Is the world being destroyed?

In the US there are farmer's markets for local food.

Poor people in the US rarely buy organic food. It simply isn't worth the extra money if you don't have it. Organic food is a luxury, you can live a perfectly good life without it.

I am spending a bunch of time in Mexico. Organic food in Mexico is even more pricey... there are stores in the big cities, and they have high prices and are cater only with the upper middle class.

Most Mexicans I know would laugh at the idea of spending more money for organic food.

I am curious about the class differences in Germany. I assume that people with less money are less likely to pay more for organic food. I would also guess (and it is only a guess) that supermarkets in more economically depressed areas are less likely to carry organic food.

Is Germany that much different than the US is this regard?

Yes, people with less money buy here cheaper stuff as well - that's why organic food is a success at Aldis and Lidls. (For instance, organic meat and beef is sold at the same price or even lower than 'normal' beef/meat at the local butcher's.)

How do they manage that? Organic food costs more to produce, someone is losing money in this deal.

Does anyone buy "normal meat" then?

Dr. Anthony Fauci on Thursday said U.S. public health officials are “keeping a very close eye” on a new variant of Covid-19 that was first detected in Colombia.

Known as B.1.621 or the “Mu variant” according to the World Health Organization nomenclature, it has “a constellation of mutations that indicate potential properties of immune escape,” according to a WHO report released on Monday. “Preliminary data presented to the Virus Evolution Working Group show a reduction in neutralization capacity of convalescent and vaccine era similar to that seen for the Beta variant, but this needs to be confirmed by further studies.”

Today, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health announced the Mu variant, for the first time, has been identified in the region. The numbers are still small; Only 167 Mu variants have been identified in L.A. County thus far. “These specimens were sequenced between June 19 and Augusts 21, with the majority of Mu specimens sequenced in July,” according to a statement from county public health officials.

There was no mention of those cases the day before from Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer briefed reporters on L.A. County’s Covid response. Mu, which is classified by WHO as “variant of interest,” did on the chart Ferrer presented Thursday, which graphed only “variants of concern.” Even if it had been, however, it would have barely registered next to Delta which, she said, is 99% of all variants identified.

Dr. Anthony Fauci on Thursday said U.S. public health officials are “keeping a very close eye” on a new variant of Covid-19 that was first detected in Colombia.

Known as B.1.621 or the “Mu variant” according to the World Health Organization nomenclature, it has “a constellation of mutations that indicate potential properties of immune escape,” according to a WHO report released on Monday. “Preliminary data presented to the Virus Evolution Working Group show a reduction in neutralization capacity of convalescent and vaccine era similar to that seen for the Beta variant, but this needs to be confirmed by further studies.”

Today, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health announced the Mu variant, for the first time, has been identified in the region. The numbers are still small; Only 167 Mu variants have been identified in L.A. County thus far. “These specimens were sequenced between June 19 and Augusts 21, with the majority of Mu specimens sequenced in July,” according to a statement from county public health officials.

There was no mention of those cases the day before from Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer briefed reporters on L.A. County’s Covid response. Mu, which is classified by WHO as “variant of interest,” did on the chart Ferrer presented Thursday, which graphed only “variants of concern.” Even if it had been, however, it would have barely registered next to Delta which, she said, is 99% of all variants identified.

Speaking of Mu Fauci said, “This variant has a constellation of mutations that suggests that it would evade certain antibodies, not only monoclonal antibodies, but vaccine- and convalescent serum-induced antibodies…But there isn’t a lot of clinical data to suggest that. It is mostly laboratory in-vitro data.”

Mu was first detected in Colombia in January of this year. It has since been reported in 39 countries. According to the Washington Post, 2,000 Mu cases have been identified in the United States, including in California, Florida, Texas and New York. The California Department of Public Health told the Post on Thursday that 348 Mu cases had been identified so far.

