PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 56.3620 n JAPAN 0.4020 n UK 65.0587 n HK 7.1815 n CHINA 8.1606 n SINGAPORE 40.1925 n AUSTRALIA 38.2247 n EU 56.0633 n KOREA 0.0416 n SAUDI ARABIA 15.0038 Source: BSP (September 2, 2022)
tributing to the coffers of the pro vincial government. For a place that for years also drew attention for famous son Manny Pacquiao, it seemed only right that people also associate Sarangani with other positive things besides the world-class sports icon turned senator, who is adored worldwide, even beyond the boxing field, for being the only one to dominate eight divisions in a tough field.
the province which will include the provision of spaces for watershed, food production, and recreation, in cluding tribal governance centers, school of living traditions museum, worship sites/parks, markets and related facilities,” Basino said. Sarangani towns, like Maas im, have been commemorating the IP day for the valuable contribu tion of the tribes in appreciating the conservation and protection of the environment to perpetuate the existence of human kind. Maasim hosts the T’boli and B’laan tribes and holds the annual Kestebeng Festival, the 15th year this year, and to commemorate the founding anniversary also of the town, its 53rd. Mayor Zyrex Pacquiao has lauded the tribes during the June 19 event.BaeLimpayen Jennifer SibugLas, commissioner for Central Mindanao of the National Com mission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), encouraged the T’bolis and B’laans of Maasim to always look back to their roots and to nev er forget their identity. “Ang tribu nga walay kaalam sa iyang kultura ug kinaiya, sama ra sa usa ka kahoy nga walay ugat [A tribe which does not know its culture and its environment is like a tree without roots],” Sibug-Las said.
Th is is the message that the province has been instilling in stewarding its development by embracing environmental conser vation.This was emphasized when an injured eagle was released to Maitum town, where its nest was believed to be when it was found trapped in the thicket last year.
Other small ways FROM June 20 to July 6, the Pro vincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office honed the disaster response skills of 31 civilian volunteers from the seven towns of the province on 16 days of Search and Rescue Auxiliary Training course. The trainees would help im prove the readiness and capability of the seven Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Offices (MDRRMO) of the prov ince to efficiently and effectively respond in times of disaster. Ten members from the Pro vincial Security Group also at tended the training course. 1Lt. Audifax Abcede of the 505th Search and Rescue Group of the Air Force said the participants underwent water search and rescue, rope rescue techniques, collapsed structure search and rescue, and ve hicle road accident rescue. W hile South Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat have put up their school of living tradition to pre serve the tradition of tribal com munities, Sarangani would be seeing soon the Sarangani EcoVillages: A Model for Resilient, Dynamic, and Progressive Indig enous Peoples’ Communities. A certain Fulung Fredo P. Basino presented on July 4 the concept to Governor Rogelio D. Pacquiao “to create a sustainable, equitable and livable community for the indigenous peoples (IP) in Sarangani” and emphasized citi zenship accountability, safety and resiliency.This will also establish an identified and well-designed com munity for the IP communities in “A tribe which does not know its culture and its environment is like a tree without roots.“—Bae Limpayen Jennifer Sibug-Las, commissioner for Central Mindanao of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples NCIP.GOV.PH
A CONTESTANT pulls off a wave turn in a Bankarera contest during the Sarangani Bay Festival.
SARANGANIONMYMIND
The Philippine Eagle was found with a jolen or marble lodged between its muscles and skin in its right shoulder. It also had an air-gun pellet visible on the same shoulder closer to the neck. But as the tribes would show the rest of the world, it conducted a traditional T’boli ritual called damsu at the release site to offer the release of the rejuvenated eagle to their deities “for abundant harvest, bless ings, guidance and protection.” The ritual is always done at the start of any important event and the envi ronmental emphasis would rever berateThimmediately.eAlsonsPower Group’s Sa rangani Energy Corp. (SEC) and Siguil Hydro Power Corp. have committed to preserve and protect the key biodiversity area of Mount Busa in Sarangani Province, which serves as home to a significant Philippine Eagle sub-population together with other 430 rare ani mals and birds. SEC has provided the fund ing and logistical support for the tracking and protection of Salag banog/Sarangani Eagle for the next three years.
SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE
A couple of decades later, the expected growth appears to have eluded the region despite its in nate potential as the country’s rice bowl, the smaller version to Cen tral Luzon’s rice granary tag in the textbooks.Efforts are still on to win the national government’s faith in the growth potential of Sarangani province. Local government offi cials have even pushed boundaries to reassert it. In General Santos City, one fine airport and a seaport built of global in construction standard came one after another. Strides SARANGANI has its share of the efforts, building a big clean and brisk-looking capitol building at a sprawling ground in Alabel town on a modest shoestring budget. It also upgraded the district hospital in Maitum to a provin cial hospital on June 30, to bring improved hospital care to patients from neighboring towns. Several years later, in the sec ond decade of the 2000s, Saran gani branded itself ecologically as one of the nesting sites of the endangered Philippine Eagle, as one of the stopovers of seasonal migration of birds from the cold and temperate regions to warmer countries, to the discovery of an thropomorphic pots and earthen wares in a cave and the allure of its protected seascape along the Sa rangani Bay. Needless to say, Sarangani has easily attracted visitors to one of the country’s most participated coastal summer fun, the SarBay, or days of fun concerts and beach frolic and environmental conser vation and education rolled into one to ensure a sustainable festi val. Th is is what Sarangani would tell the world: that ecotourism is an educational and fun way of con
“ What we have done is a plat form for public awareness, and the injuries caused by the improvised marble guns to the Sarangani Eagle is a manifestation that this type of hunting is still popular in this area,” Jayson Ibañez, director for research and conservation of the Philippine Eagle Foundation, said as he urged the locals to be part of the advocacy in preserving and protecting the wild. Salagbanog/Sarangani Eagle was released back to its original home at Mount Busa in Barangay Ticulab on June 13. The eagle was rescued on January 2021 after it was seen trapped in the thorny rattan vines in the vast forest of Salagbanog Falls in Ticulab.
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The release of Salagbanog/Sa rangani Eagle is the second in Sa rangani Province after the release of Sarangani Pride in 2017. I ndeed, there’s so much to inspire pride in Sarangani these days, and so much for the coun try—and the world—to watch out for.
A broader look at today’s business
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Th is involved the provision of an electronic tracker that will map the whereabouts of the eagle.
AERIAL view of Sarangani Provincial Hospital, with the Sarangani Provincial Capitol in the background. INFORMATION OFFICE
The southern province associated with Manny Pacquiao emerges as one bright tourism spot in the South.
SARANGANI
By Manuel T. Cayon SARANGANI is one province of a growth region to watch. It is an area launched in the 1990s to form the showcase of regional growth, taking the name Soccsksargen, an acronym for the Cotabato provinces of the rich plains of south-central Mindanao: South Cotabato, North Cotabato or simply named Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani and General Santos City.
