The dead fish floated along the surface, covering much of Branch Brook Lake.
Catherine Marcal was stunned by the sheer number of them, stretching from the lion statues at the Prudential Concert Grove to the Park Avenue overpass.
But somehow, that was not the most disturbing image the Bloomfield resident saw earlier this month when she visited Branch Brook Park in Newark.
“A lot of them were still alive,” Marcal said. “They were still flip-flopping, and it was just horrifying.”
The fish die-off June 16 claimed hundreds of bluegill and pumpkinseed sunfish, plus a few largemouth bass, said Larry Hajna, a spokesman for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
”I had no idea that there were even fish like that living there,” Marcal said. “I couldn’t believe the quantity. There were hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of fish.”
Branch Brook Lake sits in the heart of Branch Brook Park — the largest stretch of open space in Newark and one of the crown jewels of the Essex County parks system.
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Solar panels at the Lynch, Kentucky, water plant, on an old massive coal mine site in Harlan County. This is one example of the kind of economic transition identified in a new roadmap for economic transition in coal communities across the United States. Credit: James Bruggers
The global coronavirus that’s put tens of millions of Americans out of work and plunged the nation into a recession is speeding an ongoing transition away from coal.
With devastation in communities left behind, 80 local, regional and national organizations on Monday rolled out a National Economic Transition Platform to support struggling coal mining cities and towns, some facing severe poverty, in Appalachia, the Illinois Basin, Montana, Wyoming, Arizona and elsewhere.
Although it comes just four months before the presidential election in November, the platform doesn’t mention the Green New Deal, the proposed massive shift in federal spending to create jobs and hasten a transition to clean energy that’s divided Republicans and Democrats.
But Heidi Binko, executive director of the Just Transition Fund, which drafted by the plan with a wide range of partners, including labor unions, community organizations, business groups and environmental and tribal nonprofits, said it could be used as a template for part of the Green New Deal or any other legislative initiatives aimed at helping coal communities.
While some of the sponsors haven’t endorsed the Democrats’ manifesto for a new economy based on clean energy, all of them are united in the principles of community-based economic development for coal country, Binko said.
The Green New Deal, introduced in Congress last year by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Sen. Edward Markey of Massachusetts, calls for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 “through a fair and just transition for all communities and workers.” It does not include specific provisions for retraining out-of-work coal miners or reinvesting in struggling coal communities.
Last year, the Appalachian Regional Commission identified 80 counties across its area as economically distressed—meaning they rank among the most impoverished 10 percent of counties in the nation.
During a telephone news conference Monday introducing the sweeping program for economic revitalization of the nation’s coal regions, speakers from Appalachia to the Navajo Nation described the need for bottom-up economic development that builds on community members’ strengths and resources.
The main point in putting forth the platform is that communities that have relied on coal need far more help than they’ve been getting, said Just Transition’s Binko. The fund was created in 2015 by several philanthropic foundations and the Appalachian Funders Network to help communities redefine their local economies.
Binko said the platform is based on what has already been shown to work and lacks only the funding needed to scale up efforts well beyond President Obama’s proposed Power Plus plan, a $1 billion economic development fund tied to cleaning up abandoned mines. Congress funded a more limited program.
The new flu strain is similar to the swine flu that spread globally in 2009
By Michelle Roberts, Health editor, BBC News online
A new strain of flu that has the potential to become a pandemic has been identified in China by scientists.
It emerged recently and is carried by pigs, but can infect humans, they say.
The researchers are concerned that it could mutate further so that it can spread easily from person to person, and trigger a global outbreak.
While it is not an immediate problem, they say, it has “all the hallmarks” of being highly adapted to infect humans and needs close monitoring.
As it’s new, people could have little or no immunity to the virus.
The scientists write in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that measures to control the virus in pigs, and the close monitoring of swine industry workers, should be swiftly implemented.
Pandemic threat
A bad new strain of influenza is among the top disease threats that experts are watching for, even as the world attempts to bring to an end the current coronavirus pandemic.
The last pandemic flu the world encountered – the swine flu outbreak of 2009 that began in Mexico – was less deadly than initially feared, largely because many older people had some immunity to it, probably because of its similarity to other flu viruses that had circulated years before.
The new flu strain that has been identified in China is similar to 2009 swine flu, but with some new changes.Video captionThese bats in Thailand could carry useful information about human viruses
So far, it hasn’t posed a big threat, but Prof Kin-Chow Chang and colleagues who have been studying it, say it is one to keep an eye on.
The virus, which the researchers call G4 EA H1N1, can grow and multiply in the cells that line the human airways.
They found evidence of recent infection starting in people who worked in abattoirs and the swine industry in China.
Current flu vaccines do not appear to protect against it, although they could be adapted to do so if needed.
Prof Kin-Chow Chang, who works at Nottingham University in the UK, told the BBC: “Right now we are distracted with coronavirus and rightly so. But we must not lose sight of potentially dangerous new viruses.”
