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ON THE BRINK OF DEFEAT Top military officials see end of terror group in Mindanao

T

By Rene Acosta

HE military has declared that it may take some time before the Daulah Islamiyah (DI), the local front of the Islamic State (IS) in the country, could recover following a series of setbacks the extremist group has sustained, the latest of which was the slaying of Salahuddin Hassan, its overall leader.

In fact, the group, the military predicted, may not even be able to withstand its latest loss.

Hassan, the so-called emir of the DI-Philippines, was neutralized during a joint operation by policemen and soldiers in Maguindanao a week ago, according to the military.

He died just months after assuming the mantle of leadership of the DI-Philippines following the military’s killing of Hatib Hadjan Sawadjaan in Sulu in July last year.

The death of Hassan was a strategic accomplishment for the military, coming at a time when the terrorist group, intent on reorganizing for yet another offensive following its defeat in Marawi City, is already on the retreat from its traditional grounds in Western Mindanao, particularly Lanao del Sur and Sulu.

“This is a significant blow against the DI and another victory in our thrust against terrorism. With their leader now dead, the terrorist group will certainly crumble,” said Armed Forces of

the Philippines Chief of Staff Jose Faustino Jr.

Demise?

COL. Pedro Balisi, commander of the Army’s 1st Mechanized Brigade and leader of the operating troops who got Hassan, also believes that the death of the emir will lead to the demise of IS’s local front in Mindanao.

Other military officials see Hassan’s death as greatly weakening the leadership of, and creating a vacuum within, the local front of the IS. The terrorist group’s search for a new emir—who should be both dedicated and notorious— may not be too easy since most of its potential leaders have also been neutralized in Sulu and Lanao del Sur: Exactly why the group had turned to Hassan, who had previously operated in Central Mindanao and not in Western Mindanao.

“Our hard work and focus in putting our resources to defeat the armed group has come to fruition.

I urge you to sustain our opera-

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 50.5670

tional gains,” Army chief Lt. Gen. Andres Centino said in his address to soldiers in the aftermath of Hassan’s death and even that of Mindanao-based communist rebel Jorge “Ka Oris” Madlos.

‘Very telling’

FOR the military, the killing of Hassan in Maguindanao was “very telling.” It confirmed that the DI is already at the lowest ebb in its operations on its traditional grounds in Western Mindanao like Sulu and Lanao provinces, and the group is in retreat.

It also confirmed that the Lanao-based Maute group, from which the bulk of DI’s original members emanated, has degenerated into an insignificant force.

The DI had been operationally inactive during the past months in Western Mindanao, with only the three factions of the Central Mindanao-based Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) allied with the IS putting up an irregular show of force in Maguindanao. The DI is made up of loose local terrorist groups.

The last time the DI proved it was still around in Western Mindanao was when soldiers in Lanao del Sur engaged the group after sighting 30 of its members in the forested area of Madamba and Madalum in August this year.

Right after the relatives of Sawadjaan were killed in a mid-sea operation in Sulare, Parang, Sulu in November last year, Joint Task Force Sulu commander Major Gen. William Gonzales declared that the group’s operations in the province may have been over.

Three of those killed were Sawadjaan’s cousins: Mannul

THE once-progressive Islamic city of Marawi, after IS-inspired, home-grown terrorist groups ended their siege, is shown in this June 15, 2018, file photo. The military says it is steadily winning the pushback against these groups. AP/AARON FAVILA

Sawadjaan, Dave Sawadjaan and Madzmar Sawadjaan. Of the three, Mannul was identified as the likely successor of Sawadjaan after his death.

“The death of these seven ASG members, particularly Mannul and Madzmar, will significantly affect the local terrorist group’s organizational hierarchy operations.... Mannul is highly

respected within the group,” said Gonzales at that time.

Sawadjaan assumed the leadership of the IS after the death of Isnilon Hapilon during the siege of Marawi City in 2017.

With the death of Hassan and the Sawadjaans, it may be hard for the group to scout for leaders who could steer the terrorist group in Mindanao to possibly rise again,

especially given that the three factions of the BIFF are also on the run in Maguindanao.

Hassan, former leader and founder of the Al-Khobar terrorist group before he shifted to the DI, was a Jemaah Islamiyah-trained bomber and was responsible for numerous bombings in Mindanao, including the Davao night market attack, which killed 14 people.

n JAPAN 0.4445 n UK 68.2655 n HK 6.4973 n CHINA 7.9036 n SINGAPORE 37.4321 n AUSTRALIA 37.4196 n EU 58.4302 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.4824

Source: BSP (November 5, 2021)

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Is it green, or forever toxic? Nuclear rift at climate talks

By Angela Charlton

S

The Associated Press

OULAINES-DHUYS, France— Deep in a French forest of oaks, birches and pines, a steady stream of trucks carries a silent reminder of nuclear energy’s often invisible cost: canisters of radioactive waste, heading into storage for the next 300 years.

As negotiators plot out how to fuel the world while also reducing carbon emissions at climate talks in Scotland, nuclear power is a central sticking point. Critics decry its mammoth price tag, the disproportionate damage caused by nuclear accidents, and radioactive leftovers that remain deadly for thousands of years.

The best hope?

BUT increasingly vocal and powerful proponents—some climate scientists and environmental experts among them—argue that nuclear power is the world’s best hope of keeping climate change under control, noting that it emits so few planet-damaging emissions and is safer on average than nearly any other energy source.

Nuclear accidents are scary but exceedingly rare—while pollution from coal and other fossil fuels causes death and illness every day, scientists say.

“The scale of what human civilization is trying to do over the next 30 years [to fight climate

change] is staggering,” said Matt Bowen, of Columbia University’s Center for Global Energy Policy.

“It will be much more daunting if we exclude new nuclear plants—or even more daunting if we decide to shut down nuclear plants all together.”

Many governments are pushing to enshrine nuclear energy in climate plans being hashed out at the conference in Glasgow, known as COP26. The European Union, meanwhile, is debating whether to label nuclear energy as officially “green”—a decision that will steer billions of euros of investment for years to come.

AUDREY GUILLEMENET, geologist and spokesperson, shows a tunnel project map for radioactive waste in an underground laboratory run by French radioactive waste management agency Andra, in Bure, eastern France, on October 28, 2021.

Nuclear power is a central sticking point as negotiators plot out the world’s future energy strategy at the climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland. AP

That has implications worldwide, as the EU policy could set a standard that other economies follow.

But what about all that waste?

REACTORS worldwide produce thousands of tons of highly radioactive detritus per year, on top of what has already been left by decades of harnessing the atom to electrify homes and factories around the world.

Germany is leading the pack of countries, mainly within the EU, standing firmly against labeling nuclear as “green.” Meanwhile, the Biden administration supports nuclear power, China has a dozen reactors under construction—and even Japan is promoting nuclear energy again, 10 years after the disaster at its Fukushima power plant.

But nowhere in the world is as reliant on nuclear reactors as France, which is at the forefront of the pro-nuclear push at the European and global level. And it’s among leading players in the nuclear waste industry, recycling or reprocessing material from around the world.

Radioactive graveyard

SOUTH of the World War I battlefields of Verdun, trucks bearing radioactivity warning stickers pull into a waste storage site near the village of Soulaines-Dhuys. They’re repeatedly checked, wiped and scanned for leaks.

Their cargo—compacted waste stuffed into concrete or steel cylinders—is stacked by robotic cranes in warehouses that are then filled with gravel and sealed with more concrete.

The agency that manages the waste, Andra, knows its scares people. “I cannot fight against people’s fears. Our role is to guarantee the safety of people and the environment and the workers on the site,” said spokesperson Thierry Pochot.

The storage units hold 90 percent of France’s low- to medium-activity radioactive waste, including tools, clothing and other material linked to reactor operation and maintenance. The site is designed to last at least 300 years after the last shipment arrives, when the radioactivity of its contents is forecast to be no higher than levels found in nature.

For longer-life waste—mainly used nuclear fuel, which remains potentially deadly for tens

‘I

cannot fight against people’s fears. Our role is to guarantee the safety of people and the environment and the workers on the site.’—Thierry

Pochot, spokesperson for radioactive waste management agency Andra

of thousands of years—France is laying the groundwork for a permanent, deep-earth repository beneath corn and wheat fields outside the nearby stone-house hamlet of Bure.

Some 500 meters below the surface, workers carry out tests on the clay and granite, carve tunnels and seek to prove that the longterm storage plan is the safest solution for future generations. Similar sites are under development or study in other countries, too.

If the repository wins French regulatory approval, it would hold some 85,000 metric tons of the most radioactive waste produced “from the beginning of the nuclear era until the end of existing nuclear facilities,” said Audrey Guillemenet, geologist and spokesperson for the underground lab.

“We can’t leave this waste in storage sites on the surface,” where it is now, she said. “That is secure, but not sustainable.”

The €25-billion ($29 billion) cost of the proposed repository is already built into budgeting by French utilities, Guillemenet said.

But that’s just one piece of the staggering cost of building and operating nuclear plants, and one of the reasons that opposition abounds.

All around Bure, street signs are replaced with graffiti reading “Nuclear is Over,” and activists camp out at the town’s main intersection.

A new ‘mix’

GREENPEACE accuses the French nuclear industry of fobbing off waste on other countries and covering up problems at nuclear facilities, which industry officials deny.

Activists staged a protest last week in the port of Dunkirk, as reprocessed uranium was being loaded

onto a ship for St. Petersburg, demanding an end to nuclear energy and more research into solutions for existing waste.

“Nuclear waste…needs to be dealt with,” Bowen said. But “with fossil fuels, the waste is pumped into our atmosphere, which is threatening us from the risks of climate change and public health impacts from air pollution.”

Some prominent scientists now embrace nuclear. They argue that over the past half-century, nuclear power stations have avoided the emission of an estimated 60 billion tons of carbon dioxide by providing energy that otherwise would have come from fossil fuels.

US climate envoy John Kerry says he’s changed his early career opposition to nuclear because of the greater necessity to cut emissions.

“People are beginning to understand the consequences of not going nuclear,” said Kerry Emanuel, professor of atmospheric science at MIT.

Amid a “growing awareness of the rise of climate risks around the world, people are beginning to say, ‘that’s a bit more frightening than nuclear power plants.’”

Some activists want to end nuclear energy today, and others want to phase it out soon. But Emanuel noted examples of countries or states that shut nuclear plants before renewables were ready to take up the slack—and had to return to coal or other planet-choking energy sources.

The current energy crunch is giving nuclear advocates another argument. With oil and gas costs driving an energy price crisis across Europe and beyond, French President Emmanuel Macron has trumpeted “European renewables and, of course, European nuclear.”

The waste, meanwhile, isn’t going away.

To make radioactive garbage dumps less worrying to local residents, Andra organizes school visits; one site even hosts an escape game. Waste storage researchers are readying for all kinds of potential future threats—revolution, extreme weather, even the next Ice Age, Guillemenet said.

Whatever happens in Glasgow, “whether we decide to go on with the nuclear energy or not,” she said, “we will need to find a solution for the management of that nuclear waste” that humankind has already produced.

www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Angel R. Calso

The World

Bangladesh’s villages bear climate change’s brutal cost

By Julhas Alam & Aniruddha Ghosal The Associated Press

S

HYAMNAGAR, Bangladesh—With each tide, Abdus Satter watches the sea erode a little more of his life.

His village of Bonnotola in southwestern Bangladesh, with its muddy roads and tin-roofed houses, was once home to over 2,000 people. Most were farmers like the 58-year-old Satter. Then the rising seas poisoned the soil with salt water. Two cyclones in the last two years destroyed the mud embankments that shielded the village from tidal waves.

Now, only 480 people remain, with the rest rendered homeless by the sea.

The effects of global warming—particularly increased cyclones, and coastal and tidal flooding that bring salt water further inland—are devastating Bangladesh and destroying the livelihoods of millions, said Mohammad Shamsuddoha, chief executive of the nonprofit Center for Participatory Research Development.

“It’s a grave concern for a country like Bangladesh,” he said, adding that projections show some 30 million people may be displaced from the country’s coastal regions.

With climate negotiators gathered in Glasgow, Scotland, for a UN climate conference, countries like Bangladesh are pressing for more financial support to cope with global warming.

