New research finds baby bottles may release millions of microplastic particles with each feeding. Beeki / Needpix
The process of preparing and mixing a baby bottle formula seems innocuous, but new research finds this common occurrence is actually releasing millions of microplastic particles from the bottle's lining, Wired reported.
<p><br>Microplastics are particles that are smaller than five millimeters long. Sterilizing and mixing formula may also release trillions of nanoplastic particles, which are billionths of a meter long, Wired reported.</p><p>The new <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-020-00171-y" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">study</a> published in <em>Nature Food</em> found that the amount of microplastic babies consume is much larger than previous estimates. "We were absolutely gobsmacked," study co-author John Boland told <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/19/bottle-fed-babies-swallow-millions-microplastics-day-study" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>. "A study last year by the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated adults would consume between 300 and 600 microplastics a day — our average values were on the order of a million or millions."</p><p>"The numbers are, well, frightening," Deonie Allen, who studies microplastics at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland, but wasn't involved in the research, told Wired. "They're bigger than any exposure tests that have been done before for human uptake."</p>
<p>The researchers examined the amount of formula that infants up to a year old consumed in 48 global regions. They discovered that, on average, bottle-fed babies were exposed to 1.6 million microplastic particles a day, The Guardian reported.</p><p>"We have to start doing the health studies to understand the implications," Boland told The Guardian. "We're already working with colleagues to look at what buttons in the immune system these particles begin to press."<br></p><p>The researchers explained their methodology and results in <a href="https://theconversation.com/bottle-fed-babies-may-consume-millions-of-microplastic-particles-our-research-suggests-148350" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>. They used common polypropylene baby bottles, and followed the WHO's 2007 <a href="https://www.who.int/foodsafety/publications/micro/PIF_Bottle_en.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">guidelines</a> for preparing baby formula. This involved cleaning, sterilizing and mixing formula. The results were that bottles released up to 16 million particles per liter of water heated to 158 degrees F. The number of particles jumped to 55 million at 203 degrees F.</p>
<p>Not only does hotter water shed more microplastics, but so does shaking the bottle, which is a common practice for reconstituting formula.</p><p>However, the researchers also created a simple four-step method for reducing microplastic exposure, detailed in The Conversation:</p><ol><li>Rinse sterilized feeding bottles with cool, sterile water.</li><li>Always prepare formula in a non-plastic container.</li><li>After formula has cooled to room temperature, transfer it into the cooled, sterilized feeding bottle.</li><li>Avoid rewarming prepared formula in plastic containers, especially with a microwave oven.</li></ol><p>The last step resonated with Boland. He told Wired, "I think the important learning is never, ever, ever use a microwave oven to heat anything with a plastic container. Because what happens is you get in fact the local heating of the plastic and the water together, which gives enhanced levels of microplastic generation. And so that combination we think is particularly potent."</p>
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Trump Calls Fauci 'a Disaster,' Tries to Blame Science and Medical Experts for Failed Coronavirus Response
6h
Politics
Trump arrives as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci looks on during a Coronavirus Task Force press briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, on April 4, 2020. JIM WATSON / AFP via Getty Images
President Trump attacked the nation's top infectious disease specialist in a call with campaign staffers that several reporters were allowed to listen to on Monday. In the call, Trump said that Dr. Anthony S. Fauci was "a disaster." He added that despite the evidence that coronavirus cases are once again rising across the country, the public was tired of hearing so much news about the virus, especially from "these idiots" in the government and scientific community, as The Washington Post reported.
<p>Trump seemed irked by an interview that Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, gave to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssiLlfGT9gg&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">60 Minutes</a> in which Fauci said he was not surprised that Trump contracted the coronavirus after attending a large event at the White House for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett where attendees were not masked.</p><p>In many interviews, Fauci has touted the efficacy of wearing masks and social distancing, while warning that a failure to follow those safety measures could lead to a very difficult fall and winter as coronavirus and influenza intersect. The evidence suggests Fauci is correct, as the U.S. saw more than 70,000 new cases on Friday, its highest total in months, while the virus is gaining strength in Europe once again, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/19/us/politics/trump-fauci-covid.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported.</p><p>In his broadside Monday, Trump dismissed those concerns about the virus, claiming that the public's interest has waned.</p>
<p>"People are tired of COVID," Trump said on the call, according to The New York Times. "I have the biggest rallies I've ever had. And we have COVID. People are saying: 'Whatever. Just leave us alone.' They're tired of it."</p><p>He tried to shift blame for the administration's response by saying, "People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots — these people, these people that have gotten it wrong," Trump said, as <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/fauci-says-he-s-not-surprised-trump-contracted-covid-19-n1243857" target="_blank">NBC News</a> reported. "Fauci's a nice guy. He's been here for 500 years. He called every one of them wrong. And he's like this wonderful guy, a wonderful sage telling us how to respond to the pandemic. Fauci is a disaster. If I listened to him, we'd have 500,000 deaths. If we listened to him, we'd have 700-800,000 deaths right now."</p>
<p>At the same time that Trump was issuing his attacks on the government's medical experts, Fauci was receiving the National Academy of Medicine's first-ever Presidential Citation for Exemplary Leadership in a virtual event, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/19/politics/donald-trump-anthony-fauci-coronavirus/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported.</p><p>"We have a lot of challenges ahead of us and I can't help thinking that we're really going through a time that's disturbingly anti-<a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/science/">science</a> in certain segments of our society," Fauci said in his speech as he accepted the award, according to CNN.</p><p>Trump was not done with his attacks on Fauci. Later in the day, Trump took to Twitter to mock Fauci for his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eD5xkn4WLA" target="_blank">errant ceremonial first pitch</a> for the Washington Nationals on opening day, as The Washington Post reported.</p><p>"Tony should stop wearing the Washington Nationals' Mask for two reasons. Number one, it is not up to the high standards that he should be exposing," Trump wrote on <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1318252740431155200" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Twitter</a>. "Number two, it keeps reminding me that Tony threw out perhaps the worst first pitch in the history of Baseball!"</p>
<p>Trump's attack on one of the nation's most revered doctors generated a swift backlash from both sides of the aisle.</p><p>The Biden campaign responded by saying, "Mr. President, you're right about one thing: The American people are tired. They're tired of your lies about this virus," as The New York Times reported.</p><p>Senator Lamar Alexander, a Republican from Tennessee, called Fauci one of the country's most distinguished public servants.</p><p>"If more Americans paid attention to his advice, we'd have fewer cases of COVID-19, & it would be safer to go back to school & back to work & out to eat," Alexander wrote on <a href="https://twitter.com/SenAlexander/status/1318259834437906439" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.<span></span></p>
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Anika Chebrolu of Frisco, Texas has been named "America's Top Young Scientist" for identifying a molecule that can selectively bind to the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Anika Chebrolu / YouTube
Scientists at top universities searching for a coronavirus cure have just gotten help from an unexpected source: a 14-year-old from Texas.
