision to impose the death penalty on nearly 15,000 protestors.” It was on his official Twitter page for 12 hours before being scrubbed from his page. A similar social media post, declaring that Iran had sentenced 15,000 people to death as a ‘hard lesson” for rebels was also making the rounds on various platforms.

People on Twitter slammed the PM for playing a part when it comes to spreading false information.

The Prime Minister's spokesperson responded to a request for comment on how such a Tweet could have been vetted.

"The post was informed by initial reporting that was incomplete and lacked necessary context. Because of that, it has since been deleted," the statement read.

“It was based on reporting of serious concerns raised by international human rights advocates warning of possible future sentences, including the death penalty, imposed on thousands of Iranian protesters who have already been detained by the regime,” they added.

Since September, there have been sweeping protests across Iran, following the death of a woman in custody by the country’s mortality police for allegedly not following the strict rules for covering hair with a hijab.

Legislators in Iran are insisting the country’s judiciary “show no leniency” towards those protesting. This week, one person has officially been sentenced to death. According to CNN, more than 14,000 people have been arrested since September and at least 2000 have been charged for being involved in demonstrations.

The PM's spokesperson urged Canadians to not "lose sight of the fact that one person has already been sentenced to death", and "dozens of protesters have been killed by the regime’s security forces."

"Our government continues to unequivocally support the people of Iran and are taking unprecedented action to hold the regime and its enablers accountable."

Germany needs gas turbines fast to stabilise power grids, says GE


Tue, November 15, 2022

FRANKFURT, Nov 15 (Reuters) - 

Germany is moving too slowly to achieve the 30 gigawatts (GW) of gas turbine capacity by 2030 needed to stabilise its electricity distribution networks, plant maker General Electric (GE) said on Tuesday, drawing on commissioned research.

Gas turbines can provide quick boosts to supply but ancillary services to grids are required to iron out supply fluctuations in coming years, Martin O'Neill, vice president for strategy at GE Gas Power, told a webcast news conference.

Only 4 GW are in the current planning pipeline while the time frame needed to plan, permission and construct the infrastructure is five years, he said, referring to a report by Frontier Economics.

The figures are based on public and private research sources.

"We have significant challenges to resolve but appear to be stalled," O'Neill said. "Investors need to know how they can recover their investments in time."

Starved of Russian energy exports, Germany is plugging short-term gaps by providing more coal and nuclear power than planned under its long-term renewable energy rollout aimed at meeting climate targets and eventually securing independence from imports.

GE and Frontier said this pre-occupation, along with attempts to cap sky-high prices for consumers and siphon off excess profits in the utility sector, were distracting policymakers.

They need to provide clarity on funding for the likes of new grid batteries, pumped storage plants and other measures.

O'Neill also emphasised the longevity of gas turbines.

They are a conduit for natural gas but could in future be repurposed for low-carbon and zero-carbon fuels, he said.

Berlin has said its decarbonisation strategy remains intact despite the uncertain economic and geopolitical backdrop. (Reporting by Vera Eckert Editing by David Goodman)

Austerity 2.0 is not a necessity – it’s a choice. Why won’t the media say so?

There was a clear bias towards the City in coverage of the 2008 crash. We can’t afford for it to happen again

Jeremy Hunt on BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, 13 November 2022. Photograph: James Manning/PA

Owen Jones

THE GUARDIAN
Tue 15 Nov 2022 

There is no real public enthusiasm for Tory economics. Sure, the heart of a thinktanker dwelling in London’s Tufton Street may flutter a little faster when they hear the words “shrink the state”. But ask the average Brit in Wolverhampton, the Rhondda valley or Dunfermline whether they support reducing the tax bill of the rich, or slashing public services, or flogging off utilities to provide a steady stream of dividends to shareholders, and they’re unlikely to start gleefully punching the air.

Instead, an economic agenda that has produced weak growth and stagnant living standards for a generation, while shovelling apparently endless amounts of wealth into a few bank accounts, has depended on something else: public acquiescence or resignation. “I believe people accept there’s no alternative,” said Margaret Thatcher of her profoundly unpopular economic policies in 1980. If citizens believe that a harmful economic programme is bitter tasting but necessary medicine, they will reluctantly accept it.


As Rishi Sunak prepares for yet another round of ideologically charged spending cuts, he will be counting on public consent to once more be manufactured. And much of Britain’s media stands ready to offer assistance. On the day Sunak became prime minister, a BBC correspondent declared: “The economic backdrop has changed: Mr Sunak is going to have to agree to spending cuts, and to tax rises.” No honest person could possibly conclude this was anything other than a violation of the corporation’s neutrality.

The correspondent was framing austerity measures as the unavoidable consequence of Britain’s economic situation, rather than a political choice. With some encouragement from yours truly, more than 2,000 people complained to Auntie Beeb. The BBC’s astonishing response was instructive: “At no point did our reporters imply what the government should or shouldn’t be doing.” You can judge for yourself.

