Tag: change

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How humid air, intensified by climate change, is melting Greenland ice

How humid air, intensified by climate change, is melting Greenland ice
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Jason Box waited for the skies to clear. The climatologist’s team was already in southern Greenland to begin their research project, but he was stuck in Nuuk, the country’s capital, because weather delayed his travels. Dark clouds loomed overhead, while the patter of rain echoed loudly as it fell onto the ocean.

Unbeknown to him, this same weather system was causing a historic melt event 660 miles away at the summit of Greenland. On Aug. 14, 2021, the system drew exceptionally warm and moist air from southern latitudes northward, increasing temperatures around 32 degrees (18 Celsius) higher than normal. Rain, not snow, fell on Greenland’s summit for the first time on record. Melting persisted over the next two weeks, covering 46 percent of the ice sheet. This was the largest melt event to occur so late in the year.

“The weather was atrocious,” said Box, a professor at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland. “I didn’t know that it was as big as it was.”

The “atrocious” weather was caused by a warm, narrow band of water vapor in the sky, known as an atmospheric river. The term “atmospheric river” has recently become popularized in media due to its role in extreme weather. As the plume of water vapor makes landfall, it precipitates as rain or snow. In the fall and winter, atmospheric rivers bring much of California’s annual precipitation but can also unleash intense flooding. In July 2021, an atmospheric river brought flooding to Germany, which killed more than 200 people.

In Greenland, these warm rivers in the sky also play a role in melting the ice sheet. In a study released Thursday, Box and his colleagues illuminate how an atmospheric river caused the August 2021 melt event and brought rain to the summit. The explanation foretells a future that could be increasingly common as global temperatures rise due to human-caused climate change.

“What we realize is that the atmospheric river is much more about the heat. And the heat did a tremendous amount of melting,” Box said. “What I would argue unnatural is there’s more heat in the system and you’re getting greater extremes.”

The Arctic could get more rain and less snow sooner than projected. Here’s why that matters.

Atmospheric rivers tend to originate from southern latitudes far removed from Greenland, where warm air causes ocean water to evaporate into the atmosphere. Atmospheric steering winds help transport the vapor great distances. Box described the rivers as a natural process to transfer energy from the tropics to the pole. “There’s a tremendous amount of heat in these circulation systems,” he said.

As an atmospheric river landed over Greenland in August, the study found the majority of melt resulted from elevated air temperatures, which darkened the ice sheet surface and increased the absorption of sunlight. Satellite data showed melting snow crept up to higher elevations and exposed relatively dark bare ice. Where snow remained, surface melting deformed the snow crystals and made them darker, which led to additional melting under sunny skies in the following days.

“The surface is in a darkened state and stays like that for more than a week. And so that effectively doubles the melting,” Box said.

Box and his colleagues determined that the darkened snow increased melt by 28 percent in one location at an altitude of 6,036 feet. At a location 4,167 feet high, they determined that melting would have been cut in half if the bare ice were not exposed. Discharge from the Watson River, in the Kangerlussuaq region in central-western Greenland, was also the highest for this period in August in 16 years of records.

“One of the major things they point out … was how you get these sequence of these events where warm air comes in and gets rain on snow,” said Bill Neff, a research scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder who was not involved in the study. “The warm air and the radiation from warm clouds can melt the snow and it changes the properties of the snow so that when the sky is clear and the sun is shining, it keeps melting.”

Neff said the August melting was similar to other recent major melt events. In the past decade, Greenland experienced three major melt years, 2012, 2019 and 2021, which were all tied to atmospheric rivers. Before 2012, he said the last major melt event connected to an atmospheric river was more than 100 years ago.

The number of atmospheric rivers over Greenland “hasn’t really changed that much. They go up and down a lot over the last hundred years, but what they’re doing is tapping into hotter regions of the Earth,” he said. “You can have the same number of atmospheric rivers bringing warmer air from all over the place. If there are more places getting hotter, then there’s more chance to be more melting.”

Record heat wave in Antarctica brought exceptional snow, rain and melting

Neff’s research looks at how heat waves have played a part in Greenland melt events. He previously found that Greenland’s 2012 melt season, which is still the largest melt season ever observed, was partly spawned from warm air originating from a record heat wave in North America. A heat wave developed suddenly in the Midwest, which created a pulse of hot air that was transported to Greenland via an atmospheric river.

