Total escapes court docket censure more than East African oil pipeline


The court docket mentioned campaigners arguments versus the East African crude oil pipeline had improved as well significantly – they are thinking of an charm

French oil and gas enterprise Full has escaped censure of its East African oil pipeline in a French court over a collection of technicalities.

A team of French and Ugandan campaigners argued in court that Full did not do sufficient to cease environmental and human rights challenges in its East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (Eacop) and the related Tilenga oilfield.

They questioned the court docket to buy the company’s vigilance program, meant to deal with issues like environmental hazards and neighborhood displacement, to be rewritten.

But judges resolved they did not have the energy to conduct the in-depth evaluation neccessary and reported the campaigners’ authorized situation experienced changed way too substantially considering the fact that they first submitted.

South Africa experimented with to weaken corruption safeguards in coal phase out offer, claims CEO

A Complete spokesperson defended its approach and highlighted the judgment’s ruling that it was “sufficiently in depth to not be thought of as summary”.

But campaigners pointed out that judges did not rule on the information at the heart of the scenario. They denied their circumstance had substantially transformed and reported they have been contemplating an attraction.

Dickens Kamugisha, director of the Africa Institute for Strength Governance (Afiego), explained the determination as a “huge disappointment for the associations and communities afflicted in Uganda and Tanzania who had positioned their hopes in French justice”. 

The judgment, printed previously these days, was the initial check of France’s novel corporate responsibility of vigilance law.

This requires all substantial corporations headquartered in France and intercontinental organizations with a sizeable existence there to established out obvious actions to stop human rights violations and environmental problems – even amongst their subsidiaries. 

Big pipeline

In 2021, Total signed an settlement with Uganda and Tanzania to get started creating the $3.5 billion, 1,443-kilometre pipeline alongside the condition-owned China Nationwide Offshore Oil Company and Uganda Nationwide Oil Corporation. It will transportation crude oil from the Tilenga oilfields remaining developed in north-western Uganda to a Tanzanian port on the Indian Ocean. 

The task has proved vastly controversial for its contribution to climate improve and the impacts on persons residing alongside its route.  

Analysis by the US-dependent Local climate Accountability Institute concluded it would emit 379 million tonnes of carbon around its 25-yr lifespan – much a lot more than laid out in the project’s environmental impact statements, which only account for the pipeline’s immediate design and operation. 

In a resolution final year, the European Parliament expressed “grave concern” about alleged human rights violations in Uganda and Tanzania, connected to the task. And Ugandan protestors anxious about its effects on the local surroundings, displacement of communities and the absence of positive aspects accruing to Uganda have accused law enforcement of brutality in the direction of them. 

US backs Ajay Banga to direct Entire world Financial institution in local weather battle

Campaigners have place large force on financial establishments and insurers not to support Eacop for environmental and human legal rights reasons, and a lot of have publicly distanced on their own from the project.  

But with both the Ugandan and Tanzanian governments have supplied official building approval in the previous few months, function on the pipeline is now anticipated to progress. 

Uganda’s president Yoweri Museveni has accused Western critics of the undertaking of hypocrisy since only a handful of nations have committed to ending their personal fossil gasoline production.

Other Eacop lawsuits are nevertheless pending. One was submitted by Afiego in Uganda from the country’s environmental and petroleum authorities for approving Tilenga’s environmental and social impression assessment. And yet another brought by civil modern society organisations from Uganda and Tanzania is at the East African Court of Justice, though this has been bogged down by jurisdictional arguments.   

Obligation of vigilance? 

Whilst the lawsuit against Eacop was unsuccessful, several other environmental lawsuits have been submitted beneath the identical French regulation. 

In 2020, a coalition of NGOs and regional authorities filed a separate circumstance versus Overall, proclaiming it is lawfully required to determine the threats resulting from its contribution to world warming and to take the essential steps to reduce its emissions. The case was joined two many years later on by Paris, New York, the town of Poitiers and Amnesty Worldwide France. They lately questioned the courts to buy the multinational to just take provisional steps these kinds of as the suspension of new oil and gasoline tasks pending the court’s ruling. 

A coalition of Brazilian and Colombian indigenous peoples’ organisations and intercontinental NGOs have also sued supermarket chain On line casino below the duty of vigilance law, accusing it not getting taken the important actions to exclude beef joined to illegal deforestation, land grabbing and violations of indigenous peoples’ rights from its offer chain in Brazil and Colombia. 

Two months in the past, foods corporation Danone was sued by ClientEarth, Surfrider Foundation Europe and Zero Waste France, who accused it of not accomplishing ample to lower its plastic footprint and so failing to dwell up to its responsibilities less than the law. 

And in the very last week on your own, two duty of vigilance statements had been submitted towards French financial institution BNP Paribas. Oxfam France, Friends of the Earth France and Notre Affaire à Tous are suing it for supporting businesses that aggressively create new oil and fuel fields and infrastructure, whilst Notre Affaire à Tous and Brazilian NGO Comissão Pastoral da Terra have taken aim at its provision of economic services to organizations they allege contribute to deforestation of the Amazon rainforest.  

Isabella Kaminski



Source connection

UN sets date for reduction and hurt talks, jeopardizing Asian no-show


Negotiators will gather in Egypt at the end of March to focus on a fund for climate victims, no matter if the Asia-Pacific group has nominated its associates or not

The United Nations has established a date for crunch talks more than funding for local climate victims regardless of Asia-Pacific creating countries’ failure to nominate their two representatives.

The move piles stress on the block to choose its users or hazard the world’s biggest continent likely unrepresented at talks on location up a reduction and problems fund.

At last November’s Cop27 climate summit, governments agreed to established up a fund for vulnerable communities hit by climate catastrophe – a breakthrough right after several years of stalemate.

They claimed a 24-member transitional committee should get the job done out the details of this fund, this kind of as who pays, who added benefits and who oversees how money is invested on the floor, ahead of the following major convention in Dubai.

South Africa tried out to weaken corruption safeguards in coal stage out offer, states CEO

Governments agreed to nominate the committee’s users, which are diligently divided on geographic and wealth strains, by 15 December.

But they were being slow to decide their associates. Two months right after the deadline, just ten of the 24 had been preferred.

According to the UN’s web-site, the Asia-Pacific group of producing nations has yet to decide its two nominees.

A resource with information of deliberations reported seven Asia-Pacific governments required their candidates picked.

These delays have sparked fears that the process, and considerably-needed funding for local climate victims, would be delayed.

Less plastic or extra recycling – nations split ahead of treaty talks

Saleemul Huq, a Bangladeshi local weather scientist and veteran of all 27 Cop talks, explained the delay was “certainly worrying” and “will depart quite very little time for the operate [the committee] must do in advance of Cop28”.

But, according to a document observed by Local weather Home dated yesterday, the UN’s climate division explained to committee users that the conference would transpire on 27-29 March in Egypt.

The committe’s policies have still to be drawn up but the UN’s principles frequently signify conferences can consider position and make decisions with two-thirds of associates existing.

So the assembly could choose put without nominees from Asia-Pacific – a continent on which most of the world’s persons are living.

“First step”: Reformers respond to Earth Bank strategy to absolutely free up local weather investing

The UN is piling force on the block, chaired by Pakistan’s Nabeel Munir, to nominate its associates, a person committee member instructed Local climate Residence.

Sameh Shoukry, president of Cop27, will host a retreat for the committee on 24 and 25 March.

As of yesterday’s document, the metropolis and specific venues for both equally meetings experienced not been made the decision.

But a resource with understanding of preparations advised Local weather Residence the conferences will both be in Aswan or Luxor, two cities on the banking institutions of Egypt’s river Nile.

Munir and the UN’s climate modify division did not reply to a request for comment.

Joe Lo



Source website link

Turkish Soccer Stadium Stands as One to Rain Teddy Bears Down on to the Field for Earthquake Victims (Glance and Observe)


credit history – Beşiktaş JK

In a moment that will convey tears to your eyes and send your jaw to the ground, a packed Istanbul soccer stadium rained teddy bears down onto the industry in donation and assistance for the young children afflicted by the earthquakes.

At just the 17th 2nd of the 4th moment of the match, which corresponded to the time of the first earthquake, Beşiktaş JK supporters threw stuffed animals, scarves, and other toys on to the pitch, all of which will be sent to the small children residing in the earthquake-hit regions with Beşiktaş club assist vans.

credit Beşiktaş JK

Often soccer enthusiasts will celebrate or memorialize entire world functions, tragedies, or celebrations when a unique moment comes on the clock which corresponds to it. Some of the stuffed animals had cards or notes attached to the outside.

credit Beşiktaş

The occasion was organized before the Turkish Super League soccer match between Beşiktaş and Antalyaspor, and was termed “This Toy is my Friend” although other translations have been utilised, “This Toy is for You,” for case in point.

Gamers applauded the supporters when for a handful of seconds plush toys fell like rain onto the pitch, before the match was paused for a cleanse-up.

Beşiktaş tweeted a online video of volunteers, players, and other stadium workers packing the bears and toys into transportation luggage.

Observe the amazing scenes here… 

SHARE This Amazing Organization And Assist With Your Friends… 



Andy Corbley



Resource link

Greta Thunberg protests wind farm “violating human rights” in Norway


Thunberg reported the wind farm violates the legal rights of indigenous Sami individuals to herd their reindeer, as the sight and sound of the turbines scares the animals

Indigenous and environmental activists, such as Greta Thunberg, blocked obtain to quite a few Norwegian federal government ministries on Tuesday, expanding a protest demanding the elimination of wind turbines from reindeer pastures.

Norway’s supreme court in 2021 dominated that two wind farms developed at Fosen in central Norway violated Sami human rights below intercontinental conventions, but the turbines continue being in procedure extra than 16 months afterwards.

Police commenced taking away a handful of demonstrators from outside the developing housing most of the finance ministry – a new goal for demonstrators – while about a hundred demonstrators chanted “C, S, V”, the abbreviation of a 1970s Sami slogan which means “Show Sami spirit”.

The removals took spot on Supreme Courtroom Square, throughout the avenue from the court docket that dominated in favour of reindeer herders in the Fosen case.

Meanwhile, campaigners pressed on with a demonstration at the nearby strength ministry, which also homes the transportation and relatives ministries and parts of the finance ministry.

Thunberg, an advocate for ending the world’s reliance on carbon-dependent energy, has argued that governments ought to not enable a changeover to inexperienced electricity to arrive at the expenditure of Indigenous Sami legal rights.

“They really should have observed it coming for violating human rights,” Thunberg advised Reuters when asked about the need for the protests, even though she was sitting down outside the house the electrical power ministry.

A person of the campaigners reported they would “close down the condition, ministry by ministry” for as long as needed.

South Africa tried using to weaken corruption safeguards in coal section out deal, says CEO

“The state has permit the Sami men and women down,” Ella Marie Haetta Isaksen informed Reuters.

“I hope some ministers will soon comprehend that the only way out of this human rights violation is to tear town the wind turbines.”

The finance ministry said it experienced requested staff to operate from residence if they are in a position.

Reindeer herders in the Nordic nation say the sight and audio of the giant wind ability equipment frighten their animals and disrupt age-old traditions.

“Quandary”

The vitality ministry has claimed the fate of the wind farms is a complex lawful quandary in spite of the supreme court docket ruling and is hoping to locate a compromise.

