Science & Environment

[spaminator]

Disaster risk profile warns Canada ill-prepared for major earthquake
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Mia Rabson
Published May 11, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 3 minute read

OTTAWA — The first draft of a new national disaster risk assessment report warns that a major earthquake in British Columbia or parts of Ontario and Quebec could swiftly become the most costly natural disaster Canada has seen.


The national risk profile published Thursday morning is the government’s first attempt to identify the biggest threats Canada faces from natural disasters and to find ways to limit the possible damage.


“It’s kind of like driving down the highway, and this is our attempt to illuminate — to turn the lights on and illuminate further down the road so that people can anticipate hazards,” said Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair at a news conference.

This first report is addressing floods, fires and earthquakes. Extreme heat and hurricanes will come in the next version.

And at the moment, even though floods and fires have become annual problems in much of the country the Canadian public seems ill-informed and ill-prepared for the growing risks of natural disasters.


There are also major gaps in government planning, limited knowledge of what mitigation measures will work best, and problems co-ordinating between levels of government when disaster strikes.

The report said that in 2021, a public opinion survey found three-quarters of Canadians felt they lived in low- or moderate-risk areas for natural disasters, and all but a small portion of the rest said they had no idea what their risk level was.

Further, only one in 10 Canadians had done anything to reduce the risk a weather-related emergency posed to their home.

Earthquakes are rarer in Canada than flooding and wildfires, but when a big one hits the damage will be far greater.

British Columbia is at risk for an earthquake of up to a 9.0 magnitude. For comparison, the quake that hit Turkey and Syria in February was a 7.8. It was a 9.0 magnitude earthquake in Japan that triggered a 15-metre tsunami in 2011, disabling the power supply and cooling systems at a nuclear power plant.


The Insurance Bureau of Canada said in the report that damages from a 9.0 quake in B.C. could top $75 billion. To date, the costliest natural disaster in Canada was the 2017 wildfire in Fort McMurray, Alta., which resulted in about $10 billion in losses.

Quebec has two seismic zones, and while resulting earthquakes aren’t likely to have as high a magnitude as those in B.C., the insurance bureau estimates a major quake there could cause up to $61 billion in losses. The Charlevoix Seismic Zone in northeastern Quebec has had a least five earthquakes greater than 6.0 magnitude in the last four centuries.

“Expected losses from a 1-in-500 year earthquake in the Charlevoix Seismic Zone or on Canada’s West Coast would be higher than any natural hazard the country has experienced,” the report said.


What raises the earthquake risk even more is that the zones will touch on many of Canada’s most populated cities — Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Quebec City.

Because of the geology of the Quebec-Ontario region, and the fact many of the buildings in parts of those cities were built before building codes included earthquake preparedness, a smaller quake can do greater damage.

Canada is planning to launch an early-warning system for earthquakes next year, which can give precious seconds of time to those who are not at the immediate epicentre to get to safety before serious shaking begins.

Blair said there are also efforts to provide modern flood maps that are better indicators of which homes or businesses face the biggest risk from flooding. The budget in March also promised $15.3 million to create an online portal where Canadians can access information on their property.

He said there are some efforts underway to do mapping for fire risk, too.

Blair said severe events have been increasing in frequency and severity, and officials must reflect on what might be coming to make sure the country is prepared.

He said the findings of the report show the need to make “significant investment, for example in certain types of critical infrastructure, to prevent these types of events.”

Disaster risk profile warns Canada ill-prepared for major earthquake

The first draft of a new national disaster risk assessment report warns that a major earthquake could become most costly disaster in Canada.

torontosun.com

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

So borrow some more money. I'm sure the Chinese have more to lend.

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

Speaking of Science and the Environment. . .

Have we given up completely on solar power satellites? Seems like they should be moving from the realm of science fiction into simple engineering at about this point.

 

[spaminator]

Grade 7 Richmond student left partly blind by science experiment gone wrong
Family seeks damages from school board in lawsuit

Author of the article:Susan Lazaruk
Published May 12, 2023 • 1 minute read

The family of an elementary school student who lost part of her eyesight after a large water bottle pumped with high-pressure air hit her in the face during a science project is suing her teacher and the Richmond school board.


Katie Mui, who is now 13, is seeking unspecified damages, including for care and services from her family and lost future income, for the injuries she suffered in the accident on Nov. 8, 2022, on the school grounds of Jessie Wowk elementary in Richmond.


The students pressurized a two-litre water bottle using a bicycle pump “such that it would become a rocket propelled object and fire up to 50 feet in the air at high speed,” according to a notice of civil claim filed by her father, Kei Shun (Keson) Mui, in B.C. Supreme Court.

“The plaintiff was holding a two-litre bottle of water when it accidentally launched directly into her face,” it said.

Katie, then 12 and in Grade 7, suffered “retinal detachment of the left eye” and “partial blindness,” as well as pain and discomfort and psychological harm, according to the writ.


