What price success?

News blues

Southern Africa is in its third wave of Covid-19 thought to be partly associated with the emergence of more transmissible variants.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), at least a dozen countries have so far confirmed the presence of the variant now named the Delta variant - first detected in India late last year. These countries include Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
This third wave is further straining an overwhelmed health system and further complicating the painfully slow progress being made with vaccinations. 

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Experts say that understanding how the virus first leapt from animals to humans is essential to preventing future pandemics. Even as we still don’t know the origins of the coronavirus, explore four possible origin scenarios >> 

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The Lincoln Project: The Real Antifa  (1:05 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

‘We’re causing our own misery’: oceanographer Sylvia Earle on the need for sea conservation 

The world has the opportunity in the next 10 years to restore our oceans to health after decades of steep decline – but to achieve that, people must wake up to the problem, join in efforts to protect marine areas… oh, to stop eating tuna….

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In the business-as-usual scenario emissions from food production alone could use up all of our 1.5°C or 2°C carbon budget. We have a range of opportunities to avoid this. But will we?

One-quarter to one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions come from our food systems and from various sources: deforestation and land use change; emissions from fertilizers and manure; methane from cattle; methane from rice production; energy use on the farm; supply chain emissions from food processing, refrigeration; and transport. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Is today the day for shore water running through the houseboat’s faucets? Will yesterday’s foray under the boat to patch a redundant pipe succeed where half a dozen earlier forays failed?
Almost afraid to test the holding power of my latest effort, I’m contemplating yet another trip down there, this time to adhere another layer of material around the fix – just in case yesterday’s fix didn’t fix. It’s been 11 days of DIY. If this attempt fails, I’ll capitulate and hire someone to fix it.

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This floating island of invasives is, so far this year, the largest to drift back and forth on river tides. 

I think of these floating entities as organic distribution centers for alien invasives into the Delta.
The crews whose job it is to discourage invasive plants unfortunately wait until late summer and then, instead of capturing the floating islands, indiscriminately spray all river plants – therefore birds, animals, and fish - with toxic pesticides.  By the end of summer, river banks and islands are brown, curled, and uniformly dead.
The good news? Concerned anglers discovered and photographed scores of dead fish and wildlife in many parts of the Delta, including Sandmound Slough in Bethel Island, Rock Slough near Knightsen (where my boat is moored and where I swim) and Horseshoe Bend in Brentwood.

…it wasn't just what [anglers] saw, it's what they say they smelled on the Delta too.
"It smells almost like an over-chlorinated swimming pool,’’ said a long-time competitive bass fisherman. Chlorine was so strong it made fishermen’s eyes water and their throats burn.
The indiscriminate die-off problem became so acute that thousands of people, including fishermen, boaters, swimmers and those who live along the Delta, banded together to form and support the Norcal Delta Angler's Coalition. The group shares information about the die-offs and keeps tabs on the California State Parks Department of Boating and Waterways to monitor pesticide use on the Delta.
Learn more and get involved  >>

Ironically, yesterday I met a couple seeking a spot easily to harvest and carry home invasive hyacinth for their backyard fishpond. Hyacinths are pretty. Indeed, in South Africa, I too have transplanted water hyacinth from waterways into a small fishpond in my mother’s garden. I was, however, careful to isolate them in a pond far from the stream to ensure the plants couldn’t “escape” and replicate willy nilly.
Native to the northern neotropics of South America, water hyacinth has successfully colonized North and South America, eastern and southern Africa, and Asia.