Climate change will increase diseases, premature deaths and will cause an increase in malnutrition in regions such as Africa or Latin America, warns a new UN report, which confirms that almost half of the world’s population is already vulnerable to global warming
Two women walk through the arid land in Somalia in a file image. EFE / Pablo Tosco
Between 3.3 and 3.6 billion people live in contexts that are highly vulnerable to climate change, underlines the document, which anticipates the possible effects of this global warming on health, food security, cities and other aspects of human life.
In the medium and long term (between 2041 and 2100) the authors of the study anticipate an increase in diseases transmitted through the consumption of food, water and other factors, as well as deaths related to heat waves.
The report thus anticipates an increase in dengue cases, with longer and more geographically widespread epidemics of this disease, which could even make it reach Europe.
It also anticipates more mental health problems, such as anxiety or stress, “especially among children, adolescents, the elderly, and people with underlying conditions.”
At the food level, the report warns about the possible decrease in agricultural production, which could cause malnutrition, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and South and Central America.
The report indicates that populations living in coastal areas are especially vulnerable to climate change, with approximately one billion people exposed to long-term extreme weather events.
In the current context, with a global average temperature of approximately 1.1 degrees Celsius above industrial levels, human populations are already being negatively impacted, also economically, with serious damage to sectors such as agriculture, fishing , energy or tourism.
In cities, especially in the most vulnerable informal settlements, climate change has intensified phenomena such as pollution and the so-called “heat islands”, processes that affect key infrastructures such as transport, energy networks, water supply or the sewer.
Climate change has already contributed to health crises, especially in small island states, although it has also been key to the increase in floods and food insecurity in Africa and Latin America.
Experts acknowledge that although non-climatic factors such as geopolitical tensions are still the main drivers of conflicts, in some latitudes they have influenced their duration, severity or frequency.
Flooding in Sana’a, Yemen, in May 2019. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB
The Supreme Court is hearing a case its conservative majority could use to hobble Biden administration efforts to combat climate change.
The administration already is dealing with congressional refusal to enact the climate change proposals in President Joe Biden’s Build Better Back plan.
Now the justices, in arguments Monday, are taking up an appeal from 19 mostly Republican-led states and coal companies over the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to limit carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.
The court took on the case even though there is no current EPA plan in place to deal with carbon output from power plants, a development that has alarmed environmental groups. They worry that the court could preemptively undermine whatever plan Biden’s team develops to address power plant emissions. Biden has pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by the end of the decade.
A broad ruling by the court also could weaken regulatory efforts that extend well beyond the environment, including consumer protections, workplace safety and public health. Several conservative justices have criticized what they see as the unchecked power of federal agencies.
Those concerns were evident in the court’s orders throwing out two Biden administration policies aimed at reducing the spread of COVID-19. Last summer, the court’s 6-3 conservative majority ended a pause on evictions over unpaid rent. In January, the same six justices blocked a requirement that workers at large employers be vaccinated or test regularly and wear a mask on the job.
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, speaking at a recent event in Washington, cast the power plant case as about who should make the rules. “Should it be unelected bureaucrats, or should it be the people’s representatives in Congress?” Morrisey said. West Virginia is leading the states opposed to broad EPA authority.
But David Doniger, a climate change expert with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the Supreme Court’s consideration of the issue is premature, a view shared by the administration.
He said the administration’s opponents are advancing “horror stories about extreme regulations the EPA may issue in the future. The EPA is writing a new rule on a clean slate.”
The power plant case has a long and complicated history that begins with the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan. That plan would have required states to reduce emissions from the generation of electricity, mainly by shifting away from coal-fired plants.
But that plan never took effect. Acting in a lawsuit filed by West Virginia and others, the Supreme Court blocked it in 2016 by a 5-4 vote, with conservatives in the majority.
With the plan on hold, the legal fight over it continued. But after President Donald Trump took office, the EPA repealed the Obama-era plan. The agency argued that its authority to reduce carbon emissions was limited and it devised a new plan that sharply reduced the federal government’s role in the issue.
New York, 21 other mainly Democratic states, the District of Columbia and some of the nation’s largest cities sued over the Trump plan. The federal appeals court in Washington ruled against both the repeal and the new plan, and its decision left nothing in effect while the new administration drafted a new policy.