The lawsuit alleges that the defendant, Grade 7 teacher Orson Woo, also known as Orson Jan-Ling Woo, was negligent and that negligence caused the injuries and the school board is liable as Woo’s employer.

“The defendant, Mr. Woo, was not supervising the plaintiff or her classmates while the experiment was occurring or before the accident occurred,” the writ said.

The lawsuit said the negligence included allowing the student to conduct the experiment without proper instructions, safety equipment and etiquette, teacher supervision or parental consent.

The notice of claim also said the defendants failed to “seek timely medical intervention” for Katie and failed to properly inform her parents “of the true nature of the injuries.”

The school board has yet to file a response. None of the allegations have been proven in court.

Grade 7 Richmond student left partly blind by science experiment gone wrong

The girl and her family are alleging the teacher's negligence caused her injuries, which include the retina in her left eye detaching and causing partial blindness

torontosun.com

 

[spaminator]

He defied Alzheimer's for two decades. Scientists want to know how.
Author of the article:Carolyn Y. Johnson, Washington Post
Published May 15, 2023 • 5 minute read
The patient had been born with a particularly sinister gene mutation that should have doomed him to dementia before his 50th birthday.
Brain scans of a man from Colombia show limited buildup of tau protein in his entorhinal cortex, a region that is characteristically affected in the early clinical stages of Alzheimer’s disease. (Yakeel T. Quiroz, Justin Sanchez/Massachusetts General Hospital)
When a Colombian man was first evaluated by neurologists at age 67, he was cognitively normal, and neither he nor his family had concerns about his memory. So scientists began to follow his extraordinary case closely.


The patient — a mechanic who was a husband and father of two — had been born with a particularly sinister gene mutation that should have doomed him to dementia before his 50th birthday.


Instead, his life had been one of remarkable resilience, bucking the script written in his genes. The cognitive impairment that should have started at age 44 stayed at bay for more than two decades. Rather than dying in his early 60s, he retired. He did eventually develop moderate dementia, and he passed away in 2019 at the age of 74.

This man is only the second patient identified with the miraculous ability to defy the devastating Alzheimer’s gene, an international team of scientists reported in the journal Nature Medicine. Doctors hope the two known cases will allow researchers to develop new treatments to protect other people with Alzheimer’s disease, which affects 6.7 million people in the United States.


The researchers sifted through the man’s genome to identify a different mutation that may have helped protect him against the disease. They also used brain scans taken when he was 73 to home in on a key region that appears to have been relatively protected against the tau protein tangles that typically occur in Alzheimer’s patients.

“I think it’s important that we listen to the patients. And I think what the patients are telling us is . . . there is a pathway for protection,” said Joseph F. Arboleda-Velasquez, an associate scientist at Mass Eye and Ear, a Harvard teaching hospital, and one of the leaders of the study.

“These are very provocative findings, and I do think these cases have something very important to teach us about resilience to disease and the biology” of Alzheimer’s, said Gil Rabinovici, a neurologist at the University of California at San Francisco, who was not involved in the study.


“I think this raises a number of interesting questions. I don’t know that we have the answers.”

A genetic time bomb

For decades, neurologist Francisco Lopera at the University of Antioquia in Medellín, Colombia, has been caring for and following an extended family, many of whose members carry a tragically unlucky mutation in a gene called presenilin 1. The mutation is rare, and its effects are aggressive and predictable.

By their late 20s, people who carry the mutation have brains clogged with the hallmark amyloid plaques that characterize Alzheimer’s disease. By their mid 30s, tangles of a different protein associated with Alzheimer’s, tau, appear.

People carrying this gene begin to experience the first inklings of cognitive problems around age 44, and by 49, they have full-blown dementia. They typically die in their 60s.


In total, scientists have discovered 1,200 people out of an extended family of more than 6,000 carrying this genetic time bomb.

Yakeel T. Quiroz, director of the Familial Dementia Neuroimaging Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital, has worked with Lopera and these patients for 20 years.

“You meet them before they have symptoms, and you see them progress,” Quiroz said. “You get to stay around and see how they become severely demented — and how they die. There’s nothing you can do to stop it.”

But in 2019, researchers discovered a single patient, Aliria Rosa Piedrahita de Villegas, who seemed to have fended off fate.

Her memory didn’t start to decline until she was in her 70s. Scientists discovered a genetic mutation that protected her, nicknamed Christchurch. Although her brain was clogged with the characteristic amyloid plaques of Alzheimer’s, it was relatively free of the tangles of tau that are also associated with the disease.


Scientists marvelled at the case, but also debated its relevance. This was only one person. Was it an aberration, or a path to follow? What could this one person reveal about how to fight Alzheimer’s in the broader population?

A tangled target for Alzheimer’s drugs

The discovery of a second person with genetic resilience validates the quest, but also deepens the mystery.

