COP(out) 26

News blues…

RIP South Africa’s F. W. de Klerk

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New political ads (and commentary): Joe Manchin (2:04 mins)
Meidas Touch: GOP Lies  (0:38 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

COP(out) 26. Another potential moment to address critical issues associated with climate change wasted. Disappointed – again - but not surprised. And, to top it off, “leading figures took to the floor for what they hoped would be the final time, to exhort each other to cooperate in the interests of people threatened by the climate crisis around the world”:

At stake is the world’s chance of holding global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, the tougher of the two temperature goals in the 2015 Paris climate agreement and a “planetary boundary” beyond which the ravages of climate breakdown will rapidly become catastrophic and irreversible.
Read more >> 

We know what we face, but we cannot agree on who should make the most money from the current situation. (See Joe Manchin ad, above.)
Meanwhile… PPE and “pandemic-related plastic waste" continues to pour into our oceans:

Some 8 million metric tons of pandemic-related plastic waste has been created by 193 countries, about 26,000 tons of which is now in the world’s oceans, where it threatens to disrupt marine life and further pollute beaches….
The findings, by a group of researchers based in China and the United States, were published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal. Concerns had been raised since the start of the coronavirus pandemic that there would be a boom in plastic pollution amid heightened use of personal protective equipment and rapid growth in online commerce. The study is among the first to quantify the scale of plastic waste linked to the health crisis.
The impact of the increase in plastic waste has been keenly felt by wildlife.
This according to a Dutch scientist-founded tracking project.

Read “The world created about 8 million tons of pandemic plastic waste, and much of it is now in the ocean” >>  

Coverage from the COP26 U.N. climate summit 

The UK’s chief scientist correctly states that “changes in behaviour are needed to tackle climate crisis.”
 Ah, the one thing most of us humans refuse to do – indeed, cannot figure out how to do: change our behaviour/behavior …

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Life in my corner of the universe is good – for now. There’s no question that my modest condo on the park and beach will suffer the ravages of rising sea levels in the future. Sure, it’ll take another decade or two, but coastal flooding is on its way. Plus side of that? The waterfowl and shorebirds, ground squirrels, opossums, raccoons, and other critters will do fine (well, as fine as they can, given the ongoing toxicity of garbage pouring into the environment).
I carried binoculars during yesterday’s beach walk. Crowds of brown and white pelicans, cormorants, gulls of all shapes and sizes, sanderlings, curlews, Marbled Godwits, bowditches, avocets, wood ducks, ruddy ducks, grebes, and the usual flocks of mallards and Canada geese; quite the scene for our feathered friends – and those who admire them.
And, yes, I regularly find PPE – particularly masks – littering beach walkways. And yes, I regularly pick up and dispose of these discards into provided plastic garbage bins, lined with more plastic. This to, y’know, ensure garbage is placed into the correct receptacle to ensure it’s placed into the formal stream of garbage before ending up in the informal Great Pacific Garbage Patch .

I’ve been commenting on our – humanity’s – unconscious attitude toward garbage for many years. Moreover, my sculpture series, “Heedlessness” address this attitude. Riffing from a line of Rumi's poetry - "Heedlessness is a pillar that sustains our world, my friend" - I researched the location and dispensation of our planet's largest landfills. The Great Garbage Patch appears to beat all human attempts to formalize landfill.
What to say?
We humans do our best. Unfortunately, as COP(out) 26 demonstrates, that’s just not good enough.

As the world turns...

News blues

The struggle between and among the Covid convinced and unconvinced continues. The people of Anchorage, Alaska (largely unconvinced) were afforded six days to present their concerns about mask mandates – and, turns out, whatever else was on their minds. And a lot was on their minds.
Those focused on mitigating and surviving Covid stayed home to participate via Zoom and social media. 

… people lined up to comment against the ordinance.
Opponents have shown up en masse night after night . Mayor Dave Bronson and Assembly member Jamie Allard, ardent opponents of COVID-19 restrictions and masking requirements, have encouraged comments and engaged in procedural tactics that extend the process.
Mask ordinance opponents on social media encouraged families to bring their children to testify, and many did. A group served pizza to attendees in the entrance to the library.