Adding to the unusual nature of the high court’s involvement, the reductions sought in the Obama plan by 2030 already have been achieved through the market-driven closure of hundreds of coal plants.
The Biden administration has no intention of reviving the Clean Power Plan, one reason Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, the administration’s top Supreme Court lawyer, argues the court should dismiss the case.
Some of the nation’s largest electric utilities, serving 40 million people, are supporting the Biden administration along with prominent businesses that include Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Tesla.
With marine heat waves helping to wipe out some of Alaska’s storied salmon runs in recent years, officials have resorted to sending emergency food shipments to affected communities while scientists warn that the industry’s days of traditional harvests may be numbered.
Salmon all but disappeared from the 2,000-mile (3,200-km) Yukon River run last year, as record-high temperatures led to the fish piling up dead in streams and rivers before they were able to spawn. A study published Feb. 15 in the journal Fisheries detailed more than 100 salmon die-offs at freshwater sites around Alaska.
Those losses meant that, even as temperatures were milder in 2021, the Yukon River salmon runs remained so anemic that both Alaska and Canada were forced to halt their salmon harvest to ensure enough fish survived to reproduce for another year.
“Alaska is known for salmon and being cold,” said Vanessa von Biela, a U.S. Geological Survey research biologist and lead author of the study on the 2019 die-offs. Now “we have basically the problems that have been known for a long time at the lower latitudes.”
The collapsed Yukon River salmon harvests delivered financial blows to both commercial fishers and indigenous communities, which traditionally stockpile the fish as a year-round food staple.
Commercially, the river’s salmon fishers altogether earned a mere $51,480 for their 2020 harvest, before the harvest was canceled in 2021. By comparison, they earned $2.5 million in 2019 and $4.67 million in 2018.
Last month, the U.S. commerce secretary declared a disaster for the Yukon River fishery for both years, making federal relief funds available.
The state sent emergency fish shipments last year from the more plentiful salmon in Bristol Bay and elsewhere.
Scientists mostly have blamed ocean warming, with a series of heat waves in the Bering Sea and North Pacific Ocean from 2014 to 2019 affecting salmon living in the sea before their return to spawning grounds.
While the heat waves have passed, their effects have not, said fisheries scientist Katie Howard with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. “We’re still seeing the residual effects,” she told a state legislative committee in Anchorage earlier this month.
Climate change may also be affecting salmon diets, with young salmon possibly filling up on nutrition-poor food like jellyfish as warmer waters in the Bering Sea drive away the more nutritious zooplankton the fish eat normally.
“In my opinion, the salmon are starving with climate change,” said Brooke Woods, the chair of the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission from the Athabascan village of Rampart.
But the impact on freshwater habitats is also getting a closer look.
Previous research led by von Biela on the rivers, streams and lakes where salmon spend their early and late life stages, the team found that Chinook salmon show heat stress at temperatures above 18 Celsius (64.4 Fahrenheit), and start dying above 20C.
Alaskan Yukon water temperatures in the past ranged between 12C and 16C, with Canadian monitoring sites upriver measuring even cooler waters. But in 2019, temperatures on the Alaskan side were above 18C for 44 consecutive days, the February study found.
The warming impact can be muted by climate-driven glacier runoff, which feeds cooler water into rivers and streams.
Scientists expect salmon will gradually shift to new areas within Alaska, with profound effects for people who depend on the fish for their livelihoods, diet and culture.
“Salmon will find a way,” von Biela said. “But it is going to be hard for communities that are in places where there might not be salmon anymore.”
Within the framework of an expanded security council, the governor of Magdalena, Carlos Caicedo, requested the activation of security schemes by the National Protection Unit for candidates who have been threatened in the department.
The departmental president called this meeting, responding to the early warning issued by the Ombudsman about the risk of the elections in several municipalities.
We are working to reduce electoral risks in the department
In addition, there are complaints filed by members of the Citizen Force Movement, as well as the Green Party, Historical Pact and the Pocabuy Country Foundation Social Organization, about damages by organized armed groups.
(See: They denounce that armed groups are forcing people to vote for the son of ‘Jorge 40’)
“We are working to reduce electoral risks in the department, and give full guarantees to all candidates and that the democratic process takes place with all conditions,” said Caicedo.