The man, whose identity is anonymous at his family’s request, doesn’t have the Christchurch gene variant. He appears to have been protected due to a mutation in a different gene called reelin.

What’s more, both patients had brains riddled with amyloid plaques, which have so far been a key target in therapies for Alzheimer’s.

Recently, drugs aimed at clearing amyloid plaques have been approved in the United States — the first beacons of hope in decades. But these drugs are far from a cure. They aim to slow the progression of the disease, but have fostered debate and criticism over whether modest benefits outweigh their risks and costs.


The woman’s lack of tau tangles supported an alternate avenue for therapeutics. When the man travelled to Massachusetts to have his brain scanned at age 73, researchers found that he had both amyloid plaques and tau tangles associated with Alzheimer’s disease. But crucially, tau was relatively limited in his entorhinal cortex, which is essential for memory.

“The possibility that just by protecting the entorhinal cortex, even if you have a lot of Alzheimer’s pathology elsewhere, you can have that protection? Wouldn’t that be amazing. That’s what’s very tantalizing,” Arboleda-Velasquez said.

Scientists, including those involved in the research, cautioned that the study is far from a definitive explanation of why the man’s memory was protected for years. There could be multiple contributors, rather than a single explanation.


But the possibility that a person could have a high level of protection against decline, even with a brain that is substantially affected by amyloid and tau buildup, is “intriguing,” said Inmaculada Cuchillo Ibanez, a neuroscientist at the Institute of Neurosciences at Miguel Hernández University in Alicante, Spain. She has studied the reelin protein in the brains of people with more common forms of Alzheimer’s disease.

“This suggests that this . . . could be critical in protecting against cognitive impairment,” Cuchillo Ibanez wrote in an email.

The researchers did find an overlap between the two different gene mutations that helped protect these individuals: Both mutations affect proteins that bind to the same receptors on the surfaces of brain cells. The scientists also found mice that are genetically predisposed to develop tau tangles in their brains were less likely to do so when they carried the reelin gene mutation found in the man.


Understanding the possible biochemical pathways that produced protection opens up new approaches for drug development, the researchers said.

Quiroz said the man’s family members were excited that something useful had been learned from his case. Patients and researchers are both aware that the disease moves so quickly that discoveries may only benefit future generations. But Lopera said in an email that these exceptional cases point the way forward.

The two cases, he wrote, “have enormous potential to benefit the entire world population with or at risk of Alzheimer’s disease because they are showing a path to prevention and cure.”

He defied Alzheimer's for two decades. Scientists want to know how.

The patient had been born with a particularly sinister gene mutation that should have doomed him to dementia before his 50th birthday.

torontosun.com

 

[spaminator]

Ontario water, air quality a concern, auditor general says in report
The report says 60 per cent of monitored rivers and streams rate poor for biological health.

Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Liam Casey
Published May 16, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 3 minute read

TORONTO — Deforestation, contaminated air, polluted water and the loss of wetlands are a growing concern, Ontario’s auditor general concluded in a “state of the environment report” released Tuesday.


Bonnie Lysyk also said Ontario’s environment has improved in many areas over the last several decades.


Yet she found the Doug Ford government is not providing clear and transparent information on how its policy decisions are affecting the environment.

“While the province has the primary responsibility to conserve the environment, all Ontarians should have the means to understand whether this is being achieved in an effective, timely, open, and fair manner,” she said.

“Unless the environmental outcomes of provincial decisions and programs are effectively measured, monitored, and publicly reported, there will be limited transparency, accountability, and understanding of their impacts.”

Lysyk authored the report along with the province’s Commissioner of the Environment, Tyler Schulz. Lysyk said they performed the analysis because the province does not consolidate information to provide an “easily accessible holistic picture of Ontario’s environment.”


The pair took a long view, going back decades and found “many ways” in which the environment has improved during that time.

For example, Ontario’s air quality has “improved dramatically” over the past few decades primarily due to improved pollution control equipment for cars and industry and the phase-out of coal-fired electricity between 2005 and 2014.

But they also flagged numerous concerns.

Ground-level ozone, which can trigger asthma and other breathing issues, has increased by 23 per cent between 1990 and 2019, the report said. Air pollution still causes an estimated 6,580 premature deaths across the province and more than 4,000 hospital admissions and visits per year.

A warming climate from increased global greenhouse gas emissions has affected the province in several different ways, the report found.


“The long-term trend shows a clear gradual increase in Ontario surface air temperature,” Schulz said.

“The number of weather related disasters such as severe rain or ice storms has grown over the past 100 years from almost one per year in the early 1900s to an annual average of about three since the year 2000.”

Ice cover on the Great Lakes is 26 per cent lower than it was 50 years ago, the report found.

“And Ontario’s growing season has lengthened by about 13 days from 1950 to 2018,” Schulz said.