House owners of the Roan Vind and Fosen Vind farms incorporate Germany’s Stadtwerke Muenchen, Norwegian utilities Statkraft and TroenderEnergi, as effectively as Swiss corporations Electrical power Infrastructure Partners and BKW.

“We request to come across … mitigation measures in dialogue with the reindeer herders and the ministry that make sure the working basis and the Sami prospect for cultural expression,” Statkraft mentioned in a statement to Reuters.

US backs Ajay Banga to direct World Bank in local climate struggle

Roan Vind on Monday informed Reuters it trusted the strength ministry would obtain answers making it possible for output of renewable power to carry on.

Utility BKW claimed it expected the wind turbines to keep on being in place, with compensatory steps to be certain the legal rights of the herders.

Stadtwerke Muenchen declined to remark.

Joe Lo



Supply link

Increasing sequential tropical cyclone hazards along the US East and Gulf coasts


Historical observations

TCs that made landfall in the United States from 1949 to 2018 were used to analyse the historical trend of the annual occurrence probability of sequential hazard events (the probability of at least one pair of sequential events happening in a given year). The information on historical TCs was obtained from the International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship39, which provides six-hourly TC locations and intensities. To quantify and examine the change in impacts from historical landfalling TCs, we obtained observations of hourly water levels, daily rainfall and daily maximum wind at nine locations across the US coastal areas (the locations are shown in Supplementary Fig. 1) from the Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services and the National Centers for Environmental Information. If the tidal gauge sites had no information for rainfall and wind, we found the closest weather stations (within 100 km) to the tidal gauge location and used the rainfall and wind observations from these stations to represent the wind and rainfall hazards at the tidal gauge station.

We found that there were more missing data for wind observations from 1949–1979 than in later decades, while the missing data for surge and rainfall observations had no substantial decadal variations. To eliminate the possibility that the trends were caused by the more frequent missing wind observations in the earlier decades, we conducted a similar analysis for only surge and rainfall hazards, and we reached the same conclusion. The fact that using only surge and rainfall hazards can obtain a similar conclusion as using the triple hazards does not imply that the wind hazard is not important; rather, it implies that the three hazards are physically correlated.

Synthetic TCs

Synthetic TCs generated with a statistical–deterministic TC model15,25 were used to study the change in sequential hazard-producing TCs in the United States. The storms were generated under the environment of six CMIP6 climate models (CanESM5, CNRM-CM6-1, UKESM1-0-LL, EC-Earth3, IP-SL-CM6A-LR and MIROC6) for the control (1984–2005), SSP5 8.5 (2070–2100) and SSP2 4.5 scenarios (2070–2100); 4,400, 6,200 and 6,200 US landfalling storms were generated for each model under each scenario, respectively. The synthetic storms for the control and SSP5 8.5 scenarios were the same as in ref. 6. Neither the difference in the simulation period nor the difference in the number of synthetic storms in the datasets influences our analysis, as the storm frequency for each of the climate states (1984–2005 and two scenarios for 2070–2100) is separately determined in the TC model and used in the analysis. In total, 8,250 years of simulation were performed for the 1984–2005 period, and 5,821 (5,388) years of simulation were performed for the 2070–2100 period under the SSP2 4.5 (SSP5 8.5) scenario. The thousand-year simulations enable us to obtain confident estimation of extremes, and the larger dataset of the control climate provides an even more reliable baseline.

The synthetic storm model assumes that the storms in the same year are conditionally independent (given the same environmental forcing), as the feedback of storms to the environment is not captured in the one-way coupled TC modelling system. Previous studies11 have examined the independence assumption of TC genesis and landfall and find that the assumption is valid for hazard analysis.

Wind modelling

The complete wind profile model that merges the TC wind profiles of the inner core and outer radii (C15; ref. 19) was used to simulate the wind hazard associated with the synthetic TCs. To obtain the surface wind affected by environmental winds, we added a correction to the simulated wind profile following ref. 40. The C15 model was also used to prepare the required wind input for the TCR simulation.

Hydrodynamical modelling

The ADCIRC model was used to simulate the storm tides produced by the synthetic TCs. The unstructured computational mesh developed in ref. 41, which has a spatial coverage of the entire North Atlantic basin, was used in this study. Eight tidal constituents42 were applied as boundary conditions at the ocean boundary of the mesh. The wind and pressure fields associated with the synthetic TCs were needed for the storm tide simulations and were obtained using physics-based parametric models43. This wind model was used in ref. 6 to drive surge simulation, as it is simpler and has similar performance to the C15 wind model. Further details regarding the ADCIRC model and simulation setups can be found in ref. 41. In the main text, we call the extreme water level (storm tide + possible SLR) related to TCs ‘surge hazard’, though the word ‘surge’ itself means the increase in water level due to atmospheric forcing.

Rainfall modelling

The physics-based TCR model12 was used to simulate rainfall associated with the synthetic TCs. Detailed formulation on the TCR can be found in ref. 18. The simulation setup of the model followed ref. 44, and the environmental field needed for the TCR simulation was obtained following ref. 12. The C15 model was used to drive the TCR simulation following ref. 6.

SLR projection

Localized probabilistic SLR projections in ref. 20 under the SSP5 8.5 and SSP2 4.5 emission scenarios were incorporated in this analysis. The projection of SLR was developed for tidal gauge locations; for each point along the coastline, we applied the projected SLR at the nearest tide gauge location. We followed ref. 45 to sample SLR time series over 2070–2100 from the SLR projection, and we sampled TC hazard events over 2070–2100 from the generated TC hazard datasets (assuming Poisson arrivals of storms) and combined the TC hazard events and SLR for each year.

Joint hazard analysis

Statistical analyses of the triple hazard including the modelled maximum storm maximum water level (L), maximum daily rainfall (R) and maximum wind speed (W) across each coastal segment of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi–Alabama, West Florida, East Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina11 were performed. The marginal distributions of rainfall, surge and wind were fitted by generalized Pareto distributions to characterize the long tails that corresponded to the extreme events6,29. The generalized Pareto distributions were fitted at each coastal segment, and the threshold was set by minimizing the mean squared error between empirical quantiles and the theoretical quantiles5. There was no parametric probabilistic distribution that described the trivariate generalized Pareto distributions, so nested Gumbel copulas46 were used to represent the dependent structure of the three individual hazards. Gumbel copulas were used here because previous studies6,7,47 showed that each pair of hazards (surge–rainfall, surge–wind and wind–rainfall) are correlated especially at tails, and Gumbel copulas are often used to quantify the tail-dependent structure48.

After fitting the marginal and joint distributions of the triple TC hazard, we calculated the probability of the three hazards jointly exceeding their respective thresholds (joint exceedance probability (JEP)) and the probability of at least one of the three hazards exceeding its respective threshold (at least one exceedance probability (OEP)). The thresholds LT, RT and WT are the marginal return levels of surge, rainfall and wind hazard with a return period of T years in the control simulation. The JEP and OEP are thus mathematically defined as:

$${mathrm{JEP}}(T) = {Bbb P}left( {L > L_T cap R > R_T cap W > W_T} right)$$

(1)

and:

$${mathrm{OEP}}(T) = 1 – {Bbb P}(L le L_T cap R le R_T cap W le W_T)$$

(2)

To explicitly discuss the effect of SLR, we calculated the JEP and OEP with and without the consideration of SLR. To explore the causation of the change in JEP and OEP, we also investigated the changes in the exceedance probabilities of the single hazards (the marginal cumulative density function). The return period (TJE) of the three hazards jointly exceeding their respective return level thresholds (under return level T) can be calculated as:

$$T_{{mathrm{JE}}}(T) = frac{1}{{lambda times {mathrm{JEP}}(T)}}$$

(3)

where λ is the arrival rate of the storms.

Similarly, the return period (TOE) of at least one of the three hazards exceeding its respective threshold can be calculated as:

$$T_{{mathrm{OE}}}(T) = frac{1}{{lambda times {mathrm{OEP}}(T)}}$$

(4)

Probabilistic model for sequential hazard-producing TCs

The Poisson–Gaussian model for sequential landfalling TCs developed in ref. 11 was extended to capture the storms’ hazard-producing abilities and hazard durations. The arrival of hazard-producing storms was modelled as a non-stationary Poisson process, with arrival rate ν:

$$nu left( {t,s} right) = lambda _{{mathrm{hazard}}}left( t right)S_{{mathrm{hazard}}}left( s right)$$

(5)

$$S_{{mathrm{hazard}}}left( s right) = frac{1}{{{{{mathrm{sigma }}}}sqrt {2{{{mathrm{pi }}}}} }}{{{mathrm{e}}}}^{ – frac{1}{2}left( {frac{{{{{mathrm{s}}}} – mu }}{{{{mathrm{sigma }}}}}} right)^2}$$

(6)

where λhazard(t) is the annual frequency of hazard-producing TCs in year t. Shazard(s), representing the seasonal variation, is the likelihood of a hazard starting to occur on day s and μ is the mean and σ is the standard deviation of the impact time of storms that make landfall at the selected location. The difference between the Poisson–Gaussian model in this study and that in ref. 11 is that this study uses the annual frequency and seasonality of hazard-producing storms instead of those of landfalling storms, and the ratio between the annual frequency of hazard-producing storms and that of landfalling storms can be viewed as a metric of storm hazard-producing ability. The Poisson–Gaussian model was shown to be capable of capturing the relationship between TC landfall climatology and the minimal landfall intervals11, and a larger frequency (λhazard) and a smaller seasonal span (σ) favour sequential hazard-producing events.

We define the MII mathematically as:

$${{{mathrm{MII}}}}({{t}}) = mathop {{min }}limits_{i > j} left( {{{{mathrm{max}}}}left( {B_ileft( {{t}} right) – E_jleft( {{t}} right),0} right)} right)$$

(7)

where Bi(t) is the hazard beginning time of the ith TC in year t, and Ej(t) is the hazard end time of the jth TC in year t; if the impacts of the two TCs overlap, we set the MII equal to 0. The TCs in a single year were ordered by the starting times of hazards associated with the TCs. In the Monte Carlo simulations, for each individual TC, the beginning times of hazards were randomly drawn from the probabilistic model of equations (5) and (6), and the beginning and end times of hazards were connected as:

$$E_ileft( {{t}} right) = B_ileft( {{t}} right) + D_i({{t}})$$

(8)

where Di(t) is the total hazard duration of the ith TC in year t. As the impact duration of TC-related hazards may change in the future, a probability distribution that describes the duration of TC hazard impacts at each selected location is needed. The probability distributions of duration in different coastal locations under different climate scenarios do not share the same parametric probability distribution. Thus, in our analysis and simulation, we applied kernel density estimation to fit the non-parametric probability distribution to the duration. For the climate simulation analysis, the physical modeling of each hazard component was performed before the probabilistic model was fitted with the simulated synthetic events.

Definition of hazard-producing TCs and hazard duration

There is no universal definition of ‘hazard-producing’ as different infrastructure systems and communities may respond differently to sequential TC events11. A statistically reasonable, physically meaningful and engineeringly applicable definition of ‘hazard-producing’ should be able to both categorize the landfalling storms into ‘hazard-producing’ and ‘non-hazard-producing’ categories and separate the days of impact from a single ‘hazard-producing’ TC into ‘hazard days’ and ‘non-hazard days’ (such as the days when TCs are too weak or too far away from the point of interest to produce hazards).