While this new virus is not an immediate problem, he says: “We should not ignore it.”
Prof James Wood, head of the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Cambridge, said the work “comes as a salutary reminder” that we are constantly at risk of new emergence of pathogens, and that farmed animals, with which humans have greater contact than with wildlife, may act as the source for important pandemic viruses.Video captionSwine fever devastates China’s pigs
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A number of kiosks and stores were closed in Menlo Park Mall in Edison on March 16, as new restrictions were placed on N.J. businesses during the coronavirus outbreak.
New Jersey’s indoor malls may reopen to shoppers on Monday for the first time in months after they were ordered closed to slow the coronavirus outbreak.
Masks are mandatory and malls have to adhere to 50% capacity limits. But the very New Jersey economic icon is back in business.
Inside portions of malls have been closed since March 17. While Gov. Phil Murphy allowed nonessential retail stores to reopen two weeks ago, malls were left out of the order. Stores that had exterior doors with direct access for shoppers, however, could reopen.
When the common indoor areas of the malls reopen, all customers and employees will be required to wear face coverings at all times while inside, except for those with medical conditions that make that impossible and children under 2. The mall must deny entry to customers that refuse to wear a face covering, according to an administrative order signed by Col. Patrick Callahan, superintendent of the State Police.
Communal seating and food courts must remain closed. Isolated seats and benches are allowed. Kiosks can operate, though customers must remain 6 feet apart at all times.
Restaurants and eateries at malls can offer takeout, delivery, and outdoor dining, but indoor dining remains banned, as it is throughout the state, until later this week
Indoor entertainment businesses, such as movie theaters and arcades, will remain closed, as they are statewide.
Also off limits: valet parking, vending machines, stroller rentals, and communal play areas for kids.
By Nina WuHonolulu Star Advertiser – June 23, 2020
The Ocean Voyages Institute this morning pulled into Pier 29 in Honolulu with more than 100 tons of marine trash hauled from the middle of the Pacific Ocean, mission completed despite the ongoing pandemic.
The Sausalito, Calf.-based nonprofit once again chartered the locally-based, sailing cargo ship Kwai for the 48-day expedition that set out in early May.
“I am so proud of our hard working crew,” said founder and executive director Mary Crowley in a statement. “We exceeded our goal of capturing 100 tons of toxic consumer plastics and derelict ‘ghost’ nets, and in these challenging times, we are continuing to help restore the health of our ocean, which influences our own health and the health of the planet.”
On last year’s expedition, the institute deployed GPS-enabled satellite beacons, drones and other technology to better track the debris in the ocean, and has found it plays a key role in more effectively removing it. The beacons were placed on nets with the help of crowd-sourced yachts and other commercial vessels, based on Crowley’s theory that one tracker leads to other nets.
Crowley, herself a lifelong sailor, was hoping to launch a considerably larger expedition this year, with more vessels over a three-month period, but had to scale back due to the impacts of the pandemic.
The Kwai, led by Capt. Brad Ives, nevertheless embarked on the expedition, departing from Hilo on May 4 after a self-imposed quarantine of three weeks.
“We were very careful to keep the crew quarantined, and to test any new crew members coming on board because we wanted to make sure the expedition was safe from a health perspective,” she said.
She hopes the pro-active approach to removing the marine debris in the Gyre — halfway between Hawaii and California — will help spare coral reefs as well as wildlife, including whales, dolphins, and sea turtles from entanglements.
The number of coronavirus infections in many parts of the United States is more than 10 times higher than the reported rate, according to data released on Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The C.D.C. study found, for instance, that in South Florida, just under 2 percent of the population had been exposed to the virus as of April 10, but the proportion is likely to be higher now given the surge of infections in the state. The prevalence was highest in New York City at nearly 7 percent as of April 1.
“This study underscores that there are probably a lot of people infected without knowing it, likely because they have mild or asymptomatic infection,” said Dr. Fiona Havers, who led the C.D.C. study. “But those people could still spread it to others.”
She emphasized the importance of hand-washing, wearing cloth masks and social distancing to stop the spread of the virus from people without symptoms.
The numbers indicate that even in areas hit hard by the virus, an overwhelming majority of people have not yet been infected, said Scott Hensley, a viral immunologist at the University of Pennsylvania who was not involved in the research.
“Many of us are sitting ducks who are still susceptible to second waves,” he said.
The difference between recorded infections and the actual prevalence in the data was highest in Missouri, where about 2.65 percent of the population was infected with the virus as of April 26, although many people might not have felt sick. This number is about 24 times the reported rate: nearly 162,000 compared with the 6,800 thought to have been infected by then.
The results confirm what some scientists have warned about for months: that without wider testing, scores of infected people go undetected and circulate the virus.
“Our politicians can say our testing is awesome, but the fact is our testing is inadequate,” Dr. Hensley said. “These are exactly the kind of studies we need right now.”