A decade-old deal for rich countries to give poor nations $100 billion each year to switch to clean energy and adapt to climate change has not been fulfilled. Even the money that is being provided—about $80 billion in 2019—is spread too thin to make much of a difference on the ground.

In Gabura, another village in the Bengal River delta, Nazma Khatun, 43, has been struggling to feed her two daughters. Half of her meager daily income—less than $3 from sewing and selling cloth—goes toward medicine for skin diseases she says everyone in the village suffers from due to rising sea levels, which have contaminated land and water.

“We have water everywhere, but we don’t have a drop any more to drink from ponds or wells,” she said.

This land was once fertile. Khatun said mango and jackfruit used to flourish, and everyone grew vegetables in their backyard, relying on ponds, rivers and wells for drinking water.

“Now it’s impossible. See the pond here, fresh water is gone,” she said.

In 1973, 833,000 hectares (3,216 square miles) of land was affected by the encroaching sea water, accelerated by more frequent cyclones and higher tides that have contaminated water supplies. That’s bigger than the US state of Delaware.

This grew to 1.02 million hectares (3,938 square miles) in 2000, and 1.056 million hectares (4,077 square miles) in 2009, according to Bangladesh’s Soil Resources Development Institute. Salinity in soil has increased by 26 percent over the past 35 years.

At Bonbibi Tola village, women gather daily at a hand-pump well to collect water for cooking and drinking. The women walk up to 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) hauling water daily.

But this won’t last long. Wells in the region only have fresh water in the months after monsoon rains. In the summer—when the flow from Himalayan rivers decreases—fresh water becomes scarce, said one of the women, Maheswari Halder.

“This is the fate we all surrender to,” she said.

The three villages lie in Bangladesh’s southwestern Shyamnagar region, home to 400,000 people. Officials say the government lacks funding for additional desalination plants to convert salt water into fresh water.

“The area needs maybe 500 desalination plants. But we’ve only 50 or so,” said Alamgir Kabir, director of a local NGO, the Nawabenki Ganomukhi Foundation.

Despite seeing its gross domestic product rise from $6.2 billion in 1972 to $305 billion in 2019, Bangladesh can’t pay the cost of global warming on its own. There are only six countries in the world more impacted by climate change from 2000 to 2019, according to the 2021 Climate Change Performance Index by nonprofit Germanwatch. In those years, Bangladesh lost 0.41 percent of its gross domestic product due to climate change, and a single cyclone in 2019 caused losses of $8.1 billion.

Abul Kalam Azad, the country’s special envoy to the Climate Vulnerable Forum, said Bangladesh, a country of about 160 million, has historically contributed a fraction of the world’s emissions. And yet the country is being devastated by climate change, he said.

Azad says aid in the form of high-cost loans would be of no use, but lowcost loans combined with grants would help.

Environmental campaigners say a sea change is needed in the international debate on climate aid to ensure a steady increase in funding to poor, vulnerable nations from a variety of public and private sources.

“You also need to make sure that at least 50 percent of the funds go into adaptation [to climate change] because people are on the front line,” said Jennifer Morgan, the head of Greenpeace International.

Speaking before fellow leaders Monday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh raised the thorny issue of major polluters paying compensation for the destruction caused by global warming.

“The issue of loss and damage must be addressed, including global sharing of responsibility for climate migrants and those displaced by sea-level rise, salinity increase, river erosion, floods, droughts,” she said.

The 2015 Paris accord already contains a provision for this. Article 8 states that parties to the pact, “recognize the importance of averting, minimizing and addressing loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change, including extreme weather events and slow onset events, and the role of sustainable development in reducing the risk of loss and damage.”

“Unfortunately, there hasn’t been a single penny paid for loss and damage,” Saleemul Huq, director of the Bangladesh-based International Centre for Climate Change and Development, said in a recent documentary.

Huq argues that a compensation fund for oil spills offers a template for how big polluters, particularly fossil fuel companies, could provide funding to nations whose islands have been washed away or farms turned to desert as a result of global warming.

Rich countries such as the United States are wary of any suggestion that they might be legally liable for their decades-long greenhouse gas emissions still lingering in the atmosphere.

But addressing such issues in Glasgow will be critical, said Huq. “Otherwise, the developing countries, particularly the most vulnerable countries, will deem the [conference] a failure.”

For Satter, it may already be too late.

Every morning, waves gush into his home and soon he, his wife and two sons will have to flee. The sea has snatched away their future and their past, he said, pointing to a muddy trench that was once a courtyard where his parents’ graves lay.

“It’s just a matter of time,” he said.

Ghosal reported from New Delhi. Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report.

BusinessMirror

Sunday, November 7, 2021

A3

Countries pledge to phase out heavily polluting coal

By Frank Jordans & Seth Borenstein

G

The Associated Press

LASGOW, Scotland—In the fight to curb climate change, several major coal-using nations announced steps Thursday to wean themselves—at times slowly—off of the heavily polluting fossil fuel.

The pledges to phase out coal come on top of other promises made at the UN climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, that the head of an international energy organization said trimmed several tenths of a degree from projections of future warming. But outside experts called that “optimistic.”

Optimism also abounded in relation to the promises on coal, which has the dirtiest carbon footprint of the major fuels and is a significant source of planetwarming emissions.

“Today, I think we can say that the end of coal is in sight,” said Alok Sharma, who is chairing the conference of nearly 200 nations, known as COP26.

Critics say that vision is still obscured by a lot of smoke because several major economies still have yet to set a date for ending their dependence on the fuel, including the United States, China, India and Japan—which was targeted outside the summit venue Thursday by protesters clad as animated characters.

What nations have promised varies. Some have pledged to quit coal completely at a future date, while others say they’ll stop building new plants, and even more, including China, are talking about just stopping the financing of new coal plants abroad.

The British government said pledges of new or earlier deadlines for ending coal use came from more than 20 countries including Ukraine, Vietnam, South Korea, Indonesia and Chile.

Some came with notable caveats, such as Indonesia’s request for additional aid before committing to bring its deadline forward to

the 2040s.

Meanwhile, Poland, the secondbiggest user of coal in Europe after Germany, appeared to backtrack on any ambitious new commitments within hours of the announcement.

“Energy security and the assurances of jobs is a priority for us,” Anna Moskwa, Poland’s minister for climate and environment, said in a tweet, citing the government’s existing plan which “provides for a departure from hard coal by 2049.”

Earlier in the day, it had seemed that Poland might bring that deadline forward by at least a decade.

Campaigners reacted angrily to the apparent U-turn. “ Mosk wa h a s u nderscored t hat her gover nment cannot be trusted to sign a postcard, let alone a responsible climate pledge,” said Kathrin Gutmann, campaign director of the group Europe Beyond Coal.

Separately, more than twodozen countries, cities and companies joined the Powering Past Coal Alliance, whose members commit to ending coal use by 2030, for developed countries, and no later than 2050 for developing ones. Banks that are members pledge not to provide loans for the worst types of coal-fired power plants.

Meanwhile, the United States, Canada, Denmark and several other nations signed a different pledge to “prioritize” funding clean energy over fossil fuel projects abroad.

While not completely ruling out financial support for coalfired power plants, the countries said they would refrain from any “new direct public support” for coal

except in limited circumstances.

That move was seen as a significant step by environmental campaigners, who said that it could push international lenders to stop providing loans for new fossil fuel projects.

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss officials’ thinking, said that while the US hadn’t opted to join the coal phase-out pledges, its commitment to a clean energy future was clear. The Biden administration wants to reach 100 percent carbon pollution-free electricity by 2035.

Underlining the urgent need for action on coal, a new analysis by scientists at Global Carbon Project found emissions from the fuel increased dramatically in 2021, not just from pandemic-struck 2020 levels, but even when compared to pre-pandemic 2019 levels. The world spewed 14.7 billion metric tons (16.2 billion tons) of carbon dioxide from coal burning, 5.7 percent more than last year, said the group, which tracks annual carbon pollution.

That was mostly spurred by a dramatic increase in China, which hit a new peak of coal emissions this year of 7.6 billion metric tons (8.4 billion tons) of carbon dioxide, more than half the globe’s coal emissions, the report said.

Stil l, ex per ts said the announcement and others made so far at the summit showed t h e g r o w i n g m o m e nt u m t o ditch coal.

“Today’s commitments will help to shift whole continents on their journey to phase out coal,” said Dave Jones of the energy think tank Ember.

Ukraine, the third-biggest coal consumer in Europe, is bringing forward its coal deadline, from 2050 to 2035.

Coal production in Ukraine has already dropped significantly over the past few years: From 40.9 million metric tons in 2016 to 28.8 million in 2020 (45 million tons to 32 million), according to the Energy Ministry.

The figures do not include production in the coalfields of separatist-control led easter n Ukraine, wh ic h accou nted for about ha l f of Ukraine’s mines

prior to the 2014 uprising.

“The progress on coal being shown at COP26 demonstrates that the conditions are ripe for a global coal exit,” said Leo Roberts, a senior researcher at the environmental think tank E3G. “We now need to see the incoming massive scale-up in clean energy finance made available quickly to ensure all countries can confidently move from coal to clean,” he added.

But some environmental activists said the commitments didn’t go far enough.

“Emissions from oil and gas already far outstrip coal and are booming, while coal is already entering a terminal decline,” said Murray Worthy of the campaign group Global Witness. “This is a small step forwards when what was needed was a giant leap.”

The agreements on coal are not part of the formal negotiations at the UN talks in Glasgow.

But British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose country is hosting the conference, had said he wanted to see deals on coal, cars, trees and cash.

Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Agency, said Thursday that a new analysis by the Paris-based body shows that fully achieving all the emissionsreduction pledges made on previous days—including for the potent greenhouse gas methane— could allow the world to limit warning to 1.8 degrees Celsius (3.2 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.

The goal that countries set at a previous conference in Paris is to limit temperature increases to 1.5C (2.7F). A United Nations a n a lysis showed t h at before Glasgow the world was heading to a 2.7C (4.9F) increase while other analyses showed warming in the mid- to upper-2-degree range also.

Nik las Hohne, of the New Climate Institute and Climate Action Tracker, called Birol ’s figure “optimistic” and noted it was based on countries achieving pledges to only emit what can be absorbed—so called net-zero plans—when they haven’t yet implemented any actions that would get them there.

Investors bet big on climate fight but motives questioned

G

L A S G OW, S cot l a nd — Governments and big investors announced fresh plans Wednesday to pour trillions of dollars into curbing global warming, reflecting the financial world’s growing embrace of efforts to fight climate change as both a business necessity and opportunity.

But some social justice activists called for scrutiny of investors’ motives, warning that the same financial institutions that profited from funding fossil fuel firms were now being presented as green champions.

There is a growing consensus that the private sector must be involved if the world is to avoid catastrophic global war ming.

Spea k i ng at t he U N c l i m ate summit in the Scottish city of Glasgow, Britain’s Treasury chief Rishi Sunak said that while countries such as his are stumping up more cash to fund the shift to low carbon economies around the world, “public investment alone isn’t enough.”

He praised a pledge Wednesday

by a group of over 450 major financial institutions to align their investments with the 2015 Paris climate accord—which calls for reducing carbon dioxide emissions and other efforts to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.

“This is a historic wall of capital for the net-zero transition around the world,” Sunak said at the conference known as COP26.

The Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero—launched this year by former Bank of England chief Mark Carney—promised to follow scientific guidelines for cutting carbon emissions to “net zero” by 2050.

That goal—which means limiting greenhouse gas emissions to the amount that can be absorbed again through natural or artificial ways—is increasingly being embraced by companies and governments around the world.

Experts say fossil fuel use has to drop drastically over the coming decade to cap warming at 1.5C, meaning investors would

likely have to dramatically cut back money going to oil, gas and coal producers.

“It is huge that financial institutions managing $130 trillion in assets are now leading the charge to a net-zero future,” said Helen Mountford, a senior climate expert at the World Resources Institute think tank.

She said that mobilizing massive public and private finance will be key to tackling global warming.

To that end, Sunak said UK financial institutions and publicly traded companies will be required to publish plans detailing how green their investments and their own businesses are—in order to ensure they’re actually contributing to reductions in global warming.