To do so, we used specific percentiles of daily maximum water level, total rainfall and maximum wind speed when a TC is within 250 km of the study point as the thresholds to define ‘hazard-producing’ TCs. In the historical analysis, for each individual point of interest, the daily maximum water level, total rainfall and maximum wind from every TC that ever approached 250 km from the location were collected, and the percentiles of each hazard component were calculated on the basis of the observations of all TCs impacting this location. For the climate simulation using CMIP6 models and the synthetic storm model, the same method was applied to calculate percentiles for the control simulation (historical period) of each climate model (so the percentiles differ between climate models). We used the thresholds in the control period instead of using the thresholds in the future period to better investigate the changes in TC hazard in the future relative to the historical hazard levels.

The specific percentile chosen as the threshold should be both high enough to eliminate nuisance TC events and low enough to include some non-extreme events that are still hazardous. In this main text of this study, the 95th percentile of each hazard was chosen as the threshold, and the days when at least one hazard component exceeded the threshold were defined as ‘hazard days’. The threshold was spatially varied by using the 95th percentiles specific to each coastal location to account for spatial variation in the preparedness for or awareness of hazards. The storms that caused at least one hazard day for a point of interest were defined as ‘hazard-producing’ storms for this location. The selection of the 95th percentile for the threshold fulfils the requirements mentioned in the beginning of this paragraph. For example, the mean of the 95th percentiles of six climate model simulations of daily accumulated TC rainfall (maximum tide level) in the control climate is 98.8 mm (1.4 m) near New Orleans, which is approximately ¼ (1/6) of the total rainfall (maximum tide level) that Hurricane Katrina produced in this location in 2005. Admittedly, the selection of the 95th percentile was ad hoc, so the results of climate simulations of sequential TC-related hazards under other thresholds (the 90th and 99th percentiles) are shown in Supplementary Figs. 7, 8 and 12–15 as a sensitivity test of the results of this study.



Source link

Climate change as a global amplifier of human–wildlife conflict


  • Abrahms, B. Human–wildlife conflict under climate change. Science 373, 484–485 (2021).

    Article 
    CAS 

    Google Scholar     

  • Nyhus, P. J. Human–wildlife conflict and coexistence. Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour. 41, 143–171 (2016).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Ripple, W. J. et al. Extinction risk is most acute for the world’s largest and smallest vertebrates. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 114, 10678–10683 (2017).

    Article 
    CAS 

    Google Scholar     

  • Estes, J. A. et al. Trophic downgrading of planet Earth. Science 333, 301–306 (2011).

    Article 
    CAS 

    Google Scholar     

  • Abrahms, B. et al. Data from: Climate change as an amplifier of human–wildlife conflict. Github https://github.com/Abrahms-Lab/Climate-Conflict-Review (2022).

  • IPCC Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis (eds Masson-Delmotte, V. et al.) (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2021).

  • Sydeman, W. J., Santora, J. A., Thompson, S. A., Marinovic, B. & Lorenzo, E. D. Increasing variance in North Pacific climate relates to unprecedented ecosystem variability off California. Glob. Change Biol. 19, 1662–1675 (2013).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Wang, G. et al. Continued increase of extreme El Niño frequency long after 1.5 °C warming stabilization. Nat. Clim. Change 7, 568–572 (2017).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Filazzola, A., Blagrave, K., Imrit, M. A. & Sharma, S. Climate change drives increases in extreme events for lake ice in the Northern Hemisphere. Geophys. Res. Lett. 47, e2020GL089608 (2020).

  • Marzeion, B., Cogley, J. G., Richter, K. & Parkes, D. Attribution of global glacier mass loss to anthropogenic and natural causes. Science 345, 919–921 (2014).

    Article 
    CAS 

    Google Scholar     

  • Martin, J. T. et al. Increased drought severity tracks warming in the United States’ largest river basin. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 117, 11328–11336 (2020).

    Article 
    CAS 

    Google Scholar     

  • Laufkötter, C., Zscheischler, J. & Frölicher, T. L. High-impact marine heatwaves attributable to human-induced global warming. Science 369, 1621–1625 (2020).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Donat, M. G., Lowry, A. L., Alexander, L. V., O’Gorman, P. A. & Maher, N. More extreme precipitation in the world’s dry and wet regions. Nat. Clim. Change 6, 508–513 (2016).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Walther, G.-R. et al. Ecological responses to recent climate change. Nature 416, 389–395 (2002).

    Article 
    CAS 

    Google Scholar     

  • Pecl, G. T. et al. Biodiversity redistribution under climate change: impacts on ecosystems and human well-being. Science 355, eaai9214 (2017).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Lin, D., Xia, J. & Wan, S. Climate warming and biomass accumulation of terrestrial plants: a meta‐analysis. New Phytol. 188, 187–198 (2010).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Kharouba, H. M. & Wolkovich, E. M. Disconnects between ecological theory and data in phenological mismatch research. Nat. Clim. Change 10, 406–415 (2020).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Marinovic, B. B., Croll, D. A., Gong, N., Benson, S. R. & Chavez, F. P. Effects of the 1997–1999 El Niño and La Niña events on zooplankton abundance and euphausiid community composition within the Monterey Bay coastal upwelling system. Prog. Oceanogr. 54, 265–277 (2002).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Kardol, P. et al. Climate change effects on plant biomass alter dominance patterns and community evenness in an experimental old‐field ecosystem. Glob. Change Biol. 16, 2676–2687 (2010).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Prugh, L. R. et al. Ecological winners and losers of extreme drought in California. Nat. Clim. Change 8, 819–824 (2018).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Sorte, C. J. B., Williams, S. L. & Zerebecki, R. A. Ocean warming increases threat of invasive species in a marine fouling community. Ecology 91, 2198–2204 (2010).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Muehlenbein, M. P. Human–environment interactions, current and future directions. Hum. Environ. Interact. 1, 79–94 (2012).


    Google Scholar     

  • Sinervo, B. et al. Erosion of lizard diversity by climate change and altered thermal niches. Science 328, 894–899 (2010).

    Article 
    CAS 

    Google Scholar     

  • Mason, T. H. E., Keane, A., Redpath, S. M. & Bunnefeld, N. The changing environment of conservation conflict: geese and farming in Scotland. J. Appl. Ecol. 55, 651–662 (2018).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Pérez-Flores, J., Mardero, S., López-Cen, A., Contreras-Moreno, F. M. & Pérez-Flores, J. Human–wildlife conflicts and drought in the greater Calakmul Region, Mexico: implications for tapir conservation. Neotrop. Biol. Conserv. 16, 539–563 (2021).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Mariki, S. B., Svarstad, H. & Benjaminsen, T. A. Elephants over the cliff: explaining wildlife killings in Tanzania. Land Use Policy 44, 19–30 (2015).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Mukeka, J. M., Ogutu, J. O., Kanga, E. & Roskaft, E. Spatial and temporal dynamics of human–wildlife conflicts in the Kenya Greater Tsavo Ecosystem. Hum. Wildl. Interact. 14, 255–272 (2020).


    Google Scholar     

  • Popp, J. N., Hamr, J., Chan, C. & Mallory, F. F. Elk (Cervus elaphus) railway mortality in Ontario. Can. J. Zool. 96, 1066–1070 (2018).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Olson, D. D. et al. How does variation in winter weather affect deer–vehicle collision rates? Wildl. Biol. 21, 80–87 (2015).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Nyhus, P. & Tilson, R. Agroforestry, elephants, and tigers: balancing conservation theory and practice in human-dominated landscapes of Southeast Asia. Agric. Ecosyst. Environ. 104, 87–97 (2004).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Laufenberg, J. S., Johnson, H. E., Doherty, P. F. & Breck, S. W. Compounding effects of human development and a natural food shortage on a black bear population along a human development–wildland interface. Biol. Conserv 224, 188–198 (2018).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Blondin, H., Abrahms, B., Crowder, L. B. & Hazen, E. L. Combining high temporal resolution whale distribution and vessel tracking data improves estimates of ship strike risk. Biol. Conserv. 250, 108757 (2020).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Abrahms, B. et al. Dynamic ensemble models to predict distributions and anthropogenic risk exposure for highly mobile species. Divers. Distrib. 25, 1182–1193 (2019).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Gaynor, K. M., Hojnowski, C. E., Carter, N. H. & Brashares, J. S. The influence of human disturbance on wildlife nocturnality. Science 360, 1232–1235 (2018).

    Article 
    CAS 

    Google Scholar     

  • Kabir, M., Ghoddousi, A., Awan, M. S. & Awan, M. N. Assessment of human–leopard conflict in Machiara National Park, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan. Eur. J. Wildl. Res. 60, 291–296 (2014).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Soto, J. R. Patterns and Determinants of Human–Carnivore Conflicts in the Tropical Lowlands of Guatemala (Univ. of Florida, 2008).

  • Honda, T. & Kozakai, C. Mechanisms of human–black bear conflicts in Japan: in preparation for climate change. Sci. Total Environ. 739, 140028 (2020).

    Article 
    CAS 

    Google Scholar     

  • Mukeka, J. M., Ogutu, J. O., Kanga, E. & Røskaft, E. Human–wildlife conflicts and their correlates in Narok County, Kenya. Glob. Ecol. Conserv. 18, e00620 (2019).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Kuiper, T. R. et al. Seasonal herding practices influence predation on domestic stock by African lions along a protected area boundary. Biol. Conserv. 191, 546–554 (2015).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Funston, P. J., Mills, M. G. L. & Biggs, H. C. Factors affecting the hunting success of male and female lions in the Kruger National Park. J. Zool. 253, 419–431 (2001).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Schiess-Meier, M., Ramsauer, S., Gabanapelo, T. & Konig, B. Livestock predation—insights from problem animal control registers in Botswana. J. Wildl. Manag. 71, 1267–1274 (2007).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Wilder, J. M. et al. Polar bear attacks on humans: implications of a changing climate. Wildl. Soc. B 41, 537–547 (2017).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Towns, L., Derocher, A. E., Stirling, I., Lunn, N. J. & Hedman, D. Spatial and temporal patterns of problem polar bears in Churchill, Manitoba. Polar Biol. 32, 1529–1537 (2009).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Schmidt, A. & Clark, D. ‘It’s just a matter of time:’ lessons from agency and community responses to polar bear-inflicted human injury. Conserv. Soc. 16, 64 (2018).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Koenig, J., Shine, R. & Shea, G. The dangers of life in the city: patterns of activity, injury and mortality in suburban lizards (Tiliqua scincoides). J. Herpetol. 36, 62–68 (2002).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Whitaker, P. B. & Shine, R. Responses of free-ranging brownsnakes (Pseudonaja textilis: Elapidae) to encounters with humans. Wildl. Res. 26, 689–704 (1999).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Saberwal, V., Gibbs, J., Chellam, R. & Johnsingh, A. Lion–human conflict in the Gir Forest, India. Conserv. Biol. 8, 501–507 (1994).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Ferreira, S. M. & Viljoen, P. African large carnivore population changes in response to a drought. Afr. J. Wildl. Res. https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-wild2-v52-n1-a1 (2022).

  • Masiaine, S. et al. Landscape-level changes to large mammal space use in response to a pastoralist incursion. Ecol. Indic. 121, 107091 (2021).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Kiria, E. A Spatial Multi-criteria Analysis of Land Use, Land Cover and Climate Changes on Wildlife Ecosystems Planning and Management in Meru Conservation Area (Chuka Univ., 2018).

