#mitigation

The reasons are obvious… People are still dying of covid because people just keep getting covid, people are not getting vaccinated, people are not wearing masks even where they're likely to spread viruses to vulnerable people like healthcare settings, and a lot of people are not testing even, so they don't' even know they're spreading covid, and also then not calling their doctor for treatment.

Why are more than 300 people in the US still dying from COVID every week? Experts say there is low vaccine uptake and people are not accessing treatments. ByMary Kekatos May 24, 2025, 5:02 AM More than five years after the first cases of COVID-19 were detected in the United States, hundreds of people are still dying every week. Last month, an average of about 350 people died each week from COVID, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Podcasters and livestreamers are big culprits in the not testing category. "Oh I'm sick and I wonder what I have. Maybe it's a cold." Never understood the recklessness to get covid over and over of people who use their voice for a living and have no paid sick time, but there we are. So one would hope that more podcasters would be getting covid boosters, encouraging others to do so, and making a ruckus over restrictions on them.

I'll wait. If you know of any livestreamers or podcasters who are actually promoting vaccination, please let me know, send me clips or links, and I will make a point of letting people know who they are.

Conserving species can be a complicated affair. Take this dilemma. After being hunted to near extinction, numbers of a native predator are recovering and eating more of an endangered prey species, whose own numbers are declining as a result. Should conservationists accept that some successes mean losing other species, or reinstate lethal control of this predator in perpetuity? Or perhaps there is a third option that involves new means of managing species in the face of new conditions. This issue is playing out globally, as land managers grapple with predators such as wolves and lynx reclaiming their historic ranges. In the ancient Caledonian pine forests of Scotland there are fewer than 500 capercaillie remaining. This grouse is beset by multiple threats, not least shifts in spring weather caused by climate change that are driving its Europe-wide decline, relating to changes in when chicks are reared and available nutrition. Additionally, and in common with other ground-nesting birds, capercaillie lose eggs and chicks to carnivores. As such, the recovery of the pine marten (a relative of weasels and otters) from its own near extinction in Scotland is contributing to the decline of capercaillie. Internationally, little has been achieved to slow the heating of Earth’s climate, and decades of dedicated conservation efforts have not arrested the decline of capercaillie. Extinction will follow unless new solutions are found. Killing pine martens, the capercaillie’s predators, might offer short-term relief, but it is socially and politically contested and scientific evidence on its effectiveness is meagre. Most importantly, it risks undermining the recovery of species conservationists have worked hard to restore. Instead, the challenge is to reduce the effects of predators, not their numbers, and encourage coexistence between species. We have tried one such method in Scotland – with incredibly positive results.

Geological sequestration – capture of carbon dioxide from the stack gases, and pumping it into 'safe' reservoirs on land or in the oceans

Biological sequestration – growing vegetation in quantities large enough to consume amounts of carbon dioxide equivalent to that released during energy consumption. The vegetation (biomass) that is produced can itself be used as a fuel, creating a closed production/consumption cycle.

Governors Park Firewise Fuel Mitigation Event Date: March 22, 2025 Location:  Governors Park Credit: Kim Kosmas, PF&R

I'm reading a lot about the role of transformative adaptation in response to disaster, and indigenous communities. There is a link in restoring cultural connections based in land, adaptation to climate change, and improved health of indigenous communities. There was also an Australian study that found that caring for the land had a dual benefit in adaptation, not only in adapting the land to respond better to climate disaster, but also in the health of Aboriginal people who worked implementing the adaptation practices.

Part of what makes it so transformative is that adaptive responses to climate change are extremely place based. You don't establish a mangrove to reduce the shock of typhoons in the American Midwest, and you don't do controlled burns in coral reefs.

I see and read a lot of fruit trees and solar panels in Solarpunk concepts, which is great, they definitely have a place in our bright future! But not everywhere in the world is going to be a sunny food forest because not everywhere can support that.