Tag Archives : Build House

Equilibrium/Sustainability — Scientists: World isn't prepared for volcanic eruption

A large volcanic eruption could disrupt world food production and trade networks, causing damage to the global society equivalent to a strike from a giant asteroid, scientists argue. 

There is a 1-in-6 chance of a “magnitude seven” eruption in the next century — a volcanic explosion equivalent in power to a half-mile wide asteroid hitting the planet, according to a commentary published in Nature on Wednesday.  

“That’s a roll of the dice,” coauthor Lara Mani, a researcher at the University of Cambridge’s Center for the Study of Existential Risk, said in a statement.  

Yet while “hundreds of millions of dollars are pumped into asteroid threats every year, there is a severe lack of global financing and coordination for volcano preparedness,” Mani added. 

A magnitude-seven eruption is one that ejects more than 100 cubic kilometers (about 24 cubic miles) of lava, rock, ash and particulate matter, according to the United States Geological Survey. 

The last such explosion happened in 1815 in Indonesia, cutting out sunlight and dropping average global temperatures by 1 degree Celsius (1.8 Fahrenheit), according to co-author Mike Cassidy, a visiting researcher at Cambridge now at the University of Birmingham. 

In the U.S. and Europe — on the other side of the world — crops failed and famine, disease and political upheaval spread around the world at the time of the Indonesian explosion, the authors noted, warning that the impacts of such an event today would be much worse. 

“We now live in a world with eight times the population and over forty times the level of trade,” Cassidy said in a statement.  

“Our complex global networks could make us even more vulnerable to the shocks of a major eruption,” he added.

Welcome to Equilibrium, a newsletter that tracks the growing global battle over the future of sustainability. We’re Saul Elbein and Sharon Udasin. Send us tips and feedback. A friend forward this newsletter to you? Subscribe here.

Today we’ll take a look at new research linking proximity to fracking sites to early childhood leukemia. Plus: what scientists have to say about the Inflation Reduction Act. Then we’ll explore findings that could help future explorers survive on Mars and see just how much damage wildfires are causing to global forests.

Study: Greater leukemia risk for kids near frack sites

Pennsylvania children who live near fracking sites before birth and during infancy are two to three times more likely to be diagnosed with early-childhood leukemia than kids who didn’t live near such facilities, a new study has found.  

The study, published in Environmental Health Perspectives on Wednesday, explored the connection between the development of cancer and proximity to unconventional oil and gas drilling — also known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.”  

What’s fracking? It’s a drilling technique that allows for the extraction of oil and gas deep underground by injecting fluid at high pressure into the rock and releasing the trapped fuels to the surface.  

Looking into health impacts: Scientists have previously reported on potential threats posed by fracking such as air pollution, water contamination or wastewater spills, the researchers said.  

• Chemicals with known or suspected cancer links have reportedly been used in the water injection process that occurs during fracking.  
• Yet data on the association between fracking and childhood cancer remains scarce.  

A major concern: “Unconventional oil and gas development can both use and release chemicals that have been linked to cancer,” senior author Nicole Deziel, of the Yale School of Public Health, said in a statement.  

As a result, Deziel continued, the possibility that children living near such sites are “exposed to these chemical carcinogens is a major public health concern.” 

Broad health impacts: The study included 405 Pennsylvania kids aged 2-7, who were diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) between 2009 and 2017 as well as 2,080 control subjects.  

• ALL is the most common form of childhood leukemia. 
• Although long-term survival rates are high, patients may end up at higher risk of other physical and mental health problems.   

Vulnerable windows: The authors probed the link between in-utero exposure and ALL diagnosis in two different exposure periods:  

1. A “primary window,” from three months pre-conception to one year before diagnosis. 
2. A “perinatal window,” from pre-conception to birth.  

What did they find? Children with at least one fracking well within 1.24 miles of their birth residence during the primary window had 1.98 times the odds of developing ALL in comparison to those with no such wells.  

Meanwhile, children with at least one fracking well within 1.24 miles of their birth residence during the perinatal window were 2.8 times more likely to develop ALL than their peers who had no wells nearby.  

To read further about the implications of these findings, please click here for the full story.

Scientists applaud climate bill but demand action

Scientists across the world are applauding the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act — signed into law on Tuesday — for its potential to help combat climate change.  

