Here comes the sun

Worldwide (Map) 
January 20, 2023 – 668,465,287 confirmed infections; 6,736,686 deaths
January 20, 2022 – 317,486,000 confirmed infections; 5,516,000 deaths
January 21, 2021 –  96,830,000 confirmed infections;  2,074,000 deaths

US (Map) 
January 20, 2023 – 101,964,661confirmed infections;  1,103,724 deaths
January 20, 2022 – 338,550,400 confirmed infections; 5,568,100 deaths
January 21, 2021 – 24,450,000 confirmed infections:     406,100 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
January 20, 2023 - 4,053,527 confirmed infections; 102,568 deaths
January 20, 2022 – 3,564,600 confirmed infections;  93,571 deaths 

January 21, 2021 – 1,370,000 confirmed infections;  38,900 deaths

Post from:
January 20, 2022 - “Plus ça change” 
January 21, 2021 – “The vulgarian has left the building” 

News blues…

COVID is never going away. But the pandemic will inevitably end at some point. Right?
For many, it already has, with masks, social distancing, and frequent handwashing relegated to a traumatic past they’re unwilling to revisit.
[Recently] the Biden administration extended the U.S. public health emergency for another 90 days, though U.S. Department of Health and Human Services officials recently warned states that the emergency status may soon come to an end. World Health Organization officials, too, continue to express optimism that the global health emergency may draw to a close this year. A committee meeting on the matter is set for Jan. 27.
Are we—or are we not—still in a pandemic, three years in?

Read “COVID keeps surging, but life is returning to normal everywhere you look. When will the pandemic really be over?” 

***

The Lincoln Project:
Decision  (1:20 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Look on the bright side: We the People face unprecedented weather …and this ground squirrel is doing its best to warn us to, "for god's sake, do something about climate change"…

***

The United States endured 18 separate disasters in 2022 whose damages exceeded $1 billion, with the total coming to $165 billion, according to a new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
… Extreme weather events, fueled by human-caused climate change, are occurring at a higher frequency with an increased cost — in dollars and lives.
"Climate change is creating more and more intense, extreme events that cause significant damage and often sets off cascading hazards like intense drought, followed by devastating wildfires, followed by dangerous flooding and mudslides," said Dr. Rick Spinrad, NOAA's administrator, citing the flooding and landslides currently happening in California.

Read more >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

As it did yesterday morning, a large, shiny golden orb appeared in the eastern section of the sky this morning. I assume it will disappear, as it did yesterday, in the western section of the sky at the end of day. I’ve not seen this golden orb for weeks. It is very welcome.

***

Reading the tealeaves, Meso Mary is in for a rough ride. Her latest PET scan shows “hypermetabolic” activity “under the diaphragm”. Translated: the cancer has spread outside the thoracic cavity (her lung pleura) and into her “belly.” Moreover, it has entered the lymph system.
This is scary stuff. 

As Mary – and I – absorb this news, we’re also preparing for the next phase of her treatment: immunotherapy.
Immunotherapy has successfully treated mesothelioma in some patients – at least for a period of time. Mesothelioma, however, is not curable. It goes underground for a period then flares up again. Immunotherapy can create longer periods between resurgence of the disease. That’s not to be sneezed at.
The downside of immunotherapy? The immune system can ‘over-react’ and ‘attack’ organs it assumes are ill or inflamed … leading to damaged liver, or kidneys, or adrenals, or heart, or ….
Alas.
Neither Mary nor I will, as we’d planned, travel to South Africa at the end of this month. Indeed, given the treatment’s expected course, we’ll not travel there until at least August.

***

SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 7:29am
Sunset: 5:10pm
Sun... welcome, sun!
KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:18am
Sunset: 7:01pm

eeek! More variants

Worldwide (Map) 
July 14, 2022 - 558,366, 400 confirmed infections; 6,357,300 deaths
July 15, 2021 – 1,888,565,400 confirmed infections; 4,061,275 deaths
July 16, 2020 – 13,558,000 worldwide: confirmed infections; 585,000 deaths

US (Map) 
July 14, 2022 – 88,967,000 confirmed infections; 1,022,000 deaths
July 15, 2021 – 33,952,000 confirmed infections; 608,120 deaths
July 16, 2020 - 3,500.000 confirmed infections; 138,000 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
July 14, 2022 - 3,998,000 confirmed infections; 101,900 deaths
July 15, 2021 – 2,236,800 confirmed infections; 65,595 deaths
July 16, 202o - 311,050 confirmed infections; 4,460 deaths

Posts from:
July 15, 2021, “Heavy heart” >>
July 16, 2020, “Doin’ the numbahs!” >>

News blues

Meet “Centaurus”, the latest coronavirus variant, aka BA.2.75, overtaking in speed of transmission, the extremely transmissible BA.5 variant.