‘The scale of demand is just incredible, and the mining aspect needs some attention. One thing I can say for certain is that we’ll still be facing deficits, and recycling isn’t going to be able to plug that gap any time soon.”— Colbourn
Race to build plants FOR automakers in Europe, there’s an urgent need to build the plants ahead of regulations that will force them to use more recycled materi als in their batteries from 2030 on wards. Independent recyclers also need to move quickly, and recov ering the raw materials contained in the batteries could still prove lucrative for those who can lock in sufficient supplies. But the result is that the burgeoning industry is collectively building plants far too quickly.“Nobody is really looking at each other, and they seem to think there will be a lot of scrap and endof-life batteries,” Hans Eric Melin, the founder of Circular Energy Storage, said by phone. “But if you look at the level of capacity that’s coming online, it’s huge in relation to what we need.” There are two main types of
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investment this year by mining gi ant Glencore.Supplyfor us is not an issue, we have more batteries than we can typically handle,” Kochhar said. “But there is a question about how that will evolve for the indus try as a whole.” Glencore invested in Li-Cycle because it sees strong long-term prospects, but expects the next few years will be difficult for the sector broadly, said Kunal Sinha, Glencore’s global head of recycling. “ If you’re building a stand alone battery recycling business, that business is now under pres sure,” Sinha said in an inter view in London. “Some of the recycling-only business models will not succeed, or at least will be very stressed, because they’re going to be waiting for all that scrap to arrive.”
BATTERY powder from vehicle batteries at the SungEel HiTech Co. factory in Gunsan, South Korea, on Tuesday, April 26, 2022. Founded in 2000, SungEel specializes in recycling lithium-ion batteries. It collects old and defective cells from automakers and some of the country’s biggest battery makers, including LG Energy Solution, and has the capacity to extract about 4,400 metric tons of nickel and cobalt annually. SEONGJOON CHO/BLOOMBERG
Big-name auto giants, special ist recycling firms and even miner Glencore Plc., are all pouring mon ey into transforming waste into the commodities needed to fuel the electric-vehicle revolution. As a result, global battery-recycling capacity will surge nearly 10 times from 2021 to 2025, and is expect ed to surpass available scrap sup ply this year, according to consul tancy Circular Energy Storage. Shortages are likely to persist well into the next decade while the industry waits for early mod els of EVs to hit junk yards in big numbers, and by 2025 there may be three times more recycling fac tory space than scrap to run the plants. Of course, the old batteries will eventually start rolling in, but recycling companies will have to survive until then. Some are already talking about supplementing their plants with freshly mined material—a counterintuitive solution given that recycling is intended to be a crucial and environmentally friendly answer to limited mined production of metals like lithium and cobalt. Automakers have been racing to lock in future supplies amid concerns about raw-material shortages that have sent prices spiking in recent months.
The next big battery material squeeze is old batteries
recycling feed—old, used-up bat teries, and waste material from battery factories. But most EVs being driven now will remain on the road for years and, even when the cars are scrapped, batteries are often sold on for re-use. Battery makers are also cutting waste at their plants, leaving even less ma terial for recyclers. In 2025, 78 percent of the available scrap supply will be com ing from manufacturing waste, while end-of-life batteries will ac count for 22 percent, according to new research by Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. It won’t be until the mid-to-late 2030s that the industry reaches an inflection point where volumes of used bat teries available to recyclers start to surge, the consultancy predicts. P reviously, most of the invest ment has been focused in China, which accounts for more than 80 percent of the world’s battery recy cling capacity.
China’s expected ‘dominance’ IT’S also where the first big wave of scrap is likely to emerge, because more EVs have been on the road for longer. There’s been a flood of plans for new recycling facilities across Europe and North America over the past year, but those plants will need to wait even longer for supply to start picking up. “ In terms of where the scrap is coming from, China is going to be dominating supply,” Benchmark analyst Sarah Colbourn said by phone. “It’s quite an opaque mar ket to understand, but the over whelming majority of capacity is in China and the volume of scrap available will be higher in China.” To recycle spent batteries, they are first dismantled and shredded into something called “black mass,” which is then pro cessed to produce specialist chemi cals for use in new batteries. The biggest bottleneck is like ly to be for the companies focused mainly on making black mass, ac cording to Ajay Kochhar, the chief executive officer and co-founder of US recycling startup Li-Cycle Hold ings Corp. The company plans to produce high-value chemicals at a new $485-million facility in Roch ester, New York. The company’s rapid expansion has attracted the attention of short sellers skeptical about its technology and develop ment costs, but it received a vote of confidence with a $200-million
By Mark Burton & Thomas Biesheuvel | Bloomberg News
L i-Cycle’s relationship with Glencore could offer a solution if it does run into future shortages, by supplementing waste supplies with raw materials from Glencore’s own mines until scrap volumes fi nally swell in earnest, Sinha said. O thers are already adopt ing a hybrid approach, with rival recycler Redwood Materials an nouncing plans for a $3.5-billion battery-chemicals plant in Ne vada that will be fed with a com bination of mined and recycled raw Smaterials.owhat’sit going to take for waste supply to really start rising? Even when vehicles are scrapped, the batteries are often snapped up by buyers willing to pay thousands of dollars to reuse them in other vehicles or in lessdemanding applications like ener gy-storage systems. It could take 15 years or more for old batteries to eventually arrive at recycling plants, and in some cases as long as 25 years, according to CES. The batteries found in old electronics are another major source of supply, but will depend on the effectiveness of regulations designed to convince consumers to clear out their drawers and recycle old gadgets.Inthe short term, recyclers will be relying heavily on scrap produced during the batterymaking process. But even that is coming under pressure—CES last month slashed its long-term fore casts for manufacturing scrap by more than half to reflect major breakthroughs in production effi ciency in the last few years. Still, the shortage won’t last forever. Recycling will still ac count for less than 10 percent of global supply by 2030, but will rise substantially over the following decade, according to Benchmark. Even so, carmakers will still be heavily reliant on miners to under pin the electric-vehicle industry’s explosive growth, and shortages look set to persist there as well. The scale of demand is just incredible, and the mining aspect needs some attention,” Bench mark’s Colbourn said. “One thing I can say for certain is that we’ll still be facing deficits, and recycling isn’t going to be able to plug that gap any time soon.”
AGLOBAL rush into battery recycling is good news for automakers worried about future raw material supplies. But the wave of new factories poses a big risk for the recycling industry itself: there’s nowhere near enough scrap yet to feed them all.