  • Benansio, J., Demaya, G., Dendi, D. & Luiselli, L. Attacks by Nile crocodiles (Crocodylus nilotticus) on humans and livestock in the Sudd wetlands, South Sudan. Russ. J. Herpetol. https://doi.org/10.30906/1026-2296-2022-29-4-199-205 (2022).

  • Melia, N., Haines, K. & Hawkins, E. Sea ice decline and 21st century trans‐Arctic shipping routes. Geophys. Res. Lett. 43, 9720–9728 (2016).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Ivanova, S. V. et al. Shipping alters the movement and behavior of Arctic cod (Boreogadus saida), a keystone fish in Arctic marine ecosystems. Ecol. Appl. 30, e02050 (2020).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Hauser, D. D. W., Laidre, K. L. & Stern, H. L. Vulnerability of Arctic marine mammals to vessel traffic in the increasingly ice-free Northwest Passage and Northern Sea Route. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 5, 201803543–201803546 (2018).


    Google Scholar     

  • Hovelsrud, G. K., McKenna, M. & Huntington, H. P. Marine mammal harvests and other interactions with humans. Ecol. Appl. 18, S135–S147 (2008).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Santora, J. A. et al. Habitat compression and ecosystem shifts as potential links between marine heatwave and record whale entanglements. Nat. Commun. 11, 536 (2020).

  • Samhouri, J. F. et al. Marine heatwave challenges solutions to human–wildlife conflict. Proc. R. Soc. B 288, 20211607 (2021).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Chapman, B. K. & McPhee, D. Global shark attack hotspots: identifying underlying factors behind increased unprovoked shark bite incidence. Ocean Coast. Manag. 133, 72–84 (2016).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Burgess, G., Buch, R., Carvalho, F., Garner, B. & Walker, C. in Sharks and Their Relatives II: Biodiversity, Adaptive Physiology, and Conservation (eds Carrier, J. C. et al.) 541–565 (CRC Press, 2010).

  • Woodward, A. R., Leone, E. H., Dutton, H. J., Waller, J. E. & Hord, L. Characteristics of American alligator bites on people in Florida. J. Wildl. Manag. 83, 1437–1453 (2019).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Khorozyan, I., Soofi, M., Ghoddousi, A., Hamidi, A. K. & Waltert, M. The relationship between climate, diseases of domestic animals and human–carnivore conflicts. Basic Appl. Ecol. 16, 703–713 (2015).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Treves, A. & Bruskotter, J. Tolerance for predatory wildlife. Science 344, 476–477 (2014).

    Article 
    CAS 

    Google Scholar     

  • Carpenter, S. Exploring the impact of climate change on the future of community‐based wildlife conservation. Conserv. Sci. Pract. 4, e585 (2022).

  • Nisi, A. Cryptic Neighbors: Connecting Movement Ecology and Population Dynamics for a Large Carnivore in a Human-dominated Landscape (Univ. California, 2021). .

  • Asiyanbi, A. P. A political ecology of REDD+: property rights, militarised protectionism, and carbonised exclusion in Cross River. Geoforum 77, 146–156 (2016).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Dawson, N. M. et al. Barriers to equity in REDD+: deficiencies in national interpretation processes constrain adaptation to context. Environ. Sci. Policy 88, 1–9 (2018).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Rabaiotti, D. et al. High temperatures and human pressures interact to influence mortality in an African carnivore. Ecol. Evol. 11, 8495–8506 (2021).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Vargas, S. P., Castro-Carrasco, P. J., Rust, N. A. & F, J. L. R. Climate change contributing to conflicts between livestock farming and guanaco conservation in central Chile: a subjective theories approach. Oryx 55, 275–283 (2021).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Heemskerk, S. et al. Temporal dynamics of human–polar bear conflicts in Churchill, Manitoba. Glob. Ecol. Conserv. 24, e01320 (2020).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Schell, C. J. et al. The evolutionary consequences of human–wildlife conflict in cities. Evol. Appl. 14, 178–197 (2021).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Clark, J. A. & May, R. M. Taxonomic bias in conservation research. Science 297, 191–192 (2002).

    Article 
    CAS 

    Google Scholar     

  • Ravenelle, J. & Nyhus, P. J. Global patterns and trends in human–wildlife conflict compensation. Conserv. Biol. 31, 1247–1256 (2017).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Zack, C. S., Milne, B. T. & Dunn, W. Southern oscillation index as an indicator of encounters between humans and black bears in New Mexico. Wildl. Soc. Bull. 31, 517–520 (2003).


    Google Scholar     

  • Acosta-Jamett, G., Gutiérrez, J. R., Kelt, D. A., Meserve, P. L. & Previtali, M. A. El Niño Southern Oscillation drives conflict between wild carnivores and livestock farmers in a semiarid area in Chile. J. Arid. Environ. 126, 76–80 (2016).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Timmermann, A. et al. El Niño–Southern Oscillation complexity. Nature 559, 535–545 (2018).

    Article 
    CAS 

    Google Scholar     

  • Wittemyer, G., Elsen, P., Bean, W. T., Burton, A. C. O. & Brashares, J. S. Accelerated human population growth at protected area edges. Science 321, 123–126 (2008).

    Article 
    CAS 

    Google Scholar     

  • Powell, G., Versluys, T. M. M., Williams, J. J., Tiedt, S. & Pooley, S. Using environmental niche modelling to investigate abiotic predictors of crocodilian attacks on people. Oryx 54, 639–647 (2020).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Maxwell, S. M. et al. Dynamic ocean management: defining and conceptualizing real-time management of the ocean. Mar. Policy 58, 42–50 (2015).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Maxwell, S. M., Gjerde, K. M., Conners, M. G. & Crowder, L. B. Mobile protected areas for biodiversity on the high seas. Science 367, 252–254 (2020).

    Article 
    CAS 

    Google Scholar     

  • Pons, M. et al. Trade-offs between bycatch and target catches in static versus dynamic fishery closures. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 119, e2114508119 (2022).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Oestreich, W. K., Chapman, M. S. & Crowder, L. B. A comparative analysis of dynamic management in marine and terrestrial systems. Front. Ecol. Environ. 18, 496–504 (2020).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Mason, N., Ward, M., Watson, J. E. M., Venter, O. & Runting, R. K. Global opportunities and challenges for transboundary conservation. Nat. Ecol. Evol. 4, 694–701 (2020).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Dickman, A. J., Macdonald, E. A. & Macdonald, D. W. A review of financial instruments to pay for predator conservation and encourage human–carnivore coexistence. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 108, 13937–13944 (2011).

    Article 
    CAS 

    Google Scholar     

  • Ej, N. G. et al. A Future for All: The Need for Human–Wildlife Coexistence (UNEP, 2021).

  • Lankford, A. J., Svancara, L. K., Lawler, J. J. & Vierling, K. Comparison of climate change vulnerability assessments for wildlife. Wildl. Soc. Bull. 38, 386–394 (2014).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Syombua, M. An Analysis of Human–Wildlife Conflicts in Tsavo West-Amboseli Agro-Ecosystem Using an Integrated Geospatial Approach: A Case Study of Taveta District (Univ. of Nairobi, 2013).

  • Malhi, Y. et al. The role of large wild animals in climate change mitigation and adaptation. Curr. Biol. 32, R181–R196 (2022).

    Article 
    CAS 

    Google Scholar     

  • Aryal, A., Brunton, D. & Raubenheimer, D. Impact of climate change on human–wildlife–ecosystem interactions in the Trans-Himalaya region of Nepal. Theor. Appl. Climatol. 115, 517–529 (2013).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Aryal, A., Brunton, D., Ji, W., Barraclough, R. K. & Raubenheimer, D. Human–carnivore conflict: ecological and economical sustainability of predation on livestock by snow leopard and other carnivores in the Himalaya. Sustain. Sci. 9, 321–329 (2014).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Aryal, A. et al. Predicting the distributions of predator (snow leopard) and prey (blue sheep) under climate change in the Himalaya. Ecol. Evol. 6, 4065–4075 (2016).

    Article 

    Google Scholar     

  • Nowell, K., Li, J., Paltsyn, M. & Sharma, R. An Ounce of Prevention: Snow Leopard Crime Revisited (Traffic Report, 2016).



    • Source link

    Madison Snowplow Naming Contest Sees ‘Saltimus Prime’ Be part of ‘Seymour Pavement’ in Clearing Wisconsin Streets


    Credit rating – Town of Madison

    As section of GNN’s continuing protection of metropolis snowplow naming competitions, the effects of Madison Wisconsin’s contest are in, and they are just hail-arious.

    The city’s chief salting truck will be named “Saltimus Prime” right after obtaining a full of 1,630 votes.

    A smaller sized, agile, bicycle route-plower will be named “Snowbi Wan Kenobi” right after acquiring 1,910 votes.

    “Seymour Pavement,” is to be the title of the city’s loader/plow, when the Twin Wing Plow Truck will be dubbed “Dolly Plowton.”

    It’s a joy and a disgrace, as some of the other entries were genius. For Video game of Thrones lovers, it was a pity that the salt truck didn’t obtain adequate votes for “Brine of Tarth.” Honorable mentions should unquestionably be supplied out for “KeaNo Freeze,” “Albert Brinestein,” and to the chemistry learners who came up with “Snowdium Clearride.”

    Relevant: Winter season Hilarity Carries on in Yearly Title-a-Snowplow Contest: Be part of ‘Snowbi Wan Kenobi’ with Your Submissions

    In 2021, GNN described of a very similar contest in Scotland, which integrated winners like, “You’re a Blizzard Harry,” Brinestone Ploughboy, Spreddie Van Halen, Mary Queen of Salt, and On Her Majesty’s Slippery Surface.

    Minnesota’s DoT 2022 contest came up with some serious zingers, the greatest of which most definitely ought to be “Clearopathra,” but “Scoop! There It Is,” ain’t lousy possibly.

    SHARE This Little bit Of Winter Rime With Your Friends In Need Of A Laugh…



    Andy Corbley



    Source connection

    South Africa tried using to weaken corruption safeguards in coal period out, states CEO


    The Eskom manager reported that a “senior federal government minister” claimed it was “pragmatic” to h2o down corruption safeguards in a $8.5bn worldwide clean up strength offer

    The South African federal government experimented with to “water down governance” about how $8.5 billion of thoroughly clean power funding will be used, the outgoing CEO of state-owned energy business Eskom has claimed.

    In an 50-moment televised interview, Andre De Ruyter claimed the enterprise he led for a few years had been infiltrated by violent organised criminals and that it is riddled with corruption to which the law enforcement, condition safety expert services, local politicians and central federal government turned a blind eye.

    The ruling African Countrywide Congress party responded by calling De Ruyter a “naysayer” with a “rightwing ideological posture” and said his claims about corruption had been “unfortunate, irresponsible, and baseless”.

    At Cop26 in 2021, the South African governing administration announced it would obtain $8.5 billion of loans and grants from abundant nations to fund projects like renewable electrical power, electric power transmission lines, electrical automobile output and green hydrogen.