Another new variant not on the L.A. list, which has not been seen in the county — or the country, for that matter — is C.1.2. The variant, which was first identified in South Africa in July. According to the L.A. Times C.1.2 has “made its way from Africa to Asia, Oceania and Europe. Scientists have spotted it in Botswana, Mauritius, China, New Zealand, Portugal, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.” It has worrisome mutations but, the strain is so new, it is not yet known if they indeed post a greater threat than those of other variants.

L.A. officials confirmed 2,673 new cases of and 37 new deaths due to Covid today. On Thursday, the 7-day average case rater per 100,000 was down 4%, from 26.2 last week. Ferrer said on Thursday that, “Hospitalizations may be plateauing, or even decreasing slightly.” There were 1,641 Covid patients hospitalized today and a rising number — 27% — were in the ICU. The test positivity rate was 3.3%.

Abstract

Understanding the heat tolerances of small mammals and birds has taken on new urgency with the advent of climate change. Here, we review heat tolerance limits, pathways of evaporative heat dissipation that permit the defense of body temperature during heat exposure, and mechanisms operating at tissue, cellular, and molecular levels.

Introduction

Mass mortality events involving wild and domestic animal populations, as well as humans, are increasing in frequency and severity with rising temperatures and more frequent heat waves (90, 126). At a global scale, heat has become a significant natural killer of humans, with the first decade of the 21st Century seeing a 23-fold increase in human casualties from heat waves compared with the 1990s (7). Climate change projections suggest that, by the end of this century, in many regions of the world, humans will be unable to safely move around or work outdoors (54, 57, 120).

Heat-associated mortality is also becoming increasingly evident among mammal and bird populations (79, 139). The capacities of animals to cope with extreme heat have been of interest to animal physiologists for decades. Although birds and small mammals are often thought to be buffered from extreme heat by virtue of their high normothermic body temperature (Tb), fibrous insulation, and well-developed capacities for metabolic and osmotic regulation, rapid increases in global temperatures are increasingly challenging the thermoregulatory abilities of small endotherms (3, 82, 108, 139). The challenges of avoiding lethal hyperthermia may be most obvious in hot subtropical deserts where air temperatures (Ta) can exceed 50°C, but they can also be pronounced in warm tropical lowlands where high humidity can severely limit evaporative heat dissipation, especially in species that forage in sunlit microsites (138) or occupy hot roosts during the day (68, 75). Even in much cooler regions at high latitudes, requirements for heat dissipation may pose substantial challenges and directly affect breeding success (101, 102).

The potential for even brief heat waves to drive catastrophic declines in mammal and bird populations is dramatically illustrated by recent events. In late November 2018, extreme heat in Australia’s northeastern coastal city of Cairns killed ~23,000 gray-headed flying foxes (Pteropus conspicillatus), one-third of the entire continent’s population (59). This was just the latest catastrophic mass mortality event to affect the region’s large pteropodid fruit bats, species with wing-spans approaching 1 m and that often roost in urban areas in colonies of hundreds to thousands of individuals. During the last decade, deaths by heat injury of large numbers of flying foxes (FIGURE 1) have become regular occurrences along Australia’s east coast (139), with ~46,000 mortalities on a single day in January 2014 (108).

The causes of these mortality events are unambiguous; during recent events, widespread mortality was usually observed when Ta exceeded 42°C, a value that has subsequently been confirmed as a strong predictor of such die-offs (108). Flying foxes have daytime body temperatures that range from 37 to 39°C and typically do not permit body temperature to increase above 40°C (8, 10), a narrow safety margin. When environmental temperatures approach or exceed body temperature, heat loads must be dissipated by evaporating water from the skin or respiratory surfaces, with rates of evaporative water loss increasing rapidly with increasing Ta. The short exposure times and rapid deaths observed during these heat-associated mortality events reveal that the flying foxes have a limited capacity for evaporative cooling and are consequently vulnerable to lethal heat injury. The relative roles of lethal hyperthermia arising from inadequate heat dissipation ability versus exceedance of dehydration limits through excessive rates of evaporative water loss remain unclear, but both processes likely contribute to these now commonplace mortality events.

