Is The Fix in?

Worldwide (Map) 
November 18, 2021 - 255,235,950 confirmed infections; 5,128,300 deaths
November 19, 2020 – 56,188,000 confirmed infections; 1,348,600 deaths
October 22, 2020 – 41,150,000 confirmed infections; 1,130.410 deaths
Total vaccine doses administered: 7,562,351,850

US (Map) 
November 18, 2021 - 47,424,000 confirmed infections; 767,450 deaths
November 19, 2020 – 11,525,600 confirmed infections; 250,485 deaths
October 22, 2020 – 8,333,595 confirmed infections; 222,100 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
November 18, 2021 - 2,926,950 confirmed infections; 89,550 deaths
November 19, 2020 – 757,145 confirmed infections; 20,556 deaths
October 22, 2020 – 708,360 confirmed infections; 18,750 deaths

Daily Maverick

News blues

Anyone else notice that US news is reporting less about Covid and the devastation it is visiting upon humanity? Scanning US online news outlet shows US news favors America’s whackidoodle politics and politicians, the slow moving but nevertheless ongoing American coup/insurrection, the latest shootings in the US … and minimal coverage on Covid.
British news continues to cover Covid. From The Guardian:

A steep rise in Covid-19 cases in Europe should serve as a warning that the US could also see significant increases in coronavirus cases this winter, particularly in the nation’s colder regions…
However, there is more cause for optimism as America enters its second pandemic winter, even in the face of likely rises in cases.
Evidence shows vaccine-conferred protection against hospitalization and death remains high several months after inoculation, vaccines for children older than 5 can reduce Covid transmission, and new antiviral medications hold the promise of making Covid-19 a treatable disease.
Read more >> 

Moreover, one study finds front-page stories about Covid-19 pandemic were sensationalist and unhelpful >>

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The Lincoln Project:
Biden delivered  (0:59 mins)
Last week in the Republican Party  (2:18 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Abbotsford, a town is Canada’s province of British Columbia, is experiencing massive flooding with a death toll set to rise after…

Torrential rains pummeled swathes of western Canada’s British Columbia and Washington state in the US in recent days – dumping a month’s worth of rain in two days in some areas – causing floods and mudslides that swallowed stretches of highways and forced the evacuation of thousands of people. One person has been killed and several have been reported missing.
Abbotsford, one of Canada’s most intensively and diversely farmed areas, was among places hardest hit. Home to more than 1,200 farms, it supplies half of the dairy, eggs and poultry consumed by British Columbia’s 5.2 million residents.
Aerial footage showed several barns engulfed by flood waters. 
Read more >> 
And
… torrential rains and mudslides destroyed roads and left several mountain towns isolated. At least three people are missing. Some 18,000 people are displaced in the Pacific Coast province…
…The flooding is the second weather-related calamity to hit British Columbia in the past few months. A massive wildfire in the same region as some of the devastation destroyed an entire town in late June.
"These are extraordinary events not measured before, not contemplated before…”
That disaster could be the most expensive in Canadian history
Read more >> 

Not to dismiss or undermine that horror of such flooding and the “extraordinary events not measured before”….but… it is incorrect to write “These are extraordinary events not measured before, not contemplated before…”.
Warnings about such events both have been measured and issued before.
One issue? 

Warnings - from scientists, geologists, water and flood experts, etc. – for decades went unheeded. Why? 

Such warnings were at odds with the desires of people and systems hoping to generate huge wealth from the area. Judging by the numbers of farms and towns now affected, wealth was generated. The underlying geology and geomorphology, however, remained.

Recently, as events unfolded, Abbotsville officials …

reiterated their call for everyone to get out a few hours after Abbotsford said the Barrowtown Pump Station was in imminent danger of failing….
“The best thing we can do is monitor water levels and monitor the Nooksack River levels,” director of engineering David Blain said. “We’ll know what the situation could become should the pumps stop acting.”

But…
The long-term backstory on this area?

To understand the flood crisis currently gripping the Sumas Prairie area in eastern Abbotsford, you have to understand the history of the area, and the roles played by the Nooksack River and what was once Sumas Lake. You need to know why Barrowtown Pump Station exists. And you need to know why, if it fails (and maybe even if it doesn’t), the lake will return.

Read the backstory that details how, why, when, and who benefitted from not heeding the warnings >> 
Upshot?
We the People are in the thick of man-made disasters put in place by the mentality that “we can fix nature and make it work for us.
What’s required is the mentality that “we can learn from and work with nature to live physically and psychologically healthier lives.
In which direction are we heading?
Hmmm, COP(out) 26 answered that question.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Band o coots

In my neck of the woods? Best time of year on the beach. I enjoy it while I can....

