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EARTH DAY 2022

         From Worldometer (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):

          DAY  USA  WORLD    Brazil    India    South Africa

June     9     1093     4732         1185        246       82
July    22      1205     7128         1293      1120     572
Aug    12      1504     6556        1242        835     130
Sept     9      1208      6222       1136       1168       82
Oct     21      1225      6849         571        703       85
Nov    25       2304    12025        620        518      118
Dec    30       3880    14748       1224       299      465
Jan     14        4142    15512        1151         189      712
Feb      3       4005    14265       1209       107      398
Mar      2       1989     9490        1726       110      194
April     6        906    11787         4211       631       37
May     4        853     13667        3025      3786     59 
June    1        287    10637         2346      3205      95
 July    7         251      8440        1595        817      411
Aug     4         656    10120        1118         532      423 
Sept   22      2228      9326          839        279     124
Oct      6       2102      8255          543        315       59
Nov    3        1436      7830         186         458       23
Dec     1       1633      8475          266        477       28
Jan     7        2025      6729         148        285      140
Feb     2        2990   12012          946        991      175
Mar     2        1778     7756          335        173        28 
         11        1022      6002         465           88       28
         18          721      5214         380           69       39
         24          649     5008        300           82       33
         31          676      4287         276           28       44
Apr     1          439      4056         290           52       12
           7          409      3554         253           44         5
          14         331       3383         158            21        16
          15         361       3369         145             5          6
          20         408      3278         204           56       16
          21          299      3347           86           54       65

Summary:
  • Yes, new deaths are declining in the U.S.  With 299 deaths yesterday, the deaths/million figure has dropped below one, down to 0.9 new deaths/million.  Our flu death rate is 0.3 deaths/million/day, so we still have a ways to go to reach that level.
  • Outbreaks, though, keep popping up throughout the world.  Yesterday Finland had 50,889 new cases, or 9087 new cases/million.  The U.S. had 45,204 new cases, or 135 new cases/million.
  • While China only had 2841 new cases, they reported 8 new deaths, a high for a very long time.  Mind you, new cases/million = 2....and new deaths/million = 0.006.
From the New York Times his morning:

As Michael Osterholm, a University of Minnesota epidemiologist, puts it, a mask mandate with as many exceptions as the airline mandate is like a submarine that closes three of its five doors. On the other hand, research shows that masks help control spread.

  • The transportation mandate had so many exceptions that many Americans understandably questioned its worth. Travelers took off their masks to eat and drink. Some flight attendants removed their masks to make announcements. Some passengers wore their masks on their chins. The mandate also did not require N95 and KN95 masks, which are more effective against the virus than cloth masks or standard medical masks.
  • About half of Americans have recently had the Omicron variant of Covid. They currently have little reason to wear a mask, for anybody’s sake.

Together, vaccines and treatments mean that the risks of severe Covid for boosted people — including the vulnerable — seem to be similar to the risks of severe influenza.

So what should the White House and CDC do?  
  • You've already caused too much unneeded confusion.  Re-begin by forgetting all mandates.  Americans don't want to be told what to do.  
  • Just let the public know that these Omicron variants are super-contagious, so for your own good, wear an N-95 mask.  
    • For the elderly, get your second booster.  
    • For the unvaccinated, you are truly vulnerable, and while current pandemic symptoms are mild to many, around 98% of all COVID-19 deaths these days are the unvaccinated.  Save your own life:  get vaccinated and boosted!
The truth is coming out.  Republicans are in big trouble:
  • Similarly, leaked audio indicated that Representative Kevin McCarthy, immediately after January 6 called Trump feckless, spineless and a liar for all that happened that day.  Then, he got the heat from Trump and spent the next 15 months defending him in public.  He, and many other Republicans to come, might not survive all this lying.  Speaker Mitch McConnell is also implicated in all that.  What did McCarthy say?  Watch this.
The very first Earth Day was held on 22 April 1970.  The official theme this year is INVEST IN OUR PLANET.  

The catalyst was a proposal by peace activist John McConnell at the 1969 UNESCO Conference in San Francisco to honor our Earth, to be observed on 21 March 1970, the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere.  A month after this original suggestion, U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson thought a nationwide environmental teach-in should occur on 22 April 1970.  He hired Denis Hayes (who went on to become director of the National Solar Energy Center in Colorado), to coordinate the program, and they called the event Earth Day.  Twenty million Americans actually participated at this first celebration, said to be the largest single-day protest in human history.

Twenty years later Hayes went international and organized events in 141 countries.  On Earth Day 2016, the Paris Agreement was signed by 123 nations.  On their 50th anniversary, Earth Day 2020 involved 100 million people as the largest online mass mobilization in history.  The Pandemic had already started.

What sparked this monumental activity was the 1969 Santa Barbara Oil Spill.  Three million gallons of oil entered the sea, klling more than 10,000 birds, dolphins, seals and sea lions.  Nelson was spurred by seeing the 800 square-mile slick from an airplane.
That disaster also spurred enactment of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1970.  So far 100 nations have passed similar legislation modeled after NEPA.  Around this time the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland burned, sparking public interest in the environment.  Of course, most of the work on this legislation began in the 1960's, resulting from Rachel Carson's 1962 book Silent Spring.  

I was in graduate school during this formative period, and when I began teaching at the University of Hawaii, Environmental Engineering became my primary subject area.  Then came the First Energy Crisis in 1973, leading to formation of the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, which I directed from 1985-2000.
So what is happening and what can you do on Earth Day 2020?

- 

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