At the same time, however, these researchers are urging the U.S. to do more, according to Nature’s news magazine.  

On board to fight climate change: With $369 billion in climate investments, the Inflation Reduction Act could reduce emissions by about 30 to 40 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, Nature reported.  

The legislation also “signals to other nations that the United States, a major emitter,” is now “on board to address climate change,” according to Nature.  

Where’s that climate money going? The Inflation Reduction Act will funnel a significant amount of money — $490 million — directly into climate and weather forecasting research at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Nature reported. Much higher sums will go to other purposes that could also help the climate, including $60 billion in grants and tax credits for clean-energy investments and pollution clean-up in disadvantaged communities.

• The transition to green energy will be worth $128 billion in tax credits.
• Another $60 billion is being allocated to U.S. manufacturing of renewable technologies.  

Talk and action: “This is the biggest thing to happen to the U.S. on climate policy,” Bill Hare, of the nonprofit Climate Analytics, told The Associated Press.  

Over the past few decades, there has been “a lot of talk, but not action,” added Hare, whose organization published an independent analysis of the bill.  

A ‘radical shift’ — with some caveats: This analysis, called the “Climate Action Tracker,” acknowledges the new progress made but still rates American action on climate as “insufficient.”  

• The legislation signifies “a radical shift in U.S. climate action” and sends a positive “global signal,” according to the tracker. 
• Nonetheless, its climate finance allocations do not match the country’s “fair share contribution” to combatting climate change, the analysts argued. 
• The bill also “includes several concessions for the fossil fuel industry,” they added.  

International accountability: Mohamed Adow, of the Nairobi-based think tank Power Shift Africa, told Nature that the U.S. must take responsibility for its historical emissions and help deliver climate finance to poorer nations.  

• Wealthy countries promised $100 billion a year through 2025 to poorer ones several years ago, but that pledge has yet to be fulfilled, Adow said. 
• “That’s what we need to see for a real jump in progress on the global stage,” he added.

How future Mars explorers can live off the land

Scientists have identified techniques by which humans could potentially both grow food and harvest oxygen from Mars’s inhospitable environment. 

If their approach ends up viable in real Martian territory, it could help future Mars explorers to live off the land. 

Nitrogen fixers and salt removers: Scientists found that alfalfa — a flowering plant commonly used for cattle feed — could grow in simulated Martian soil, according to a study published Wednesday in PLoS One.

• Alfalfa is a “nitrogen fixer” that puts nutrients back into the soil — in this case allowing the cultivation of turnips, radishes and lettuce on previously lifeless soil.
• The authors also found a kind of cyanobacteria (commonly called blue-green algae) that naturally pulls salt from water. 

Preparing the ground: Long-term human missions to Mars will require explorers to turn local resources like soil, water, solar radiation, nitrogen and carbon into the necessities of life, according to the paper. 

The alfalfa and cyanobacteria helps get around two key problems with using those resources, the authors explained.

• Martian “soil” is crushed, sterile volcanic rock — not the nutrient-rich, water-trapping and biologically-active dirt that plants on Earth depend on. 
• And Martian water comes in the form of salty brines unsuitable for plants used to freshwater. 

Treating the simulated Martian soil and water with alfalfa and cyanobacteria allowed the scientists to “sustain normal growth and productivity of the next generation of crops.” 

Harvesting air is possible too  

Breathable oxygen can be pulled from the Martian air using the high-energy states known as plasmas, an international team of scientists also found this week. 

Oxygen production would be  a starting point not only for creating usable air but for the manufacture of liquid fuels and building materials, according to the study, published in the Journal of Applied Physics.

• Martian air is mostly carbon dioxide, which contains potentially usable oxygen but is a “very difficult molecule to break,” coauthor Vasco Guerra of the University of Lisbon said in a statement. 
• Even once oxygen is separated out, that leaves behind toxic carbon monoxide that requires filtration.   

Pulling oxygen with plasmas: To break oxygen off cleanly with fewer byproducts, the scientists used plasmas — a high-energy state where electrons are “light and easily accelerated up to very high energies with electric fields,” according to a statement from the American Institute of Physics.  

The scientists found that this characteristic of the ”fourth state of matter” (in addition to solids, liquids and gasses) eased the process of breaking carbon dioxide into carbon and oxygen.