This is a perennial failing by our media when it comes to framing economic policy. Research by Cardiff University found that during coverage of the 2008 financial crisis, 35% of interviews on the BBC’s flagship Today programme were with voices from the City – more than any other category. During the subsequent bank bailouts, “opinion was almost completely dominated by stockbrokers, investment bankers, hedge fund managers and other City voices”, while dissenting voices critiquing the size of the finance sector were very rarely featured.

Rather than being interrogated as instigators of the crisis, financial types were presented as impartial witnesses. The Tories were then able to transform a crisis of market economics into a crisis of public spending, even though George Osborne had backed every penny of Labour’s investment.

Research focusing on BBC News at Ten coverage in 2009 found that it “reproduced a very limited range of opinions on the implications and potential strategies for deficit reduction. The view that Britain was in danger of being abandoned by its international creditors with serious economic consequences was unchallenged and repeatedly endorsed by journalists.”

This framing clearly advanced the partisan interests of the Tories, placing Labour on the defensive back foot on its own record and presenting government cuts as the necessary antidote to a deficit crisis. That the cost of borrowing was low, allowing for extensive public spending, was simply airbrushed out of existence: instead, the supposedly apocalyptic scenario of Britain’s credit rating being slashed was constantly dangled. Yet when that actually happened and didn’t cause any spike in the cost of public borrowing – it continued to fall – the narrative didn’t change.

It seems clear that many of those responsible for setting the tone of the BBC’s coverage are wedded to establishment economics. The former business editor, Kamal Ahmed, was recruited from the Sunday Telegraph, where he denounced the “mostly negative coverage of the business world” and regretted how the crash had left the west besmirching the “hunt for profit”.

That’s not to say all the BBC coverage defers to Tory economic ideology: Newsnight’s Ben Chu did a good explainer showing that the supposed £50bn “fiscal black hole” wasn’t an objective measure, but dependent on the fiscal rules and debt targets that are set. But while we expect the rightwing-dominated newspaper industry to parrot the underlying rationales of Tory government, for the BBC to do so helps to manufacture a consensus.

During the financial crisis, the Tories – as the party that most fetishises market economics – understood they were potentially exposed. Aided and abetted by the media, they ingeniously deflected responsibility on to Labour. This time, their own culpability is even more obvious – in the toxic combination of Brexit and the turmoil unleashed by Liz Truss’s mini-budget – but the Tories will once again present themselves as taking necessary tough decisions, and challenging Labour to do the same. It is not the BBC’s job to aid them in this partisan endeavour. This time, the media must ensure that the Tories’ slash-and-burn cuts are presented as what they are: political choices.

Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist

8 billion people: Four ways climate change and population growth combine to threaten public health, with global consequences

Maureen Lichtveld, Dean of the School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh -
The Conversation
NOV. 15,2022

Infectious diseases like COVID-19 top the list of health concerns.

© Marco Longari/AFP via Getty Images

There are questions that worry me profoundly as a population- and environmental-health scientist.

Will we have enough food for a growing global population? How will we take care of more people in the next pandemic? What will heat do to millions with hypertension? Will countries wage water wars because of increasing droughts?

These risks all have three things in common: health, climate change and a growing population that the United Nations forecast would pass 8 billion people on Nov. 15, 2022 – double the population of just 48 years ago.

In my 40-year career, first working in the Amazon rainforest and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and then in academia, I have encountered many public health threats, but none so intransigent and pervasive as climate change.

Of the multitude of climate-related adverse health effects, the following four represent the greatest public health concerns for a growing population.

Infectious diseases

Researchers have found that over half of all human infectious diseases can be worsened by climate change.

Flooding, for example, can affect water quality and the habitats where dangerous bacteria and vectors like mosquitoes can breed and transmit infectious diseases to people.

Dengue, a painful mosquito-borne viral disease that sickens about 100 million people a year, becomes more common in warm, wet environments. Its R0, or basic reproduction number – a gauge of how quickly it spreads – increased by about 12% from the 1950s to the average in 2012-2021, according to the 2022 Lancet Countdown report. Malaria’s season expanded by 31% in highland areas of Latin America and nearly 14% in Africa’s highlands as temperatures rose over the same period.



Patients rest in a makeshift dengue ward at a hospital during a severe outbreak in Pakistan in 2021.© Arif Ali/AFP via Getty Images

Flooding can also spread waterborne organisms that cause hepatitis and diarrheal diseases, such as cholera, particularly when large numbers of people are displaced by disasters and living in areas with poor water quality for drinking or washing.

Droughts, too, can degrade drinking water quality. As a result, more rodent populations enter into human communities in search of food, increasing the potential to spread hantavirus.

Extreme heat

Another serious health risk is rising temperatures.

Excessive heat can exacerbate existing health problems, such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. And when heat stress becomes heat stroke, it can damage the heart, brain and kidneys and become lethal.

Today, about 30% of the global population is exposed to potentially deadly heat stress each year. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that percentage will rise to at least 48% and as high as 76% by the end of this century.