By Dake Kang The Associated Press B
For exiled
The significance of the as sessment, survivors say, is the weight and authority of the United Nations. Though indi vidual governments, includ ing the United States and the parliaments of France and the UK, have criticized the crack down before, such declarations were brushed aside by Beijing as political attacks by Western countries.“Thistime, China can’t avoid this accusation,” said Tahir Imim, a Uyghur publisher in exile with dozens of relatives in prison. “The United Nations is a neutral organization, the high est organization.… It’s a stain on the Communist Party.” The Chinese government swiftly denounced the report, with Foreign Ministry spokes person Wang Wenbin calling it “a patchwork of false information that serves as a political tool for the US and other Western coun tries” to contain China. Beijing has spent years trying to control the narrative, vilify ing people who have spoken against the crackdown while organizing tours and news conferences promoting its po sition. State media have inter viewed Xinjiang residents who denounced accusations against Beijing as lies, though evidence shows that such statements are often scripted and coerced. Many camp survivors faced years of threats by Chinese po lice in attempts to silence them, leaving them with a stark choice: speak out and face the conse quences, or stay quiet to protect their loved ones. Dawut made her choice on a fateful Friday in New York three years ago. That day, she was on her way to the United Nations to share her story for the first time when she got a call. It was her brother, telling her that the police had come for their father and urging her not to speak. She froze with fear. “But I thought of so many fa thers and mothers in the camp, how I needed to speak up for them,” she said. “I thought, I will not change my mind. I will go.” The consequences were im mediate. Relatives in Xinjiang blocked her calls and texts. Two weeks later, an ex-neighbor called, saying her father had died while in police custody. The ex act circumstances are unclear. Now, Dawut said, it was all worth it. “I felt like I did the right thing,” she said. “I am walking the path of truth.” The UN report corroborated different aspects of the crack down reported over the years, including forced labor, perva sive surveillance, family separa tions and coercive birth control measures.Butthe focus of the report was squarely on the mass de tentions. The rights office said it could not confirm estimates that a million or more people were detained in the internment camps in Xinjiang, but that it was “reasonable to conclude that a pattern of large-scale arbitrary detention occurred” at least be tween 2017 and 2019. Interviews and AP visits to the region show that China ap pears to have closed many of the camps, which it called vocational training and education centers. But hundreds of thousands of people continue to languish in prison on vague, secret charges, with leaked data showing one county in Xinjiang has the high est known imprisonment rate in the world.
Among those who fled Xinji ang, there was a palpable sense of relief, as they had worried that the UN report would be suppressed or watered down. UN High Commissioner for Hu man Rights Michelle Bachelet had said little after visiting Xinjiang on a government-or ganized tour in May, prompt ing criticism and concern from Uyghur groups. Dina Nurdybay, an ethnic Ka zakh who spent almost a year in detention, said she was worried when she heard Bachelet had visited Xinjiang at Beijing’s in vitation. Nurdybay said she had been forced in the camps to sing and dance for journalists and of ficials, parrot propaganda and pretend life was great there. She worried that outside investiga tors would be tricked. “It’s all lies,” she said. “You think it’s voluntary?” Now, she said, she hopes the UN will help people like her escape harassment and live in peace. Every time she speaks to journalists, she said, Chi nese police haul away her uncle and interrogate him for days at a time, telling him they should make her “shut up.” Mihrigul Tursun, who testi fied about the camps before the US Congress in November 2018, said the price she paid for speak ing out was constant threats to her safety and a state-sponsored smear campaign. She’s been called a liar, followed by cars, photographed at restaurants by strangers. She is now under FBI watch, she said, after men dressed in hoodies broke her window and slipped threatening letters under her door, forcing her to move seven times. Before she went public, she spent sleepless nights sobbing, Uyghurs, UN report is long-awaited vindication
The last coal shipment arrived in the islands at the end of July, and the AES Corporation coal plant closed Thursday after 30 years in operation. The facility produced up to one-fifth of the electricity on Oahu—the most populous is land in a state of nearly 1.5 mil lion“Itpeople.really is about reducing greenhouse gases,” Hawaii Gov. David Ige said in an interview with The Associated Press. “And this coal facility is one of the largest emitters. Taking it offline means that we’ll stop the 1.5 million met ric tons of greenhouse gases that were emitted annually.” Like other Pacific islands, the Hawaiian chain has suffered the cascading impacts of climate change. The state is experienc ing the destruction of coral reefs from bleaching associated with in creased ocean temperatures, rapid sea level rise, more intense storms and drought that is increasing the state’s wildfire risk. In 2020, Hawaii’s Legislature passed a law banning the use of coal for energy production at the start of 2023. Hawaii has man dated a transition to 100 percent renewable energy by 2045, and was the first state to set such a goal. But critics say that while ending the state’s dirtiest source of energy is ultimately a good move, doing so now is not. Renewable sources meant to replace coal energy are not yet on line because of permit ting delays, contract issues and pandemic-related supply-chain problems. So the state will instead burn more costly oil that is only slightly less polluting than coal. “If you are a believer that cli mate change is going to end be cause we shut down this coal plant, this is a great day for you,” said Democratic state Sen. Glenn Wakai, chair of the Committee on Economic Development, Tourism and Technology. “But if you pay an electricity bill, this is a disastrous day for you.” The end of coal and the addi tional cost of oil will translate to an increase in electricity bills for consumers who already face the nation’s highest energy and living costs. Hawaiian Electric Company had projected ratepayers would see a 7 percent spike in their bills, but Thursday revised that to 4 percent because of a drop in oil prices. “What we’re doing ... is transi tioning from the cheapest fossil fuel to the most expensive fossil fuel,” Wakai said. “And we’re go ing to be subjected to geopolitical issues on pricing for oil as well as access to oil. “ The AES coal plant closure means Hawaii joins 10 other states with no major coal-fired power facilities, according to data from Global Energy Monitor, a nonprofit advocating for a global transition to clean energy. Rhode Island and Vermont never had any coal-fired powerWhileplants.Hawaii is the first state to fully implement a ban on coal, a handful of others previously passed laws. The 2015 law in Oregon, the first state to pass a ban, isn’t effective until 2035. Washington state’s 2020 coal ban starts in 2025. California, Maine and Texas are among states that have restricted construction of new coal-fired plants. The number of coal-burning units in the United States peaked in 2001 at about 1,100. More than half have stopped operating since then, with most switching to more cost-effective natural gas. US Energy Information Admin istration data shows oil generated about two-thirds of Hawaii’s elec tricity in 2021. That makes Hawaii the most petroleum-dependent state, even as it tries to make a rapid transition to renewables. Hawaii already gets about 40 percent of its power from sustain able sources including wind, solar, hydroelectric and geothermal. State Sen. Kurt Fevella, a Re publican and the Senate Minority Leader, suggested that Hawaiian Electric Company and other en ergy corporations should absorb the additional cost of shifting to renewables.“Thefact that Hawaii’s families are already doing what is necessary to reduce their energy uses while still paying the most in the nation for household electricity is unsus tainable,” said Fevella. “While I be l ieve utility companies like HECO can do more to reduce the energy burden passed on to Hawaii’s rate payers, I also believe developers of renewal energy projects should also bear a greater portion of the transmission costs.” Hawaiian Electric Company, the primary distributor of electricity for the state, said it can do little to change the prices to consumers. “We’re a regulated monopoly,” said Vice President of Govern ment and Community Relations and Corporate Communications Jim Kelly. “So we don’t set the prices. We don’t make any money on the fuels that we use to gener ateAES,electricity.”theoperator of Hawaii’s last coal plant, has transitioned to creating clean energy and is work ing on large solar farms across the state, including one in West Oahu that will replace some lost coal energy when completed next year.