<p>Anika Chebrolu of Frisco, Texas has been named "America's Top Young Scientist" for identifying a molecule that can selectively bind to the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, in hopes of developing a cure for the disease that has so far <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html" target="_blank">infected</a> more than 40 million people and claimed more than one million lives.</p><p>"My effort to find a lead compound to bind to the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus this summer may appear to be a drop in the ocean, but still adds to all these efforts," Chebrolu told <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/18/us/anika-chebrolu-covid-treatment-award-scn-trnd/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a>.</p>
<p>To identify the binding molecule, Chebrolu used in-silico methodology for drug discovery. Binding the virus's spike protein is important because inhibiting this protein can potentially stop the virus from entering a healthy cell, <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201014005340/en/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Business Wire explained</a>. Chebrolu used software to screen millions of potential molecules for drug-likeness and ADMET properties, as well as their ability to bind to the spike protein. The molecule with the most binding ability was then chosen as a potential drug candidate.</p><p>Chebrolu did all this work as part of the <a href="https://www.youngscientistlab.com/challenge" target="_blank">3M Young Scientist Challenge</a>, a nationwide science competition for fifth to eighth grade students, now in its 13th year. Students submit a one to two minute video explaining their solution to an everyday problem. Based on these videos, ten finalists are then selected and given the chance to develop their project with a 3M scientist mentor. Chebrolu's mentor was Dr. Mahfuza Ali, a 3M corporate scientist in the materials resource division.</p>
<p>This year for the first time, the top ten finalists competed virtually for the winning spot, which comes with $25,000, a special trip and the honor of being named "America's Top Young Scientist."</p><p>"Amidst the challenges of a global pandemic, quality STEM education for all has become an even more urgent need, and 3M's commitment to fostering the next generation of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/science" target="_self">science</a> leaders has never been more determined," 3M senior vice president of corporate affairs Denise Rutherford told Business Wire. "In spite of challenges, like adjusting to new norms of distance learning and participating in virtual events, this year's <em>3M Young Scientist Challenge</em> finalists have smashed through barriers with grit, creativity, innovative thinking, and excitement – all in the name of applying science to improve lives. 3M is inspired by these young innovators and we celebrate each one of them. Our heartfelt congratulations go to this year's winner, Anika Chebrolu, and our many thanks to all our <em>3M Young Scientist Challenge</em> finalists."</p>
<p>Chebrolu did not originally intend to complete a project about the coronavirus, according to CNN. Her initial submission video was about finding a molecule that could bind a protein in the influenza virus.</p><p>"I have always been amazed by science experiments since my childhood and I was drawn towards finding effective cures for Influenza disease after a severe bout of the infection last year," <a href="https://www.youngscientistlab.com/entry/2397" target="_blank">she told 3M</a>.</p>
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="959cb7785a544c148c6302151ef7a793"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fziWyFUO2dw?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
<p>However, when COVID-19 began to spread, Chebrolu worked with her mentor to switch gears.</p><p>"After spending so much time researching about pandemics, viruses and drug discovery, it was crazy to think that I was actually living through something like this," Chebrolu told CNN.</p><p>Chebrolu's work isn't done now that she has won the prize. She told 3M that she hopes to be a medical researcher and professor in the next 15 years, and she is getting an early start. She now wants to work with other scientists to turn her project into an actual treatment for COVID-19.</p>
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Fish exposed to endocrine-disrupting compounds, like this inland silverside fish, can pass on health problems to future generations. Bill Stagnaro / Wikimedia Commons / CC by 3.0
By Brian Bienkowski
Fish exposed to endocrine-disrupting compounds pass on health problems to future generations, including deformities, reduced survival, and reproductive problems, according to a new study.
