AFP UK

It’s spring in South Africa, and Danie Bester’s tillers are rusting in a corner of his farm.

Freshly-turned earth stretches for miles on other farms as his neighbours prepare their fields.

“I’m still playing golf,” said 37-year-old Bester.

He might sound like Aesop’s grasshopper, wasting away the spring days while the ants next door work.

But he’s actually made a radical decision to overhaul the way he farms, using techniques that are both better for his soil and for adapting to climate change.

“My seed beds are already growing, and my weed control is already going,” he said. “So I don’t have to do that amount, big amount of preparation, like the other guys are doing.”

His farming style has a fancy name — regenerative agriculture. But it’s a simple idea.

Instead of dousing the fields with pesticides, installing irrigation systems and churning the earth with heavy tillers, Bester grows cover crops during the off season.

Cattle graze on the plants, dropping dung as added fertilizer on his 1,100-hectare (2,700 acres) spread, 90 kilometres (55 miles) southeast of Johannesburg.

The result: worms do the work of oxygenation that machines do elsewhere, while the untilled, shaded soil retains moisture and nutrients — and weeds are kept under control.

His technique remains rare in South Africa, which has the most industrialised farms on the continent. Most use large-scale monoculture farming reliant on chemical fertilisers and pesticides.

But in addition to being climate-smart, Bester’s corn and soy yields are among the highest in the country, earning him national awards that he hopes will inspire others to make the change.

“It’s like a small seed you have to plant. The other guys start seeing the success (and) they will catch on,” said Bester.

South Africa’s climate is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world, according to experts, meaning changes to farming are crucial.

“As globally we overshoot 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), we’ll be at three degrees… that’s going to bring major stresses to the commercialised and globalised food system,” said activist Vishwas Satgar with the Climate Justice Charter Movement.

South Africa is already a dry country, and widespread irrigation is not a viable option.

Bester’s fields are rich without artificial watering. He pulls out a stalk, revealing a bit of fungal growth and a wriggling earthworm — creatures not found on farms doused with pesticides, he said.

“There are going to be challenges in the future that are not going to be solved by chemical agriculture,” said Peter Johnston, a climate scientist at the University of Cape Town.

Across Africa, small farmers use traditional practices less damaging to the environment.

– ‘Look into the future’ –

With a real pressure to improve harvests to feed growing populations, farmers are encouraged by agro-chemical companies to use particular seeds that require chemical pesticides and fertilizers, Johnston said.

Those methods can resist the changing climate, but at cost.

“Industrial agriculture traditionally always gets to the point where it doesn’t really regard the soil as a resource anymore, the soil is just a holder for plants,” Johnston said. 

“That is not a holistic look at the way agriculture should be.”

Over time, those techniques mean the soil keeps less moisture and produces less nutritious crops, Johnston said.

“We’ve got to get the soils back to what they were a hundred years ago. We’ve destroyed everything,” Bester said. “The longer the soil will be healthy, the longer we will be able to produce food.”

Change doesn’t happen overnight. 

Bester spent years testing his soil quality, managing his fields in blocks of five square metres (54 square-metres), and learning by trial and error.

The payoff isn’t just high yields, Bester said, but ensuring the land will remain fertile for his two young children.

“You have to look really far into the future to make sure you’re (making) the right decisions,” he said.

Bester’s neighbours are starting to catch on.

Tilling is becoming less common, he said.

“It’s only going to get worse if we don’t change,” he said. “We need to conserve now.”

Sharks suffer such poor vision that they are unable to distinguish people surfing or swimming from animal prey like seals and walruses, according to a study published Wednesday. 

White sharks have a reputation for picking up sound and smell at great distances, but at close range it was thought they relied on eyesight to catch prey.

But a new study published by the Royal Society’s Interface review found that the sharks barely pick up colour and have a very poor ability to distinguish shapes.

Their vision is up to six times weaker than a human’s and even worse in young white sharks.

That means they have a hard time distinguishing between humans and aquatic carnivorous mammals, called pinnipeds.

