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<font size="+2" face="Calibri"><i><b>April </b></i></font><font
size="+2" face="Calibri"><i><b>12, 2024</b></i></font><font
face="Calibri"><br>
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<i>[ United Press International -- human health ]</i><br>
<b>Extreme weather associated with increase in stroke deaths</b><br>
By Dennis Thompson, HealthDay News<br>
APRIL 11, 2024 <br>
Intense weather fluctuations caused by climate change could be
contributing to an increase in stroke deaths, a new study claims.<br>
<br>
Freezing cold fronts and broiling heat waves are associated with
more than half a million deaths annually in recent years,
researchers report Wednesday in the journal Neurology.<br>
"Dramatic temperature changes in recent years have affected human
health and caused widespread concern," said researcher Quan Cheng,
of Xiangya Hospital at Central South University in Changsha, China.<br>
<br>
"Our study found that these changing temperatures may increase the
burden of stroke worldwide, especially in older populations and
areas with more healthcare disparities," Cheng added in a journal
news release.<br>
Bone-chilling cold fronts in particular were linked to more strokes,
researchers said.<br>
But temperatures that swing too high or too low can both increase a
person's risk of stroke, researchers added in background notes.<br>
<br>
Lower temperatures cause a person's blood vessels to constrict,
increasing blood pressure. High blood pressure is a primary risk
factor for stroke.<br>
<br>
On the other hand, higher temperatures can cause dehydration, which
thickens and slows blood -- factors also associated with stroke.<br>
<br>
Stroke deaths in the United States increased 26% between 2011 and
2021, according to the American Heart Association. Some of this
could be tied to climate change, the researchers argue.<br>
For the study, the team looked at three decades of health records
for more than 200 countries and territories, comparing stroke deaths
to the local temperature at the time.<br>
<br>
There were more than 521,000 stroke deaths in 2019 linked to
temperatures that swung too low or too high, researchers estimate.<br>
<br>
Cold fronts were linked to more than 474,000 of those deaths,
results show.<br>
<br>
That's a hefty chunk of the 6.6 million total deaths worldwide
attributable to stroke in 2019, according to the American Heart
Association.<br>
<br>
The stroke death rate linked to temperature changes were 7.7 deaths
per 100,000 people for men and 5.9 per 100,000 for women,
researchers said.<br>
<br>
Central Asia was the region with the highest temperature-associated
stroke death rate, at 18 per 100,000.<br>
<br>
"More research is needed to determine the impact of temperature
change on stroke and to target solutions to address health
inequalities," Cheng said. "Future research should aim to reduce
this threat by finding effective health policies that address
potential causes of climate change, such as the burning of fossil
fuels, deforestation and industrial processes."<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2024/04/11/climate-change-stroke-deaths/8621712840332/">https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2024/04/11/climate-change-stroke-deaths/8621712840332/</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<br>
<i>[ heat means more disease ]</i><br>
<b>Sick, hot world: Climate change favors disease vectors,
threatening to unleash more pandemics</b><br>
Ticks, mosquitos, viruses and fungi all thrive as we cook the
planet. Here's how we can stop their spread<br>
By MATTHEW ROZSA<br>
APRIL 11, 2024 <br>
Global heating has so profoundly altered our planet that some
experts argue it's no longer about a changing climate and instead
about a changed climate. In other words, the hotter, more chaotic
world predicted by climate scientists is part of our present, not
just our future. And those changes extend beyond rising sea levels
and heat waves to how diseases spread and impact society.<br>
<br>
For example, climate change is a breeding ground for intensified
cholera outbreaks — one of only many diseases that could become
full-fledged pandemics as humans continue to overheat the planet by
burning fossil fuels.<br>
<br>
Cholera patients experience many symptoms, ranging from unpleasant
to deadly. Once a mosquito bite transmits a dangerous Vibrio
cholerae strain like O1 and O139 to a human, that person will
experience painful leg cramps, insatiable thirst and constant nausea
punctuated by vomiting. An infected individual usually feels
restless and spends a lot of time defecating watery diarrhea. Even
healthy adults will die within a few hours if they do not get the
correct treatment, with hundreds of thousands suffering that fate
every year...<br>
This is in spite of the fact that, as the Harvard Global Health
Institute's faculty director Dr. Louise Ivers said, the disease is
"completely preventable and also treatable."<br>
<br>
Unsanitary and deadly: The Great Stink of 1858 may foreshadow our
future climate breakdown<br>