As home to the City of London, one of the world’s major financial centers, the UK “has a responsibility to lead the way” in financing efforts to fight global warming, said Sunak, potentially becoming “the world’s first net-zero aligned financial center.”

But James Thornton, founder of the environmental law charity

ClientEarth, questioned how effective the UK effort would be.

“The UK market is still hooked on fossil fuels,” he said, calling for a task force to ensure companies don’t “greenwash” their activities—that is, using high-profile announcements of so-called green initiatives to mask other “dirty” activities. Experts also caution there are various ways to calculate net zero—and deciding on one standard definition is one of the big challenges going forward.

Some campaigners were distrustful of the motives of big investors in general.

“Many of the financial institutions meeting today have made a killing from the climate and ecological crisis, and we should be deeply suspicious of any attempt to spin them as the heroes,” said Dorothy Guerrero, head of policy at the nongovernmental group Global Justice Now. “Governments must regulate the process and lead the transition, instead of just handing it over the corporations.”

Continued on A4

Sunday, November 7, 2021

A4

TheWorld BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

UK authorizes Merck antiviral pill, 1st shown to treat Covid

By Matthew Perrone & Maria Cheng

L

The Associated Press

ONDON—Britain granted conditional authorization on Thursday to the first pill shown to successfully treat Covid-19 so far.

It also is the first country to OK the treatment from drugmaker Merck, although it wasn’t immediately clear how quickly the pill would be available.

The pill was licensed for adults 18 and older who have tested positive for Covid-19 and have at least one risk factor for developing severe disease, such as obesity or heart disease. Patients with mild-to-moderate Covid-19 would take four pills of the drug, known as molnupiravir, twice a day for five days.

An antiviral pill that reduces symptoms and speeds recovery could prove groundbreaking, easing caseloads on hospitals and helping to curb outbreaks in poorer countries with fragile health systems. It would also bolster the two-pronged approach to the pandemic: treatment, by way of medication, and prevention, primarily through vaccinations.

Molnupiravir is also pending review with regulators in the US, the European Union and elsewhere. The US Food and Drug Administration announced last

month it would convene a panel of independent experts to scrutinize the pill’s safety and effectiveness in late November.

Initial supplies will be limited. Merck has said it can produce 10 million treatment courses through the end of the year, but much of that supply has already been purchased by governments worldwide.

In October, UK officials announced they secured 480,000 courses of molnupiravir and expected thousands of vulnerable Britons to have access to the treatment this winter via a national study.

“Today is a historic day for our country, as the UK is now the first country in the world to approve an antiviral that can be taken at home for Covid-19,” British health secretary Sajid Javid said.

“We are working at pace across the government and with the NHS

This undated image provided by Merck & Co. shows their new antiviral medication against Covid-19. Britain has granted a conditional authorization to Merck’s coronavirus antiviral, the first pill shown to successfully treat Covid-19. It is the first country to OK the treatment, although it was not immediately clear how quickly the pill would be available. Merck & Co. via AP

to set out plans to deploy molnupiravir to patients through a national study as soon as possible,” he said in a statement, referring to the UK’s National Health Service. Doctors said the treatment would be particularly significant for people who don’t respond well to vaccination.

Merck and partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutic have requested clearance for the drug with regulators around the world for adults with early cases of Covid-19 who are at risk for severe disease or hospitalization. That’s roughly the same group targeted for treatment with infused Covid-19 antibody drugs, the standard of care in many countries for patients who don’t yet require hospitalization.

Merck announced preliminary results in September showing its drug cut hospitalizations and deaths by half among patients

with early Covid-19 symptoms.

The results haven’t yet been peer reviewed or published in a scientific journal.

The company also didn’t disclose details on molnupiravir’s side effects, except to say that rates of those problems were similar between people who got the drug and those who received dummy pills.

The drug targets an enzyme the coronavirus uses to reproduce itself, inserting errors into its genetic code that slow its ability to spread and take over human cells.

That genetic activity has led some independent experts to question whether the drug could potentially cause mutations leading to birth defects or tumors.

Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said molnupiravir’s ability to interact with DNA and cause mutations

WHO authorizes Indian-made Covid vaccine, months into use

By Aniruddha Ghosal & Maria Cheng

had been studied “extensively” and that it wasn’t found to pose a risk to humans.

“Studies in rats showed that [molnupiravir] may cause harmful effects to the unborn offspring, although this was at doses which were higher than those that will be given to humans, and these effects were not observed in other animals,” the agency said in an e-mail.

In company trials, both men and women were instructed to either use contraception or abstain from sex. Pregnant women were excluded from the study. Merck has stated that the drug is safe when used as directed.

Molnupiravir was initially studied as a potential flu therapy with funding from the US government.

Last year, researchers at Emory University decided to repurpose the drug as a potential Covid-19 treatment. They then licensed the drug to Ridgeback and partner Merck.

Last week, Merck agreed to allow other drugmakers to make its Covid-19 pill, in a move aimed at helping millions of people in poorer countries get access. The Medicines Patent Pool, a UN-backed group, said Merck will not receive royalties under the agreement for as long as the World Health Organization deems Covid-19 to be a global emergency.

But the deal was criticized by some activists for excluding many middle-income countries capable of making millions of treatments, including Brazil and China.

St i l l , e x per t s com mended

Continued From A3

EW DELHI—The World He a lt h O r g a n i z at io n granted an emergency use license Wednesday to a coronavirus vaccine developed in India, offering reassurance for a shot the country’s regulators allowed long before advanced safety and efficacy testing was completed.

The UN health agency said in a statement that it had authorized Covaxin, made by India’s Bharat Biotech. The action makes Covaxin the eighth Covid-19 vaccine to receive WHO’s green light.

“This emergency use listing expands the availability of vaccines, the most effective medical tools we have to end the pandemic,” said Dr. Mariângela Simão, WHO’s assistant director-general for access to medicines.

Cova xin was developed by Bharat Biotech in partnership with the Indian Council of Medical Research, the government’s apex research body. The vaccine is made using a killed coronavirus to prompt an immune response and is given in two doses.

WHO said the vaccine was found to be about 78 percent effective in preventing severe Covid-19 and was “extremely suitable” for poor countries due to its much easier storage requirements.

An expert group convened by WHO said there was insufficient data about the vaccine’s safety and efficacy in pregnant women; studies are being planned to address those questions.

Ind ia’s d r ug reg u l ator authorized Covaxin in Januar y, months before extensive testing in people had been completed, prompting concern from health experts that the shot was given the nod prematurely.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the first shot of the two-dose vaccine in March.

But Alok Sharma, the British official chairing the talks in Glasgow, insisted the shift was genuine.

“What we have seen over the last few years is a big move in the private sector and the financial services sector to go green,” he said, adding that this was not the case when he became a financial advisor in the 1990s. “I do believe it is now mainstream.”

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen noted one of the reasons that may be the case: She described combatting climate change as both a huge financial challenge, with a price tag of $100 trillion, but also “the greatest economic opportunity of our time.”

“Many renewables are now cheaper than carbon-based fuel alternatives and have lower longterm operating costs,” she said.

“In many cases, it’s simply cost effective to go green.”

US President Joe Biden issued an executive order earlier this year aimed at requiring companies to disclose climaterelated financial risks.

Investing with an eye on the environment has been one of the biggest trends reshaping the financial industry for years, graduating from niche to a major force.

Around the world, $35.3 trillion was invested in sustainable funds at the start of 2020, according to the most recent data from the Global Sustainable Investment Alliance. That accounted for nearly $36 of every $100 invested under professional management, and it includes everything from funds that directly finance environmen-

A health worker administers a dose of Covaxin Covid-19 vaccine at a health center in Garia, South 24 Pargana district, India, on October 21. The World Health Organization has granted an emergency use license to a coronavirus vaccine developed in India, offering reassurance for a shot that was authorized by the country’s regulators long before advanced testing was completed to prove it was safe and effective. AP/Bikas Das

By mid-October, over 110 million jabs of the vaccine had been administered, making Covaxin the second-most used Covid-19 shot in India after AstraZeneca’s.

Despite India’s repeated endorsement of its homegrown vaccine, Bharat Biotech has faced problems scaling up production.

In July, India’s Health Ministry said the company was making 25 million doses of the vaccine on average each month and expected to increase monthly production to 58 million doses.

The company says it’s aiming to reach an annual capacity of 1 billion doses by the end of 2021, or over 80 million shots each month, but has not responded to questions about its current capacity.

Bharat Biotech said several other countries, including Brazil, Philippines, Iran and Mexico, also had authorized its Covid-19 vaccine. Before India paused exports, shots made by Bharat Biotech were sent to Myanmar, Paraguay and Zimbabwe as grants, and to Mauritius and Iran as a part of com-

mercial deals, data from India’s Foreign Ministry shows.

The federal prosecutor’s office in Brazil is investigating possible irregularities in the Health Ministry’s contract to buy 20 million doses of Covaxin.

To date, the World Health Organization has granted emergency approval to the vaccines made by AstraZeneca and its partner, the Serum Institute of India, PfizerBioNTech, Moderna Inc., Johnson & Johnson, and the Chinese pharmaceuticals Sinopharm and Sinovac.

Vaccines OK’d by WHO can be used as part of the UN-backed COVAX effort to distribute Covid-19 vaccines and to share doses with poorer countries. The initiative is in desperate need of more vaccines after failing to meet its targets and dramatically reducing the number of doses expected to be delivered by the end of the year.

Anna Marriott, health policy manager for Oxfam, said WHO’s authorization of India’s Covaxin should “silence those who have claimed that the experience and

expertise to develop and manufacture life-saving medicines and vaccines do not exist in developing countries.”

She called on Bharat Biotech to freely share its vaccine recipe and know-how so more manufacturers globally could produce it.

Less than 1 percent of the world’s coronavirus vaccines have gone to poor countries.

“Today’s vaccine apartheid between rich and poor countries has been created by the monopolies of companies like Pfizer and Moderna who have consistently put obscene profits before saving lives, and we urge Bharat Biotech not to follow in their footsteps,” Marriott said in a statement.

WHO’s emergency use license for Covaxin should also mean that millions of Indians immunized with the shot will be allowed to travel internationally by countries that recognize vaccines authorized

by WHO, including Britain, European Union members and Canada.

Cheng reported from London.

Matthew Perrone reported from Washington.

Investors bet big on climate fight but motives questioned

The Associated Press

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Merck for agreeing to widely share its formula and promising to help any companies who need technological help in making their drug—something no coronavirus vaccine producers have agreed to.

“Unlike the grotesquely unequal distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, the poorest countries will not have to wait at the back of the queue for molnupiravir,” said Dr. Mohga Kamal-Yanni, a senior health adviser to the People’s Vaccine Alliance. Less than 1 percent of the world’s Covid-19 vaccines have gone to poor countries and experts hope easier-to-dispense treatments will help them curb the pandemic.

Merck previously announced licensing deals with several Indian makers of generic drugs to manufacture lower-cost versions of molnupiravir for developing countries.

The US has agreed to pay roughly $700 per course of the drug for about 1.7 million treatments.

Merck says it plans to use a tiered pricing strategy for developing countries. A review by Harvard University and King’s College London estimated the drug costs about $18 to make each 40-pill course of treatment.

While other treatments have been cleared to treat Covid-19, including steroids and monoclonal antibodies, those are administered by injection or infusion and are mostly used in hospitals and other health care facilities.

tally friendly projects to funds that simply refuse to buy shares of the most-polluting companies.

While that’s still the minority of all investments, it’s been growing faster than other areas of the market. Four years earlier, sustainable investments accounted for less than $28 of every $100.

But an analysis of the holdings of 130 climate-themed funds this summer by London-based think tank InfluenceMap found more than half weren’t as green as they purported to be. Some that were classified as “fossil fuel restricted” owned shares of oil refiners and distributors, for example.

Alina Averchenkova, an expert on climate change policy at the London School of Economics, said the announcements by investors and governments were an important step in the right direction— but independent audits would be required going forward.

She also noted the growing urgent need for rich nations to fund climate-related projects in parts of the world that can’t afford the measures themselves.

“We need finance to help developing countries to adapt to the impacts of climate change, for example, to adapt to increased flooding to extreme weather events such as hurricanes,” she said.