In the security council, several commitments and actions were defined this week, among which is changing the registrars, given the possibility of a possible fraud due to the relationship and closeness of several officials of these dependencies with candidates.
Likewise, a technical table will be set up to establish criteria that allow defining the points where will use biometrics.
Other steps regarding the situation
Caicedo also proposed a campaign against electoral crimes; advance investigations of the denunciations made by the representatives of the parties and movements, and establish which international missions are going to be present in the Magdalena. To all this is added the request to the National Electoral Council to participate in the committee Electoral follow-up.
(Video: Shocking grenade attack on a store in Soledad)
The governor of Magdalena made a special call to the UNP to attend to the requirements of those candidates who present a situation of risk.
On the other hand, it was determined to summon the Territorial Committee of Public Order to define rewards for those who report electoral crimes; weekly session of the electoral guarantees intelligence board; provision of security and accompaniment by the Magdalena Police to the delegates of the Government in each of the municipalities.
ROGER URIEL Special for WEATHER SANTA MARTA
More news from Colombia
The Eln set fire to a construction material company in Chiriguaná (Cesar)
They denounce that a teacher kicked a dog in front of her students
Four policemen after theft of 22 rifles at the Sucre station are dismissed
you have created your account in EL TIEMPO. Know and personalize your profile.
The verification email will be sent to
Check your inbox and if not, in your spam folder.
NO, CHANGE MAIL YES, SEND
We want you to find the news that interests you the most
Follow your favorite topics in a place exclusive to you.
Remember that to see your songs on all your devices, you must update the El Tiempo App.
discover “my news”
an exclusive place, where you can follow your favorite subjects . choose them!
hello!
Here you can also find “My News” and follow the topics you chose in the APP.
Find out how it works!
the last
The fastest way to get up to date.
my news
An exclusive section where you can follow your songs.
edit favorites
Whenever you want, change the themes you chose.
Your favorite themes have been saved!
you are now following 4 TOPICS
We tell you how it works
THE LAST
The fastest way to get up to date.
MY NEWS
An exclusive section where you can follow your songs.
EDIT FAVORITES
Whenever you want, change the themes you chose.
SEE MY NEWS
I will do it later
Remember that to see your songs on all your devices, you must update the El Tiempo App.
.
Photo:
Fracking Free Colombia Alliance protests.
Ecopetrol says that there are no guarantees for protests that are generated in the place.
Find the validation of El Cazamentiras at the end of the news.
Select the creator of the article in the configuration of this module
s.
Bucaramanga Article publication time
Author’s name Article publication time
BU
February 22, 2022, 12:47 PM
MR
Maria Alejandra Rodriguez Castellanos February 22, 2022, 12:47 PM
The resumption of the public hearing for socialization of the ‘fracking’ pilot project that was taking place in Puerto Wilches, Santander, was temporarily suspended while they moved to another place after protesters arrived at the site.
(You may be interested in: They create a sexual vibrator for the disabled that is operated with the foot)
Ecopetrol reported that they changed the place because “there are no guarantees”, they said from the press area.
“We had some people who entered the site that had been designated and we had to leave there with the Police who accompanied us to the new site. It was a demonstration against the pilot projects and that they did not allow adequate participation,” said Rodrigo Suarez, director of the National Authority for Environmental Licenses.
(Also: The key man in the scandal that splashes Rodolfo Hernández)
About noon the development of the audience continued.
BUCARAMANGA
BU
February 22, 2022, 12:47 PM
MR
Maria Alejandra Rodriguez Castellanos February 22, 2022, 12:47 PM
DOWNLOAD THE WEATHER APP
Personalize, discover and inform yourself.
Receive the best information in your email from national news and the world
In 2006 Planadas, and the south of Tolima in general, went through the bloodiest of an era that whipped the tranquility of the entire country. That same year, then-president Álvaro Uribe declared the municipality a “strategic recovery zone” due to the total power that the insurgency wielded.
The influence of the FARC’s 21st Front in the area was absolute and, at the same time, the anxiety increased, as members of the Dipol, the Sijin and the Army began to carry out covert operations, one of the basic strategies of the counterinsurgency fight. .
Coffee landscape in San Miguel de Planadas.
Photo:
Camilo Jiménez / Supplied Astrid Medina / THE NEW DAY.