Speak louder than words

Healthy planet, anyone?

It’s years since I visited Oakland’s Museum of California – now known as MOCO – and learned that bees sang for their supper. Put another way, bees, upon alighting on a plant – sing an appropriate song to induce the plant to release its nectar and feed the bee. 
Now, I learn that bees scream when attacked by murder hornets  A recent study:

… published in the Royal Society Open Science journal… revealed that bees release a “rallying call for collective defence” against the hornets. The previously undiscovered signal, now known as an “anti-predator pipe, shares acoustic traits with alarm shrieks, fear screams and panic calls of primates, birds and meerkats”…
Bees produce the sound by vibrating their wings or thorax, elevating their abdomens and exposing a gland to release a pheromone.

. Will humans learn the even a fraction of what makes our wonderful planet tick before we destroy all of nature?

***

Meantime, let’s enjoy photo collections of other amazing critters and their habit.
Nature under threat: a Cop26 photographic competition 
Avian adventurers: BirdLife Australia 2022 calendar.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

More amazing critters. Took these pix with an actual camera on my walk today.

American wigeon

Brown pelicans and white pelicans, plus other shore birds

COP(out) 26

News blues…

RIP South Africa’s F. W. de Klerk

***

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.

Veterans Day

Today is Veterans Day in the United States.

• Note that the World War I armistice was signed on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. ...
• There were around 21.8 million veterans in the United States as of 2010.
• There are around 9 million veterans over the age of 65.
• Around 1.6 million veterans are women.
• Military.com’s  history of veterans day…

Let We the People ensure vets get all the benefits they’ve earned. 

Worldwide (Map) 
November 10, 2021 – 251,624,400 confirmed infections; 5,076,300 deaths
November 26, 2020 – 60,334,000 confirmed infections; 1,420,500 deaths
Total vaccine doses administered: 7,365,272,360

US (Map) 
November 10, 2021 – 46,793,200 confirmed infections; 759,100 deaths
November 26, 2020 – 12,771,000 confirmed infections; 262,145 deaths

SA (Tracker) 
November 10, 2021 – 2,924,625 confirmed infections; 89,435 deaths
November 26, 2020 – 775,510 confirmed infections; 21,2010 deaths
South Africa’s recent Covid tracker >> 

News blues…

How are UK, US, Italy, New Zealand, Canada, France, Singapore, and other countries dealing with Covid vaccine mandates ? A quick glance …
From Atlantic Monthly:

…breakthrough infections remain a statistical inevitability despite our very, very excellent vaccines. We’ll need to get comfortable with them as we learn to live with the coronavirus long term.

• A breakthrough infection is a logistical nightmare.  “A positive test sets in motion huge hassles and anxieties for anyone you’ve been in contact with,” says Alexis C. Madrigal, a co-founder of the COVID Tracking Project at The Atlantic who recently contracted COVID.
• But your immune system is ready to handle it. “A breakthrough, despite what it might seem, does not cause our defenses to crumble,” my colleague Katherine J. Wu wrote this summer. “Vaccines reinforce the defenses we already have.”
• We still don’t know how easily vaccinated people spread COVID.  “We might not reach a consensus on just how contagious breakthrough infections are, and that’s okay….”

***

New political ads: Electile Dysfunction  (2:04 mins)
The Lincoln Project:

Rebuild  (0:57 mins)
Last week in the Republican Party  (2:06 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Getting your point across...

Tuvalu's foreign minister, Simon Kofe, says his country is looking at ways to retain statehood
even if it disappears due to climate change and rising sea levels. 
Photograph: Tuvalu Foreign Ministry/Reuters

Tuvalu's Foreign Minister Simon Kofe spoke to attendees at the COP26 climate summit and around the world while knee-deep in the ocean to show the effect of rising sea levels. >> 
Tuvalu will continue to raise awareness about the complexities of sea levels rise as it seeks to maintain state hood.

Tuvalu is looking at legal ways to keep its ownership of its maritime zones and recognition as a state even if the Pacific island nation is completely submerged due to the climate crisis….
“We’re actually imagining a worst-case scenario where we are forced to relocate or our lands are submerged,” the minister, Simon Kofe, [said].
“We’re looking at legal avenues where we can retain our ownership of our maritime zones, retain our recognition as a state under international law. So those are steps that we are taking, looking into the future.” 