There are increased algae blooms in Lake Erie and rising levels of microplastics in Lake Ontario.

Dissolved oxygen levels, important for aquatic organisms such as fish, are improving in Lake Simcoe, but do not meet the environment minister’s targets.


The report said 60 per cent of monitored rivers and streams rate “poor” to “very poor” for biological health.

Ontario’s current landfill capacity will fill up in 13 years, the report notes. Population growth, increased levels of consumption and the rise of single-use items have contributed to the problem.

The province had 35 million hectares of wetlands remaining as of 2011, the report noted.

In 2017, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry set targets to stop the loss of wetlands by 2025 and achieve a net gain by 2030.

“However, the ministry has not tracked the status of progress in meeting these targets,” the report said. “The Ministry informed our office in August 2021 that the targets are no longer in effect.”


The report also found the number of hectares lost to deforestation every year is nearly four times greater than the number of hectares of newly established forests.

The province has also not met its biodiversity target, which was set in 2011 to conserve 17 per cent of land and water systems by 2020. As of last year, about 11 per cent of Ontario’s land and water area was being conserved through about 1,400 protected and conserved areas, the report said.

Environment Minister David Piccini defended the government’s action.

“I’m proud of our government’s track record when it comes to protected areas,” he said, saying they’ve protected more than 160,000 hectares of land.

He said they’ve also expanded the wetlands across the province.

“What concerns me is how do we remain a competitive climate in which we take meaningful action on the environment and attract jobs,” Piccini said, “and Premier Ford is doing just that.”

Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said he’s worried about the loss of wetlands and forests and not protecting swaths of land as previously promised.

“When you’re seeing an increasing severity and frequency of extreme weather events, we need to be expanding wetlands and expanding protected areas instead of losing them,” he said.

Ontario water, air quality a concern, auditor general says in report

The report says increasing algae blooms in Lake Erie and rising levels of microplastics in Lake Ontario are a growing concern.

torontosun.com

 

[spaminator]

Don’t use artificial sweeteners for weight loss: WHO
Author of the article:Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Emma Court and Thomas Mulier
Published May 16, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 2 minute read

(Bloomberg) — Artificial sweeteners may not help people lose weight, the World Health Organization said in new guidelines that warned against products like diet sodas.


The WHO’s advice is based on a scientific review that found products containing aspartame and stevia — often marketed as diet foods — likely don’t help reduce body fat in the long term.


“People should reduce the sweetness of the diet altogether,” Francesco Branca, WHO director for nutrition and food safety, said Monday.

Artificial sweeteners were also linked with higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, as well as of dying, according to the WHO.

The new guidance applies to all non-sugar sweeteners, including stevia derivatives and sucralose. Such products have become widely used and are commonly added to processed foods and beverages, like diet soda, or sold on their own.

‘Not Essential’

Artificial sweeteners “are not essential dietary factors and have no nutritional value,” Branca said. They are also often used to replace sugar in highly processed foods and drinks, and therefore may encourage low-quality diets.

Popular consumer products like Diet Coke and Diet Snapple, rebranded last year to Zero Sugar Snapple, contain aspartame. Keurig Dr Pepper Inc., the maker of Snapple, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The Coca-Cola Co. referred Bloomberg to a statement from the Calorie Control Council that called artificial sweeteners “a critical tool that can help consumers manage body weight and reduce the risk of non-communicable diseases.”

The International Sweeteners Association, another industry group, said in a statement that it’s “disappointed that the WHO’s conclusions are largely based on low certainty evidence from observational studies.” Observational studies often don’t have safeguards like comparison groups, which can introduce bias into findings.

The new recommendation applies to everyone except those who already have diabetes, the WHO said. The agency issued a draft guideline against sweeteners in July last year, and opened it up to a public consultation.

The WHO has previously advised adults and kids to limit their sugar intake to 10% of total energy consumption, highlighting the connection between less sugar intake and lower body weight.

Don’t use artificial sweeteners for weight loss: WHO

Artificial sweeteners may not help people lose weight, the World Health Organization said in new guidelines.

torontosun.com

 

[55Mercury]

WHO you gonna believe?

now there's a laugh and a half!

 

[petros]

Sweeeeeet

 

[spaminator]

Genome data sheds light on how Homo sapiens arose in Africa
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Will Dunham
Published May 18, 2023 • 3 minute read
The photo shows the skulls of the Homo neanderthalensis (left) and the Homo sapiens on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
The photo shows the skulls of the Homo neanderthalensis (left) and the Homo sapiens on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. PHOTO BY MANDEL NGAN /AFP/Getty Images
WASHINGTON — Our species arose in Africa more than 300,000 years ago, with the oldest-known Homo sapiens fossils discovered at a site in Morocco called Jebel Irhoud, located between Marrakech and the Atlantic coast.