EIJING—When Zumret Dawut heard that the United Nations had de clared that China’s crackdown in its far-western Xinjiang region may constitute crimes against humanity, she burst into tears. Her mind flashed back to her cellmates in the camp she was detained in, to her father who died while in Xinjiang po lice custody. She felt vindicated. “I felt there was justice, that there are people who care in this world,” she said. “I felt like our testimonies, our efforts to raise awareness have finally paid off.” For Dawut and other camp survivors now outside China, the UN’s report on mass deten tions and other rights abuses against Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim ethnic groups in Xinjiang was the culmination of years of advocacy, a welcome ac knowledgement of abuses they say they faced at the hands of the Chinese state. The long-delayed assessment released late Wednesday by the UN human rights office in Geneva concluded that China has com mitted serious human rights vio lations under its anti-terrorism and anti-extremism policies and called for “urgent attention” from the UN, the world community and China itself to address them. The report was at the center of a tug-of-war between rights groups and the Chinese gov ernment, which had repeatedly sought to stymie its publication. It largely corroborates earlier reporting by researchers, activ ist groups and the news media, while steering away from esti mates and other findings that cannot be definitively proven.
HAWAII
pondering whether to speak out. If she did, she knew she could never go back home, that she might never see her parents again. But she remembered the women held in the cell with her. They had sworn an oath together: Whoever made it out would speak out about what they had witnessed inside, no matter the consequences.
Hawaii quits coal in bid to fight climate change
By Caleb Jones The zAssociated Press
“Renewables are getting cheaper by the day,” said Leon ardo Moreno, president of AES Corporation’s clean energy divi sion. “I envision a future where energy is very, very cheap, abun dant and Sustainablerenewable.”energy experts say getting rid of coal is critical in curbing climate change. While the current renewable landscape is not perfect, they say technologies are“Thisimproving.isthe decade of climate action that we really need to be moving on right now,” said Make na Coffman, University of Hawaii professor and director for the In stitute for Sustainability and Re silience. “And so these are avail able technologies and they might get incrementally better, but let’s not wait 10 years to do it.” Profits from the increased elec tricity costs to Hawaii consumers will go mostly to overseas oil pro ducers, said Hawaii’s Chief Energy Officer Scott Glenn. Hawaii’s petroleum is distribut ed by Par Pacific, a Houston-based company which has traditionally sourced the state’s oil from Libya and Russia. But after the invasion of Ukraine, Hawaii halted oil ship ments from Russia and replaced it with products from Argentina. Extending the coal plant’s op eration would be complicated and costly, Glenn said, noting that the plant has been planning decom missioning for years and would now have to buy coal at market price.“Coal is going up. It’s getting more expensive,” he said of the supply Hawaii gets from clearcut rainforests in Indonesia. “If we were using US coal, it would not be the cheapest energy source on theWhygrid.”would Hawaii, a small US state in the middle of the Pacific, try to lead the way in moving to sustainable energy? “We are already feeling the ef fects of climate change,’” Glenn said. “It’s not fair or right to ask other nations or states to act on our behalf if we are not willing and able to do it ourselves. If we don’t, we drown.” T he Associated Press data journalist Mary Katherine Wildeman in Hartford, Conn. contributed to this report.
HONOLULU—The last bits of ash and greenhouse gases from Hawaii’s only remaining coal-fired power plant slipped into the environment this week when the state’s dirtiest source of electricity burned its final pieces of fuel.
A COAL barge and oil ship are docked in Honolulu after the state received its last shipment of coal on July 28, 2022. STATE ENERGY OFFICE VIA AP
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THIS microscope photo provided by the Mayo Clinic in August 2022 shows senescent myoblast cells. Senescent cells resist apoptosis, or programmed cell death, and characteristically get big and flat, with enlarged nuclei. They release a blend of molecules, some of which can trigger inflammation and harm other cells—and paradoxically also stimulate the growth of malignant cells and fuel cancer, says Mayo Clinic researcher Nathan LeBrasseur.
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Fisch reported from Kramatorsk, Ukraine. Associated Press writer Elena Becatoros contributed from Irpin.
MItSYUBYNSKE,YKHAILO-KOTUkraine—wasthefirstdayof school in Ukraine on Thursday but children weren’t sharing memories of fun vacations with their families. Their stories were of surviving war. For many, their last day of school was the day before the February 24 Russian invasion of their country. At least 379 children have been killed since the war began, while the whereabouts of 223 others are unknown, according to Ukraine’s General Prosecutors office. Another 7,013 children were among Ukrainians forc ibly transferred to Russia from Russian-occupied areas. Six months of war damaged 2,400 schools across the country, including 269 that were completely destroyed, officials said, Civilian areas and schools con tinue to be hit, and children keep being killed. But after the first months of shock, 51 percent of schools in Ukraine, despite the risk, are reopening to in-person education, with an option to study online if the parents prefer. But safety remains the prior ity. At schools that don’t have quick access to shelters or are located close to the borders with Belarus and Russia, or near ac tive military zones, children will only study online. That’s the case for the seventh graders in Mykhailo-Kotsyubyn ske, just 20 miles (35 kilometers) from the Belarus border, who gath ered at their badly damaged school this week to pick up textbooks for studying online. “We haven’t seen each other for such a long time. You all have grown so much,” said their teach er, Olena Serdiuk, standing in a corner of the classroom, where windows were covered with thick black polythene instead of glass.
‘Most promising tool’ TODAY, LeBrasseur, who directs a center on aging at Mayo, says ex ercise is “the most promising tool that we have” for good functioning in late life, and its power extends to our Researchcells. suggests it counters the buildup of senescent ones, helping the immune system clear them and counteracting the mo lecular damage that can spark the senescence process. A study LeBrasseur led last year provided the first evidence in humans that exercise can significantly reduce indicators, found in the bloodstream, of the burden of senescent cells in the body. After a 12-week aerobics, resistance and balance training program, researchers found that older adults had lowered indica tors of senescence and better muscle strength, physical func tion and reported health. A re cently published research review collects even more evidence—in animals and humans—for exer cise as a senescence-targeting therapy.While such studies aren’t well known outside scientific circles, many older adults intuitively equate exercise with youthfulness. Rancher Mike Gale, 81, in stalled a track and field throwing circle on his sprawling property in Petaluma, California, so he and some friends could practice throwing the discus and other equipment. Against a backdrop of rolling green hills, they twist, step, throw and retrieve over and over“I’dagain.like to be competing in my 90s,” Gale says. “Why not?” Soller asked himself a similar question long ago. After a torn hamstring stopped him from running track in high school, he fell into an unhealthy lifestyle in early adulthood, smok ing two packs of cigarettes a day. But he and his wife Jean quit cold turkey when their daughter Mary came along. He started running again just before turning 50, and since then has run in races across the US, including two marathons, and participated in decades of Senior Games competitions. In May, Soller joined 12,000 like-minded athletes in Florida for the lat est national games in the Fort Lauderdale area—winning five medals to add to his collection of 1,500 prizes. His daughter filmed his firstplace finish in the 200-meter dash f rom the stands, cheering: “Go, Dad,Sollergo!” says exercise keeps him fit enough to handle what comes his way—including an Alzheimer’s diagnosis for his wife of 62 years. They sometimes stroll neighbor hood streets together, holding hands.“Do as much as you can,” he says. “That should be the goal for anyone to stay healthy.” Video journalist Angie Wang con tributed to this story.
