Australia’s apocalyptic bushfires earlier this year weren’t just unprecedented in their scale and ferocity—they weren’t even supposed to be possible yet. Over the past 20 years, the average percentage of Australia’s “temperate broadleaf and mixed” forests—lots of eucalyptus, basically—that burned each year was 1 percent. During the 2019-2020 fire season, that figure was 21 percent, the kind of catastrophe that models didn’t predict climate change could spawn until the next century. Scientists could only watch in horror as walls of flame virtually obliterated whole ecosystems. Now, they’re beginning to take stock of which wildlife species—so many of them native only to Australia—the continent may have lost. Writing today in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, two dozen researchers drop some startling initial numbers about the toll. Using government data from satellites and on-the-ground reporting, they calculate that between July 2019 and February 2020, the bushfires burned 97,000 square kilometers, or 37,500 square miles, across southern and eastern Australia. That’s an area bigger than Portugal, and a conflagration 50 times bigger than California’s largest recorded wildfire. Unfortunately, all that Australian terra is also habitat for 832 species of native vertebrate animals (those with backbones, as opposed to invertebrates like insects and spiders). Of these species, 70 had more than 30 percent of their habitat burned, and 21 of these were already listed by the Australian government as threatened with extinction. These include iconic Australian species like koalas, kangaroos, and wallabies, and lesser-known species like the Kangaroo Island dunnart, a mouse-like marsupial that was already listed as endangered, then lost over 80 percent of its habitat to the bushfires. And these are just the vertebrates—untold numbers of invertebrates burned too. “It’s important to remember that many of the animals impacted by these fires were already declining in numbers because of habitat destruction, drought, disease, and invasive species,” says University of Queensland conservation ecologist Michelle Ward, lead author of the study. “These fires are just another nail in the coffin for many of our native species.” The irony is that many species native to Australia are highly adapted to fire, or even dependent on it, as Australia is at its core a continent of flames. It’s perfectly natural, and indeed beneficial, for a bushfire to eat through a landscape now and then. It’s a reset button of sorts, clearing dead vegetation to allow the growth of new plants like the alpine ash eucalyptus, whose seeds only germinate on bare ground. “But if fires reoccur too frequently, it does not allow trees to mature and produce the seed. Also, if fires are too intense, it can destroy the seeds on the ground,” says Ward. “While fire is common in large parts of the Australian landscape, the fire regime is changing. They are becoming hotter, more frequent, occurring earlier in the season, and covering larger areas with a consistent intensity. These changes seem to be occurring too fast for our native plants and animals to adapt and survive.”
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These supercharged bushfires are burning so intensely and advancing so quickly that mammals and other quick-footed fauna can no longer escape. Small critters like the marsupial antechinus that take shelter underground and in logs to ride out milder, periodic bushfires are incinerated by these bigger blazes. Even birds aren’t safe, as they get disoriented by smoke and high winds, eventually succumbing to the flames; the study found that the pilotbird lost more than 30 percent of its habitat, warranting an assessment if it should now be listed as a threatened species, the authors say. from https://taxi.nearme.host/the-terrible-consequences-of-australias-uber-bushfires-wired/
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Coronavirus latest news: Leicester mayor criticises blanket political-led lockdown ahead of review7/19/2020 Speaking ahead of the decision Sir Peter Soulsby told Sky News: “Some streets have no issue at all and in other streets nearby you’ve got a major issue, and we needed to know that at the time so we could intervene with pinpoint accuracy. “I expect to hear when the rest of the city, and indeed the rest of the country hears – because frankly we have not been involved in any of the decision-making about this. “We have been told what the political decisions will be, and we will be told again what the political decision will be – whether or not we come out of it.” UK workers on company payrolls have fallen 649,000 during lockdown as the coronavirus crisis claimed another 74,000 jobs last month, according to official figures. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said early estimates showed the number of paid employees fell by 1.9 per cent year on year in June to 28.4 million, and by 0.3% compared with the previous month. It said the pace of job losses appeared to have slowed in June, with claims under Universal Credit by the unemployed and those on low incomes falling by 28,100 between May and June to 2.6 million. But the claimant count has more than doubled since March – soaring 112.2% or by 1.4 million – in a sign of the mounting jobs crisis. The ONS said unemployment fell 17,000 between March and May to 1.35 million, with the rate unchanged at 3.9 per cent. Experts said this masked a fall in employment, down 126,000 in the quarter to 32.95 million, with the rate dropping to 76.4 per c cent. With 9.4 million people on furlough classed as employed, the true impact is expected to only be shown after the current support scheme ends in October. Jonathan Athow, deputy national statistician at the Office for National Statistics (ONS), said: “As the pandemic took hold, the labour market weakened markedly, but that rate of decline slowed into June, though this is before recent reports of job losses. “There are now almost two-thirds of a million fewer employees on the payroll than before the lockdown, according to the latest tax data. “The Labour Force Survey is showing only a small fall in employment, but shows a large number of people who report working no hours and getting no pay.” He added: “There are now far more out-of-work people who are not looking for a job than before the pandemic.” from https://taxi.nearme.host/coronavirus-latest-news-leicester-mayor-criticises-blanket-political-led-lockdown-ahead-of-review/ Outbreaks like Leicester cannot be stopped if regional health staff dont get data doctors warn7/3/2020 Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chairman of the BMA Council, said: “The Prime Minister has talked about a ‘whack a mole’ strategy to tackle local outbreaks, but this is no use if the people leading the response on the ground – be they public health teams or local leaders – are not given the most accurate up-to-date data possible. “This is crucial to allow swift action and to protect lives and the health service, and something that is not happening right now. “This is all the more important given that the ‘world leading’ test and trace app is not in place, meaning local leaders and teams armed with up-to-date information will be vital in containing spread of outbreaks.” Ahead of further lockdown restrictions being eased at the weekend, the BMA made a series of demands from the Government. These include the use of set “metric trigger points” at which action will be taken to reintroduce local and national restrictions, which would take into consideration the regional reproductive rate – known as the R rate – as well as the level of infections in communities. It also stressed the importance of clear public health messaging that social distancing and infection control procedures should be adhered to. Meanwhile, leading health academic Professor Sir Chris Ham urged the Government to give local leaders control over NHS Test and Trace. In an opinion piece published in The British Medical Journal, Sir Chris wrote: “A crisis on the scale of the Covid-19 pandemic requires a national response. But in a country as large and diverse as the United Kingdom, where the impact of the virus varies between areas, a national response is insufficient. “Local leadership is also essential, drawing on the expertise of devolved governments in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, local authorities, NHS bodies, and many other public sector agencies. “A major weakness in the Government’s handling of the crisis has been its failure to recognise and value local expertise.” He said that the people who have been in contact with those confirmed to have the virus have been contacted by regional teams of Public Health England and local health protection teams. This raises “serious questions about the value for money” of the national telephone based service, he said. “In the case of contact tracing, most of the work is now being done by regional teams in Public Health England and local health protection teams led by directors of public health employed by local authorities,” Sir Chris wrote. “Recent statistics show that in its first three weeks of operation, NHS Test and Trace reached around 113,925 people who were in contact with those who tested positive, of whom around 90 per cent were traced by Public Health England and local health protection teams. “The remainder-amounting to just 12,247 people-were reached by the national telephone-based service run by Serco and Sitel, which employs around 25,000 staff. This raises serious questions about value for money in the use of public resources in a contract reported to be worth up to £108 million. “In my view, bringing these staff under the control of local authorities is overdue.” Sir Chris, former chief executive of the King’s Fund health think tank, concluded: “Local leaders, including devolved governments and elected mayors, are much better placed than the Westminster government to engage their communities in limiting and responding to future outbreaks. “To do so effectively, these leaders must be given control of test and trace to rectify the flaws in the Government’s ill judged design.” from https://taxi.nearme.host/outbreaks-like-leicester-cannot-be-stopped-if-regional-health-staff-dont-get-data-doctors-warn/ |
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