Poorer countries were angered last month by news that wealthy nations had failed to meet a previous commitment to provide them with $100 billion in climate finance each year by 2020.

That target is now expected to be met in 2023. AP

Science

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

DOST’s niche centers in regions working for UN’s zero hunger target in PHL

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nding hunger in the Philippines is among the aims in the creation of the Niche Centers in the Region for R&D (Nicer) of the Department of Science and Technology’s (DOST).

Nicers, which are under the DOSTScience for Change Program (S4CP), enable the regional higher educational institutions to conduct quality research and boost regional economic growth.

In a recent online symposium, the Nicers focused on food security, such as inland marine and aquatic resources, together with crop and livestock. They presented their latest breakthroughs to contribute to the achievement of zero hunger in the country, S4CP said in a news release.

“We need to capacitate our regions to be ready for the challenges of the new environment,” said Science Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña.

“Food security and safety are two sectors that propel our nation forward. We must invest in R&D [research and development] to end hunger and strengthen our food systems and sustain activities that support regional development,” he added.

Acknowledging the creation of Nicers, Undersecretary for Regional Operations Sancho A. Mabborang said: “The establishment of these Nicers are among the key strategies toward developing a more STI [science, technology and innovation]-driven, sustainable, resilient, and progressive countryside—stimulating the industry sector and contributing toward achieving zero hunger in the near future.”

The Nicer under the Inland Aquatic industry, the Isabela State University in Cagayan Valley Region hosts the Freshwater Fisheries R&D Center.

The center has successfully increased the average weight of glass eels, or igat, by 204 percent. Their average sur vival rate also rose from 70 percent to 94 percent and established rearing facilities in 11 municipalities to grow ludong, or lobed-river mullet.

Besides these, it generated employment for the indigenous people, and established the Cagayan Valley Aquaculture Producers Cooperative, which encouraged the community to venture into eel and freshwater fish production.

Under the Marine Resources industry, the Mindanao State University-Naawan in Northern Mindanao hosts the Sea Cucumber R&D Center.

The center focuses on two species of sea cucumbers, the white teatfish, Holothuria fuscogilva, and sandfish, Holothuria scabra.

The white teatfish is still in its experimental stages of developing its spawning and larval rearing protocols, and the sandfish is up and running for its production and promotion for farming among community beneficiaries as their source of

alternative livelihood.

This Nicer has recorded 58 commercial sea cucumber species across stations in Mindanao, and found that sea cucumber fisheries in sampling sites in Mindanao are generally smallscale involving 700 households with varying gathering methods depending on location and depth.

The Nicer under the Crops industry, the Pampanga State Agricultural University in Central Luzon hosts the Tamarind R&D Center.

This Nicer has increased the areas in Central Luzon planted with tamarind from 187 to 271.5 hectares in two years’ time.

Lastly, under the Livestock industry, the Marinduque State College in Mimaropa hosts the Markaduke R&D Center.

This Nicer has achieved improvement in the number of piglets weaned from 13 to as high as 18 pigs weaned per sow per year.

It was reported that more genetic improvements are soon to be achieved having found favorable genes for litter size (Estrogen Receptor 1: 17 percent to 36 percent), growth (Myogenin: 14 percent), meat quality (Leptin: 86 percent), and disease resistance (Fucosyltransferase 1: 22 percent to 50 percent).

Its artificial insemination laboratory is equipped with state-of-the-art computer-assisted sperm analyzer to improve the reproductive efficiency of the male breeding pig (boar).

The technology on feeding and husbandry practices are in line with the low-cost, low-input production system to be adaptable and practical under the house-hold farming condition.

With these achievements, the DOST pushes to sustain their efforts by lobbying for the passage of the Science for Change Program bill which seeks to address the disparity in R&D funding in the Regions and lack of R&D in the private sector.

Once approved, the S4CP bill will promote inclusive, equitable, and sustainable development through the optimal use of the R&D budget equitably and systematically in all regions in the country.

The S4CP bill also aims to achieve self-reliance in various sectors including the food sector, manufacturing sector and health sector, among others.

“The Nicer program introduced R&D interventions to enhance agricultural yields in the regions to spur economic growth and contribute to food security,” said Undersecretary for R&D Rowena Cristina L. Guevara.

“DOST intends that these Nicers will produce and attract the leading experts in high-impact sectors in support of the creation of regional hubs for the technology transfer and commercialization of R&D outputs,” Guevara added. S&T Media Services

Test kits to detect lambanog contamination being developed

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ews of poisoning of coconut wine, or lambanog, drinkers may soon be a thing of the past as a test kit is being developed to ensure the safety of this popular intoxicating drink The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Calabarzon Regional Office and the Cavite State University (CvSU) are in partnership in developing field-test kits to control the quality and ensure safety the safety of lambanog, which is popular in coconut-producing areas in Luzon, a DOST news release said.

Proper fermentation in the production of lambanog is important to prevent poisoning, experts say who reiterate the warnings to distillers over the drink’s high methanol content.

It was reported in December 2019 that 300 individuals were hospitalized in the provinces of Laguna and Quezon with signs of poisoning, after drinking lambanog with high levels of methanol.

“Lambanog poisoning is caused by residual methanol, which in high levels becomes highly toxic for humans. Methanol is naturally occurring substance present during the distilling process, that should be separated and removed thereafter,” the Department of Health was quoted in a statement in 2019.

The DOST is allotting P1,074,900 for the project for the use of business owners for quality control to ensure food quality and safety.

The initiative is being led by its project leader Dr. Hosea Matel of CvSu and Science Research Specialist Jon Uriel Layos of DOST–Science Education Institute.

“By taking samples and treating them, the observable change in its hue can help local brewers determine whether or not their products are safe for human consumption,” Matel said.

The technology aims to develop a low-cost field test kit (i.e., microf luidic paper-based colorimetric sensor) to detect methanol contamination in alcoholic beverages, such as lambanog, and to help the producers establish food quality and safety standards.

Prototypes are very simple to use and affordable, but developers pointed out that it needs more tests to prove its technical and economic feasibility.

“The field-test kit for methanol is helpful in testing for food safety of lambanog; when deployed it can be integrated in the quality control procedures of distillers. This might be helpful in bringing back public trust on an age-old traditional product,” Matel said. S&T Media Services

Sunday

Sunday, November 7, 2021

A5

DOST-FNRI: 1 of 6 PHL kids most affected by vitamin A deficiency

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ne out of six, or 15.5 percent of Filipino infants and children under five years old (6 months to 5 years) are the most affected population group of vitamin A deficiency (VAD).

At the same time, the children in rural areas have 16.9 percent, or slightly higher VAD prevalence than those in urban areas at 13.6 percent.

VAD is also common among children from the poorest wealth quintile (22.4 percent).

These were the results of the 2018-2019 Expanded National Nutrition Survey (ENNS) of the Department of Science and Technology’s Food and Nutrition Research Institute (DOST-FNRI), the agency’s news release said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said less than 10 percent of population with Vitamin A deficiency is considered “mild,” while 10 percent but less than 20 percent is “moderate,” and 20 percent is “severe” public health problem.

Vitamin A is fat-soluble which supports vision under poor lighting conditions and helps maintain a healthy immune system.

It is better absorbed when consumed with food that contains fats and oils.

Vitamin A is vital in fetal growth and development in the mother’s womb which comes in two forms: the preformed Vitamin A and the provitamin A. One can get preformed vitamin A from meat, poultry, fish and dairy products, while fruits, vegetables and other plant-based products can provide provitamin A. A diet chronically insufficient in vitamin A may result in vitamin

A deficiency.

The DOST-FNRI said symptoms of VAD may include, among others, preventable blindness in children if detected early, impaired fetal development, increased risk of morbidity and mortality from severe infections, higher risk of respiratory infections and diarrhea.

The 2018-2019 ENNS also reported that vitamin A-deficient children had higher proportion of inadequate dietary intake of vitamin A, based on the estimated average requirement compared to children with normal vitamin A status.

Nutrition experts also say that the conditions of underweight, stunting and anemia were more common among vitamin A-deficient children.

A mong ot her v u lnerable groups, the ENNS also revealed that VAD prevalence is of “mild” public health concern among 3.0 percent of pregnant women and 2.2 percent of lactating mothers.

On the other hand, VAD is not a public health problem among 1.2 percent of nonpregnant and nonlactating women and 1.0 percent of the elderly.

Various government programs are in place to address VAD among Filipinos.

One of which is the vitamin A capsule supplementation as part of the Micronutrient Supplementation Program of the Department of Health (DOH).

This one-year-old girl eats her meal of squash and rice. Joriz Villaruz Facebook photo

Under the program supplemental doses of vitamin A are administered every 6 months to infants under five years old, or children from 6 months to 59 months old.

This is also a part of the “Garantisadong Pambata” campaign conducted twice a year as catch up for under-five children who missed their vitamin A doses during the routine administration.

The provision of Micronutrient Powder (MNP) to 6 months to 23 months old infants and young children is also in place.

The Republic Act 8976, or the Philippine Fortification Act of 2000, is a mandatory fortification of staple foods, voluntary fortification of processed foods and food products with essential nutrient at levels approved by the DOH. The promotion of balanced, diverse and healthy diet to increase vitamin A intake can also help address VAD. The DOST-FNRI’s “Pinggang Pinoy for Hea lt hy Fi l ipinos” serve as a quick and easy guide

in determining how much to eat per meal.

This promotes balanced and adequate per mea l inta ke of “Grow” foods, such as fish, meat eggs and dair y products, and “Glow” foods such as fruits and vegetables, especially mango, squash, carrots, which are all good sources of vitamin A. T he DOST-FNR I-developed food technologies, which are rich in vitamin A, such as noodles with squash, and the Enhanced Nutribun which now has three variants: squash, carrots, and sweet potato.

DOST-FNR I is encouraging micro-, small, and medium enterprises, as well as local government units to become DOST-FNRI adoptors and supply their respective comunities with a vitamin A-rich food products.

The agency said the vitamin Arich food can be used in nutrition intervention programs, disaster relief, and other health or civic projects.

At the same time the Department of Agriculture, through the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), developed Golden Rice which contains beta carotene that is converted into vitamin A inside the body.

Golden R ice is part of the “Healthier Rice Project” of the DA-PhilRice in partnership with the International Rice Research Institute. It is developed for humanitar ian pur poses to help curb vitamin A deficiency among children, pregnant and lactating women and the elderly.

The genetically modified Golden Rice, is first of its kind in the scientific world because the genes for beta carotene bred into it were obtained by genetic engineering from a genetically distant edible relative, yellow corn.

Approved by the government in July for commercial planting, the new rice variety is not yet available in the market. With Lyn B. Resurreccion

PHL science, math students’ medal haul impressive amid pandemic

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ot even Cov id-19 can stop young Filipinos math and science geniuses from hauling medals from international competitions in 2020.

The Department of Science and Technology-Science Education Institute (DOST-SEI) recognized 1,395 students in its Youth Excellence in Science (YES) Awards held virtually on October 29.

The number of awardees is dow n 14 percent from 1,631 tallied in 2019.

But for DOST-SEI Director Dr. Josette Biyo the number remains impressive given the challenges faced by the organizers of the international competitions themselves.

“This year’s number of 1,395 medalists—with a total of 3,672 awards amassed from 67 competitions—is proof that despite the pandemic, many of us continue to push for excellence.” Biyo said in a DOST-SEI news release.

“Many of our teachers and parents continue to believe in our youth’s innate talents. Many of us in the science community hold on to your fire as this country’s hope and strength going forward,” Biyo added.

As with last year’s awarding, DOST-SEI recognized this year’s honorees through a virtual ceremony that featured messages from Science Secretary Fortunato de la Peña, Biyo, and testimonials from a medalist and a school representative.

“Indeed, the past year has been an unexpected challenge for everyone. W hich is exactly why your triumphs are all the more laudable and worthy of celebration, for each of you [students] is here against great odds. You are all truly exemplars of the best

science and technology will serve as the backbone and the frontline of the fight” he pointed out.

Gold Ribbon School Award

2020 IMO Gold Medalist Andres Rico Gonzales III of De La Salle University Integrated School speaks of his victory amid a challenging year. DOST-SEI photo

young minds in the Philippines,” de la Peña pointed out.