“Centaurus” was first detected in India in early May. Cases in the UK have since risen steeply – and apparently faster than those of the BA.5 variant, also present in India, and is rapidly displacing the previously dominant BA.2 variant in many countries.
BA.2.75 has also since been detected in about 10 other countries, including the UK, US, Australia, Germany and Canada.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) designated it a “variant under monitoring” on 7 July, meaning there is some indication that it could be more transmissible or associated with more severe disease, but the evidence is weak or has not yet been assessed.

Read more >> 

Fulltime job these days to keep up with variants, subvariants, boosters….

***

On war and culture war

More Russian men look to avoid military service >> 

***

The Lincoln Project:
Rep. Jamie Raskin’s closing remarks  (2:30 mins)
Herschel Walker’s Green New Deal  (Good air, bad air? Say what? This man is the Republican Party’s nominee for US Senate, 2022. (0:46 mins)
Proud Boys  (0:55 mins)
The GOP’s Crazy Candidates  (2:24 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Since humans in “leadership” positions insist climate change is a “hoax”  , or “fake news” , while they spread disinformation, geophysics continues “business as usual”. Just this week, for example, two glaciers displayed the stresses they faced before succumbing – and the growing dangers of continuing to ignore our planet's warming.

 
Read “Rising global temperatures are weakening glaciers in mountainous areas, where millions of people rely on these reservoirs as a source of water”, watch the videos, and believe your eyes....

***

Think climate change is “someone else’s fault”? Not so. It’s yours and mine, too. We’ve been ineffective in shutting out the caps-in-hand politicians who fully rely on corporate donations.
Read more about it.
Summary:

Corporations are facing increased scrutiny over their political spending—particularly when their stated values seem to contradict their lobbying efforts. A 2020 report by the Center for Political Accountability offers abundant examples, including corporations that have publicly demanded racial equality while contributing to groups and candidates that promote racial gerrymandering and corporations that purport to be concerned about climate change while donating to groups that challenge the EPA’s clean-power plan. In this groundbreaking article the authors argue that companies should halt political spending entirely to reduce the risk of blowback and enable executives to focus attention and resources on running their companies.
From the article:
…hypocrisy—has become endemic in the corporate world as a direct consequence of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. That ruling freed corporations to fund political candidates and dark-money campaign committees (organizations that do not have to disclose their donors).
As a result, companies now donate to help elect candidates they hope will do their industry’s bidding or support a specific cause, even as they publicly advocate for the opposite stance.

Read more from Harvard Business Review >> 

This reality is beginning to catch up with “us”… as “a new analysis provides the first measurement of nations’ liability in stoking the climate crisis.”

© Guardian graphic. Source: Callahan et al., 2022, “National attribution of historical climate damages”.
Note: Losses calculated using emissions from countries’ territorial boundaries in 2010 US dollars.

…Dartmouth researchers combined a number of different models, showing factors such as emissions, local climate conditions and economic changes, to ascertain the precise impact of an individual country’s contribution to the climate crisis. They looked for these links over a period spanning 1990 to 2014, with the research published in the journal Climatic Change.
What they found was a perniciously uneven picture – rich nations in northerly latitudes, such as those in north America and Europe, have done the most to fuel climate change but have not yet been severely harmed by it economically. Countries such as Canada and Russia have even benefitted from longer agricultural growing seasons and reduced deaths from the cold as winters have warmed.

Read “Nearly $2 trillion of damage inflicted on other countries by US emissions” 

Research puts US ahead of China, Russia, India and Brazil in terms of global damage as climate expert says numbers ‘very stark’ 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

My mother passed away, in her sleep, one year ago. Today would have been her 89th birthday. I wasn’t there when she died. Not only had the Care Center shut down due to another Covid surge, but I’d departed South Africa 6 weeks prior to her death. I’d been in the country for longer than one year, due to Covid, lockdown, cancelled air travel, and caring for my mother, her interests, her dogs, her property. Moreover, I’d brought my son-in-law from Alaska to caretake my mother until I returned. After I departed, he, however, wasn’t allowed to visit her, again due to the Covid surge.
I tried my best to protect and care for my mother during that difficult time.
Good training for caring for my bestie over the next few weeks.

The last days before surgery are the most challenging. 

