Moving forward

Worldwide (Map) 
March 3, 2022 - 439,214,350 confirmed infections; 5,968,350 deaths
March 4, 2021 – 115,175,000 confirmed infections; 2,600,000 deaths.

US (Map) 
March 3, 2022 - 79,099,500 confirmed infections; 952,800 deaths
March 4, 2021 – 28,770,000 confirmed infections; 518,400 deaths.

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
March 3, 2022 - 3,675,700 confirmed infections; 99,430 deaths
March 4, 2021 – 1,516,265 confirmed infections; 50,366 deaths.

News blues

With the world-changing arrival of Covid-19, this blog morphed from its original topic - the effects of war on people – to the struggle, the war, if you like, on Covid-19 – and its effects on people.
Now, the world and its people, amid a proven-deadly novel coronavirus (perhaps morphing into endemic) are watching  a brutal war unfold in Ukraine.
How long before Covid-19 impacts efforts of both uninvited and invading Russians and Ukrainians?

 
The good news on a different front? Despite dire predictions of several weeks ago, the US has not seen the official count of Covid deaths pass the one million mark.

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In the US, the White House plans to unveil a wide-ranging strategy for the next phase response to the pandemic. The strategy will lay out how the nation can safely ease public health restrictions and restore some sense of normalcy and a less disruptive endemic stage of the virus. 

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Most people know someone who has stubbornly resisted catching Covid, despite everyone around them falling sick. Precisely how they do this remains a mystery, but scientists are beginning to find clues.
The hope is that identifying these mechanisms could lead to the development of drugs that not only protect people from catching Covid, but also prevent them from passing it on.

Read “Scientists seek to solve mystery of why some people do not catch Covid” >> 

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The Lincoln Project:
We were warned  (1:50 min)

Healthy planet, anyone?

In a new report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), researchers from 67 countries warned that warming is putting a large portion of the world’s biodiversity and ecosystems at risk of extinction, even under relatively conservative estimates. Never before has an IPCC report — considered the gold standard for climate science — revealed in such stark detail how climate change is harming nature. What ails wildlife ails us, the authors wrote. Humans are inextricably dependent on many species that are in jeopardy from rising temperatures, whether they’re animals that pollinate crops, filter rivers and streams, or feed us. In the US alone, for example, more than 150 crops depend on pollinators, including nearly all fruits and grains, and climate change puts them at risk.

Read more >> 

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African countries are being forced to spend billions of dollars a year coping with the effects of the climate crisis, which is diverting potential investment from schools and hospitals and threatens to drive countries into ever deeper poverty.
Dealing with extreme weather is costing close to 6% of GDP in Ethiopia alone, equating to a spend of more than $1 repairing climate damage for every $20 of national income, according to research by the thinktank Power Shift Africa.
The warning comes just before the major new scientific report from the global authority on climate science, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This report, the second part of the IPCC’s comprehensive summary of global climate science, will set out the consequences of climate breakdown across the world, looking at the floods, droughts, heatwaves and storms that are affecting food systems, water supplies and infrastructure. As global temperatures have risen in recent decades, and as the impact of extreme weather has become more apparent around the world, efforts to make infrastructure and communities more resilient have largely stalled.

Read more >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

For the second time this week, our security alarm screeched in the early hours of the morning. Checking the CCTV monitor showed no incursions. What’s going on? Who knows?
Do alarm systems have self-determination or is it only our system?

 
After a month of fretting about the overgrown vegetation in the large garden pond, yesterday I donned my waders and spent an hour weeding. Last week, I’d offered a landscaper the job, but his quote was beyond my capacity to pay. (Aside: South Africans assume anyone with “dollars in her pocket” is rich and therefore can be soaked.)
I assist the crabs and other water-based life back into the water if they find themselves suddenly thrust into air-based life.
I plan to continue short forays into the pond over the next weeks to finish the job.
Wet vegetation is heavy. Nevertheless, the pile on the banks of the pond will grow day-by-day.
Not sure yet what to do with the discards. Options are 1) wheelbarrow transport it in increments to an area in front of the house and fill in dongas (holes) there (despite the huge physical effort, that's my preference) or, 2) hire someone to collect it and drive it to the local dump.
The problem with option 1: the ANC was voted out of office in favor of the DA (Democratic Alliance) and the DA’s “new” municipality is keen to fine anyone recycling vegetation by filling in dongas. The ANC didn’t care one way or another since most ANC councilors spent their time feathering their own nests rather than conduct business for the people. For now, DA councilors are trying hard to enforce regulations. We’ll see how long this lasts. In the meantime, I’ll keep pulling out pond overgrowth.
The fun never ends.

 
San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 6:37am
Sunset: 6:04pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:52am
Sunset: 6:29pm
Ten days to the beginning of US daylight saving time.