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<font size="+2" face="Calibri"><i><b>April 14</b></i></font><font
size="+2" face="Calibri"><i><b>, 2024</b></i></font><font
face="Calibri"><br>
</font><br>
<i>[ follow the money - from CNBC ]</i><br>
<b>How climate change is beginning to be built into employee pay and
benefits</b><br>
SAT, APR 13 2024<br>
Trevor Laurence Jockims<br>
<blockquote>-- Though still on the margins of the labor market, the
concept of “green perks” is being added to compensation packages
and employee benefits.<br>
<br>
-- Commuting benefits are an example and companies including
Walmart have invested in e-bike chargers, bicycle racks and
showers for workers working up a sweat on the way into the office.<br>
<br>
-- Other ideas on the vanguard include employer financial support
for home upgrades, EV purchases, and paid leave for
weather-related events.<br>
</blockquote>
More workers in today’s labor market want to take action on climate
change in some way as part of their jobs, yet many encounter a major
stumbling block: lack of understanding when it comes to their
employer’s own commitment to the issue. So-called green perks, also
referred to as climate change benefits, could help to bridge that
gap. A rising, though still marginal trend in the job market,
employee enticement and compensation packages tied to climate change
can help to make these abstractions clearer and more actionable in
the workplace.<br>
<br>
Environmental commitments from major companies have tended to focus
on major operational efficiency targets, such as Google’s
carbon-free data centers, and from the supply chain to the consumer
end market, such as Apple’s carbon-neutral smartwatch. There are
some companies all-in, as a brand, in fighting climate change, such
as Patagonia. And at the C-suite level, it’s already a norm on the
compensation side of the equation, with executive bonuses at
companies, such as Apple, tied to ESG performance metrics.<br>
<br>
But for most rank-and-file employees, benefit packages in recent
decades have had essentially two main categories — health and
retirement. Now there are indications that green benefit packages
may become more common. One potential spearhead for the nascent
movement is commuter benefits, particularly benefits that facilitate
healthier, eco-friendly modes of transportation, allowing employers
to facilitate and promote lifestyles that appeal to an increasingly
environmentally-conscious workforce, while lowering the company’s
own net carbon footprint.<br>
<br>
Walmart, the nation’s largest employer, has been factoring the
environmental impact of employees’ daily commutes into the company’s
carbon footprint in an example of a shifting corporate culture,
while in recent years the retailer has been promoting alternative
forms of commuting that were integral to design of its headquarters
in Bentonville, Arkansas. <br>
<p>With Walmart saying “multi-modal and alternative transportation
is a big part of the future of commuting,” it has facilitated
bikes as a green lifestyle perk for employees, investing in
chargers for e-bikes and e-scooters, bike racks, and showers for
cyclists arriving to work, while it has deliberately reduced
design space allocated for parking lots. </p>
Walmart has a stated a goal of having 10% of its workforce biking to
work in Bentonville — but the goal has been difficult to reach, and
has been pushed back from 2023 to 2025 when the corporate
headquarters are set for completion. Still, similar to the
challenges of wider adoption of electric vehicles, infrastructure
plays a major role in getting employees on bikes, and Walmart has
gone all-in on this in Bentonville. <br>
<br>
Across the 500 employers representing over 8 million workers that
respond to an annual survey from management consultant WTW, the
topic of green benefits is beginning to register, says Caroline
Mangiardi, associate director, health & benefits at the firm.
While its annual best practices survey focuses on health-care
benefits, it began to include a section on climate-related benefits
in 2022 and she says employer attitudes are shifting. Increasing
priority is to be given to climate-related benefits in the years
ahead, according to the survey. Half of employers had considered
this concept a low priority over the past three years, but only a
third now see climate benefits as a low priority.<br>
<br>
<b>Employer-funded home upgrades, EV purchase perks</b><br>
The trend is not limited to the bikes for commuting to work. “What
is exciting are innovative benefits such as reimbursements
specifically deemed for sustainable home upgrades, providing leave
for weather-related events, and bike programs,” said Mangiardi.<br>
<br>
Bank of America pledged to more than double the availability of
EV-charging stations at its financial centers. As part of this plan,
it has provided eligible employees with up to $4,000 for a purchase
or $2,000 for a lease of a qualified new all-electric passenger car
or truck.<br>
<br>
Younger workers from the Gen Z demographic may be front-and-center
when it comes to including social and environmental consciousness in
corporate benefit programs, but Mangiardi said, “It’s important to
note that employees of all generations support sustainability.”<br>
<br>
Some niche benefits firms are embedding the green perks concept into
their business model. Lauren Schneider, a spokeswoman for Compt,
which provides employee expense management that replaces or
consolidates existing perks with stipends designed around employee
lifestyle spending, says these incentives can be green focused.