Triumph amid grief

Andres Rico Gonzales III of De La Salle University Integrated School spoke of his experiences in winning gold in the 2020 International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) “During international competitions, we fight not only for our own merit but also for our country.

That is why, every year, we are all excited for the YES Awarding because it is the culmination of our hard work being recognized by our government,” he said.

“God has given us the talent and passion for reasons bigger than ourselves—that is, to help and share these gifts for the betterment of many,” Gonzales added.

Gonzales began competing in the IMO in 2018 when he settled for an honourable mention. In 2019, he finally bagged a bronze medal. He said he wants to get the goal in his last year of eligibility.

“As for me, my biggest dream is to win in IMO,” he said.

Gonzales revealed that 2020 was especially challenging because of how the pandemic changed his life permanently.

“Last year was the most trying time in the lives of my family because we’re still grieving for the demise of my father who just died two weeks after he was diagnosed of cancer. Our business closed, and a lot of drastic changes came after this,” he narrated.

He added: “Preparing for the IMO is rigid because we all know it is the hardest international math competition for high school students. Then came the pandemic, which delayed the competition, and subsequently coincided with the academic year. It was hard to focus. I had to juggle between studying for school and reviewing for the IMO.” “I grieved. I prayed. I fought,” Gonzales said, adding he wished to inculcate in the minds of fellow awardees that perseverance and determination truly spell success.

“We don’t know what the future will be. But one thing’s for sure: whatever the challenge may be,

The YES Awards also recognized institutions that consistently led the medal hauls in international science and math contests in the past three years. DOST-SEI labeled them as Gold Ribbon School Awardees.

Among the finalists include St. Jude Catholic School, Philippine Science High School (PSHS) Main Campus and De La Salle Santiago Zobel School, which had the most number of medals from 2018 to 2020.

In a testimony, PSHS Main Campus Director, Dr. Lawrence Madriaga thanked DOST-SEI for the award.

He highlighted that the school joins international competitions not just for performance metrics but to measure their students’ competency against the best in the world.

“We believe that if we want to continually improve as a school, we have to constantly challenge ourselves and aim to be on a par with our international counterparts.

We always look for opportunities to improve the way we nurture our students to become STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] professionals and be part of nation-building in the future,” Madriaga said.

The YES Award is a DOST institutional award for exemplary achievement of the youth in the fields of science and mathematics and shall come in the form of a medal of distinction to be awarded by the Secretary of Science and Technology, or by the DOST Regional Director.

Faith A6

Sunday, November 7, 2021

Sunday

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion • www.businessmirror.com.ph

Faith groups increasingly join fight against climate change

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OINTE-AUX-CHENES, Louisiana—On a boat ride along a bayou that shares the name of his Native American tribe, Donald Dardar points to a cross marking his ancestors’ south Louisiana burial ground—a place he fears will disappear.

He points to the partly submerged stumps of oak trees killed by salt water on land where he rode horses as a kid, and to his mother’s home, gutted by Hurricane Ida. He and his wife have a mission: protecting Pointe-au x- Chenes and other communities at risk in a state that loses about a football field’s worth of wetlands every 100 minutes.

For years, Donald and Theresa Dardar have joined forces with the Rev. Kristina Peterson. Working with scientists and members of Pointe-au-Chien and two other tribes, they’ve set out thousands of oyster shells to protect sacred mounds, obtained financing to refill abandoned oil field canals and built an elevated greenhouse to save their plants and medicinal herbs from flooding.

“It’s saving what we know that’s going to be destroyed from both the change of the heat and the rising of the water,” said Peterson, the pastor of Bayou Blue Presbyterian Church in Gray, Louisiana, and a former professor of environmental planning at the University of New Orleans.

Their vital work to save their bayou home and heritage is part of a broader trend around the world of faith leaders and environmental activists increasingly joining the fight against climate change.

From Hindu groups joining river cleanups and Sikh temples growing pesticide-free food, to Muslim imams and Buddhist monks organizing tree-planting campaigns, the movement knows no denominational boundaries but shares as a driving force a moral imperative to preserve what they see as a divinely given environment for future generations.

But some of them believe systemic change to protect those most vulnerable to the climate crisis must also come from world

leaders meeting at the UN climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

“It’s up to them to step up to the plate and do what they’re supposed to do,” Theresa Dardar said at the tribal center where she handed out supplies to members of her tribe and others who lost their homes after Hurricane Ida hit the small fishing community about 130 kilometers southwest of New Orleans.

“It’s up to you not to just give lip service, but to take action against climate change and sea level rise,” said Dardar, a longtime religion teacher at a local Catholic church and head of the environmental nonprofit Lowlander Center.

Pope Francis and dozens of religious leaders recently signed a joint appeal to governments to commit to targets at the October 31 to November 12 summit in Glasgow.

The summit aims to secure more ambitious commitments to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, with a goal of keeping it to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels.

The event also is focused on mobilizing financing and protecting threatened communities and natural habitats.

Louisiana holds 40 percent of US wetlands, but they’re disappearing fast—about 5,180 square kilometers of the state have been lost since the 1930s. That’s about 80 percent of the nation’s wetland losses, according to the US Geological Survey.

Peterson arrived in Pointe-auxChenes in 1992 after Hurricane Andrew, following a call to link scientists with communities hit by storms, sinking land and sea rise from climate change.

Through the Lowlander Center that she co-founded, she worked to protect sacred sites from coastal erosion, refill canals dug by oil companies that allow for saltwa-

A cross marks one of several Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe burial grounds along Bayou Pointe-au-Chien in southern Louisiana on September 29. The cemetery is one of many sacred grounds the local community is trying to save from coastal erosion and sea level rise. AP/Jessie Wardarski

ter intrusion and build the greenhouse set to open in October.

Instead, it was repurposed as a food pantry supply room after Ida. “There’s been so much that has been interrupted...and these are all critical, critical things,” Peterson said.

“We’re not going to wait on world leaders to take action. We’re doing it now,” she said. With Theresa Dardar, they’re part of the Greater New Orleans Interfaith Climate Change Coalition, which includes Buddhist, Baha’i, Christian, Jewish and other faith leaders.

They’ve also worked closely with Chief Shirell Parfait-Dardar of the Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Indians. She’s the first woman to lead her tribe and the only Indigenous woman on the Louisiana governor’s climate change task force.

Last year, her tribe and Pointeau- C h ien were a mong t hose that filed a formal complaint to the UN in Geneva, saying the US government violated their human rights by failing to act on climate change.

“We should be caring for Mother Earth, not abusing her. This is a result of all of the abuse that we’ve done to her,” she said, tearing up and pointing to her home, destroyed by Ida. “If we don’t listen to the science,

if we don’t listen to the wisdom of the elders, we’re going to...keep seeing these massive amounts of destruction,” she added.

Religious communities are crucial in the fight against climate change, said Nathan Jessee, a researcher at Princeton’s High Meadows Environmental Institute who has worked with the area’s Indigenous communities.

“There’s a long history of faithbased leaders and Indigenous peoples being at the forefront of these struggles for environmental justice,” Jessee said.

Together, he said, they’ve demonstrated the fight for clean air and water is a moral and spiritual struggle.

For many faith leaders, preserving the environment is part of their mandate to care for communities most vulnerable to climate change.

It’s a call that Pope Francis has made often, most broadly in a 2015 encyclical, “Praised Be.” It has been echoed by imams, rabbis, patriarchs and pastors who share how their faith traditions interpreted the call.

People of color, the poor, women, children and the elderly suffer the worst climate-change impacts, said the Rev. Fletcher Harper, an Episcopal priest, and executive director of GreenFaith, a global multi-faith environmental organization based in New York.

“For religious people, that is utterly unacceptable,” he said.

On the invitation of Indigenous communities, more than 150 faith leaders gathered in Washington last month to pressure President Joe Biden to stop new fossil fuel projects.

GreenFaith organized other actions across the globe: In Fiji, the leader of the Pacific Council of Churches was photographed on an island which goes underwater at high tide because of rising sea levels.

In Jakarta, Indonesia, the largest mosque in Southeast Asia unfurled a banner that read: “Destroying the planet is haram”— forbidden.

In Australia, religious groups protested against coal production and urged the prime minister to undertake bold climate action.

“The biggest plus in terms of where we are now is that there is an impatient, feisty, unstoppable grassroots movement,” Harper said.

Religious groups including the World Council of Churches also have joined the fossil fuel divestment movement.

“This isn’t just a stunt,” said Harper, whose organization has backed such faith-based efforts since 2013. He said it evolved from a symbolic gesture to a key road map into the future.

Not all religious decision mak-

ers are on board with divestment nor is every member of a faith tradition of like mind.

In the Presbyterian Church (USA), the general assembly voted in 2018 to continue engaging with fossil fuel companies it holds stock in.

The issue is expected to be raised again in the 2022 general assembly.

“The concern with divestment was that there wasn’t anything in there for the transition of workers—to go into alternative energies,” Peterson said.

Not all the faithful believe in renewable energy or even accept the science behind global warming.

“White evangelical Christians are some of the most susp ic iou s of c l imate science and t he l e a s t a c c e pt i n g of s olut ion s t o a d d re s s it ,” s a id t he R e v.

Ky l e M e y a a r d - S c h a a p , v i c e pre s id e nt of t he Ev a n ge l ic a l E nv i ron me nt a l Ne t w or k .

His ministry navigates that suspicion by connecting climate science to faith rather than politics, emphasizing authority of scripture and sanctity of human life.

“We don’t do this because we’re Democrats or Republicans. We don’t even do this some of us because we’re environmentalists,” Meyaard-Schapp said. “We’re doing this because we’re Christians and we think that this is just part of what it means to follow Jesus in the 21st century.”

That same belief guided volunteers from Churches of Christ who recently brought boxes of food to the tribal center in Pointe-auxChenes.

A month after Ida, piles of debris, wrecked boats and destroyed homes lined the bayou that runs through the town. Many were living in cars and tents.

“The scripture tells us that we’re supposed to be good stewards of what God gave us,” said Jaime Green, a volunteer from New Orleans who often speaks about climate change at the Elysian Fields Church of Christ led by her husband.

“As a faith community, we have to be teaching our congregations and our children, generations to come that they need to take care of what we have, and preserve it as much as we can—and even work to undo some of the damage.” AP

Pope to COP26: Let’s leave our children a healthy planet C

ardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, is in Glasgow representing the Holy Father and the Holy See at the United Nations Climate Change’s 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26).

Addressing the climate conference, Parolin read the mesage of Pope Francis, noting that the conference has the important task of showing the entire international community whether there really is the political will to honestly, responsibly and courageously allocate more human, financial and technological resources to mitigate the negative effects of climate change as well as to help the poorest and most vulnerable populations, who suffer the most from this phenomenon.

To carry out this task

This task, continued the cardinal, is even more difficult, because it must be carried out in the midst of a pandemic. This pandemic has taught us that in

order for it to be defeated, we must all participate, he said.

Parolin recalled that there was a time before the pandemic which will inevitably be different to how life will be post-pandemic. This life, he continued, is one that we must build all together, working on our past mistakes.

T he same can be said of the global problem of climate change. “ We have no alter native.

We can only achieve the goals written into the Paris Agreement if we act in a coordinated and responsible way. They are ambitious, but they cannot be delayed. Today these decisions are up to you,” he told the conference.

Change of era

Parolin noted that “we are currently undergoing a change of era and a challenge of civilization.”

In t his circumstance, he pointed out the need for countries with greater capacity to take the lead in the field of climate finance.

world of work must also be carefully considered.

Attention to the most vulnerable

Activists symbolically set George Square on fire with an art installation of faux flames and smoke ahead of the United Nations Climate Change COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland. Vatican News

He described the strategy of net-zero emissions adopted by the Holy See in two parts.

First, is the commitment of the Vatican City State to achieve this goal by 2050.

Second, is the commitment of the Holy See itself to promote an education for integral ecology, well aware that political, technical and operational measures must be combined with an educational process that, also and especially among

young people, promotes new lifest yles and encourages a cultural model of development and sustainability centred on fraternity and on the alliance between human beings and the natural environment.