“Motion cues of humans swimming, humans paddling surfboards and human swimmers was also similar to that of pinnipeds with their flippers abducted (out),” the study said. 

The researchers found there was a bigger difference in shape between the mammals with flippers in or out than between surfers or swimmers and mammals that had their flippers out.

And one group in particular was especially vulnerable.

“As a group, surfers are at the highest risk of fatal shark bites, particularly from juvenile white sharks.”

– ‘Mistaken identity’ – 

With little known about why sharks bite humans, the Australian authors of the study set out to test the theory of mistaken identity.

“This is the first study to look at the mistaken identity from the visual perspective of a white shark,” lead author Laura Ryan of Macquarie University’s department of biological sciences in Sydney told AFP.

Video footage of sea mammals, swimming humans and paddling surfboards was compared from the white shark’s perspective, viewing the potential prey from below.

From the animal’s point of view,  “neither visual motion nor shape cues allow an unequivocal visual distinction” between humans and pinnipeds, the authors wrote.

With fewer than 60 shark attacks recorded globally in 2020, they remain relatively rare.

But the study found they are still frequent enough to maintain a “disproportionate” level of fear linked to ignorance about shark behaviour and particularly unprovoked attacks.

The consequences can lead to campaigns that kill not only endangered sharks, but also other non-target species.

White, tiger and bull sharks are the usual suspects for the majority of attacks on humans.

Ryan said the researchers were now working “to determine if changing the visual cues of potential prey is an effective mitigation technology to protect against white sharks.

“Greater understanding of why shark bite sometimes happen will hopefully lead to improved solutions that not only prevent shark bites but also don’t endanger other marine wildlife.”

Irma Gomez has worked in California’s Central Valley, one of the world’s most productive agricultural regions, for nearly a decade — but she has never experienced a year as hot as this one, so hot that a colleague collapsed and died in the fields.

“It’s worrying,” Gomez says. “It could happen to any of us.”

Rising temperatures are increasingly threatening workers in the United States, endangering their health as well as their performance.

And that has major economic consequences for the entire country, according to two recent studies.  

The United States already loses an estimated $100 billion annually due to heat-related dips in productivity, says a report by the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation’s Resilience Center, a Washington DC-based think tank.

If no action is taken to curb global warming, losses will reach $200 billion by 2030 and $500 billion by 2050, the study says. 

“When you are slowed down and you need to have a break to have cold drinks and get in the shade, you produce less,” says Kathy Baughman McLeod, director of the Resilience Center. 

The first impact of such slowdowns is on workers’ income.

“In many fields like agriculture, workers are paid hourly or paid by the piece,” says Kristina Dahl, co-author of a study conducted by the Union of Concerned Scientists, a non-governmental organization specializing in issues such as global warming. 

“So if the workers are getting that time out and not being compensated for it, then that has implications for their financial well-being as well.” 

Gomez, 37, said there has been less work this year because of the heat — and it has affected her basic needs, like her ability to pay for housing.

Unable to work eight-hour days, she received $1,700 a month this summer, $700 less than the same period last year. For her, the difference is equivalent to a month’s rent. 

– Everyone affected –

As the heat continues to rise, breaks will only become more frequently necessary, warns the Union of Concerned Scientists.   

Three million workers in the United States experience at least one working week each year in temperatures above 37.7 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit), where heat puts them at risk. 

If current weather patterns continue, by the middle of the century, some 18.4 million people will be working more than a week in such extreme conditions — which means more breaks to protect health. 

“Everyone, no matter what job they have, is going to feel the effects of that drop in productivity,” says Dahl. 

After all, the people working in that heat are the ones who are outside “planting and harvesting our food, they are delivering our packages, they are maintaining our buildings, roads and bridges,” she says.

Working in too much heat slows down movement. It causes fatigue, confusion, fainting and, in the most severe cases, a rise in body temperature that can be fatal. 

It is estimated that in California alone, “hotter temperatures may be causing upwards of tens of thousands of workplace injuries each year,” warns economist Jisung Park, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. 

To protect herself from the sun, Gomez wears a long-sleeved T-shirt and trousers, as well as a cap and head scarf. 