Our current view of thermoregulatory capacities in mammals and birds may be colored by our own superb abilities for coping with extreme heat. Well-hydrated, heat-acclimated humans standing in dry air can tolerate Ta exceeding 100°C for brief periods (15, 93). Under these conditions, sweat glands can secrete upwards of 3 liters of sweat onto the skin surface each hour (115, 133), with an associated maximum evaporative heat loss rate exceeding 2 kW. The ability to dissipate large environmental and metabolic heat loads in humans allows for sustained workloads at high Ta that range from four to six times basal metabolic costs (89). Among non-human mammals, comparable capacity for performance in the heat is limited to a subset of mostly large mammals, including camels (119), ungulates (41), felids (48), canids (1) and kangaroos (32).

(...)

Emerging Questions and New Directions

Earth is warming rapidly, and a better understanding of the physiological determinants of the direct effects of higher temperatures on small endotherms is vital for documenting and predicting their responses. In addition to quantifying variation among taxa in heat tolerance and evaporative cooling capacity and elucidating the underlying functional mechanisms that differ among taxa, we need to understand the extent to which traits related to heat tolerance are phenotypically plastic.

There is evidence for phenotypic flexibility in traits such as the partitioning of avian evaporative water losses into respiratory versus cutaneous pathways (83, 92) and seasonal variation in heat tolerance (95, 132). In a southern African passerine bird, a population at a hot desert site significantly increased heat tolerance during summer compared with winter, whereas no such seasonal differences occurred in two populations at cooler, more mesic sites (95). The greater heat tolerance of the desert population in summer arose from more efficient evaporative cooling and lower Tb at a given Ta of >40°C (95). This is one of only two studies of which we are aware to have examined seasonal acclimatization in avian heat tolerance, and much remains to be learned about the role of such phenotypic flexibility.

Among non-domesticated species, little is known about non-reversible phenotypic plasticity associated with developmental conditions. Recently, remarkable new insights have emerged into how, in birds, prenatal acoustic communication associated with hot incubation conditions may drive the subsequent expression of more heat-tolerant phenotypes among offspring (77). A potentially promising line of enquiry involves the experimental manipulation of environmental temperatures experienced by eggs and nestlings to elucidate the consequences of early heat exposure for tolerance limits and performance under hot conditions later in life.

Another suite of emerging questions concerns how thermotolerance at the cellular level and how mechanisms of cell protection translate into whole animal performance in the heat. The molecular bases for similarities and differences in thermotolerance among birds and mammals is also of significant interest. What, for instance, are the mechanistic bases for variation among taxa in lethal temperatures, both in terms of Tb and environmental temperature? Identifying the molecular bases for improved thermotolerance via phenotypic flexibility (acclimation/acclimatization to high environmental temperatures) or developmental plasticity should also provide information critical for understanding the limits to animals’ capacities to respond to climate change. It is particularly relevant in species with generation times too long to evolve greater heat resistance (26) in the face of rapid anthropogenic climate change.

Finally, what are the weakest links in terms of specific tissues or organ systems in organismal thermotolerance in birds and mammals, and are these weakest links common across taxa? How do tissues differ in their susceptibility to heat injury, and are these tissue and organ systems defended in such a way that potentially allows for higher temperatures in other tissues? Such knowledge, combined with an understanding of the molecular basis of induced heat resistance, potentially opens the door to improvement of the weakest cell and organ systems via gene-editing technologies.