Fires claim an additional Belgium each year

Wildfires are growing worse around the world, with tree cover loss from fires worldwide today double its rate 20 years ago, a new study has found. 

Losing a Belgium-sized area: Destructive fire claims an area of forest the size of Belgium each year on top of what it took two decades ago, according to research published on Wednesday by the World Resources Institute.

• Wildfires have caused a quarter of global tree loss over the past 20 years.
• A wave of “unprecedented” subarctic forest fires making 2021 the worst fires season in recorded history. 

The U.S. is third-worst: Under this new fire regime, blazes of growing intensity have cost the U.S. a combined 30 million acres of forest since 2001 — an area of forest roughly the size of New York state. 

But that was only enough to put the country in third place for forest losses to wildfire. 

• The enormous fires in the boreal forests of Canada and Russia made those two the biggest losers of forest last year — with a combined 190 million acres in forest losses since 2021.
• Russia’s losses alone cost it an area of forest the approximate size of France.

Water Wednesday

Waste chokes a holy river, seaweed rottting on Caribbean beaches and drying rivers bring a message of global warning. 

Himalayan holy river littered with waste 

• Nepal’s holy Bagmati River is now “choked with debris, its contents undrinkable and unsuitable even for cleaning,” according to The Associated Press. While people used to cleanse bodies of the deceased in the Bagmati prior to cremation, many families now resort to using purified water bought at nearby stores, the AP reported.  

Smelly seaweed covering Caribbean beaches 

• Millions of tons of a foul-smelling seaweed called sargassum have been washing up on Caribbean shores — blanketing coastlines from Puerto Rico to Barbados, according to Euronews. Researchers blame the increase in sargassum on a variety of factors, including climate change, human sewage, washed up fertilizers from Brazil’s rivers and dust blowing from Africa’s Saharan Desert, Euronews reported. 

Rhine recovery doesn’t dispel river warnings 

• German authorities said they expect coming rains to push the drought-depleted Rhine river back up to safe shipping levels, Reuters reported. The parched river represents a semi-clogged “aorta” of intra-European trade — part of the global “warming” offered by shrinking arteries from the Thames to the Tigris, according to The Washington Post.

Please visit The Hill’s Sustainability section online for the web version of this newsletter and more stories. We’ll see you tomorrow.

VIEW THE FULL VERSION HERE

Source: TEST FEED1

Smaller 9/11 Tribute Museum in NYC closing its doors

LOWER MANHATTAN (WPIX) – The 9/11 Tribute Museum in Manhattan is shuttering on Wednesday, officials for the museum announced this week.

The museum, not to be confused with the National September 11 Memorial & Museum located at the site of the World Trade Center, will maintain an online presence, but financial difficulties mean the doors of the NYC location will close permanently.

Most of the museum’s collection will be moved to the New York State Museum in Albany. The museum is working to make sure everything is respectfully handled.

The 9/11 Tribute Museum had been experiencing hardships because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which took a toll on tourism and further exacerbated financial difficulties. Just last week, officials had even attempted to garner support for a Change.org petition to save the space, aimed at Gov. Kathy Hochul and NYC Mayor Eric Adams.

“We’ve really been hanging on by a thread,” co-founder and CEO Jennifer Adams-Webb said, per the Associated Press.

The museum traces its roots to 2004, when a group — founded by victims’ relatives — decided to turn a former deli near ground zero into a focal point for the commemoration of the 2001 terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. The site of the World Trade Center was still a massive pit and construction site in 2004, but visitors were already coming in droves.

The tribute museum was eventually dwarfed by the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, a $700 million taxpayer-subsidized project that opened its memorial plaza in 2011 and a vast underground museum in 2014. The museum alone has drawn more than 18 million visitors and the open-air, un-ticketed plaza an estimated 55 million.

The 9/11 Tribute Museum, meanwhile, has been visited by over 5 million people since opening in 2005, by its own account. Its focus was to remember and honor those lost in the attacks through the personal stories of those who experienced, survived or lost family and friends on 9/11.

Through guided tours and exhibits, visitors to the 9/11 Tribute Museum were given “person-to-person” accounts demonstrating “the tremendous spirit of resilience and service that arose after the attacks, and are encouraged to honor the legacy of that spirit through volunteerism and acts of kindness in their own communities,” according to the museum.