<p>The study, published in<a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.0c02892" target="_blank"> <em>Environmental Science and Technology</em></a>, is the first of its kind in a fish that can live in freshwater, brackish water or salt water, and suggests that compounds in pesticides and birth control that pollute waterways are not only harming fish living there now, but their offspring and the subsequent generation as well.</p><p>The results are troublesome as the negative effects seen in fish offspring—including reduced survival and reproduction problems—could lead to population level declines over time.</p><p>"These effects can carry over into indirectly exposed fish and those not exposed at all," Bethany DeCourten, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral consultant at the University of California Davis' Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Cell Biology, told EHN.</p><p>The research offers the latest evidence of the deeply embedded biological problems for humans and animals exposed to endocrine-disrupting chemicals—which mimic natural hormones—that are pervasive in our environment.</p><p>"These findings suggest that single-generation toxicity testing may not be adequate to determine the effects of these chemicals on long-term population viability," the authors wrote.</p>
Low Levels Lead to Generational Impacts
<p>Researchers exposed inland silverside fish to bifenthrin, levonorgestrel, ethinylestradiol, and trenbolone to levels currently found in waterways.</p><p>"Our concentrations were actually on the low end" of what is found in the wild, DeCourten said, adding that it was low amounts of chemicals in parts per trillion.</p><p>Bifenthrin is a pesticide; levonorgestrel and ethinylestradiol are synthetic hormones used in birth controls; and trenbolone is a synthetic steroid often given to cattle to bulk them up.</p><p>Such endocrine-disruptors have already been linked to a variety of health problems in directly exposed fish including altered growth, reduced survival, lowered egg production, skewed sex ratios, and negative impacts to immune systems. But what remains less clear is how the exposure may impact future generations.</p><p>For their study, DeCourten and colleagues started the exposure when the fish were embryos and continued it for 21 days.</p><p>They then tracked effects on the exposed fish, and the next two generations.</p><p>They found:</p><ul><li>The exposed fish had impacted gene expression and DNA methylation, increased deformities, and decreased egg production;</li><li>The first generation, which was indirectly exposed within their parents, had reduced hatching success, and deformities in developing larvae;</li><li>And the second generation, which had no exposure, had the largest decrease in survival rates, and altered DNA methylation.</li></ul><p>In looking at two subsequent generations, the study roughly corresponds to three years in the wild, DeCourten said. "We saw impacts on survival in the second generation," she said. "This definitely could impact populations as a whole. Right now, we just don't really have an idea of exactly what that could mean for wild populations."</p><p>Senior author of the study Susanne Brander said it's reasonable to think that other fish species would be similarly impacted, especially other estuary and marine fish, as the salt content in water can change the way fish respond to different stressors, including pollution.</p><p>Brander, an assistant professor at Oregon State University, has been working with inland silverside fish for a little more than a decade.</p><p>In addition to her work, the silverside has been used for decades in wastewater effluent testing across the country.<br></p><p>It's a "model organism for estuary and marine and coastal habitats," she told EHN.</p>
Inherited Problems
<p>DeCourten said the altered DNA methylation is one of the plausible ways that future generations would experience health impacts from previous generations' exposure. Hormone-disrupting compounds have been shown to impact DNA methylation, which is an important marker of how an organism will develop.</p><p>"Methyl groups are added to specific sites on the genome, [the exposure] is not changing the genome itself, but rather how the genome is expressed," she said. "And that can be inherited throughout generations."</p><p>In addition, Brander said there are essentially different "tags" that exist on DNA molecules, which tell genes how to turn on and off. She said the exposure to different compounds may be "influencing which methyl tags get taken on or off as you proceed through generations."</p><p>The researchers said the study should prompt future toxics testing to consider impacts on future generations.</p><p>"The results … throw a wrench in the current approach to regulating chemicals, where it's often short-term testing looking at simple things like growth, survival, and maybe gene expression," Brander said.</p><p>"These findings are telling us we really at least need to consider" the next two generations, she added.</p>From Your Site Articles
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New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern Wins Historic Victory Following Science-Based Leadership on COVID and Climate
19 October
Politics
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern declares victory during the Labor Party Election Night Function at Auckland Town Hall on Oct. 17, 2020 in Auckland, New Zealand. Hannah Peters / Getty Images
Jacinda Ardern, the New Zealand Prime Minister who has emerged as a leader on the climate crisis and the coronavirus pandemic, has won a second term in office.
<p>Ardern's Labour Party secured a historic victory in New Zealand's <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/new-zealand-ardern-renewable-energy-2647595133.html" target="_self">general election Saturday</a>, earning 49 percent of the vote and an estimated 64 out of 120 parliamentary seats, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/17/jacinda-arderns-labour-party-set-for-victory-in-new-zealand-election" target="_blank">The Guardian reported</a>. It is Labour's biggest victory in 50 years, and the first time any party has won a large enough majority to govern alone since 1996, according to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-54519628" target="_blank">BBC News</a>. Ardern's popularity has been attributed in part to her pro-<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/science" target="_self">science</a> approach to the coronavirus pandemic, according to The Guardian. She acted to close down borders and institute a national lockdown, and the country saw a total of 25 deaths and less than 2,000 cases.</p><p>"Science and clear communication around Covid-19 have won the day against Trumpery and fake news — people have clearly seen how the government looked after us," Labour supporter Christine told <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/18/jacinda-ardern-eases-into-second-term-amid-relief-in-new-zealand-at-election-landslide" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> Sunday.</p>
<div id="1bb8d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="870071749bb41f9c7a734ba644150169"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1317477722789236740" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Historic results:
-New Zealand First loses all its representatives
-Worst National result since 2002 (26.85%)
-Firs… https://t.co/zX1tn3xis3</div> — Election Forecast 🇦🇺 🇳🇿 (@Election Forecast 🇦🇺 🇳🇿)<a href="https://twitter.com/ForecastOceania/statuses/1317477722789236740">1602946141.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The election has also been seen as a mandate for Labour's climate policy, according to <a href="https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/10/19/new-zealanders-vote-climate-ambition-jacinda-ardern-greens/" target="_blank">Climate Home News</a>. During Ardern's first term, Labour governed in coalition with the Greens and the populist New Zealand First party. The government <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/new-zealand-offshore-oil-gas-2559278982.html" target="_self">banned</a> future offshore <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oil-and-gas" target="_self">oil and gas</a> exploration and passed a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/new-zealand-zero-emissions-2641247378.html" target="_self">historic bill</a> pledging to get the country to zero emissions by 2050.</p><p>However, some of Ardern's climate ambitions during her first term were curtailed by her partnership with New Zealand First, which blocked ideas like a tax on imported <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuel" target="_self">fossil-fuel</a> cars and a subsidy for <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/electric-vehicles" target="_self">electric vehicles</a>.</p>
<p>This time around, New Zealand First has lost all of its seats in parliament while the Green Party has increased its share of the votes from six to eight percent. While Labour has secured enough votes to govern alone, Ardern has said she is open to forming a coalition government, according to The Guardian, and Green Party leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson said they hoped to be included in order to move the government in a more progressive direction.</p><p>Before the election, Labour had promised more environmental policies if it won, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/new-zealand-ardern-renewable-energy-2647595133.html" target="_self">including</a> achieving 100 percent <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/renewable-energy/" target="_self">renewable energy</a> by 2030 instead of 2035. Labour's main opposition, the National Party, only secured 27 percent of the vote, down from 44 percent, according to Climate Home News. The party had run on reversing the oil and gas drilling ban as well as rolling back protections for freshwater ecosystems, <a href="https://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/story/jacinda-arderns-nuclear-free-moment-heres-three-things-that-would-make-it-a-reality/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=election&utm_content=supporter-email" target="_blank">according to Greenpeace New Zealand</a>.</p>
<p>"The election result has delivered a strong mandate for the transformational climate action that the Prime Minister promised," Greenpeace New Zealand wrote.</p><p>Nearly 80 percent of New Zealanders are worried about the climate crisis and support a green recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, which has thrown New Zealand into its first recession in 11 years, according to BBC News.</p><p>Recovering from that recession will be a major challenge for Ardern's second term. In addition, she no longer has the excuse of New Zealand First holding her back from more ambitious climate policies.</p><p>"NZ First was often blamed for slow progress on environment policies, and sometimes this was true. With Winston Peters and his party gone, we expect to see immediate moves to tackle agricultural climate pollution, to invest in rail and cycleways, and to protect the oceans from overfishing," Greenpeace New Zealand director Russell Norman told Climate Home News.</p>
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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicted a mild winter for most of the U.S. Thursday, forecasting that the drought that now covers nearly half the country will get worse, according to The New York Times.