In July 2019, warm air from a heat wave in Europe headed to Greenland and helped trigger one of the biggest surface melt days on record.

Neff said the August 2021 melt event was associated with warm air masses moving across North America that probably combined with moisture from the south Atlantic, before moving to the southwest coast of Greenland.

Climate change is intensifying these events by increasing the amount of water vapor an atmospheric river can hold, said Kyle Mattingly, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A warmer atmosphere increases the rate of evaporation and allows for more water to enter the vapor phase. His research found the amount of moisture transported over the summer melt season in Greenland has been increasing in recent decades.

“If you sum up the amount of moisture that atmospheric rivers transport during each melt season, that is showing an increasing trend,” said Mattingly, who was not involved in the study released Thursday. “I feel pretty certain that there is a link there between increasing atmospheric river moisture transport and increases in Greenland melt.”

Record ‘bomb cyclone’ brings exceptional warmth to North Pole

As this year’s melt season begins in Greenland, researchers are unsure what to expect as predicting events more than a week or so in advance is challenging. Melt activity has been close to normal so far, aside from slight melting in late May on the ice sheet’s periphery.

“There’s nothing so far to indicate that we’re going to have a particularly really large melt season,” Mattingly said.

But then again, Mattingly said the record 2012 melt season also started out slow before accelerating in the middle of the summer.

“You never quite know until it happens,” Mattingly said.

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EDI office hosts positive change in health care panel during Pride 2022 events

pride flag

May 27, 2022 — 

The Office of Equity Diversity and Inclusion at the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences is hosting a community of practice event to discuss advocacy and positive solutions for 2SLGBTQIA+ people who have been marginalized and discriminated against when seeking health-care services. 

The virtual event Advocating for Positive Change in Health Care – channeling our own life experiences into helping others navigate the health care system will take place Monday, May 30 as part of several Pride 2022 events around the University of Manitoba.

“For many Manitobans, finding a good family doctor is challenging enough. Then on top of that, if you need one who understands what being gay, lesbian, trans or non-binary is, it can pose a bigger challenge,” says Shandi Strong, a transgender rights activist, author, public speaker and aspiring politician who will be the guest speaker at the event.

Shandi Strong

Shandi Strong

Strong says stigma and the fear of stigma can result in anxiety and stress that prevents people from seeking care when they should have. The lack of accessible mental health supports makes it difficult for those actively seeking counselling.  “Covid-19 has shone a light on the current lack of mental health supports in our province.  It’s a sad state of affairs when an emergency need for counselling has an eight-12 month wait list.” 

One of the key elements to improving health care for 2SLGBTQIA+ people is education, says Strong. “Not only on behalf of the caregivers, but the recipients too. Those who provide care need to be educated and trained to be accepting of 2SLGBTQIA+ folx. Recipients have to learn that they have the right to appropriate care, and options for where to look should they find it lacking.”

Strong looks forward to sharing her personal story as a way to give hope to people who may be facing the same challenging circumstances she did, so they can find the support and optimism to overcome them.

Strong says she will continue to strive to bring about change “so that in the future, we won’t have to worry about sexuality, gender, race, disabilities, or other such factors being deciding factors on how we treat each other as human beings.”

Ellie Caslake, a transgender women, artist and EDI project developer will host the community of practice event in conversation with Strong that will take place over Zoom, starting at 1:30 p.m.

Any questions or accommodations for the event please email funmi [dot] owoade [at] umanitoba [dot] ca.

Other University of Manitoba Pride 2022 Events:

Wednesday, June 1
Flag Raising

Fort Garry campus at the flagpoles outside of UMSU University Centre | 9:00 a.m.
The Pride flag will also be raised on Bannatyne campus in the Brodie Centre Atrium. 

Sunday, June 5
Pride Parade

Legislative Building | 11:00 a.m. | Register for the Pride Parade here.
Please meet by 10:15 a.m. on Memorial Blvd; parade to start at 11:00 a.m.

Stay up to date on events, share your photos and join the conversation on Twitter and Instagram using #umqueer.

If you require any accessibility accommodations, please contact umqueer [at] umanitoba [dot] ca.

All are welcome to these free events!