“We need hope and courage in facing the aftermath of the Covid pandemic,” Parolin said, because humanity does have the means to face this transformation, during which the effects it will have on the

With regards to this, Parolin said, particular attention should be paid to the most vulnerable populations, to whom an “ecological debt” has accrued and special care must be given to the most vulnerable populations.

He noted that in some ways t he ecolog ic a l debt rec a l l s t he issue of foreig n debt a nd t he pressu re of wh ic h of ten h inders t he development of peoples.

The post-pandemic can and must start again taking into account all these aspects in order to create development in which everyone can finally participate, he pointed out.

Bitter truth

Parolin noted, with bitterness, he said, “ how far we are from achieving the desired objectives for combating climate change. But the truth is that

we cannot afford it.”

Many moments in the run-up to COP26 have demonstrated that there is no more time left, the cardinal said. He added that “we realize it has also become a crisis of children’s rights and that, in the near future, environmental migrants will outnumber conflict refugees.

For this reason, he added, urgent, courageous and responsible action is needed.

Young people

Parolin warned that young people, “who in the last few years have been urging us to act, will only inherit the planet we choose to leave to them, based on the concrete choices we make today.”

Parolin said the Holy Fat her’s w ishes to have been physically present in Glasgow, but assuring those present that instead, he is accompanying them with his prayers.

T he COP26 star ted on O c t ob e r 31 a nd w i l l e nd on No v e m b e r 1 2 . Vatican News

Biodiversity Sunday BusinessMirror

Asean Champions of Biodiversity Media Category 2014

Sunday, November 7, 2021

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

A7

‘Saribuhay’ showcases PHL’s rich biodiversity

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

E

ight out of 11 species of giant clams in the world are found in the Philippines; there are new species of orchids on Mt. Lantoy in Cebu; fruit bats show a unique behavior of eating roots and leaves instead of the usual fruits; there are 457 indigenous vegetables belonging to 255 genera and 90 families; and new plants were discovered on mountain ranges.

These are only some of the new information on the country’s rich biodiversity which can be seen on “Saribuhay,” a YouTube series that features the outputs of the Biodiversity Science and Technology Program of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCAARRD).

“Saribuhay” is a portmanteau or blend of two Filipino words sarisari and buhay, which respectively means “diversity” and “life.” The program puts more science in biodiversity protection and conservation efforts

Saribuhay documentary series The Saribuhay documentar y series, which starts airing via DOSTPCAARRD’s YouTube channel https:// youtube.com/dostpcaarrd this month, tackles the accomplishments of the four sub-programs in biodiversity—namely, terrestrial (flora and fauna), marine, indigenous plants and native animals.

A preview of the series was shared during an online news conference on October 28.

The program aims to sustain and take care of the Philippines’ biodiversity through the formulation of policies in the access and benefit-sharing of our genetic resources.

The DOST-PCAARRD Biodiversity S&T Program is part of the “Big 21 in 2021,” a compilation of the DOST’s 21 outstanding outputs this year.

Science Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña said in a taped message that the DOST’s 21 high-impact programs this 2021 underscored the importance of protecting and conserving the country’s rich biodiversity.

“The country is rich in biological diversity where globally important species of plant, animals and microorgan-

New species of Hypericaceae, commonly known as the St. John’s-wort, from Mindanao DOST-PCAARRD photo isms can be found. The Philippines is dubbed as the center of biodiversity in the world,” he said in Filipino.

The Philippines is a signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity, wherein scientific researches to discover new species of plants and animals, including the implementation of various projects to protect and conserve them, are given importance.

“The biodiversity science and technology program of of DOST-PCAARRD is supported by the DOST to protect and conserve, and study and promote the sustainable use of biodiversity, knowledge, products and services,” he said.

He noted that the DOST is part of the team that crafted the policy on access and benefit-sharing of the country’s genetic resources.

DOST-PCAARRD Executive Director Dr. Reynaldo T. Ebora highlighted the councils prominent projects and accomplishments related to biodiversity at the online presser.

Cebu’s flora and fauna Under the project, “Flora and Fauna Assessment Using Permanent Biodiversity System in Cebu Island Key Biodiversity Areas,” researchers examined the flora and fauna on Mt. Lantoy, Mt. Kapayas, and Nug-as Forest.

The project was led by the Cebu Technological University together with the

Northern pit viper DOST-PCAARRD photo University of the Philippines Cebu, Bohol Island State University, University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), National Research Council of the Philippines, University of San Carlos, and Central Visayas Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources R&D Consortium.

It was able to discover new species of orchid on Mt. Lantoy, and recorded distribution of new species of the northern temple Philippine pit viper and two endangered bird species—the Cebu black shama and Cebu hawk-owl.

The program was also able to record the distribution of native tree species and discover the unique behavior of fruit bats that eatrootsandleavesinsteadoftheusualfruits.

Mindanao mountain ecosystem At the same time, the project, “Biodiversity in Selected Mountain Ecosystems of Mindanao for Conservation and Sustainable Development,” reported three new species of plants on Mt. Hamiguitan, Mt. Apo, Mt. Pantaron Range and Mt. Tago Range.

It likewise reported a flowering plant that sources its nutrients from mycorrhizal fungi; new species of snout beetle on Mt. Hamiguitan; and the four-spined pygmy devil on Mt. Pantaron Range, which wasn’t recorded in over a century.

The project was led by the Central Mindanao University, UPLB, Davao Oriental State University and the

Philippine National Museum.

The Indigenous Plants and Native Animals Biodiversity S&T Program project, “Documentation of Indigenous Vegetables in the Philippines,” led by UPLB, documented indigenous vegetables from 20 provinces in the country and recorded 457 indigenous vegetables belonging to 255 genera and 90 families.

Native pigs At the same time, the project, “Conservation, Improvement and Profitable Utilization of the Philippine Native Pigs,” developed six native pig breeds through organized community-based breeding and selection led by Marinduque State College, together with the Bureau of Animal Industry-National Swine and Poultry R&D Center, Isabela State University, Benguet State University, Kalinga State University and Eastern Samar State University.

The pigs are Markaduke from Marinduque; Quezon black from Quezon province; ISUbela from Isabela province; Benguet from Benguet province; Yookah from Kalinga province, and Sinirangan from Eastern Samar.

The native pig breeds boast of highquality meat compared with commercial hybrid pig breeds.

Marine biodiversity The Marine Biodiversity S&T Pro-

gram oversees the ecological and ecosystem diversity management and conservation, assessment and monitoring, and sustainable use of the country’s marine resources.

The projects under the program are the following: Exploration, mapping and assessment of deep-water areas (Philippine Rise); Assessing the status of giant clams and advancing culture techniques; Studies on the biology and utilization of commercially important mollusk species on Panay Island in Western Visayas, Philippines.

DNA barcoding and genetic diversity of selected marine fishes along the north bifurcation of the North Equatorial Current; DNA barcoding of selected marine fishes in Davao and Sulu archipelago.

Stock assessment and reproductive biology of blue swimming crab (Portunus pelagicus Linnaeus, 1758) and other crustaceans in Maqueda Bay, Villareal Bay, Zumarraga Channel and Southeastern Samar Sea; and Central Visayas R&D Center for Biodiversity Project 3: Biodiversity conservation and sustainable utilization of seagrasses in Camotes Islands, Cebu.

These projects were led by UP Diliman, UP-Marine Science Institute, Davao del Norte State College, Western Philippines University, De La Salle University, UPLB, UP-National Institute of

Small-scale tuna fishers, processors get environment certification

F

By Rizal Raoul Reyes

i lipino small-scale fishers and tuna processor-exporters brought home a big win recently when they were certified under the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Organized in 2019, the Philippine Tuna Handline Partnership (PTHP) is a group of small-scale fishers and exporters that is operating in Mindoro Strait and Lagonoy Gulf. The full MSC assessment process started in March of 2020.

MSC certification is the latest development in a decades-long Fisheries Improvement Project (FIP) being run with handline tuna fishers in Mindoro Strait and Lagonoy Gulf.

The goal of the FIP is to improve the environmental sustainability of fisheries.

“This process has created unity among everyone—among exporters, fishers, local governments, everyone. We’ve realized that it’s not about us, but about what we do here in the fisheries, our livelihood, what we do with others and what we can achieve together,” Sam C. Garcia, chairman of the Philippine Association of Tuna Processors Inc., said in a news statement.

To meet the MSC standard, a fisher must comply to three principles to be

considered sustainable.

First, fishing activities should allow fish populations to remain productive and healthy; second, harm to habitats and endangered species should be minimized to ensure the health of the ecosystem; and third, the fishery must be managed well, with laws and plans that enable the sustainability of the fishery.

Being a useful global standard, the MSC measures the environmental performance of wild-caught fisheries like Mindoro Strait and Lagonoy Gulf.

The PTHP, the first group in the Philippines to receive a MSC certification, represents the country’s tuna processors.

It consists of both small-scale tuna fishers and processors.

Although the PTHP has been certified by the MSC, the group still needs to meet a number of conditions for them to keep their certification. Conditions are requirements outlined by the MSC, and serve as a good guide in helping fisheries work towards sustainability.

For the PTHP, closing these conditions and meeting the MSC standard is a step in the right direction for the future of their fisheries.

The tuna fisheries under the PTHP need stronger habitat management strategies, policies to identify and

protect endangered species, and effective monitoring and enforcement of fishery laws.

Although tuna management plans have been drafted, local government units still need to recognize them and adopt them on a municipal level for them to be effective.

Further, measures also need to be adopted to protect tuna fisheries throughout the region. The Philippines belongs to the Western Central Pacific region, which the MSC has flagged for not having sufficient measures in place to protect local fisheries.

The MSC has warned that failure to implement the region-wide harvest control rules and strategies by December 2022, tuna fisheries in the Western Central Pacific could lose their MSC certification.

“For around a decade of fisheries work we fishers have grown together in order to face whatever obstacle that has come our way. With the help of government agencies and the partners who have stood alongside us, practices that once harmed the environment and our local communities have left our fisheries little by little over the many years,” said IFARMC of Mindoro Strait Chairman Bernard A. Mayo Sr., a fisher leader who has been with the program since its inception in 2011.

Photo contest to capture interlinked people-animal-environment health

T

he Covid-19 pandemic trained a spotlight on the interconnectedness of the health of people, animals and the environment—also known as One Health.

The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Searca), thus, chose to focus the 2021 Searca Photo Contest on “One Health is Wealth: Healthy Agriculture and Sustainable Food Systems.”

Now on its 15th year, the Searca Photo Contest invites photographers from the Philippines and other Southeast

Asian countries to submit their best shots depicting One Health applications to agricultural and rural development, particularly those featuring sustainable food systems in this time of pandemic.

Images that depict One Health may include interactions between humans, animals and their surroundings, which could be nature, farm or other agricultural settings during the pandemic.

They could also be pictures of youth or farming families contributing to One Health, or images of healthy diets, improved nutrition and food safety through One Health in agriculture.

Geological Sciences, UP Mindanao, UP Visayas, Samar State University and the University of San Carlos.

They were able to discover that eight out of 11 species of giant clams in the world can be found in the Philippines; and recorded 75 percent to 100 percent of live corals in Benham Bank of Philippine Rise.

The project likewise contributed to marine biological features and resources in Benham Bank Seamount that led to the declaration of 50,000 hectares of the area as a Marine Protected Area and more than 300,000 hectares as Special Fisheries Management Area, according to the Proclamation 489, Philippine Rise Marine Resource Reserve in 2018.

Moreover, 150 reef fish species were recorded in Northern Luzon and 373 reef fishes in Southern Mindanao.

More than 304 reef fishes were also recorded in Basilan, Sulu and TawiTawi. Of this number, 200 genetic barcodes were added to the biodiversity database of UP Mindanao.

On Panay Island, it recorded a high mollusk diversity as well as the high production of cephalopod fishery.

Under the program, a hatchery protocol was developed to address the low catch rate of blue swimming crab in southeast Samar and Maqueda Bay. An additional red alga and 11 species of seagrass were also discovered in Camos Island.

Unlimited benefits Ebora said among the benefits of having a rich biodiversity is having a diversity of food source and of various products that can be derived from these natural resources.

“There’s no limit to the benefits from biodiversity depending on the knowledge we have and the technology we have to explore these benefits,” he said.