Fun times!
Read “Anchorage Assembly and mayor battle over proceedings during sixth chaotic night of public comment on proposed mask mandate" >> 

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Seeking resources and information on Covid vaccines? Explore the CDC website  >>

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The Lincoln Project - and other media
Package Deal  (0:55 mins)
Not for Sale  (0:25 mins)

After following the pandemic for close to two years, from perspective of a locked down South African and a Californian, Lawrence Wright’s new book, The Plague Year: America in the Time of Covid is a good reminder of how We the People arrived at our current state. It’s also a confirmation of media reports from the pandemic’s early days.
Interesting quotes:

During the transition to the Trump administration, the Obama White House handed off a sixty-nine-page document called the “Playbook for Early Response to High-Consequence Emerging Infectious Disease Threats and Biological Incidents.” A meticulous, step-by-step guide for combatting a “pathogen of pandemic potential,” the playbook contains a directory of the government’s resources in time of need and is meant to be pulled off the shelf the moment things start to go haywire. At the top of the list of dangerous pathogens are the respiratory viruses, including novel influenzas, orthopoxviruses” (such as smallpox), and coronaviruses.
The playbook outlines the conditions under which various government agencies should be enlisted. With domestic outbreaks, the playbook specifies that “[ w]hile States hold significant power and responsibility related to public health response outside of a declared Public Health Emergency, the American public will look to the U.S. Government for action when multi-state or other significant public health events occur.” Questions concerning the severity and contagiousness of a disease, or how to handle potentially hazardous waste, should be directed to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Federal “Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Is there evidence of deliberate intent, such as a terrorist action? The FBI has the lead. Have isolation and quarantine been implemented? How robust is contact tracing? Is clinical care in the region scalable if cases explode?
There are many such questions, with decisions proposed and agencies assigned. Because the playbook was passed to a new administration that might not be familiar with the manifold resources of the federal government, there are appendices describing such entities as the Surge Capacity Force in the Department of Homeland Security, consisting of a group of FEMA “reservists and others that can be called upon as “deployable human assets.” The Pentagon’s Military Aeromedical Evacuation Team can be assembled to transport patients. HHS has a Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team, with the dry acronym DMORT, consisting of “intermittent federal employees, each with a particular field of expertise,” such as medical examiners, pathologists, anthropologists, dental assistants, and investigators.
The Trump administration jettisoned the Obama playbook.”

Another interesting quote…

“January 27 ...  “Rick, I think we’re in deep shit. The world.” 

There was an op-ed in USA Today that morning. “I remember how Trump sought to stoke fear and stigma during the 2014 Ebola epidemic,” Joe Biden wrote. “Trump’s demonstrated failures of judgment and his repeated rejection of science make him the worst possible person to lead our country through a global health challenge.” The former vice president cited Trump’s proposed cuts to NIH, CDC, and the Agency for International Development— “the very agencies we need to fight this outbreak and prevent future ones.”

Trump had dismantled the White House team in charge of global health security.”
“And he has treated with utmost contempt institutions that facilitate international cooperation, thus undermining the global efforts that keep us safe from pandemics and biological attacks. “To be blunt, I am concerned that the Trump administration’s shortsighted policies have left us unprepared for a dangerous epidemic that will come sooner or later.”

The Kindle version of this book is available in local libraries.

Healthy planet, anyone?

Plastic products have played significant roles in protecting people during the COVID-19 pandemic. The widespread use of personal protective gear created a massive disruption in the supply chain and waste disposal system. Millions of discarded single-use plastics (masks, gloves, aprons, and bottles of sanitizers) have been added to the terrestrial environment and could cause a surge in plastics washing up the ocean coastlines and littering the seabed. This paper attempts to assess the environmental footprints of the global plastic wastes generated during COVID-19 and analyze the potential impacts associated with plastic pollution. The amount of plastic wastes generated worldwide since the outbreak is estimated at 1.6 million tonnes/day. We estimate that approximately 3.4 billion single-use facemasks/face shields are discarded daily as a result of COVID-19 pandemic, globally. Our comprehensive data analysis does indicate that COVID-19 will reverse the momentum of years-long global battle to reduce plastic waste pollution. As governments are looking to turbo-charge the economy by supporting businesses weather the pandemic, there is an opportunity to rebuild new industries that can innovate new reusable or non-plastic PPEs. The unanticipated occurrence of a pandemic of this scale has resulted in unmanageable levels of biomedical plastic wastes. This expert insight attempts to raise awareness for the adoption of dynamic waste management strategies targeted at reducing environmental contamination by plastics generated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Click to download the pdf version of “COVID pollution: impact of COVID-19 pandemic on global plastic waste footprint” >>

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Life in congested commute lanes continues for another day….
Talking Heads put it right: “ask yourself, how did I get here…?” (3:44 mins)