Where climate change affects human health.© Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Related video: World population growth will reduce due to climate change by 2060, top health expert says   Duration 3:09  View on Watch

In addition to lives lost, heat exposure was projected to have resulted in 470 billion potential work hours lost globally in 2021, with associated income losses totaling up to US9 billion. As populations grow and heat rises, more people will be relying on air conditioning powered by fossil fuels, which further contributes to climate change.

Food and water security

Heat also affects food and water security for a growing population.

The Lancet review found that high temperatures in 2021 shortened the growing season by about 9.3 days on average for corn, or maize, and six days for wheat compared with the 1981-2020 average. Warming oceans, meanwhile, can kill shellfish and shift fisheries that coastal communities rely on. Heat waves in 2020 alone resulted in 98 million more people facing food insecurity compared with the 1981-2010 average.



A farmer in Zimbabwe switched to sorghum, a grain crop that can thrive in dry conditions, as drought withered other crops in 2019.© Jekesai Njikizana/AFP via Getty Images

Rising temperatures also affect fresh water supplies through evaporation and by shrinking mountain glaciers and snowpack that historically have kept water flowing through the summer months.

Water scarcity and drought have the potential to displace almost 700 million people by 2030, according to U.N. estimates. Combined with population growth and growing energy needs, they can also fuel geopolitical conflicts as countries face food shortages and compete for water.

Poor air quality

Air pollution can be exacerbated by the drivers of climate change. Hot weather and the same fossil fuel gases warming the planet contribute to ground-level ozone, a key component of smog. That can exacerbate allergies, asthma and other respiratory problems, as well as cardiovascular disease.

Wildfires fueled by hot, dry landscapes add to the air pollution health risk. Wildfire smoke is laden with tiny particles that can travel deep into the lungs, causing heart and respiratory problems.


Smog in New Delhi, India, is an ongoing problem. It got so bad in 2017 that the city temporarily closed its primary schools.

© Sajjad Hussain/AFP via Getty Images

What can we do about it?

Many groups and medical experts are working to counter this cascade of negative climate consequences on human health.

The U.S. National Academy of Medicine has embarked on an ambitious grand challenge in climate change, human health, and equity to ramp up research. At many academic institutions, including the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Public Health, where I am dean, climate and health are being embedded in research, teaching and service.

Addressing the health burden on low- and middle-income countries is pivotal. Often, the most vulnerable people in these countries face the greatest harms from climate change without having the resources to protect their health and environment. Population growth can deepen these iniquities.

Adaptation assessments can help high-risk countries prepare for the effects of climate change. Development groups are also leading projects to expand the cultivation of crops that can thrive in dry conditions. The Pan American Health Organization, which focuses on the Caribbean, is an example of how countries are working to reduce communicable diseases and advance regional capacity to counter the impact of climate change.

Ultimately, reducing the health risks will require reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving climate change.

Countries worldwide committed in 1992 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Thirty years later, global emissions are only beginning to flatten, and communities around the world are increasingly suffering extreme heat waves and devastating floods and droughts.

The U.N. climate change talks, which in my view aren’t focusing enough on health, can help bring attention to key climate impacts that harm health. As U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres noted: While we celebrate our advances, “at the same time, it is a reminder of our shared responsibility to care for our planet and a moment to reflect on where we still fall short of our commitments to one another.”

Samantha Totoni, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, contributed to this article.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

Read more:
Loss and damage: Who is responsible when climate change harms the world’s poorest countries?

58% of human infectious diseases can be worsened by climate change – we scoured 77,000 studies to map the pathways

The ‘tripledemic’ of RSV, COVID and flu is causing school closures across the U.S.: ‘It's going to be a tough winter’


Korin Miller
Mon, November 14, 2022 

 (Photo: Getty Images)

Public health experts continue to warn about a trifecta of illnesses that are swirling in many parts of the country. Respiratory syncitial viruses (RSV) and flu cases are surging, causing a strain on children's hospital capacities around the U.S., while COVID-19 simmers in the background.

This so-called "tripledemic" is impacting schools as well. Reports are trickling in from around the country of schools needing to close, owing to outbreaks of illness. In Kentucky, the Williamstown Independent School District held a "Non-Traditional Instruction Day" on Nov. 4, "due to student and staff illness," district officials announced on Facebook.

The McNairy County school district in Tennessee was closed on the same day, "due to an increase in illness of student, faculty and staff," according to a Facebook post from the district. One person noted in the comments that "over half of the junior high cheer team is sick." Fellow Tennessee school district Polk County Schools closed on Monday "due to illness," officials simply announced in a Facebook statement.

These closures have been happening for weeks. North Carolina's Shining Rock Academy closed on Oct. 28 "due to an overwhelming amount of flu cases impacting student and staff attendance," officials said on Facebook. "By 1pm today, nearly 24% of the school was absent, primarily due to diagnosed cases of the flu, or flu-like symptoms," the post read, noting that "the day will be utilized to conduct a deep cleaning" of the campus.