Ebora said through science and technology, the Philippines will be able to know the importance of the country’s biological resources, hence, effectively protecting and conserving them.

“We cannot protect what we do not know,” he said, highlighting the need for more research and development to explore the country’s rich biodiversity.

Entries may also capture sustainable or environmentally harmonious food systems that demonstrate One Health and safeguarding animal health amid the pandemic.

Photos that show environmental awareness and protection at the farm level in pandemic conditions are also welcome.

All entries must be submitted to Searca online via https:// photocontest.searca.org until November 30.

Cash prizes of $1,000, $800 and $500 await the winners of the first, second and third prizes, respectively.

The Searca Director’s Choice and Philippine Department of Education Secretary’s Choice winners will each get $500, while the winner of the People’s Choice Award via Facebook votation will walk away with $400.

To mark the 15th milestone year of the Searca Photo Contest, there will also be two special awards tagged Best Youth Photographer, for one who used a camera and another who used a mobile phone. Each will take home $300.

The contest is open to both professional and amateur photographers. Those who wish to join may submit an unlimited number of photo entries as long as they meet the photo contest specifications.

Two skiers to miss Canada’s World Cup races for refusing to get vaccine vs Covid-19

G

ENEVA—Two Swiss skiers that do not want to be vaccinated against the coronavirus will miss the first men’s downhill race of World Cup ski season in Canada because the country requires international visitors to have two doses to enter.

Swiss teammates Urs Kryenbühl and Ralph Weber posted social-media messages on Thursday saying they had recovered from Covid-19 infections and do not want to be vaccinated ahead of the races in Lake Louise, Alberta, on November 27 and 28.

Vaccination status could be a major issue for winter sports athletes ahead of the Beijing Olympics, which open on February 4.

China has said it will impose a 21-day quarantine—mostly to be served during the peak season of World Cup events in Europe—on any non-fully vaccinated athlete, official or worker arriving for the Olympics.

“I wouldn’t like to be labeled as a conspiracy theorist or someone like that, but we are living in extremely strange times,” the 28-year-old Weber wrote on his web site. “Scenarios from sci-fi films which previously most people saw as an unrealistic and unliveable future are now the reality.

“It doesn’t matter in Canada whether you have recovered or not.... So with a heavy heart I will forego the races in Lake Louise.”

Lake Louise will also stage three women’s World Cup races from December 3 to 5.

Team leaders were cautioned at a pre-season online meeting

by International Ski Federation officials that double vaccinations were the best solution to avoid travel issues in Canada and elsewhere this season.

Any men’s downhill skier who is not vaccinated and wants to compete at the Beijing Games likely must skip the sport’s signature World Cup races in midJanuary to be eligible for the Olympics. The Swiss resort of Wengen and the Austrian resort of Kitzbühel are each scheduled to stage two downhills between January 14 and 22. The Olympic men’s downhill is scheduled for February 6.

Neither Kryenbühl nor We-

ber has previously raced at the Winter Olympics. Kryenbühl is a stronger contender for Beijing after two third-place finishes in World Cup downhills last season.

Lake Louise was to be Kryenbühl’s comeback race after a crash on the final jump in Kitzbühel in January left him with head and knee injuries.

“I have personally made the decision not to have a vaccination at the moment,” wrote the 27-year-old Kryenbühl, who said he had Covid-19 several months ago.

Weber wrote he was infected just a few weeks ago with symptoms including fever, fatigue and loss of smell and taste.

Both said they expect to make their season debuts in Colorado. The Beaver Creek resort will stage a downhill and two super-G races from December 3 to 5.

The International Ski Federation, meanwhile, has turned to Bernie Ecclestone for advice, hoping the former Formula 1 boss can do to Alpine skiing what he did to car racing in the past.

FIS President Johan Eliasch said Friday he has approached Ecclestone to become part of a new advisory board, intended to help skiing’s governing body shape the future of the sport.

“Bernie did incredibly well with Formula 1, took that from a sport that was not so recognized to a global super sport. I always value his input. The idea is that he will be on a future advisory board of FIS,” said Eliasch during the season-opening World Cup races in the Austrian Alps recently.

Ecclestone, who recently turned 91, gained a marketing grip on F1 in the late 1970s by selling its TV rights. Four decades later, the British business magnate had full commercial control over the sport when he stepped down in 2017.

Eliasch is hoping that Ecclestone’s experience can help Alpine skiing to improve its global marketing.

“It is not the question of if, it is the question of when, because I don’t think there is any other international federation which has not centralized its rights management or is in the process of doing so,” Eliasch said. AP

Sports BusinessMirror

A8 | S

unday, November 7, 2021 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

OLYMPIC freestyle ski athletes and sisters Justine Dufour-Lapointe (left) and Chloe Dufour-Lapointe take a selfie together at the Team Canada Lululemon Athlete Kit Reveal in Toronto recently. Lululemon will outfit Canada’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes starting with the upcoming Winter Games in Beijing in February next year. AP

SUNS OWNER ON HOT SEAT

LAW firm will probe Suns owner Robert Sarver after a report of racism and misogyny is released. AP

P

HOENIX—The National Basketball Association (NBA) has asked a law firm to investigate the Phoenix Suns after a published report on Thursday detailed allegations that owner Robert Sarver has a history of racist, misogynistic and hostile incidents during his 17-year tenure in charge of the franchise.

ESPN said it talked to dozens of current and former team employees for the story, including some who detailed inappropriate behavior by Sarver. Most of the allegations are from anonymous sources but a few are on the record.

In ESPN’s report, Sarver denied or disputed most of the allegations through his legal team. The Suns also strongly denied the report in a lengthy statement released Thursday.

“I would entirely welcome an

impartial NBA investigation which may prove our only outlet for clearing my name and the reputation of an organization of which I’m so very proud,” Sarver said.

Sarver will get his wish. The NBA released its own statement from Executive Vice President of communications Mike Bass saying the allegations were “extremely serious” and that the league has asked the Wachtell Lipton law firm to “commence a comprehensive investigation.”

“The NBA and WNBA remain committed to providing a respectful and inclusive workplace for all employees,” Bass said. “Once the investigation is completed, its findings will provide the basis for any league action.”

Among the allegations: Former Suns Coach Earl Watson said Sarver was upset that Golden State forward Draymond Green used the N-word during a game in 2016 and that the owner repeated the N-word several

times when voicing his displeasure.

Watson said he told Sarver that he can’t use that word.

Watson was the Suns’ coach for all or part of three seasons before being fired three games into the 2017-18 season.

Sarver said in his statement that Watson was “clearly not a credible source.”

“While there is so much that is inaccurate and misleading in this story that I hardly know where to begin, let me be clear: The N-Word is not part of my vocabulary,” Sarver said. “I have never called anyone or any group of people the N-Word, or referred to anyone or any group of people by that word, either verbally or in writing. I don’t use that word.”

Watson released his own statement through the Toronto Raptors, where he is now an assistant coach.

“I am not interested in engaging in an ongoing battle of fact,” Watson said.

“Instead, I want to applaud the courage

belonged to France’s Marie Antoinette and a sapphire-anddiamond brooch with matching ear clips that once dangled from a Russian grand duchess are among the featured items in auctions of jewelry and other collectibles next week in Geneva.

Also going under the hammer in the lakeside Swiss city will be a pair of high-top Nike sneakers from the late National Basketball Association star Kobe Bryant, the Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard who died in a helicopter crash in California last year.

The blue, white and gold Nike Air Zoom Huarache 2K4 basketball shoes are expected to fetch up to 35,000 Swiss francs (about $38,000) during a November 11 sale at Sotheby’s.

Bryant wore the sneakers in a March 17, 2004, victory over the LA Clippers, according to the auction house.

But as usual in the Geneva fall auction season, diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, rubies and other prized gems will be the highlights of next week’s sales at Sotheby’s and rival Christie’s.

Christie’s is putting up on Tuesday an eye-popping pair of heavy bracelets from the 18th century that are studded with three rows of small diamonds. The bracelets are billed as one of the last remaining vestiges of Marie Antoinette’s rich jewelry cabinet that are still available for sale.

The auction house said the famed royal and wife of King Louis XVI was known to have carefully wrapped her jewels in cotton herself, hoping to keep them outside revolutionary France— which ultimately took her life via the guillotine. The bracelets, commissioned around 1776, were kept within royal lineage for over 200 years, Christie’s said.

“Despite Marie-Antoinette’s capture in the French Revolution and her unfortunate death in 1793, the bracelets survived and were passed on to her daughter, Madame Royale, and then the Duchess of Parma,” said Max Fawcett, head of Christie’s jewelry department, referring respectively to Marie-Therese of France, the couple’s daughter, and Princess Louise d’Artois, who died in 1864.

“To see them up for auction today

PASSIONATE FANS Supporters of Feyenoord light fireworks during a Group E Europa

Conference League match between 1. FC Union Berlin and Feyenoord in Berlin, Germany, before the weekend. AP

Possessions of athlete behind ice bucket challenge for sale

B

OSTON—Jerseys, baseball bats and other items that belonged to Pete Frates, the former college baseball player whose inspiring fight with Lou Gehrig’s disease helped popularize the ALS ice bucket challenge, are being auctioned.

Proceeds from the online auction that runs through Tuesday will benefit the Peter Frates Family Foundation, which assists ALS patients and their families with the cost of home health care, according to a spokesperson for auctioneer KBK Sports.

The goal is to raise about $10,000.

Some of the items for sale include a signed and framed photograph from New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick; a Boston Bruins jersey signed by former player Bobby Orr; and an autograph from former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling.

A Metallica jersey given to Frates by the rock band, his highschool baseball jerseys, and even his personal Boston College trash can are also for sale.

Frates, a former Boston College baseball player who lived in Beverly north of Boston, died

PROCEEDS from the online auction will benefit the Peter Frates Family Foundation. AP

in December 2019 after a sevenyear battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. He and his family inspired the spread of the ice bucket challenge and helped raise millions of dollars for research into the motor neuron disease, which has no cure.

KOBE’S SHOES UP FOR AUCTION

A DIAMOND bracelet that once

A SOTHEBY’S employee holds a pair of Nike sneakers worn in a game by the late basketball superstar Kobe Bryant. It is estimated to sell between 25,000 -to 35, 000 Swiss francs. AP

of the numerous players, executives, and staffers for fighting toxic environments of racial insensitivity, sexual harassment, and microaggressions with their truth.

“Basketball and 17 years in the NBA has allowed me the financial privilege to speak my truth, but we can’t forget about those who must remain silent for fear of losing their jobs.”

The report also details a story about how Sarver passed around a picture of his wife in a Suns bikini to employees. The report says more than a dozen employees also said Sarver had a history of “making lewd comments in all-staff meetings.”

The Suns hosted the Houston Rockets on Thursday night and Phoenix Coach Monty Williams addressed the report before the game. Williams—who is Black—said he hadn’t talked with Sarver since ESPN’s story was published and that if he had heard the owner say any of the things that were alleged in the story “I wouldn’t be in this seat.”

“My reaction is it’s a lot to process,” Williams said. “There’s so many things there and for me it’s still not clear, as far as the facts are concerned. As someone who is the caretaker of the program, I find all of these things that are being said serious in nature. These allegations are sensitive—that’s an understatement.”

Williams added that he would understand if any of his players didn’t want to play on Thursday because of the situation, but said none of them had expressed that sentiment to this point.

Suns guard Devin Booker—who is the team’s longest-tenured player at seven years—was the only one on the current roster who played for Watson.

He said Watson was credible and added “that’s my guy” but said he didn’t know about the Watson-Sarver interaction until he read ESPN’s story.

“I wasn’t aware of the situation,” Booker said. “In my seven years I’ve been here, I haven’t noticed that, but that doesn’t make me insensitive to the subject. I think the NBA opened an investigation, they’ll do their due diligence of bringing out facts instead of he said, she said. I’m sure the NBA has it in good hands and will do the proper research to find out the truth.” AP

is a unique opportunity for collectors around the world to own a piece of French royal history,” Fawcett said.

The pre-sale estimate for the bracelets is up to 4 million Swiss francs ($4.38 million). They each weigh 97 grams (3.42 ounces), and include “old-cut” diamonds as well as silver and gold, Christie’s said.