It’s unclear when the museum’s collection will be placed on display at the New York State Museum in Albany.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: TEST FEED1

Attorneys for Christopher Shaw, who was paralyzed in Texas police custody, call for DOJ probe

Attorneys for Christopher Shaw, a Black man paralyzed while in Beaumont, Texas, police custody, announced Wednesday they have asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate the city for what they called a history of excessive force and unlawful detainment. 

“We now have subpoena power afforded to us by the federal courts,” said Harry Daniels, Shaw’s attorney. “We are in the process of getting everything … that shows that the city of Beaumont has a custom where their officers engage in unlawful use of force, and it is swept under the rug.” 

Daniels added the FBI has been “asking questions about things here in Beaumont” and an inquiry seems to be underway already.

Shaw, 41, was arrested last year for public intoxication in Jefferson County. While at the county sheriff’s office, Beaumont police officer James Gillen allegedly body-slammed Shaw to the ground. With his hands handcuffed behind his back, his attorneys say, Shaw’s head hit the concrete ground of the jail and, as a result, his neck broke and he was paralyzed.

The request to the DOJ comes after Shaw’s attorneys filed a federal lawsuit in the Eastern District of Texas on July 14. They have also filed a lawsuit against Core Health, the medical providers inside Jefferson County Jail, for “deliberate indifference” to Shaw’s condition while in custody. Lawsuits against Gillen and the city of Beaumont have also been filed.

According to Daniels, Shaw was taken to Baptist Hospital and cleared to be sent back to the jail after the incident. However, unreleased video footage also showed he was unable to move. He was placed in a holding cell for nearly 20 hours, Daniels added, laying on the floor “begging for help.”

“He eventually soiled himself and … told the jail staffer that if he died, it would be on her head,” said Daniels.

Beaumont police did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.

Shaw’s attorneys on Wednesday called for the release of police video footage of the incident, which has been seen by all of Shaw’s attorneys, the Beaumont chief of police and Shaw’s sister. Daniels said they have been ordered by the Texas attorney general not to publicly share the video for security reasons.

Chance Lynch, also representing Shaw, said the video was one of the “most disturbing” he’d seen in his career. 

“When we saw this video, we really thought we watched him die,” said Lynch.

Daniels was joined Wednesday by the Rev. William J. Barber II, co-chairman of the Poor People’s Campaign, and representatives from the NAACP and Rainbow PUSH Coalition. 

Candice Matthews, statewide steering committee chairwoman for the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, said the incident is indicative of “America’s chaos.”

“We’re dealing with rogue cops that operate with ignorance and authority,” she said. “And that is a dangerous combination, because the end result is what has happened to our dear brother Christopher Shaw.”

Michael Cooper, president of the Beaumont chapter of the NAACP, said the demands for investigation are not an attack upon the city or its officers but a call to look upon institutions around the country. 

“We have to look at our institutional laws and processes in order to have the transparency that we as citizens deserve,” said Cooper.

Source: TEST FEED1

Now what’s the matter with Kansas?

Kansas is no swing state. The landlocked expanse of farms and Protestant churches hasn’t supported a Democratic presidential candidate since 1964, and hasn’t sent a Democrat to the Senate since the 1930s. It inspired a 2004 book, “What’s the Matter With Kansas: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America,” that foreshadowed the rise of anti-elite conservative populism that would carry Donald Trump to the presidency.

And yet, in a sense, Kansas is a swing state this year. The states already defied national expectations with this month’s vote on abortion. Its race for governor, likely to be one of the closest in the country, will test whether ticket-splitting in national and state elections — which put Republicans Mitt Romney and Charlie Baker in charge of Massachusetts, and Democrat Laura Kelly in the Kansas governor’s mansion — falls victim to today’s hyperpartisan, lockstep politics.

While pundits and reporters focus on governor’s races in swing states like Pennsylvania and Arizona, where MAGA Republicans Doug Mastriano and Kari Lake could gain control of election machinery, states like Kansas are important in both symbolic and substantive ways. As Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said nearly a century ago, states are the laboratories of democracy. And these laboratories produce better results when leaders compromise across party lines.

Take Romney’s 2006 market-based universal health care plan in Massachusetts. Or Arnold Schwarzenegger’s cap-and-trade program to reduce carbon emissions in California, the same year.