By Laura Ungar AP Science Writer N an unfinished part of his basement, 95-year-old Richard Soller zips around a makeshift track encircling boxes full of medals he’s won for track and field and long-distance running.
In the dimly lit shelter were water supplies and long benches with labeled seats for each class room. When the children took the seats assigned to their class, Serdiuk told them they had to go there whenever they heard a siren. She said many parents tell her their children are begging to return to school, but for now that isn’t al lowed because of the danger of be ing so close to the Belarus border.
DR. XU ZHANG/MAYO CLINIC VIA AP
The World BusinessMirrorSunday, September 4, 2022 www.businessmirror.com.phA4
By Hanna Arhirova & Yesica Fisch The Associated Press
Without a hint of breathless ness, he says: “I can put in miles downStepshere.”away is an expensive leather recliner he bought when he retired from Procter & Gamble with visions of relaxing into old age. He proudly proclaims he’s never used it; he’s been too busy training for competitions, such as the National Senior Games. Soller, who lives near Cincin nati, has achieved an enviable goal chased by humans since ancient times: Staying healthy and active in late life. It’s a goal that eludes so many that growing old is often associated with getting frail and sick. But scientists are trying to change that—and tackle one of humanity’s biggest challenges— through a little known but flour ishing field of aging research called cellular senescence. It’s built upon the idea that cells eventually stop dividing and enter a “senescent” state in response to various forms of damage. The body removes most of them. But others linger like zombies. They aren’t dead. But as the Mayo Clinic’s Nathan LeBrasseur puts it, they can harm nearby cells like moldy fruit corrupting a fruit bowl. They accumulate in older bodies, which mounting evidence links to an ar ray of age-related conditions such as dementia, cardiovascular dis ease and osteoporosis. But scientists wonder: Can the zombie cell buildup be stopped? “The ability to understand ag ing—and the potential to inter vene in the fundamental biology of aging—is truly the greatest oppor tunity we have had, maybe in his tory, to transform human health,” LeBrasseur says. Extending the span of healthy years impacts “quality of life, public health, so cioeconomics, the whole shebang.” With the number of people 65 or older expected to double glob ally by 2050, cellular senescence is “a very hot topic,” says Viviana Perez Montes of the National In stitutes of Health. According to an Associated Press analysis of an NIH research database, there have been around 11,500 total projects involving cellular senescence since 1985, far more in recent years. About 100 companies, plus academic teams, are exploring drugs to target senescent cells. And research offers tantalizing clues that people may be able to help tame senescence themselves using the strategy favored by Soller:Althoughexercise.noone thinks senes cence holds the key to super long life, Tufts University researcher Christopher Wiley hopes for a day when fewer people suffer fates like his late grandfather, who had Al zheimer’s and stared back at him as if he were a stranger. “I’m not looking for the foun tain of youth,” Wiley says. “I’m looking for the fountain of not being sick when I’m older.” Mortal cells LEONARD HAYFLICK , the scien tist who discovered cellular senes cence in 1960, is himself vital at 94. He’s a professor of anatomy at the University of California, San Francisco, and continues to write, present and speak on the topic. At his seaside home in Sonoma County, he leafs through a binder filled with his research, including two early papers that have been cited an astonishing number of times by other researchers. Before him on the living room table are numerous copies of his seminal book, “How and Why We Age,” in various languages. This scientific renown didn’t come easily. He discovered cellu lar senescence by accident, cul tivating human fetal cells for a project on cancer biology and no ticing they stopped dividing after about 50 population doublings. This wasn’t a big surprise; cell cultures often failed because of things like contamination. What was surprising was that others also stopped dividing at the same point. The phenomenon was later called “the Hayflick limit.” The finding, Hayflick says, challenged “60-year-old dogma” that normal human cells could replicate forever. A paper he au thored with colleague Paul Moor head was rejected by a prominent scientific journal, and Hayflick faced a decade of ridicule after it was published in Experimental Cell Research in 1961. “It followed the usual pattern of major discoveries in science, where the discoverer is first ridiculed and then somebody says, ‘Well, maybe it works’…then it becomes accepted to some extent, then becomes more widely accepted.” At this point, he says, “the field that I discovered has skyrocketed to an extent that’s beyond my abil ity to keep up with it.” Zombie buildup SCIENTISTS are careful to note that cell senescence can be use ful. It likely evolved at least in part to suppress the development of cancer by limiting the capacity of cells to keep dividing. It hap pens throughout our lives, trig gered by things like DNA damage and the shortening of telomeres, structures that cap and protect the ends of chromosomes. Senescent cells play a role in wound heal ing, embryonic development and childbirth.Problems can arise when they build“Whenup. you’re young, your im mune system is able to recognize these senescent cells and eliminate them,” says Perez, who studies cell biology and aging. “But when we start getting old… the activity of our immune system also gets di minished, so we’re losing the ca pacity to eliminate them.” Senescent cells resist apopto sis, or programmed cell death, and characteristically get big and flat, with enlarged nuclei. They release a blend of molecules, some of which can trigger inflamma tion and harm other cells—and paradoxically can also stimulate the growth of malignant cells and fuel cancer, LeBrasseur says. Scientists link some disorders to buildups of senescent cells in certain spots. For example, re search suggests certain senescent cells that accumulate in lungs exposed to cigarette smoke may contribute substantially to airway inflammation in COPD. The idea that one process could be at the root of numerous diseases is powerful to many scientists. It inspired Dr. James Kirkland to move on from geriatric medi cine. “I got tired of prescribing bet ter wheelchairs and incontinence devices,” says Kirkland, a professor of medicine at Mayo considered a pioneer of the senescence renais sance. “I wanted to do something more fundamental that could al leviate the suffering that I saw.”
Another pilot study found the same combination reduced the burden of senescent cells in the fat tissue of people with diabetic kidney disease. At least a dozen clinical trials with senolytics are now testing things like whether they can help control Alzheimer’s progression, improve joint health in osteo arthritis and improve skeletal health. Some teams are trying to develop “senomorphics” that can suppress detrimental effects of molecules emitted by senescent cells. And a Japanese team has tested a vaccine on mice specific to a protein found in senescent cells, allowing for their targeted elimination.Scientists say serious work to improve human health could also bring fringe benefits—like reduc ing skin wrinkling. “I tell my lab that if we find a drug that clears the bad senescent cells and not the good ones and we cure Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s and osteoporosis and macular degeneration, it would be wonderful,” says Judith Campisi, a biogerontology expert at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. “But if we cure wrinkles, we’ll be rich, and I’ll never have to write another grant.” Amid the buzz, some companies market dietary supplements as senolytics. But researchers warn they haven’t been shown to work or proven safe. And there’s still much to learn about clinical trial drugs. “We know that senolytics work pretty well in mice,” Wiley says. “We’re still really figuring out the basics with people.”
Drug targets THAT quest leads him and others to develop Experimentalmedicines.drugs designed to selectively clear senescent cells have been dubbed “senolytics,” and Mayo holds patents on some. In mice, they’ve been shown to be effective at delaying, prevent ing or easing several age-related disorders.Possible benefits for people are just emerging. Kirkland, LeBrasseur and colleagues did a pilot study providing initial evidence that patients with a serious lung disease might be helped by pairing a chemother apy drug with a plant pigment.