On this autumn day, she has also donned a face mask because of the smoke from forest fires, which blanket the sky in a dense ochre haze. 

– Deadly heat – 

The two studies agree that the priority is to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit the rise in temperatures.

But while waiting for this to be achieved, they advocate taking care of workers. 

“It really boils down to, give workers three things: water, shade and rest,” says Dahl. 

“Most people don’t know but heat is killing more Americans than any other climate hazards,” says Baughman McLeod. 

Both experts see the need for a federal law that provides for paid breaks, in addition to protective measures.

“The objective is that the workers don’t have to choose between their health and their paychecks,” says Dahl. 

In September, the White House announced it would consider regulations to protect workers — but the process takes time. 

California, Minnesota and Washington are the only states in the country with regulations. On very hot days, companies are required to provide water and shade for workers. And in extreme temperatures, they must stop work altogether.

In rural areas, one alternative to this is for workers to harvest at night or in the early hours of the morning. 

But this creates other challenges.  

Gomez, for example, loses days when she cannot find a babysitter for her youngest daughter in the early hours of the morning. 

Now she is relieved that the summer temperatures are behind her, but she fears for the future.

“We don’t know what next year will be like,” she says.

Sharks suffer such poor vision that they are unable to distinguish people surfing or swimming from animal prey like seals and walruses, according to a study published Wednesday. 

White sharks have a reputation for picking up sound and smell at great distances, but at close range it was thought they relied on eyesight to catch prey.

But a new study published by the Royal Society’s Interface review found that the sharks barely pick up colour and have a very poor ability to distinguish shapes.

Their vision is up to six times weaker than a human’s and even worse in young white sharks.

That means they have a hard time distinguishing between humans and aquatic carnivorous mammals, called pinnipeds.

“Motion cues of humans swimming, humans paddling surfboards and human swimmers was also similar to that of pinnipeds with their flippers abducted (out),” the study said. 

The researchers found there was a bigger difference in shape between the mammals with flippers in or out than between surfers or swimmers and mammals that had their flippers out.

And one group in particular was especially vulnerable.

“As a group, surfers are at the highest risk of fatal shark bites, particularly from juvenile white sharks.”

– ‘Mistaken identity’ – 

With little known about why sharks bite humans, the Australian authors of the study set out to test the theory of mistaken identity.

“This is the first study to look at the mistaken identity from the visual perspective of a white shark,” lead author Laura Ryan of Macquarie University’s department of biological sciences in Sydney told AFP.

Video footage of sea mammals, swimming humans and paddling surfboards was compared from the white shark’s perspective, viewing the potential prey from below.

From the animal’s point of view,  “neither visual motion nor shape cues allow an unequivocal visual distinction” between humans and pinnipeds, the authors wrote.

With fewer than 60 shark attacks recorded globally in 2020, they remain relatively rare.

But the study found they are still frequent enough to maintain a “disproportionate” level of fear linked to ignorance about shark behaviour and particularly unprovoked attacks.

The consequences can lead to campaigns that kill not only endangered sharks, but also other non-target species.

White, tiger and bull sharks are the usual suspects for the majority of attacks on humans.

Ryan said the researchers were now working “to determine if changing the visual cues of potential prey is an effective mitigation technology to protect against white sharks.

“Greater understanding of why shark bite sometimes happen will hopefully lead to improved solutions that not only prevent shark bites but also don’t endanger other marine wildlife.”

Treating high-risk Covid-19 patients with the antidepressant fluvoxamine may reduce the risk of prolonged hospitalisation by up to a third, a large-scale study showed Thursday.

Authors said the research could help boost low-cost protection against severe sickness or death in countries that have yet to receive adequate vaccine doses during a grossly uneven rollout.

Fluvoxamine is traditionally used to treat mental health conditions such as depression and obsessive-compulsive disorders and was selected for trial due to its anti-inflammatory properties.

Many problems stemming from Covid are caused by swelling as the immune system over-reacts to the infection. 