<p><br/></p>
<p>NOAA's <a href="https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Climate Prediction Center</a> released its winter outlook for 2020-2021 Thursday and predicted that much of the South and Southwest will remain dry this winter, while areas in the Pacific Northwest and the Upper Plains will have the opposite problem — they will have a wetter than average winter, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/15/weather/2020-winter-forecast-noaa-outlook/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported.</p><p>That means that the current drought that blankets just under 47 percent of the continental U.S. will only get worse during the months that usually bring relief. The country is currently in its most widespread drought since 2013.</p>
<p>NOAA's <a href="https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/long_range/seasonal.php?lead=2" target="_blank">prediction model</a> said that this year's La Niña will drive warmer and drier weather through the southern part of the country this winter. This zone includes areas where wildfires are currently burning, like Southern California and Colorado.</p><p>"With La Niña well established and expected to persist through the upcoming 2020 winter season, we anticipate the typical, cooler, wetter North, and warmer, drier South, as the most likely outcome of winter weather that the U.S. will experience this year," said Mike Halpert, deputy director of NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, <a href="https://www.noaa.gov/media-release/us-winter-outlook-cooler-north-warmer-south-with-ongoing-la-nina" target="_blank">in a news release</a>, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/10/15/noaa-winter-outlook/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> reported.</p><p>The model splits the lower 48 states into three stripes. One massive stripe runs coast-to-coast from Southern California to North Carolina. It will see a dry winter. A band that encompasses Oregon and Washington and runs along the northern part of the country to Michigan will see a wet winter. The rest of the country will see fairly normal conditions, as the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-news-weather-united-states-1e67f7a2fa8093c748a8741dad55ca84" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">AP</a> reported.</p>
<p>Halpert added in a call with reporters that La Ninas, which are periodic cooling of waters in the tropical regions of the Pacific Ocean, usually reduce the odds of large snowstorms on the East Coast. However, the model cannot predict extreme events months ahead of time, according to the AP.</p><p>The climate prediction model is also forecasting above average temperatures for much of the country, with the largest spikes above the average in southern Texas. However, each month may see fluctuations that differ from the overall trend toward warming, as <a href="https://weather.com/forecast/national/news/2020-10-14-winter-2020-2021-temperature-outlook-united-states" target="_blank">The Weather Channel</a> reported.</p><p>"The typical La Niña response is for warm November, cold December, and warm January/February; however, January and February can have significant volatility depending on if high-latitude blocking occurs," said Todd Crawford, chief meteorologist at The Weather Company, as The Weather Channel reported. High-latitude blocking stymies the flow of La Niña from west to east and allows cold air from the Arctic to make its way south.</p>
<p>Studies show that the Southwest, which has been in a drought for the past two decades, is in the grips of its worst megadrought in 1,200 years, as <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/southwest-drought-climate-crisis-2645742986.html" target="_self">EcoWatch</a> reported.</p><p>Halpert said the high likelihood of a worsening drought in the region this winter is directly linked to La Niña, which started in August and is expected to continue through December, as The New York Times reported.</p><p><span>Halpert also emphasized that the prediction is based on mathematical models and that sometimes the impacts of La Niña and El Niño systems do not play out.</span></p>
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The Glass Fire burns on a mountainside with the Beckstoffer Vinyards in the foreground on Sept. 28, 2020 in St. Helena, Californai. Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
By Kenny Stancil
As the climate crisis fuels devastating wildfires across the western United States and melts Arctic sea ice at an alarming rate, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Wednesday that Earth just experienced the hottest September on record and that 2020 is on pace to be one of the three hottest years on the books.
<p><a href="https://www.noaa.gov/news/earth-just-had-its-hottest-september-on-record" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">According to</a> NOAA, "the 10 warmest Septembers have all occurred since 2005, with the seven warmest Septembers occurring in the last seven years."</p><p>"We've broken the climate system," tweeted meteorologist Eric Holthaus. "We are in a climate emergency."</p>
<p>NOAA <a href="https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/202009/supplemental/page-2" target="_blank">found</a> that 2020 has a 65% chance of beating out 2016 as the warmest year on record, a 35% chance of being the second-warmest ever, and will almost certainly rank in the top three.</p><p>Climate scientists emphasized that this year's record-setting temperatures have been accompanied by an unprecedented wave of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/extreme-weather">extreme weather</a> events. A <a href="https://www.undrr.org/publication/human-cost-disasters-overview-last-20-years-2000-2019" target="_blank">report</a> published Tuesday by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction examined the "staggering" increase in climate-related disasters, which doubled from 3,656 between 1980 and 1999 to 6,681 between 2000 and 2019, as Common Dreams <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/13/uninhabitable-hell-millions-un-report-sounds-alarm-humanitys-continued-destruction" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported</a>. </p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDUyMzM4My9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NDUzMTg0OH0.rbCjdegltKGIl4s67tRVN9oy5BzfGCgrV2YFQHTmbCc/img.png?width=980" id="c59fd" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="14b10059877082736fc58eae8cd9a837" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p>Researchers at Yale <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/10/september-2020-was-warmest-september-on-record-noaa-reports/" target="_blank">found</a> that eight weather-related disasters causing $1 billion or more in damage occurred across the world in September alone, bringing the annual total thus far to 35. There were 40 such events in both 2018 and 2019.</p><p>With 16 extreme weather events so far in 2020, the U.S. has already tied its record for most billion-dollar weather disasters in a single year. </p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDUyMzM5MS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNTE4MDgxOH0.NdmxdhaKwzDvkn784hESu2ZA4P5NNIDvthK11NopCZ8/img.png?width=980" id="3a4e7" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="dc302971d3a01053e3841558a704bfbe" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p>NOAA's findings echo a European Union study published one week ago. As Common Dreams <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/07/scientists-warn-2020-pace-become-hottest-year-ever-september-heat-smashes-previous" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported</a>, one of the EU climate scientists who contributed to the analysis noted that the planet "will carry on warming if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the rate they are at the moment."</p><p>"It is baffling that we willingly and knowingly continue to sow the seeds of our own destruction," the U.N. report stated, "despite the science and evidence that we are turning our only home into an uninhabitable hell for millions of people."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/14/planet-earth-says-noaa-just-had-its-hottest-september-record" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Could the climate crisis drive Homo sapiens to extinction? An artist's illustration shows a desolate landscape, perhaps after global warming has rendered much of Earth inhospital to humans. MARK GARLICK / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Getty Images
Could the climate crisis drive Homo sapiens to extinction?
