Mothers Speak about War and Terror: Oceana

Showing posts with label Oceana. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 20, 2022

Begone, single use plastics!

News blues

Yesterday, Prez Biden said, “The pandemic is over… We still have a problem with COVID. We're still doing a lot of work on it. But the pandemic is over. If you notice, no one's wearing masks. Everybody seems to be in pretty good shape, and so I think it's changing…”
Hmmm, shades of Donald Trump?

Luckily, We the People have straight talking Dr Anthony Fauci to a reality check Biden’s wishful thinking:

It is unlikely the U.S. will eradicate the coronavirus and a “suspicious” new variant, BA 2.75.2, is on the horizon, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, said Monday during a fireside chat with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“We are not where we need to be if we are going to quote ‘live with the virus’ because we know we are not going to eradicate it,” Fauci said. “The next question we ask: ‘Are we going to be able to eliminate it from our country or from most of the world?’ and the answer is unlikely, because it is highly transmissible and the immunity that’s induced by vaccine or infection is also transient.”

Healthy planet, anyone?

Add your name to shut down single use plastics, at least in the US

Earlier this year, Oceana joined 180 other organizations in calling on the Biden administration's General Services Administration (GSA) — the agency responsible for the federal government's purchasing policies — to prohibit federal agencies from buying single-use plastics. And now, the Biden administration is moving forward to examine ways to reduce single-use plastics.
We have an opportunity to make a real difference on the amount of plastic the United States purchases and uses, and we need your voice!
Right now, the federal government is accepting public comment on the use of single-use plastic products in the U.S. government.
Stand with Oceana and countless others to tell the federal government it's time to stop purchasing and using single-use plastic.

Add your name >>

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Post-chemo day 5
Mary reports “feeling better, diminished nausea though continued fatigue and hints of tinnitus.” (According to Dr Internet, “the chemotherapy drug cisplatin may cause ringing or other sounds in the ears, [aka tinnitus]. It may improve gradually after treatment ends but sometimes it can be permanent.)
A growing concern is that fatigue and weakness prevent Mary’s twice daily walks along the beach – 2 to 3 miles per day on good days. Lack of exercise exacerbates Mary’s old spine and hip injuries, the x-rays of which led to uncovering the epithelioid pleural mesothelioma squatting comfortably in her left lung.

***

SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 6:56am
Sunset: 7:08pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:51am
Sunset: 5:54pm

Saturday, November 27, 2021

“Work together”

News blues

These days in the US, it is risky to declare that “I APPRECIATE and RESPECT science and scientists.” Sharing that declaration is revolutionary. Join the revolution: listen to and take to hear the words of South Africa’s Dr Salim Abdool Karim: “We must work together" (9:43 mins).
Dr. Karim is correct. But how to break through the mountains of prejudices burdening We the People?
Listen, too, to US’s Dr. Peter Hotez, Dean of the School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, share the latest scientific information on Omicron (if impatient, skip to around minute 5:25 of this video clip (8:26 mins).
Advice: Don’t panic but be realistic about Omicron. Get the jabs, mask up, socially distance, go back to pandemic cautions of 2020. And urge your Congress person to ensure fresh vaccine is shared with Africa and Africans.

Healthy planet, anyone?

What, if any, links exist between Covid-19 and higher levels of pollution?

Scientists …looked for correlations between the disease and higher levels of pollution [and] found significant connections, but some worried that the available data, which averages groups of people, may hide other factors that were the true reason for the link.
So a new study this week represents a major step forward. First, it used extensive individual data on almost 10,000 people in Catalonia and, second, it ran blood tests for coronavirus antibodies in about half of them. The testing is especially important as it identified people who had been infected but without symptoms. This group may have been missed in earlier studies.
The findings of this strongest study to date were striking: people exposed to moderately above-average levels of small particle pollution in the two years before the pandemic were 51% more likely to suffer severe Covid-19, meaning they were hospitalised. For those breathing higher levels of nitrogen dioxide, mostly produced by diesel vehicles, the increased risk was 26%.
This may well be because the dirty air had already damaged people’s immune systems or increased the level of heart and lung disease known to be a risk factor for severe Covid-19. Scientists can’t prove a causal link because, again, you can’t do harmful experiments on people.
Thanks to the blood tests, the researchers were able to show that air pollution did not significantly raise the chance of just being infected by coronavirus. It is likely that other factors such as social contacts, mask wearing and amount of travel are more important.
Read more >>

***

Our oceans make up more than 70% of our planet, and we have basically trashed them. The world dumps a jaw-dropping 17.6 billion pounds (8 billion kilograms) of new plastic into the oceans each year. Question: is cleaning up the oceans’ plastic an indisputably good idea…or is it more effective to stop making plastic?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I continue to watch the news on Omicron and its effect on international travel. My intuition to wait before purchasing tickets was on the mark.
Last year, my agency and airline of choice – FlyUS and British Air – refused to refund the flights they cancelled due to Covid. Yes, I had travel insurance. Go figure. After a year of giving me the run around, they refused to refund me with a curt note. Live and learn: I’ll not fly using FlyUS or British Air again. I suggest you avoid them, too.
However, both airlines with whom I considered purchasing tickets this year are cancelling their flights to and from SA.
Giving thanks that I delayed purchasing tickets.

Watching and worrying about friends and family in SA (and US!)

Wednesday, June 23, 2021

Moon rising

Full moon rises over the river. Gorgeous.