Though she also said it’s still early days for the idea. “There’s a
nascent but growing interest in climate change benefits,” Schneider
said, pointing out that Google searches for commuter benefits, as an
example, are trending up.<br>
<br>
Early adopters among employers could benefit. “From our more direct
experience in the benefits space, the lack of widespread
implementation suggests a significant opportunity for companies to
innovate and lead in this space,” Schneider said. “By aligning
employee benefits with environmental sustainability, companies not
only address a talent demand (more people want CSR focused and
environmentally conscious employers) but also more holistically
support that talent,” she said.<br>
<br>
Recent data from benefits consultant Mercer indicates that
facilitating green and healthy commutes continues to rise as a
benefits priority. Nearly one-third of companies aim to promote and
facilitate eco-friendly modes of commuting for their employees,
according to its 2023 Mercer Transportation Trends report.<br>
<br>
<b>A ‘carbon savings account’ for work</b><br>
Lizzy Kolar, co-founder & CEO of Scope Zero, which offers a
carbon savings account (CSA) as a method for distributing green
perks to employees, likened it to a health savings account. “But for
home technology and personal transportation upgrades that drive
corporate ESG efforts,” she said. Stipends for commuter benefits,
biking, and EV discounts, as well as work-from-home expenses, are
key components to the program. <br>
<br>
Employer financial contribution to each employee’s CSA and the
discounts from its vendor marketplace significantly reduce the
upfront costs of home tech and personal transportation upgrades,
Kolar said. Providing a platform designed for this type of perk also
allows for customized upgrade recommendations, direction of
employees to top products and vendors, and identification of
relevant utility and government rebates.<br>
<br>
With green perks, the headlines are smaller than the operational and
supply chain commitments from major corporations, and the impact is
not yet sufficiently studied. But as back-to-work mandates continue
to gain momentum, there is the opportunity to incorporate the
concept into a new work-life balance. Green perks are a benefits
arena where the demand would seem to outstrip supply, and green
commuter benefits may be the first indication of a wider adoption
wave. <br>
<br>
That’s Kolar’s bet. “This demand stems from growing individual
interest in sustainability and from the priorities within the 70% of
Fortune 500s that have already made formal climate commitments,” she
said. “Our prediction is that within the next few years the standard
benefits will no longer only include healthcare and retirement, but
also sustainability,” she said.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/13/how-climate-change-is-beginning-to-be-added-to-employee-pay-and-perks.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/13/how-climate-change-is-beginning-to-be-added-to-employee-pay-and-perks.html</a><br>
<p>- -</p>
[ CNBC video interview ~5 mins ]<br>
<b>Cummins CEO on SEC's Climate Rules</b><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.cnbc.com/video/2024/03/07/cummins-ceo-on-driving-ev-adoption-you-need-incentives-and-the-right-regulatory-framework.html">https://www.cnbc.com/video/2024/03/07/cummins-ceo-on-driving-ev-adoption-you-need-incentives-and-the-right-regulatory-framework.html</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
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</p>
<i>[ news from Canada - stage 4 wildfire ]</i><br>
<b>Canada wildfires: Indigenous communities sound alarm as
evacuations already underway</b><br>
Global News<br>
Apr 13, 2024 #GlobalNews #Indigenous #Wildfires<br>
Indigenous communities are sounding the alarm as the wildfire season
gets underway.<br>
<br>
On Wednesday, the federal government announced new funding to help
the 48 First Nations in Alberta hire emergency management
coordinators, promising that more funding would be on the way.<br>
<br>
But with wildfires already sparking evacuation orders, several
chiefs tell Global News that the announcement is both too little and
too late.<br>
<br>
Heather Yourex-West reports.<br>
<br>
For more info, please go to
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://globalnews.ca/news/10414618/federal-wildfire-emergency-co-ordinators-alberta-first-nations/">https://globalnews.ca/news/10414618/federal-wildfire-emergency-co-ordinators-alberta-first-nations/</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5-e_rK7e64">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5-e_rK7e64</a>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<i>[ same place but with a new calendar ]</i><br>
<b>Unseasonal wildfires beset midwest: ‘The strangest winter I’ve
ever seen’</b><br>
El Niño weather phenomenon has contributed to warm, dry conditions
in US, leading to more fires much earlier in the year<br>
Gabrielle Canon<br>
Fri 12 Apr 2024 <br>
The US midwest typically spends the start of spring emerging from
snow. But this year, after a warm winter left landscapes parched,
the region instead was primed to burn. Hundreds of blazes ignited in
recent months in states more accustomed to dealing with just dozens
for this time of year, as extreme fire behavior defied seasonal
norms.<br>
<br>
Experts say the unusually early and active fire season was a symptom
of El Niño, a climate pattern characterized by warmer surface
temperatures in the Pacific Ocean that was predicted to supercharge
global heating and extreme weather. But the climate crisis turned up
the dial, and helped create conditions in the midwest where winter
temperature records were not only broken – they were smashed.<br>
<br>
“This was the strangest winter I have ever seen,” Stephen Marien, a
predictive services fire meteorologist who works for the National
Parks Service, said. Marien, a federal scientist based in Minnesota,
added that he expected the season to trend warmer due to El Niño,
but it was still shocking to see temperatures climb above 60F (16C)
during the typically frigid months. For Marien it was a clear sign
that “climate change has added fuel to the fire”.<br>
<br>
The midwest – defined by the US census as Illinois, Indiana, Iowa,
Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio,
South Dakota and Wisconsin – includes a range of landscapes,
including grasslands, plains and forests, but the warmer weather had
widespread impact.<br>
<br>
The balmy start to the year left the region with a larger window for
higher-risk fire conditions, which tend to peak in early spring
after the snow melts but before trees and grasses “green up”.