Infectious disease experts say to expect more of the same as we head into winter. "We're in for a little bit of a rough winter in terms of respiratory viruses," Dr. Thomas Russo, professor and chief of infectious disease at the University at Buffalo in New York, tells Yahoo Life. "RSV has struck with a vengeance — ERs and hospitals are already at capacity in much of the country, and this will continue for a bit."

Flu season also picked up early, Russo says. "We're already seeing hospitalizations for flu on top of RSV, and, of course, we have COVID on top of this," he says.

Dr. Ian Michelow, division head of pediatric infectious diseases and immunology at Connecticut Children's Medical Center, agrees. "RSV is the worst we've seen in a long time. We're already strained under the burden of RSV," he tells Yahoo Life. "We're now seeing a large number of children with influenza. Literally overnight, it was an explosion of influenza."

RSV in particular is bad this year because most children typically get the virus before the age of 2, Russo explains. But, with COVID-19 prevention measures over the past few years, many children weren't exposed to the virus. Now, "there are now a greater number of children susceptible to RSV, and they're interacting with each other at school — and off we go," he says.

Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, tells Yahoo Life that RSV season also "began earlier than its traditional start," noting that it's not clear when it will peak.

Experts say there are a lot of unknowns going into winter. "The question is, will these viruses come and then go, or are they going to persist together over much of the winter season?" Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist and professor at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, tells Yahoo Life. "That's something we just don't know yet."

Michelow says he's also concerned that a new COVID variant will rise up that will cause more severe illness. "That would be another problem — but so far, that hasn't happened," he says. However, that can quickly change, as new variants, such as BQ.1 and BQ.1.1, grow rapidly.

To protect yourself and your family, doctors stress the importance of getting vaccinated against the flu and making sure you're up to date on your COVID-19 vaccinations. (There isn't a vaccine for RSV, although several are currently in the works.) Schaffner also stresses the importance of good hand hygiene, which can help prevent the spread of RSV in particular. Wearing masks in crowded indoor spaces, when cases of respiratory viruses are high in your area, also "makes sense," Michelow says.

In general, "All the COVID-19 prevention measures will get it done to prevent these respiratory viruses," Russo says. And, he says, if someone in your household is sick, try to isolate them as best as possible to keep the rest of your household healthy.

Experts agree this winter could get intense. "It's going to be a tough winter," Russo says. Schaffner adds: "We hope this respiratory season will be brief — but we can't count on it."

Pediatric health groups call for national emergency to fight respiratory illnesses

Nathaniel Weixel
Tue, November 15, 2022 

Pediatric health provider groups are calling on the Biden administration to declare a national emergency to help them combat the surge of hospitalizations due to respiratory illnesses in children.

Seasonal flu, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and other respiratory viruses are hitting young children especially hard this year. The resulting hospitalizations are putting an immense strain on a pediatric health system that is still reeling from COVID-19.

Hospitals are at capacity, beds are scarce and staffing shortages are pushing the workforce to the breaking point.

In a letter sent to President Biden and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, the Children’s Hospital Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics said a dual declaration of a national emergency along with a public health emergency is needed.

“We need emergency funding support and flexibilities along the same lines of what was provided to respond to COVID surges,” the organizations wrote.

Capacity constraints at children’s hospitals and pediatric offices are resulting in more children being cared for in community and adult hospitals, which may have limited or no capacity to care for children.

“The confluence of these capacity issues in pediatric hospitals and communities requires nimbleness and flexibilities that can only be provided through a Presidential declaration of an emergency under the Stafford Act or National Emergencies Act and a Public Health Emergency declaration,” the letter stated.

According to the groups, the dual emergency declarations would allow the waiver of certain Medicare, Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program requirements so that hospitals, physicians and other health care providers can have access to emergency funding to keep up with the growing demands, specifically related to workforce support.

Most RSV cases and other respiratory illnesses don’t require hospitalizations. But when so many children are stricken with viruses at the same time, the surge can quickly overwhelm hospitals.

YOU WOULD HOPE SO

Experts: Dallas air show crash may lead to more safety rules

Texas air show victims named; New footage released

JUAN A. LOZANO, JIM SALTER and SEAN MURPHY
Mon, November 14, 2022 

While the cause of a deadly collision between two vintage military aircraft at a Dallas air show to commemorate Veterans Day remains unknown, experts said Monday that the accident will likely renew discussion over whether additional safety rules are needed for such events.

Safety recommendations made following aircraft accidents at similar events have focused on protecting spectators, pilot medical fitness and aircraft maintenance.

“The (Federal Aviation Administration) has tightened airshow requirements. This will certainly raise the debate again,” said Steven Wallace, former director of the FAA's office of accident investigations.

On Monday, officials identified the six men killed Saturday when a World War II-era bomber and a fighter plane collided and crashed in a ball of flames at the Commemorative Air Force Wings Over Dallas show. All six were experienced aviators with years of flight training, including as current and retired airline pilots and retired military pilots.