Nor is it "just" Pacific islands suffering effects of melting glaciers and rising sea level, Tangier Island – a Virginia fishing town home to about 400 people - is losing ground faster than previously thought, highlighting how climate change threatens U.S. coastal communities >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Infrastructure is, indeed, a critical need in the US, even in cosmopolitan San Francisco and the East Bay. This became clear today as I drove through the cities of El Cerrito (home to the band Credence Clearwater Revival), small and cozy Albany, and Berkeley, site of the esteemed University of California campus. While these cities’ roads don’t have the extreme potholes of South African roads, they are, nevertheless, decrepit, cracked, patchy; in some spots – College Avenue, for example, it’s as if one is driving on loose gravel.
Shock at the state of the cities’ roads, however, was outweighed by the thrill of visiting these cities after several years’ absence. While I lacked time, today, to park and explore (I plan to do that “soon”) I noticed much that has changed and more that remains the same. I look forward to visiting as a tourist on foot – with camera – and sharing what I discover. What’s clear already, though, is that even cities age, sometimes, as I discovered, not gracefully.
The Biden Administration’s infrastructure bill – disappointing as it is in its paring down of what is vitally needed – addressing the effects of climate change - passed not a moment too soon.

***  

Is it the pandemic or am I "just" nuts?

Insomnia evolves into obsessive attention to iPhone battery level graphs,
and turned into “art” depicting new levels of obsession….

Transitions

Healthy planet, anyone?

A reminder of the premise behind Healthy planet, anyone?: Out-of-whack global systems create unknowns with complexities that are, first, difficult to understand… then collectively to agree that the understandings are accurate, then collectively to create and operationalize plans to address the out-of-whackiness, then to convince diverse humanity collectively to adhere to those plans.
The out-of-whack system, meanwhile, increasingly squeezed by human exploitation, creates environments whereby pathogens can easily cross from animals to humans and spread with devastating results, including HIV/AIDS, Ebola, SARS, Covid-19….
Healthy planet, anyone? seeks to highlight efforts both to address and highlight this new reality and efforts to stymie growing threats.
Today, how “…the banking industry’s pledges to help fight global warming are vague and unenforceable.”

Banks and other financial institutions took over COP26’s main stage Wednesday as companies holding assets totaling more than $130 trillion committed to hit net-zero emissions by 2050, a deadline scientists say is critical to limiting global temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Under auspices of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, a coalition led by U.N. special envoy Mark Carney, the industry has pledged to shift trillions of dollars away from fossil fuels as part of a global effort to keep temperatures below the catastrophic level.
…
But absent regulation, banks are establishing their own voluntary guardrails, which environmental advocates and some shareholders are eyeing with suspicion. Within their own ranks, banks are debating how to build reporting frameworks that will give credibility to their net-zero efforts. That could include imposing rules on the companies they finance.
Read “A $130T climate promise is greeted with suspicion” >> 

It’s not only about banks, or fossil fuel companies, or multinational corporations, or political systems despoiled by mega-donors, or even out-of-whack political systems that allow politicians supported by mega-donors to hold entire nations hostage. It’s all the above, and much more.
Humans try to fight back. Most recently, a crowd of angry climate protestors spotted Democrat “Joe Manchin, West Virginia senator - and mascot for America’s well-heeled but clueless political class - driving his silver Maserati” . Protesters also confronted Manchin aboard his luxury yacht .

It's the system that's corrupt and not just Joe. But good to know who is good ole bought off Joe. 
Systems out-of-whack allow the rise of people out-of-whack….

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

South Africa, Nov 7, 2021          California, Nov 7, 2021

Let there be light: California has successfully transitioned to Standard Time.

Earthly paradise

Time changes in California tomorrow, so we enjoy the day …

News blues…

A little news goes a long way….

With Britain’s authorization this week of Merck’s new drug molnupiravir, and a cash infusion into antiviral R&D, the outlook for antiviral treatments is brighter.
Unlike vaccines that can prevent infection, antivirals act as a second line of defense, slowing down and eventually arresting progression of a disease when infections occur. They’re also important when effective vaccines aren’t available against viral diseases….
But developing antivirals is an expensive and difficult endeavor. That’s especially true for acute respiratory diseases, for which the window for treatment is short. In the case of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that has unleashed the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, researchers have resorted to repurposing old drugs or compounds that were being tested against other diseases.
“That’s typical,” says Katherine Seley-Radtke, a medicinal chemist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. “Every time a new virus emerges or an old one re-emerges, you pull out what’s there in the cupboard to see what works.”
Read “How the rise of antivirals may change the course of the pandemic” >> 