Jonathan Wilson

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Spiro president on the future of events: ‘don’t wait for change, embrace it’

Spiro president on the future of events: ‘don’t wait for change, embrace it’

“Change and evolution are the only constants today,” says Jeff Stelmach, global president of Spiro, part of the global event management company GES. “We’ve had to embrace change to make things work for clients instead of letting change happen to them.”

That’s why GES has unveiled its new brand experience agency, Spiro; to keep the company abreast of changes in event management and across evolving consumer demands. Following the pandemic, the events industry changed for good, with a renewed focus on creating omnichannel experiences – and that’s here to stay. Customers are increasingly seeking events and spaces that prioritize connection and provide flexibility.

“We’ve evolved in the way we view experiences and how we create them,” adds Stelmach. “Spiro brings together our collective abilities, legacy of excellence, and global power to develop integrated solutions for our clients.”

GES realized pretty early on that life – and events in particular – wasn’t going to return to where it was pre-pandemic, so its Spiro offering allows marketers to hold events anywhere their audience is without having to compromise on networking opportunities, redefining what it means to come together.

Here, now, somewhere else or later?

Spiro was forged out of a need to change how events were traditionally run. Spiro sees in-person, virtual and hybrid events as equal opportunities for immersive, interactive storytelling and loyalty-building for brands with a capacity for conducting different sorts of events at scale globally.

The pandemic shifted the collective understanding of what constitutes an event, with more people opting to attend events digitally during the height of lockdown. Having greater flexibility and autonomy around how people attended events complimented growing interest in establishing a better work-life balance.

“Pre-pandemic, an event was a gathering of people with shared interests in a specific location, at a specific time,” says Stelmach. “Now, events and experiences exist beyond time and channels. We now meet, share, and learn across multiple mediums and spaces, because how people choose to engage with, show up for, and consume experiences has changed. An event or experience can be here, now, somewhere else, or later.”

The ‘new now’ reality

It’s important to create experiences that restore choice to event attendees and provide them with the option to consume content in a way that suits them at a time that’s convenient.

Stelmach adds: “Spiro is creating experiences that meet audiences where they are, with the global resources and structure to help industries and brands evolve into our ‘new now’ reality.”

Spiro is designed around a proprietary system that redefines how experiences are conceived, created, delivered, managed, monetized, and quantified. The process is known as community-centered experience design (CCXD), which maps out how economic, cultural, emotional, and behavioral shifts occur in event spaces across services. This provides brands with a clearer idea of what consumers want and how to cater to them.

Embracing all real life (ARL)

Spiro’s ability to tap into consumer needs and provide options that fit their criteria, while accepting their habits will inevitability change, is pioneering.

“Foremost is our concept of ‘there·ness,’ and how we design experiences that meet audiences where they are,” says Stelmach. “All of the new ways that empower us to attend events and experiences mean individuals can now decide what that means to them – which is relative to our individual preferences and choices.”

Prior to the pandemic, the possibility of pivoting to digital was a much-discussed conversation topic, but it wasn’t until consumers had to change their habits that interacting in this way became a possibility.

“We now effortlessly toggle between digital and physical spaces,” says Stelmach. “We live in a new space which we have to embrace. In the new now, we are together and remote; asynchronous and live. We call it all real life (ARL), where we can engage with experiences regardless of time, place, space, and medium.”

Adopting a medium and channel agonistic approach to events feeds into the current era of personalization and tailored experiences, but Spiro’s commitment to providing community through its CCXD allows for interactions to occur even after meetings are officially over.

Coming out stronger

The pandemic proved testing for the events industry – something Stelmach believes was one of the most impacted industries.

“Remote work, resource strain, financial belt tightening, and overwhelming uncertainty created stress and anxiety for everyone,” he says. “Those challenges were compounded by limiting our most effective coping mechanisms – in-person teamwork and co-worker support.”

Through regular feedback with his own employees during the pandemic, Stelmach realized the need for streamlining processes and considering individuals on both a professional and personal level.

Spiro was launched “as a strategy, to not only survive the pandemic, but to come out of it as a stronger world-class marketing solutions agency.”

Hybrid events are here to stay – but GES’s new Spiro offering recognizes the importance of evolving its propositions to continue meeting customers’ needs.

