Hyacinth as virus

As fog rose off the water, I captured drifting water hyacinth.

Doesn't it look like illustrations of the coronavirus?

Worldwide (Map) 
August 5, 2021 – 200,670,800 confirmed infections; 4,264,000 deaths
Vaccinated worldwide: 4,303,804,250
June 3, 2021 – 171,746,400 confirmed infections; 3,693,300 deaths
Vaccinated worldwide: 2,002,900,000

US (Map) 
August 5, 2021 – 35,392,700 confirmed infections; 615,150 deaths
June 3, 2021 – 33,308,000 confirmed infections; 596,000 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
August 5, 2021 – 2,497,655 confirmed infections; 73,875 deaths
June 3, 2021 – 1,669,300 confirmed infections; 56,610 deaths

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The Lincoln Project, Made  (0:55 mins)
Trump’s North Carolina Speech in 70 Seconds  (1:05 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Fires, drought, and Covid plague California and the Pacific Northwest.
Scary.
Fires: The Dixie Fire is still uncontained after burning for several weeks and taking down towns  .
Another, newer fire near Auburn in the Sierra foothills  brought evacuees to share friends’ home in Grass Valley.
Even small Bradford Island in the Delta – population estimated at 15 to 20 individuals - was alight. Three residents were assisted by the fire district to evacuate via ferry boat.

Bradford Island was flooded to put out a brush fire that started early Monday morning on what is a reclaimed peat wetland in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
The fire was reported at about 1:30 a.m. on the 2,100-acre island, according to the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District and prompted evacuations. As of 5 a.m. the fire had burned 212 acres and two structures, but no injuries were reported.

Drought: As irrigated crops compete with fish for scarce water, farmers in the Klamath Basin lose hope as drought closes in. ‘It’s like a sad country song’ and they lament they may be the last generation to work the land. >> 

Covid:

Worldwide, more than 200 million people have been infected with COVID-19, more than 4.2 million people have died from the virus, a staggering figure that includes more than 614,000 Americans, 558,000 Brazilians and at least 425,000 people in India.
…remember that those figures are only the known accounts of infections and deaths associated with COVID-19. Various studies have estimated that the true toll of the pandemic is much higher in some areas. In India, for example, experts suggest the official death toll could be one-half, one-fifth or even less than one-tenth of the actual figure, which may never be known.
It took about 12 months for the coronavirus to infect the first 100 million people worldwide; the next 100 million were infected in just a six-month time frame.
Read more >> 

And yet, in the US, particularly Florida, politicians continue an idiotic path. Florida’s governor chooses to squabble with the president instead of the virus… 
Louisiana’s Attorney General Jeff Landry advises how to invoke the Bible to object to face masks in schools and encourages employees to undermine COVID restrictions.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Based on a lower temperature forecast for today, I began, soon after sunrise, to patch the houseboat’s deck roof. I’d picked up materials while visiting the inner Bay and had my schedule neatly planned. Alas, 88F has the same effect on this human body as 98F: just too hot to tiptoe around with tools.
I’d swept dust from the deck last night and this morning I schlepped up a hosepipe to wash the deck then I patched assorted cracks and holes. While waiting for this material to dry, I prepped other sections and, alas, had to destroy a nest of wasps ensconced in canvas. By the time I was ready to paint, the heat had blossomed, and it was just too hot to continue.
I’ll wait until late afternoon after the heat dissipates to continue.
Best lain plans of mice and (wo)man, etc., etc.

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.