Oleksii Lytvyn, 13, remembers very well the day Russian missiles hit the school twice. It was March 4, and he was in the school’s bomb shelter with his family and dozens of other people. Just minutes before the blast, he had been playing with a friend. After the loud explosion, the walls began shaking and he couldn’t see anything but a huge cloud of debris. One person was killed, a woman who worked at the school. “We were sleeping in the cor ridor, and there was a corpse of a dead person behind the wall,” Oleksii recalled. His family stayed one more night before fleeing town, though they have since returned for the start of the school Oleksii’syear.classmates shared similar stories about that day and the month-long Russian occupa tion that “Whenfollowed.I’matschool, I think about the person who died in the debris. I feel deeply sorry for her,” 12-year-old Mykola Kravchenko said.Their school is still badly dam aged. Debris fills the second floor, and the roof and heating system need to be repaired—money the school doesn’t have. Even though they will be study ing online, the students had to undergo security training. Serdiuk told the class to follow her to the same bomb shelter where many survived the blast in March.
Zombie cells central to the quest for active, vital old age
“It does become kind of the new normal for children,” UNI CEF Executive Director Catherine M. Russell, told The Associated Press. “That’s not the way children should go through life, thinking that they are going to get attacked at any Schoolsmoment.”inthe Kyiv and Lviv re gions were among those welcom ing students back to classrooms Thursday, including more than 7,300 displaced students forced to flee their hometowns. In a neighborhood of Irpin, north of Kyiv, still bearing the scars of war, with destroyed homes and shrapnelmarked fences and walls, first-grade children lined up excitedly for their first day of classes in their newly renovated school. Hit by a missile during the early days of the war, Irpin School Num ber 17 was rebuilt with the help of UNICEF, the faint smell of fresh paint still lingering as the stu dents walked into their classrooms hand-in-hand.“Thisyearis different to the others. We are in a war situation,” said first grade teacher Olga Maly ovana. “We were really worried about the children and their safety, but we fixed all the facilities, we have a shelter.”
It’s back to school in Ukraine–but still far from normal
“The Philippine Space Agency is one major potential client for the FEA tool as its processes are simi lar to the United States’ National Aeronautics and Space Administra tion program,” he said. “Being a disaster prone country, we will need cutting-edge soft ware to determine the quality and strength of our infrastructure. FEA can fill in that gap,” he added.
It was recently disclosed that there is shortage in salt supply in the coun try that led to increase in price. This made the Department of Trade and industry to increase the price for 500 grams of iodized rock salt at P21.75, and P23 for 1 kilogram (kg); and P16 to P21.25 for 500 grams, and P29.00 for 1 kg for iodized salt.
The Asin law seeks to support the advocacy in battling the problem of micronutrient deficiencies, specifi cally iodine deficiency disorders. Besides Occidental Mindoro, the country’s biggest salt producing ar eas—Bulacan, Pangasinan, Las Piñas City and Cavite—provided 85 percent of the country’s annual salt require ments, Internet sources say. In his column in BusinessMirror Atty. Dennis Gorecho said among the causes of the decrease in salt produc tion in the country is pollution from industrial and domestic sewerage draining into Manila Bay that de stroyed the pristine waters that has been the primary ingredient of salt. Other causes are land develop ments, such as bay area reclamation and coastal road construction, that disrupted salt production, and the conversion of salt-bed areas into fish ponds and residential and commercial properties. Resurreccion
DOST deploys first locally manufactured salt harvester
The DOST deployed the first ever locally fabricated salt harvesting equipment in Occidental Mindoro. It should be noted that Occidental Min doro was earlier among the country’s biggest salt Researchersproducers.fromthe Industrial Technology Development Institute of the DOST (DOST-ITDI) developed the salt harvester that was designed to mechanize the process of salt crushing, washing and harvesting even during rainy season in deep crystallizer saltern.
It was funded through the Collab orative Research and Development
A S the government is all-out in building the country’s capabilities for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0), a group of Filipino scientists is urging it to harness the potentials of finite element analysis (FEA). They said FEA will enable the country become a hub once it has de veloped a substantial pool of skilled engineers who can handle the re quirements of the global market. This was pointed out during the recent graduation of the second group of trainees on the Basic Training Course on FEA held at the Industrial Technical Development Institute of the Department of Science and Tech nology (DOST-ITDI) in Taguig City on August 25. The first group held their graduation last month Finite Element Institute of the Philippines (FEIP) President Dr. Ria Liza Canlas said the country needs to develop more local talents in FEA as the world market introduces more products for the global economy. She added that these products will have to undergo several tests before they will be sold to the mar ket. She pointed out that FEA will be a major element in the testing of such DOST-ITDIproducts.Director Annabelle Briones said finite analysis is a powerful tool to analyze complex problems in engineering. “We need to establish a globally competitive expertise in this field,” Briones said. “I am confident this is just the start of something big.” To consolidate the plan of trans forming the country into a major hub of FEA in Southeast Asia, Balik Scien tist Engr. Vicente DyReyes, Canlas and other advocates of FEA formed the FEIP in 2021 to gather support for it. “FEIP hopes to jumpstart the development of future Filipino ex perts in FEA,” Canlas said. FEA defined DYREYES said FEA uses calcula tions, models and simulations to predict, analyze and understand the behavior or potential behavior of a product or material under various physicalMoreover,conditions.FEAfinds and detects vulnerabilities in design prototypes. DyReyes pointed out that the Philippines can benefit in using FEA as a tool for research and testing for various programs. An expert in aerospace engineer ing and space technology, DyReyes noted that agencies in space, de fense, construction, manufactur ing, health, civil engineering and transportation requires FEA.
FORMER
The salt harvester can shorten harvesting period from months to a couple of weeks, addressing the issues on salt impurities contami nation and economic losses, the DOST-PCIEERD said. The equipment was developed to address the tedious manual method of crushing, piling and hauling using rakes, cane baskets, and wheelbarrows for salt harvesting.
By Lyn B. Resurreccion T
SCIENCE Secretary Renato U. Solidum Jr. administers the oath of reappointed DOST officials on August 31. ENRICO BELGA JR. for Caraga; and Jose B. Patalinjug III for Regional Office National Capital Region. Deputy Executive Directors Ni ñaliza H. Escorial for PCIEERD, and Feliciano G. Calora Jr. for Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic, and Natural Resources Research and Development; and Director III Vallerie Ann I. Samson for PNRI. S olidum earlier told the Busi nessMirror that he will have the slogan “One DOST for you” in order to bring the whole of DOST services as one team. T he DOST under his helm, Soli dum said, will harmonize its func tions with that of the Marcos Jr. administration in wealth creation, wealth protection, human wellbe ing and sustainability. He is urging the DOST system personnel to work with a HEART. This means having an H, or heart for passion; E for excellence; A for aligning one’s ambition with the organization; R for respect; and T for team work.
The project was done in partner ship with JALD Industries Corp., and through the support of the DOST-Phil ippine Council for Industry, Energy, and Emerging Technology Research and Development (DOST-PCIEERD), the project’s monitoring agency.
It also seeks to improve the quality, productivity and efficien cy of solar salt processing in deep crystallizer salterns.