Writing in the journal The Lancet Public Health, researchers from North and South America, described results in nearly 1,500 Covid-19 outpatients in Brazil.

Of the 741 people that received fluvoxamine, 79 — just over 10 percent — had an extended stay in hospital. 

Of the 756 who received a placebo, 119 (15.7 percent) were hospitalised. 

Authors said that administering fluvoxamine resulted in a relative reduction in hospitalisations of 32 percent.

“Covid-19 still poses a risk to individuals in countries with low resources and limited access to vaccinations,” said Edward Mills of McMaster University, co-principal investigator on the trial. 

“Identifying inexpensive, widely available, and effective therapies against Covid-19 is therefore of great importance, and repurposing existing medications that are widely available and have well-understood safety profiles is of particular interest.”

Although reducing deaths was not an intended area of focus, the study also found that 12 patients in the placebo group ended up dying, while just one from the fluvoxamine group succumbed to the virus. 

The authors stressed that further evaluation is needed as fluvoxamine isn’t on the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines and can be addictive.

“Given fluvoxamine’s safety, tolerability, ease of use, low cost, and widespread availability, these findings may have an important influence on national and international guidelines on clinical management of Covid-19,” said Gilmar Reis, study co-lead, based in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

A man’s claim to be the great-grandson of Sitting Bull has been confirmed using DNA taken from the Native American leader’s scalp lock — billed as the first time genetic evidence has corroborated a family relationship between a historic figure and a living descendant.

The breakthrough was made possible by a new technique that can yield useful genetic information from a tiny or fragmented sample of ancient DNA, developed by a team of scientists led by Professor Eske Willerslev of the University of Cambridge and the Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre in Denmark.

Their findings were published in a paper in Science Advances on Wednesday. The same methods can now be deployed for investigating other historical figures, from outlaw Jesse James to the Russian tsar’s family, if old DNA is available.

Prior ancient genetic studies have looked for matches between specific DNA in the Y chromosome passed down the male line, or, if the long-dead person was female, specific DNA in the mitochondria passed down from mothers.

In this case neither could be used as the man, 73-year-old Ernie LaPointe, claimed to be related to Sitting Bull on his mother’s side, Willerslev told AFP.

He and his colleagues instead found a way to search for non-sex specific “autosomal” DNA.

They located a small amount of autosomal DNA in the hair sample, then developed a computational method to compare it to DNA from LaPointe and 13 other members of the Lakota Sioux tribe, in order to see whether similarities in the genome really indicated a close relation or were commonplace.

“Based on that, we can estimate the level of relatedness to Sitting Bull, and that fits with great-grandson,” said Willerslev, adding: “We are 100 percent certain.”

“Over the years, many people have tried to question the relationship that I and my sisters have to Sitting Bull,” said LaPointe, in a University of Cambridge press statement.

Lapointe believes that Sitting Bull’s remains currently lie at a site in Mobridge, South Dakota, in a place that has no significant connection to the warrior and the culture he represented. 

While he had historical records that attested to the relationship, such as birth and death certificates, LaPointe sought the evidence of a genetic link to help grant him the right to rebury his ancestor’s remains in a more appropriate final resting place.

Before they can be moved, the remains there will have to be analyzed in a similar way to the sample.

– Medicine man ceremony –

Sitting Bull, whose real name was Tatanka-Iyotanka (1831-1890), famously led 1,500 Lakota warriors at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, wiping out US General Custer and five companies of soldiers.

He was shot dead in 1890 by the “Indian Police” acting on behalf of the US government.

“I have always been very fascinated by Sitting Bull and when I was young I wanted to be a Native American,” said Willerslev.

Around a decade ago, Willerslev came to learn of LaPointe’s quest to have his DNA confirmed and offered his services.

Sitting Bull’s scalp lock was repatriated to LaPointe by the Smithsonian Institution in 2007, but before he could hand it over to Willerslev, he wanted to know whether the scientist’s intentions were pure.

LaPointe asked Willerslev to take part in a ceremony involving a medicine man, drummers and chanting in a darkened room.