Cholera is a particularly horrible consequence of this trend,
generally afflicting those least responsible for global warming,
given that Western nations disproportionately release the most
carbon emissions.<br>
"Typically the people who are affected by cholera are impoverished,
distant from medical care, underserved communities — those without
access to clean water and sanitation are the most vulnerable," Ivers
said. "Those with food insecurity also have a disproportionate risk
of death."<br>
Given that cholera disproportionately impacts marginalized
communities, it is perhaps unsurprising that Ivers (who works
directly to address the Haitian outbreaks) described it as an
"underreported pandemic." It has been circulating since the 1960s,
and in Haiti alone it took 10,000 lives while impacting almost 1
million others from 2010 to 2018. The outbreak returned a few years
later. Global heating is only making things wors<br>
"Climate change is important for cholera in that extreme weather
events can cause displacement of people and also disruption of their
safe water supplies through flooding, putting pressure on water
sources making people vulnerable to pathogens in the water,
effectively this is increasing the dispersal of pathogens," Ivers
said. "We see routinely that cholera peaks in Haiti during seasons
when rainfall is highest. We see that some Vibrios are very
susceptible to environmental temperatures and the impact of that
directly on Vibrio cholerae is being studied."<br>
Ivers added, "As a doctor, my team and I have cared for thousands of
patients with cholera over the years. It is a dramatic and painful
death – and totally unnecessary."<br>
<br>
Other pathogens are also likely to benefit from global heating. Dr.
Ben Beard, deputy director of the Division of Vector-Borne Diseases
at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said that
climate change will create a number of conditions conducive to
dangerous pathogens: Longer and warmer summers, shorter and milder
winters and increasingly frequent/unusually severe extreme weather
events (such as heat waves, storms and droughts).<br>
<br>
All of these climate alterations can cultivate pathogens like
viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites by helping them spread and
multiply more quickly, widening their geographical distribution and
influencing behaviors such as when they feed and their preferred
choice of host.<br>
Beard noted that the geographic distribution for mosquito and tick
vectors is already expanding, including blacklegged ticks (Ixodes
scapularis) responsible for Lyme disase or yellow fever mosquitos
(Aedes aegypti) that don't just carry their namesake illness but
also dengue, Zika and Chikungunya.<br>
"As environmental conditions change, it is likely that certain
diseases will appear in areas where they previously had not
occurred," Beard said. "Likewise, we might expect that some diseases
may become less common in places where they had been of great
importance."<br>
<br>
In the case of tick-borne diseases, for example, Beard noted that
the geographic ranges have already expanded in recent years for
ticks that spread Lyme, anaplasmosis, ehrlichiosis and spotted fever
rickettsiosis.<br>
<br>
"While the exact reasons for the geographic spread of ticks and the
diseases they carry are unclear, a number of factors may
contribute," Beard said, such as how "the spread of Lyme disease
over the past several decades has been linked to changes in land use
patterns, including reforestation in the northeastern United
States."<br>
<br>
For example, suburban developments that attempt to shove
civilization into recently wild areas put humans in close contact
with tick hosts like mice and chipmunks. It is hardly unusual in the
modern era for human activity to inadvertently cause
pathogen-carrying animals to more closely interact with our own
species. Climate change is just one more example of that happening.<br>
Ivers referred Salon to a pair of papers from the journal Nature,
both of which illuminate the growing threat of a climate
change-induced pandemic. In a 2022 paper titled "Climate change
increases cross-species viral transmission risk," they projected how
3,139 mammal species will shift their geographical ranges by 2070
due to climate change and human use of wild land, with their study
including a number of possible outcomes. The authors anticipate that
species will repopulate at higher elevations while interacting with
each other in new ways, as well as entering so-called "biodiversity
hotspots" with lots of various organisms. Inevitably this will bring
them into highly populated areas, particularly in Asia and Africa,
"causing the cross-species transmission of their associated viruses
an estimated 4,000 times."<br>
<br>
The other 2022 paper by Nature, titled "Over half of known human
pathogenic diseases can be aggravated by climate change," involved
scientists investigating empirical examples of how each known human
pathogenic disease responds to ten different types of climatic
hazards sensitive to greenhouse gas emissions.<br>
<br>