Vegetation that is normally hidden beneath the berms of snow was
instead exposed to the sun weeks early and dried quickly. That
unleashed unseasonal drought conditions and set the stage for the
type of blazes that prove harder to contain.<br>
In Minnesota, the agency responsible for coordinating fire
suppression efforts said in a Facebook post that vegetation had
dried out “roughly six weeks earlier than normal” and that
firefighters in the state had already responded to 50 significant
blazes in early March.<br>
<br>
While the fires have mostly been small and numerous rather than
catastrophic, they contributed to an early jump in burn totals
across the country. More than 1.7m acres have already burned in the
US, a number more than triple the 10-year average for this time of
year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC).<br>
<br>
These numbers were driven in large part by the explosion of fires
across Texas and Oklahoma, including the Smokehouse Creek fire that
burned more than a million acres in cattle country and left tens of
thousands of livestock dead. The fires in the midwest, though small
by comparison, laid siege to landscapes and communities where the
means needed to battle big blazes are limited. The early onset of
fire season is a troubling trend.<br>
<br>
“We’re not really having fire seasons any more. We’re just having
fire years,” Ben Bohall, public information officer for the Nebraska
forest service, told KCUR, an NPR affiliate in Kansas City, adding
that resources, as a result, were strained.<br>
<br>
In Nebraska, a fire in late February scorched more than 71,000 acres
(29,000 hectares) in just 24 hours destroying several buildings
including two homes. In March, three people were injured when
several fires blew across roughly 3,000 acres in Minnesota.<br>
The dangers continued in April. Fueled by drought and heat, a
prescribed burn reportedly escaped control in Kansas this week,
prompting evacuation notices and road closures. It is one of three
active fires burning in the state, which have collectively charred
roughly 15,000 acres. The danger is far from over.<br>
<br>
<br>
“Calendar-wise it might seem like we are getting late into spring,
but our fire season is still here in Kansas,” Chip Rebin, a
meteorologist of the Kansas forest service, said in a broadcast
update posted on Thursday. Temperatures are expected to soar in the
coming week – potentially reaching 90F – with winds gusting at 40mph
(65km/h) creating suppression complications and a high chance that
contained fires will rekindle. “That’s a bad scenario,” he added,
noting heat 20 degrees higher than normal “will rapidly dry out
fuels”.<br>
<br>
Fires burn differently in the region than those in California or
other parts of the west, Marien said, and are typically snuffed out
within the day. But intensifying fire conditions have created burns
that are harder to contain. The local volunteer firefighters and
state departments who battle these blazes can be quickly overwhelmed
and may require outside resources, including aircraft, especially
when embers are more difficult to extinguish.<br>
<br>
“When you get longer-term droughts all the fuels on the ground can
keep burning for quite a while,” he said, adding, “and that doesn’t
happen often over here.”<br>
<br>
While a spate of storms offered a reprieve in the northern states in
recent weeks and the promise of rains returning in the coming months
has cooled some of the dangers across the region in the short term,
many states in the midwest are still experiencing dry conditions,
which could worsen as the weather warms. The latest federal
forecasts also show above normal temperatures are likely across much
of the plains and Mississippi valley.<br>
<br>
“It is the time of year when they are coming into their main wet
season,” Andrew Hoell, a Noaa research meteorologist, said. But if
those rains fail to appear, “you can fall into a drought and you can
get some fires pretty quickly”.<br>
<br>
As the climate crisis sets the stage for more extreme conditions,
with climbing temperatures, sharper swings between wet and dry, and
a thirsty atmosphere that evaporates moisture faster, the conditions
that fueled these winter fires may arise more often.<br>
<br>
“There’s no doubt that this is part of a trend,” Hoell said. “This
part of the world is warming and it is warming during the winter
time.” The extremes seen in the last season were boosted due to El
Niño, so a repeat performance isn’t necessarily expected every
winter. “But the background warming is there,” Hoell added, “and
it’s here to stay.”<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/12/midwest-early-wildfire-season">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/12/midwest-early-wildfire-season</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
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</p>
<i>[ 5 min audio report. We are not surprised - the echo chamber c</i><i>orrelates
with political stance. </i><i> ]</i><br>
<b>Climate denialism mapped to geography and political affiliation</b><br>
Paul Huttner and Ngoc Bui <br>
April 11, 2024<br>
A recent study shows nearly 15 percent of Americans “do not believe
in climate change.”<br>
<br>
So, what drives climate denialism in the U.S.?<br>
<br>
Joshua Newell is a professor and co-director of the Center for
Sustainable Systems. He was one of the authors of this research and
broke down his findings.<br>
<br>
To hear the full conversation, click play on the audio player above
or subscribe to the Climate Cast podcast.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2024/04/11/climate-denialism-mapped-to-geography-and-political-affiliation">https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2024/04/11/climate-denialism-mapped-to-geography-and-political-affiliation</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
<br>
<i>[ part 2 on tipping points ]</i><br>
<b>What we know about Global Tipping Points</b><br>
Paul Beckwith<br>
Apr 12, 2024<br>
In this video, I continue to chat about the report “Global Tipping
Points”: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://global-tipping-points.org/">https://global-tipping-points.org/</a><br>