Mary’s ready for surgery – “Now! Today!” she says. “Waiting is the hardest.”
I’ll be back posting as soon as I can, under the circumstances.
Meanwhile, a task for you: strategize on – and implement – ways to address our planet’s ongoing crisis.

Solstice

News blues

© M. Wuerker, Politico 

After crowing about the wonderful weather in my town on the San Francisco Bay over the last few days, I take back my words. Today, Tuesday – summer solstice, 2022 was hotter than one usually experiences in this location: 98 F.

With a dome of heat over the San Francisco Bay Area, temperatures ... [soared] on the first day of summer, increasing the risk of heat illness and wildfires...
[Today was] slated to be the hottest day of the week with many interior valleys hitting anywhere between 100 and 105 degrees… warning that the "elderly, sick and homeless are most vulnerable" in the hot conditions.
…
[The weather service said] near-critical fire weather conditions are also expected due to the combination of dry offshore winds combined with lower humidity values. "This concern is greatest across the North Bay hills where the breeziest winds should exist".
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District issued a Spare the Air alert for Tuesday with unhealthy ozone, or smog, expected to build up [and cautioned] "Limit your driving to reduce air pollution…”.
Read more >>

***

Covid has disappeared from the news in the US. The UK Guardian, however, still publishes US Covid statistics. The news is not promising:

 Guardian News, June 21, 2022

***

On war

Russians casually slaughter three young Ukrainian men 
Photo essay: Mariupol – before and after

MeerKAT

News blues...

Covid, schmovid! Let’s celebrate something out of this world – and first spotted by South Africans:

This record-breaking megamaser is the most distant one ever observed at 5 billion light-years away from Earth.
The light from this space laser traveled a whopping 36 thousand billion billion miles (58 thousand billion billion kilometers) to reach our planet.
An international team of astronomers, led by Marcin Glowacki, observed this light, using the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory's MeerKAT telescope. (MeerKAT is shorthand for Karoo Array Telescope, preceded by the Afrikaans word for "more.")
Glowacki is a research associate at the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research in Australia.
Megamasers are created when two galaxies crash into each other. It is the first hydroxyl megamaser that MeerKAT has observed,,,,

Read more >>

***

(c) Zapiro

Reviewing the aftermath of recent flooding in Durban, President Ramaphosa said, “…climate change is serious, it is here… We no longer can postpone what we need to do, and the measures we need to take to deal with climate change.”

Good for Ramaphosa. The reality, however, more complex. Where does a country like South Africa, burdened with ongoing massive corruption at the highest levels of government, get the funds needed to competently address the growing effects of climate change. Moreover, South African police used stun grenades to disperse a crowd in Durban, suffering catastrophic flood damage, calling for more and better official aid for flood victims.
Read more >> 
(See below, more on climate change action.)

***

The Lincoln Project: Abbott’s Wall  (0:55 mins)

***

On war…

Alla Gutnikova's speech at the Dorogomilovsky court. She is one of the editors of the Moscow student journal DOXA, and facing prison sentences for "inciting minors to take part in illegal opposition protests”. But the speech, “Be Like Children. Repeat: 2+2=4. Black Is Black. White Is White.” is about so much more. 

Read Alla Gutnikova's speech at the Dorogomilovsky court >> 

Healthy planet, anyone?

Twenty-five scientists affiliated with Extinction Rebellion, arrived at Westminster, London, and

... pasted pages of scientific papers to the windows of the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and glued their hands to the glass to highlight the climate science they said the government was ignoring.
This, a week after the government published a new energy strategy that promised to continue the exploitation of North Sea oil and gas, failed to set targets for onshore wind, and gave nuclear power a central role.
Dr Aaron Thierry, a 36-year-old ecologist said, “Last week the world’s scientists released a report that sounded the final alarm for the planet. It said we must end our addiction to fossil fuels now. The UK government’s response a few days later was to announce it will increase its exploration for oil and gas with the intention of extracting every last drop.
“Science tells us that this approach will condemn our civilisations to destruction. We will not stand by and let this happen. Scientists have been sounding the alarm for decades but have been ignored by governments.”
…[Another scientist said} ““At both the domestic and international policy level, there are very powerful actors who don’t want our society to decarbonise.
“There are people who are very wealthy and powerful from the way that the world is set up now and they don’t want that to change, they don’t want to decarbonise because that will limit their opportunity to generate money from fossil fuels.
“As a result we have government departments making decisions that will lead us to calamity, and as a scientist I know what impacts this has, I can see that coming, and I can’t be passive, I can’t just let that happen. I need to act.