The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation into why the aircraft were flying at the same altitude and in the same air space, NTSB member Michael Graham said.

The Commemorative Air Force, which put on the show, identified the victims as: Terry Barker, Craig Hutain, Kevin “K5” Michels, Dan Ragan, Leonard “Len” Root, and Curt Rowe.

All of the men were volunteers, but each had gone through a strict process of logging hours and training flights and were vetted carefully, Hank Coates, the CEO of Commemorative Air Force said at a weekend news conference.

Officials have not publicly identified which of them were piloting the aircrafts.

Hutain, of Montgomery, Texas, had been a commercial airline pilot since 1985. He started flying at the age of 10 and had logged more than 34,500 flight hours, according to his LinkedIn page.

In a recent interview with Vintage Aviation News posted on YouTube, Hutain described aviation as a “lifelong obsession" passed down from his father, a bomber pilot in World War II.

Barker was a retired pilot who had worked for American Airlines and lived in Keller, Texas. He was an Army veteran who flew helicopters during his military service.

Rowe, a member of the Ohio Wing Civil Air Patrol, was a crew chief on the B-17, his brother-in-law Andy Keller told The Associated Press on Sunday. Rowe, of Hilliard, Ohio, participated in air shows several times a year because he loved WWII aircraft, Keller said.

Root, also from Keller, was a pilot and manager for the Gulf Coast Wing of the Commemorative Air Force who worked as a contract commercial pilot, according to his LinkedIn page.

There were no reports of injuries on the ground and that can probably be attributed to a “very careful evaluation over the decades” by the NTSB and FAA to protect spectators, said former NTSB investigator and safety author Alan Diehl.

Jeff Guzzetti, a pilot who spent more than 30 years investigating aircraft accidents for the NTSB and FAA, said while much of the regulatory focus over the decades has been on protecting spectators, other recommendations have led to incremental, cumulative safety improvements in emergency response, pilot medical fitness and aircraft maintenance at air shows.

John Cudahy, president of the International Council of Air Shows, a trade group that sets air show standards, said his group and others don’t typically get many recommendations from the FAA or the NTSB following such accidents because they don’t tend to result from systemic or procedural problems, or gross negligence.

“When they do make a recommendation, we listen very attentively. We are very collaborative,” Cudahy said.

Guzzetti said he doesn’t believe there has been “any systemic degradation of safety with these air shows.”

While the ages of those who died Saturday was not immediately known, James E. Hall, who was NTSB chairman from 1994 to 2001, said the age of the pilots is an issue that must be reviewed.

The planes need more scrutiny, too, “because like the crews in these situations, the aircraft are much older.”

Graham said investigators are analyzing radar and video footage to pinpoint the exact location of the collision. Debris will be carefully examined, along with audio recordings from the air traffic control tower, pilot training records and aircraft maintenance records, he said.

Neither aircraft was equipped with a flight-data recorder or a cockpit voice recorder, separate devices referred to collectively as the black boxes, and neither were required to have those devices, Graham said.

Although rain was hampering the collection of pieces of the B-17 bomber, Graham said Monday an electronic flight display from the B-17 and a GPS navigational unit from the fighter, both damaged, will be sent to an NTSB laboratory to see if data can be recovered.

He said it’s also possible the NTSB could recommend vintage aircraft install flight data recorders.

The crash came three years after the crash of a bomber in Connecticut that killed seven, and amid ongoing concern about the safety of air shows involving older warplanes. The company that owned the planes at the Dallas show has had other crashes in its more than 60-year history.

A preliminary report from the NTSB is expected in four to six weeks, and a final report will take up to 18 months to complete.

The B-17, a cornerstone of U.S. air power during World War II, is an immense four-engine bomber that was used in daylight raids against Germany. The Kingcobra, a U.S. fighter plane, was used mostly by Soviet forces during the war. Most B-17s were scrapped at the end of World War II and only a handful remain today, largely featured at museums and air shows, according to Boeing.

Some recent fatal crashes involving vintage aircraft


Debris from two planes that crashed during an airshow at Dallas Executive Airport are shown in Dallas on Saturday, Nov. 12, 2022

(AP Photo/LM Otero) 

The Associated Press
Mon, November 14, 2022

The collision between two World War II-era military planes at a Dallas air show on Saturday was the latest in a long list of crashes involving vintage planes used or designed for military purposes. Some recent fatal crashes in the U.S. and abroad:

— Nov. 12, 2022: A P-63 Kingcobra fighter plane collided with a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber at a Dallas air show, killing all six people aboard the two vintage aircraft.

— Oct. 2, 2019: A four-engine, propeller-driven B-17G Flying Fortress bomber with 13 people aboard crashed at Bradley International Airport, north of Hartford, Connecticut, during a traveling vintage aircraft show. Seven people were killed and six were hurt. The National Transportation Safety Board found that pilot error was the probable cause, with inadequate maintenance a contributing factor.

