Waterworld was a big screen production filmed off the Big Island in 1995. The film depicted a post-apocalyptic world in which human-driven global warming of the planet had reached its final conclusion, after the melting of Greenland and the polar ice caps, leaving most of the globe underwater.
Waterworld screenwriter, Peter Rader, says he was an early adopter to climate change warnings, which provided part of the inspiration for Waterworld. “I wrote the original draft in 1986 very much thinking about global warming, even back then. We didn’t have Google at the time, but if you went to any library you could easily find out that if all the ice melted, the sea would rise and cover much of the Earth’s land mass.”
Fast forward your VCR to today, and thanks to environmental activists like Greta Thunberg, and the near daily reports of climate warming impacts from around the world, public awareness and concerns have moved climate-related topics to the front page of the world’s media – a hot topic, especially among America’s younger generations who will live with the global failure of humankind to take immediate measures to address global warming and mitigate its fossil-fueled consequences. For them, Waterworld isn’t just a movie: It’s a dire warning call of a world to come.
Loss of Greenland Ice Sheet Reached a Record Last Year
The ice loss in 2019 was more than twice the annual average since 2003.
Greenland lost a record amount of ice in 2019, researchers reported Thursday. Nearly half of it was lost in July, when the region roasted from an unusual heat wave.
The net ice loss of more than 530 billion metric tons was more than twice the annual average since 2003, the scientists said. In July, when warm air from Europe moved north, leading to temperatures that were well above normal and causing widespread surface melting of the ice sheet, the loss was roughly equal to the average loss in a full year.
Greenland’s ice sheet is nearly two miles thick in places, and if all the ice were to melt, sea levels would rise about 24 feet.
That kind of catastrophic melt down could take a century or two. But since the 1990s, as the Arctic has warmed faster than any other part of the planet, ice loss from Greenland and its contribution to sea level rise have accelerated.
But ice loss can vary from year to year. So far in 2020, he said, net ice loss appears to be a little below average. Both 2017 and 2018 had colder-than-usual summers, when cold air flowed from the north along the west coast of Greenland, reducing ice loss. But in 2019 that circulation pattern was reversed, with warm air coming from the south.
Many scientists are increasingly seeing a link to global warming that is made worse by sea-ice loss in the Arctic Ocean.
In Greenland, ice loss results from runoff of surface meltwater and from discharge of ice from glaciers that serve as outlets for the ice sheet, connecting it to the ocean. Accumulation results from snowfall that, compressed over years, eventually becomes ice. When runoff and discharge exceed accumulation, the result is net loss.
“Mass (ice) loss is not going away anytime soon,” Dr. King said, said the study’s lead author. “But of course we have control over the rate by taking steps to mitigate climate change“. “It’s not a throw-your-hands-up kind of situation,” she said.
Today, there is more carbon dioxide in the air now than at any time in the last 3 million years — The last time there was this much CO2 in the atmosphere, global average surface temperatures were significantly warmer than they are today, and sea levels were 50 to 80 feet higher.
The continuing rise in CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere may sound surprising in light of recent findings that the pandemic, and the associated lockdowns, had led to a steep drop in global greenhouse gas emissions; a 17 percent decline in early April, but only a temporary blimp on the climate radar.
“The buildup of CO2 is a bit like trash in a landfill. As we keep emitting, it keeps piling up,” said Ralph Keeling, who directs Scripps’s carbon dioxide monitoring program, and whose late father, Charles David Keeling, began measurements at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii in 1958, and at that time it was 313 parts per million in atmospheric CO2 gas concentrations.
Fossil Fuel Emissions Push Greenhouse Gas Indicators to Record High in May – New measurements show that not even the pandemic can flatten the Keeling Curve.
As graphs go, the Keeling Curve is simple, but it clearly illustrates the planet’s vexing global warming challenge. In a decades-long upward zigzag it charts the unrelenting increase of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Natural factors such as El Niño events in the tropical Pacific Ocean and changes in terrestrial carbon sinks, such as forests, can have a large influence on the rate of climb in CO2 concentration from year to year, but the historic trend is undeniable.
This year’s May CO2 peak marked an increase of about 2.4 ppm compared with a year ago. The 2010 to 2019 average rate of increase is precisely the same at 2.4 ppm per year, according to NOAA. The decline of El Niño during the past year may help explain why the increase in the last year was not as large as recent years.
Because atmospheric levels of CO2 are cumulative, they will continue to increase until net emissions are cut to zero. Molecules of CO2 can remain in the atmosphere for up to 1,000 years.
Scientists warn that we’re on course to reach 450 ppm by mid-century, where levels would need to stop increasing to have a decent chance of meeting the goals in the Paris climate agreement, which seeks to limit climate change to well below 3.6 degrees (2 Celsius) above preindustrial levels by 2100.
Kim Cobb, a climate scientist at Georgia Tech, says the new findings underscore the need to act now. “It is a reminder that climate change is not on pause in any way, shape or form,” she said.
“We estimated that fossil carbon emissions dropped 8 percent [during] January through April, from 12 billion metric tons in 2019 to 11 billion in 2020,” he said. “A billion tons is a lot, but not so much that we can find it with statistical confidence.”
Keeling says it would take a sustained drop in emissions, rather than a sudden decline related to the coronavirus pandemic, to show up more clearly in measurements of atmospheric CO2. “What really matters here is setting a new trajectory,” he said.
The current pace of human-caused carbon emissions is increasingly likely to trigger irreversible damage to the planet
According to a comprehensive international study released last week, Researchers studying one of the most important and vexing topics in climate science — how sensitive the Earth’s climate is to a doubling of the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere — found that global warming is extremely unlikely to be on the low end of estimates.
Scientists say it is likely that if human activities — such as burning oil, gas and coal along with deforestation — push carbon dioxide to such levels, the Earth’s global average temperature will most likely increase between 4.1 and 8.1 degrees Fahrenheit (2.3 and 4.5 degrees Celsius). The previous and long-standing estimated range of climate sensitivity, as first laid out in a 1979 report, was 2.7 to 8.1 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 to 4.5 Celsius).
If the warming reaches the midpoint of this new range, it would be extremely damaging, said Kate Marvel, a physicist at NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies and Columbia University, who called it the equivalent of a “five-alarm fire” for the planet. The new range is narrower than previous studies but shows at least a 95 percent chance that a doubling of carbon dioxide, which the world is on course to reach within the next five decades or so, would result in warming greater than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) relative to pre-industrial temperatures.
Breaking Climate News
Trump rolls back methane climate standards for oil and gas industry
The Trump administration is revoking rules that require oil and gas drillers to detect and fix leaks of methane, a greenhouse gas that heats the planet far faster than carbon dioxide.