    A lot of this funds will be put in by Eskom and De Ruyter explained the deal was done “by and big at Eskom’s intervention”. The arrangement, acknowledged as a just energy changeover partnership (JETP), shaped a product for equivalent discounts with Indonesia and Vietnam.

    https://www.youtube.com/look at?v=6gF2dYQ-NdM

    Corruption crusader

    Considering the fact that having above Eskom in 2019, De Ruyter said he had attempted to root out corruption and to start out shifting South Africa’s power process from coal to cleanse power. But he claimed he has been opposed by prison cartels and by sections of the government and his espresso was poisoned with cyanide in December.

    Asked if Eskom was a “feeding trough” for South Africa’s governing bash, De Ruyter replied: “I would say the proof indicates that it is. I expressed my issue to a senior federal government minister about tries, in my perspective, to drinking water down governance about the [JETP] and the response was basically, you know, you have to be pragmatic. In purchase to pursue the larger fantastic, you have to permit some folks to eat a small bit”.

    De Ruyter did not say if attempts to weaken governance had been succesful. A spokesperson for Germany’s ministry for economic co-operation and improvement (BMZ) advised Local climate House it was “aware of present troubles at and all over Eskom and in South Africa’s coal sector”.

    The spokesperson additional that donor international locations promising to mobilise the $8.5bn “will jointly perform with the government of South Africa to make certain that governance arrangements are in place for any resources that help the Just Vitality Changeover Partnership” and that every single financial institution “will will need to do because of diligence all-around any proposed spending”.

    These prosperous nations will have to “understand” Eskom’s and the South African government’s designs, the spokeperson explained. “The continued struggle of the govt against corruption and criminal offense in the electricity sector is critical and also an critical pre-condition to cut down the present-day large level of load shedding.”

    Large scrutiny

    Saliem Fakir, a South African who heads the Africa Climate Basis informed Climate House that De Ruyter’s issue was “not much fetched” and that zero tolerance on corruption was important to make the electricity changeover just.

    But, he reported that investments built less than the JETP had been very likely to be carefully scrutinised for the reason that it is a substantial-profile initiative, it is climate finance and because the resources arrive from overseas.

    In December 2022, South Africa’s strength minister Gwede Mantashe accused De Ruyter of “actively agitating for the overthrow of the state” by forcing prepared electricity cuts, known as “load shedding”, on South Africans. Eskom had taken these steps given that right before De Ruyter turned main in December 2019, as South Africa’s electrical energy need frequently outstrips provide.

    Immediately after acquiring no defence from prime minister Cyril Ramaphosa, De Ruyter handed in his resignation 5 times afterwards. That exact day, just before information of his resignation was created community, his personalised espresso mug was poisoned with a combination of cyanide and rat poison at Eskom’s headquarters. He explained this was probable to be a reaction to his attempts to tackle corruption, sabotage and organised criminal offense.

    Prison cartels

    De Ruyter informed ETV past 7 days that just one billion rand ($50m) was stolen from Eskom each and every month. The business is currently 423 billion rand ($22bn) in credit card debt, hobbling its skill to end blackouts and have out the electrical power transition.

    De Ruyter said there are 4 prison cartels functioning in the province of Mpumalanga, the north-eastern area the place most of the country’s coal is dug up and burned in electrical power crops.

    He claimed these cartels have a strike squad of 60-70 “highly trained, properly armed” folks they get in touch with “soldiers” who assassinate opponents and that they spend Eskom personnel to sabotage machinery when it satisfies their enterprise passions.

    They bribe Eskom’s prospective buyers, who commit their revenue on Maserati vehicles which are not registered to their title, use Louis Vutton clothing and clean their fingers in 15-year previous whiskey, he claimed.

    De Ruyter claimed that “vested interests” in the benefit chain reveal why even a gradual power changeover “is so eagerly opposed and with these types of vehemence”. He quoted a colleague who instructed him “you are staying naive, you are not displaying the comrades a way to eat”.

    Fakir told Local weather Home that typical cons involve over-charging for diesel and stealing great-high quality coal and changing it with minimal-high-quality coal or normal rocks.

    Authorities inaction

    De Ruyter mentioned that local and countrywide politicians, the law enforcement and safety products and services have failed to act towards these cartels, blaming either incompetence or complicity.

    He claimed local politicians in Mpumalanga are “complicit”, that police unsuccessful to demand corruption suspects, point out security were “missing in action” and at minimum a person unnamed minister had been conscious of criminality and unsuccessful to act.

    He mentioned stability expert services experienced targetted him for surveillance. In October, he claimed a bugging system was located in his automobile. Previous 7 days, he mentioned a speak to in the inspectorate normal of intelligence experienced informed him that style of product was “one of ours, we have heaps of these”.

    US backs Ajay Banga to direct World Financial institution in local climate fight

    When he travelled to Egypt for Cop27, a point out safety official travelled with his delegation. De Ruyter reported a good friend requested this guy why he was there and he replied “just keeping an eye on the massive guy”.

    When his coffee was poisoned in December, he explained the law enforcement tasked only junior-rating law enforcement officers to look into who experienced hardly ever listened to of cyanide and desired health professionals to describe what it was.

    “Either this is monumental incomptence or they are just not fascinated in investigating this,” he said.

    The ANC has responded to De Ruyter’s promises by urging him to lay legal prices. If he doesn’t, the social gathering reported, they will provide costs against him for allegedly breaching anti-corruption regulations.

    In his job interview, De Ruyter said he had informed police and advisers to president Cyril Ramaphosa of his worries.



    Joe Lo



    Resource link

    Gentleman Who Didn’t Study or Publish Until eventually His Late Teenagers Becomes Cambridge University’s Youngest Black Professor


    Professor of Sociology of Instruction at College of Cambridge Jason Arday – SWNS

    A boy with autism who could not read or compose till his late teenagers is now the youngest-ever Black professor at Cambridge University 20 a long time later.

    As a child, Jason Arday was identified with international developmental hold off, which influencing his ability to find out how to communicate and study.

    Speechless until eventually age 11, therapists even predicted he would devote his grownup lifetime in assisted living, demanding lifelong assist.

    The 37-yr-outdated has now taken up a single of the most prestigious professorships in a person of the world’s leading universities—and is the youngest Black particular person to do it.

    Despite developing up with a discovering disability in a disadvantaged space of Clapham, London, he had massive thoughts to question the environment.

    Arday, who now teaches sociology, remembers contemplating: “Why are some individuals homeless? Why is there war?”

    “I don’t forget thinking if I really do not make it as a football player, then I want to preserve the earth.”

    He lastly learned to study and generate in his teenagers and grew to become a PE teacher just after researching at the College of Surrey.

    He knew he preferred to examine and find out additional, but had minor education or direction to do so.

    Relevant: First African American to Get National Spelling Bee Usually takes Trophy After Just 2 Years’ Observe

    “When I started out producing academic papers, I had no notion what I was doing. I did not have a mentor and no a single ever confirmed me how to create.”

    “The peer critique approach was so cruel, it was just about amusing, but I taken care of it as a understanding knowledge.”

    At age 27 he wrote on his bedroom wall at his parents’ residence: “One working day I will work at Oxford or Cambridge.”

    He remembers his higher education mate Sandro Sandi telling him, ‘I imagine you can do this – I assume we can consider on the environment and win.’

    “Looking back, that was when I initially genuinely considered in myself.

    “A whole lot of academics say they stumbled into this line of perform, but from that second I was identified and focused – I understood that this would be my goal.”

    INSPIRING: Historic $100 Million Gift From Bloomberg Will Raise Selection of Black Doctors and Enhance Minority Overall health

    He wrote papers and researched by night time, while operating as a PE instructor by day—eventually turning into an acclaimed professor with two master’s levels and a PhD in academic research from Liverpool John Moores College.

    While finding out for his PhD in 2015 he co-edited a groundbreaking report for the Runnymede Rely on, ‘Aiming Higher’, about racial and ethnic inequalities in British Universities.

    He finally posted his first solo paper in 2018.

    The exact same year, he efficiently secured a Senior Lectureship at Roehampton College just before transferring on to Durham College, exactly where he was an Affiliate Professor of Sociology.

    He went on to yet another prestigious professorship at the College of Glasgow’s School of Instruction, creating him, at the time, one of the youngest professors in the Uk.

    Look: Carpet Cleaner With Autism Has Figured out 40 Languages – View His Talent in Action

    He has considering the fact that published books, and will now start out at Cambridge on Mar 6th as Professor of Sociology of Instruction, hoping to encourage people today from underneath-represented backgrounds to pursue higher education and learning. Arday now joins five other Black professors at the establishment.

    “My perform focuses primarily on how we can open up doors to much more men and women from deprived backgrounds and actually democratize bigger education.

    “Hopefully getting in a spot like Cambridge will present me with the leverage to direct that agenda nationally and globally.”

    And he may just conserve the world—or his have little corner of it.

    SHARE the Inspiring Story About Overcoming Studying Worries on Social Media…



    Good Information Community



    Resource connection

    Worldwide health leader Germany reaffirms potent aid to WHO for 2023


    Geneva – Germany’s Federal Ministry of Wellbeing (BMG) right now introduced a €130 million contribution to the Globe Well being Firm for 2023, reinforcing Germany’s role as a global wellness leader and one particular of WHO’s strongest supporters.

    “We are satisfied to contribute €130 million to WHO this calendar year. For us it is obvious: WHO has played a important purpose in the successful handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and will carry on to shield the world from upcoming overall health emergencies,” Dr Lauterbach said.

    The contribution supports WHO in critical precedence locations this sort of as antimicrobial resistance, health and fitness emergencies, health-units strengthening and WHO reforms. The money will be channeled to the WHO-BMG collaborative programme, WHO’s COVID-19 response and the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence in Berlin.

    Germany’s increased versatile funding will deliver critical assistance to WHO’s base programme.

    Germany was WHO’s major total contributor in the 2020-2021 biennium and next in 2022, and the region has been the top rated donor to ACT-Accelerator, a world collaboration to promptly produce, generate and relatively distribute COVID-19 vaccines, exams and therapies.

    Dr Lauterbach introduced the contribution in the existence of WHO Director-Standard Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on the sidelines of the 152nd session of WHO’s Government Board.

    “Germany has demonstrated excellent political management and eyesight in aiding to condition the world wellbeing architecture, with a more robust, sustainably-financed WHO at its centre, and a pandemic accord primarily based on equity and solidarity,” stated Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-Normal. “We continue to look to Germany for its assist, partnership and leadership as we get the job done with each other, in solidarity and with a long-time period perspective for making a safer, more healthy, and fairer globe.”

    Germany is the major donor to WHO’s Contingency Fund for Emergencies, 1 of WHO’s most strong resources for responding instantly to acute overall health emergencies about the environment.

    Dr Tedros, Director-Normal, WHO and H.E. Dr Karl Lauterbach, Germany’s Federal Minister of Well being



    Source url

    Your Inspired Weekly Horoscope From Rob Brezsny: A ‘Free Will Astrology’


    Our partner Rob Brezsny provides his weekly wisdom to enlighten our thinking and motivate our mood. Rob’s Free Will Astrology, is a syndicated weekly column appearing in over a hundred publications. He is also the author of Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How All of Creation Is Conspiring To Shower You with Blessings. (A free preview of the book is available here.)