“A blue-green light appeared in the middle of the room — and I am a natural scientist so I thought, well, that’s the medicine man running around with a lamp, but when I reached out in the darkness, there was nobody there,” Willerslev said.

He and his hosts then went off to smoke a Lakota pipe and eat buffalo meat, and LaPointe informed him the eerie light had been Sitting Bull’s spirit, giving his blessing to the study.

However, LaPointe gave Willerslev only four centimeters of the more than 30-centimeter-long lock, then burned the rest, in line with the spirit’s instructions.

Willerslev felt at the time “it was disastrous,” and he would not have enough DNA left — but the circumstances forced the team to develop their innovative new method over the course of the next ten years.

A man’s claim to be the great-grandson of Sitting Bull has been confirmed using DNA taken from the Native American leader’s scalp lock — billed as the first time genetic evidence has corroborated a family relationship between a historic figure and a living descendant.

The breakthrough was made possible by a new technique that can yield useful genetic information from a tiny or fragmented sample of ancient DNA, developed by a team of scientists led by Professor Eske Willerslev of the University of Cambridge and the Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre in Denmark.

Their findings were published in a paper in Science Advances on Wednesday. The same methods can now be deployed for investigating other historical figures, from outlaw Jesse James to the Russian tsar’s family, if old DNA is available.

Prior ancient genetic studies have looked for matches between specific DNA in the Y chromosome passed down the male line, or, if the long-dead person was female, specific DNA in the mitochondria passed down from mothers.

In this case neither could be used as the man, 73-year-old Ernie LaPointe, claimed to be related to Sitting Bull on his mother’s side, Willerslev told AFP.

He and his colleagues instead found a way to search for non-sex specific “autosomal” DNA.

They located a small amount of autosomal DNA in the hair sample, then developed a computational method to compare it to DNA from LaPointe and 13 other members of the Lakota Sioux tribe, in order to see whether similarities in the genome really indicated a close relation or were commonplace.

“Based on that, we can estimate the level of relatedness to Sitting Bull, and that fits with great-grandson,” said Willerslev, adding: “We are 100 percent certain.”

“Over the years, many people have tried to question the relationship that I and my sisters have to Sitting Bull,” said LaPointe, in a University of Cambridge press statement.

Lapointe believes that Sitting Bull’s remains currently lie at a site in Mobridge, South Dakota, in a place that has no significant connection to the warrior and the culture he represented. 

While he had historical records that attested to the relationship, such as birth and death certificates, LaPointe sought the evidence of a genetic link to help grant him the right to rebury his ancestor’s remains in a more appropriate final resting place.

Before they can be moved, the remains there will have to be analyzed in a similar way to the sample.

– Medicine man ceremony –

Sitting Bull, whose real name was Tatanka-Iyotanka (1831-1890), famously led 1,500 Lakota warriors at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, wiping out US General Custer and five companies of soldiers.

He was shot dead in 1890 by the “Indian Police” acting on behalf of the US government.

“I have always been very fascinated by Sitting Bull and when I was young I wanted to be a Native American,” said Willerslev.

Around a decade ago, Willerslev came to learn of LaPointe’s quest to have his DNA confirmed and offered his services.

Sitting Bull’s scalp lock was repatriated to LaPointe by the Smithsonian Institution in 2007, but before he could hand it over to Willerslev, he wanted to know whether the scientist’s intentions were pure.

LaPointe asked Willerslev to take part in a ceremony involving a medicine man, drummers and chanting in a darkened room.

“A blue-green light appeared in the middle of the room — and I am a natural scientist so I thought, well, that’s the medicine man running around with a lamp, but when I reached out in the darkness, there was nobody there,” Willserslev said.

He and his hosts then went off to smoke a Lakota pipe and eat buffalo meat, and LaPointe informed him the eerie light had been Sitting Bull’s spirit, giving his blessing to the study.

However, LaPointe gave Willerslev only four centimeters of the more than 30-centimeter-long lock, then burned the rest, in line with the spirit’s instructions.

Willerslev felt at the time “it was disastrous,” and he would not have enough DNA left — but the circumstances forced the team to develop their innovative new method over the course of the next ten years.