In the midst of this turbulent environment there was good news that, for many, opened a path of change: Edith Enciso, from the La Isla farm in the district of Gaitania de Planadas, won the ‘Cup of Excellence’ and the recognition of producing one of the best specialty coffees in Colombia.
Tolima coffee is today known throughout the world for its quality in the cup, which is due to the attributes of its volcanic soils, with characteristics that are highly valued among experts: fruity notes, apricot, peach, among others, which make it much more aromatic.
(Enter the special: United Colombia, where differences can live)
The great advantage of the department is that organic coffee is produced throughout the year, a feature that differentiates it from competitors such as the Sierra Nevada, which harvests only between October and March. Grown mostly on small plots, 96.7% of coffee growers in Tolima are small producers of less than five hectares.
Social change
The department is the third largest producer nationwide, with a market share of 12.8% in 108,141 hectares of different varieties in 38 of the 47 municipalities, according to the National Federation of Coffee Growers. However, coffee in the south has not only been aid and a driver of development, it has also become a symbol of change: “A few years ago, when coffee came in, the poppy came out,” says Ana Jesús Valderrama, a coffee grower from the Vereda Canoas Copete de Ataco and producer of Cafimujer.
There are hundreds of examples of associations, cooperatives, groups, neighbors and friends who see coffee as an opportunity for improvement in this region. “In the south of Tolima, coffee has been a symbol. It occurs among coffee growers, but also among victims, indigenous communities, and ex-combatants. With coffee, the community was integrated, and that is an immense contribution to the construction of peace,” said Carlos Guillermo Ospina, Truth Commissioner who has worked for years in this area of Tolima.
Foreign coffee marketers visit Gaitania.
Photo:
Camilo Jiménez / Supplied Astrid Medina / THE NEW DAY.
ASOPEP is one of the most important associations of coffee producers in southern Tolima. It currently has 349 members, of which 100 are dedicated to cocoa and 249 to coffee production in Planadas, Ataco and Huila. Among the activities they carry out, the headquarters of the association works as a collection center for coffee and cocoa. 1,200,000 kilos of coffee circulate every year. They also act as a bridge to allow the product to be exported: ASOPEP negotiates with the client abroad, sends the coffee to the exporting company and thus closes the deal.
The brand of coffee ‘Third Agreement’, produced by former FARC members of the El Oso Territorial Space for Training and Reincorporation (ETCR), in Planadas, is accompanied by ASOPEP. The association sells them organic coffee and the reincorporated roast it and market it. The first peace agreement was reached in 1996 between the Nasa indigenous people and the FARC, the second was between the National Government and the FARC in 2016. Now, the “third agreement” seeks to be a symbol of the total overcoming of violence.
Reincorporated are part of several production units in the old ETCR of El Oso, in Planadas.
Photo:
Camilo Jiménez / Supplied Astrid Medina / THE NEW DAY.
“Work is now easier. Before, people were afraid to come to this region because of the violence. The foreigners were afraid to come, but now they do it even by land to get to know. There is more trade and things are looking better: you know that coffee makes friends and brings progress”, said Jorge Rojas, physical analyst at ASOPEP. Created 8 years ago, today the association has an 8-hectare farm where they offer coffee growers drying services, a cocoa storage center and a coffee school for children is being built.
Coffee associations have become an option for community cooperation to consolidate the growth of this important economic subsector. It has given many of the small producers the possibility of technifying production and marketing at high levels. Groups of coffee growers such as Acedga or ASOTBILBAO in Gaitania, Asocalarama or the Corporación Agropecuaria Café Hermosas, in Chaparral, Ascafur Coffee Association in Rioblanco, are models of success and overcoming complex stages.
Yorley del Carmen Villalobos is the real name of the villain of ‘Coffee with the aroma of a woman’. The actress assured that her family and lifelong friends call her ‘Yorly’, but when she entered the entertainment world they told her that she had to change it.
“Everyone in my house calls me Yorly. When I started working I was Yorley Villalobos, but people never learned it, they told me: ‘Hello Yerley, hello Yurley,’” he explained.
It was then that director Mario Rivero told him that the best thing he could do was change his name to something easier to remember. “He told me: ‘Don’t you have another name? I feel that people have a hard time’ and I told him ‘Carmen’ and he replied: ‘That’s it! Carmen Villalobos’”, and presto, a star was born.