Methane has a much more potent short-term warming effect than CO2 and addressing it is critical to slowing global heating as the world is already on track to become more than 3C hotter than before industrialization.
Methane is a greenhouse gas that heats the planet far faster than CO2 and addressing it is critical to slowing global heating
The Trump administration’s changes apply to new wells and those drilled since 2016, when President Barack Obama enacted the regulation in an effort to help stall climate change during a boom in fracking – a method of extracting fossil gas by injecting water and chemicals underground. The regulations required companies to regularly check for methane leaks from valves, pipelines and tanks.
Roughly a quarter of global warming the planet has experienced in recent decades has been due to methane, said Robert Howarth, a researcher who studies methane at Cornell University. The oil and gas industry is the biggest source of the pollutant.
“Methane is the second most important gas after carbon dioxide,” Howarth said. “For the time it’s in the atmosphere, it’s about 120 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than is carbon dioxide. There’s nowhere near as much of it in the atmosphere so it ends up being not quite as important overall, but it’s very powerful.”
Methane emitted today is largely gone in 30 years and totally gone in about 60 years, but it has a big effect on the climate in the meantime. That effect is most significant in the first months methane is released, when it is about 120 times stronger than carbon. That drops to around 86 times more powerful over 20 years and 33 times more powerful if compared with carbon over 100 years, Howarth said.
US methane emissions have become more concerning as scientists have begun to better understand their prevalence and impacts, and as gas production has continued to grow rapidly, increasing 10% last year.
Average global temperatures are already more than 1C higher. And they are expected to be 1.5C to 2C higher within the next 10 to 25 years, Howarth said. Reductions in carbon have a delayed effect on temperatures. But reductions in methane have a more immediate impact.
The world essentially cannot meet the near-term goals nations agreed to in an international climate agreement without reducing methane, Howarth said.
On the Path to Extinction
Ocean Warming Dooms Most Fish
The oceans could look much emptier by 2100, according to a new study that found that most fish species would not be able to survive in their current habitat if average global temperatures rise 4.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, as The Guardian reported.
The researchers of the new paper said that 60 percent of fish species face a grave threat from global heating if temperatures approach that worst-case scenario level. The species under threat include many common fish found in grocery stores, including staples like Atlantic cod, Alaska pollock and sockeye salmon, and sport fishing favorites like swordfish, barracuda and brown trout, as CNN reported.
The new study, published in the journal Science, looked at how nearly 700 fresh and saltwater fish species respond to warming ocean temperatures. The problem for most fish is that as ocean temperatures rise, the oxygen level goes down, which makes it extremely challenging for embryos to survive.
“A 1.5C increase is already a challenge to some, and if we let global warming persist, it can get much worse,” said Hans-Otto Pörtner, a co-author on the paper and a climatologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research in Germany, as The Guardian reported.
That 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold would result in 10 percent of marine species suffering over the next 80 years, including the aforementioned grocery staples.
However, even a 10 percent decline in fish species has a large ripple effect on ecosystems as one species being pushed out effects the food supply and the habits of many other species that have evolved to be interdependent.
“More than half of the species potentially at risk is quite astonishing, so we really emphasize that it’s important to take action and follow the political commitments to reduce climate change and protect marine habitats,” said Dr. Flemming Dahlke, a marine biologist at Germany’s Alfred Wegener Institute and one of the authors of the study, as CNN reported.
“Some species might successfully manage this change,” said Dahlke, as the Daily Mail reported. “But if you consider the fact that fish have adapted their mating patterns to specific habitats over extremely long time frames, and have tailored their mating cycles to specific ocean currents and available food sources, it has to be assumed that being forced to abandon their normal spawning areas will mean major problems for them.”
A lot of this is a conservative estimate since the study did not take into account pollution or the increased acidity of the ocean, which could present additional challenges to sensitive species, as The Guardian noted.
“Some tropical fish are already living in zones at their uppermost tolerance, their areas are already 104F,” Pörtner said. “Humankind is pushing the planet outside of a comfortable temperature range and we are starting to lose suitable habitat. It’s worth investing in the Paris Climate Accord goals.”
Seasonal allergies getting worse, the climate connection
Pollen related allergies and their symptoms are starting earlier in the year and seemingly getting worse, doctors around the world now reporting. Allergy season is worse than ever, with a constellation of symptoms — runny nose, itchy eyes, sneezing, and even difficulties in breathing, changes tracked back to the increasing global effects of climate change.
Increasingly, patients are telling their doctors that their allergy symptoms have become increasingly severe in recent years. One reason for this may be the rise in seasonal pollen counts, as demonstrated by ragweed, one of the most common allergens in the United States.
Studies show that higher levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, which is produced when fossil fuels are burned for energy, leads to increased plant growth and pollen production. Between 1900 and 2019, the concentration of carbon dioxide rose from 280 to 412 parts per million, which correlates with a more than twofold increase in the production of ragweed pollen, with trends projected to increase fourfold in the next 40 years with continued unchecked carbon dioxide emissions.
This escalation of seasonal pollen concentration does not only affect quality of life, it also has an economic impact, as those suffering from allergies spend more money on medicine to control and relieve their symptoms.
For those who are experiencing the familiar symptoms of sneezing, itchy eyes and stuffy nose, this is not just a “bad pollen” year. The world is warming and pollen is lasting longer and increasing in concentrations all around us.
https://www.beyondkona.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/CO2-Levels-June-2020.jpg584529Bill Bugbeehttps://www.beyondkona.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/beyond-kona-logo.pngBill Bugbee2020-08-12 17:32:002020-08-13 19:31:25Mauna Loa tracks record high levels of carbon dioxide, with local and global consequences
Operation Warp Speed has moved along at a rapid clip. But some people involved in the process fear pressure to deliver an October surprise for President Trump.
“DEADLINE: Enable broad access to the public by October 2020,” the first slide read, with the date in bold. It escaped no one that the proposed deadline also intersected nicely with President Trump’s need to curb the virus before the election in November.
Under constant pressure from a White House anxious for good news and a public desperate for a silver bullet to end the crisis, the government’s researchers are fearful of political intervention in the coming months and are struggling to ensure that the government maintains the right balance between speed and rigorous regulation, according to interviews with administration officials, federal scientists and outside experts.
Even in a less politically charged environment, there would be a fraught debate about how much to accelerate the process of trials and approval. The longer that vaccines are tested before being released, the likelier they are to be safe and effective.
Despite concerted efforts by the Trump administration and a bevy of pharmaceutical companies it is working with, the original October target has slipped, with the administration now pushing to have hundreds of millions of doses available by the end of the year or early 2021.
“There are a lot of people on the inside of this process who are very nervous about whether the administration is going to reach their hand into the Warp Speed bucket, pull out one or two or three vaccines, and say, ‘We’ve tested it on a few thousand people, it looks safe, and now we are going to roll it out,’”said Dr. Paul A. Offit of the University of Pennsylvania, who is a member of the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisory committee. “They are really worried about that,” he added. “And they should be.”