<br>
I cover the Report Sections from Page 31 to 77. This includes
sections on introducing Positive Tipping Points. I also cover the
so-called Negative Tipping Points (Earth System Tipping Points) for
the cryosphere, specifically for Greenland and Antarctica, Arctic
and Antarctic sea ice, alpine glaciers, and permafrost (both on land
and subsea, ice-rich and ice-poor).<br>
<br>
I am delving into the details and the figures, since this report is
vital to inform people from all walks of life about the huge risks
of “negative tipping points” in the Earth system that we are fast
approaching, some likely already crossed. <br>
<br>
I find that making a detailed video really helps reinforce my own
knowledge base on this very important topic.<br>
<br>
Equally, or arguable more importantly humans have agency to
transform society via “positive tipping points”, but these require
governance and human agency to occur. At the moment, there is no
global governance organization or even recognition by most
governments and policy makers on the need for quickly establishing
this global governance.<br>
<br>
Time is a wasting…<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qks-bnuwW1Q">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qks-bnuwW1Q</a><i><br>
</i>
<p>- -</p>
<i>[ See the revised document ]</i><br>
<b>“Global Tipping Points”</b><br>
<b>Section 1</b><br>
Earth system tipping points<br>
Considers Earth system tipping points. These are reviewed and
assessed across the three major domains of the cryosphere, biosphere
and circulation of the oceans and atmosphere.<br>
<b>Section 2</b><br>
Tipping point impacts<br>
Considers tipping point impacts. First we look at the human impacts
of Earth system tipping points, then the potential couplings to
negative tipping points in human systems.<br>
<b>Section 3</b><br>
Governance of Earth system tipping points<br>
Considers how to govern Earth system tipping points and their
associated risks. We look at governance of mitigation, prevention
and stabilisation then we focus on governance of impacts, including
adaptation, vulnerability and loss and damage.<br>
<b>Section 4</b><br>
Positive tipping points in technology, economy & society<br>
Focuses on positive tipping points in technology, the economy and
society. It provides a framework for understanding and acting on
positive tipping points. We highlight illustrative case studies
across energy, food and transport and mobility systems, with a focus
on demand-side solutions.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://global-tipping-points.org">https://global-tipping-points.org</a><br>
<p>- -</p>
<i>[ video blurb 2 min]</i><br>
<b>Global Tipping Points: A Studio Silverback Production</b><br>
University of Exeter<br>
Dec 6, 2023<br>
The Global Tipping Points Report is the most comprehensive
assessment of the risks and opportunities of both negative and
positive tipping points in the Earth system and society. This
tipping points film has been produced by Studio Silverback from
their Open Planet collection.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://global-tipping-points.org/">https://global-tipping-points.org/</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2DBAtOIhqI">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2DBAtOIhqI</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<br>
<i>[ Working in the heat without concerns for risk. Where is OSHA
? ]</i><br>
<b>Florida blocks heat protections for workers right before summer</b><br>
APRIL 12, 2024<br>
Alejandra Borunda<br>
<br>
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a law that prevents cities or
counties from creating protections for workers who labor in the
state's often extreme and dangerous heat.<br>
<br>
Two million people in Florida, from construction to agriculture,
work outside in often humid, blazing heat.<br>
<br>
For years, many of them have asked for rules to protect them from
heat: paid rest breaks, water, and access to shade when temperatures
soar. After years of negotiations, such rules were on the agenda in
Miami-Dade County, home to an estimated 300,000 outdoor workers.<br>
<br>
But the new law, signed Thursday evening, blocks such protections
from being implemented in cities and counties across the state.<br>
<br>
Miami-Dade pulled its local heat protection rule from consideration
after the statewide bill passed the legislature in March.<br>
<br>
"It's outrageous that the state legislature will override the
elected officials of Miami Dade or other counties that really
recognize the importance of protecting that community of workers,"
says David Michaels, an epidemiologist at George Washington
University and a former administrator at the federal Occupational
Health and Safety Administration (OSHA).<br>
<br>
The loss of the local rule was a major blow to Miami-Dade activists
and workers who had hoped the county heat protection rules would be
in place before summer.<br>
<br>
In a press conference on Friday, DeSantis said the bill he signed
did not come from him. "There was a lot of concern out of one
county, Miami-Dade. And I don't think it was an issue in any other
part of the state," DeSantis said. "I think they were pursuing
something that was going to cause a lot of problems down there."<br>
<br>
But extreme heat will only get worse. "Last year was the hottest
summer in Florida's history. And this year will likely be the
hottest summer in Florida's history," says Esteban Wood, director of
the advocacy group We-Count, one of the organizations working on
heat protections in Miami-Dade. The new law, he says, represents "a
profound loss for not only the campaign but for all the families
that have for many years been fighting for the minimum—which was
just water, shade and rest, and the right to return home after work
alive."<br>
<br>
Lupe Gonzalo knows this reality well. She used to pick tomatoes in
Florida during the summer and she'd find herself woozy from the
heat. Sometimes she'd cramp up or get piercing headaches. Gonzalo
shoved bottles of water into every pocket, but even that wasn't