What happened with Carmen Villalobos shows how people with names that are not common have to deal with the fact that people mispronounce them or find it too difficult to learn them.
See more: This is what Carmen Villalobos looked like at age 16, when she started her career in ‘Club 10’
Instagram: @cvillaloboss
The first name of Carmen Villalobos did not prevent her from succeeding
On the other hand, the actress made the jump to presenter and currently directs a program about women entrepreneurs. Her last role in soap operas was as ‘Lucía’, the antagonist in ‘Café con aroma de mujer’.
“Do you know what I reconfirmed with Lucia? That if we don’t value ourselves and don’t love ourselves, we will end up choosing people who won’t value us either. There is nothing sadder than losing your dignity to make someone else like you. That never ”, she affirmed, when saying goodbye to her character.
Read also: “Are you going to raise them for me?”: Carmen Villalobos responds to those who question her for not having children
Instagram: @cvillaloboss
Currently, ‘Café con aroma de mujer’ remains in the top 10 of Netflix in Latin America as one of the most viewed fictions.
But in her personal life, the actress has had to go through some challenges, such as overcoming COVID-19. She stated on her social networks that she had very strong symptoms, but that she finally managed to recover.
The young designer María Prats has wanted to change the way of seeing the world of epilepsy with a project full of colors with which she wants to demonstrate that “a disability is not an obstacle to achieving dreams”
María Prats is a cheerful and optimistic girl who likes peace and tranquility, virtues that she has reflected in her project ‘Colours. Creativity & Design’.
This young woman is 21 years old and lives in Barcelona. She spent her childhood in the San Joan de Déu hospital after suffering a complicated birth that caused her trauma.
Mary currently lives with refractory epilepsy, a disease of the nervous system that produces brain alterations and that makes it difficult to control through pharmacological treatment.
This problem leads the young woman to live a complicated daily life. Her illness forces her to sleep a minimum of 10 hours a day to be able to face the day to day with energy and, above all, to prevent possible crises.
Within the framework of International Epilepsy Day, EFEsalud spoke with María and her mother, Chus, and also with her doctor and neurologist, María del Mar Carreño. The colors of life
María knew from a very young age that her passion was to paint and create. She has always “expressed herself through colors,” her mother tells us, which is why “we decided to professionalize this profession so that it would become her life project.”
“He wants to fill the world with colors. For Maria colors are synonymous with joy and happiness. Her goal is to be able to pass on this happiness to everyone through her designs »,
Chus account.
Maria Prats.
The young designer has never doubted her abilities, which is why his work is not directed to the approval of his public, but to his own satisfaction to elaborate what for her is “sharing the magic of colors”.
“A disability is not an obstacle to achieving our dreams and being successful. I paint to express my joy of living, sharing the magic of colors is my gift to the world. I can’t change the world, but I can change the way of seeing it.”
Maria shares.
“It is not a mental problem”
The Dr. Mª del Mar Carreño, president of the Spanish Epilepsy Societydescribes Maria as a “compliant, tenacious and very good-natured patient, with her family and with the health personnel”.
He believes that his project “is a benefit for María because it helps her work on attention, creativity and organize her time”.
“The project is very good for the entire community of patients with epilepsy, it gives visibility to the disease and helps reduce stigma”,
says the expert.
The stigma that this disease suffers in society is due to the little knowledge that is had of it, reaching confused with a mental problem.
“I think they don’t understand it and they misunderstand it. Crises are scary and frightening because there is little information, few people know how to act before a person who suffers a seizure, “
tells the young Maria.
Her doctor agrees and reflects that part of this stigma is also due to the fear of the disease, “a problem that limits the patient’s social and work life.”
«To integrate socially we recommend participating in all kinds of activities that encourage contact with other people and where activities that interest them are carried out as long as they do not pose a potential risk. For example, risky sports are contraindicated, but most team sports can be practiced.”
advises the expert in epilepsy.
More inclusion, empathy and self-esteem
María has given us the keys so that her quality of life, as well as that of all patients, can be better.
In inclusion, empathy and self-esteem is the key. Well asks that “they be valued for what they can do and not be treated differently”.