Dr. Fauci to the rescue?
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, reassured members of Congress and the public last Friday that the United States would likely have a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine by the end of this year or early in 2021, and pointedly cast doubt on efforts by Russia and China.
Dr. Fauci Reassures Congress “U.S. Will Likely Have Vaccine By Year’s End or Early 2021”
“I do hope that the Chinese and the Russians are actually testing the vaccine before they’re administering the vaccine to anyone,” Dr. Fauci said, adding, “I do not believe that there will be vaccines so far ahead of us that we will have to depend on other countries to get us vaccines.”
Dr. Fauci also cast doubt on a study, touted by Mr. Trump and conservatives, conducted by Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit that showed an apparent benefit for hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria drug that President Trump has touted as a Covid-19 treatment. “That study is a flawed study,” Mr. Fauci said.
– what to expect
On Jan. 20, just nine days after Chinese health authorities published the DNA sequence for a new coronavirus that had sickened dozens of people in China, Dr. Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota, wrote in an email: “I’m certain this will cause our next pandemic.”
The next day the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the first U.S. case of someone infected with what became known as COVID-19. Since then, as outbreaks intensified and the virus spread to Europe, and then the Americas, Osterholm, a flu expert with experience working in the CDC who heads up the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, has become one of the nation’s leading voices on the pandemic, weighing in on everything from masks to contact tracing.
“Everyone is looking at the vaccine as being a light switch: on or off. And I look at it as a rheostat, that’s going to take a long time, from turning it on from its darkest position to a lightest position. If you’re anticipating a light switch, you’re going to be concerned, confused, and in some cases very disappointed in what it might look like in those first days to months with a vaccine”, said Dr. Osterholm.
The White House has described the COVID-19 pandemic, when the president, on the rare occasion, acknowledges the full extent of it, has repeatedly set expectations of the virus is at the stage of the “beginning of the end”. Dr. Osterholm and others within the medical community disagree with that optimistic assessment.
Dr. Osterholm went on to add… “We will be dealing with this virus forever. Effective and safe vaccines and hopefully ones with some durability will be very important, even critical tools, in fighting it. But the whole world is going to be experiencing COVID-19 ‘til the end of time.
“We’re not going to be vaccinating our way out of this to eight-plus billion people in the world right now. And if we don’t get durable immunity, we’re potentially looking at revaccination on a routine basis, if we can do that. We’ve really got to come to grips with actually living with this virus, for at least my lifetime, and at the same time, it doesn’t mean we can’t do a lot about it.”
The one of the main questions yet be answered and Administration’s, so-called “Wrap Speed” eight billion dollar (and counting) to push drug companies to rush development of a viable vaccine, are we going to see some of these vaccines fail in clinical studies?
One of the challenges we have, Dr. Osterholm explained, is what do we mean by fail? “What’s the definition? Some people right now have a view that any vaccine that isn’t like the measles vaccine is going to be a challenge, meaning they’ve got to work 93% to 98% of the time. I don’t think there’s any sense that that’s going to happen with this vaccine.
That doesn’t mean that there isn’t going to be an effective vaccine at 50%, 60% or 70%.”
Osterholm went on to explain, “We’ve never had a pandemic due to coronavirus before.”
“We’ve had influenza pandemics. With an influenza pandemic, you do get true waves, meaning you get a first big peak of cases, then the numbers come down substantially without any human intervention. It’s nothing we do. We’ve never understood why that happens, and then a few months later you get a second wave. At this point, that’s not what’s happening here.”
“This is like a forest fire and wherever there’s human wood to burn, it’ll do it. What we see, though, are these spikes in cases where human mitigation strategies ended, or they’re not adhering to them … This is just one constant pressure that’s occurring.”
Pandemic response failure – a befuddled White House response and an absence of Federal leadership — on this point, Osterholm explain, “We’ve failed because we declared victory over the virus when we had no business doing so. This virus has been poised to be transmitted in our communities, and we thought we had done enough to get it down, and then we gave up.”
At Today’s House hearing
Democrats on the House panel wasted little time in pointing out that the caseload is much lower in Europe and Asia than in the United States. Mr. Clyburn, the No. 3 House Democrat and chairman of the subcommittee, displayed a chart showing the disparity. Pressed to explain, Dr. Fauci said countries in those parts of the world were more aggressive about shutting down as the pandemic raged.
“When they shut down, they shut down to the tune of about 95 percent, getting their baseline down to tens or hundreds of cases a day,” Dr. Fauci said.
By contrast, Fauci went on to explain that, “…only about 50 percent of the United States shut down, and the baseline of daily cases was much higher — as many as 20,000 new cases a day — even at its lowest. More recently, the United States has recorded as many as 70,000 new cases a day.
Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland, suggested that lack of social cohesion and political leadership was to blame. To that Dr. Fauci said, “I think there was such a diversity of response in this country from different states that we really did not have a unified, bringing everything down.”
https://www.beyondkona.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/biohazard.jpg224225Bill Bugbeehttps://www.beyondkona.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/beyond-kona-logo.pngBill Bugbee2020-08-02 09:03:202020-08-02 16:36:19Scientists Worry About Political Influence Over Coronavirus Vaccine Project
Hawaii agriculture potential, and its growth and diversification in order to address home grown food security and sustainability, may be threatened by a loss of worldwide loss of pollinating bees.
New research appears to confirms earlier scientific findings that pollinating bees are on the decline worldwide.
Bees affected by loss of habitat, pesticides and climate crisis
A total of 131 crop fields were surveyed for bee activity and crop abundance by a coalition of scientists from the US, Canada and Sweden.
Species of wild bees, such as bumblebees, are suffering from a loss of flowering habitat, the use of toxic pesticides and, increasingly, the climate crisis.
A lack of bees in agricultural areas is limiting the supply of some food crops, a new US-based study has found, suggesting that declines in the pollinators may have serious ramifications for global food security.
Managed honeybees, meanwhile, are tended to by beekeepers, but have still been assailed by disease, leading to concerns that the three-quarters of the world’s food crops dependent upon pollinators could falter due to a lack of bees.
Of seven studied crops grown in 13 states across America, five showed evidence that a lack of bees is hampering the amount of food that can be grown, including apples, blueberries and cherries.
The researchers found that wild native bees contributed a surprisingly large portion of the pollination despite operating in intensively farmed areas largely denuded of the vegetation that supports them.
Wild bees are often more effective pollinators than honeybees but research has shown several species are in sharp decline.
The rusty patched bumblebee, for example, was the first bee to be placed on the US endangered species list in 2017 after suffering an 87% slump in the previous two decades.
