Ponderings

News blues

Delta variant now has been found in up to 98 countries and it’s spread hobbles global efforts to lift COVID-19 restrictions. Vaccines that reduce hospitalizations and deaths are tempering economic concerns — but not in poorer, less-inoculated countries. 

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Health service buckling as third coronavirus wave fueled by Delta variant sweeps across South Africa. 
In Iran, Covid-19 has killed more than 84,000 people out of over 3.2 million infections. These figures, according to authorities, do not account for all cases.

Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, has expressed fears that Iran will be hit by a new wave of Covid-19 due to an outbreak of the Delta variant in the Middle East’s hardest-hit country.
“It is feared that we are on the way to a fifth wave throughout the country,” Rouhani told a meeting of Iran’s anti-virus taskforce, warning the public to be careful as the Delta variant had entered the country from the south and south-east.

Read more >> 

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A month ago, even as President Biden laid out a goal to vaccinate 70% of American adults by today, Independence Day,  he conceded the U.S. would need to overcome “doubters” and laziness to do it. “This is your choice … It’s life and death.”
That goal has yet materialize – among humans, that is.
Zoo animals, however, are a different story.

Tigers Ginger and Molly were the first two animals at the Oakland Zoo to get the vaccine this week, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Saturday. The doses were donated and developed by veterinary pharmaceutical company Zoetis in New Jersey.

Healthy planet, anyone?

ExxonMobil, cont’d…

0ver the past decade, Exxon Mobil Corp. ― once the chief funder of think tanks that sowed lies about how burning fossil fuels affects the planet’s temperature  ― abandoned its denial of climate change and embraced economists’ favored solution: putting a tax on carbon emissions.
But on Wednesday, a veteran lobbyist at the nation’s largest oil producer was secretly recorded on video seemingly confirming what many environmentalists had long suspected ― that Exxon Mobil believes a carbon tax is politically impossible, and thus has supported it as a ploy to prevent lawmakers from enacting more popular climate policies.

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New oilfield in African wilderness threatens lives of 130,000 elephants 

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Yellowstone’s most famous geyser could shut down, with huge ramifications If temperatures rise 10F by the century’s end as projected, Old Faithful could stop erupting, and the snowpack that feeds rivers throughout the west may disappear.

Read more in The Guardian >>  

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Yesterday was the first day, since I returned to California last month, that wispy clouds overhead softened relentless heat. A perfect day on the Delta. Friends visited to celebrate Independence Day – one day early to avoid crowded waterways – with traditional BBQ/”braai” and untraditional cuisine: roasted veggies and corn/”mealies”, lamb, couscous … and, naturally, dairy-free ice-cream. Plus, swimming. And friendship. Perfect.
Keeping alive the tradition of non-traditional on this boat, today I intend to apply my new battery-operated hand saw to the half-sheet of plywood recently purchased from the Eco-Center (specializing in good-value-for-money recycled materials) and create a rolling storage shelf. And swim.

An observation about my “internal process”: I grew up in what family psychologists would call “a non-nurturing environment.”
Unconsciously – I was nothing if not unconscious – holding that that non-nurturing environment would not sully my chosen life path of discovery, I elbowed my way with bravado through situations where caution might have been wiser. 

Wiser with age and burdened by guilt, these days I’m more cautious. 

Perhaps over-cautious? Yesterday, my anxiety peaked. First, I’d forgotten how to light gas cookers; experimenting with potentially explosive gas is anxiety-provoking. Then I abandoned my intention of installing onto the transom of the Sea Eagle inflatable, the electrical trolling motor and battery. I’d purchased both before the pandemic – 2 years ago – and never used them. Yesterday, fear of dropping either or both into the river predominated. Perhaps smart to wait, it’s also disappointing. Back in the day, heedless youth barging through barriers ignored any anxiety and caution so heedful senior years acknowledging both is a sign of developing a healthier psyche. It is also disorienting… which creates further anxiety.
The human. A bundle of contradictions.
I ponder, therefore I seek balance?
The good news? Collective action with friends helping to figure out the gas cookers succeeded in producing a delicious meal… while enjoying a beautiful river, amazing bird life, and the luxury of friendship.
Life is good – if one allows it….