***

The Lincoln Project. Let’s revisit my all-time personal favorite Lincoln Project’s ads, Nationalist Geographic  (0:57 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Having access to reliable and affordable energy is important to people, so it’s understandable that governments support energy access. But if these subsidies support the consumption of fossil fuels it comes with a large downside, air pollution and accelerated climate change.
Countries around the world agreed to reduce fossil fuel subsidies. It is one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that they want to reach by 2030. View the SDG-Tracker to find all of the available measures to track the SDGs.
In many countries fossil fuel subsidies are extremely high. The New York Times reports that in Venezuela subsidies were so high that “a dollar could once theoretically buy about 5 billion gallons of gasoline.” This would be “more than enough to supply the state of Michigan for a year.”
Venezuela was an extreme case. But as the map shows there are many countries with very large subsidies: several are higher than $100 per person per year. In others, it’s higher still.
Read more about fossil fuel subsidies >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

A friend joined me today for a walk along the beach, passed the bird sanctuary, and to the area we call Shangri-La   - my version of a down-to-earth earthly paradise.
A photo essay (taken with my iPhone so not great photos but they communicate the gist of the walk – 13,695 steps on my iPhone pedometer….)

Winter flyway birds: curlews, sanderlings, avocets, Marbled Godwits...

Looking north west, toward San Francisco (left horizon)

San Francisco in the north west,  from beach and bird sanctuary

Looking south, toward Shangri-la

Entering Shangri-la

View of one section of Shangri-la, looking north (towards San Francisco) 

What do I love about Shangri-la? It sits right on the beach yet it is modest. (Give it another 10 years, and residents will worry about sea level rise and water intrusion, but for now... enjoy!

***

A rare item these days, this public phone situated on the beach walkway actually gets a dial tone...

Remembering Wilma Chan.
Last week, longtime Alameda County supervisor and former Assembly Majority Leader Wilma Chan died after being struck by a motorist during a morning walk.

***

Tomorrow we "fall back" to standard time. 

OCD me? Not sleeping well means time on my hands at odd hours of the night and early morning. I've taken - as before - to making patterns with my iPhone's battery charging level indicator.  

Fun for insomniacs....

     California, Nov 6, 2021          South Africa, Nov 6, 2021.
The change in California time will give us an extra hour to snooze... or walk... or do something else.   

Guy Fawkes

News blues…

In Britain and out there in the former British colonies, We the People celebrate Guy Fawkes, aka Guy Fawkes Day, Bonfire Night, and Fireworks Night on 5 November. This celebration derives from 5 November 1605 when Guy Fawkes, a member of the Gunpowder Plot, was arrested while guarding explosives the Catholica plotters had placed beneath the House of Lords to assassinate Protestant King James I and his parliament. Celebrating that the king had survived, people lit bonfires around London; and months later, the introduction of the Observance of 5th November Act enforced an annual public day of thanksgiving for the plot's failure. More on this history >> 
The day also marks the day during South Africa’s Second Boer War when an effigy of Paul Kruger, then President of the South African Republic, was burned in public for the first time.

Healthy planet, anyone?

“It’s our lives on the line” Thousands of young protesters marched through the streets of Glasgow to demand urgent action from world leaders at the U.N. climate conference and stave off catastrophic climate change.

…campaigners and pressure groups have been underwhelmed by the commitments made so far, many of which are voluntary, exclude the biggest polluters, or set deadlines decades away.
"We are in a disaster that is happening every day," activist Vanessa Nakate said of life in her home country Uganda, which has one of the fastest changing climates in the world. "We cannot keep quiet about climate injustice."
Read more >> 

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Something to plan for: Half world’s fossil fuel assets could become worthless by 2036 in net zero transition >> 

***

Not a conspiracy theory: the energy charter treaty (ECT) allows energy corporations to sue governments for billions over policies that could hurt their profits.

… New data … shows a surge in cases under the energy charter treaty (ECT), an obscure international agreement that allows energy corporations to sue governments over policies that could hurt their profits.
Coal and oil investors are already suing governments for several billions in compensation for lost profits over energy policy changes. For example, the German energy company RWE is suing the Netherlands for €1.4bn (£1.2bn) over its plans to phase out coal, while Rockhopper Exploration, based in the UK, is suing the Italian government after it banned new drilling near the coast.
“It’s a real threat [to the Paris agreement]. It’s the biggest threat I am aware of,” said Yamina Saheb, a former employee of the ECT secretariat who quit in 2018 to raise the alarm.
Read  more >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

With Covid, climate change, lack of effective action on any front that matters in the grand scheme of things… these days, life is a challenge.
But look around you. Notice the moment-by-moment gifts presented to humans as we go about our day. Here’s my “back yard” – a public park and marine preserve – that is particularly gorgeous this time of year. 

Take the time to notice your surroundings … and give thanks by, maybe, picking up and disposing of a plastic bag or discarded plastic bottle….

Coots, aka mud hens, love the marina this time of year.

In California, the sun rose at 7:40 am and set at 6:05am.
In South Africa, the sun rose at 5:01am and will set at 6:23am.