    Here is your weekly horoscope…

    FREE WILL ASTROLOGY – Week of February 25, 2023
    Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com

    AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
    Most of us are constantly skirmishing with time, doing our best to coax it or compel it to give us more slack. But lately, you Aquarians have slipped into a more intense conflict. And from what I’ve been able to determine, time is kicking your ass. What can you do to relieve the pressure? Maybe you could edit your priority list—eliminate two mildly interesting pursuits to make more room for a fascinating one. You might also consider reading a book to help you with time management and organizational strategies, like these: 1. Getting Things Done by David Allen. 2. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. 3. 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management by Kevin Kruse. 4. Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy.

    PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
    “What is originality?” asked philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Here’s how he answered: “to see something that has no name as yet, and hence cannot be mentioned though it stares us all in the face.” Got that, Pisces? I hope so, because your fun assignments in the coming days include the following: 1. to make a shimmering dream coalesce into a concrete reality; 2. to cause a figment of the imagination to materialize into a useful accessory; 3. to coax an unborn truth to sprout into a galvanizing insight.

    ARIES (March 21-April 19):
    Philosopher John O’Donohue wrote a prayer not so much to God as to Life. It’s perfect for your needs right now. He said, “May my mind come alive today to the invisible geography that invites me to new frontiers, to break the dead shell of yesterdays, to risk being disturbed and changed.” I think you will generate an interesting onrush of healing, Aries, if you break the dead shell of yesterdays and risk being disturbed and changed. The new frontier is calling to you. To respond with alacrity, you must shed some baggage.

    TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
    In recent months, over 1,600 books were banned in school districts in 38 states. The forbidden books include titles about the heroes Nelson Mandela, Cesar Chavez, and Rosa Parks. With this trend as a motivational force, I encourage you Tauruses to take inventory of any tendencies you might have to censor the information you expose yourself to. According to my reading of the astrological omens, now is an excellent time to pry open your mind to consider ideas and facts you have shut out. Be eager to get educated and inspired by stimuli outside your usual scope.

    GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
    I think we can all agree that it’s really fun to fall in love. Those times when we feel a thrilling infatuation welling up within us are among the most pleasurable of all human experiences. Wouldn’t it be great if we could do it over and over again as the years go by? Just keep getting bowled over by fresh immersions in swooning adoration? But alas, giving in to such a temptation might make it hard to build intimacy and trust with a committed, long-term partner. Here’s a possible alternative: Instead of getting smitten with an endless series of new paramours, we could get swept away by novel teachings, revelatory meditations, lovable animals, sublime art or music, amazing landscapes or sanctuaries, and exhilarating adventures. I hope you will be doing that in the coming weeks, Gemini.

    CANCER (June 21-July 22):
    The scientific method is an excellent approach for understanding reality. It’s not the only one, and should not be used to the exclusion of other ways of knowing. But even if you’re allergic to physics or never step into a chemistry lab, you are wise to use the scientific method in your daily life. The coming weeks will be an especially good time to enjoy its benefits. What would that mean, practically speaking? Set aside your subjective opinions and habitual responses. Instead, simply gather evidence. Treasure actual facts. Try to be as objective as you can in evaluating everything that happens. Be highly attuned to your feelings, but also be aware that they may not provide all facets of the truth.

    LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
    Is there anything in your psychological makeup that would help you do some detective work? How are your skills as a researcher? Are you willing to be cagey and strategic as you investigate what’s going on behind the scenes? If so, I invite you to carry out any or all of these four tasks in the coming weeks: 1. Try to become aware of shrouded half-truths. 2. Be alert for shadowy stuff lurking in bright, shiny environments. 3. Uncover secret agendas and unacknowledged evidence. 4. Explore stories and situations that no one else seems curious about.

    VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
    The country of Nepal, which has strong Virgo qualities, is divided into seven provinces. One is simply called “Province No.1,” while the others are Sudurpashchim, Karnali, Gandaki, Lumbini, Bagmati, and Janakpur. I advise Nepal to give Province No. 1 a decent name very soon. I also recommend that you Virgos extend a similar outreach to some of the unnamed beauty in your sphere. Have fun with it. Give names to your phone, your computer, your bed, your hairdryer, and your lamps, as well as your favorite trees, houseplants, and clouds. You may find that the gift of naming helps make the world a more welcoming place with which you have a more intimate relationship. And that would be an artful response to current cosmic rhythms.

    LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
    Are you aimless, impassive, and stuck, floundering as you try to preserve and maintain? Or are you fiercely and joyfully in quest of vigorous and dynamic success? What you do in the coming weeks will determine which of these two forks in your destiny will be your path for the rest of 2023. I’ll be rooting for the second option. Here is a tip to help you be strong and bold. Learn the distinctions between your own soulful definition of success and the superficial, irrelevant, meaningless definitions of success that our culture celebrates. Then swear an oath to love, honor, and serve your soulful definition.

    SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
    The next four weeks will be a time of germination, metaphorically analogous to the beginning of a pregnancy. The attitudes and feelings that predominate during this time will put a strong imprint on the seeds that will mature into full ripeness by late 2023. What do you want to give birth to in 40 weeks or so, Scorpio? Choose wisely! And make sure that in this early, impressionable part of the process, you provide your growing creations with positive, nurturing influences.

    SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
    I recommend you set up Designated Arguing Summits (DAT). These will be short periods when you and your allies get disputes out in the open. Disagreements must be confined to these intervals. You are not allowed to squabble at any other time. Why do I make this recommendation? I believe that many positive accomplishments are possible for you in the coming weeks, and it would be counterproductive to expend more than the minimal necessary amount on sparring. Your glorious assignment: Be emotionally available and eager to embrace the budding opportunities.

    CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
    Actor Judi Dench won an Oscar for her role as Queen Elizabeth in the film Shakespeare in Love—even though she was onscreen for just eight minutes. Beatrice Straight got an Oscar for her role in the movie Network, though she appeared for less than six minutes. I expect a similar phenomenon in your world, Capricorn. A seemingly small pivot will lead to a vivid turning point. A modest seed will sprout into a prismatic bloom. A cameo performance will generate long-term ripples. Be alert for the signs.

    WANT MORE? Listen to Rob’s EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES, 4-5 minute meditations on the current state of your destiny — or subscribe to his unique daily text message service at: RealAstrology.com

    (Zodiac images by Numerologysign.com, CC license)

    SHARE The Wisdom With Friends Who Are Stars in Your Life on Social Media…



    Good News Network



    Source link

    For 3 Hrs Health professionals Ongoing CPR on Toddler with No Pulse–Until Lifetime Returned


    Waylon Saunders – produced by Gillian Burnett

    When 3-year-old Waylon Saunders arrived at the medical center, he was currently legally dead and had been for a although.

    Observed face-down in an icy yard swimming pool, the Ontario toddler’s human body temperature was so minimal that paramedics’ thermometers could not get a looking at, and he had no pulse.

    Nevertheless, a staff at Charlotte Eleanor Englehart Clinic in Petrolia, Ontario executed CPR for 3 hrs with out stopping, although simultaneously making use of other approaches to warm his frozen entire body.

    There is a traditional scene you can view in several distinctive films and Television set, from Gray’s Anatomy to On line casino Royale, the place CPR is tried and soon after a minute, the human being, regardless of whether Gray or James Bond, stops or is pulled away from pounding on a patient’s chest, unwilling to settle for they are no more time revivable.

    Fortunately for Waylon they did not halt, and following 3 hours of compressing his chest to artificially pump blood to his mind and other organs, Waylon’s heart was restarted and held on maintaining on.

    “They had a cycle of persons providing CPR in Petrolia. They experienced people today warming him with several distinctive procedures,” said Dr. Janice Tijssen, director of the pediatric essential treatment unit at Children’s Hospital, London Overall health Sciences Centre in Ontario where Waylon was rushed soon after his coronary heart restarted.

    “There was a significant group aiding him then, keeping him cozy as his organs began to mend. Then enabling him to wake up. He’s exceeded all anticipations,” Tijssen instructed CBC information.

    In the 2020 European Championships, Danish footballer Christan Erikson collapsed from cardiac arrest on the pitch, stunning the group to a hush. Denmark’s captain Simon Kjaer acknowledged what was taking place, secured his teammate’s neck, make absolutely sure he wasn’t swallowing his tongue and commenced performing CPR although the paramedics arrived who then carried on for 15 minutes just before Erikson could be taken off from the pitch. Erikson’s coronary heart was stopped for 78 minutes in complete.

    Far more RESCUE Tales: Property Mortgages Are Compensated Off for 5 To start with Responders to Honor Their Everyday living-Conserving Work

    If a person did not know nearly anything about CPR, an individual seeing the video game or watching small Waylon be rushed into the medical center may possibly have been particular they ended up never heading to wake up. Motion pictures and Television possibly exhibit CPR functioning right after much less than a minute, or never ever operating, but in truth CPR can revive men and women who have experienced their coronary heart stopped for tens of minutes.

    Waylon’s mom Gillian Burnett mentioned the staff retains a piece of her heart for all time for their resolve.

    Far more To start with Help Tales: 12-Yr-previous Will save Friend’s Leg Applying To start with-Assist From ‘Hunger Games’ E book

    CPR is not a difficult technique and can be realized and practiced in straightforward classes, typically provided by nearby faculties and firehouses. It is achievable that Kjaer saved Erikson’s existence by starting CPR so early, and it is probable you could preserve someone’s life much too if you’re the only just one who knows how to carry out it.

    Listen to Tijssen make clear how they saved Waylon’s life.

    SHARE This Heroic Resuscitation And Essential Professional medical Info On Social Media…



    Andy Corbley



    Resource url

    Banga the banker – Local weather Weekly


    Indicator up to get our weekly publication straight to your inbox, furthermore breaking news, investigations and more bulletins from critical occasions

    The ink is hardly dry on David Malpass’s resignation letter but the US has currently picked its applicant to be his successor, to positive noises from the bank’s other shareholders.

    They’ve plumped for very long-time Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga to oversee the bank’s evolution into an establishment which can tackle the local weather disaster.

    His identify has received a combined reception from the weather local community.

    To his supporters, he’s bought invaluable and comprehensive expertise at the highest levels of the private sector, a demonstrable curiosity in tackling weather adjust and, as an Indian in The united states, is aware of the global north and south.

    To critics, he is “another advocate of neoliberalism” who crafted his job with Pepsi and Nestle, sat on the board of the Dow Chemical company and dined with Donald Trump.

    This notion was not assisted by a Republican congressman celebrating his nomination as a indication Biden is abandoning his “radical local climate and social agenda”.

    Banga would also be the 14th president in a row to be a male. In advance of his nomination, Germany’s governor Svenja Schulze reported it was “definitely time for a woman”.

    The next president will experience force to up the radicalism of reforms. At their G20 summit this weekend, India will force for the financial institution to lend extra dollars at less expensive fees to developing international locations.

    Officials from Barbados and Germany told Local weather Home this 7 days that the bank’s strategy to loosen its paying policies does not go significantly ample.

    This week’s tales

    And we’ve obtained some new jargon for you: “insetting”. We consider it is likely to be significant.

    Corporate sustainability varieties like it but campaigners say it is just offsetting but even worse.



    Joe Lo



    Supply connection

    US offers $550m to deal with air pollution in weak neighbourhoods


    The income is aspect of a $3 billion environmental justice pot at last authorised by Congress right after a very long fight towards Republicans and conservative Democrats

    US president Joe Biden’s administration introduced on Thursday it will pick 11 organisations across the United States to administer $550 million in grants to deprived communities for lowering legacy pollution and getting entry to thoroughly clean power.