nearly enough to get her through the day. Some colleagues, she says,
went to the hospital with heat exhaustion—and some even died.<br>
<br>
"Without water, without rests, without shade, the body of a
worker—it resents it," Gonzalo says in Spanish.<br>
<br>
The heat has already caused problems this spring. Samuel Nava, a
landscaper from Homestead, Florida, says in March his coworker
collapsed with heat-induced cramps. Nava helped him get to the
emergency room.<br>
<br>
Nava says he's used to the heat working for months on end in high
humidity, his clothes drenched in sweat.<br>
<br>
"Es como una sauna," he says—it's like a sauna.<br>
<br>
Patchy national protections against heat<br>
Heat risks have grown dramatically in recent years. Globally, since
the 1980s, climate change has made heat waves last longer. They come
more frequently and affect bigger areas. The worst heat waves are
several degrees hotter now than they would have been without
human-caused climate change.<br>
<br>
The U.S. experienced its hottest-ever summer in 2023, and Florida
recorded its hottest-ever July and August. The heat index, a measure
that incorporates both temperature and humidity, stayed above 100
degrees Fahrenheit for 46 days in a row in Miami.<br>
Despite the increasing risks, there are no federal rules regulating
when it's too hot to work, even though thousands of heat-related
injuries and dozens of deaths are reported across the U.S. every
year. There is a federal requirement that employers keep workers
safe on the job, and recommendations for how to do so, including
protecting workers from extreme heat. But the guidance doesn't say
exactly what those protections are or what to do when limits are
surpassed.<br>
<br>
A handful of states or local jurisdictions like Miami-Dade have
attempted to create some protections. Some have succeeded, but more
have stalled or failed.<br>
<br>
California was the first to establish regulations in 2006. They
require employers to provide shade, rest breaks, and access to cool,
clean water for outdoor workers. After the rules were implemented,
heat-related workers compensation claims dropped, according to a
2021 study from UCLA.<br>
<br>
More recently, after several farm workers died in the deadly June
heat wave in the Pacific Northwest in 2021, Washington and Oregon
created worker protections from heat.<br>
<br>
Political headwinds have blocked other efforts. Proposals in state
legislatures including Virginia and Nevada failed. In Texas, Austin
and Dallas created ordinances that required employers to provide
paid water breaks to outdoor workers. But last year Texas Gov. Greg
Abbott signed a "preemption" law that blocked local jurisdictions
from making such rules. The goal, Abbott's office said, was to
prevent a "patchwork" of differing local rules, which they contended
would cause confusion for businesses in the state.<br>
<br>
Florida's new law is similar to the one passed in Texas, though it
is more narrowly focused on preventing heat protections. Lobbyists
cited similar concerns to Texas, saying they wanted clarity and
consistency statewide.<br>
<br>
"Predictability and certainty is what we look for," says Carol
Bowen, chief lobbyist for the Associated Builders and Contractors of
Florida, an industry group. "You want a set of consistent guidelines
so you know the road map." Right now, she says, the federal
recommendations provide a clear-enough outline.<br>
<br>
But Shefali Milczarek-Desai, a labor law expert at the University of
Arizona, says "If the legislature is really concerned about having a
patchwork of heat standards, then why doesn't the legislature itself
pass a heat standard regulation?" Proposed heat legislation has come
up before the Florida legislature several times in recent years but
it has not moved forward.<br>
<br>
OSHA began working on national rules targeting heat in 2021, but the
process could take years. Creating a new OSHA rule takes on average
seven years from start to implementation, according to the
Governmental Accountability Office.<br>
<br>
In the meantime, the state-by-state patchwork of rules leaves tens
of millions of workers at risk, says Michaels. "We need a solution
that protects all workers, and that's what the federal standard will
do," he says.<br>
<br>
<b>High heat risks in Florida</b><br>
Nationally, the Bureau of Labor Statistics recorded 436 heat-related
worker deaths between 2011 and 2021. The true number is likely much
higher, says Juley Fulcher, a policy expert at Public Citizen, an
organization focused on worker health and safety. Public Citizen
estimates 2,000 workers die, and more than 100,000 are injured, from
heat-related issues each year.<br>
<br>
The discrepancy could come from counting technicalities. Only
injuries or deaths that can be directly linked to heat usually get
recorded in official statistics—when someone passes out from
heatstroke, for example, and falls off a ladder. But heat can affect
people in less obvious ways that still lead to injury or death. Heat
draws blood away from the brain, affecting people's ability to think
clearly. That can lead to clumsiness or dangerous mistakes.<br>
<br>
Heat also puts extra stress on the body, increasing the chance of
other health problems developing. Medical providers are seeing
people with kidney problems from heat exposure, or strokes, or
"because their heart symptoms are worse after people experienced
extreme conditions in their homes if they couldn't run air
conditioning," says Shauna Junco, an infectious disease pharmacist
and board member of Florida Clinicians for Climate Action.<br>
<br>
Absent federal rules protecting workers from heat, a few states like
California, Oregon, and Washington have made their own. Others like
Texas and now Florida have blocked local attempts to create
protective rules.<br>
Chameleonseye/Getty Images<br>
In a 2020 study, climate scientist Michelle Tigchellar and her
colleagues looked at the heat risks to agricultural workers across
the country. Under good working conditions—with regular breaks,
shade, and water access—most workers, they found, can stay
relatively safe up to a heat index of about 83 degrees Fahrenheit.