“I always say that I don’t have a disability, I’m lucky to have other abilities and believe in them,”
says the young woman.
“My dream is to be able to create an inclusive space where other young people with other abilities can express themselves and share projects. Together we can do great things and show the world how great we are.”
Designs by Maria Prats.
life with epilepsy
The drug resistance that Maria suffers from in her illness limits much of her daily activity.
Her crises prevent her from being alone since “they need rescue, that’s why there is always someone looking out for me.”
“The worst thing about crises is that they are unpredictable, you never know when or where you might have one,”
says the young designer.
In the case of this young woman’s epilepsy, the treatment includes a combination of drugs that allow her seizures to be controlled.
However, the refractory nature of his epilepsy leads him “often to change some drug to maintain stability.”
“Over time, the body gets used to it and some medications lose their effectiveness, so you have to change your medication, try a new combination and hope it works. This always generates fear and anguish”,
Mary describes.
Therapeutic adherence is essential to control epileptic seizures, as well as “avoiding those factors that can worsen them, such as lack of sleep, excessive stress, or alcohol and drug use“, advises the neurologist.
The evolution of pharmacology in epilepsy has made it possible to reduce serious side effects in the short and long term and to complement other existing medicines.
In fact, “for patients in whom medicines do not work, there are alternatives such as surgery, certain diets or brain stimulation with devices.”
In uncontrollable cases…
There are many types of epilepsy. When the disease is controlled, the chances of having an education and working and social life is comparable to people who do not have epilepsy.
In the case of uncontrolled crises, which continue despite the correct medication or in addition to epilepsy they suffer from an intellectual disability, the “special needs are not always covered”.
“In general, you have access to special education, but the situation is quite complicated to get a job. I believe that more resources should be developed in this field, such as having more places in companies for people with disabilities and more occupational centers”,
claims the expert in neurology.
It could be epilepsy and you don’t know it
This disease, like others, can be misdiagnosed. Epilepsy can be confused with “vasovagal or cardiac syncope and with psychogenic crises,” explains Dr. Carreño.
“There are many diseases that can give similar symptoms, such as migraine, metabolic disorders or transient vascular accidents,”
The fashion industry has always had a relationship with some forms of social activism. But all too often the industry is also seen as one of excess and consumerism gone wild. That could change if New York’s Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act – or FSSAA – becomes law. Nina Vishneva has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera – Vladimir Badikov.
The future of the Winter Olympics is under threat because of climate change, according to a new report from Britain’s Loughborough University.
The warning comes as Beijing prepares for the opening of the 2022 Games this week, the first time a city has hosted both the summer and winter events. It also will be the first Winter Olympics to use almost 100% artificial snow, with more than 100 snow generators and 300 snow-cannons working to cover the slopes.
Artificial snow
Zhangjiakou, which lies 200 kilometers northwest of Beijing, will host freestyle skiing and snowboarding, cross-country skiing and ski jumping. Despite the bitter cold – temperatures reached minus 17 degrees Celsius this week – it rarely snows.
Olympic site manager Jacques Fournier is in charge of the snow machines. “Here has no humidity, and it’s very dry, and there’s a lot of wind,” Fournier told Reuters. “So, in that kind of condition, the goal and the target is really to make the snow compact, and to prepare rapidly to not let it [be blown away] by the wind.”
Inherent dangers
Winter resorts have increasingly turned to artificial snow to make up for a lack of natural snowfall. However, a new report from Britain’s Loughborough University warns that athletes’ safety could be at risk.
“In sports like biathlon or cross-country skiing or any of the freestyle events where an athlete is flinging themself into the air flipping around and falling, you would want the surface to be a little softer. And the problem with artificial snow is that it’s about 70% ice, compared to natural snow which is about 30% ice. And so, the surface is much, much harder,” said report co-author Madeleine Orr, a sports ecologist at Loughborough University, in an interview with VOA.
Snow-melt
American snowboarder Taylor Gold is preparing for Beijing. During his first Winter Olympics, in the Russian resort of Sochi in 2014, he recalls the halfpipe melting.
“They were spraying some chemicals on it to try to get it to stay in shape. But if you go back and watch that event, it’s clear, it was really warm. It was not ideal for snowboarding,” Gold recently told Associated Press. “It makes me sad that we need so much man-made snow to sustain winter sports,” he added.