“We are not waiting for an ‘old normal’ to return or looking at hybrid event execution as an inconvenience,” says Stelmach. “It is a way to meet our clients and their customers where they are, by it offering a new set of monetization possibilities and approaches. This is the future.”

The future of meaningful connections

As technology continues to develop, Stelmach predicts so too will Spiro’s prowess, particularly in the way businesses can interact and connections can meet.

“Spiro will continue to change the way we engage,” says Stelmach. “What’s most important is to not lose sight of our purpose: people attend events and experiences, fundamentally, to join communities.”

Making meaningful connections at events plays a powerful and purposeful role. Event attendees seek to enjoy moments within event spaces and build their networks – something Spiro provides through its flexible and tailored offering.

Stelmach concludes: “We intend to create immersive moments so impactful that they expand into ongoing micro-experiences and robust contiguous communities.”

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Comox Valley mayors hope for change after extreme weather events – My Comox Valley Now

Comox Valley mayors hope for change after extreme weather events - My Comox Valley Now

Mayors in the Comox Valley reflecting on Earth Day this year are hoping for more change after extreme weather events over the last 12 months.

After a 2021 filled with historic heatwaves, heavy rainfall, flooding and cold snaps, the mayors of Cumberland, Courtenay and Comox say they are getting ready for another season of difficult weather patterns.

“Early reporting suggests we’re in for a hot and dry summer,” said Comox mayor Russ Arnott. “So we’re reminding residents to do what they can to stay healthy and safe during those extreme weather events.”

Arnott is not alone in concerns over the weather events. Cumberland mayor Leslie Baird says the events over last summer and winter came on very quickly without any knowledge of what was going to happen.

“It really put us in a tough position so we’ve done a lot of work to correct that so that if it happens again we know the process to follow,” said Baird.

“We have our fire department and our rec centre that work together to coordinate solutions to the issues,” she added. “The rec centre was open for the heat dome, we put tents out on the street for protection for people out walking, our fire department was out on calls checking people out. It’s all the community working together to keep everybody safe.”

Courtenay mayor Bob Wells echoes the community involvement cited by Baird. He says he is very proud of the youth’s involvement in organizing an event on Earth Day at Simms Park.

He adds local politicians are open to the new ideas coming out from young people in the valley.

The local politicians say that they are very proud of how the municipalities have changed over the years.

For Baird, who has been on Cumberland council since 1990, the changes are highlighted in the number of people willing to clean up trash in the surrounding forest.

“It’s nice to see people out cleaning up the areas and the trails and the roadways,” said Baird. “But’s it’s true, it’s something that needs to be done every day. People need to be more aware of their surroundings and what they’re doing by leaving litter around for other people to pick up.”

Baird thanks volunteers for their help as some of the projects necessary to improve the environment can be quite costly.

But, the politicians are looking for more adaptations in the future to lower environmental impacts.

Baird says Cumberland has been getting lots of seminars from the province and is willing to help any other community that may be suffering from climate change.

Wells says Courtenay has committed to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 and reach net-zero by 2050. He says other changes to infrastructure will help them reach the goal.

“At the municipal level, we’re trying to make more liveable communities, 10-minute neighbourhoods so people can do most of the things they need to do right where they are,” he said. “Along with increasing BC Transit trips to make them more affective and convenient for people.”

Russ Arnott also adds the Town of Comox is working on ways to lower their carbon footprint.

Baird adds teaming up in the valley will be one of the keys for a more sustainable and responsible future.

“We all need to work together, we are on the island and it’s amazing how we can step forward,” she added.

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Climate change is altering the seasonal rhythm of plant life-cycle events

The Canadian Press

Publishing date:

Apr 22, 2022  •  25 minutes ago  •  5 minute read  •  Join the conversation

THE CONVERSATION

This article was originally published on The Conversation, an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. Disclosure information is available on the original site.

——

Author: Roberto Silvestro, PhD candidate, biology, Universite du Quebec a Chicoutimi (UQAC) and Sergio Rossi, Professor, Departement des Sciences Fondamentales, Universite du Quebec a Chicoutimi (UQAC)

“Si sta come d’autunno sugli alberi le foglie.”

“We are like autumn leaves on branches,” Italian poet Giuseppe Ungaretti wrote in his 1918 poem Soldati (Soldiers), on the tragedy of human life and war.