But the scarcity of Homo sapiens fossils from early in our evolutionary history and the geographical spread of those remains in Africa in places like Ethiopia and South Africa have made it difficult to piece together how our species emerged and dispersed across the continent before trekking worldwide. A new study tapping into genome data from modern-day African populations is offering insight into how this may have unfolded.


The research indicated that multiple ancestral groups from across Africa contributed to the emergence of Homo sapiens in a patchwork manner, migrating from one region to another and mixing with one another over hundreds of thousands of years. It also found that everyone alive today can trace their ancestry to at least two distinct populations that were present in Africa dating back about a million years.


The findings did not support a longstanding hypothesis that a single region in Africa gave rise to Homo sapiens or a scenario involving mixture with an unidentified closely related species in the human evolutionary lineage within Africa.

A composite reconstruction of the earliest known Homo sapiens fossils from Jebel Irhoud in Morocco, based on micro computed tomographic scans of multiple original fossils, is shown in this undated handout photo obtained by Reuters June 7, 2017.
A composite reconstruction of the earliest known Homo sapiens fossils from Jebel Irhoud in Morocco, based on micro computed tomographic scans of multiple original fossils, is shown in this undated handout photo obtained by Reuters June 7, 2017. PHOTO BY PHILIPP GUNZ, MPI EVA LEIPZIG /Handout via REUTERS
“All humans share relatively recent common ancestry, but the story in the deeper past is more complicated than our species evolving in just a single location or in isolation,” said University of Wisconsin-Madison population geneticist Aaron Ragsdale, lead author of the study published this week in the journal Nature.

The ancestral groups were likely spread across a geographic landscape in a population structure that, Ragsdale said, “was ‘weak,’ meaning that there was ongoing or at least recurrent migration between groups, and this maintained genetic similarity across ancestral populations.”


Because of the paucity of fossil remains and archaeological evidence, the researchers turned to genome data from living people to find clues about the past. They examined genome data from 290 people, mostly from four geographically and genetically diverse African peoples, to trace the similarities and differences between the populations and identify genetic interconnections over hundreds of thousands of years.

These included: 85 individuals from a West African group called the Mende from Sierra Leone; 44 individuals from the Nama Khoe-San group from southern Africa; 46 individuals from the Amhara and Oromo groups in Ethiopia; and 23 individuals from the Gumuz group, also from Ethiopia. Genome data also was examined from 91 Europeans to account for post-colonial era influence and from a Neanderthal, the extinct human species that was concentrated in Europe until about 40,000 years ago.


The fossil record is scanty in the time period that would be most informative about the emergence and spread of Homo sapiens, and there is no ancient DNA from skeletal or dental remains from these time periods, the researchers said.

“While we find evidence of anatomically modern human remains and artifacts in different parts of Africa, they are so sparse in space and time that it is difficult to understand their relationships with each other, and with us,” said study geneticist and study co-author Simon Gravel of McGill University in Montreal. “Were they related to each other? Are they related to our ancestors, or were they local populations who went extinct?”

“Genetic data was inherited from a continuous chain of transmissions dating back to well before the origins of modern humans. The relatedness among contemporary humans contains a lot of information about this chain of events,” Gravel added. “By building models of how these transmissions occurred, we can test detailed models that relate past populations to present-day populations.”

Genome data sheds light on how Homo sapiens arose in Africa

Our species arose in Africa more than 300,000 years ago, with the oldest-known Homo sapiens fossils discovered at a site in Morocco.

torontosun.com

 

[petros]

Maybe just maybe fossils preserve better in Africa than in Europe or Asia?

 

[Taxslave2]

Don’t use artificial sweeteners for weight loss: WHO
Author of the article:Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Emma Court and Thomas Mulier
Published May 16, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 2 minute read

(Bloomberg) — Artificial sweeteners may not help people lose weight, the World Health Organization said in new guidelines that warned against products like diet sodas.


The WHO’s advice is based on a scientific review that found products containing aspartame and stevia — often marketed as diet foods — likely don’t help reduce body fat in the long term.


“People should reduce the sweetness of the diet altogether,” Francesco Branca, WHO director for nutrition and food safety, said Monday.

Artificial sweeteners were also linked with higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, as well as of dying, according to the WHO.

The new guidance applies to all non-sugar sweeteners, including stevia derivatives and sucralose. Such products have become widely used and are commonly added to processed foods and beverages, like diet soda, or sold on their own.

‘Not Essential’

Artificial sweeteners “are not essential dietary factors and have no nutritional value,” Branca said. They are also often used to replace sugar in highly processed foods and drinks, and therefore may encourage low-quality diets.

Popular consumer products like Diet Coke and Diet Snapple, rebranded last year to Zero Sugar Snapple, contain aspartame. Keurig Dr Pepper Inc., the maker of Snapple, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The Coca-Cola Co. referred Bloomberg to a statement from the Calorie Control Council that called artificial sweeteners “a critical tool that can help consumers manage body weight and reduce the risk of non-communicable diseases.”