Things houseboat - and Covid - have kept me so busy that I lost track of the days. It’s already Thursday. Amazing.

A year ago, Week 13, Day 91, Thursday, June 25, I posted “Mindboggling numbers.”

This week’s numbers of infections and death around the world are rising so precipitously it feels appropriate to examine them, understand them, do our best not to contribute to further rise – and begin a new week fresh and hopeful….
Little did I know, back then, that coronavirus Covid-19 would still be with us one year later. Indeed, that it’s worse in many countries, including South Africa in its third wave of infections.

On the cusp of Week 66’s numbers compared to Week 13, one year ago
Worldwide (Map)
June 24, 2021: 179,530,600 confirmed infections; 3,890,200 deaths
June 25, 2020: 9,409,000 confirmed infections; 482,190 deaths

US (Map)
June 24, 2021: 33,578,000 confirmed infections; 603,000 deaths
June 25, 2020: 2,381,540 infections; 121,980 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal)
June 24, 2021: 1,861,100 confirmed infections; 59,260 deaths
June 25, 2020: 111,800 confirmed infections; 2,205 deaths

News blues

Urgent action needed as third wave sweeps Africa

Covid-19 cases in Africa rose by more than a fifth week-on-week, pushing the total to more than five million. The number of new cases reported in the week has exceeded half the second-wave peak of 224,000 in January, with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Namibia reporting the most weekly cases since the pandemic began. Meanwhile, seven African nations have used all the vaccine doses they received from Covax, the vaccine-sharing facility. Seven more have used more than 80% of theirs.

South Africa’s province of Gauteng is experiencing daily increase in Covid-19 infections that is 21% higher than the previous peak in January 2021.
‘An absolute catastrophe’: Covid-19 deals Gauteng a sucker punch as hospitals fill up
On the other hand, South Africa has been chosen to host the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) first Covid-19 messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine technology transfer hub to scale up production and access to vaccines.
This will be the first in a series of Covid mRNA vaccine technology transfer hubs that the WHO is launching around the world to boost Covid-19 vaccine supplies. Read more >>

***

India's vaccinations hit record with free Covid shots

India gave out a record five million vaccine doses on Monday under a federal campaign to inoculate all adults for free after weeks of criticism that a chaotic roll-out had worsened a second wave that killed hundreds of thousands. Over the past 30 days India has administered an average 2.7 million doses a day.

Brazil passes half a million Covid-19 deaths

Brazil's death toll from Covid-19 has surpassed 500,000 as experts warn that the world's second-deadliest outbreak may worsen due to delayed vaccinations and the government's refusal to back physical distancing measures. Only 11% of Brazilians have been fully vaccinated. Thousands of Brazilians protested against President Jair Bolsonaro's management of the pandemic in nationwide demonstrations on Saturday, blaming the administration for the high death toll.

***

Expect the Unexpected From the Delta Variant. There’s no way of knowing how bad things will get in the U.S. In a way, that’s a luxury.

This much is clear: The coronavirus is becoming more transmissible. Ever since the virus emerged in China, it has been gaining mutations that help it spread more easily among humans. The Alpha variant, first detected in the United Kingdom last year, is 50 percent more transmissible than the original version, and now the Delta variant, first detected in India, is at least 40 percent more transmissible than Alpha.

Healthy planet, anyone?

Oceana: Amazon (AMZN) plastic problem set to skyrocket with Prime Day booming sales.

Anne Schroeer, Director of Strategic Initiatives at Oceana, issued the following statement calling on the major online retailer to reduce single-use plastic packaging and give customers a plastic-free packaging choice. “As Prime Day and Amazon continue to grow, so too does the company’s devastating impact on the environment. In December 2020, Oceana exposed Amazon’s massive plastic footprint, which amounted to an estimated 465 million pounds of plastic packaging in 2019. Our research estimates that, in 2019 alone, up to 22.44 million pounds of Amazon’s plastic packaging waste polluted the world’s freshwater and marine ecosystems where it can wreak havoc on marine life – that’s the equivalent of dumping a delivery van payload of plastic into the ocean every 70 minutes.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I’ve completed my 2-part Pfizer vax program and, while I didn’t win the million dollar prize, California’s vaccine incentive program will deliver me some sort of runner-up reward, perhaps $50 or a trip to Disneyland, or some other place.
(The million-dollar lotteries is having trouble lining people up.)
I expected my second Pfizer jab to hit me harder than the first, but other than the site of the second jab requiring an ice pack for several hours, it was easy peasy.

If you haven’t already, and your country is vaccinating, I recommend it.

***

I avoided the Delta and houseboat living for the duration of last week’s soaring temperatures (up to 111 degrees Fahrenheit last Thursday). Temps have been in the balmy upper 80s and low 90s since then. (They start to rise again this weekend, into the high 90s and low 100s.)
I mentioned to a friend that I’m beginning to recognize the reality of climate refugeeism. She thought I was joking. Not so. Decisions I’ve made in my life have me opting for simple: simple living, modest income, creativity, and independence. The upside downside: living in a houseboat suits me, living on the San Joaquin River is a gift. Alas, climate change in California means increasing drought, increasing heat, increasing heat waves. Lack of environmental protections means increasingly foul, even toxic water, air, and land.
That’s the future.
Am I sorry I’m pursuing this "lifestyle”?
Alarmed, perhaps. Sorry? No.

The moon, after all, is full and bright tonight. Canada geese have been visiting the river the last few days.

Life is good.