If the popular image of autumn is decadence and nostalgia after the summer heat, spring is the season of rebirth after the darkness and cold of winter. The transformative passing of seasons has historically represented a powerful mental image, rich in symbolism. The seasonal timings of biological events are also an essential aspect of plant adaptation and can also be of crucial economic relevance.

However, as forest ecologists, we have observed that climate change has been modifying the timing of recurrent plant life-cycle events, thus critically affecting the ecosystem.

The plant’s clock

In spring, flowers bloom. In summer, fruits ripen. In autumn, leaves change colour and fall. In winter, plants rest. This is phenology — the study of the timing of recurring life-cycle events.

So how do plants recognize the passage of time and the right moment to accomplish growth and reproduction? Like people, plants have their own calendar. A plant’s clock is represented by cycles in the environmental conditions, and the timing of phenological events is controlled by climate.

Specifically, plants use a set of triggers to synchronize the timings of growth and reproduction with favourable environmental conditions.

Depending on the species, phenological events are triggered by temperature (autumn and winter chilling and spring warming), photoperiod (length of day), precipitation or, often, a combination of these.

If climate changes, phenology changes

Phenology is one of the most sensitive biological indicators of the changing climate. Under the progressive rise in temperature experienced in the last century and the variations in seasonal distribution of rainfall events, the environmental triggers usually occur earlier and earlier.

This is why phenological shifts have been observed worldwide, and contextually, it seems that phenological events are occuring earlier year by year.

Japan’s Sakura or cherry blossom season is one of the most evident proofs of this shift. Dating back to the ninth century, the date of flowering, which defines the festival’s timing, has been anticipated in the last century by the rise in average temperatures.

What is the problem? Spring is cool, right?

American poet Anne Bradstreet said, “If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant.” While this is hyperbolic, we still need to consider that the timings of flowers blooming, fruits ripening and other such phenological events result from a long-lasting adaptation of each species to its surrounding environment.

The timing of phenological events are calibrated to ensure the perfect environmental condition needed to accomplish the annual cycles of a plant’s life while minimizing the risk of damage. Changes in these conditions can have ecological as well as economic consequences as they can affect the quantity and quality of agriculture and forestry products.

At the end of the growing season, plants develop dormant buds to protect the sensitive meristematic cell layer — tissue in which cells maintain the ability to divide throughout the life of the plant — and suspend activity. Dormancy is an adaptation mechanism evolved in climates with seasons to escape harsh winter conditions.

Warm spring temperatures (called forcing), the increase in day length during spring (photoperiod), and the length and intensity of winter temperatures (chilling) reactivate the growth of the apical buds — the buds located at the top of the plant — in the spring. Clearly, temperature has a central and leading role in this process. For this reason, warming can trigger an earlier reactivation in spring and a delayed cessation in autumn, or both, lengthening the growing season.

Some believe that a longer growing season could enhance carbon uptake and, therefore, the productivity of forests. In some places, such as regions in the northern latitudes or elevated altitudes, trees have profited from a longer growing season and, more generally, more favourable climatic conditions under global warming.

However, an earlier growth reactivation increases the risk of damage due to late spring frosts, and lengthening of the growing season increases the risk of damage by early autumn frosts.

If trees cannot adapt, or re-adapt, their phenology with the new climatic conditions, the fitness and growth performance of local populations could be dramatically affected.

If phenology changes, species interaction changes

Ecosystems are generally complex and the species within them interact with each other as well as their surrounding environment. Different species can react differently to the changing climatic conditions, potentially leading to dangerous new phenological matches or mismatches.

For example, current climatic conditions create new phenological matches between prey and predators. Black spruce may become a key host for the spruce budworm given that the timing of maximum larvae activity could be better synchonized with the timing of yearly shoots development, which increases the risk of severe defoliations for one of the most profitable boreal species in North America.

Climate change can also cause mismatches between plants and their pollinators. Bumblebees represent one of the most important pollinators for several wild species and many varieties of enormous agricultural interest. Bumblebees, given their low heat and cold tolerance, are particularly sensitive to environmental conditions. For this reason, the projected climatic risk for this species is extremely high.

The mutually beneficial plant-pollinator relationship is an essential ecosystem service, specially considering that the pollination done by insects contributes to 9.5 per cent of global food production.