— Nov. 17, 2018: A privately owned vintage World War II Mustang fighter airport plane crashed into the parking lot of an apartment complex in Fredericksburg, Texas, killing the pilot and a passenger. The P-51D Mustang was returning after performing a flyover during a living history show at the national Museum of the Pacific War. The aircraft was destroyed, and several vehicles in the parking lot were damaged.

— Aug. 4, 2018: A 79-year-old Junkers Ju-52 plane operated by the Swiss company Ju-Air plunged into the Piz Segnas mountain near the Flims ski resort in eastern Switzerland, killing all 20 on board. Retired from Switzerland’s air force in 1981, the German-built plane was carrying tourists who wanted to take “adventure flights” to experience the country’s landscape in vintage planes. Swiss investigators said that “high-risk flying” by the pilots led to the crash.

— May 30, 2018: A small vintage airplane that was part of a GEICO stunt team with five other planes crashed in a wooded residential area in Melville, New York, killing the pilot. The World War II-era SNJ-2 aircraft, known as a North American T-6 Texan, had departed from a nearby airport and was heading to Maryland when it crashed.

— July 16, 2017: A pilot and an airport manager were killed in Cummings, Kansas, after their World War II-era P-51D Mustang “Baby Duck” crashed into a field. Authorities say the pilot was re-creating a stunt he had performed on the prior day at the Amelia Earhart Festival.

— Jan. 26, 2017: A World War II-era Grumman G-73 Mallard flying boat stalled and nosedived into the Swan River in Perth, Australia, during Australia Day celebrations. Both the pilot and his passenger died.

— Aug. 27, 2016 — A pilot from Alaska was killed when his 450 Stearman biplane, a World War II-era plane often used for military training, crashed during the Airshow of the Cascades in Madras, Oregon.

— July 17, 2016 — A T-28 Trojan, used by the U.S. military as a training aircraft beginning in the 1950s and also as a counterinsurgency aircraft during the Vietnam War, crashed at the Cold Lake Air Show in Alberta, killing the pilot. Thousands of spectators witnessed the accident.

— Aug. 22, 2015 — A 1950s-era Hawker Hunter T7 jet crashed into a busy highway near West Sussex, England, killing 11 and injuring more than a dozen others. Investigators said the pilot, who survived, was flying too low and slowly to successfully complete a loop-the-loop. He was charged with 11 counts of manslaughter but ultimately was cleared.

— June 22, 2013 — A pilot and a wing-walker were killed when their World War II-era Boeing-Stearman IB75A biplane crashed into the ground and burst into flames during a performance at the Vectren Dayton Air Show in Vandalia, Ohio. Thousands of spectators saw the crash, which federal safety investigators said was likely caused by pilot error.

— Sept. 16, 2011 — The pilot of a 70-year-old modified P-51D Mustang called the Galloping Ghost lost control of the aircraft at the National Championship Air Races and Air Show in Reno, Nevada, and crashed into spectators, killing 10 and injuring more than 60. The pilot also died. Federal investigators blamed the crash on worn parts and speed.

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Doctors explain why pending 'ominous' cuts to Medicare would limit healthcare for seniors in the new year

Jason Lalljee
Tue, November 15, 2022 

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren was one of 46 signatories on a bipartisan letter calling for leadership to price hikes for Medicare recipients next year.

Win McNamee/Getty Images

Reimbursements for doctors who see Medicare patients are set to be cut by up to 8.5% starting next year.

Doctors warn cuts will prevent seniors from getting vital health services.

A bipartisan group of congresspeople wrote a letter to congressional leadership asking them to intervene.

New changes are set to come to Medicare next year. They will likely make expenses tighter for doctors, and put vital healthcare out of reach for some older patients.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a federal agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, announced several policy changes in early November that will come into effect at the beginning of next year.

Among them are Medicare cuts to doctors through the Physician Fee Schedule, which is used to determine which services doctors are reimbursed for, and how much they get. Medicare reimbursement will decrease by about 4.5%, and surgical care will face a nearly 8.5% cut.

"It's affecting how doctors can run their businesses," Christian Shalgain, Director of Advocacy and Health Policy at the American College of Surgeons, told Insider. "I've talked to doctors who are saying, 'I have to decide whether to hire a new person or buy a new piece of equipment.' That's a significant problem from a patient's perspective."

If healthcare providers get less money through Medicare, they won't be able to hire as many nurses, doctors, and other staff, as well as fund necessary equipment for services. It affects the quality of care patients are able to get, and can even impact how many Medicare patients a healthcare provider can take on, Shalgain said.

In years past, Congress has been able to postpone these preplanned cuts until the next year, varyingly achieving full scraps of the plan, or reduced cuts. Doctors' groups lobby annually for Congress to intervene, because they say that it stretches their budgets thin, which is especially a problem given that hospitals are already strained from COVID and healthcare costs are skyrocketing.

Democrats will likely lose control of the House during this year's midterms even as the remaining races remain too close to call. However, they did retain control of the Senate, in a surprising rebuke of the GOP platform. Republicans have signaled an inclination to push for Medicare cuts in general, and having less power than expected for the rest of President Biden's term suggests that preventing the announced cuts this year is more likely.