An observer tweeted, “The government’s insane, and I don’t know what to do, other than to do this, to try and get the attention that we need to wake the public up.”
Read more >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

More clouds, more rain…
KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:18am
Sunset: 5:39pm

San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 6:32am
Sunset: 7:45pm

The beat goes on

Funny signs from © Happy Land 

Worldwide (Map) 

March 24, 2022 - 475,487,400 confirmed infections; 6,104,200 deaths
March 25, 2021 – 124,894,200 confirmed infections; 2,746,000 deaths

US (Map) 
March 24, 2022 - 79,844,400 confirmed infections; 974,830 deaths
March 25, 2021 – 30,011,600 confirmed infections; 545,300 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
March 24, 2022 - 3,705,700 confirmed infections; 99,895 deaths
March 25, 2021 – 1,540,010, confirmed infections; 52,372 deaths

 
Note:
The US has still not reached the 1 millionth confirmed deaths rate. A feat indeed.
South Africa hovers on 100,000 confirmed deaths. 

Unfortunately, ‘confirmed’ numbers do not reflect anything near actual numbers. It is likely the world will never know numbers of confirmed infections and deaths from Covid-19.
Post from one year ago, “One down, one to go?” >> 

News blues

President Ramaphosa updated South Africans on current Covid—19 situation  and the (slight) changes to Level 1 restrictions. (15:50 mins)
Editorial note: skip to about 8:00 mins for the nitty gritty on changes.
And… the pushback…

The high force of SARS-CoV-2 infections in SA, and the 300,000 excess deaths that have been mostly attributed to Covid-19, is indicative of the failure of the government-enforced regulations to prevent significant numbers of infections in South Africa.
These regulations, such as lockdown strategies, limits on gatherings, curfews, social distancing and mask mandates, at best drew out the initial period over which roughly the same number of infections would have occurred.

Read more >> 

***

The World Health Organization (WHO) says several European countries lifted their coronavirus restrictions too soon. The result? Sharp rises in infections probably linked to the new, more transmissible BA2 subvariant.
Read more >> 

***

Covid-19 cases are rising again in Europe. They’re outright exploding across much of Asia. The United States, however, is in a Covid lull, having just come down from the winter’s omicron outbreak.
It’s an uneasy time. On one hand, it’s likely the worst of the pandemic is over, at least in terms of severe illness and death. But on the other hand, we have to ask: Do these upticks in the rest of the world foreshadow America’s future?

Read more >> 

***

South Korea struggles as Covid-19 cases top 10 million - nearly 20% of its population - and crematoria and funeral homes are overwhelmed. 

Read more >> 

***

On War:
More than 10 million displaced. Photos from Ukraine >> 

***

The Lincoln Project: Kid Rock  (1:13 mins)
Josh Mandel: Ohioans or Trump?  (o:46 mins)
Last week in the Republican Party - March 23  (1:50 mins)
Bringing humor to the day with signing punny funs – oops, I mean funny puns >>  (7:50 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Eyes on wildlife: photo essay >> 

***

As climate breakdown takes hold across the globe, more people are likely to be affected by extreme weather, including flash floods, heatwaves, more violent storms and coastal storm surges, made worse by sea level rises.
About a third of people around the world are not now covered by early warning systems, but in Africa the problem is greater, with about six in 10 people lacking such warnings. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had recently found  half of humanity was “in the danger zone” for climate breakdown. That so many people were still not covered by early warning systems is “unacceptable”, said António Guterres.
Read more >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

The beat goes on. Painting, repairing, and, finally, untangling the house’s electrical wiring and systems. The hodge podge of an electrical system that was certified when this house changed owners should never have passed. I assume the certification was purchased under the table, a ‘not uncommon’ transaction in South Africa. (One example of common fraud >>.)  The net haul for fraudulent certifications when transferring ownership of higher ticket items such as houses and commercial buildings must be worth the risk to fraudsters. After all, it’s taken almost ten years to untangle the mess in this house’s electrical system. And, if I were not obsessive about fixing it, it’s likely no one would have noticed – until an electrical fire ignited.

***

Perfect equinox today:
KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:05am
Sunset: 6:05pm

The Opposite is true in
San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 7:06am
Sunset: 7:24pm

TGIO*

* Thank God It’s Over!

The end Lockdown Week 40 coincides nicely with the end of the year. 

More than 82 million people around the world infected with a highly contagious virus is a hellava way to end a year, any year!. Who’da thunk?
Below, our weekly wrap up of Covid-19 stats of the last three months.
May the year 2021 see a diminution of the horror.