Disaster for the planet

This time last year, few expected the pandemic to last. Yet here we are, infection and deaths rates still soaring.
Worldwide (Map) 
July 1, 2021: 182,133,000 confirmed infections; 3,949,200 deaths
July 30, 2020: 17,096,000 confirmed infections; 668,590 deaths

 
US (Map) 
July 1, 2021: 33,667,000 confirmed infections; 604,720 deaths
July 30, 2020: 4,451,000 confirmed infections; 151,270 deaths

 
SA (Coronavirus portal) 
July 1, 2021: 1,973,980 confirmed infections; 60,647 deaths
July 30, 2020: 471,125 confirmed infections; 7,498 deaths

 
So much happened in one year. Post from this time last year: Handed trash? Make compost 

Healthy planet, anyone?

In a December report, United Nations environmental researchers acknowledge that even as global carbon emissions were expected to decrease by about 7% this year due to coronavirus restrictions on normal activities, they had only “briefly slowed ― but were far from eliminated, adding to the historic and ever-increasing burden of human activity on the Earth’s climate...” In summary,

Historic fires
This year was a record-breaker for fires in California — again. As of last year, four of the five largest wildfires in the fire-prone state happened this decade alone. This year, four of the five largest wildfires in state history happened this year alone.
Record-breaking heat
This year is on track to be one of the two hottest ever on record. The planet had its hottest September and its second hottest July and November ever, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Deadly storms
The 2020 storm season was the most active on record. Subtropical storm Theta in November was the 29th named storm of the Atlantic season — breaking the record for the highest number of storms in a year. For only the second time in history, the predetermined list of 21 storm names ran out, leading scientists to use the Greek alphabet to name subsequent storms.
Dramatic loss of sea ice
This year, the Arctic’s sea ice cover shrank to its second lowest levels since records started being kept in the late 1970s, according to NASA. The 14 smallest ice coverage extents for the region have all occurred in the last 14 years, per the NOAA.
The amount of Arctic sea ice coverage each October has declined about 10% per decade — losing an area about the size of South Carolina each year, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Read “This Year Was A Disaster For The Planet” >> 

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Another disaster for the planet? ExxonMobil.
ExxonMobil is keeping "big oil" alive and well. Now, however, Keith McCoy, a senior ExxonMobil lobbyist on Capitol Hill who has represented the company in its liaison with the U.S. Congress for the last eight years, let the cat out the bag. He named the senators on ExxonMobil’s payroll and doing their biding.
Keith McCoy explained that lobbyists aim to have close relationships with officials.

"You want to be able to go to the chief… and say we need congressman so and so to be able to either introduce this bill, we need him to make a floor statement, we need him to send a letter. You name it, we've asked for everything…."
McCoy said he has 11 U.S. senators who are "crucial" in ExxonMobil's efforts:
"Senator Shelley Moore Capito, Senator Joe Manchin, Senator Kyrsten Sinema, Senator Jon Tester, Senator Maggie Hassan, Senator John Barrasso, Senator John Cornyn, Senator Steve Daines, Senator Chris Coons, Senator Mark Kelly and Senator Marco Rubio," were all cited.
McCoy went on to explain that the last thing they want is to appear in a public hearing before Congress where the American people can see.
"We don't want it to be us, to have these conversations, especially in a hearing. It's getting our associations to step in and have those conversations and answer those tough questions and be for, the lack of a better term, the whipping boy for some of these members of congress," McCoy confessed.

Hmmm. Demotion in McCoy’s future. What about the senators’ futures? 