"The Medicare payment schedule released today puts Congress on notice that a nearly 4.5 percent across-the-board reduction in payment rates is an ominous reality unless lawmakers act before Jan. 1," Jack Resneck Jr., President of the American Medical Association, said in a statement. "The rate cuts would create immediate financial instability in the Medicare physician payment system and threaten patient access to Medicare-participating physicians."

As the amount that Medicare will pay for a certain service decreases, payments to providers across the board go down. That's because private insurance companies use Medicare as a frame of reference, Shalgain said, offering to pay "100%, or 110% of Medicare" for a given service. If the payment for Medicare goes down, then, so does cash from private providers.

"And as that Medicare number goes down, you can't see as many Medicare patients," he said.

A bipartisan effort to pay doctors more

Although Republicans are staunchly opposed to increasing Medicare funding in general, as evidenced by the Republican Study Committee's 2023 fiscal budget, paying doctors more tends to be where Congress can see some bipartisan compromise.

That's what Cote is hoping to see come out of a letter released by 46 senators, including Democrats like Elizabeth Warren and Republicans like Rand Paul, asking congressional leadership to address the impending fee schedule cuts before the end of the year.

"It is essential in the coming weeks that we make sure providers have the resources they need to keep their doors open for seniors and families," the senators wrote in the letter, sent the day after the cuts were announced. "Going forward, we support bipartisan, long-term payment reforms to Medicare in a fiscally responsible manner."

Republicans and Democrats are often at odds when it comes to entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security, with the GOP looking to slash government spending on for both. A bipartisan effort to prevent cuts is at odds with Republicans' current long-term plan for the program, Mary Johnson, a Social Security and Medicare policy analyst at the Senior Citizens' League, told Insider. The Republican budget will dramatically cut spending on Medicare for new beneficiaries by more than $2,200 per person per year starting in 2030, for instance, and by $8,000 in 2050, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

"We don't know what they're going to do this year," Shalgain said. "If the cut goes into effect, we're going to be on the steps of Congress on January 2nd, asking them to reverse it retroactively."

MacKenzie Scott donations avoided feared pitfalls: New study


El Pasoans Fighting Hunger volunteers distribute food at a center in El Paso, Texas. The nonprofit received $9 million from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott in December 2020, shoring up the food bank’s financial health after soaring food-assistance needs forced the charity to expand faster than it could handle. 

(Lonnie Valencia/El Pasoans Fighting Hunger via AP) 

MARIA DI MENTO of The Chronicle of Philanthropy
Tue, November 15, 2022 

MacKenzie Scott’s big gifts have been a boon to the charities who received them, and widespread fears in the nonprofit world that her gifts would lead other donors to pull back their support or that small groups wouldn’t be able to handle them were largely unfounded.

That’s according to a study by the Center for Effective Philanthropy, which surveyed more than 700 nonprofits that Scott identified as grant recipients in 2020 and 2021. The center received responses from 277 nonprofits.

Among the findings:

• Nearly 90% of respondents said the gift from Scott was the largest unrestricted donation their organization had ever received.


• Almost all of the nonprofits — 98% — said they were directing the funds toward improving their existing programs and starting new ones.

• Almost three-quarters — 73% — said they were hiring more staff or consultants to take on that new work.

• More than 90% said they were using the donation to improve their charity’s financial stability.

Susan Goodell, chief executive of El Pasoans Fighting Hunger, a food bank that received $9 million from Scott in December 2020, said the money came at a pivotal time. It shored up her group’s financial health after soaring food-assistance needs forced the charity to expand faster than it could handle. The organization had taken out a loan to buy a building it could turn into a food-storage warehouse.

“Looking toward 2021, we were terribly afraid we were going to have to scale back when need was still incredibly high,” Goodell says.

Instead of scaling back in 2021 as Goodell feared, Scott’s $9 million infusion in late 2020 meant Goodell was able to pay off roughly $2.6 million in debt the food bank had taken on and buy more food to meet the growing needs in El Paso.

“It was really a shot in the arm at a time when this organization was in incredible need,” Goodell says. “Frankly, I don’t know what we would have done without this gift.”

Most of the respondents said foundations and individual donors didn’t change their support because of the Scott donation, something many nonprofits and philanthropy experts had worried about. Slightly more than half of the respondents in the study — 52% — said receiving a donation from Scott made their fundraising efforts easier, and 35% said it had no effect at all on their fundraising.

The possibility that other donors might rethink their support was on the mind of Akil Vohra, executive director of Asian American Youth LEAD, which received $2 million from Scott in 2021. So far, however, his organization hasn’t experienced a decrease in support from other donors or foundations.

“It’s still a concern for me about what that (gift) means for new funders moving forward,” he says. “But I think that’s kind of my responsibility to continue to talk about the work we’re doing and what impact it’s having and the need in the AAPI community.”