Swaths of American agriculture is propped up by honeybees, frantically replicated and shifted around the country in hives in order to meet a growing need for crop pollination.
The US is at the forefront of divergent trends that are being replicated elsewhere in the world – as farming becomes more intensive to churn out greater volumes to feed a growing global population, tactics such as flattening wildflower meadows, spraying large amounts of insecticide and planting monocultural fields of single crops are damaging the bee populations crucial for crop pollination.
The research recommends that farmers gain a better understanding of the optimal amount of pollination needed to boost crop yields, as well as review whether the level of pesticide and fertilizer put on to fields is appropriate.
According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, the amount of crop production dependent upon insect and other pollinators has increased 300% over the past 50 years. Pollination shortfalls could cause certain fruit and vegetables to become rarer and more expensive, triggering nutritional deficits in diets. Staple foods such as rice, wheat and corn won’t be affected, however, as they are pollinated via the wind.
“The crops that got more bees got significantly more crop production,” said Rachael Winfree, an ecologist and pollination expert at Rutgers University who was a senior author of the paper, published by the Royal Society.
“The trends we are seeing now are setting us up for food security problems,” Winfree said. “We aren’t yet in a complete crisis now but the trends aren’t going in the right direction. Our study shows this isn’t a problem for 10 or 20 years from now – it’s happening right now.”
https://www.beyondkona.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Bees-2.jpg6001000Bill Bugbeehttps://www.beyondkona.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/beyond-kona-logo.pngBill Bugbee2020-07-29 21:01:502020-07-29 21:14:40Loss of bees causes shortage of key food crops
The common cold is a viral infectious disease of the upper respiratory tract. Catching a cold is easy enough, and it can lead to health complications and death in extreme cases. It has been with humans since medical records have been kept. To date, there is no antiviral medication that is an effective cure for the Common Cold.
In 1983, scientists discovered the virus that causes of HIV (AIDS). Billions of dollars have been spent in R&D pursuing an effective vaccine and cure by the global scientific community. Since the beginning of its discovery, 74.9 million people have become infected with HIV and 32.0 million have died of AIDS-related illnesses. An estimated 1.7 million individuals worldwide acquired HIV in 2019, marking a 23% decline in new HIV infections since 2010.
Unlike COVID-19 which is airborne spread, the infectious spread of AIDS is limited to the fluid transmission of the disease from one infected person to another.
Like the Common Cold, no amount of money, time, scientific knowledge, technology and effort to date has so far produced a cure for AIDS.
Covid-19, a 21st century challenge for science
Doctors and scientists are scrambling to find treatments and drugs that can save the lives of infected people and perhaps even prevent infection. Politicians and a global economy is literally dying to get back to work.
Researchers around the world are developing more than 155 vaccines against the coronavirus, and 23 vaccines are in human trials. Vaccines typically require years of research and testing before reaching the clinic, but scientists are racing to produce a safe and effective vaccine by next year.
On 29 June, University of Oxford clinical scientists Martin Landray and Peter Horby changed how physicians around the world consider treating COVID-19—for the third time in little more than 3 weeks.
The principal investigators of a U.K. megatrial called Recovery, which has been testing existing drugs as therapies for the new infection, the pair had just finished reviewing data from 1596 patients who had received a combination of lopinavir and ritonavir, two antivirals known to curb HIV, and 3376 patients who had received only standard care. In a press release, they and their Recovery colleagues announced there had been no significant difference in the death rate between the two groups. “This could have worked. And it was a bust,” says Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute.
Here’s what we know…
Scientists around the world are working on potential treatments and vaccines for the new coronavirus disease known as COVID-19.
Several companies are working on antiviral drugs, some of which are already in use against other illnesses, to treat people who already have COVID-19.
Other companies are working on vaccines that could be used as a preventive measure against the disease.
With confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide surpassing 14 million and continuing to grow, scientists are pushing forward with efforts to develop vaccines and treatments to slow the pandemic and lessen the disease’s damage. Some of the earliest treatments will likely be drugs that are already approved for other conditions, or have been tested on other viruses. Meaning, what we can expect are treatments, not a cure for the near term, if ever. We are still working on a cure for the common cold.
Today’s COVID-19 Medical Treatment Options, and Political Snake Oil
Treatments Expected to Block the Virus
Antivirals can stop viruses such as H.I.V. and hepatitis C from hijacking our cells. Scientists are searching for antivirals that work against the new coronavirus.
STRONG EVIDENCEEMERGENCY USE AUTHORIZATION
Remdesivir Remdesivir, made by Gilead Science, was the first drug to get emergency authorization from the F.D.A. for use on Covid-19. It stops viruses from replicating by inserting itself into new viral genes. Remdesivir was originally tested as an antiviral against Ebola and Hepatitis C, only to deliver lackluster results. But preliminary data from trials that began this spring suggested the drug can reduce the hospital stays of people with severe cases of Covid-19 from 15 to 11 days. These early results did not show any effect on mortality, though retrospective data released in July hints that the drug might reduce death rates among those who are very ill.
TENTATIVE OR MIXED EVIDENCE Favipiravir
Originally designed to beat back influenza, favipiravir blocks a virus’s ability to copy its genetic material. A small study in March indicated the drug might help purge the coronavirus from the airway, but results from larger, well-designed clinical trials are still pending.
EIDD-2801
Another antiviral originally designed to fight the flu, EIDD-2801 has had promising results against the new coronavirus in studies in cells and on animals. It is still being tested in humans.
Recombinant ACE-2
To enter cells, the coronavirus must first unlock them — a feat it accomplishes by latching onto a human protein called ACE-2. Scientists have created artificial ACE-2 proteins which might be able to act as decoys, luring the coronavirus away from vulnerable cells. Recombinant ACE-2 proteins have shown promising results in experiments on cells, but not yet in animals or people.
NOT PROMISING Lopinavir and ritonavir
Twenty years ago, the F.D.A. approved this combination of drugs to treat H.I.V. Recently, researchers tried them out on the new coronavirus and found that they stopped the virus from replicating. But clinical trials in patients proved disappointing. In early July, the World Health Organization suspended trials on patients hospitalized for Covid-19. But they didn’t rule out studies to see if the drugs could help patients not sick enough to be hospitalized, or to prevent people exposed to the new coronavirus from falling ill. The drug could also still have a role to play in certain combination treatments.
Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine
German chemists synthesized chloroquine in the 1930s as a drug against malaria. A less toxic version, called hydroxychloroquine, was invented in 1946, and later was approved for other diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.
At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, researchers discovered that both drugs could stop the coronavirus from replicating in cells. Since then, they’ve had a tumultuous ride through the first few months of the pandemic. A few small studies on patients offered some hope that hydroxychloroquine could treat Covid-19. The World Health Organization launched a randomized clinical trial in March to see if it was indeed safe and effective for Covid-19, as did Novartis and a number of universities.