<p>If history repeats itself, then maybe. In a study published in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590332220304760?via%3Dihub" target="_blank"><em>One Earth</em></a> Thursday, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/scientists" target="_self">scientists</a> used a combination of the fossil record and climate modeling to determine that three early human species lost a significant chunk of their climate niche right before going extinct.</p><p>"It is worrisome to discover that our ancestors, which were no less impressive in terms of mental power as compared to any other species on Earth, could not resist climate change," lead author Pasquale Raia of Università di Napoli Federico II in Napoli, Italy said in a <a href="https://phys.org/news/2020-10-climate-drove-early-human-species.html?fbclid=IwAR1jKLrU_rUPVVaNCK8JWyoE-_fNz6WTPjzLbkSb1fhbvzB-RtnblalCHTY" target="_blank">Cell Press press release published by Phys.org</a>. "And we found that just when our own species is sawing the branch we're sitting on by causing climate change. I personally take this as a thunderous warning message. Climate change made Homo vulnerable and hapless in the past, and this may just be happening again."</p>
<p>The researchers looked at six early human species that had existed from the Pliocene to the Pleistocene epochs: <em>Homo habilis</em>, <em>Homo ergaster</em>, <em>Homo erectus</em>, <em>Homo heidelbergensis</em>, <em>Homo neanderthalensis</em> and <em>Homo sapiens.</em> They compared 2,754 archeological findings with a climate emulator that determines rainfall, temperature and other factors over the last five million years in order to determine the climate niche for each species and whether it changed over time.</p><p>A climate niche is the sweet spot of climate conditions that are best suited to a given species' survival, <a href="https://institutions.newscientist.com/article/2257479-climate-change-may-have-driven-early-human-species-to-extinction/" target="_blank">New Scientist explained</a>.</p><p>For <em>Homo erectus</em>, <em>Homo heidelbergensis</em> and <em>Homo neanderthalensis, </em>their climate niche shrunk just before extinction. <em>Homo erectus</em>, for example, went extinct during the last glacial period, which was the coldest period that species had ever experienced, the study said.</p>
<p>"Our findings show that despite technological innovations including the use of fire and refined stone tools, the formation of complex social networks, and — in the case of Neanderthals — even the production of glued spear points, fitted clothes, and a good amount of cultural and genetic exchange with Homo sapiens, past Homo species could not survive intense <a href="https://phys.org/tags/climate+change/" target="_blank">climate change</a>," Raia said in the press release. "They tried hard; they made for the warmest places in reach as the climate got cold, but at the end of the day, that wasn't enough."</p><p>The researchers do think that, for Neanderthals, direct competition with modern humans combined with climate changes to push the species to the brink.</p>
<p>Other researchers who were not involved in the study cautioned that the fossil record is spotty for all of the species studied besides Neanderthals, which might mean that the species had longer lifespans or different climate niches than revealed in the study.</p><p>"Individuals belonging to these taxa lived at times, and in places, not sampled by the existing fossil record," Bernard Wood at George Washington University in Washington, DC told New Scientist.</p><p>The researchers did try to account for this somewhat by testing for two fossil records: a core fossil record including only remains known to belong to each species and an extended fossil record including unidentified remains that could have belonged to more than one species. They found that the climate niche shrunk before extinction for the three species in question no matter which record they used.</p>
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Heavy Smoke rises from the Cameron Peak fire as it continues to burn on Oct. 5, 2020 in Larimer County near Fort Collins, Colorado. Helen H. Richardson / MediaNews Group / The Denver Post via Getty Images
For the second time this year, Colorado is battling the largest wildfire in state history.
