Fascinating fungi....From microscopic mould spores to kilometres-long mycelium under the forest floor, members of this distinct biological kingdom — neither plant nor animal — are incredible, and highly worthy of more attention.   Most of us may not think about them beyond the mushroom slices on our pizza, but fungi figure prominently in our everyday lives. Do you eat bread? Thank the fungus we call yeast. Do you enjoy beer, wine or whisky? Raise a glass to your fungal friends responsible for the fermentation that brings them to life. Every time a round of antibiotics helps you recover from some form of infection, remember that a mould gave us the compounds that became penicillin and its many derivatives. Fungi are incredible chemists. They make many compounds that humans cannot easily replicate in the lab. Some make compounds that can affect behaviour.  Yet while we can access an array of medications to cure bacterial infections such as pneumonia and strep throat, there are only four known compounds available to rid ourselves of fungal infections. Three are available in the various over-the-counter powders, sprays and ointments we use to treat common fungal infections. The fourth and newest class, echinocandins, is reserved for hospital settings, where the consequences of fungal infections can be deadly.       We are working to find ways to limit the potential harm humans face from fungal infections. We also seek to understand how we can use their abundant and as-yet barely tapped potential to make new antibiotics before we lose the waning power of penicillin and its derivatives. global research organization CIFAR’s Fungal Kingdom: Threats and Opportunities program. We are working to find ways to limit the potential harm humans face from fungal infections. We also seek to understand how we can use their abundant and as-yet barely tapped potential to make new antibiotics before we lose the waning power of penicillin and its derivatives.        https://theconversation.com/the-fungus-zombies-in-the-last-of-us-are-fictional-but-real-fungi-can-infect-people-and-theyre-becoming-more-resistant-200224?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20February%2024%202023&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20February%2024%202023+CID_555a5e8d5797bc4fe42c4178cf6fc526&utm_source=campaign_monitor_ca&utm_term=The%20fungus%20zombies%20in%20The%20Last%20of%20Us%20are%20fictional%20but%20real%20fungi%20can%20infect%20people%20and%20theyre%20becoming%20more%20resistant      

Amid growing awareness of the health dangers posed by toxic chemicals, many states are poised to take legislative action this year. According to an analysis released today by Safer States, a national alliance of environmental health organizations, at least 31 states will consider more than 260 policies to address the dangers of “forever chemicals,” polyvinyl chloride, formaldehyde, parabens, and other substances. “It’s a super exciting year,” Sarah Doll, Safer States’ national director, told me. She said the gathering momentum and “bipartisan-ness” of proposed policies bodes well for public health and the environment. As in the past two years, Safer States’ Report found that so-called “forever chemicals” — shorthand for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS — are expected to “dominate” states’ toxics-related agendas in 2023, with at least 16 states considering tighter regulations to limit or disclose their use in products like food packaging, cookware, and clothing. PFAS are a class of more than 9,000 chemicals that have been used since the 1940s for their water- and stain-resistant properties, but research now links them to cancer, immune disease, and hypertension and shows that they don’t break down in the environment. Studies have found PFAS in the blood of 98 percent of the U.S. population. Some states that have already restricted PFAS are going further — either by banning their incineration or by extending the statute of limitations for lawsuits against the chemicals’ manufacturers. Thousands of lawsuits have already been filed against PFAS manufacturers in an effort to recoup cleanup costs, and some estimates say manufacturers could face liabilities of up to $30 billion. Other policies on the docket involve eliminating chemical additives from cosmetics, setting up testing and monitoring programs for microplastics in drinking water, and creating new disclosure requirements for chemicals of concern. Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, and New Jersey are considering banning heavy metals and chemical additives from plastics labeled as recyclable..... all links are active- check them out  

Can the world feed 8bn people sustainably? Food production is a major factor in the climate crisis and still millions of people go hungry. Here are some potential solutions. More than enough food is produced to feed all of the 8 billion people currently alive on the planet, yet after a decade of steady decline hunger is back on the rise,affecting 10% of the global population. According to the World Food Programme, ripple effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have contributed to one of the worst food crises in decades, with acute food insecurity affecting 200 million more people globally than in 2019 due to rising costs of food, fuel and fertiliser. But there are bigger problems on the horizon. As the global population passes 8 billion and is predicted to reach 10 billion by 2050, farmers, governments and scientists face the challenge of increasing food production without exacerbating environmental degradation and the climate crisis, which itself contributes to food insecurity in the global south. The United Nations projects that food production from plants and animals will need to increase 70% by 2050, compared with 2009, to meet increasing food demand. But food production is already responsible for nearly a third of carbon emissions as well as 90% of deforestation around the world.