Meanwhile, President Trump repeatedly promoted hydroxychloroquine at press conferences, touting it as a “game changer,” and even took it himself. The F.D.A. temporarily granted hydroxychloroquine emergency authorization for use in Covid-19 patients — which a whistleblower later claimed was the result of political pressure. In the wake of the drug’s newfound publicity, demand spiked, resulting in shortages for people who rely on hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for other diseases.
In July, researchers at Henry Ford hospital in Detroit published a study finding that hydroxychloroquine reduced mortality in Covid-19 patients. President Trump praised the study on Twitter, but experts raised doubts about it because it was not a randomized controlled trial. Still, the White House has initiated a push for the F.D.A. to reauthorize hydroxychloroquine as an emergency Covid-19 treatment.
Despite negative results, a number of hydroxychloroquine trials have continued. A recent analysis by STAT and Applied XL found more than 180 ongoing clinical trials testing hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine, for treating or preventing Covid-19. Although it’s clear the drugs are no panacea, it’s possible they could work in combination with other treatments, or when given in early stages of the disease.
Mimicking the Immune System
Most people who get Covid-19 successfully fight off the virus with a strong immune response. Drugs might help people who can’t mount an adequate defense.
PROMISING EVIDENCEEMERGENCY USE AUTHORIZATION Convalescent plasma
A century ago, doctors filtered plasma from the blood of recovered flu patients. So-called convalescent plasma, rich with antibodies, helped people sick with flu fight their illness. Now researchers are trying out this strategy on Covid-19. Early trials with convalescent plasma have yielded promising, if preliminary, results, and the F.D.A. has authorized its use on very sick patients infected by the coronavirus.
TENTATIVE OR MIXED EVIDENCE REGN-COV2 and other monoclonal antibodies
Convalescent plasma contains a mix of different antibodies, some of which can attack the coronavirus, and some of which can’t. Researchers have been sifting through the slurry for the most potent antibodies against Covid-19. Synthetic copies of these molecules, known as monoclonal antibodies, can be manufactured in bulk and then injected into patients. Safety trials for this treatment have only just begun, with several more on the way.
Interferons
Interferons are molecules our cells naturally produce in response to viruses, rousing the immune system to attack. Injecting synthetic interferons is now a standard treatment for a number of immune disorders. Rebif, for example, is prescribed for multiple sclerosis. Early studies, including experiments in mice and cells, hint that injecting interferons may help against Covid-19. There’s even some evidence that the molecules could help prevent healthy people from getting infected.
Putting Out Friendly Fire
The most severe symptoms of Covid-19 are the result of the immune system’s overreaction to the virus. Scientists are testing drugs that can rein in its attack
STRONG EVIDENCE Dexamethasone
This cheap and widely available steroid blunts many types of immune responses. Doctors have long used it to treat allergies, asthma and inflammation. In June, it became the first drug shown to reduce Covid-19 deaths. That study of more than 6,000 people, which has not yet been published in a scientific journal, found that dexamethasone reduced deaths by one-third in patients on ventilators, and by one-fifth in patients on oxygen. It may be less likely to help — and may even harm — patients who are at an earlier stage of Covid-19 infections, however. In its Covid-19 treatment guidelines, the National Institutes of Health recommends only using dexamethasone in patients with COVID-19 who are on a ventilator or are receiving supplemental oxygen.
PROMISING EVIDENCEEMERGENCY USE AUTHORIZATION Cytosorb
Cytosorb is a cartridge that filters immune-signalling molecules called cytokines from the blood. Although cytokines are essential for fighting off diseases, they can sometimes trigger a runaway response. The body produces so much inflammation that it damages itself. By removing excess cytokines, Cytosorb may be able to cool this so-called cytokine storm. The machine can purify a patient’s entire blood supply about 70 times in a 24-hour period. It was granted emergency use authorization by the F.D.A. for Covid-19 after reports in March suggested that it had helped dozens of severely ill Covid-19 patients in Europe and China. Many clinical trials evaluating the device’s effectiveness against Covid-19 are now underway.
TENTATIVE OR MIXED EVIDENCE Cytokine Inhibitors
Researchers have created a number of drugs that can potentially halt cytokine storms, and have proven effective against arthritis and other inflammatory disorders. Some turn off the supply of molecules that launch the production of the cytokines themselves. Others block the receptors on immune cells to which cytokines would normally bind. A few block the cellular messages they send. Against the coronavirus, several of these drugs, including tocilizumab, sarilumab and anakinra, have offered modest help in some trials, but faltered in others. The drug company Regeneron recently announced that a branded version of sarilumab, Kevzara, failed Phase 3 clinical trials.
Stem cells
Certain kinds of stem cells can secrete anti-inflammatory molecules. Over the years, researchers have tried to use them as a treatment for cytokine storms, and now dozens of clinical trials are under way to see if they can help patients with Covid-19. But these stem cell treatments haven’t worked well in the past, and it’s not clear yet if they’ll work against the coronavirus.
Assisting Our Bodies
Caregivers can physically adjust a patient’s body to help weather Covid-19.
STRONG EVIDENCE Prone positioning
The simple act of flipping Covid-19 patients onto their bellies opens up the lungs. The maneuver has become commonplace in hospitals around the world since the start of the pandemic. It might help some individuals avoid the need for ventilators entirely. The treatment’s benefits continue to be tested in a range of clinical trials.
STRONG EVIDENCEEMERGENCY USE AUTHORIZATION Ventilators and other respiratory support devices
Devices that help people breathe are an essential tool in the fight against deadly respiratory illnesses. Some patients do well if they get an extra supply of oxygen through the nose or via a mask connected to an oxygen machine. Patients in severe respiratory distress may need to have a ventilator breathe for them until their lungs heal. Doctors are divided about how long to treat patients with noninvasive oxygen before deciding whether or not they need a ventilator. Not all Covid-19 patients who go on ventilators survive, but the devices are thought to be lifesaving in many cases.
Undoing the Damage
Covid-19 can harm not just the lungs, but other parts of the body. Researchers are searching for ways to block or reverse this devastation.
Enoxaparin and other anticoagulants – The coronavirus can invade cells in the lining of blood vessels, leading to tiny clots that can cause strokes and other serious harm. Breaking up these clots with anticoagulants, which have long been used on patients with various heart conditions, improves the prospects of seriously ill patients. Early data has linked the use of anticoagulants to survival among Covid-19 patients, and many clinical trials teasing out this relationship are now underway.