Read the article >> 

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The Lincoln Project: People are saying…  (0:55 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I’m back in the “inner bay” – the cool part of San Francisco Bay Area – to do errands, visit a friend, and spread my wings after the confines of my small houseboat. Living aboard fulltime stimulates the “realistic” area of my brain: yes, I love living so close to the “natural” environment. But my houseboat is small - about 264 sq feet of "private" space (place deck space of about 150 sq feet) and it's no longer in a covered slip, but exposed to full sun, full time, with temperatures over 90 degrees Fahrenheit amost days. And 90 is on the cooler days. 

Can I do this for weeks at a time? 

Do I want to do it for weeks at a time? 

Enquiring minds wanna know….

Resurgent

News blues

How dangerous is the Delta variant, and will it cause a COVID surge in the U.S.? First identified in India, the Delta variant, more transmissible form of the novel coronavirus, has spread to at least 77 countries and regions and now makes up more than 20 percent of all U.S. cases. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified it as a “variant of concern.” If vaccination rates fail to keep pace with its spread, experts say, the variant could lead to new COVID surges in parts of the country where a substantial proportion of the population remains. 

Read in Scientific American >> 

And…

The gap between the most vaccinated and least vaccinated places in the U.S. has exploded in the past three months, and continues to widen despite efforts to convince more Americans to get a Covid shot.
On a national level, the news appears good. About 300,000 new people are getting a Covid vaccine every day in the U.S., and 54% of the full U.S population has at least one dose. The country’s vaccine campaign is among the most successful in the world, states have lifted restrictions on business and socializing, and hospitalizations have plunged.
Newly available county-level data show how those national figures hide very different local vaccine realities.

Read “Growing Gaps in U.S. Vaccination Rates Show Regions at Risk” >> 

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In South Africa, the previous Covid-19 resurgence, which peaked in January 2021, was dominated by the Beta variant.

The current resurgence in South Africa differs by province, and even within a particular province. Gauteng, the country’s economic hub and one of nine provinces, is probably two to three weeks ahead of what will likely be experienced particularly in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, and Kwazulu Natal provinces.
In Gauteng the data show that the daily rate of Covid-19 infections in the current wave is two-and-a-half times higher than at the peak of the first or second wave. Unfortunately, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement on Sunday of stricter lockdown measures is unlikely to stop the trend.

Read “The Delta variant and vaccine failures push South Africa back into lockdown” >> 

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The Lincoln Project: Last week in the Republican Party  (1.24 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

After a century of wielding extraordinary economic and political power, America’s petroleum giants face a reckoning for driving the greatest existential threat of our lifetimes.
An unprecedented wave of lawsuits, filed by cities and states across the US, aim to hold the oil and gas industry to account for the environmental devastation caused by fossil fuels – and covering up what they knew along the way.

Read “Big oil and gas kept a dirty secret for decades. Now they may pay the price” >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Hot, hot, hot! While the “heat dome” moved north – this week, Oregon and Washington, and Canada suffer the worst of it  - temperatures in the Delta remain in the upper 90s and low 100s. Too hot to trot!
After struggling to re-lay the deck (success, after days and many rounds of sanding and scraping to refit) I’m reluctant to begin the next rounds of fixes, from patching the roof, accessing damage to the main iron girder and rotting 2x4 planking under the boat, to repainting and rehanging a set of recycled window blinds.
Living on a small houseboat in a backwater marina, it feels as if Covid 19, the Delta variant, and the recently mentioned Gamma variant, are far away. Nevertheless, I am in the marina fulltime – no earning a living - as I’m still – “officially” – in the post-vax isolation time. I sweat, swim, work, and worry and watch my savings dwindle.
One worry: with dozens of heat-related health issues, should I re-evaluate my live-aboard decision? Is a “lifestyle” weaved around living on and near water and wildlife feasible these days? Yes, it is soothing, beautiful, and peaceful, but it’s also hot, exposed to full sun all day. Not to mention it is amid quirky (moody, unpredictable) people. Not only do I not reach out to fellow mariners, I avoid my immediate starboard-side slip neighbor – with whom I once had a superficially friendly acquaintance. His doses of unsolicited, un-needed, un-welcome advice likely relate to the clouds of MaryJane he generates but tiptoeing around my small living space so as not to invite interactions is dismally unsustainable.
July 4th weekend upcoming. Friends will celebrate onboard on Saturday: good food, BBQ, fishing, boating.