Worldwide (Map) 
December 31 – 82,656000 confirmed infections; 1,8040100 deaths
November 26 – 60,334,000 confirmed infections; 1,420,500 deaths
October 29 – 44,402,000 confirmed infections; 1,173,270 deaths
Cry, the beloved planet….

US (Map) 
December 31 – 19,737,200 confirmed infections; 342,260 deaths
November 26 – 12,771,000 confirmed infections; 262,145 deaths
October 29 – 8,856,000 confirmed infections; 227,675 deaths
One in 1,000 Americans have now died of Covid-19.
1 in 17 Americans have tested positive for Covid-19.
More than 63,000 Americans died of Covid-19 in December.
Cry, the beloved country….

SA (Tracker)  
December 31 – 1,039,165 confirmed infections; 28,035 deaths
November 26 – 775,510 confirmed infections; 21,2010 deaths
October 29 – 719,715 confirmed infections; 19,111 deaths
Cry, the (original) beloved country….

News blues…

Then and Now: a photo essay of the year around the world. 

***

And, 18 actually good things that happened in 2020 

Healthy planet, anyone?

Could Covid lockdown have helped save the planet?  Slowdown of human activity was too short to reverse years of destruction, but we saw a glimpse of post-fossil fuel world  

When lockdown began, climate scientists were horrified at the unfolding tragedy, but also intrigued to observe what they called an “inadvertent experiment” on a global scale. To what extent, they asked, would the Earth system respond to the steepest slowdown in human activity since the second world war?
Environmental activists put the question more succinctly: how much would it help to save the planet?
Almost one year on from the first reported Covid case, the short answer is: not enough. In fact, experts say the pandemic may have made some environmental problems worse, though there is still a narrow window of opportunity for something good to come from something bad if governments use their economic stimulus packages to promote a green recovery.

Read “Could Covid lockdown have helped save the planet?” >> 

***

This Year Was A Disaster for The Planet. From record-breaking wildfires to devastating hurricanes, human-driven climate change keeps killing us.  

***

Floods, storms and searing heat: 2020 in extreme weather. While Covid has dominated the news, the world has also felt the effects of human-driven global heating. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I end the year with my mother still in hospital due, not to adverse reaction to her recent surgery, but still awaiting results of her Covid test. The Care Center, naturally, requires she’s Covid negative before they can accept her. She was tested on Monday, the same day she was admitted. Today, Thursday, she’s still not received results. 

One wonder what viruses and infections she may have been exposed to after four days in the Petrie dish of a hospital.
On the other hand, I’d asked the surgeon on Tuesday if he could see his way to keeping her in the hospital one more day. This, I thought, might ensure better post-surgery care – and delay my sharing the news that I brought Jessica back to the house while my mom recovers. The surgeon explained that, under normal conditions, he’d consider keeping her another day, but under Covid conditions, hospital staff are hard pressed and hospital beds at a premium.
Jessica The Dog has had a tough time. A lugubrious creature at the best of times, she’s currently in mourning. She spends her days installed in her ‘special place’ in the garden, a spot that expresses her state of mind. Yesterday, she refused to move from there, even during the afternoon rain shower.
Good news for Jessica? After having to stifle her yen to bark at the Care Center, here she’s free to bark again. And she does. She's especially gleeful at barking at monkeys. I'm gleeful too: the monkeys take heed.

***

My brother and his family – 3 adults – are under quarantine as “secondary contacts” for Covid.  The son of a member of the extended family, someone who visits regularly with my sister-in-law, is infected. 

Covid is getting closer. The Care Center psychologist also is under quarantine. While my contact with both my brother and the psychologist is confined to texting and/or phone, I feel more hemmed in by encroaching Covid.
Meanwhile, the Care Center has set up video conferencing. This means my brother – my mother’s all time favorite human in the world – can easily contact her to chat. The only drawback? Both my mother and my brother mumble, slur their words, and/or speak at such low volume that a conversation quickly becomes a mumble-athon. At least they can see one another.
My dread my first Zoom conversation with my mother as I will have to explain why Jessica is at the house rather than the Care Center. I doubt my mother will accept the truth: that, for now, her physical health decrees she cannot get up to feed and walk the dog.
Alas, try telling that to an 87 year old who still thinks of herself as a 27 year old.