The International Sweeteners Association, another industry group, said in a statement that it’s “disappointed that the WHO’s conclusions are largely based on low certainty evidence from observational studies.” Observational studies often don’t have safeguards like comparison groups, which can introduce bias into findings.

The new recommendation applies to everyone except those who already have diabetes, the WHO said. The agency issued a draft guideline against sweeteners in July last year, and opened it up to a public consultation.

The WHO has previously advised adults and kids to limit their sugar intake to 10% of total energy consumption, highlighting the connection between less sugar intake and lower body weight.

Don’t use artificial sweeteners for weight loss: WHO

Artificial sweeteners may not help people lose weight, the World Health Organization said in new guidelines.

torontosun.com

Obviously the WHO has an interest in sugar cane production. The fact that Stevia is lumped in with artificial sweeteners proves it is not about better health, but to protect a certain industry.

 

[petros]

Stevia aint good for you. Nothing sweet is good for you.

 

[spaminator]

Volcanic ash from Popocatepetl temporarily shuts down Mexico City airports
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Published May 20, 2023 • 1 minute read
A plume of ash and steam rises from the Popocatepetl volcano, as seen from Mexico City, Wednesday, June 19, 2019.
A plume of ash and steam rises from the Popocatepetl volcano, as seen from Mexico City, Wednesday, June 19, 2019. PHOTO BY MARCO UGARTE /THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MEXICO CITY — Mexico City’s two main airports temporarily shut down operations on Saturday due to ash spewing from Popocatepetl volcano, located 45 miles (72 kilometres) southeast of the country’s capital.


The city’s Benito Juarez International airport suspended operations at 4:25 a.m. local time. It resumed operations at 10 a.m., after removing volcanic ashes, checking the runways and verifying favorable wind conditions, the airport said on Twitter.


The new Felipe Angeles airport, located north of Mexico City and operated by the military, shut down operations around 6 a.m., and service was suspended for five hours.

Volcanic ashes are especially dangerous for aviation, not only because they reduce visibility but because they can act as an abrasive, damaging an aircraft’s wings and fuselage.

The Popocatepetl rumbled to life again this week, belching out towering clouds of ash that forced 11 villages to cancel school sessions.

The explosions registered in the early hours of Saturday were more intense, but authorities — who keep a close eye on the active volcano — are maintaining the threat at an intermediate level.

Volcanic ash from Popocatepetl temporarily shuts down Mexico City airports

Mexico City's two main airports temporarily shut down operations on Saturday due to ash spewing from Popocatepetl volcano

torontosun.com

 

[spaminator]

Elon Musk's Neuralink wins FDA approval for human study of brain implants
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Rachael Levy and Marisa Taylor and Akriti Sharma
Published May 26, 2023 • 3 minute read
Neuralink
This video grab made from the online Neuralink livestream shows the Neuralink disk implant held by Elon Musk during the presentation on August 28, 2020. PHOTO BY - /Neuralink/AFP via Getty Images
Elon Musk’s Neuralink received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance for its first-in-human clinical trial, a critical milestone for the brain-implant startup as it faces U.S. probes over its handling of animal experiments.


The FDA approval “represents an important first step that will one day allow our technology to help many people,” Neuralink said in a tweet on Thursday, without disclosing details of the planned study. It added it is not recruiting for the trial yet and said more details would be available soon.


The FDA acknowledged in a statement that the agency cleared Neuralink to use its brain implant and surgical robot for trials on patients but declined to provide more details.

Neuralink and Musk did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.

The critical milestone comes as Neuralink faces federal scrutiny following Reuters reports about the company’s animal experiments.

Neuralink employees told Reuters last year that the company was rushing and botching surgeries on monkeys, pigs and sheep, resulting in more animal deaths than necessary, as Musk pressured staff to receive FDA approval. The animal experiments produced data intended to support the company’s application for human trials, the sources said.


In one instance in 2021, the company implanted 25 out of 60 pigs with the wrong-sized devices. All the pigs were subsequently killed – an error that employees said could have been easily avoided with more preparation.

In May, U.S. lawmakers urged regulators to investigate whether the makeup of a panel overseeing animal testing at Neuralink contributed to botched and rushed experiments after Reuters reported on potential financial conflicts on the panel.

The Department of Transportation is separately probing whether Neuralink illegally transported dangerous pathogens on chips removed from monkey brains without proper containment measures.

Neuralink is also under investigation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Inspector General for potential animal-welfare violations. This probe has been looking at the USDA’s oversight of Neuralink.


The probe was launched amid growing employee concern that the company is rushing experiments, causing additional suffering and deaths of pigs, sheep and monkeys.

Neither Musk nor Neuralink ever responded to multiple requests for comment on the Reuters reports.