Anthropogenic climate change is advancing at a rapid rate, is already having pervasive impacts on natural systems (116), and is anticipated to drive catastrophic disruptions of ecological processes in coming decades unless urgent action is taken. In July 2018, Death Valley in California experienced 4 consecutive days with Ta maxima of ~52.8°C during a month when the overall average 24-h Ta was 42.3°C (96). These maxima are several degrees above the maximum Ta values that several arid-zone passerine birds are able to tolerate (125). These challenges are not confined to hot deserts; warming in the Arctic is proceeding at twice the rate observed over the rest of the globe, and warm extremes in these regions, although modest in terms of absolute temperatures, may have catastrophic consequences for species that are adapted to function at temperatures 10–20°C lower than have been recently observed (100). Unless urgent, concerted global action is taken, climate change may well create a future where many parts of the planet are habitable only for mammals and birds that have been genetically engineered to modify their heat balance (e.g., insulation, metabolic rate) or for enhanced heat tolerance.

The many observed impacts of climate change at different levels of biological organization point toward an increasingly unpredictable future for humans. Reduced genetic diversity in crops, inconsistent crop yields, decreased productivity in fisheries from reduced body size, and decreased fruit yields from fewer winter chill events threaten food security. Changes in the distribution of disease vectors alongside the emergence of novel pathogens and pests are a direct threat to human health as well as to crops, timber, and livestock resources. Humanity depends on intact, functioning ecosystems for a range of goods and services. Enhanced understanding of the observed impacts of climate change on core ecological processes is an essential first step to adapting to them and mitigating their influence on biodiversity and ecosystem service provision.

I am curious what keyword searches Hightor is using in his google search for death and despair.

Quote:

I am curious what keyword searches Hightor is using in his google search for death and despair.

My search parameters: "articles+which+trigger+maxdancona"

Human health is already being harmed by the climate crisis, and the impacts could become catastrophic and irreversible unless governments do much more to address global warming, the editors of more than 230 medical journals said in a joint editorial Monday.

The editorial points to established links between the climate crisis and a slew of adverse health impacts over the past 20 years: Among them are an increase in heat deaths, dehydration and kidney function loss, skin cancer, tropical infections, mental health issues, pregnancy complications, allergies, and heart and lung disease, and deaths associated with them.

"Health is already being harmed by global temperature increases and the destruction of the natural world, a state of affairs health professionals have been bringing attention to for decades," the editorial reads.

It warned that an increase of global average temperatures of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and the loss of biodiversity risked "catastrophic harm to health that will be impossible to reverse." Governments around the world are laying out plans to try to contain global warming to 1.5°C to stave off worsening impacts of climate change, a target that the editorial said did not go far enough to protect public health. Warming is already at around 1.2°C.

"Despite the world's necessary preoccupation with Covid-19, we cannot wait for the pandemic to pass to rapidly reduce emissions," the authors wrote, calling on governments to respond to the climate crisis with the same spirit of "unprecedented funding" dedicated to the pandemic.

The UK-based BMJ, one of the journals that published the report, said that "never before" had so many health publications come together to make the same statement, "reflecting the severity of the climate change emergency now facing the world."

The authors also warned that the aim to reach net zero -- where the world emits no more greenhouse gases than it removes from the atmosphere -- was relying on unproven technology to take gases like carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. They added it was more likely that global warming would surpass 2°C, a threshold that climate scientists say would bring catastrophic extreme weather events, among other impacts to human, animal and plant life.

Simply urging the world and energy industry to transition from fossil fuels to renewables falls short of the action needed to meet the challenge of the climate crisis, they said.

The editorial was published as a call to action ahead of a several meetings between global leaders to discuss and negotiate action on the climate crisis, including the UN General Assembly next week, a biodiversity conference in Kunming, China, in October and crucial climate talks in the Scottish city of Glasgow in November.

Among key climate issues expected to be addressed at these events are the 1.5°C target, putting an end date on the use of coal and protecting biodiversity, both on land and sea.

"The greatest threat to global public health is the continued failure of world leaders to keep the global temperature rise below 1.5°C and to restore nature. Urgent, society-wide changes must be made and will lead to a fairer and healthier world," the authors wrote.

"We, as editors of health journals, call for governments and other leaders to act, marking 2021 as the year that the world finally changes course."