"We found that 58% (that is, 218 out of 375) of infectious diseases
confronted by humanity worldwide have been at some point aggravated
by climatic hazards," the authors wrote. "16% were at times
diminished."<br>
If there is any good news, it is that the problem of addressing
pandemics caused by climate change can be solved. It will simply
require the same kind of concerted, science-informed human activity
that got our species into this mess in the first place.<br>
<br>
"Addressing the continuing and increasing threat of diseases spread
by mosquitoes, ticks and other vectors requires a multi-faceted
approach at federal, territorial, state and local levels," Beard
said. "To prepare for, prevent and respond to this growing threat,
human and ecological surveillance and research need to be expanded;
state, local and federal capacity enhanced; safe and effective
prevention tools validated for use; and public and health care
provider awareness increased."<br>
<br>
Beard added, "Everyone can play a role in helping prevent themselves
and their loved ones from vector-borne diseases by preventing
mosquito bites by wearing EPA-registered insect repellents and
taking other prevention steps."<br>
<br>
In addition to treating the vectors of these diseases directly,
Ivers also urged people to tackle two of the roots of the problem —
humanity's overuse of fossil fuels and the consequent climate change
and systemic social inequalities.<br>
<br>
"Our generation has an important role to play in mitigating climate
change — and that includes the healthcare industry which is
responsible for 8.5% of the US’ greenhouse gas emissions — and
adapting," Ivers said. "We should be building the health systems
that we need to respond not just to pandemics but also to the most
basic health needs of the global population. In some ways the call
to action around climate change is an opportunity to truly transform
health systems to meet the needs of people now and in the future."<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.salon.com/2024/04/11/sick-hot-world-climate-change-favors-disease-vectors-threatening-to-unleash-more/">https://www.salon.com/2024/04/11/sick-hot-world-climate-change-favors-disease-vectors-threatening-to-unleash-more/</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<i>[ NYTimes ]</i><br>
<b>Ocean Heat Has Shattered Records for More Than a Year. What’s
Happening?</b><br>
There have been record temperatures every day for more than a year.
Scientists are investigating what’s behind the extraordinary
measurements.<br>
The ocean has now broken temperature records every day for more than
a year. And so far, 2024 has continued 2023’s trend of beating
previous records by wide margins. In fact, the whole planet has been
hot for months, according to many different data sets.<br>
<br>
“There’s no ambiguity about the data,” said Gavin Schmidt, a
climatologist and the director of the NASA Goddard Institute for
Space Studies. “So really, it’s a question of attribution.”<br>
<br>
Understanding what specific physical processes are behind these
temperature records will help scientists improve their climate
models and better predict temperatures in the future.<br>
<br>
Last month, the average global sea surface temperature reached a new
monthly high of 21.07 degrees Celsius, or 69.93 degrees Fahrenheit,
according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, a research
institution funded by the European Union.<br>
“March 2024 continues the sequence of climate records toppling for
both air temperature and ocean surface temperatures,” Samantha
Burgess, deputy director of Copernicus, said in a statement this
week...<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/10/climate/ocean-heat-records.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/10/climate/ocean-heat-records.html</a><i><br>
</i><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<i>[ Crazy as a Loon ]</i><br>
<b>Climate change threatens loon population, new study shows</b><br>
Increased rainfall and decline in water clarity hurts loon
reproductive success.<br>
Gaby Vinick<br>
April 10, 2024,<br>
Famous for their nocturnal calls, loons are aquatic birds often
described as icons of the Northwoods. But new research shows climate
change impairs their ability to feed their young.<br>
<br>
A climate-induced decrease in water clarity could be a cause for the
loon population decline in Wisconsin and more broadly across the
northern United States, according to a new report from the academic
journal Ecology.<br>
<br>
Researchers used satellite imagery to study water clarity in 127
lakes across northern Wisconsin from 1995 to 2021. Increased
rainfall in July each year reduced water clarity in loon
territories. Over that time period, water clarity fell by about 16%,
and chicks lost about 10% of their weight. Adult loons have also
dropped weight each year since 1995.<br>
<br>
The findings suggest that a decline in water clarity hurts loon
reproductive success. Since loons are visual predators, they depend
on high water clarity to hunt fish underwater and feed their chicks.