PROMISING EVIDENCE Renal replacement therapy
About one in five people with Covid-19 who are admitted to the ICU suffer from acute kidney injury. It’s not clear yet why — possibilities include the coronavirus infecting kidney cells or the immune system attacking the kidneys with a cytokine storm. In its guidelines for treating Covid-19, the National Institutes recommends filtering toxins from the blood with dialysis or other forms of renal replacement therapy. But they warn that few studies have yet been carried out to determine the best treatment for damaged kidneys.
Pseudoscience and Fraud
False claims about Covid-19 cures abound. The F.D.A. maintains a list of more than 80 fraudulent Covid-19 products, and the W.H.O. debunks many myths about the disease.
WARNING: DO NOT DO THIS Drinking or injecting bleach and disinfectants
In April, President Trump suggested that disinfectants such as alcohol or bleach might be effective against the coronavirus if directly injected into the body. His comments were immediately refuted by health professionals and researchers around the world — as well as the makers of Lysol and Clorox. Ingesting disinfectant would not only be ineffective against the virus, but also hazardous — possibly even deadly. In July, Federal prosecutors charged four Florida men with marketing bleach as a cure for COVID-19.
WARNING: NO EVIDENCE UV light
President Trump also speculated about hitting the body with “ultraviolet or just very powerful light.” Researchers have used UV light to sterilize surfaces, including killing viruses, in carefully managed laboratories. But UV light would not be able to purge the virus from within a sick persons’ body. This kind of radiation can also damage the skin. Most skin cancers are a result of exposure to the UV rays naturally present in sunlight.
WARNING: NO EVIDENCE Silver
The F.D.A. has threatened legal action against a host of people claiming silver-based products are safe and effective against Covid-19 — including televangelist Jim Bakker and InfoWars host Alex Jones. Several metals do have natural antimicrobial properties. But products made from them have not been shown to prevent or treat the coronavirus.
https://www.beyondkona.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Medical-Science.jpg400500Bill Bugbeehttps://www.beyondkona.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/beyond-kona-logo.pngBill Bugbee2020-07-17 16:55:352020-07-18 06:14:17How Long Must We Wait for a Corona Virus Cure?
With new surges of COVID-19 cases in key states and a sudden disruption in Hawaii’s testing capacity, Hawaii’s county mayors want the state to rethink its planned Aug. 1 tourism reopening date.
The mayors of Honolulu, Hawaii and Kauai counties say their islands are no longer ready to allow incoming trans-Pacific travelers to opt out of the state’s 14-day quarantine — at least not without some major policy changes.
With local infection rates soaring in Hawaii, and the state’s testing capacity under renewed threat, some county mayors are asking for major changes to Hawaii’s reopening plan or a delayed reopening date.
Hawaii County Mayor Harry Kim said he is concerned by the state’s lack of a real-time, digitized system to assist county police departments in tracking visitors subject to the 14-day quarantine, a mechanism that under the current plan would still be in place come Aug. 1 for those travelers who decline to produce proof of a negative diagnostic test for COVID-19.
Both Kim and Caldwell said they put little faith in the quarantine to prevent the spread of infection because, they say, there aren’t enough resources to stringently enforce it.
“I cannot accept their plan to move forward without this being addressed,” Mayor Kim, Hawaii County said.
The poll from the University of Hawaii Public Policy Center asked 600 residents for their thoughts on the state’s response to coronavirus.
The vast majority ― some 88% ― thought various public health restrictions were “mostly reasonable” and more than half said they still felt a little to very unsafe going to places with many other people.
The poll also underscored the scale of the economic devastation that the pandemic has caused.
About 7% said someone in their household had permanently lost a job ― while more than 1 in 3 said a household member had temporarily been laid off.
Much of the kamaaina economy has reopened, but the tourism industry remains shuttered and the governor on Monday announced that a plan to welcome visitors back has been pushed to Sept. 1.
Some 81% of residents agreed they don’t want “tourists coming to visit their community right now.”
https://www.beyondkona.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/US-Cases-7-9-20.jpg798720Bill Bugbeehttps://www.beyondkona.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/beyond-kona-logo.pngBill Bugbee2020-07-14 09:00:112020-07-17 17:05:31We’re Not Ready To Welcome Back Tourists, Mayors Tell Governor Ige
The oceans could look much emptier by 2100, according to a new study that found that most fish species would not be able to survive in their current habitat if average global temperatures rise 4.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, The Guardian reported earlier this week.
The researchers of the new paper said that 60 percent of fish species face a grave threat from global heating if temperatures approach that worst-case scenario level. The species under threat include many common fish found in grocery stores, including staples like Atlantic cod, Alaska pollock and sockeye salmon, and sport fishing favorites like swordfish, barracuda and brown trout, as CNN reported.
The new study, published in the journal Science, looked at how nearly 700 fresh and saltwater fish species respond to warming ocean temperatures.
The problem for most fish is that as ocean temperatures rise, the oxygen level goes down, which makes it extremely challenging for embryos to survive.
“A 1.5C increase is already a challenge to some, and if we let global warming persist, it can get much worse,” said Hans-Otto Pörtner, a co-author on the paper and a climatologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research in Germany.
That 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold would result in 10 percent of marine species suffering over the next 80 years, including the aforementioned grocery staples.
However, even a 10 percent decline in fish species has a large ripple effect on ecosystems as one species being pushed out effects the food supply and the habits of many other species that have evolved to be interdependent.
Since we are already 1 degree warmer than the pre-industrial level and emissions are starting to rise around the world as countries reopen, it seems highly unlikely that the world will not blow past that lowest benchmark. In fact, we are currently on pace for a 3 degree increase over the pre-industrial level, as The Guardian noted.
“More than half of the species potentially at risk is quite astonishing, so we really emphasize that it’s important to take action and follow the political commitments to reduce climate change and protect marine habitats,” said Dr. Flemming Dahlke, a marine biologist at Germany’s Alfred Wegener Institute and one of the authors of the study, as CNN reported.
“Some species might successfully manage this change,” said Dahlke, as the Daily Mail reported. “But if you consider the fact that fish have adapted their mating patterns to specific habitats over extremely long time frames, and have tailored their mating cycles to specific ocean currents and available food sources, it has to be assumed that being forced to abandon their normal spawning areas will mean major problems for them.”
A lot of this is a conservative estimate since the study did not take into account pollution or the increased acidity of the ocean, which could present additional challenges to sensitive species, as The Guardian noted.
“Some tropical fish are already living in zones at their uppermost tolerance, their areas are already 40C,” Pörtner said. “Humankind is pushing the planet outside of a comfortable temperature range and we are starting to lose suitable habitat. It’s worth investing in the 1.5C goal.”
Scientific report source abstract – the journal, Science – originally published 07-03-20
Species’ vulnerability to climate change depends on the most temperature-sensitive life stages, but for major animal groups such as fish, life cycle bottlenecks are often not clearly defined. We used observational, experimental, and phylogenetic data to assess stage-specific thermal tolerance metrics for 694 marine and freshwater fish species from all climate zones.