Action must be taken

As the climate continues to change, affecting all kinds of ecosystems in the process, we need to be aware of plant phenology and think about how these shifts may directly affect our lives and businesses.

Scientists, today, use observational data to determine how species, populations and communities are vulnerable to these ongoing and projected future changes in climate. This research can be the foundation for essential human intervention, which may influence plant distribution through assisted migration, which is the human-assisted movement of species to areas far outside their established range. This will help tree species resynchronize their phenology to the current climatic condition.

Plant phenology is the result of an adaptation. However, adaptation requires time, an amount of time we do not have given the magnitude and rate at which we are observing climate changes. Constantly monitoring the phenological shifts worldwide will allow us to develop sound strategies to protect the most vulnerable ecosystems as well as our businesses.

Besides, we are like autumn leaves on branches, but at least we should try not to fall!

——

Roberto Silvestro received the Merit scholarship for international PhD students (PBEEE) assigned by the Fonds de Recherche du Quebec – Nature et Technologies (FRQNT).

Sergio Rossi receives funding from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Fonds de recherche du Quebec – Nature et technologie, Ministere des Forets, de la Faune et des Parcs du Quebec

——

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Disclosure information is available on the original site. Read the original article: https://theconversation.com/climate-change-is-altering-the-seasonal- https://theconversation.com/climate-chan

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Fieldays, Hobbiton and weddings: Big events still awaiting change to orange

Fieldays, Hobbiton and weddings: Big events still awaiting change to orange
Hobbiton Movie Set is one of the larger venues welcoming Wednesday’s announcement as they plan ahead for large events like their Middle-earth Halfling Marathon for 2022.

Supplied

Hobbiton Movie Set is one of the larger venues welcoming Wednesday’s announcement as they plan ahead for large events like their Middle-earth Halfling Marathon for 2022.

As small businesses and venues celebrate following a relaxation of Covid 19 restrictions, for a major Waikato calendar event, the possibilities are still uncertain.

“For us with Fieldays, it has little impact on our decision to push it out to November, said CEO of National Fieldays Peter Nation.

Each year in June, the 114-hectare site at Mystery Creek is packed with over 130,000 attendees and 13,000 contractors for the largest agricultural event in the Southern Hemisphere.

He could understand the Government’s cautious approach towards relaxing restrictions but their exhibitors alone, would fill the 200 person indoor limit, so they were holding on for a change to the orange traffic light level.

“We still can’t operate under these rules, particularly under the 200 indoor capacity” he said.

The 2022 Fieldays event had its largest crowd yet with 132,000 visitors attending.

Supplied

The 2022 Fieldays event had its largest crowd yet with 132,000 visitors attending.

For the popular Matamata tourist attraction, Hobbiton tours, the loosening of rules was the certainty they needed to host their first Middle Earth halfling marathon.

They kept their doors open to limited gathering numbers throughout the pandemic, but the switch to unlimited outdoor numbers was the boost they needed going forward.

“I thought it was pretty fantastic that as a country, we’re at this stage where we can safely loosen these restrictions now” said Shane Forrest, deputy executive for Hobbiton film set.

“It’s all steps in the right direction and pretty positive as well as we connect again with internationals and start to slowly open our borders and host tourists again”.

READ MORE:
* Orange light means go – from empty and silent to 1600 nightclubbers
* Worrying wait for Hamilton hospitality industry as large events loom
* Coronavirus: Hamilton’s Shenanigans Irish pub to stay closed

The wedding industry was hit especially hard by cancellations due to Covid 19 restrictions.

For Woodside Estate Wedding venue and function centre owner, Les Cox their booking numbers had been sliced in half and as much as the announcement brought optimism for outdoor events, the summer wedding season had already passed.

“A bit late, yes…basically our wedding season is coming to an end now”.

And, for Lawrenson Group bar and restaurant chain owner John Lawrenson, frustration at Wednesday’s news was an understatement.

“It’s just ludicrous to me…the venues that are really affected are the nightclubs, the entertainment venues, the venues that rely on 300-500 people and in one of my venues 2000 people inside dancing and enjoying entertainment” he said.

The Government will review the traffic light settings on April 4.