With a reduced diet, chicks have lower survival rates.<br>
<br>
Walter Piper, the lead author of the study and a biology professor
at Chapman University, said that loon chick mass is an indication of
how healthy, well-fed and likely chicks are to survive.<br>
"Over the last 25 years, what we noticed is that you get a lot more
unhealthy chicks that are below the weight that they should be for
their age," Piper said. "More of them are dying."<br>
<br>
The Northland College’s Wisconsin Loon Population Survey, conducted
every five years, shows that despite successful recovery efforts,
2020 marked the beginning of a new population downturn. The adult
population fell by 5% from 2015.<br>
<br>
That decline signaled what Piper called the beginning of a new
downturn associated with water clarity decline. He said there is a
five to 10-year lag between the time when breeding problems hit a
population and when those problems start to be felt in the adult
territorial population.<br>
<br>
"It’s becoming clear that climate change is a real danger to loons,
when we hadn’t really known that before," Piper said.<br>
<br>
Loons typically nest between May and June. Piper said the summer
months, especially July, are critical to a successful reproductive
season because chicks are completely dependent on their parents and
cannot fly yet.<br>
The researchers presume it’s likely that the decline in water
clarity can be attributed to heavy rainfall flushing in bits of
material from plants and animals, including fertilizer or pet waste.<br>
<br>
There are other climate threats to the loon population. Experts like
John Cooley, a senior biologist with the Loon Preservation Committee
in New Hampshire, have seen the parasite avian malaria emerge as a
source of mortality for loons in the last decade.<br>
An ongoing recovery is underway in New Hampshire through restoration
efforts, but Cooley said the birds remain vulnerable to climate
change because warmer temperatures compromise nest success and more
heavy rainfall events cause nest flooding.<br>
<br>
"We’re seeing mortality in the wintertime on the freshwater lakes
when loons stay too long because the ice hasn’t formed the way it
used to," Cooley said. "We get a warm winter, the loons stick
around, and then they’re trapped when the ice does eventually form."<br>
<br>
Loons are at the top of the aquatic food chain, making them an
important species to understanding water quality. They serve as a
sentinel for identifying contaminants in freshwaters.<br>
Like Cooley, Piper worries the population will shift out of the U.S.
to more suitable climates in the north.<br>
<br>
"It would be devastating to folks in the northern U.S. if loons
disappeared," Piper said. "This is a charismatic species of enormous
importance."<br>
<br>
With more frequent rainfall, the black fly season has lengthened in
some parts of the country. Black flies, which are biting insects,
swarm loons as they try to incubate their eggs and drive them off
their nest, Piper said.<br>
<br>
"It’s kind of a one-two punch of climate change and overall that has
just meant that they are not fledging as many chicks, not producing
as many chicks that reach adulthood as they used to," Piper said.<br>
<br>
The researchers plan to expand their study to other regions where
loons breed to better understand threats to their population. That
includes Minnesota, where loons are the state bird.<br>
Cooley of the Loon Preservation Committee said there are steps that
should be taken now to protect the birds and lakes.<br>
<br>
"It’s not too late. Even these familiar iconic species like loons
that we all love, we are starting to see real impacts in this
natural system," Cooley said.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://abcnews.go.com/General/climate-change-threatens-loon-population-new-study-shows/story?id=109092273">https://abcnews.go.com/General/climate-change-threatens-loon-population-new-study-shows/story?id=109092273</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
<i>[ money well spent ]</i><br>
<b>Biden Awards $830 Million To Ready Nation For Climate Change</b><br>
By Associated Press<br>
4-11-24<br>
The Biden administration on Thursday awarded $830 million in grants
to fund 80 projects aimed at toughening the nation's aging
infrastructure against the harmful impacts of climate change.<br>
<br>
The money is expected to improve bridges, roads, ports, rail,
transit and other infrastructure across 37 states, Washington, D.C.