Lyn B. Resurreccion
A dmnistrator III Vicente B. Malano of Philippine Atmospher ic, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa); Directors IV Cezar R. Pedraza for Planning and Evaluation Service; Angely M. Alviar for Administra tive and Legal Affairs; Racquel P. Alvendia for Service, Financial and Management Service. D irectors IV Carlo A. Arcilla for Philippine Nuclear Research Insti tute (PNRI); Imelda A. Agdeppa for Food and Nutrition Research Institute; Richard P. Burgos for Sci ence and Technology Information Institute; Marion Ivy D. Decena for Technology Application and Promotion Institute. E xecutive Director Enrico C. Paringit for Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerg ing Technology Research and De velopment (PCIEERD); Directors III Rico J. Cabangon for Forest Products Research and Develop ment Institute; Zorayda V. Ang and Christine Marie C. Montesa for Industrial Technology Devel opment Institute; Esperanza O. Cayanan for Pagasa; Teresito C. Bacolcol for Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology; and Albert G. Mariño for Science Education Institute (SEI). T he DOST officials who will have their oath taking on Septem ber 7 are Directors IV Franz A. De Leon for Advanced Science and Technology Institute, and Josette T. Biyo for SEI. Re gional Directors Virginia G. Bilgera for Regional Office II; Emelita P. Bagsit for Regional Office IV-A; Jesus F. Zamora Jr. for Regional Office VII; Ernesto M. Granada for Regional Office VIII; Martin A. Wee for Regional Office IX; Sammy P. Malawan for Regional Office XII; Noel M. Ajoc
Ex-DOST chief de la Peña receives Asian Productivity Org. award
TRADITIONAL PROCESS SELF HARVESTER EQUIPMENT
F ORMER Science secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña was awarded the Meritorious and Distinguished Award for 2021 from the Asian Productivity Or ganization (APO) on August 23. De la Peña was awarded for his “outstanding contributions to the centrality of productiv ity in socioeconomic develop ment endeavors through poli cy-making, strategic thinking, leadership and management.” The award was conferred on May 11, 2021, but due to the strict health protocols owing to the pandemic, the ceremony was held only in August. The plaque and certificate was handed to de la Peña at a ceremony led by President and CEO of Development Academy of the Philippines Engelbert C. Caronan Jr., and the Philippine APO alternate Japan-based,director.APOis an in tergovernmental organization established in 1961 to increase productivity in the Asia-Pacific region through mutual coopera tion. It currently a membership of 21 economies, including the Philippines, its web site said. De la Peña thanked APO for the award and recognition. He also thanked his colleagues, coworkers and partners “whose appreciation of the importance of productivity has helped in improving the ser vice and output of the organiza tions” that he served. He gave “special mention” to the Department of Science and Technology as shown by its re markable delivery of service to theThiscountry.was evidenced, he said, by the 2022 UN Public Service Award for its Science for Change Program, and the special recog nition of the contributions of DOST’s Small Enterprise Tech nology Upgrading Program in the UN Science, Technology and Innovation Forum 2022. De la Peña also noted the improvement in the Philippine Global Innovation Index from Rank 100 to Rank 51 in a span of seven years from 2014 to 2021, out of 125 and 132 economies, respectively,PreviousAPO awardees includ ed former DOST secretary Cefer ino Follosco, Philippine Founda tion for Science and Technology Chairman Filemon Berba Jr. and the late president of Yazaki-Tor res Manufacturing Inc., Feliciano Torres. Lyn B. Resurreccion
The technology can be adopted by other solar salt producers practic ing deep crystallizer salterns, which does not only provide opportunities to the local salt industry but to the local fabrication industry as well, DOST-PCIEERD added. “This project was borne out of the necessity to create a solution in re ducing the time required to produce salt with improved quality. At a time when we are experiencing supply is sues, this is how science and technol ogy comes in as a bearer of solutions,” said DOST-PCIEERD Executive Direc tor Dr. Enrico C. Paringit. Paringit expressed hope that the salt industry players adopt the new technology and help mitigate the chal lenges that it faces.
BusinessMirror A5Sunday, September 4, 2022 Science Sunday www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Lyn
The Department of Agriculture said at least 93 percent, or 550,000 metric tons, of the salt supply in the country is being imported, and only 7 percent is locally produced, despite the country’s having 36,000 kilome ters of shoreline. The situation led the DA, headed by President Marcos Jr., to bare its plan on scaling up salt production to reduce the country’s dependence on importedIncludedsalt.in the plan is working with the DOST and other concerned government agencies to fully de velop the local salt industry, under the Republic Act 8172, or the Act for Salt Iodization Nationwide (Asin) in 1995.Theweakening of the “long-neglect ed” salt industry is partly attributed to the passage of Republic Act 8172, or the Act for Salt Iodization Nationwide (Asin) in 1995, which requires all pro ducers of food-grade salt to iodize the salt that they produce, manufacture, import, trade or distribute for human and animal consumption. Small salt producers, who use tra ditional production system, said this made salt production expensive.
‘Finite element analysis needed in Industry 4.0’
Meanwhile, DyReyes said the main challenge in expanding the program is the acquisition of the MSC Software which is recognized as the top FEA software brand. “I hope the government can sup port the development of FEA ex perts so the country can develop a sophisticated technology-driv en outsourcing industry once the graduates become experts in their respective fields,” he pointed out. “We really need investors to make the program move on so we can produce future talents in FEA,” he DyReyesadded. has been conducting talks with the University of the Philippines and the De La Salle Uni versity for the possible teaching of FEA to their engineering students. The graduates of the second group of trainees on the Basic Train ing Course on FEA are Dennis Clyde Acantilado, Patrick Ambay, Patrick Angelo Velasco Balanag, Irish Diecon Capili, Jonaz Cruz, Alexander de Lara, John Emmanuel B. Gil, Eldon Libo-on, Louise Danielle B. Panghu lan, Helena Nikka S Publico, Melvin Redondo, John Jericho C Roxas, Charlie N. Samonteza, Jamila Tabora, Marvin Tolentino, Alchris Nino N. Zolina, Jayson Baga, Sonny Cac Jr., Michael Benjamin Diaz, Salvador T. Gelilang, Ariel Go, Louie John O. Go zun, Raynaldo Dexter Pampuan, Mi chael Daniel Ramirez, Jeq Zyrius A. Sudweste and Arn James Vengua.
HE Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has fabricated a salt harvester to hasten the production of salt, which came in time amid a shortage of salt supply in the country, among other agricultural products.
S CIENCE Secretary Renato U. Solidum Jr. administered the oath taking of the Depart ment of Science and Technology officials from its various agencies, who will be his partners in serving the public to implement his banner slogan “One DOST for you” for six years until 2028. E ighteen of the officials took their oath last August 31, while 13 more will have theirs on Sep tember 7. They are reappointed officials who are non-Career Ex ecutive Service officers. T hose who have taken their oath were: Assistant Secretaries Diana L. Ignacio for Administra tive and Legal Affairs, Leah J. Buendia for International Cooper ation, and Maridon O. Sahagun for Finance and Strategic Planning.