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World events, time change and anger piling on pandemic pressures

World events, time change and anger piling on pandemic pressures






Chuck Norris

Chuck Norris


Don’t care much for the constant mid-March ritual of moving our clocks ahead one hour? According to Beth Ann Malow, a professor of neurology and pediatrics at Vanderbilt University, 63% of Americans would like to see it eliminated.

The thing is, daylight saving time represents much more than a disruption to daily routines. Given the stresses heaped upon us in our world of uncertainties, it could be the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.

“Beyond simple inconvenience,” writes Malow on TheConversation.com, “Researchers are discovering that ‘springing ahead’ each March is connected with serious negative health effects.”

“In a 2020 commentary for the journal JAMA Neurology, my co-authors and I reviewed the evidence linking the annual transition to daylight saving time to increased strokes, heart attacks and teen sleep deprivation,” she says.

A separate post on TheConversation.com co-authored by Deepa Burman, co-director of the Pediatric Sleep Evaluation Center at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, and Hiren Muzumdar, director of the Pediatric Sleep Evaluation Center, notes that sleep deprivation can result in increases of workplace injuries and automobile accidents. One individual’s sleep deprivation can affect an entire family.

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“You may notice more frequent meltdowns, irritability and loss of attention and focus,” they say.

I wonder, could uncontrolled anger be far behind?

Now, watching a devastating war unfold on social media is also hammering away at our collective mental health. We’re all being heightened by graphic and disturbing images that fill our feeds, writes Time magazine reporter Jamie Ducharme.

“Tracking up-to-the-minute developments can come at a cost. … Footage and photos from Ukraine flooding social media and misinformation spreading rampantly (has) implications for public health,” she reports.

It has long been the responsibility of traditional media outlets for editors to decide which content is too graphic to show, or to label disturbing images with warnings. As pointed out by Roxane Cohen Silver, a professor of psychological science at the University of California, Irvine, today anyone “can take pictures and videos and immediately distribute that (on social media) without warning, potentially without thinking about it.”

Jason Steinhauer, founder of the History Communication Institute, says, “Russia has been waging a social media and misinformation war for the past 10 to 12 years.” This has only gotten worse since its invasion of Ukraine.

We should not be surprised at all that studies now suggest that news coverage of the pandemic has contributed to our mental distress. “Adding yet another difficult topic to the mix can worsen those feelings,” Cohen Silver says.

Yet the war is hardly the only attack on our senses. At a time when we are most vulnerable, the Federal Trade Commission reports that predatory fraudsters bilked consumers of an estimated $5.8 billion last year. According to the agency, it represents a 70% increase over 2020. “Almost 2.8 million people filed a fraud complaint, an annual record” and “the highest number on record dating back to 2001,” reports the FTC. “Imposter scams were most prevalent, but investment scams cost the typical victim the most money.”

“Those figures also don’t include reports of identity theft and other categories,” the report points out. “More than 1.4 million Americans also reported being a victim of identity theft in 2021; another 1.5 million filed complaints related to ‘other’ categories (including credit reporting companies failing to investigate disputed information, or debt collectors falsely representing the amount or status of debt).”

The mounting stresses placed upon us are now posing a threat to not just our mental and financial health but our physical well-being.

According to a working paper from researchers at the Naval Postgraduate School and the University of Pennsylvania, “In 2020, the risk of outdoor street crimes initially rose by more than 40% and was consistently between 10-15% higher than it had been in 2019 through the remainder of the year.” Researchers also believe that the finding “points to the potential for other crimes to surge the way homicides have as cities reopen and people return to the streets,” says the report.

Adds Megan McArdle commenting on the report in an op-ed for the Washington Post, “community trust in the police might have plummeted, possibly making people more likely to settle scores on their own. Or police might have reacted to public anger by pulling back from active policing, creating more opportunities for crime.”

Hans Steiner is a professor emeritus of Stanford’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences who has logged decades of work studying anger and aggression. In an interview posted on the Stanford University website, he says he believes that “the coronavirus pandemic, with its extreme disruption of normal daily life and uncertainty for the future, compounded by several other crises (economic distress, racial tension, social inequities, political and ideological conflicts) puts us all to the test: we find ourselves immersed in a pool of negative emotions: fear, sadness, contempt, and yes, anger. What do we do with this forceful emotion?”

