The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland is drawing nigh, and countries and groupings are lining themselves up, declaring their priorities, polishing up their arguments, getting their “ducks in a row.” Next week, I look forward to learning more from Jamaica’s Climate Change Division (CCD) on how things are shaping up for […]

Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) Leaders’ Declaration focuses on fossil fuels, climate finance, and the ocean — Petchary’s Blog

Source: Alaska shifts to crisis standards of care amid influx of COVID-19 patients | TheHill

Republican Senator Susan Collins has long fancied herself a proponent of reproductive rights while doing absolutely nothing to illustrate that sentiment. And now, according to an LA Times interview, Collins is once again allowing an opportunity to do something, literally anything, in favor of abortion access pass her right on by, because a new bill authored by Democrats goes “too far” in its attempt to codify Roe v. Wade.

The bill, expected to be approved by the House this week, is in part a response to Texas’s S.B. 8, which bans abortions from six weeks after a missed period and deputizes citizens to spy on each other. Democrats are proposing sweeping legislation that would prevent states from creating laws that would interfere with a person’s ability to get an abortion “before fetal liability.” This would mean that someone seeking an abortion could do so without state interference up to the 24th week of pregnancy. Should the bill survive, it would effectively codify Roe v. Wade and protect abortion rights against a hostile Supreme Court.

However, Collins, an alleged moderate, pro-abortion rights Republican, will not support the bill because she says it “goes way beyond [codifying Roe]. It would severely weaken the conscious exceptions that are in the current law.”

Source: Susan Collins Signals Another Vote Against Abortion Rights While Claiming to Support Them

Source: Melvin Van Peebles, the Godfather of Black Film, Is Dead at 89

Across the African savanna belt from Senegal to Ethiopia, threats to shea trees (Vitellaria paradoxa) — the source of shea butter — have become a regional environmental concern.  At the local level, land struggles disrupt social ties that have historically determined access to natural resources like shea trees, forests, and arable land.  Poor farmers urgently in need of cash are cutting shea trees and reducing the fallow fields where shea regenerates.  With the proliferation of shea butter products on beauty aisles globally, the growing threat to shea trees remains little known.

Cooking oil, skin moistener, hair conditioner, soap, medicine, and edible fruit are among the many uses of shea (also called karité) in the savanna belt.  Rural women collect its nuts and process them to make shea butter, a significant source of income where there are few other options. The shea tree shares field space with staple food crops, providing ecosystem services of erosion control, groundwater recharge, and leaf mulch.

Standing over a recently cut shea tree in a village west of Bamako, Mali, Musa Jara responds to my questioning look by saying that in cutting the shea he is asserting his right to the land on which it grows. Cutting (or planting) a tree is a statement of secure land tenure.  Yes—It’s against the traditional values and his wives are not happy with the fallen tree. His action, though, is in response to an opportunity to help his family with a one-time sale of land. The scene represents one of several threats to a savanna tree species deeply embedded in local cultures, ecologies, and economies.  Pressures to sell their inherited assets — notably natural resources — force poor rural savanna residents to make decisions that threaten the trees and disrupt their social ties.

Source: Shea trees are falling fast across Africa, victims of new pressures (commentary)

Source: FDA backs Pfizer COVID-19 boosters for seniors, people at high risk – Los Angeles Times