<p>Strong winds pushed the Cameron Peak fire 17 miles to the east Tuesday and Wednesday, <a href="https://wildfiretoday.com/2020/10/14/strong-winds-push-cameron-peak-fire-east-prompting-more-evacuations/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Wildfire Today reported</a>. It burned more than 20,000 acres in a single day, swelling to 158,300 acres by 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and placing at least nine new areas under evacuation orders, the <a href="https://eu.coloradoan.com/story/news/2020/10/14/largest-wildfire-colorado-history-cameron-peak-fire/3659545001/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Fort Collins Coloradoan reported</a>.</p>
<div id="76933" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7d898cedb438dfd8534d4f496549ca2b"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1316578050574897153" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Here is the #CameronPeakFire map created with data from the multi mission aircraft (MMA) flight earlier today. Th… https://t.co/PQanYpzbyT</div> — Canyon Lakes Ranger RD (@Canyon Lakes Ranger RD)<a href="https://twitter.com/usfsclrd/statuses/1316578050574897153">1602731642.0</a></blockquote></div>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDUyMDA2OS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MDk2MjgxMX0.kIfbtaRMKrM71wvz48H6dVC8P4GP5U0buEVJr3V3Vbo/img.png?width=980" id="89059" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4833a1292ec73bbdc9abcc80faf7ed51" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p>"This really was almost an epic day for doing evacuations and again, for everybody that's been moved, I know it's extremely difficult," officials said Wednesday night, as <a href="https://denver.cbslocal.com/2020/10/14/cameron-peak-fire-largest-wildfire-colorado-history/" target="_blank">CBS4 Denver reported</a>. "We do know that we lost structures today and for anybody who is impacted, you know, our heart goes out to you."<br></p><p>One family lost two cabins they owned in the Buckhorn Canyon area.</p><p>"The materials is one thing," Parker Hutchinson told CBS4 Denver. "But the amount of family heirlooms and just the memories of that area, they've been burned."</p><p>Despite these individual tragedies, Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith said the day could have been even worse.</p><p>"We have no reported injuries, no deaths, a lot fewer structures were impacted that we truly anticipated based on what we saw with that said, there's certainly a lot of folks that got hit," he said, as <a href="https://www.cpr.org/2020/10/14/cameron-peak-fire-spreads-quickly-into-more-populated-areas/" target="_blank">Colorado Public Radio reported</a>.</p>
<div id="f67b3" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ab50c11f23a7fdd3176e6fc537d96ed2"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1316443792988352522" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Time lapse sent by a colleague (with permission to share), taken near the mouth of the Big Thompson canyon… https://t.co/phRPfP4sAs</div> — Russ Schumacher (@Russ Schumacher)<a href="https://twitter.com/russ_schumacher/statuses/1316443792988352522">1602699633.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The Cameron Peak fire has been burning since Aug. 13 in the Arapahoe and Roosevelt National Forest. It has persisted despite a snowstorm in early September and more snow on Sunday, fueled by high winds and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/drought" target="_self">drought</a>. It had already destroyed or damaged 99 structures before exploding Tuesday, and officials said conditions were still too dangerous to assess the total number of buildings impacted in the last 24 hours. It is now 56 percent contained and more than 1,000 people are fighting it.</p><p>The fire is burning to the west of Fort Collins, but Smith said he did not think the flames would reach that more populous area or the nearby city of Loveland because they are protected by bodies of water and a lack of the heavy timber that feeds the flames.</p><p>The two largest fires in Colorado history both ignited this year. The Cameron Peak fire unseated the Pine Gulch fire, which burned 139,007 acres over the summer and held the record for only 48 days.</p>
<p>The ten largest fires in Colorado history all took place in the last 20 years, and seven took place in the last 10, according to figures reported by the Fort Collins Coloradoan.</p><p>As of August, 2020 was Colorado's third driest year on record and twelfth warmest, according to <a href="https://www.cpr.org/2020/08/20/colorado-wildfires-climate-change-drought-snowpack/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Colorado Public Radio</a>. Almost a fourth of the state is experiencing extreme drought. These fire-fueling conditions are in line with what scientists say the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a> will do to the state.</p><p>"What we're seeing here is indicative of the fact that when the hot, dry years come around, they're hotter than most of the time when they've occurred in the past," state climatologist Russ Schumacher told Colorado Public Radio. "And that's pretty well in line with what climate projections have been saying for some time."</p>
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The Climate Crisis Has Already Cost the Great Barrier Reef More Than Half Its Corals
14 October
Oceans
The Great Barrier Reef has lost more than 50 percent of its coral in the last 25 years. Andreas Dietzel
The Great Barrier Reef has lost more than 50 percent of its coral in the last 25 years, and the climate crisis is to blame.
<p>Researchers from the <a href="https://www.coralcoe.org.au/" target="_blank">ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies</a> (CoralCoE) made an in-depth study of how coral communities and their colony sizes had changed between 1995 and 2017 along the entire length of the reef. The results, published in the <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2020.1432" target="_blank">Proceedings of the Royal Society B</a> Wednesday, sound an urgent call for climate action.</p><p>"There is no time to lose — we must sharply decrease greenhouse gas emissions ASAP," the researchers <a href="https://www.coralcoe.org.au/media-releases/the-great-barrier-reef-has-lost-half-its-corals" target="_blank">said in a CoralCoE press release</a>.</p>
<p>The researchers found a decline in every size and species of coral in both shallow and deep water. The corals were especially devastated by <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/great-barrier-reef-coral-bleaching-2353658528.html" target="_self">back-to-back bleaching events in 2016 and 2017</a>, study author and James Cook University professor Terry Hughes told <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/14/great-barrier-reef-corals-have-more-than-halved-in-past-25-years-study-shows" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>.</p><p>While all the corals were impacted, these bleaching events took an especially heavy toll on branching and table-shaped corals, Hughes said in the press release. This is a big deal because these architectural corals provide habitats for <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fish" target="_self">fish</a>. Without them, fisheries decline.</p><p>"The reef is flatter and less three dimensional now," Hughes told The Guardian.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coral-bleaching" target="_self">Coral bleaching</a>, which <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/great-barrier-reef-ecological-memory-2623045702.html" target="_self">occurs</a> when hot water temperatures drive the algae that gives corals food and color from their homes, also struck the southern part of the reef at the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/coral-bleaching-great-barrier-reef-2645576557.html" target="_self">beginning of 2020</a>. This event was not included in the study, so the reef may be even more depleted than the researchers calculated.</p><p>The study's findings also have implications for the reef's ability to reproduce itself.</p><p>"A vibrant coral population has millions of small, baby corals, as well as many large ones — the big mamas who produce most of the larvae," lead author of CoralCoE Dr. Andy Dietzel said in the press release. "Our results show the ability of the Great Barrier Reef to recover — its resilience — is compromised compared to the past, because there are fewer babies, and fewer large breeding adults."</p>
<p>Bob Richmond, a research professor and director of the Kewalo Marine Laboratory at the University of Hawaii at Manoa who was not involved with the study, told <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/10/13/warming-has-killed-half-coral-great-barrier-reef-study-finds-it-might-never-recover/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR2_x37PLr_SITwRm2VbrAgbOw3aqJPxPKbgnCZHX8kweHAe2g8Ngj6lw6Q" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> he was impressed with the work and agreed the reef was in trouble.</p><p>"If I don't see one-year-old, two-year-old, three-year-old corals, I know that reef is dead," he said. "It just doesn't know it yet."</p><p>The Great Barrier Reef stretches almost 133,000 square miles, making it the largest <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coral-reefs" target="_self">coral reef</a> in the world, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/great-barrier-reef-coral-loss-intl-scli-climate-scn/index.html" target="_blank">according to CNN</a>. It provides a habitat for more than 1,500 species of fish and 411 species of hard corals.</p><p>It is also hugely important for the economy of Australia, The Washington Post pointed out. It drew more than two million tourists every year before the pandemic. Despite this, Australia continues to be the world's top <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coal" target="_self">coal</a> exporter.</p>
<p>Hughes explicitly called out Australia's pro-fossil fuel policies as a "profound policy-failure" for managing the reef on <a href="https://twitter.com/ProfTerryHughes/status/1316262459313803270" target="_blank">Twitter</a>. He said the only hope for the reef's survival was to limit global warming in line with the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/paris-agreement">Paris agreement</a>.</p><p>"There's not much time to lose," he told The Guardian. "I think if we can control warming somewhere between 1.5-2C [above pre-industrial levels], as per the Paris agreement, then we'll still have a reef. But if we get to 3-4C because of unrestrained emissions then we won't have a recognisable Great Barrier Reef."</p>
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The ozone hole over Antarctica on Oct. 6, 2020. NASA Ozone Watch
The hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica is one of the largest and deepest in the past 15 years, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said Tuesday.