A worker shovels snow in preparation for freestyle ski and snowboard events at Genting Snow Park prior to the 2022 Winter Olympics, in Zhangjiakou, China, Jan. 31, 2022.
American downhill skier Lindsey Vonn, who won three Olympic golds until her retirement in 2019, has trained and competed all over the world. She says snow is becoming harder to track down. “You go to South America, where we use to train every summer, August, September. They’ve had no snow for several years in a row, like none,” Vonn told the Associated Press.
Unsuitable climates
Critics say the climates of both Sochi and Beijing are unsuitable to host the Winter Olympics. But even high altitude, mountain ski resorts that have traditionally hosted the games are at risk because of climate change.
“The northeast of the U.S. for example, and eastern Canada – we are losing significant amounts of snow there,” says Orr. “And then in places like the Rockies and the [European] Alps, we just don’t have quite as much as we used to. So, the challenge moving forward is going to be where can we put these events. And with the Winter Olympics, we’re already kind of there.”
Environmental damage
Orr says artificial snow also causes environmental damage.
“When you put artificial snow in a place that doesn’t have any natural snow at all, like Beijing, you’re putting a whole lot of water into a place where that soil and those plants are not expecting it. And previous research has shown that that can be damaging to local wildlife.”
“But we also expect that when you’re creating that much snow, the energy usage is extraordinary. The amount of water is extraordinary. In this Olympics we’re expecting 49 million gallons [185 million liters] of water to be used – and that’s if things go well. So, if they have a few hot days and need to create a little bit of extra snow to make up and compensate for some melt during the games, we could see that number rise above 50 million gallons [189 million liters],” Orr told VOA.
Carbon-neutral Olympics
The Chinese organizers insist the games will be carbon neutral. All venues are expected to be powered by renewable energy. Ice rinks will use natural CO2 technology for cooling, instead of ozone-damaging hydrofluorocarbons. The organizers say the latest snow machines use 20% less water.
Some athletes prefer artificial snow. “The snow is actually amazing, the man-made stuff. I think because of how cold it is, you have to be really aggressive with how you ride, but you just have to adapt,” said Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, a downhill snowboarder competing for New Zealand at the Beijing Games.
Olympic organizers also will have to adapt. The Loughborough University report warns that by 2050, fewer than half of the resorts that have hosted the Winter Olympics until now will have viable snowfall.
As Beijing prepares for the opening of the Winter Olympics this week, scientists are warning that the future of the games is under threat – because of climate change. Henry Ridgwell reports. Producer: Marcus Harton
Punta Arenas, Chile, Jan 24 (EFE).- Punta Arenas, a city on the Strait of Magellan in the far south of Chile, used to be a contributor to rising global temperatures due to its coal mining fields.
But today, thanks to the development of green hydrogen plants and sensors to detect global warming, it has become a natural laboratory to combat climate change as part of a project by the International Antarctic Center.
“Magellan is a place where the past, present and future of scientific research on issues such as climate change, biodiversity and sustainable economy meet,” Chile’s minister of science, technology and innovation, Andrés Couve, tells Efe.
As well as being a gateway to Antarctica, Magellan’s rich biodiversity makes it the ideal place for scientists.
Cetaceans, penguins, pumas and a myriad of microscopic life make up its landscape, attracting experts from all over the world.
“It is a pristine ecosystem, the only place in the world without stressors for fauna and flora such as pollution, over-exploitation of soil or the massive use of pesticides,” says Elie Poulin, a French researcher at the Millennium Institute for Biodiversity of Antarctic Ecosystems.
The area’s biodiversity is being used to anticipate global warming in a pioneering research on the only colony of King penguins on the American continent, in Tierra del Fuego, south of Punta Arenas.
“Magellan is an extraordinary geographical experiment where the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean and the Antarctic Ocean meet, but at the same time it is a very fragile place that is susceptible to climate change,” Valeria Souza, a biologist from the National Autonomous University of Mexico and leader of the study, tells Efe.
Souza analyzes the microbes that live on the feathers of the King penguins.
“The microbes react to changes in the temperature and salinity before the animals themselves. In this way, they warn us of signs of climate change before the rest of us can feel them,” she says.