Fatal “individualism”

Worldwide (Map) 
December 3 – 64,469,710 confirmed infections; 1,492,100 deaths
November 5 – 48,136,225 confirmed infections; 1,225,915 deaths
In 29 days, an increase of 16,333,485 confirmed infections and 266,185 deaths

US (Map)  
December 3 – 13,920,000 confirmed infections; 273,370 deaths
November 5 – 9,487,470 confirmed infections; 237,730 deaths
In 29 days, an increase of 4,432,530 confirmed infections and 35,640 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
December 3 – 796,475 confirmed infections; 21,710 deaths
November 5 – 730,500 confirmed infections; 19,585 deaths
In 29 days, an increase of 65,975 confirmed infections and 2,125 deaths

News blues…

A Brookings Institute survey of Americans asked about why they choose not to wear a mask to slow the transmission of coronavirus, finds “individualism” a key component of resistance:

 © National Panel Study of COVID-19 

… 40% of Americans who do not wear a mask say this is because it is “their right as an American to not wear a mask.” This modal response was followed by Americans who say they do not wear a mask “because it is uncomfortable” at 24%. The data reveals that a combined 64% of Americans believe that their right to not have to be inconvenienced by wearing a mask or scarf over their face is more important than reducing the probability of getting sick or infecting others.

Read the article: “American individualism is an obstacle to wider mask wearing” 

***

Further health-oriented Covid restrictions coming up in South Africa with the  health department recommending to the national coronavirus command council (NCCC) that the government:

• reduce the maximum size of indoor gatherings
• implement an earlier curfew overall 
• put in place a 10pm curfew in Covid-19 hotspots around the country 
• restrict alcohol sales from Monday to Thursday, and 
• declare bars and taverns close by 9pm.

Healthy planet, anyone?

For extended periods over the past two years, Eskom’s [South Africa’s parastatal electricity supply commission] Kendal Power Station has been found consistently exceeding particulate matter atmospheric emissions of up to 10 times the allowable limit.

Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries Barbara Creecy has revealed that summons was served on Eskom on 27 November notifying it of the decision by the senior public prosecutor to pursue a criminal prosecution in respect of air pollution by Eskom’s Kendal Power Station. This includes a charge of supplying false and misleading information in reports prepared by management at Kendal Power Station to an Air Quality Officer, which is a criminal offence listed in Section 51(1)(g) of the Air Quality Act.

 ***

“…The state of the planet is broken," said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in a speech on Wednesday. He issued a searing indictment of humanity's "war" on the environment and urged everyone to prioritize "making peace with nature."

"We are facing a devastating pandemic, new heights of global heating, new lows of ecological degradation and new setbacks in our work towards global goals for more equitable, inclusive and sustainable development."
The UN chief laid out in stark terms the damage already done to the environment and warned that countries risked losing the opportunity afforded by the coronavirus pandemic to reset their priorities on climate change and environmental protections if they do not act now.
Guterres highlighted two authoritative new reports - one from the World Meteorological Organization  and the other from the United Nations Environment Programme  - "spell out how close we are to climate catastrophe…."

***

New Zealand declares a climate change emergency as Jacinda Ardern calls climate change “one of the greatest challenges of our time” and pledges carbon-neutral government by 2025.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Rain, rain, rain… and vegetation shooting up. Grass must be cut at least once a week, bamboo seemingly grows inches overnight, trees, flowers, weeds bloom thither and yon.
All this 29-degree-southern-hemisphere fecundity disorients a 38-degree-northern-hemisphere Californian….
I’m adjusting – and enjoying the adjustment.

49 more days

49 more days left to the US presidential election. But Trump, if he loses the election, hangs around until January 20 – his window-of-opportunity to further punish Americans, this time for voting him out.

News blues…

Trump visited Sacramento, California and, with his usual wisdom, advised “forest management” is at root of California’s devastating fires, that dry trees become “like matchsticks” and must be “removed” from forests. (BTW: Most US forests are on land owned by the federal government – which makes “forest management” his bailiwick.) According to Trump, “raking forest floors” is correct forest management – the PM of Norway told him that.
Still in Sacramento, in the context of acknowledging California’s soaring temperatures but avoiding the topic of climate change, Trump tackled the weather, predicting: “It’ll start getting cooler. You just watch.”
According to The New York Times, “Mr Trump and his senior officials have regularly mocked, denied or minimized … human-caused climate change … and has sought to zealously rollback [environmental] regulations.”