The risks build quickly beyond that threshold. In one Florida
county, they analyzed, working conditions are already hotter than
that for 113 days out of the year. That number could rise to 148
days if global temperatures rise further.<br>
<br>
"In places like Florida where there's a lot of humid heat, the
entire growing season will be unsafe to work," Tigchelaar says...<br>
- -<br>
In 2020, after the heat-related death of 16-year-old football player
Zachary Martin-Polsenberg in 2017, Florida lawmakers unanimously
passed a law requiring schools to protect student-athletes from heat
illness.<br>
<br>
"In the same way high-school athletes should be protected, outdoor
workers should too," says Esteban Wood from We-Count.<br>
<br>
<b>But heat protections for workers will take time.</b><br>
<br>
Meanwhile, this summer's heat is projected to be another hot one in
a string of record-breaking years. Wood is already worried about how
bad things could get in the coming months. He and his colleagues are
trying to figure out what they can do to help people stay safe in
the continued absence of stricter rules protecting them.<br>
<br>
One strategy, says Lupe Gonzalo, is to find alternative solutions
while the policy-making slowly moves. She and her colleagues at the
Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a farmworker organization based in
south Florida, have developed a community-led effort called the Fair
Food Program.<br>
<br>
Their organization has agreements with major food brands like
Walmart and Chipotle—enormous buyers of the fresh produce their
workers pick and prepare. The buyers require the agricultural
growers to provide safe working conditions, including water, shade,
and rest breaks on a schedule dictated by heat conditions. So far,
the program has been working effectively, Gonzalo says—doing what
the state has not.<br>
<br>
Jessica Meszaros with member station WUSF contributed to this story.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.npr.org/2024/04/12/1244316874/florida-blocks-heat-protections-for-workers-right-before-summer">https://www.npr.org/2024/04/12/1244316874/florida-blocks-heat-protections-for-workers-right-before-summer</a>
<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 14, 1964 </b></i></font>
</font><br>
<font face="Calibri"> </font> April 14, 1964: Writer and biologist
Rachel Carson, whose 1962 book "Silent Spring" galvanized a
generation to take environmental concerns seriously, passes away at
56.<br>
<blockquote>
<p><b>Rachel Carson Dies of Cancer; 'Silent Spring' Author Was 56</b><br>
By JONATHAN NORTON LEONARD<br>
Rachel Carson, the biologist and writer on nature and science,
whose book “Silent Spring” touched off a major controversy on
the effects of pesticides, died yesterday in her home in Silver
Spring, Md. She was 56 years old.<br>
Her death was reported in New York by Marie Rodell, her literary
agent. Miss Rodell said that Miss Carson had had cancer “for
some years,” and that she had been aware of her illness.<br>
<br>
With the publication of “Silent Spring” in 1962, Rachel Louise
Carson, the essence of gentle scholarship, set off a nationally
publicized struggle between the proponents and opponents of the
widespread use of poisonous chemicals to kill insects. Miss
Carson was an opponent.<br>
<br>
Some of miss Carson’s critics, admiringly and some not so
admiringly, compared her to Carrie Nation, the hatchet-wielding
temperance advocate.<br>
<br>
This comparison was rejected quietly by Miss Carson, who in her
very mild but firm manner refused to accept the identification
of an emotional crusader.<br>
<br>
Miss Carson’s position, as a biologist, was simply that she was
a natural scientist in search of truth and that the
indiscriminate use of poisonous chemical sprays called for
public awareness of what was going on.<br>
<br>
She emphasized that she was not opposed to the use of poisonous
chemical sprays--only their “indiscriminate use,” and, at a time
when their potential was not truly known.<br>
<br>
Quoting Jean Rostand, the French writer and biologist, she said:
“The obligation to endure gives us the right to know.”<br>
<br>
On April 3, 1963, the Columbia Broadcasting System’s television
series “C.B.S. Reports” presented the program “The Silent Spring
of Rachel Carson.” In it, Miss Carson said:<br>
<br>
“It is the public that is being asked to assume the risks that
the insect controllers calculate. The public must decide whether
it wishes to continue on the present road, and it can do so only
when in full possession of the facts.<br>
<br>
“We still talk in terms of conquest. We still haven’t become
mature enough to think of ourselves as only a tiny part of a
vast and incredible universe. Man’s attitude toward nature is
today critically important simply because we have now acquired a
fateful power to alter and destroy nature.<br>
<br>
But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is
inevitably a war against himself. The rains have become an
instrument to bring down from the atmosphere the deadly products
of atomic explosions. Water, which is probably our most
important natural resource, is now used and re-used with
incredible recklessness.<br>
<br>
“Now, I truly believe, that we in this generation, must come to
terms with nature, and I think we’re challenged as mankind has
never been challenged before to prove our maturity and our
mastery, not of nature, but of ourselves.”<br>
<br>
<b>3 Earlier Works</b><br>
<br>
Miss Carson, thanks to her remarkable knack for taking dull
scientific facts and translating them into poetical and lyrical
prose that enchanted the lay public, had a substantial public
image before she rocked the American public and much of the
world with “Silent Spring.”<br>
<br>
This was established by three books, “Under the Sea Wind,” “The
Sea Around Us,” and “The Edge of the Sea.” “The Sea Around Us”
moved quickly into the national best-seller lists, where it
remained for 86 weeks, 39 of them in first place. By 1962, it
had been published in 30 languages.<br>
<br>
“Silent Spring,” four-and-a-half years in preparation and
published in September of 1962, hit the affluent chemical
industry and the general public with the devastating effect of a
Biblical plague of locusts. The title came from an apocalyptic