As of several weeks ago, the FDA had not inspected Neuralink over its laboratory practices, according to FDA records and a Neuralink employee.

Victor Krauthamer, an adjunct biomedical engineering professor who spent three decades at the FDA, including a stint overseeing the office that reviews human-trial requests for brain implants, said the FDA does not typically inspect facilities as part of their review of applications for clinical trials. But he added this would have been warranted in this case, given the concerns around Neuralink’s animal experiments.


“If the animal testing is unreliable, then (human trial) approval may be based on flawed animal safety data. The FDA should have verified their trust of animal study results,” Krauthamer said.



SEVERAL PREDICTIONS
Neuralink had hoped to receive approval to implant its device in 10 patients, Reuters has reported. But more recently, the company was negotiating a lower number of patients with the agency after it raised safety concerns, current and former employees said. It is not known how many patients the FDA ultimately approved.


Musk envisions brain implants could cure a range of conditions including obesity, autism, depression and schizophrenia as well as enabling Web browsing and telepathy. He made headlines late last year when he said he was so confident in the devices’ safety that he would be willing to implant them in his children.

On at least four occasions since 2019, Musk predicted Neuralink would begin human trials. But the company sought FDA approval only in early 2022, and the agency rejected the application, Reuters reported in March.

The FDA had pointed out several safety concerns to Neuralink that needed to be addressed before sanctioning human trials, Reuters reported. Some of the issues involved the lithium battery of the device, the possibility of the implant’s wires migrating within the brain, and the challenge of safely extracting the device without damaging brain tissue.

Elon Musk's Neuralink wins FDA approval for human study of brain implants

The FDA acknowledged in a statement that the agency cleared Neuralink to use its brain implant and surgical robot for trials on patients

torontosun.com

 

[spaminator]

Venice police investigate bright green liquid in Grand Canal
Environmental authorities were also testing the water

Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Published May 29, 2023 • < 1 minute read
A photo taken on May 28, 2023 by Italian news agency Ansa, shows fluorescent green waters below the Rialto Bridge in Venice's Grand Canal.
A photo taken on May 28, 2023 by Italian news agency Ansa, shows fluorescent green waters below the Rialto Bridge in Venice's Grand Canal. PHOTO BY STRINGER /ANSA/AFP via Getty Images
MILAN — Police in Venice are investigating the source of a phosphorescent green liquid patch that appeared Sunday in the city’s famed Grand Canal.

The governor of the Veneto region, Luca Zaia, posted a photo of the green liquid that spread through the water near the arched Rialto Bridge. The patch was reported by residents.


Images on social media show a bright patch of green in the canal along an embankment lined with restaurants.

Zaia said that officials had requested that the police investigate to determine who was responsible.

Environmental authorities were also testing the water.

People look at Venice's historical Grand Canal as a patch of phosphorescent green liquid spreads in it, Sunday, May 28, 2023.
People look at Venice’s historical Grand Canal as a patch of phosphorescent green liquid spreads in it, Sunday, May 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Luigi Costantini)

Venice police investigate bright green liquid in Grand Canal

Environmental authorities were also testing the water.

torontosun.com

 

[Ron in Regina]

But we’re just commoners.

“We have recently switched to drinking water bottles out of … water out of, when we have water bottles, out of a plastic, sorry, away from plastic towards paper, like drink box water bottles, sort of thing.”
View attachment 16695

GOLDSTEIN: The last straw -- Canada's single use plastics ban means more garbage — Toronto Sun

The Trudeau government’s plan to eliminate plastic waste in Canada by 2030 is underway in earnest with the gradual elimination of single use plastics. As of Dec. 20, the manufacture and import for sale in Canada of plastic checkout bags, cutlery, takeout containers, stir sticks and most plastic...

apple.news

The government says, based on 2019 data, that 15.5 billion plastic grocery bags a year were being sold in Canada, 5.8 billion straws, 4.5 billion pieces of cutlery, three billion stir sticks, 805 million takeout containers and 183 million six-pack rings.
View attachment 16694

The six categories of single use plastics subject to the ban account for an estimated 160,000 tonnes of plastic waste annually, just 5% of the overall amount of 3.3 million tonnes of plastic waste.
View attachment 16698

Of that, 86% ends up in landfills, 4% is burned, a dismal 9% is recycled — so much for all those years of faithful blue box recycling — and about 1%, or 29,000 tonnes, is discharged into the environment as litter, with 2,500 tonnes ending up in oceans, lakes and rivers.