To look at a map of governors in 2006 is to step back in time to a much more politically flexible era. Democrats held the governorships of Wyoming, Oklahoma and West Virginia. Republicans were in charge in California, Minnesota and Rhode Island. The makeup of their states tempered these chief executives’ more partisan impulses, and the governors who sought the presidency, like Romney and Minnesota’s Tim Pawlenty, were pragmatic problem-solvers.

Which brings us to Kansas. Although Kelly currently displays no presidential ambitions, she has calibrated her positions and message to the Kansas electorate. Last year, she broke from the Biden administration and other Democratic governors by opposing COVID-19 vaccine mandates. In a reelection ad earlier this year, the self-described “middle-of-the-road” governor was pictured meeting with former President Donald Trump — but not President Biden. Arguably her biggest first-term accomplishment was a compromise with the Republican-controlled state legislature to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

All of that may not be enough to save her job.

Forecasters rate the Kansas race the biggest tossup among gubernatorial contests. Kelly’s Republican opponent, state Attorney General Derek Schmidt, is a standard-issue conservative who joined an unsuccessful legal challenge to the results of the 2020 presidential election. Schmidt touts his support from Trump, who won 56 percent of the Kansas vote that year.

Kansas is one of just four Democrat-led states that voted for Trump in 2020. The number of ticket-splitting states has diminished over time. In 2012, Romney won six states with Democratic governors.

Many of the nation’s most popular governors are moderate Republicans from Democratic states, like Baker in Massachusetts, Larry Hogan in Maryland and Phil Scott in Vermont. Baker and Hogan aren’t running this year and almost surely will be replaced by Democrats, which would leave Scott as the only Republican left running a solidly blue state. In addition to Kansas, Louisiana and Kentucky are the only Democrat-run states that have consistently voted Republican in recent national elections.

The trend refutes the old adage, “All politics is local.” As local news readership slips, governors are judged less on their records and more on their positions on hot-button national issues such as “election integrity,” abortion, gun control and COVID-19 policies. Governors like Florida’s Ron DeSantis and South Dakota’s Kristi Noem have elevated their profiles not by discussing tax or education policy with reporters in Tallahassee or Pierre, but by going on Fox News to debate transgender student athletes or critical race theory.

In his campaign against Kelly, Schmidt is taking a page from their playbook. He appeared on “Fox & Friends” to denounce critical race theory, “fake news” and “cancel culture run amok,” and needled Kelly over border security.

In her reelection campaign, Kelly is running on what she calls her pragmatic, bipartisan record of responsibly funding schools, infrastructure and broadband. Her campaign website mentions neither Biden nor Trump. In short, it’s the kind of workaday, low-glitz state campaign that used to convince people to vote for different parties in national and state elections.

This year, that might not be enough.

James Nash served as press secretary for the National Governors Association from 2018 until February of this year. He is now is a senior vice president at ROKK Solutions.

Source: TEST FEED1

Judge reinstates North Carolina’s 20-week abortion ban

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Abortions in North Carolina are no longer legal after 20 weeks of pregnancy, a federal judge ruled Wednesday, eroding protections in one of the South’s few remaining safe havens for reproductive freedom.

U.S. District Judge William Osteen reinstated an unenforced 20-week abortion ban, with exceptions for urgent medical emergencies, after he said the June U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade erased the legal foundation for his 2019 ruling that placed an injunction on the 1973 state law.

His decision defies the recommendations of all named parties in the 2019 case, including doctors, district attorneys and the attorney general’s office, who earlier this month filed briefs requesting he let the injunction stand.

“Neither this court, nor the public, nor counsel, nor providers have the right to ignore the rule of law as determined by the Supreme Court,” wrote Osteen, who was appointed to the court by Republican President George W. Bush.

Unable to pass abortion restrictions that would survive Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto, the Republican General Assembly leaders urged Osteen to restore the ban in a July 27 friend-of-the-court brief after the state’s Democratic attorney general, an outspoken abortion rights supporter, rejected their demand that he bring the ban before a judge himself.

Osteen’s ruling adds fuel to an already contentious midterm election year after the Supreme Court ruling propelled state-level politics into the spotlight. North Carolina Republicans in November will aim to clinch the five additional seats they need for a veto-proof supermajority in the state legislature as Democrats stave off their challenges to preserve Cooper’s power.