opening chapter, which pictured how an entire area could be
destroyed by indiscriminate spraying.<br>
<br>
Legislative bodies ranging from New England town meetings to the
Congress joined in the discussion. President Kennedy, asked
about the pesticide problem during a press conference, announced
that Federal agencies were taking a closer look at the problem
because of the public’s concern.<br>
<br>
The essence of the debate was : Are pesticides publicly
dangerous or aren’t they?<br>
<b><br>
They Should Be Called Biocide</b><br>
<br>
Miss Carson’s position had been summarized this way:<br>
<br>
“Chemicals are the sinister and little-recognized partners of
radiation in changing the very nature of the world--the very
nature of life.<br>
<br>
“Since the mid-nineteen forties, over 200 basic chemicals have
been created for use in killing insects, weeds, rodents and
other organisms described in the modern vernacular as pests, and
they are sold under several thousand different brand names.<br>
<br>
“The sprays, dusts and aerosols are now applied almost
universally to farms, gardens, forests and homes--non-selective
chemicals that have the power to kill every insect, the good and
the bad, to still the song of birds and the leaping of fish in
the streams--to coat the leaves with a deadly film and to linger
on in soil--all this, though the intended target may be only a
few weeds or insects.<br>
<br>
“Can anyone believe it is possible to lay down such a barrage of
poison on the surface of the earth without making it unfit for
all life? They should not be called ‘insecticides’ but
‘biocides.’”<br>
<br>
The chemical industry was quick to dispute this.<br>
<br>
Dr. Robert White-Stevens, a spokesman for the industry, said:<br>
<br>
“The major claims of Miss Rachel Carson’s book, ‘Silent Spring,’
are gross distortions of the actual facts, completely
unsupported by scientific, experimental evidence, and general
practical experience in the field. Her suggestion that
pesticides are in fact biocides destroying all life is obviously
absurd in the light of the fact that without selective
biologicals these compounds would be completely useless.<br>
<br>
“The real threat, then, to the survival of man is not chemical
but biological, in the shape of hordes of insects that can
denude our forests, sweep over our crop lands, ravage our food
supply and leave in their wake a train of destitution and
hunger, conveying to an undernourished population the major
diseases scourges of mankind.”<br>
<br>
The Monsanto company, one of the nation’s largest chemical
concerns, used parody as a weapon in the counterattack against
Miss Carson. Without mentioning her book, the company adopted
her poetic style in an article labeled “The Desolate Year,”
which began: “Quietly, then, the desolate year began. . .” and
wove its own apocalyptic word picture--but one that showed
insects stripping the countryside and winning.<br>
<br>
As the chemical industry continued to make her a target for
criticism, Miss Carson remained calm.<br>
<br>
“We must have insect control,” she reiterated. “I do not favor
turning nature over to insects. I favor the sparing, selective
and intelligent use of chemicals. It is the indiscriminate,
blanket spraying that I oppose.”<br>
<br>
Actually, chemical pest control has been practiced to some
extent for centuries. However it was not until 1942 that DDT, a
synthetic compound, was introduced in the wake of experiments
that included those with poison gas. Its long-term poisonous
potency was augmented by its ability to kill some insects upon
contact and without being ingested. This opened a new era in
pest control and led to the development of additional new
synthetic poisons far more effective even than DDT.<br>
<br>
As the pesticide controversy grew into a national quarrel,
support was quick in going to the side of Miss Carson.<br>
<br>
Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, an ardent naturalist,
declared, “We need a Bill of Rights against the 20th century
poisoners of the human race.”<br>
<br>
Earlier, an editorial in The New York Times had said:<br>
<br>
“If her series [then running in part in The New Yorker
publication of the book] helps arouse public concern to immunize
Government agencies against the blandishments of the hucksters
and enforces adequate controls, the author will be as deserving
of the Noble Prize as was the inventor of DDT.”<br>
<br>
<b>Presidential Report</b><br>
<br>
In May 1963, after a long study, President Kennedy’s Science
Advisory committee, issued its pesticide report.<br>
<br>
It stressed that pesticides must be used to maintain the quality
of the nation’s food and health, but it warned against their
indiscriminate use. It called for more research into potential
health hazards in the interim, urged more judicious care in the
use of pesticides in homes and in the field.<br>
<br>
The committee chairman, Dr. Jerome B. Wiesner, said the
uncontrolled use of poisonous chemicals, including pesticides,
was “potentially a much greater hazard” than radioactive
fallout.<br>
<br>
Miss Carson appeared before the Senate Committee on Commerce,
which was hearing testimony on the Chemical Pesticides
Coordination Act, and a bill that would require labels to tell
how to avert damage to fish and wildlife.<br>
<br>
“I suggest,” she said, “that the report by the President’s
Science Advisors has created a climate in which creation of a
Pesticide Commission within the Executive Department might be
considered.”<br>
<br>
One of the sparks that caused Miss Carson to undertake the task
of writing the book (whose documentation alone fills a list of
55 pages of sources), was a letter she had received from old
friends, Stuart and Olga Huckins. It told of the destruction
that aerial spraying had caused to their two-acre private
sanctuary at Powder Point in Duxbury, Mass.<br>
<br>
Miss Carson, convinced that she must write about the situation
and particularly about the effects of spraying on ecological
factors, found an interested listener in Paul Brooks, editor in
chief of the Houghton-Mifflin Company, the Boston publishing
house that had brought out “The Edge of the Sea.”<br>
<br>
As to her own writing habits, Miss Carson once wrote for 20th
Century Authors:<br>
<br>
“I write slowly, often in longhand, had with frequent revision.