***

Scientific American breaks its own record and steps into the fray. After 175 years of Scientific American not endorsing a presidential candidate, the respected magazine – and scientists – endorses Joe Biden for president.  (3:30 mins)

***

The Lincoln Project:
Trump NO Nos Quiere YouTube  (1:17 mins)
Don Winslow Films: How we got here  (2:20 mins)
RVAT: President Trump couldn't care less about our military heroes (5:00 mins)
And, on the topic of political ads… Donald Trump et al blow it: 

MSNBC’s The ReidOut, “Campaign Ad Slammed As Overtly Racist”  (1:58 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Today, I delivered my 87-yr-old-mother and her chosen dog, Jessica, to her chosen retirement center. This move has been month’s in the making – plans interrupted by the pandemic, my mom changing her mind, then changing it back again, repeating that…
Finally, after we paid the deposit and first month’s rent, the household got on board behind the decision. We retrenched (“laid off”) a long term employee but retained another to help prepare the house for sale.
Today has been a long time coming.
Tomorrow, we pivot: 1) ready the house for sale, 2) possibly purchase a unit in a lovely “estate” (akin to a “gated community”), 3) figure out when – and how – I can return to California without exposing myself to Covid-19 or climate change fire-related health hazards.
But first, tonight is a moment to breath deep, pat myself on my back (no one else in the extended family will do so) and feel grateful that my mom will adjust into a new, safe, people-and-animal-filled life for her remaining days.
Amen.

Week 3 – Day 17, Sunday April 12

Australia’s prime minister urged stay-at-home back in March and again, yesterday, for Easter. 

Aussies appear to have overcome the national urge to buy up and hoard the country’s toilet paper supply. Perhaps they’ve sublimated fear into something constructively home-centric: baking toilet paper cakes.
What comes next? The Great Australian Toilet Paper Bakeoff?

Easter Sun-day-of-Rest-and-Reflection

Back on March 27, first day of lockdown in South Africa, blogging a post a day for three weeks looked feasible. My daily routine already included reading world news, writing, gardening, exercising, visiting my mother, walking the dogs, and spying on garden creatures. Adding a post-a-day would keep insanity away. Wouldn’t it?
Turns out, daily blogging quickly becomes debilitating.
World news depresses. Trumpeting Trump’s lack of leadership, self-centeredness, and greed depresses. (I barely can watch him on YouTube; why is he allowed to campaign at “press conference” microphones?)
Gardening: me mowing the lawns is the garden equivalent of me cutting my child’s hair: clumpy and uneven. I seek out and murder invasive cat’s claw sprouts. I fill sinkholes.  I collect and redistribute rich topsoil ejected from mole tunnels.
Exercise: I stretch, skip rope, run up and down stairs. It’s better than nothing but nothing like swimming and walking.
I watch mother sew cotton masks for the household and neighbors.
Spying reveals creatures sleep in on Easter Sunday. I haven’t spotted a goldfish in six days.

Yes, my position under lockdown is one of privilege, certainly more privileged than the majority of South Africans. Case in point: as I drafted this post, the gardener phoned. A family man with two young kids living in Mpophemeni Township, he had been scheduled to return to work this week. After we extended his stay away, I asked the status of the township. No infections that he knows of but life, he said, is “bad.” Crowded, anxious, bored, and, I’m sure, dangerous as people with incomes fall prey to people without incomes. (Last year, I asked if he grew veggies in his yard. He laughed, “Too many goats.” Goats and cattle trump people in Mpophemeni, and have priority right of way.)

***

Fewer vehicles on roads mean air is cleaner around the world. Moreover, a study reveals “pre-existing conditions that increase the risk of death for COVID-19 are the same diseases that are affected by long-term exposure to air pollution.”

Imagine if governments and people around the world mobilized for climate change with just one percent of the effort expended on fighting Covid-19 infection. Louis Armstrong sang it: “What a Wonderful World.”

Read Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3

Follow up to... Landfills and Dumps

Back in April 2015 (Saturday, 25 April, to be exact) I posted a series of pix of in-progress shame totems. Specifically, I wrote:

The Shame Totem

...As you may know, a totem is, often, a tall, vertical carved or painted family or clan representation or emblem with identifiable common/meaningful objects. A ‘shame totem’ is geared to elicit public embarrassment, usually for unpaid debts although Alaska Native carver Mike Webber of Cordova erected one to shame Exxon Mobil on the anniversary of the Exxon Valdez spill….
(More... read that post.)  

Here it is, almost exactly 6 months later and these totems are glazed, fired, and ready for public eyes.
Back then, (link to that post to see) I displayed the greenware version of one totem. Here it is glazed and fired. This is front and side view. Click on the image to enlarge.

Title: Heedlessness Series 1. ( (c) Susan Galleymore.