Our analysis shows that spawning adults and embryos consistently have narrower tolerance ranges than larvae and nonreproductive adults and are most vulnerable to climate warming. The sequence of stage-specific thermal tolerance corresponds with the oxygen-limitation hypothesis, suggesting a mechanistic link between ontogenetic changes in cardiorespiratory (aerobic) capacity and tolerance to temperature extremes.
A logarithmic inverse correlation between the temperature dependence of physiological rates (development and oxygen consumption) and thermal tolerance range is proposed to reflect a fundamental, energetic trade-off in thermal adaptation. Scenario-based climate projections considering the most critical life stages (spawners and embryos) clearly identify the temperature requirements for reproduction as a critical bottleneck in the life cycle of fish.
By 2100, depending on the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP) scenario followed, the percentages of species potentially affected by water temperatures exceeding their tolerance limit for reproduction range from ~10% (SSP 1–1.9) to ~60% (SSP 5–8.5). Efforts to meet ambitious climate targets (SSP 1–1.9) could therefore benefit many fish species and people who depend on healthy fish stocks.
https://www.beyondkona.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Morrish-Idol-MK-reef.jpg12161260Bill Bugbeehttps://www.beyondkona.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/beyond-kona-logo.pngBill Bugbee2020-07-09 16:17:252020-07-09 16:18:30Ocean Warming Dooms Most Fish
Face masks have become an emblem in the fight against the coronavirus, with officials in the United States and elsewhere recommending as the best front line defense to slow the spread of a deadly and global pandemic.
Protective face masks have become a part of our daily wardrobe, like shoes, there are essential in most circumstances. In this article, BeyondKona will explore which types of masks protect, and to what degree and the level of protection you can expect from different options.
Figuring out what to wear is not easy, and supply options are limited.
N95 and medical masks, which offer the most protection and are heavily in demand. Even if you could your hands on N95 medically designed and FDA approved for such use, with ongoing PPE shortages, N95 medical masks should be reserved for health care workers who are regularly exposed to infected patients.
N95 masks – the gold standard for protection
The N95 is the most recognizable and effective mask. Its name means it can block at least 95 percent of tiny particles — 0.3 microns — that are the hardest to capture. An average human hair is about 70 to 100 microns wide.
These masks, which are designed for single use, are made with polyester and other synthetic fibers, including layers of tangled fibers that act as a filter to make it harder for particles to pass through.
Make sure there are no gaps between the edge of the mask and your skin. This one includes a nose piece that is molded to your face. Many health care and other workers do annual fit tests that check for air leakage and ensure that masks are sized and fit properly. (If you have facial hair, you won’t get a proper fit. They don’t fit well on children, either.)
Some N95s have exhalation valves on the front, which make it easier to breathe. Those masks are often used in construction. A mask with a valve should not be used in areas that are meant to be sterile, like hospital operating rooms, and would not protect others from what you breathe out.
Medical – throwaway (disposable) masks that offer limited protection, and a growing global waste problem
Medical masks come in a few varieties and are less effective than N95s: Some filter as much as 60 to 80 percent of small particles under lab conditions. When worn properly, they can help prevent the spread of the coronavirus by catching droplets when you cough or sneeze.
Medical masks are often made out of layers of breathable, paper-like synthetic fabric that is cut into a rectangular shape and has pleats to help it expand and fit more snugly around your face. They are disposable and designed to be used just once.
While they can protect you from large droplets and splatter, their looser fit is partly what makes them less effective than N95s.
Coronavirus waste has become a new form of pollution as single-use personal protective equipment (PPE) floods our ocean.
COVID-19 has had a number of unexpected impacts on the environment, curtailing recycling and increasing the use of plastic around the world.
Governments need to act now to ensure a green recovery that incentivizes sustainability.
Homemade – reusable masks that can provide limited protection
With medical masks in short supply, many have turned to making or buying homemade ones. Depending on the fabric and how it’s made, a homemade mask can sometimes protect the way a simple medical version does. And any face covering is better than nothing.
A good homemade mask uses a material that is dense enough to capture viral particles, but breathable enough that you can tolerate it.
This one is made of cotton fabric.
You can also use materials like a heavy cotton t-shirt, flannel or a tightly woven dish towel.
Material with a higher thread count — which allows very little light to filter through — will likely offer the best protection.
Various patterns for making a cotton mask have spread around the internet. Look for one that has at least two layers of material, comes up over your nose and below your chin and has secure straps.
Homemade & Fabric Masks with Filters – reusable masks that can provide superior protection
This is another homemade mask, made from 100-percent cotton t-shirts, with a pocket sewn in to hold an additional filter.
We used a coffee filter in this mask. Paper towels have also been tested. One experiment found that two layers of paper towels on their own blocked between 23 and 33 percent of 0.3-micron particles.
People have been experimenting with filtering materials, including air filters and vacuum bags. They can be effective but can present risks. Many are not breathable and may contain harmful fibers that you could inhale.
Also, the average person doesn’t need the level of filtration that these materials provide.
Whatever filter you use, make sure there is a layer of cotton or a similar material on either side of the filter, like the pocket in this mask.
A mask is effective only if worn properly, fitting snugly from the top of the nose to below the chin with no gaps. Masks should be worn the entire time you are outside, and should not be moved up and down. While no mask is 100 percent effective, it can help keep both you and others safe when combined with social distancing and regular hand washing.
An additional mask information resources are available courtesy of the New York Times:
https://www.beyondkona.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Mask-image.jpg520576Bill Bugbeehttps://www.beyondkona.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/beyond-kona-logo.pngBill Bugbee2020-07-04 11:26:522020-07-04 11:30:57In this Global Pandemic, Which Masks Protect You and the Community?
Tomos Roberts, London based filmmaker, released on YouTube, “The Great Realisation”. It has been viewed tens of millions of times, and since translated independently into multiple languages, including Arabic, Hebrew, German, Spanish, French, Italian and Russian.
Set in an unspecified future, the poem looks back on pre-pandemic life and imagines a “great realization” sparked by COVID-19.
Roberts tells his viewers about pre-pandemic life — “a world of waste and wonder, of poverty and plenty” — that falls apart when the virus hits, and yet in the end initiates something better: a society in which people are kinder and more mindful, and spend more time outdoors and with their families than on screens or at the office.
It’s a simple rhyming tale which takes on heavy themes — corporate greed, familial alienation, the pandemic — and somehow comes up with a happy ending.