Sharks suffer such poor vision that they are unable to distinguish people surfing or swimming from animal prey like seals and walruses, according to a study published Wednesday. 

White sharks have a reputation for picking up sound and smell at great distances, but at close range it was thought they relied on eyesight to catch prey.

But a new study published by the Royal Society’s Interface review found that the sharks barely pick up colour and have a very poor ability to distinguish shapes.

Their vision is up to six times weaker than a human’s and even worse in young white sharks.

That means they have a hard time distinguishing between humans and aquatic carnivorous mammals, called pinnipeds.

“Motion cues of humans swimming, humans paddling surfboards and human swimmers was also similar to that of pinnipeds with their flippers abducted (out),” the study said. 

The researchers found there was a bigger difference in shape between the mammals with flippers in or out than between surfers or swimmers and mammals that had their flippers out.

And one group in particular was especially vulnerable.

“As a group, surfers are at the highest risk of fatal shark bites, particularly from juvenile white sharks.”

– ‘Mistaken identity’ – 

With little known about why sharks bite humans, the Australian authors of the study set out to test the theory of mistaken identity.

“This is the first study to look at the mistaken identity from the visual perspective of a white shark,” lead author Laura Ryan of Macquarie University’s department of biological sciences in Sydney told AFP.

Video footage of sea mammals, swimming humans and paddling surfboards was compared from the white shark’s perspective, viewing the potential prey from below.

From the animal’s point of view,  “neither visual motion nor shape cues allow an unequivocal visual distinction” between humans and pinnipeds, the authors wrote.

With fewer than 60 shark attacks recorded globally in 2020, they remain relatively rare.

But the study found they are still frequent enough to maintain a “disproportionate” level of fear linked to ignorance about shark behaviour and particularly unprovoked attacks.

The consequences can lead to campaigns that kill not only endangered sharks, but also other non-target species.

White, tiger and bull sharks are the usual suspects for the majority of attacks on humans.

Ryan said the researchers were now working “to determine if changing the visual cues of potential prey is an effective mitigation technology to protect against white sharks.

“Greater understanding of why shark bite sometimes happen will hopefully lead to improved solutions that not only prevent shark bites but also don’t endanger other marine wildlife.”

Canada’s new activist-turned-environment minister on Wednesday sought to reassure the nation’s oil sector — the fourth largest producer in the world — that he has no “secret agenda,” following pushback over his appointment.

Steven Guilbeault, a prominent former climate activist tapped by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for the role in a major post-election cabinet shuffle, spoke after a backlash by oil executives and the premier of oil-rich Alberta.

“Canadians … want governments to do more in the fight against climate change,” Guilbeault said.

But, he added, most of Ottawa’s climate plans have already been announced, including a carbon tax set to rise to Can$170 per tonne by 2030, and the phasing out of fossil fuel subsidies by 2023.

“I don’t have a secret agenda as environment minister,” he said.

Speaking to reporters in Ottawa, Guilbeault noted that the federal government “has power over pollution,” but that resources development is a provincial purview.

As such, he said Ottawa will soon introduce legislation and regulations to “cap and diminish over time” the amount of pollution from the Alberta oil sands — the top single source of carbon emissions in Canada.

“But we’re not trying to cap (oil and gas) production,” he insisted.

During the election that returned Trudeau’s Liberals to power in September, climate change was a top issue, as Canada’s carbon emissions have continued rising despite government intervention.

Guilbeault’s appointment on Tuesday came days before a key global climate conference in Glasgow. As an activist he has attended 18 previous United Nations climate change conferences.

One oil industry executive, Brian Schmidt of Tamarack Valley Energy, told AFP: “There’s a lot of concerns about the positions he’s taken in the past,” including opposition to new pipelines.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney also said Tuesday that the former Greenpeace activist’s appointment sent a “very problematic” signal to the oil patch.

He exhorted Guilbeault to “quickly demonstrate to Alberta and other resource-producing provinces a desire to work together constructively on practical solutions that don’t end up killing hundreds of thousands of jobs.”