Going bats

News blues

Scientists fear land-use changes as human settlements creep ever closer to wildlife habitat – particularly replacing swaths of forests with development and farmland - could spur the evolution of zoonotic diseases such as COVID-19.

Areas that have seen dramatic transformations and are home to large bat populations, some scientists believe, could prove to be the starting point of the next coronavirus pandemic. A group of researchers recently set out to identify where future outbreaks might occur, creating a map of potential hot spots—areas with ingredients potentially favorable to SARS-related coronavirus spillovers. They searched for locations that have a high concentration of Asian horseshoe bats, which host the greatest diversity of coronaviruses, and high levels of both human and livestock settlement and forest fragmentation.

Changes in land use and livestock increase risk of coronavirus transmission from rhinolophid bats.
Human and agricultural expansion are steadily increasing the risk of animal-transmitted viruses, and some areas of the the world are more impacted than others. Scientists analyzed the range of rhinolophid bats that host SARS-related coronaviruses in Asia to determine which areas had the highest risk of transmission. With China's agricultural expansion, forests are being clear-cut for cropland, bringing humans and animals closer.
Soren Walljasper, NG Staff
Sources: Maria Cristina Rulli and David Hayman, Springer-Nature; IUCN

Read “Humans are creating hot spots where bats could transmit zoonotic diseases” >>

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South Africa, particularly Gauteng province with increasing rates of Covid infection, is sagging under the weight of the third wave and the Delta variant.
President Cyril Ramaphosa will address the nation on Sunday.
Predictions about his proposed response include a ban on all gatherings, a request that everyone work from home if possible, and a two-week ban on alcohol sales.
See the latest figures >> 

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Healthy planet, anyone?

Last week, Californians sweated under the “heat dome”. This week, residents of the Pacific Northwest will sweat:

This Sunday could be the hottest day on record in Portland, Oregon, as 13 million people across the Pacific Northwest brace for record heat.
“We’re taking this very seriously as a public health emergency because of the prolonged nature of it,” says Dan Douthit, the public information officer for the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management.
… Oregon’s largest city, along with Seattle (175 miles north) and Spokane (near the Washington-Idaho border) are all expected to feel historic heat in the coming days as a “heat dome” smothers the region. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/heat-dome-deadly-hot-weather-descends-on-pacific-northwest The heatwave gripping the US west is simultaneously breaking hundreds of temperature records, exacerbating a historic drought and priming the landscape for a summer and fall of extreme wildfire.
Among the 40 million Americans enduring the triple-digit temperatures are scientists who study droughts and the climate. They’d long forewarned of this crisis, and now they – an We the People - are living through it. 

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In the Florida Keys city of Marathon, officials agreed to push ahead with a plan to elevate streets throughout the Keys to keep them from perpetual flooding, while admitting they do not have the money to do so.

The string of coral cay islands that unspool from the southern tip of Florida finds itself on the frontline of the climate crisis, forcing unenviable choices upon a place that styles itself as sunshine-drenched idyll. The lives of Keys residents – a mixture of wealthy, older white people, the one in four who are Hispanic or Latino, and those struggling in poverty – face being upended.
If the funding isn’t found, the Keys will become one of the first places in the US – and certainly not the last – to inform residents that certain areas will have to be surrendered to the oncoming tides.
“The water is coming and we can’t stop it,” said Michelle Coldiron, mayor of Monroe county, which encompasses the Keys. “Some homes will have to be elevated, some will have to be bought out. It’s very difficult to have these conversations with homeowners, because this is where they live. It can get very emotional.” 