“We use half of the world’s vegetative land for agriculture,” says Tim Searchinger, a researcher at Princeton University. “That’s enormously bad for the environment. We can’t solve the current problem by moving to more intensive agriculture because that requires more land. “We need to find a way to decrease our input [land] while increasing our food production.” But there is no magic bullet to achieve this goal. Instead, an overhaul at every step of the food production chain, from the moment the seeds are planted in the soil to the point where the food reaches our dinner tables, will be necessary. For most of human history, agriculture consisted of sustenance farming – people cultivated crops and livestock to feed their households rather than to sell them for profit. This began to shift after the Industrial Revolution and emergence of market capitalism, which also saw the rise of plantation farming made possible by colonisation of overseas land and slave labour. Industrial farming not only increased the scale on which crops were cultivated but changed the techniques used by farmers.                                                                                                                    What is required is a quantum shift towards regenerative agriculture and forestry.  “There’s a hybrid solution where we are bringing trees and other natural elements back to the landscape while also integrating production systems,” Davis says. “Systems that are integrated with trees and other plants often are more sustainable and more productive over the long term.”Cutting food miles by growing crops locally.....Transportation is a key, if often overlooked, part of the food production chain. Crops are transported from farms to processing plants before the food products arrive in shops. Packaging and transportation of food is responsible for 11% of all food industry greenhouse gas emissions.  Eating less meat.....shifting dietary habits is one of the most necessary solutions to the climate crisis, but it is also one of the most controversial and difficult to introduce. More than half of all carbon emissions from the food industry are due to production of meat and animal-based products. Beef production emits more than twice as much CO2 a kilo of food as other types of meat produce, and 20 to 200 times more than plant products such as cane sugar or citruses. Currently,77% of agricultural land worldwideis used for the production of animal-based products. This includes athird of all cropland, as grains and crops are grown to produce animal feed and biofuel rather than for human consumption.  Reducing food waste and loss...... An estimated third of all produced food is never eaten, according to the UN, with Food “loss” rather than “waste” describes the food that never reaches consumers. T14% of food lost between harvest and retail, and another 17% thrown out by shops, restaurants and consumers.his problem is more prevalent in low-income countries where farmers cannot afford secure storage facilities and refrigeration. “When there are no proper storage facilities the crops can be destroyed by the rain,” says Abhishek Chaudhary, a researcher at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur.....and there's more                  https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/nov/15/can-the-world-feed-8bn-people-sustainably     

The climate crisis is a humanitarian crisis...... 30 November 2022  Keywords: Climate Change, Displacement, Localization. Climate change is contributing to humanitarian crises worldwide. Climate-related disasters are driving increased levels of risks, vulnerability to human rights abuses, disrupting livelihoods, increasing displacement, influencing the spread of diseases, worsening global public health and threatening lives overall. The past eight years are on track to be the eight warmest on record, and 2022 is estimated to be among the hottest, with a mean temperature of 1.15°C above pre-industrial times. This is taking an exceptionally heavy toll on glaciers, with initial indications of record-shattering melt and record levels of ocean heat Disasters triggered more than 60 per cent (23.7 million people) of the newly recorded internal displacements in 2021. Ninety-four per cent of these displacements were climate related. Countries that are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change also saw 95 per cent of all conflict-related displacements in 2021, Almost all conflict-related refugees who returned in 2021 (99 percent) returned home to countries on the front line of the climate crisis, making safe and sustainable solutions harder to achieve. Climate change continues to exacerbate the frequency and intensity of disasters, disproportionately impacting the most vulnerable people. The effects of these disasters deepen inequalities and exacerbate pre-existing human rights, and social and structural vulnerabilities. Floods and storms accounted for 91 per cent of disaster displacements in 2021, a year that saw 432 individual disasters.  If current trends persist, the number of disaster events per year is projected to reach 560, or 1.5 large-scale disasters per day.  An extreme-heat event that would have occurred once in 50 years in a climate without human influence is now nearly five times as likely.  As temperatures rise, water scarcity continues. Despite progress in recent years, 2 billion people still do not have access to safe drinking water, and 1.5 million people die every year from diarrhoea caused by unsafe drinking water, most of them infants and small children. Wide geographical disparities exist, and every day, millions of women and school-aged children, often girls, walk long distances to fetch water for the family. Only one third of health-care facilities in Least Developed Countries have water available from a safe source.  Progress towards universal access to water is threatened by the impacts and uncertainty of climate change, agricultural and ecological needs, competing financial priorities and existing threats to water quality. People caught in humanitarian crises contribute the least to global warming, yet they are the most vulnerable to its impacts.....read more      https://humanitarianaction.info/article/climate-crisis-humanitarian-crisis