This piece is one of three that will  be entered into an exhibit with the theme of Climate Change. Here is how I describe the piece (24" high x 15" wide x 15" deep):

Heedlessness Series, 1

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. 

These dot the planet and countries compete for title of World’s Largest Landfill; the current favorite is South Korea’s Sudokwon (a marvel of geometric engineering 30 km west of Seoul). 

Mexico City’s Bordo Poniente held the title until it closed in June 2012. In 34 years of operation more than 70m tons of waste were dumped here (56 feet deep in some places) and 1.5 million tons of methane were released per year.

In the U.S., the biggest landfills are in Shawnee, Kansas, followed by Puente Hills, near Los Angeles, and Apex, near Las Vegas.

This sculpture sits on a pedestal inscribed with the "Heedlessness..." line of Rumi's poetry. Two figures strain to hold up the pillar upon which the planet rests; a snake, a recurring motif in my work, coils around the pillar.

On the upper (northern?) hemisphere of the blue planet, "X" marks the spot on the continents that host the world’s largest landfills. The Pacific Garbage Patch (spelled out) raises awareness about the state of that ocean ...and all of our planet's polluted oceans, seas, and rivers.

On the lower (southern?) hemisphere, I present landfill names at different angles to signify the lack of coordination in addressing the reals requirement of a planet increasingly smothered by waste.

The mid-section (equator?) is a round-a-bout of endangered oceanic creatures: turtles, whales, salmon, puffins, penguins, albatross, and dolphins.

The sculpture’s head, the "thinking" core of our world, erupts out of turbulent waves that almost cover the woman. She wears a necklace of semi-precious beads around her neck with a fish skeleton pendant. She is crowned with a garbage barge with waste piled so high it spills over the sides. The barge, however, is also a lifeboat offering shelter to the segments of humanity that must migrate from their traditional homes due to the effects of climate change.

The barge/lifeboat is named "Lollipop" (as in the “Good Ship Lollipop”).

Size: 24” (h) x 15” (w) x 15” (deep)

The other pieces are:

Title: Heedlessness Series 2. ( (c) Susan Galleymore.

Heedlessness Series, 2

Another take on the line of poetry by Rumi -- -- "Heedlessness is a pillar that sustains our world, my friend" – this sculpture  addresses an aspect of Woman/Women, in the age of climate change.

Here, the human body, like the planet, is under siege from the pressure of living the Western lifestyle. This includes pressure to consume beyond need to excessive "getting and spending” (‘we lay waste our powers” according to Wordsworth), and to keep up with the latest “in” thing.

Women must both turn to one another for sustenance and support and compete with one another for goods, services, and resources.
Meanwhile, the obvious -- the body/planet connection -- is overlooked, over-ruled, over-indulged, etched on, sketched on, and kvetched over.

Size: 27” (h) x 10” (w) x 15” (deep)

 Heedlessness Series, 3

Title: Heedlessness Series 3. ( (c) Susan Galleymore.

Heedlessness Series, 3 
My third take on the line from Rumi’s poetry -- "Heedlessness is a pillar that sustains our world, my friend" – considers migrants and migration in the age of climate change.
Rising sea levels will affect millions of people who live in coastal areas and will have to scramble for higher ground to survive, and millions more who will be displaced by the scramble.
This sculpture depicts a dominant figure trapped in water that rises to her thighs, and rising up and out of water.
Her right arm and shoulder are formed by three snakes, a white feather, and a small key. Her snakelike arm grips a walking stick, an object that guides, comforts, and offers security. The other snakes that curl and wind around the woman’s torso may stimulate a viewer’s ambivalent relationship to these wild creatures and to nature.
The white feather signifies the artist’s regard for the written word… and that words are key to the artist’s well-being.
The Woman’s left arm and shoulder are formed by a ladder upon which she supports a fleeing migrant…or an ambitious person. Thus, the ladder can represent a means of escape and social and political ambition (often the downfall to clear thinking about climate change). The ladder rests on, or rises from, the Hand of Fatima, an emblem of magical thinking as well as an object of beauty and safety (warding off the evil eye).
The migrant that clambers up the Woman’s thigh is, perhaps, someone who has not heeded the mounting evidence of climate change or is someone who lacks the resources to ensure her own safety.
The Woman’s headdress – a lifeboat surfing through waves – suggests the surfer can ignore inherent danger …or harness it as a temporary means of excitement and pleasure.
The many faces in this piece suggest that, for now, populations  may  continue to rely on magical thinking and 'business as usual' to deny an inevitable future.
Size: 40” (h) x 12” (w) x 11” (deep)