“Anger signals that we are being threatened, injured, deprived, robbed of rewards and expectancies,” Steiner says. It should be “one of our adaptive tools to deal with the most difficult circumstances. Sometimes it becomes an obstacle to our struggles, especially when it derails into aggression and even violence.”

Anger problems are now spilling over into record accounts of hate crimes. It seems that today’s circumstances, with anger management and rule of law seemingly at an all-time low, have caused many individuals to become ticking time bombs. Reports CBS News, “the total number of hate crimes nationwide has increased every year but one since 2014, according to FBI data, which includes statistics through 2020.”

Steiner says that “maladaptive anger and aggression has the following characteristics: 1. It arises without any trigger, seemingly out of the blue; 2. it is disproportionate to its trigger in its frequency, intensity, duration and strength; 3. it does not subside after the offending person has apologized; 4. it occurs in a social context which does not sanction anger and aggression.”

Who among us has not seen or maybe even experienced some, maybe all, of these behavior characteristics?

“In such conflicts we need to remind ourselves that diatribes, lies and accusations will not move us forward; compassion, empathy and the reminder that we are all in this horrible situation together (needs to) inspire us,” Steiner advises.

Write to Chuck Norris at info@creators.com with questions about health and fitness.

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Mauston to change rules and guidelines for parades, events

Mauston to change rules and guidelines for parades, events

The city of Mauston is looking into options to help plan and provide support for individuals and businesses who want to hold events in the city, while also ensuring those events do not become a burden financially on taxpayers.

Mauston City Administrator Randy Reeg said during a meeting of the common council March 8 that the city’s plans would make businesses or individuals who hold special events or parades eligible to run the event under the “city umbrella,” allowing the events to be covered by the city’s liability insurance policy.

“This reduces external liability challenges for other local organizations, and helps us to control the impact of special events on municipal services,” Reeg said.

Upcoming events that are tentatively scheduled include four parades for the 4th of July, the Juneau County Fair, Homecoming and the holiday parade, and between 10-12 special events like Downtown Music Nights.

Although the discussions are in the preliminary phase, Reeg suggested the council finalize a plan for rules and guidelines for these events by the April 12 meeting in preparation for this year’s slate of events.

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“We have determined that for these four parades, we can provide the needed logistical and public safety support at no charge if coordinated through the city and if they follow a new, standard parade route,” Reeg said. “This route reduces the number of intersections needing to be controlled, stays off state highways, and eliminates the crossing of railroad tracks.”

The new parade route would have floats and other participants queue on Elmberta Street then traveling north on Division Street before turning left on Tremont Street and ending at Elm Street.

“If co-coordinators want to deviate from the standard route, a public safety fee would be assessed based on the request,” Reeg said. “If additional parades are requested in future years, we would need to re-evaluate our ability to cover all logistical and public safety support.”

For special events Reeg said the city would only need to focus on events that require closure of city streets.

“There are two types: those coordinated through the city, and those that choose to remain separate,” Reeg said. “While we will require both types to complete the same paperwork for approval through the Park and Rec Board (or City Council), separate events will be required to get a permit, provide proof of insurance, and to pay a public safety fee.”

The fee would be for the average hourly salary of a public works employee, and would be used to pay for Public Works support such as moving barricades or closing streets that required more than five hours of labor.

The fee would also be based on the size, duration and location of the event, with events over 250 people requiring an additional police officer on duty for every 250 people. Reeg said the fee could be doubled for “events that are not limited to a specific geographic location that is closed off to motorized vehicles.”

“It’s not uncommon for special events to pay for extra security,” Reeg said. “The purpose is not to punish people because they don’t want to collaborate, but we have to protect municipal services… they’re burdening our public service delivery and we need to protect our taxpayers and we need to protect our services by accounting for that. This is a way that allows smaller events at no public safety fee, but when an event starts to grow and become logistically challenging there could be a fee assessed.”

Other action

In other action before the council, the council:

  • Approved vouchers in the amount of $145,371.83.
  • Performed a first reading of an ordinance amending boulevard cleaning, maintenance and tree standards.
  • Performed a first reading of an ordinance amending downtown parking.
  • Approved the financing of a weed harvester in an amount not to exceed $54,000 if a grant for the weed harvester is not awarded to the city.
  • Approved a new hire request for an Utility Operator.

Reach Christopher Jardine on Twitter @ChrisJJardine or contact him at 608-432-6591.