    The Environmental Defense Agency (EPA) will fund organisations, which could involve substantial non-profit teams, tribal nations and universities, that will serve as grantmakers for its new Environmental Justice Flourishing Communities Grantmaking method that will commit in local community-led assignments in regions that have been traditionally overburdened by air and drinking water pollution.

    The dollars is section of $3 billion incorporated for environmental justice block grants approved by Congress in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the Biden administration’s signature laws that will generate investment of virtually $369 billion in clean vitality and local climate priorities.

    “The cash that we have been entrusted with is more than triage. It is extra than repairing a modest difficulty. The scale and the eyesight of this financial commitment that Congress has offered us will transform these communities,” Robin Morris Collin, senior advisor for environmental justice at the EPA, informed Reuters in an job interview.

    Past September, the EPA launched a new business concentrated on the desires of low-profits and minority communities that have been overburdened by air pollution. It will oversee the deployment of the $3 billion in environmental justice grants.

    The programme will help the Biden administration meet its goal of providing 40% of the total benefits of federal climate investments to deprived communities and beneath-invested communities, which have experienced problems accessing federal assist.

    “We are stepping our procedures up to grow what has customarily not been a really welcoming environment for lower income and disadvantaged communities to entry economical assets,” Collin explained to Reuters.

    US backs Ajay Banga to lead Globe Financial institution in local climate combat

    The block grant system is 1 of various investments the IRA created targeted on environmental and weather justice.

    This month, the EPA outlined how states and non earnings teams can use for up to $27 billion from “green banks” that will give lower-expense financing for clean up vitality and emission decreasing initiatives.

    The deadline for corporations to apply is May perhaps 31, 2023. EPA expects the grant makers to start awarding subgrants no afterwards than early 2024.

    Joe Lo



    Supply link

    Flood risks are insufficiently priced into housing markets but better pricing would leave some worse off


    Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

    This is a summary of: Gourevitch, J. D. et al. Unpriced climate risk and the potential consequences of overvaluation in US housing markets. Nat. Clim. Change https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01594-8 (2023).



    Source link

    Reducing personal climate risk to reduce personal climate anxiety


    Climate anxiety, reflecting concerns about the negative impacts of climate change, is growing. Planning and action on individual specific climate risks could be a way to reduce personal climate anxiety.

    Personal climate anxiety is a real, individual response1,2 that stems from worry about negative ongoing and future climate change impacts3. Climate anxiety is magnified by present-day weather and climate experiences. For example, regional climate anxiety was present before the summer of 2021, but increased markedly due to the 2021 western North American heatwave and wildfires4. Media messaging of a looming climate crisis5 can fuel climate anxiety. For example, due in particular to traditional and social media reframing6, the aspirational 1.5 °C global warming threshold — a goal that physical, socioeconomic and infrastructure constraints have now rendered unlikely7 — is transmuting from a driver of change to an instigator of anxiety. Taken collectively across society, climate anxiety driven by personal concern for ongoing and future impacts and amplified by media framing now permeates the Anthropocene zeitgeist8.


    Credit: Mikkelwilliam/E+/Getty

    Personal climate anxiety is a climate impact in its own right, and accepting this is necessary to manage it at the individual level. However, this first step can be challenging, because it can trigger powerful defensive psychological responses, including mental transfer of responsibility for solutions to others, fatalism and even climate change denial9,10. Overcoming these psychological defences involves a journey that in many ways mirrors the challenges of accepting other uncomfortable personal issues such as addiction, trauma and loss.

    Beyond personal acceptance comes the most important stage of the climate anxiety experience: reducing the anxiety itself. It is this solutions-focused ‘treatment’ stage that we, as climate services providers and communicators in regular contact with anxiety-stricken individuals, are most keenly interested in. In particular, in this Comment, we would like to address a barrier to climate anxiety reduction that emerges as a common motif of most current climate anxiety reduction methods: that is, they are dominated by psychological, symptom-based anxiety reduction (‘coping’) approaches rather than methods to remove the actual cause of anxiety. Examples of bias towards coping rather than cure are common. For example, in a meta-study of five major themes for eco-anxiety reduction treatments11, four themes (80%) reflected coping methods, rather than initiatives to reduce anxiety root causes. Similar bias is found in psychology guidance1, and in numerous examples within the general public discourse12.

    However, prioritizing coping over root cause reduction is sub-optimal, and maybe even counterproductive to long-term personal mental health. This is because without a primary attempt at reducing the underlying driver — impacts from climate change — anxiety symptoms will always return, strengthening anxiety-enhancing neural pathways and biochemical responses13. Natural consequences of this feedback loop are entrenched fatalism, paralysis and apathy3 that are precursors of both climate anxiety and its natural partner, anticipatory climate grief14. Clearly, coping methods are necessary to treat residual effects. But if the intention is to reduce long-term individual climate anxiety, research suggests that coping methods alone should not form the primary basis for personal climate anxiety management plans.

    To reframe treatment of personal climate anxiety away from symptomatic coping and towards a strategy that addresses root causes, it helps to consider what these root causes actually are. Anxiety is foundationally a “suite of […] affective, cognitive and behavioural challenges in response to uncertainty about a potential future threat”13. Key to this definition is the term ‘uncertainty’, which relates to risk. For example, an individual may be anxious at risk of future financial loss due to evolving market uncertainty (financial anxiety), or the risk of future illness (health anxiety) due to uncertain emerging health trends (for example, COVID-19). These examples — and established anxiety research15 — highlight the perception of uncontrollable risk as a fundamental anxiety driver. The schema linking risk to anxiety applies directly to climate anxiety as well. An individual may develop personal climate anxiety when informed that they live on a flood plain that could in future become more at risk of severe flooding due to climate change. Another individual may develop personal climate anxiety after learning that climate-change-driven drought increases might risk their future food security. A third individual may feel generally anxious due to perceived global proximity to risky climate thresholds, without a clear mental construct of what the specific impacts may be to themselves or their community.

    Based on linkages between anxiety, uncertainty and risk established by cognitive science, we argue that personal climate anxiety is most effectively and sustainably reduced by prioritizing planning and action to reduce personal climate risks. Comparing climate anxiety to health anxiety around COVID-19 clarifies this argument. The counterfactual case where one prioritizes psychological, symptomatic methods for COVID-19 anxiety16 as the first line of defence while neglecting to plan and expeditiously undertake available COVID-19 risk reduction exercises such as social distancing, mask wearing and vaccination17 is self-evidently a poor plan, because it doesn’t prioritize attempts to reduce the core anxiety-causing risk itself. Instead, the intuitively correct first step in reducing COVID-19 anxiety is to start planning and undertaking available physical COVID-19 risk reduction actions before turning to psychological, symptomatic treatments as secondary methods to treat residual anxiety. This lesson should apply to personal climate anxiety as well: because personal climate anxiety is at least partially proportional to personal climate risk, planning and — as soon as is practical — actioning personal climate risk reduction steps should be a priority if the goal is personal climate anxiety reduction.

    Actions to reduce risk to uncertain future climate conditions is the essence of climate adaptation. By self-initiating personal adaptation actions to reduce climate risk by controlling personal climate vulnerability, we contend that individuals will decrease their climate anxiety in a way that psychological coping treatments can only provide temporarily. Personal adaptation actions alone are unlikely to entirely remove climate risk and for many intrinsically vulnerable individuals, all personally available actions may only trivially reduce actual risk. However, anxiety research reveals that “perceived capability to wield control over aversive events” is a potent anxiety reduction method — remarkably, even in lieu of any material reduction in the underlying risk15. In the climate anxiety context, this means that even starting to plan personal climate adaptation actions is a powerful tonic for sustainably reducing climate anxiety, as is the actual adaptation action — even when the actual climate risk reduction is minor.

    In practice, personal climate adaptation planning and action can be very simple. Reflecting on the examples provided above, the individual concerned about future floods could carry out a plan to move valuable personal items to higher shelves to avoid flood damages18. The individual concerned about future drought-related food security could start learning and applying urban garden techniques19. And the individual concerned with climate impacts generally could undertake a climate risks and vulnerability screening to more tangibly prioritize most effective climate risk reduction steps. Each of these actions are personally attainable, concrete and responsive to each individual’s life experiences. Clearly, none alone reduces an individual’s climate risk completely, nor does it directly address risks to others. However, each provides a perceived level of personal risk reduction and, via the relationships between risk, self-efficacy and anxiety13,15, of personal climate anxiety reduction as well. Indeed, personal climate anxiety reduction might be the most notable ‘success story’ of these individual climate adaptation initiatives.

    Personal action as a means to reduce climate anxiety is not an entirely neglected concept — for example, one of five major themes of personal eco-anxiety interventions is “encouraging clients to take action”11. However, in this example — and mirrors of this example in popular media and guidance — we find that ‘action’ predominantly refers to advocating for general institutional climate resilience, and/or reducing personal and institutional greenhouse gas emissions. These altruistic actions are commendable and necessary to avoid serious climate-change-derived damages. However, they are arguably less effective on a ‘per unit of effort expended’ basis than personal risk reduction if reducing personal climate anxiety is the immediate goal. This is because their outcomes contribute to individual climate resilience only to the extent that society as a whole also contributes: something that is well outside of most individuals’ circle of influence. So while citizen participation in mitigation and institutional adaptation efforts is critical, in the specific context of reducing personal climate anxiety, an arguably more effective recommendation is to plan and undertake personal- and/or household-level climate-risk-reduction-framed climate adaptation20. It is this self-perception of control over one’s own situation that anxiety research highlights as a particularly influential lever when it comes to personal anxiety management.

    Especially when supported by residual, psychological anxiety coping steps and augmented by support for broader climate adaptation and mitigation initiatives, cognitive science suggests that planning and undertaking personal climate adaptation is a climate-anxiety-reducing action with a high return on personal investment. It should be more prominently highlighted as part of solution-focused climate outreach and communications. And we think that it should play a much more central role in climate anxiety research, treatment and the public climate anxiety discourse.



    Source link

    Public acceptance of fossil fuel subsidy removal can be reinforced with revenue recycling


    By using a 1 × 7, pre-registered survey experiment (N = 6,636), we contribute to the existing literature in the following ways: (1) fivedeveloping countries (Ecuador, Egypt, India, Indonesia and Mexico) are studied — they were selected because they all have large subsidies for fossil fuel linked to both its consumption and production; (2) we analyse public attitudes toward the introduction of a carbon tax, and the removal of subsidies on both industrial and private consumption of fossil fuels; (3) we examine whether and how attitudes toward subsidy removal and carbon taxation may differ from each other; (4) we study whether policies that use savings from fossil fuel subsidy removals to invest in the social and economic welfare system lead to more positive attitudes toward subsidy removal.



    Source link

    US backs Ajay Banga to direct Entire world Lender in local climate fight


    The Indian-American businessman is likely to turn into the bank’s upcoming president, as the US ordinarily chooses who potential customers the establishment

    The US authorities has nominated Indian-American businessman Ajay Banga to direct the Environment Lender, citing his working experience in mobilising finance to deal with climate modify.

    President Joe Biden reported the former Mastercard government “has essential practical experience mobilising general public-non-public assets to tackle the most urgent troubles of our time, like weather change”.

