It was so good to retell my story of three humpback whales, whom I met some miles off the coast of California, a few years back. That entire, magical morning came back to me quite vividly.
I got a nudge to do this from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) office in Kingston (which is also the Cartagena Convention Secretariat), who had seen my tweets about their Marine Mammal Month campaign. This June and until July 7. UNEP has been aiming to raise awareness about marine mammals in the Caribbean (yes, we have orcas and whales and manatees) – which as we noted on World Oceans Day this year, face a whole range of threats (here are some older thoughts and quoteson World Oceans Day). By the way you can find me on Twitter daily @petchary and UNEP is @UNEP_CEP.
Some counties in Missouri have vaccination rates well below 40%. Hospital administrators say intensive care unit beds are once again filling, this time with young, unvaccinated adults.
In several states, including Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming, the Delta variant is responsible for at least 50% of new cases.
These simple and delicious bars are sure to please any pie fan. Although cherry is our personal favorite, the recipe can be adapted for other fruit fillings as well. From blueberry to apple to peach, the options are abundant!
STEP ONE – Preparations
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Lightly spray a 9-inch metal baking pan with canola spray.
Take out a stick of unsalted butter to soften.
Get out a stand mixer.
Set up a cooling rack.
STEP TWO – Make the Dough
Ingredients:
1 stick unsalted butter 1 cup white sugar 2 large eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
Instructions:
In the stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed for 3 minutes.
Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until smooth.
Add the flour and salt and stir to incorporate without overmixing.
True freedom is the shedding of our addiction to prestige, money and lifestyle. Being free is not a singular state of being. Freedom has to be inclusive and not exclusive.
The truth is, disabled and older people were not “vulnerable” to the virus simply because of their health or age: they were vulnerable because the government did not bother to keep them safe. What happened to our “most vulnerable” during the pandemic was not some terrible tragedy. It was the all too predictable consequence of a system that decided the lives of disabled and older people mattered less than those of the rest.
When deaths start to mount, it becomes remarkably easy to lose sight of the value of a life. In April last year, as hospitals buckled under rising cases, the British Medical Association set out guidance – later withdrawn – to ration treatment away from Covid patients with certain disabilities. By the second wave, people with learning disabilities who had fallen sick with the virus were having “do not resuscitate” orders imposed on them. These moments were shocking, but ultimately they barely registered as a scandal. It is remarkable how easily injustice can be accepted if it is being inflicted on the right set of people.
Police in western Canada have arrested more than 270 people as a conflict over old growth logging in British Columbia’s ancient rainforests continues to grow.
At the protest blockades in the remote woodland, hundreds of activists have been chaining themselves to giant tripods made from the trunks of felled trees, suspending themselves in trees for days or more at a time, and even securing their arms inside devices called “sleeping dragons” cemented into the roadway.
The movement is an attempt to pressure the British Columbia government to halt the cutting of what activists and experts say is the last 3% of ancient trees left standing in the province.
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