Tomos Roberts: I kept hearing people say, “I hope things go back to normal.” And I thought, wouldn’t it be even better if instead of going back to normal it went to something that was even better than before? I think that would be infinitely more interesting.
https://www.beyondkona.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/The-Great-Realisation.jpg854730Bill Bugbeehttps://www.beyondkona.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/beyond-kona-logo.pngBill Bugbee2020-05-21 17:29:502020-05-22 06:52:26A post-pandemic bedtime tale that has captured the hearts of millions
Three-quarters of new or emerging diseases that infect humans originate in animals, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but it is human activity that multiplies the risks of contagion.
Humanity’s “promiscuous treatment of nature” needs to change or there will be more deadly pandemics such as Covid-19, warn scientists who have analysed the link between viruses, wildlife and habitat destruction.
Deforestation and other forms of land conversion are driving exotic species out of their evolutionary niches and into manmade environments, where they interact and breed new strains of disease, the experts say.
Roger Frutos, a specialist in infectious diseases at the University of Montpellier, said multiple studies have confirmed the density and variety of bat-borne viruses is higher near human habitation.
“Humans destroy the bats’ natural environment and then we offer them alternatives. Some adapt to an anthropomorphised environment, in which different species cross that would not cross in the wild,” he said.
Habitat destruction is an essential condition for the proliferation of a new virus, he added, but it is only one of several factors. Bats also need to pass the disease on to humans. There is no evidence of this being done directly for coronaviruses. Until now there has been an intermediary – either a domesticated animal or a wild animal which humans came into contact with for food, trade, pets or medicine.
In the 2003 Sars outbreak in China, it was a civet cat. In the Mers outbreak in the Middle East in 2012, it was a camel. Scientists have detected about 3,200 different strains of coronavirus in bats. Most are harmless to humans, but two very closely related sarbe-coviruses found in east Asia were responsible for Sars and Covid-19. The paper says future sarbecovirus emergence will certainly take place in east Asia, but epidemics of other new diseases could be triggered elsewhere.
South America is a key area of concern due to the rapid clearance of the Amazon and other forests. Scientists in Brazil have found viral prevalence was 9.3% among bats near deforested sites, compared to 3.7% in pristine woodland. “With deforestation and land-use change, you open a door,” said Alessandra Nava, of the Manaus-based Biobank research centre.
Pollution
A Harvard University study has linked dirty and polluted air to the worst coronavirus outcomes, and it has quickly become a political football in Washington. Presidential candidates, agency regulators, oil lobbyists and members of Congress from both parties are using the preliminary research to advance their own political priorities — well before it has a chance to be peer-reviewed.
The stakes are high because the study’s tentative findings could prove enormously consequential for both the pandemic’s impact and the global debate over curbing air pollution. The researchers found that pollution emanating from everything from industrial smokestacks to household chimneys is making the worst pandemic in a century even more deadly.
The consequences and public health costs of Air Pollution before COVID-19, associated with elevated exposure to NO2 …
Hypertension,
Heart and cardiovascular diseases,
Increased rate of hospitalization,
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD),
Significant deficits in growth of lung function in children,
Poor lung function in adults or lung injury and
Diabetes
A second and collaborating European study published in the journal Science of the Total Environment has found that long-term exposure to air pollution may be “one of the most important contributors to fatality caused by the COVID-19 virus” around the world.
The study looked at COVID-19 fatalities in four of the countries that have been hit hardest by the virus – Germany, France, Italy and Spain. It found that 78% of deaths had occurred in just five regions in northern Italy and Spain.
These regions, the report notes, have the highest concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a pollutant harmful to human respiratory systems, while their geography means these areas also suffer from downward air pressure, which can prevent the dispersal of airborne pollutants.
Trump administrations environmental rollbacks will significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions and lead to thousands of extra deaths from poor air quality each year, according to energy and legal analysts.
As economies across the world are halted and millions of people abide by stay-at-home orders in the effort to “flatten the curve” of COVID-19, many are observing similar unintended consequences: cleaner air and water in some of the most polluted cities on earth.
Impacts of the new coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) could contribute to a near 8% drop in global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2020, according to a report from the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Global energy demand is expected to drop 6% this year, due to both the coronavirus and to countries seeing warmer-than-average winters. That 6% decline is seven times higher than the drop brought by the 2008 financial crisis. Alongside that decline in energy demand, IEA predicted demand for coal could fall by 8%, while oil will also see a downturn. But renewable energy sources may see an uptick in demand.
IEA said emissions are likely to rise again once economies reopen and recover, unless countries try to invest in clean energy and renewables. In a tweet, IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol called for “structural emissions reductions.”
If you lived through the Nixon years you may have thought you’ve seen it all. From enemy lists to break-ins. But this current administration has demonstrated there is no limit to massive abuses of power and privilege.
The 21st century Republican party and its leadership, culminating in the actions and events leading to Trump’s impeachment, without consequences, and the obstruction of evidence in due process, speaks to the current system of governance which has broken the checks and balances within the Federal government.
Since assuming power, the Trump Administration has, and is, reversing nearly 100 environmental rules designed to protect the public health and the environment.
All told, the Trump administration’s environmental rollbacks could significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions and lead to thousands of extra deaths from poor air quality each year, according to energy and legal analysts.
At the same time, the Interior Department has worked to open up more land for oil and gas leasing by cutting back protected areas, limiting wildlife protections, and in policy partnership with the EPA, eliminating air and water pollution rules and protections.
The GOP controlled White House and Senate has taken gerrymandering, court stacking, influence peddling and profiting to a whole new level.
Unlike the days of Nixon, Trump and his party have a nation media empire which not only has their backs, but engages daily in misdirection and conspiracy theories and serves as a state propaganda machine the envy of even Russia’s state run media.
In U.S. cable and digital media markets, specifically, that’s influence which translates into effective mind control of the 30% of the population — (their) truth without facts, science as fiction, and serves as a policy feed-back loop for the President of the United States who gets his daily briefings from Fox, not the nation’s intelligence community.
All told, the Trump administration’s environmental rollbacks could significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions and lead to thousands of extra deaths from poor air quality each year, according to energy and legal analysts.
None of this will change until the GOP leadership is standing in the unemployment line come this November.
https://www.beyondkona.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/beyond-kona-logo.png00Bill Bugbeehttps://www.beyondkona.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/beyond-kona-logo.pngBill Bugbee2020-05-08 08:37:262020-05-09 07:40:41Editorial -- Pandemics, Pollution, and Politics
In Greenland, ice loss results from runoff of surface meltwater and from discharge of ice from glaciers that serve as outlets for the ice sheet, connecting it to the ocean. Accumulation results from snowfall that, compressed over years, eventually becomes ice. When runoff and discharge exceed accumulation, the result is net loss.
Tomos Roberts, London based filmmaker, released on YouTube, “The Great Realisation”. It has been viewed tens of millions of times, and since translated independently into multiple languages, including Arabic, Hebrew, German, Spanish, French, Italian and Russian.