    Banga is at this time an advisor to General Atlantic’s local weather-focused fund, BeyondNetZero, has sat on the boards of large firms like Dow Substances and has labored with US vice-president Kamala Harris on her Central American policies.

    The bank has been led by 13 adult males and no females. Germany’s earth bank governor Svenja Schulze tweeted this week “it is absolutely time for a lady to lead the World Bank”.

    The US is the bank’s most significant shareholder and historically picks its president so it is possible that Banga will substitute David Malpass when he measures down in or before June.

    Malpass was a Trump appointee who resigned just before the close of his time period subsequent criticism of climate sceptic comments he created past yr.

    The public banking institutions direct for the E3G marketing campaign team Sonia Dunlop welcomed the nomination. She stated: “Banga will be a contemporary pair of arms at the wheel of what we hope will be a greener, more substantial, transformational and reformed Planet Lender able of major a world-wide response to world wide issues.”

    Local weather evolution

    The Entire world Financial institution has come to be a crucial concentrate of initiatives to deal with international local weather alter.

    Barbados’s primary minister Mia Mottley very first called for it to do a lot more to no cost up paying to deal with climate change, in an initiative labelled the Bridgetown agenda.

    That phone has been taken up by important lender shareholders like the US, Germany and India. It was endorsed by all governments at Cop27 and has been taken on by the UAE as hosts of Cop28.

    Especially, the bank has proposed decreasing the bank loan to fairness ratio of its main lending arm from 20% to 19%, freeing up about $4 billion a yr to lend.

    Reformers from the governments of Barbados and Germany told Local weather Household this 7 days that this was a excellent start but did not go much adequate.

    Credit history rating

    Several governments, together with those of Barbados and Germany, say that any loosening of lending regulations really should not endanger the bank’s AAA credit score rating.

    This score, determined by credit rating ranking organizations like Moody’s, makes it possible for the bank to borrow cash inexpensive and as a result to lend it cheap.

    The federal government of India will push at the G20 this week for the lender to give more affordable climate finance to creating countries than formulated kinds.

    The bank will host its spring assembly in its residence town of Washington DC in April.

    Entire world Lender main to move down early following local climate controversy

    There it will examine its ‘evolution roadmap’ with its shareholder governments.

    This roadmap aims to broaden the bank’s mission so that involves tackling weather modify, pandemics and other global troubles as perfectly as its recent twin goals of reducing poverty and boosting prosperity.

    The financial institution proposes to give much more income to middle-cash flow countries to minimize greenhouse gas emissions as these rising economies pollute considerably additional than the world’s poorest countries.

    The bank also would like to lend much more funds to nations which are vulnerable to local climate change. At the moment, a country’s requires are dependent just on how weak a state is.

    To finance this wider mission, the bank’s roadmap phone calls for extra funding from governments.



    Joe Lo



    Resource url

    Cross-national analysis of attitudes towards fossil fuel subsidy removal


    To reach the CO2-emission reduction targets of the Paris Agreement’s Nationally Determined Contributions, a growing number of countries are considering implementing domestic carbon taxes. These would increase the price on fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, end-use electricity and petroleum) to decrease fossil fuel consumption (for example, Coalition of Finance Ministers). However, and repeatedly recognized during both the 26th UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP26) meeting in Glasgow and the recently finalized COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, many countries currently have policies that keep end-user prices artificially low through subsidies. This encourages increases in both production and consumption of fossil fuels and thus effectively counteracts the intended objective of carbon pricing. In addition, subsidies represent a burden on the governments’ fiscal budgets through deficits and revenue losses. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found that tax breaks and spending programmes (fossil fuel support) in the G20 countries, linked to both the production and use of coal, oil, gas and other petroleum products, had risen to US$190 billion in 2021, a level that is higher than in previous years (30% higher than in 2020)1. The OECD and International Energy Agency (IEA) have also estimated that governments in 51 countries provided US$697.2 billion in fossil fuel subsidies in 2021, doubling the amount from 20202, an amount that is three times the annual amount needed to eradicate global extreme poverty3.

    All these mentioned costs are, however, only the direct costs of the subsidies themselves. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), including also indirect costs (the contribution of fossil fuels to global warming, local air pollution and other externalities, and foregone consumption tax) would increase the figure for annual fossil fuel subsidies by around US$6 trillion, or 6.5% of global GDP3,4. They also find that 45% of the benefits from direct fossil fuel subsidies goes to the richest quintile, while only 7% goes to the poorest 20% of the population5.

    Removing subsidies on all fossil fuels simultaneously should be the natural first step to reduce CO2 emissions6 since removing subsidies only on some fossil fuels will risk increasing the consumption of another, still subsidized, fossil fuel (compare ref. 7). Particularly in developing countries, increasing fiscal revenues originated from savings from removed fossil fuel subsidies can be used for welfare-enhancing projects (for example, investments in health care and education) and spurring economic growth8 and eradicate the regressivity of the existing subsidies.

    These issues have started to be acknowledged also by world leaders, for example, in the Glasgow Climate Pact at the 2021 COP26, which calls for “accelerating efforts toward the phase-out of […] inefficient fossil fuel subsidies, recognizing the need for support toward a just transition”.9 The concept of just transitions implies recognizing and attempting to counteract the profound societal impacts that a shift towards a low-carbon future implies, not the least in the form of job losses due to fossil fuel industry decline and uneven distribution of costs and benefits both within and between countries (for example, ref. 10). Given that such a shift may have immediate negative consequences for individuals and groups, the political feasibility of removing fossil fuel subsidies in any country highly depends on the degree of public acceptability of such a policy11,12.

    Numerous scholars and policy experts have advocated putting a price on carbon as a highly cost-effective way to reduce GHG emissions13,14. Introducing such policies has, however, become a vexing problem for decision makers worldwide. The examples of Australia in 2015, France in 2018 and Ecuador in 2019 demonstrate how widespread the public’s negative attitudes towards carbon taxes and removal of fossil fuel subsidies seem to be, and thus how difficult they are to implement. Several factors are known to determine policy attitudes, including perceptions of fairness, effectiveness, political trust and climate concern15 (compare refs. 16,17,18,19,20,21.) Political feasibility of carbon-pricing implementation and subsidy removal requires that one measures and analyzes how public opposition can be minimized. Such analyses are indeed crucial for stakeholders, policymakers and academics involved in climate change and policymaking. The empirical analysis of political feasibility, balancing effectiveness and cost efficiency with public acceptability, is imperative, especially as policymakers tend to be reluctant to introduce policies if levels of public acceptability are low22. From a theoretical perspective, understanding why certain policies generate negative perceptions, and the extent to which a design of a policy measure affects mass policy attitudes, is of great interest since it speaks to theories of policy feedback and how policy design can create its own constituency of support (for example, refs. 23,24)

    In light of this, a number of recent experimental survey studies have suggested policies that could make carbon pricing more readily acceptable to the public, for example, fee-and-dividend approaches25 (feebates), earmarking of tax revenues for necessary investments26 and even rhetorical shifts from ‘tax’ to ‘fee’27. These studies have focused mostly on (1) carbon taxation and (2) the developed world. Far fewer studies are concerned with public attitudes towards climate policy in developing countries, and even fewer, if at all, with attitudes towards the removal of fossil fuel subsidies as a climate change mitigation strategy15. However, considering the literature focusing on both contextual drivers of climate policy attitudes (for example, ref. 21) and cross-national patterns in carbon pricing (for example, ref. 28), we do not expect that attitudes and attitude formation differ systematically between the Global North and Global South. We rather assume that both attitudes and policy are sensitive to a range of complex and country-specific factors.

    By using a 1 × 7, pre-registered, factorial-design survey experiment (N = 6,636), we make the following contributions to the related literature. (1) We consider five developing countries (Ecuador, Egypt, India, Indonesia and Mexico) that currently subsidize both consumption and production of fossil fuels. We select these countries because they have some of the highest levels of subsidies on consumption of fossil fuels29. (2) We analyse public attitudes in these countries towards (a) the introduction of a carbon tax and (b) the removal of subsidies on both industrial and private consumption of fossil fuels. (3) We examine whether and how attitudes towards subsidy removal and carbon taxation may differ from each other. (4) We compare attitudes towards removal of subsidies on private consumption of fossil fuels with those towards removal of subsidies on fossil fuels for industrial use. (5) We study whether policies that reallocate money spent on fossil fuel subsidies to investments that increase social and economic welfare systems lead to more-positive attitudes towards subsidy removal (refs. 26,30,31). At the outset, we report that optimal use of savings from subsidy removal has positive effects on public attitudes.

    In our survey, the respondents were also asked about their social and economic characteristics, whether they own a fossil fuelled vehicle and their views regarding various climate change scenarios (Supplementary Information). In addition, we empirically analyse the effects of these variables on their policy attitudes.

    We proceed from the well-established hypothesis that an important driver of policy attitudes is the balance of perceived personal costs and benefits of a proposed policy32,33,34,35. First, we hypothesize that acceptance of removing fossil fuel subsidies will be lower than the corresponding attitude to introducing a carbon tax, as the former indicates a more visible and direct loss of money for the consumer compared with the indirect workings of a tax.

    H1: The public acceptance of removing subsidies on fossil fuels is lower than the public acceptance of introducing a CO2 tax on fossil fuels.

    Second, a range of studies (for example, refs. 36,37) have demonstrated how individuals display more-positive attitudes towards policies directed towards industry rather than towards themselves, in much the same way as people in general tend to prefer less-stringent policies over more-coercive ones (for example, ref. 38). This might be due to both general beliefs concerning how the proposed policy will have direct implications for personal welfare (personal outcome expectancies)33 and distributional preferences driven by the attitude that industry rather than individuals should bear the main costs of climate change39. As such, we hypothesize that people dislike policies that imply direct personal costs more than policies aimed towards industry, even if these might indirectly affect consumer prices, and that public acceptance of removing fossil fuel subsidies for private consumption therefore is lower than for those for industrial use.

    H2: The public acceptance of removing fossil fuel subsidies for private consumption is lower than the public acceptance of removing fossil fuel subsidies for industrial use.

    Moreover, a growing body of research concludes that negative attitudes towards price-based climate policy tools can be alleviated through policy design, in particular revenue recycling, where a price increase is combined with a specified use of the available public funds26,31 (but see ref. 30). Although research is somewhat inconclusive concerning the attitudinal effects of different forms of revenue recycling (for example, fee-and-dividend solutions, increased investments in welfare systems (for example, education and health care) and using revenues for specific climate-related projects), we nevertheless expect that transparency in the use of generated public funds will trigger more-positive attitudes compared with non-specified use of public funds19,40. Such additional information aims to prevent people’s perception that the subsidy removal is only an increased cost for the household.

    H3: Compared with non-specified revenue use, the public acceptance of removing fossil fuel subsidies for private consumption is higher when revenue use is specified.



    Source link

    Copyright No Harm Co 2020. All Rights Reserved
    Privacy Settings
    We use cookies to enhance your experience while using our website. If you are using our Services via a browser you can restrict, block or remove cookies through your web browser settings. We also use content and scripts from third parties that may use tracking technologies. You can selectively provide your consent below to allow such third party embeds. For complete information about the cookies we use, data we collect and how we process them, please check our Privacy Policy
    Youtube
    Consent to display content from Youtube
    Vimeo
    Consent to display content from Vimeo
    Google Maps
    Consent to display content from Google
    Save