Republican lawmakers say a successful election season could open the door to further abortion restrictions when the General Assembly reconvenes early next year. House Speaker Tim Moore told reporters on July 26 that he would like to see the legislature consider banning abortions once an ultrasound first detects fetal cardiac activity — typically around six weeks after fertilization and before some patients know they’re pregnant.

Cooper and other Democrats have already elevated abortion access as a key campaign issue. The governor signed an executive order on July 6 shielding out-of-state abortion patients from extradition and prohibiting state agencies under his control from aiding other states’ prosecutions of those who travel for the procedure.

North Carolina has become a refuge for residents of its more restrictive neighboring states, like South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee, where abortions are now illegal after six weeks.

Before Osteen’s ruling, abortions were legal in North Carolina until fetal viability, which generally falls between 24 and 28 weeks of pregnancy, or in certain medical emergencies.

As other Southeastern states continue to chip away at abortion access, Alison Kiser, executive director of Planned Parenthood Votes! South Atlantic, said limiting treatment in “a critical access point state” like North Carolina will have ripple effects across the region.

The number of out-of-state patients at North Carolina’s Planned Parenthood health centers has tripled since the Supreme Court ruling, Kiser said. So far in August, 36% of abortion patients traveled from other states, up from 14% in June.

But Republicans argue little will change with the 20-week ban back in place. In 2019, fewer than 1% of abortions nationwide were performed after 20 weeks of gestation, consistent with data from previous years when abortion access was protected at the federal level, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Abortions after 20 weeks are rare, but it’s still incredibly important that people have access to this care,” Kiser said. “The two primary reasons people need abortion care later in pregnancy is because they’ve received new medical information or, and ever more so now, they’re facing barriers that have delayed their care.”

The main delay, she said, is North Carolina’s 72-hour mandatory waiting period to receive an abortion after an initial doctor’s visit. The General Assembly extended the waiting period in 2015, making North Carolina the fifth state to require counseling three days before an abortion — one of the longest waiting periods in the country.

The 2015 bill also amended the state law that Osteen reinstated Wednesday, narrowing the criteria for medical emergencies that could warrant an abortion after 20 weeks.

Source: TEST FEED1

FDA approves $2.8m gene therapy treatment for rare blood disorder

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday approved the first gene therapy treatment that could offer a permanent cure for patients who suffer from a rare blood disorder, which the manufacturer priced at $2.8 million per patient.

The cost would make the therapy one of the most expensive treatments of all time.

The therapy was developed by bluebird bio and will be sold under the brand name Zynteglo. It offers a treatment for beta-thalassemia, a type of inherited blood disorder that causes a reduction of normal hemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen through the body. 

The reduced levels of hemoglobin can lead to a number of health issues including dizziness, weakness, fatigue, bone abnormalities and more serious complications. The sickest patients — those who would use Zynteglo — require regular red blood cell transfusions every two to five weeks. 

The lifetime cost of medical care for a patient with transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia can reach up to $6.4 million in the U.S., the company said. Patients also usually have a shorter lifespan.

The single-dose treatment could be a game changer. It works by genetically modifying a patient’s bone marrow stem cells, making it so they are able to produce functional hemoglobin. It is meant for adults and children.

The treatment’s $2.8 million price tag was set “in recognition of its robust and sustained clinical benefit demonstrated in clinical studies and its potential to alleviate a lifetime of health care costs associated with regular [red blood cell] transfusions and iron management,” the company said in a statement.

The company said it will reimburse contracted commercial and government payers up to 80 percent of the cost of the therapy if a patient fails to achieve and maintain transfusion independence up to two years following infusion.

Bluebird said it is in “late-stage negotiations” with leading commercial payers, and is also working with state Medicaid agencies.

Source: TEST FEED1

Air Force Special Operations Command grounds fleet of Ospreys

The Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) has grounded its entire fleet of CV-22 Ospreys due to two recent safety incidents involving the aircraft’s clutch. 

The standdown of the 52 tiltrotor aircraft, first reported by Breaking Defense, was ordered by AFSOC Commander Lt. Gen. Jim Slife on Tuesday. 