and the Virgin Islands, particularly those battered by increasingly
frequent extreme weather events brought on by the planet's warming.<br>
<br>
The funds come from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed in 2021
and add to other funding already flowing to states for similar
projects, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.<br>
<br>
It's the latest of many federal efforts to address the negative
effects of human-caused climate change. President Joe Biden has
earmarked more than $50 billion toward climate-related projects
through the infrastructure law and the Inflation Reduction Act. He
has emphasized the importance of climate resilience and adaptation
as he seeks a second term.<br>
<br>
“We have seen far too many examples of transportation infrastructure
being shut down or damaged by extreme weather, which is more extreme
and more frequent in this time of climate change,” Secretary of
Transportation Pete Buttigieg said in a call with reporters ahead of
the announcement. “America’s infrastructure was not built for the
climate that we have today, and the consequences of this are very
real and being felt by people in every part of the country."<br>
<br>
He cited events such as the California wildfires, affecting rail in
the state, and flooding in New York City, hamstringing the city's
critical subway system. Incidents such as this are worsening, as is
global heat; March set a new monthly record for the 10th consecutive
month.<br>
<br>
"Not only is this timely, not only is this responsive to the
science, not only is this critical, to the communities that will
benefit, it’s a very high return on investment for public dollars,”
National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi said.<br>
Among the funding recipients are:<br>
<blockquote>—Golden, Colorado will receive $23.8 million to control
flooding in Lena Gulch.<br>
<br>
—Cedar Rapids, Iowa will receive $56.4 million to replace the
86-year-old Arc of Justice Bridge, crucial for emergency services
in times of extreme flooding.<br>
<br>
—Kalamazoo, Michigan will receive nearly $38 million to upgrade
stormwater infrastructure.<br>
<br>
—The Rhode Island Department of Transportation will receive
$750,000 for a coastal management plan.<br>
<br>
—The Oglala Sioux Tribe will receive $248,000 for a risk
assessment of its transportation infrastructure.<br>
</blockquote>
The grants each take one of four forms.<br>
<br>
Planning grants totaling $45 million will be issued for 26 projects.
Resilience improvement funds, totaling $621 million, will be granted
to 36 recipients for enhancing projects such as drainage, roadways
and other upgrades. Ten projects will receive a total of $45 million
in community resilience and evacuation grants, and eight projects
will share $119 million in coastal infrastructure funding.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://weather.com/news/climate/news/2024-04-11-biden-awards-millions-to-strengthen-infrastructure-climate-change">https://weather.com/news/climate/news/2024-04-11-biden-awards-millions-to-strengthen-infrastructure-climate-change</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<font face="Calibri"><i>[The news archive - ]</i></font><br>
<font face="Calibri"> <font size="+2"><i><b>April 12, 2018</b></i></font>
</font><br>
<font face="Calibri"> </font> April 12, 2018:<br>
Politico.com reports:<br>
<blockquote>“A former top EPA staffer has told Democratic lawmakers
that the agency fired him after he refused to retroactively
approve the first-class travel of one of Administrator Scott
Pruitt's closest aides, according to letters made public Thursday.<br>
<br>
“The dismissed political appointee, Kevin Chmielewski, also
alleged that Pruitt flouted price limits on hotel stays and office
decor, put an aide to work house-hunting for him, arranged
taxpayer-funded trips to his native Oklahoma and other
destinations just because he wanted to travel there and lied last
week when he denied knowing about backdoor raises the agency had
granted to two of his top aides, the lawmakers said Thursday in a
letter to the agency.<br>
<br>
“In addition, Chmielewski detailed allegations of lavish spending
on Pruitt's personal security and a possible conflict of interest
involving his top bodyguard, as well a $100,000-per-month private
jet rental that he says EPA looked into at Pruitt's direction. He
also said, as POLITICO reported last week, that Pruitt was
frequently late in paying the $50-a-night rent on his
lobbyist-owned Capitol Hill condo last year.<br>
<br>
“The lawmakers, including Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Sheldon
Whitehouse (D-R.I.), separately wrote to President Donald Trump
and urged him to rethink his public support for the embattled EPA
chief.”<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/12/former-epa-staffer-pruitt-first-class-478291">https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/12/former-epa-staffer-pruitt-first-class-478291</a>
e-issue/<br>
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