Being sensitive to interruption, I writer most freely at night.<br>
<br>
“As a writer, my interest is divided between the presentation of
facts and the interpretation of their significance, with
emphasis, I think toward the latter.”<br>
<br>
“Silent Spring” became a best seller even before its publication
date because its release date was broken. It also became a best
seller in England after its publication there in March, 1963.<br>
<br>
One of Miss Carson’s greatest fans, according to her agent,
Marie Rodell, was her mother. Miss Rodell recalled that the
mother, who died of pneumonia and a heart ailment in 1960, had
sat in the family car in 1952 writing letters while Miss Carson
and Miss Rodell explored the sea’s edge near Boothbay Harbor. To
passers-by the mother would say, pointing, “That’s my daughter,
Rachel Carson. She wrote “The Sea Around Us.”<br>
<br>
People remembered Miss Carson for her shyness and reserve as
well as for her writing and scholarship. And so when she
received a telephone call after the publication of “The Sea
Around Us,” asking her to speak in the Astor Hotel at a
luncheon, she asked Miss Rodell what she should do.<br>
<br>
The agent counseled her to concentrate on writing. Miss Carson
nodded in agreement, went to the phone, and shortly came back
and said somewhat helplessly: “I said I’d do it.”<br>
<br>
There were 1,500 persons at the luncheon, Miss Carson was
“scared to death,” but she plunged into the talk and acquitted
herself. As part of her program she played a recording of the
sounds of underseas, including the clicking of shrimp and the
squeeks of dolphins and whales. With the ice broken as a public
speaker, Miss Carson continued with others sporadically.<br>
<br>
<b>Did Research by Herself</b><br>
<br>
Miss Carson had some preliminary help in researching “Silent
Spring” but soon found that she could go faster by doing the
work herself because she could skim past so much that she
already knew.<br>
<br>
Miss Carson had few materialistic leanings. When she found “The
Sea Around Us” was a great financial success, her first
extravagance was the purchase of a very fine binocular-
microscope, which she had always wanted. Her second luxury was
the summer cottage on the Maine coast.<br>
<br>
Her agent said that Miss Carson’s work was her hobby but that
she was very fond of her flower garden at Silver Spring, Md.,
where she also loved to watch the birds that came to visit.<br>
<br>
Miss Carson had two favorite birds, a member of the thrush
family called the veery, and the tern, a small, black-capped
gull-like bird with swallow like forked tails.<br>
<br>
She once told an interviewer that she was enchanted by the
“hunting, mystical call” of the veery, which is found in moist
woods and bottomlands from Newfoundland to southern Manitoba,
and in mountains to northern Georgia.<br>
<br>
In manner, Miss Carson was a small, solemn-looking woman with
the steady forthright gaze of a type that is sometimes common to
thoughtful children who prefer to listen rather than to talk She
was politely friendly but reserved and was not given to quick
smiles or to encouraging conversation even with her fans.<br>
<br>
The most recent flare-up in the continuing pesticide controversy
occurred early this month when the Public Health Service
announced that the periodic huge-scale deaths of fish on the
lower Mississippi River had been traced over the last four years
to toxic ingredients in three kinds of pesticides. Some persons
believed that the pesticides drained into the river form
neighboring farm lands.<br>
<br>
A hearing by the Agriculture Department of the Public Health
service’s charges ended a week ago with a spokesman for one of
the pesticide manufacturers saying that any judgment should be
delayed until more information was obtained.<br>
<br>
Miss Carson was born May 27, 1907, in Springdale, Pa., the
daughter of Robert Warden Carson and the former Maria McLean.
She was brought up in Springdale and in nearby Parnassus.<br>
<br>
She owed her love of nature in large measure to her mother, who
once wrote in The Saturday Review of Literature, that she had
taught her daughter “as a tiny child joy in the out-of-doors and
the lore of birds, insects, and residents of streams and ponds.”
She was a rather solitary child. She never married.<br>
<br>
After being graduated from Parnassus High School, she enrolled
in the Pennsylvania College for Women at Pittsburgh with the
intention of making a career of writing. First she specialized
in English composition. Later biology fascinated her and she
switched to that field, going on to graduate work at Johns
Hopkins University.<br>
<br>
She then taught for seven consecutive sessions at the Johns
Hopkins Summer School. In 1931 she became a member of the
zoology staff of the University of Maryland. She remained five
years. Her Master of Arts degree was conferred by Johns Hopkins
in 1932.<br>
<br>
Meanwhile, a childhood curiosity about the sea stayed with her.
She absorbed all that she could read about the biology of the
sea and she undertook post-graduate work at the Marine
Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass, at Cape Cod.<br>
<br>
In 1936 she was offered a position as aquatic biologist with the
Bureau of Fisheries in Washington. She continued with the bureau
and its successor, the Fish and Wildlife Service. In 1937, an
article, “Undersea,” in Atlantic led to her first book, “Under
the Sea Wind,” in 1941, and this was followed by her appointment
as editor in chief of the Fish and Wildlife Service--blending
her two worlds: biology and writing.<br>
<br>
“The Sea Around Us,” published in 1951, made her world famous,
and she received numerous honors. They included the Gold Medal
of the New York Zoological Society, the John Burroughs Medal,
the Gold Medal of the Geographical Society of Philadelphia and
the National Book Award.<br>
<br>
Meanwhile, in 1952, she resigned from her government post to
continue her writing. She was no armchair naturalist To gain
experience the hard way, she once sailed in a fishing trawler to
the rugged Georges Banks off the Massachusetts coast. “The Edge
of the Sea” was published in 1955, and before long she was at
work researching material for “Silent Spring.”<br>
<br>
Miss Carson leaves a brother, Robert M. Carson, and an adopted
son, Roger Christie, who was her grandnephew.</p>
<p><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/10/05/reviews/carson-obit.html">https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/10/05/reviews/carson-obit.html</a><br>
</p>
</blockquote>
<p><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/10/05/reviews/carson-obit.html">http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/10/05/reviews/carson-obit.html</a><br>
</p>
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