The decision stems from an “increased number of safety incidents” involving the Ospreys, including two in the past six weeks and a total of four since 2017, an AFSOC official told the outlet.  

“The safety of our Airmen is of the utmost importance, therefore no AFSOC CV-22s will fly until we will determine the cause of the hard clutch engagements and risk control measures are put in place,” command spokeswoman Lt. Col. Becky Heyse said in a statement to Breaking Defense.  

AFSOC has discovered there is an issue with “hard clutch engagement.” Heyse said the clutch that connects one of an Osprey’s two engines to the propeller rotor is slipping for reasons unknown, forcing the aircrew to immediately land the aircraft.  

No injuries or deaths have been caused by the issue “due in large part to the skill and professionalism of our Air Commandos who operate the CV-22,” Heyse added. 

It is unknown how long the aircraft will be grounded. 

AFSOC said it will work with the V-22 Joint Program Office and industry partners to further understand and fix the issue. The CV-22 is made by Bell-Boeing, while its engines are made by Rolls-Royce. 

The decision to ground the Ospreys follows two accidents that killed nine Marines earlier this year involving the Marine Corps’ MV-22B version of the aircraft.  

A June 8 Osprey crash in in California killed five Marines, while a crash in Norway in March killed four Marines. 

Source: TEST FEED1

COVID-19 offers lessons on fighting climate change

President Joe Biden is deliberating on declaring a national climate emergency. Echoes of our collective delay in declaring COVID-19 a global health emergency reverberate. Yet, even as we contend with more COVID-19 waves — amid extreme flooding, heat domes and droughts — the term “emergency” feels too ephemeral for the lingering nature of both challenges. The real emergency is the need to turn our collective inertia into collective action. 

Sustaining a sense of urgency hinges on generating societal and political will. Mitigations for COVID-19 and climate change already exist — from ventilation to decarbonization — but often remain “on the shelf” due to public and political inertia. Effective strategies may therefore be less about the spread of viruses or carbon emissions and more about the spread of approaches that generate action.

During the COVID-19 response, this meant figuring out how to turn vaccines into vaccinations. One key was being ready to rapidly advance policy when there is in fact a sense of emergency. For example, in New York City, an aggressive set of vaccination policies — including incentives and government mandates — only became politically feasible during the ascent of the Delta wave in August 2021, even though the seeds of this approach were planted far earlier. That response saved thousands of lives in New York City alone. 

The same opportunistic approach to policymaking should be brought to bear around the heatwaves and wildfires we are currently experiencing. The energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine gives a national security impetus to embracing many of the same solutions we need for climate change. Efficiency, heat pumps, electric vehicles and domestic sources of clean energy such as wind, solar, geothermal and nuclear reduce global need for Russian oil and gas while avoiding CO2 emissions. 

The Inflation Reduction Act is a solid start, particularly its measures to reward the deployment of solutions that electrify transportation and leverage the expertise of oil and gas companies for hydrogen production, carbon management and methane abatement. More must be done to accelerate adoption of solutions that facilitate the transition of utilities, such as cash-for-coal-plant clunkers programs, research and development investments, as well as sufficiently funded loan programs to lower capital costs for cleaner projects.  

Advancing the right policy solutions hinges on effective public communication by experts and elected officials. In New York City, instead of solely publishing absolute numbers of breakthrough cases, the Health Department released visuals comparing risks between unvaccinated and vaccinated individuals, making clear that unvaccinated individuals were at least 10 times as likely to be hospitalized or die. In the same way, climate-change data, such as the increase in people dying due to excessive heat, will be most resonant when it is easy to understand, couched in meaningful context, supplemented by stories and paired with feasible solutions.  

Another part of public communication is guarding against the belief that scientific advances are panaceas. The “Swiss cheese model” for COVID-19 was a useful metaphor to emphasize that each layer of viral defense (e.g., vaccination or masking) has holes, but multiple layers maximize protection. In climate change, a single carbon-capture technology or renewable-energy breakthrough is unlikely to be enough. We need those innovations, but we also need better urban planning, conservation and behavioral shifts. One example is flexible telework policies, which reduce emissions through fewer commutes — with the added benefit of slowing the spread of COVID-19 during periods of higher transmission.