Never fear, though. The humans have it under control. A bit out there, but hey, “we’re only human….”

Tom Green has a plan to tackle climate change. The British biologist and director of the charity Project Vesta wants to turn a trillion tonnes of CO2 into rock, and sink it to the bottom of the sea.
Green admits the idea is “audacious”. It would involve locking away atmospheric carbon by dropping pea-coloured sand into the ocean. The sand is made of ground olivine – an abundant volcanic rock, known to jewellers as peridot – and, if Green’s calculations are correct, depositing it offshore on 2% of the world’s coastlines would capture 100% of total global annual carbon emissions.
Read “Cloud spraying and hurricane slaying: how ocean geoengineering became the frontier of the climate crisis” 

Not to disparage potentially functional ideas to mitigate climate change – since we humans appear unwilling to make actual, real changes, say like agreeing to cut back on fossil fuels and intensifying efforts to use alternative energies, or BAN the use of plastics as of NOW, or address population explosion and planet Earth’s carrying capacity, or STOP forest massacres, etc., etc.
Instead, we have people in prominent positions suggesting outlandish ideas. Whackadoodle Texas Republican congressman Louie Gohmert, for example,

has asked a senior US government official if changing the moon’s orbit around the Earth, or the Earth’s orbit around the sun, might be a solution for climate change.

Looking on the bright side: one should be grateful that Gohmert, an archconservative, concedes that planet Earth’s climate is changing… Fresh thinking from a Texas Republican….
Read the article >>

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

One week after my second jab - officially not yet “immune” to Covid – I continue feeling no ill effects. I continue to wear my mask when away from the marina (no one in the marina wears a mask). Truth be told, I usually forget my mask in my vehicle must return for it before entering stores. And, life goes on.
Cooler temperatures – upper 80s and low 90s – allow me to inspect and work on my elderly houseboat. The good news: I found a still-usable can of blue paint – alas, oil based with cleanup messy on a boat – and repainted all the blue fencing around the boat. This was straight-forward on the sides but complex on the bow. A floating pontoon moves. So does an inflatable, particularly the inflatable I sat in to conduct the painting… I did it, though, so that’s done for three next couple of years. I also lifted nd repaired plywood decking (3/4 inch plywood is standard material for pontoon boat decking). I continue with this ongoing project, each day collecting greater awareness of decades’ wear and tear on my home.
The bad news? The main steel girder that frames the boat’s beam, particularly the spot where the plywood decking joins the cabin, is highly – dangerously? – rusted. Swimming around under the boat, I can, literally, knock on the girder and chunks of rust, from large to small pieces and much rust dust, falls. I need advice from an expert about how to address this in the short term. I thought I’d found an expert, but he’s not responding with alacrity. Alas. Perhaps his expertise is beyond the level of my need and he’s focusing his attentions with customers with deeper pockets?
I have best intentions and, far as possible, do as much work of the work as I’m able, but I’m far from skilled. Moreover, as a left/right dyslexic, it takes me ages to figure out how to align simple things. An example? Cutting a simple plywood shelf and inserting it under the kitchen cabinet as an extension to the countertop. I measured and remeasured, multiple times, then cut the wood using my newly purchased hand-held Dremel circular saw. Hmmm. Didn’t have plywood around to practice on prior to cutting….
Cuts were slightly off. Slightly, but enough to add hours onto what should have been a simple job. Thank the gods for shims.
The pull-out countertop extension works “well-enough.”
I’ve discovered areas of rotting plywood on the boat roof, too. I exposed one section of rotted roof, roughly gauged what will be required, and am pondering different scenarios on how to address it.
So far, all I’ve come up with? A tarp large enough to cover the entire roof, 36 X 13 feet, so an area close to 500 sq feet. Sure, it would be temporary (wouldn’t it?)
The “red-neck” solution.