Among the lots Sotheby’s plans to present on Wednesday is a pair of “perfectly matched” earrings, each set with 25.8-carat diamonds, that is expected to fetch up to 5 million francs ($5.5 million).

It will also showcase a brooch with a 26.8-carat oval sapphire surrounded by diamonds, and matching ear clips that once belonged to Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna and were whisked out of Russia during the country’s 1917 revolution.

The trio is expected to garner as much as 480,000 francs ($525,800).

“She was the wife of Grand Duke Vladimir, the son of the tsar, and she was really passionate about jewelry. She had a fantastic collection of jewels,” Olivier Wagner, the head of Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels sales, said. AP

BusinessMirror

November 7, 2021

Pandemic spurs youth in Southeast Asia to chase start-up dreams

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YOUR MUSI

EXPLORATIONS OF DIVERSITY

Jensen Gomez on the latest phase of his musical odyssey

A

By Stephanie Joy Ching

S a way to reconnect with his producer and songwriter side and an exploration of diversity, Jensen Gomez releases part two of his Phases trilogy of EPs entitled Phases Volume 2.

Containing three tracks, the EP is a collaborative effort between Jensen himself and neo-soul singer Dani Idea, rapper Switch of Assembly Generals, and R&B soul singer Seonna. The singersongwriter called this project his “dream collaboration” as he was able to work with many of friends.

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JENSEN Gomez

“I think I did it with this whole album, since I did it all dito sa bahay, so I had the freedom to collaborate with whoever I want. Madami akong kaibigan kinontact for this,” he said.

Described as “sonically more bouncy” than its predecessor, Phases Vol. 1, Phases Vol. 2 is an

exploration of dance pop, hip-hop and trap soul which aims to “make a statement.”

“The concept of Volume 2 is to highlight more of my producer side of things and my song writer side rather than being the performer. It’s more of a statement that we wanted to put out. At this point, everyone’s attention span ay maliit because of social media, we really wanted people to look at what we are creating, kahit medyo mahirap siya,” he shared.

And make a statement they did. With the release of the first single, “Yas Queen,” a summery and yes, bouncy, 70s inspired bop about female empowerment, Phases Vol.2 certainly made quite an entrance. Performed by Dani Idea, the song is a testament to the strong women in Jensen’s life.

“I grew up with my mom and my two older sisters, and my dad was a seaman, so I grew up with women sa bahay. I wanted to write a song for them to give light to them,” The single also came with several music videos, namely a live video, a lyric video and a ballet dance video. According to Jensen, this was a way for them to represent every person, leaving the viewer to find whichever version of Dani Idea they put in the video to identify with.

“We tried to dress up Dani as iba-ibang tao, so we made a lot of videos for representation, so kung saan ka mas mag-identify with. And hopefully we can put out more content for ‘Yas Queen’ for more diverse people. What we need now is representation of different people, not just for girls,” he explained.

However, it is not just “Yas Queen” that played with the concept of diversity. As the project is also Jensen showing off his wide range of genres, he follows up “Yas Queen” with “From my Window,” where Switch spits out bars about watching life go by from a window that pounds and gets increasingly intense.

Afterwards, Seonna slows it down and closes the sound trip with the soft and romantic trap soul track, “Sprung.” All in all, Phases Vol. 2 is quite an impressionable ride from start to finish.

Jensen Gomez’s Phases Vol. 2 and “Yas Queen” is now available in all major streaming platforms.

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soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com | NOVEMBER 7, 2021

BUSINESS

3

RHYTHM & RHYME

by Kaye Villagomez-Losorata

Why ‘Easy On Me’ is anything but easy

ADELE Photo by Simon Emmett

A

DELE kills it softly with her latest piano ballad release “Easy On Me.” If the single is any indication on how her November 19 album will turn out, then we can cathartically declare that she managed to “write 30” and live to tell the story.

Like everything that spells out pain when nothing ever goes according to plan, Adele states the obvious when she opens with: “There ain’t no gold in this river/ That I’ve been washing my hands in forever.”

She came with a warning, so continue listening at your own peril. Adele penned “Easy On Me” and the entire “30” album as her

way of explaining to her son about her divorce. If only we can all explain failed relationships with songs like “Easy On Me,” it would be, well, easier to convert personal journeys into reasons. The world will have acceptable explanations everywhere.

By the time Adele reaches the highlight, she is pleading and begging with all defenses down

yet defending her intentions when she sings: “Go easy on me, baby/I was still a child/Didn’t get the chance to/Feel the world around me/I had no time to choose/What I chose to do.”

The chorus is a confession we all know too well. We probably were too in love once (or twice) that it was impossible to “feel the world around” us. Warning shots were fired. We were in a soundproof, not bullet-proof, journey where miscalculations lead to catastrophic consequences. That Adele belts this in her soaring, patented, painful singing style is a one-way ticket to a downward spiral of emotions.

But we knew what we were getting into and expected that “Easy On Me” is dire difficulty

decoded. Sheer transparency takes over when on the second verse, Adele writes: “There ain’t no room for things to change/ When we are both so deeply stuck in our ways/ You can’t deny how hard I have tried/I changed who I was to put you both first/But now I give up.”

Not done yet. Adele tries to heave one more dead-end of a defense in this bridge: “I had good intentions/And the highest hopes/But I know right now/That probably doesn’t even show.”

By ear, Easy On Me is like a sister to “Make You Feel My Love” and “Someone Like You.” Visually, if “Easy On Me” is a TV show, it would be “Scenes From A Marriage” — the revival miniseries starring Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac that captures the dissolution of marriage even if there is a child in the middle. Only, Adele’s version really ended, thus giving birth to an album to look forward to come November 19.

The “Hello” hit-maker revealed the track list for “30” last Nov. 3. In a statement, she said, “I’ve learned a lot of blistering home truths about myself along the way.

I’ve shared many layers but also wrapped myself in new ones. I’ve finally found my feeling again. I’d go as far as to say that I’ve never felt more peaceful in my life.”

The complete titles from 30 includes “Strangers By Nature,” “Easy On Me,” “My Little Love,” “Cry Your Heart Out,” “Oh My God,” “Can I Get It,” “I Drink Wine,” “All Night Parking (with Erroll Garner), “Woman Like Me,” “Hold On,” “To Be Loved,” “Love Is A Game,” “Wild Wild West,” “Can’t Be Together,” and “Easy On Me (with Chris Stapleton). The last three are considered bonus tracks.

Anyone in need of a good cry should know when to get it. As I’ve said, she tends to kill it softly. But it’s a crime we are all too willing to be victims of.

Pandemic spurs youth in Southeast Asia to chase start-up dreams

By K. Oanh Ha

A

Bloomberg

new generation of young professionals, defined by the realities of a global pandemic, are eschewing work at established corporations and jumping into start-ups.

It’s a trend that’s led to more tech activity in Southeast Asia, says a Thai venture capitalist running a $30-million fund hunting for investments.

When the venture-capital arm of Thai Oil Pcl began looking for tech start-ups to help its businesses become more effi-

cient and diversified in 2020, it struggled to find companies with promising innovations rooted in hard sciences and applied engineering, Luck Saraya, managing director of TOP Ventures, said in an interview from Bangkok. Just 12 months

start-ups out the window, he said.

“This younger generation are more willing to take the risk to work for a start-up—that’s a mindset that didn’t exist before,” Saraya said. “Just a few years ago, young people wanted to work

“Just a few years ago, young people wanted to work in a big company with high job security. Now we’re seeing more lean toward tech,” says Luck Saraya, managing director of TOP Ventures. on, there are many more offerings, with a new crop of entrepreneurs who’ve thrown conservative attitudes about working in

in a big company with high job security.

Now we’re seeing more lean toward tech.”

Although Covid-19 has decimated

tourism and retail in Southeast Asia, the region is home to some of the fastest-growing Internet markets. Venture backers made a record 393 deals in the first half of 2021, raising $4.4 billion by investing in start-ups across Southeast Asia, according to Cento Ventures.

TOP Ventures has been in on the frenzy. Since 2020, the company has backed three venture capital funds and invested directly in four start-ups, deploying about $18 million. It plans to invest the rest of the fund’s money by next year and is looking for start-ups with innovations in manufacturing, food and biotech as well as electric vehicle and battery innovations.

It also invested $5 million last month in the AEF Greater Bay Area Fund, with Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund as an anchor investor. The company aims to invest in promising Chinese start-ups working in the EV or autonomous driving space, said Saraya.

Teenage Stanford dropouts raise $60 million for grocery app

By Saritha Rai

A

Bloomberg

t 19, Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra already had plans to make it big in India. The long-time friends just weren’t sure how, until they jumped on the global trend of instant grocery delivery.

Within months of launching their firm Zepto, the start-up is now worth between $200 million and $300 million after receiving $60 million in an initial funding round, according to Palicha, cofounder and chief executive officer. Backers include Y Combinator, Glade Brook Capital, as well as angel investors Lachy Groom and Neeraj Arora, according to the firm.

Their firm promises to have aloo-pyaaz-dhania (potatoes, onions and fresh coriander) and hundreds of other essentials at a customer’s door within 10 minutes in certain areas in Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi. Groceries are quickly delivered from “dark stores”—or microwarehouses—housed in different neighborhoods. The business aims to tap into the country’s 800 million smartphone users as they adapt to video streaming, food ordering and online shopping.

“We’re launching a new dark store every few days and we’ll have a hundred in half-dozen cities by early 2022, each delivering a couple of thousand daily orders,” said Palicha.

The company faces stiff competition.

Zepto will be taking on larger rivals such as SoftBank Group Corp.-backed Grofers, Google-backed Dunzo and Swiggy while other start-ups such as Pickily are also crowding the scene. Grofers also promises 10-minute delivery times, while Dunzo

“Well-funded start-ups took seven years to build what we’ll create in the next 18 months,” said Aadit Palicha (left), who founded 10-minute grocery app Zepto alongside his friend and fellow teenager Kaivalya Vohra. pledges 19 minutes. In June, Swiggy closed a $1.25-billion funding round.

But Palicha is confident their company has momentum on its side.

“Well-funded start-ups like Swiggy and Grofers took seven years to build what we’ll create in the next 18 months,” he said.

Palicha and Vohra—who have been friends since they were eight years old— were living in Dubai last year when they were admitted to Stanford University’s vaunted computer science engineering program. After attending online orientation, they decided to head to Mumbai instead to be entrepreneurs, according to Palicha.

4 BusinessMirror

Living and working from an 80-squarefoot room, they zeroed in on grocery delivery. At first, they considered using a software app to help neighborhood shops be more efficient at delivery, before concluding such a business would be hard to scale.

They then decided to set up their own delivery service using dark stores, naming their new company Zepto after the minuscule unit of time.

For months, they studied local rivals and looked for insights into the workings of global competitors such as Berlin-based Gorillas and Turkey’s Getir. The firms are among a group of rapid grocery delivery services that’s gained traction over the past November 7, 2021

year as people spent more time shopping at home during the pandemic.

Palicha and Vohra picked out more than 2,000 different items for delivery such as mukwaas and paan, the traditional mouth freshener and after-meal digestive; cut flowers for daily worship rituals; as well as snacks and fresh food.

Stores were laid out to ensure picking, packing and handover occurred within 90 seconds. The top 100 most-purchased items were placed near the entrance, Palicha said.

After launching earlier this year, Zepto’s micro-warehouses pepper teeming neighborhoods such as Powai and Parel in Mumbai, and Indiranagar and Koramangala in Bangalore. Pickers load items into shopping bags that delivery riders hoist on to their two-wheelers before heading off to reach households within a two mile-radius.

“If the promise is 10 minutes, our customer gets a call in the 9th minute,” said Vohra, the hoodie-sporting, bearded cofounder. According to him, Zepto’s average delivery time is 8 minutes 40 seconds.

The next step is to expand in the current three cities, as well as launch operations in others such as Hyderabad, Pune, Kolkata and Chennai in the coming weeks, according to the firm.

For Palicha, their relative youth is no handicap.

“Grocery delivery is growing at 200-percent annual rates and 10-minute grocery delivery alone has the potential of breeding a couple of $10 billion dollar start-ups,” he said. “If two 19-year-olds don’t have the stamina to conquer this, who does?”