Shortcomings during COVID-19 are also learnings for climate. The pandemic showed us that even miraculous breakthroughs, like the mRNA vaccines, can flounder in the face of misinformation and mistrust. Inoculating against misinformation, particularly in communities with low levels of trust in government, can reduce avoidable suffering due to climate change. Unexpected messengers help convey the scientific consensus on the need for action. For instance, Darren Woods, CEO of ExxonMobil, recently stated that 100 percent of global personal vehicle sales in 2040 will run on electricity. Voices who can soften the sclerosing of harmful behaviors into identities — as was seen with anti-masking attitudes and political conservatism — are particularly important.

The greatest lesson of COVID-19 may be that humans can relatively quickly become acclimated even to significant levels of suffering. In the earliest days of the pandemic, we distanced and donned masks not just for ourselves, but also for those most vulnerable. But that need to protect tapered off. The future of COVID-19 and climate change requires us to figure out how to elongate the impulse to protect — how to fuel sustained action by turning from apathy toward empathy.  

Michael E. Webber is the Josey Centennial professor in energy resources at The University of Texas at Austin and chief technology officer at Energy Impact Partners.  

Dave A. Chokshi is a physician at Bellevue Hospital and a visiting fellow at the New York Health Foundation. He served as the 43rd health commissioner of New York City.  

Source: TEST FEED1

Abortion ban in South Carolina temporarily blocked by state Supreme Court

The South Carolina state Supreme Court temporarily blocked the state’s six-week abortion ban from taking effect on Wednesday, a decision that came on the same day that the state legislature advanced legislation on a near-total ban on the medical procedure.

The state’s high court ruled on Wednesday to temporarily block the state’s current law, which bans abortions after around six weeks of pregnancy, from going into effect, but noted, “we nevertheless recognize the plenary authority of the legislature to legislate and make public policy decisions, subject only to the constraints imposed by the United States Constitution and the South Carolina Constitution.”

The decision was lauded by abortion rights advocates.

“Today the court has granted our patients a welcome reprieve, but the fight to restore bodily autonomy to the people of South Carolina is far from over. No matter what happens, we will never stop fighting for our patients’ right to make their own decisions about their bodies and futures,” Jenny Black, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, said in a statement.

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson (R) noted he was “disappointed” in the outcome but noted the ruling was only temporary.

“While we are disappointed, it’s important to point out this is a temporary injunction. The court didn’t rule on the constitutionality of the Fetal Heartbeat law. We will continue to defend the law,” he said in a statement.

The court’s ruling came on the same day that the state legislature advanced separate legislation that would almost entirely ban abortions in the state. Under the bill, abortions would only be allowed when the patient’s life or health is at risk. 

Physicians would be granted only very limited exceptions in which they could legally provide abortions in South Carolina, and otherwise would risk breaking the law by performing the procedure. Patients who receive abortions would not be prosecuted under the legislation. 

Source: TEST FEED1

DOE invests $45 million in cyber technology that protects power sector

The Department of Energy announced on Wednesday that it is investing $45 million in cyber technology that will protect the power grid sector from cyberattacks.

The investment will fund up to 15 research projects that will focus on developing new cybersecurity technologies designed to reduce cyber risks in the energy sector.

“As DOE builds out America’s clean energy infrastructure, this funding will provide the tools for a strong, resilient, and secure electricity grid that can withstand modern cyberthreats and deliver energy to every pocket of America,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a statement.

The research projects will also establish and strengthen existing partnerships with energy sector utilities, vendors and universities. 

This is the second time this year the Energy Department has announced investment in cyber technology. 

In April, the agency said it was investing $12 million in cybersecurity innovations intended to secure critical infrastructure like the energy sector.

The $12 million investment would fund six university-led projects that will focus on the research, development and demonstrations of new cyber technology to help advance data-related fields such as anomaly detection, artificial intelligence and machine learning. 

That same month, House lawmakers introduced legislation that would address rising cyber threats against U.S. energy sectors.

The bill, intended to protect the energy sector as well, would create a grant program within the Energy Department that would fund graduate students and postdoctoral researchers studying cybersecurity and energy infrastructure. 

The bill passed the House in July as part of a block of bills in a 336-90 vote. 

The legislation was co-sponsored by Reps. Deborah Ross (D-N.C.) and Mike Carey (R-Ohio).

Source: TEST FEED1