<p>The ozone hole over Antarctica usually starts to grow in August and reaches its peak in October, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/europe-antarctica-climate-change-archive-geneva-ec4eeb8da25ef7a7536c05105cf50550" target="_blank">The Associated Press explained</a>. This year, it peaked at 24 million square kilometers (approximately 9.3 million square miles) and is now at 23 million square kilometers (approximately 8.9 million square miles), the WMO said. This means the hole is larger than the average for the past decade and extends over most of Antarctica.</p><p>"With the sunlight returning to the South Pole in the last weeks, we saw continued ozone depletion over the area. <a href="https://public.wmo.int/en/media/news/antarctic-ozone-hole-smallest-record" target="_blank">After the unusually small and short-lived ozone hole in 2019,</a> which was driven by special meteorological conditions, we are registering a rather large one again this year, which confirms that we need to continue enforcing the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/montreal-protocol" target="_self">Montreal Protocol</a> banning emissions of ozone depleting chemicals," Vincent-Henri Peuch, director of the EU's Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) at ECMWF, said in the WMO press release.</p>
<div id="e533d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3148f785e224740722e9b973c1f73d13"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1313453354266382337" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The #ozone hole over the #Antarctic is one of the largest and deepest in recent years, per @CopernicusECMWF,… https://t.co/k8DUe65iqV</div> — World Meteorological Organization (@World Meteorological Organization)<a href="https://twitter.com/WMO/statuses/1313453354266382337">1601986657.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The ozone layer is important because it protects the earth from dangerous ultraviolet radiation, <a href="https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/monitoring-ozone-layer" target="_blank">CAMS explained</a>. In the late 20th century, that layer was damaged by the human release of ozone-depleting halocarbons, which the Montreal Protocol of 1987 sought to control.</p><p>But the size of the ozone hole every year is also impacted by specific weather conditions. This year, a strong polar vortex has chilled the air above Antarctica, and consistently cold air creates the ideal conditions for ozone depletion.</p><p>"The air has been below minus 78 degrees Celsius, and this is the temperature which you need to form stratospheric clouds — and this quite (a) complex process," WMO spokesperson Clare Nullis said at a UN briefing reported by The Associated Press. "The ice in these clouds triggers a reaction which then can destroy the ozone zone. So, it's because of that that we are seeing the big ozone hole this year."</p><p>Specifically, the ice can turn nonreactive chemicals into reactive ones, the WMO explained. Light from the sun then triggers chemical reactions that deplete the ozone layer.</p>
<p>The Montreal Protocol has been <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/montreal-protocol-ozone-climate-change-2641579082.html" target="_self">hailed</a> as an example of effective international collaboration on a major environmental problem. Last year's hole over Antarctica was the smallest it has been since the hole was discovered, but this was due to unusual weather, not emissions reductions, <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/ozone-hole-antarctica-largest-deepest-years-researchers/story?id=73451987" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ABC News reported</a>.</p><p>"There is much variability in how far ozone hole events develop each year," Peuch said in the WMO release.</p><p>The 2018 hole was also on the larger side.</p><p>Still, the WMO and the UN Environment Programme determined in 2018 that the ozone layer was on the road to recovery and could return to pre-1980 levels over Antarctica by 2060.</p>
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New England Journal of Medicine Urges Readers to Oust Trump Over Bungled Coronavirus Response
08 October
Politics
Trump stands on the Truman Balcony at the White House on Oct. 5, 2020 in Washington, DC after receiving treatments for COVID-19 at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post via Getty Images
For the first time in more than two centuries of publication, the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) has taken a stand on a U.S. election.