Vohra’s group provides after-school academic programs, leadership development, mentoring, and summer programs to underserved Asian-American and Pacific Islander youths in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia.

“Her investment put a spotlight on a community that is often seen as this model minority but that in truth has great needs,” says Vohra, who points out that the majority of the youths his group serves are on free or reduced-cost school meals, and many are recent immigrants.

Like nearly 60% of survey respondents, Vohra says Scott’s gift gave the charity a boost to improve its infrastructure. In his group’s case, that has meant purchasing new and better laptops, phones, and development technology. He was also able to give employees significant raises, something 62% of respondents said Scott’s support made possible.

Scott’s gift also enabled Asian American Youth LEAD to expand its programs. As a result, the charity now serves 30% more youths.

About 75% of respondents said receiving a donation from Scott changed their approach to fundraising because it bolstered their confidence when asking foundations or individuals for support. Some said Scott’s gift made them feel confident enough to ask foundations for larger grants than they had in the past, or it gave them greater courage to ask for larger annual gifts from donors.

Scott started giving big in the summer of 2020 when she announced her first round of unrestricted, mostly one-time donations to hundreds of charities. For many organizations, the seven- and eight-figure gifts were the largest they had ever received, and her subsequent giving has continued to follow that model.

Scott has supported a number of large, well-known charities like Easterseals, Goodwill, and Boys and Girls Clubs of America. But she has also given significant sums to historically Black colleges and universities; nonprofits led by people of color, women, and those who identify as LGBTQ; and other overlooked charities that help underserved populations.

To date, she has given more than $13 billion to charity. Nearly $8.6 billion of that went out in her first three rounds of giving, on which the study, Giving Big: The Impact of Large, Unrestricted Gifts on Nonprofits, is focused.

Advancing racial, gender, and other types of equity is an important part of the missions of many organizations that received Scott gifts.

• Nearly 70% of survey respondents said Scott’s gift allowed their organization to advance racial equity more effectively, and nearly two-thirds said they were better able to further economic mobility.

• 65% of the survey’s respondents identify as women and 40% as people of color. Among the latter, many said that receiving a donation from Scott was especially galvanizing.

Kathleen Enright, CEO of the Council on Foundations and former head of Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, says Scott’s funding choices are especially important because they go against a historical trend.

“She is prioritizing nonprofits led by women and people of color for enormous unrestricted grants, whereas historically, nonprofits led particularly by people of color and sometimes also women are required to go over a higher bar of proof and oftentimes receive smaller grants,” Enright says. “So that is a positive move.”

Nonprofits in the study received donations from Scott of $1 million to $250 million. The study puts the significant size of those gifts into context. The median grant from Scott was $8 million, a monumental sum when compared with $100,000, the median grant most staffed foundations give to nonprofits, according to the study.

“This is an order of magnitude different. Even big foundations that make big grants, at the median give around $500,000, maybe $1 million at the outside,” says Phil Buchanan, president of the Center for Effective Philanthropy. “These are $8 million gifts, so I don’t think the scale of these gifts relative both to the size of the organizations and to what is typical of other major donors can be overstated.”

_____

This article was provided to The Associated Press by the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Maria Di Mento is a senior reporter at the Chronicle. Email: maria.dimento@philanthropy.com. The AP and the Chronicle receive support from the Lilly Endowment for coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits. The AP and the Chronicle are solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

MacKenzie Scott says she has given $2 billion to 343 organizations supporting underserved communities in the last 7 months, raising her total to at least $14.5 billion since she pledged to give away most of her fortune

Isabella Zavarise, INSIDER
Mon, November 14, 2022 

Marianne Ayala/Insider

Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott gave nearly $2 billion to 343 organizations since 2019.

In the last 7 months, Scott gave money to organizations supporting people from underserved communities.

With this addition, she has now given away $14.5 billion of her fortune since signing the Giving Pledge.

Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has made another round of donations as part of her pledge to give away her billions.

In a blog post on Monday, Scott said in the last seven months, she gave nearly $2 billion to 343 organizations supporting people from underserved communities.

The donation has brought Scott's total to at least $14.5 billion since she pledged to give away most of her fortune in 2019 after signing the Giving Pledge — a commitment to give away most of a person's wealth to philanthropy in their lifetime. Since signing the pledge, Scott has become one of the leading philanthropists in the US.

Scott's most recent donation focused on funds, which she described as a "great resource" to support. "They pool donations and spread them across a diverse group of smaller organizations working toward a common cause," she wrote in the Medium post. "The funds we picked look for teams with lived experience in the issues they're addressing."

Some of the organizations included in this round of contributions are GLAAD and the Native American Community Centre. In October, Scott donated $84.5 million to the Girl Scouts.

In an interview with CNN, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos revealed he plans to give away the majority of his $124 billion net worth during his lifetime to causes like fighting climate change.

Scott is worth $23.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Her divorce from Bezos in 2019 made her a billionaire mainly because of her 3% stake in Amazon, per reports.