Since only about 1% of Canada’s physical plastic waste escapes into the environment, Canada is not a major contributor to the global problem of plastics pollution in the world’s oceans, rivers and other waterways.
View attachment 16696

“Canada’s contribution to global aquatic plastic pollution, when assessed in 2016, was between 0.02% and 0.03% of the global total. If observed market trends were to continue in the absence of ZPW2030 (zero plastic waste by 2030) the government’s regulatory impact assessment estimates plastic waste and plastic pollution could increase (from 2016 levels) by roughly one third by 2030.
View attachment 16699

“Thus, if ZPW2030 eliminated all the predicted increase, it would prevent an increase from 0.02%-0.03% to 0.023%-0.033% of the global total, an undetectable reduction of three-thousandths of one percent.”
View attachment 16697

The rest at the above Link.

Single-use plastics are viewed as notoriously bad from a waste management lens.

Indeed, our federal government is in the process of banning a number of these products.

The reality, however, is that when it comes to producing greenhouse gas emissions and environmental damage from the time it is manufactured to the time the product reaches the consumer, plastic is often the better choice than the so-called greener alternatives.

VEZINA: On climate change, plastic is often better than paper — Toronto Sun

And what is popularly described as 'biodegradable' is often not biodegradable once it is mixed into a landfill

apple.news

Consider the issue of replacing single-use plastic straws with paper straws.

Conservative estimates put plastic straws at almost a third of the energy cost and carbon dioxide emissions of paper. Most estimates say the difference is almost double.

Producing a plastic straw requires 39 kilojoules of energy and produces 1.5 grams of carbon dioxide emissions.

Producing a paper straw requires 96 kilojoules of energy and produces 4.1grams of carbon dioxide emissions.

That’s without considering the felling of trees to produce paper straws.

A mature tree captures about 48 pounds of CO2 per year. That equates to 21,772.4 grams of CO2.

This means 14,515 plastic straws could have been created, without increasing CO2 emissions, had the tree not been cut down to manufacture paper straws.

When looking at plastic bags versus paper and cotton bags the numbers can be surprising.

The process for producing a cotton bag in particular is extremely inefficient in terms of CO2 emissions compared to plastic.

A cotton bag would have to be re-used 7,100 times to equal the much smaller environmental impact of a plastic bag. Using organic cotton, it would have to be re-used 20,000 times.

Put another way, assuming an individual reuses an organic cotton bag every day, it will need to be used for 54.7 years before it ties the plastic bag in terms of environmental impact.

Until then, the single-use plastic bag is better for the environment.

More at the below Link:

VEZINA: On climate change, plastic is often better than paper — Toronto Sun

And what is popularly described as 'biodegradable' is often not biodegradable once it is mixed into a landfill

apple.news

 

[55Mercury]

I don't know why this idiocracy doesn't promote the hemp industry. It's not good enough to just remove the illegality for recreational use. Hemp is good for so many other things besides the medical and recreational. Paper, textiles, hemp seed and oil, rope, building products... why don't we save a tree or two? Hemp doesn't even require prime agricultural land, it's a fucking weed! It'll grow just about anywhere, won't it?

I dunno, of course I can be wrong about it, but I think there's plenty of room for more research on it and the gubmint shoulda been promoting it from day-one since legalization. Trudeau really dropped the ball on this opportunity toward a greener environmental future, imo.

They had a chance to win my vote and they totally blew it.

 

[petros]

Seed hemp has been grown in canada for decades but there is no money in fibre hemp.

 

[spaminator]

Toronto residents warned to avoid contact with raccoons
City's public health unit wants to protect you against potential injury and rabies

Author of the articleostmedia News
Published Jun 08, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 1 minute read

It’s never a wise decision to get close to a raccoon or other wild animals.


Toronto Public Health is warning residents to keep away from raccoons due to an increase in the number of sick and injured animals.


As of May 31, public health says it has received 88 reports of people being bitten and/or scratched by raccoons, a 117% increase compared to the previous five-year average.

Raccoons are at high-risk for rabies transmission, although the risk of the disease is low in the city.

So far this year, more than 80% of the individuals who have come in contact with raccoons have received treatment for rabies, which involves a series of multiple vaccine doses.

If left untreated, rabies can be fatal in humans.

“We remind everyone to avoid contact with racoons and other wild animals to minimize exposure to rabies,” Dr. Eileen de Villa, the city’s Medical Officer of Health, said in a release.

“Treatment is very uncomfortable and avoidable. If necessary, it’s most effective if started promptly after the exposure.”

The city is asking residents to contact 311 to report the sighting of a raccoon that appears sick or exhibiting odd behaviour, and to stay away and refrain from touching raccoons and all other wild animals.

Toronto Public Health advises residents to avoid contact with raccoons to protect against injury and rabies

News Release June 8, 2023 Toronto Public Health (TPH) advises residents to avoid physical contact with raccoons and all other wild animals due to a significant increase in the number of sick and injured raccoons and in the number of reported cases of people bitten and/or scratched by raccoons...

toronto.ca

Toronto residents warned to avoid contact with raccoons

It's never a wise decision to get close to a raccoon or other wild animals.

torontosun.com