<p>In an editorial titled "<a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2029812" target="_blank">Dying in a Leadership Vacuum</a>" published Wednesday, the journal condemned the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/trump-administration" target="_self">Trump administration</a> for its handling of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coronavirus" target="_self">coronavirus</a> pandemic.</p><p>"Covid-19 has created a crisis throughout the world," the editors wrote. "This crisis has produced a test of leadership. With no good options to combat a novel pathogen, countries were forced to make hard choices about how to respond. Here in the United States, our leaders have failed that test. They have taken a crisis and turned it into a tragedy."</p>
<p>The editors pointed to the outsized U.S. caseload and death toll — the country still leads the world for both metrics. They compared the U.S. numbers with other countries that had greater vulnerabilities but much lower death tolls, such as China, where COVID-19 originated; Japan, which has a large elderly population; and Vietnam, which has fewer resources. They pointed out that the death rate in China was three per million, while in the U.S. it was more than 500 per million.</p><p>Further, they highlighted specific failures in pandemic response, such as an early delay in widespread testing and getting proper protective gear to frontline medical workers. They also railed against the politicization of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/public-health" target="_self">public health</a>.</p><p>"[I]n much of the country, people simply don't wear masks, largely because our leaders have stated outright that masks are political tools rather than effective infection control measures," they wrote.</p>
<p>Finally, they argued that the U.S. had the ability to respond well to the pandemic, both because of its manufacturing capabilities and its many scientific institutions and experts. But instead of listening to these experts, the editors said, the current administration sidelined them. It either undermined, ignored or politicized government institutions like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health that could have led an effective response.</p><p>"Our leaders have largely claimed immunity for their actions. But this election gives us the power to render judgment. Reasonable people will certainly disagree about the many political positions taken by candidates. But truth is neither liberal nor conservative. When it comes to the response to the largest public health crisis of our time, our current political leaders have demonstrated that they are dangerously incompetent. We should not abet them and enable the deaths of thousands more Americans by allowing them to keep their jobs," the editorial concluded.</p>
<p>While the editorial does not mention President <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/donald-trump" target="_self">Donald Trump</a> or his election rival former Vice President <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/joe-biden" target="_self">Joe Biden</a> by name, it is a clear call to oust the president at the polls in November.</p><p>"The fact that @NEJM has taken a side in this Presidential election is telling as to how critical of a moment we are in," Joseph Sakran, a trauma surgeon and director of emergency general surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, <a href="https://twitter.com/JosephSakran/status/1314034223519543296?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1314034223519543296%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3&ref_url=about%3Asrcdoc" target="_blank">tweeted</a> Wednesday, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/10/08/science-journal-endorsement-trump/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Washington Post reported</a>.</p><p>This is only the fifth time in the journal's 208-year history that all of its editors have signed an editorial. The previous four included an obituary for former editor in chief Arnold S. Relman and statements in <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe1315461" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">support of contraception access</a>, in <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe1910174" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">support of Roe v. Wade</a> and a <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe1413296" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">comment</a> on a government draft policy on informed consent requirements for standard-of-care research. While three of these articles did weigh in on specific policies, the editorial board has never before taken a position on an election or candidate.</p>
<p>"It should be clear that we are not a political organization," NEJM editor in chief Dr. Eric Rubin told <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/07/health/new-england-journal-trump.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&fbclid=IwAR0_IYA5fDP1gEcQdR6WfIk1lIdTX7Ib2UomxWa317eslze4M-U2GTe0FP4" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>. "But pretty much every week in our editorial meeting there would be some new outrage. How can you not speak out at a time like this?"</p><p>The NEJM isn't the first scientific publication to break with precedent ahead of the 2020 election.</p><p>On Sep.15, <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientific-american-endorses-joe-biden1/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Scientific American</a> backed a presidential candidate for the first time in its 175-year history when it endorsed Biden.</p><p>"The evidence and the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/science" target="_self">science</a> show that Donald Trump has badly damaged the U.S. and its people — because he rejects evidence and science," the editors wrote.</p><p>In addition to his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, the editors also pointed to Trump's rollback of environmental health measures designed to protect people from <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/air-pollution" target="_self">air pollution</a> and his refusal to act on the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a>.</p>
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Trump Again Claims Coronavirus Less Deadly Than Flu, Prompting Facebook and Twitter to Block His Post
07 October
Politics
A member of the White House cleaning staff sanitizes the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room on Oct. 5, 2020 in Washington, DC. Donald Trump, several members of his staff, and three members of the press corps have recently tested positive for coronavirus. Win McNamee / Getty Images
Both Facebook and Twitter acted Tuesday to flag a post by President Donald Trump in which he once again downplayed the new coronavirus by comparing it to the seasonal flu.
<p>"Flu season is coming up!," Trump said in the post, as <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/06/facebook-removes-trump-post-falsely-comparing-coronavirus-and-the-flu.html" target="_blank">CNBC reported</a>. "Many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the Flu. Are we going to close down our Country? No, we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!"</p><p>This is not true. COVID-19 has killed 210,909 U.S. residents so far, according to the most recent figures from <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html" target="_blank">Johns Hopkins University</a>. That's almost 10 times more than the 22,000 estimated deaths during the 2019-2020 flu season, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/2019-2020.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) figures</a>. The 2017-2018 flu season, which was the deadliest since 2010, saw around 61,000 deaths, CNBC reported.</p>
<p>The coronavirus also has a much higher mortality rate, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/latest-updates-trump-covid-19-results/2020/10/06/920787737/facebook-twitter-take-action-after-trump-falsely-claims-flu-deadlier-than-covid-?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_term=nprnews&fbclid=IwAR0fJuocR8DX9zbqTmcZ4TOR7l5gXNMM8YoesSoYNpMDXBsYDQVuEdo9SQU" target="_blank">NPR pointed out</a>. The seasonal flu usually has a mortality rate of less than 0.1 percent, while the coronavirus in the U.S. has had an estimated mortality rate of between 0.5 percent and slightly more than one percent.</p><p>Facebook removed the post altogether around 11 a.m. Eastern Time, CNBC reported.</p><p>"We remove incorrect information about the severity of Covid-19, and have now removed this post," a Facebook spokesperson told CNBC.</p>
<p>Twitter did not remove the post altogether, but instead covered it with a warning that users had to click past in order to view the tweet and also prevented it from being shared. It posted the warning more than three hours after Trump wrote the tweet.</p><p>"This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19," the social media company wrote. "However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public's interest for the Tweet to remain accessible."</p>
<p>This isn't the first time that the social media companies have had to remove Trump posts for sharing false information about the coronavirus. In August, Facebook and Twitter <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/coronavirus-children-trump-2646907893.html" target="_self">removed</a> posts that included a link to a video clip in which Trump claimed that children were "almost immune" to the disease. The Facebook post was from Trump's own account, while the Twitter post was from his campaign's account.</p><p>It is also not the first time that Trump has attempted to downplay the risks of the coronavirus by comparing it to the flu, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-facebook-twitter-covid-19-flu/" target="_blank">CBS News pointed out</a>.</p><p>"So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year," <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1237027356314869761" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Trump tweeted March 9</a>. "Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!"</p>
<p>However, in the time between the tweets, two key things have happened. First, journalist Bob Woodward <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-coronavirus-woodward-tapes-2647565763.html" target="_self">released tapes</a> of interviews in which Trump admitted to understanding the severity of the coronavirus more than he had revealed to the public.</p><p>"It's also more deadly than even your strenuous flus," he told Woodward Feb. 7.</p><p>Second, Trump himself <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-coronavirus-tests-positive-covid-2647887576.html" target="_self">tested positive</a> for the virus late last week and spent the weekend in Walter Reed Medical Center. He left the hospital to return to the White House Monday, but is still sick with COVID-19, CBS News reported.</p><p>But neither the Woodward revelations nor his own experience of the disease have stopped Trump from downplaying the virus in public.</p>"Don't be afraid of Covid," he <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1313186529058136070" target="_blank">tweeted before leaving the hospital Monday</a>. "Don't let it dominate your life."
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