The strong winds of Chilean Patagonia are another ingredient that is guiding the region to become a forerunner in the fight against climate change.
With wind speeds of over 90 kilometers per hour, the currents are an ideal source of clean green hydrogen and wind power.
Latin America’s largest green hydrogen fuel plant is currently being built near Punta Arenas, aiming to produce 130,000 liters of green fuel per year.
“We have all the ingredients to make this country a leading producer of green hydrogen worldwide and an engine to curb climate change,” Chile’s minister of energy and mining, Juan Carlos Jobet, said. EFE
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the ball is now in Russia’s court after the U.S. hand delivered its written response to Moscow’s stated security concerns over NATO and Ukraine. As VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports, Blinken made clear there will be no change to NATO’s open-door policy to new members, as Russia had demanded. Producer: Kimberlyn Weeks
The Ministry of Health plans to change the current model of epidemiological surveillance, of control of the pandemic in Spain, once the sixth wave is overcome, which this week has entered a “gentle decline”. This has been stated by the head of the department, Carolina Darias, who has indicated that home quarantines due to covid will continue to be, for the time being, seven days.
The Minister of Health, Carolina Darias (l), together with the director of the Center for the Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies of the Ministry of Health, Fernando Simón (2l), during the meeting of the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System. EFE / Borja Puig De La Bellacasa / Pool Moncloa
After the meeting this afternoon of the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System, the Minister of Health highlighted at a press conference that a transition is opening towards “a new surveillance model” of the pandemic but “not before the end of the sixth wave Calmly and cautiously.”
The progressive change in the epidemiological situation, with more infections but mild in most cases due to both the characteristics of the omicron variant and the high vaccination rate, lead to the proposal of a new counting system in line with the experts and in national and international co-governance.
Darias has specified that the probability of hospitalization has been reduced 7 times in this wave compared to the third just a year ago, going from 6.5% to 0.9%, while ICU occupancy has dropped from 40 % to 22% current.
Asked about the approach of Castilla-La Mancha, Madrid, the Valencian Community and Galicia to reduce home quarantines due to covid from 7 to 4 or 5 days, the minister indicated that at the meeting only one counselor raised it as a possibility to study .
“This is an issue that is still immature, we must be very aware of the situation we are in,” he pointed out.
The current maximum capacity for sporting events is also maintained: 75% outdoors and 50% indoors.
New drop in incidence
The cumulative incidence at 14 days has dropped for the third day in a row, 73 points from yesterday to 3,194 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
“A slight decline in the last week after eleven consecutive weeks of growth,” the minister pointed out.
By age groups, the incidence is low in all groups except in those under 11 years of age, in the process of being vaccinated, with an incidence of 5,666 cases/100,000.
The Ministry of Health It has notified 133,553 more cases this Wednesday (114,877 yesterday), of which 52,034 have a diagnosis date of Tuesday and a cumulative of 9,529,320.
The positivity rate of diagnostic tests, 37.75%, continues to decline this week.
Deaths, 215 more
After the maximum of 382 deaths reported yesterday, a figure that had not been reached since February 2021 in the fall of the third wave, 215 more were added this Wednesday.
With a date of death in the last 7 days there are 757 deaths and 92,591 since there are records of deaths certified by tests in the pandemic in Spain. The global lethality is 1%.
decline in hospitals
The total number of patients admitted to hospitals (ward and ICU) is 18,805, 329 less than yesterday, 15.06% bed occupancy (15.47% yesterday).
In the ucis there are 2,152 covid patients, 52 less than yesterday, who occupy 22.74% of the beds after more than two weeks above 23%.
Catalonia continues to lead the occupation with 41%, while Aragon and Melilla are above 30%.
Spain has a notification of an omicron sublineage
Ómicron continues to gain space and occupies 86% of the sequenced samples; in our country and in the rest of the world, the minister explained; BA.1 is the dominant sublineage.
Spain has only one notification of the BA.1 sublineage, which is currently of concern in Denmark, Sweden and India and which the WHO has asked to monitor, counting on the time lag of between 2 and 3 weeks that exists and the sequencing that confirms it.
Regarding this sublineage, “the information we have from Denmark is that it does not seem, said with all caution, that it behaves very differently from BA.1”, although Health will be “very attentive” to its evolution, Darias has guaranteed. .