DOST officials take oath of office
The DOST-ITDI fabricated salt harvester. DOST-PCIEERD PHOTO PHOTOS show the difference between appearance and quality of salt from the traditional harvesting system and the DOST-ITDI salt harvesting machine. DOST-PCIEERD PHOTO
to Leverage Philippine Economy (Cradle) Program under the Science for Change Program.
By Rizal Raoul Reyes
alternateaC.Philippines EngelbertAcademyof DevelopmentPresidentAwardDistinguishedMeritoriousreceivesT.secretaryScienceFortunatodelaPeña(right)theAPOandfor2021fromandCEOoftheCaronanJr.,alsoPhilippineAPOdirector.
Human encounters with flying lizards, oarfish, crocodiles, Saharan horned vipers, large snakes and certain species of lizards and birds have also been proposed as possible explanations for dragon lore, given their physical resemblance to different dragons.
ATHOLIC nuns, who are facing terrorist financing charges filed by the government, insisted they are peace builders working to ad dress the root causes of armed conflict and social unrest in the Philippines. In a recent statement, the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP) again denied the allegations as they reaffirmed their mission to work in far-flung areas, even those affected by armed conflicts.
His thoughts are an expansion of proposed ideas beginning in the 19th century or earlier as newly discovered fossils were linked to representations of dragons across the globe.
Eternal dragons ONE enduring reason dragons continue to appear in our world could be because they represent the power of nature. Stories about people taming dragons can be seen as stories about the ability of humans to dominate forces that cannot always be controlled.
Faith Sunday A6 Sunday, September 4, 2022 Editor: Lyn Resurreccion • www.businessmirror.com.ph
THE cardinals of the Catholic Church have been called to Rome for an ex traordinary consistory. It is the first of its kind in seven years—and only the second of the pontificate of Pope Francis.197cardinals have followed the call. But what are they discussing, behind closed doors? So far, information is hard to come by. Vatican watchers know that the meetings are dedicated to discussing the new constitution of the Roman Curia, Praedicate evangelium. The cardinals are broken up into language groups for the first round of debates. Then they reconvene and discuss their findings in a plenary session—much like was done in re centThesynods.debates form the third consis tory within only a few days: The first, on August 27, was dedicated to creat ing 20 new cardinals. A second, immediately after, to approve the canonization of two blesseds: Giovanni Battista Scalabri ni, an Italian bishop and founder of the Missionaries of St. Charles, and Artemide Zatti, an Italian immigrant to Argentina who was a nurse and SalesianWhileBrother.thiscontext is significant— as is the historic backdrop of the papal visit to L’Aquila—the communication from the Holy See was sparse indeed, noted one Vaticanist. Among others: “The entirety of the information we have from the #Vati can as to the meeting today between #PopeFrancis and the world’s Catholic cardinals. One sentence: ‘Taking place today at the Vatican, in the presence of the Holy Father Francis, is the meet ing of the cardinals….’” One cardinal offered a glimpse, at least, of the atmosphere of the gather ing. The first meeting with the Pope took place in a very fraternal atmosphere, Cardinal Enrico Feroci, pastor of Santa Maria del Divino Amore in Castel di Leva near Rome, told Vatican News. After the opening prayer, he said, Francis opened the meeting by invit ing everyone present to contribute to these two days of reflection on Praedi cateCardinalevangelium.Feroci also said, accord ing to the Vatican’s own reporting, that two reflections had been shared so far: One on Communion, the wit ness of mutual love among Christians, and one on the challenges of today’s society to open itself to the message of theCardinalGospel.Marcello Semeraro, pre fect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, in a subsequent conversation with Vatican News, again highlighted the great participation of the cardi nals in the meeting, where an open and intense dialogue was maintained. The following day, these “open and intense” debates will take place in a plenary meeting before this extraor dinary consistory concludes. In the afternoon of August 30, Pope Francis celebrated Mass with entire College of Cardinals in St. Peter’s Basilica. Hannah Brockhaus and AC Wimmer/ Catholic News Agency via CBCP News
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THE premiere of HBO’s prequel to Game of Thrones House of the Dragon will undoubtedly bring more attention to the ferocious dragon. Two-legged or four, fire-breathing or shape-shifting, scaled or feathered, dragons fascinate people across the world with their legendary power. This shouldn’t be surprising.
Scholars have also cited natural geologic processes as explanations for dragon lore—particularly when they are associated with natural disasters.Fire-breathing dragons, for instance, might be an explanation for mysterious fires that observers attempted to rationalize as a dragon’s flame.Natural gas vents, methane produced from decaying matter and other sources of underground gas deposits can produce a blaze if accidentally lit. Before the mechanics of combustion were understood fully, such events were deemed indicators of a dragon’s presence, providing a cause for the seemingly implausible.
BISHOP Broderick Pabillo of the Apostolic Vicariate of Taytay. SCREEN GRAB FROM AVT FACEBOOK PAGE
Ancient dragons, ancient stories RELIGIONS and cultures across the globe are rife with dragon lore. In fact, across the vast majority of religions, there is mythic trope some scholars call “Chaoskampf,” a German word that translates as struggle against chaos. This term, used by mythologists, refers to a pervasive motif involving a heroic character, who slays a primordial chaos “monster,” often with serpentine or dragonlike characteristics and a massive size that dwarfs humans.Oneancient example is found in the “Enūma Eliš,” a Babylonian creation text from around 2,000 to 1,000 years B.C. In the text, Tiamat, the female primordial deity of salt water and matriarch of the gods, births 11 kinds of monsters, including the dragon.
Nuns on terror financing: We are peace builders
While Tiamat herself is never described as a “dragon,” some of her children, or “monsters,” include several different kinds of dragons with explicit references to her dragon children. Iconography later evolved so that her appearance began to take on serpentine features, linking her image to another famous clawed mythological predator, the dragon.
To gain control over a dragon underscores the problematic idea that humans are superior to all other animals in nature.
Emily Zarka, Arizona State University/The Conversation (CC) via AP
In 2020, two scholars, Dorothy Belle Poli and Lisa Stoneman, even proposed that the fossilized remains of Lepidodendron, a plant with a scalelike resemblance, may be behind the global presence of dragons.
T HE Apostolic Vicariate of Taytay in northern Palawan will mark this year’s Season of Creation by planting at least 400 trees in each of its 23 parishes and eight mission stations. Bishop Broderick Pabillo said it’s their humble contribution to the annual celebration as the local Church also currently commemo rates the arrival of Christianity on the island 400 years ago. “This is our contribution to save the environment,” Pabillo said in a pastoral letter.
ATICAN—”We have the same mission to evangelize the world as did the apostles 2,000 years ago, a fact that should fill us with wonder at our position of responsibility,” Pope Francis said at the Mass with the College of Cardinals in the past week.
Dragons in Chinese and other cultures
THE presence of the dragon in China, where it is called Long is also ancient and integral to various cultural, spiritual and social traditions.
POPE Francis speaks at the Mass with the College of Cardinals in St. Peter’s Basilica on August 30. VATICAN MEDIA
Dragons are members of the Chinese zodiac, one of the sacred guardian creatures that make up the Four Benevolent Animals and provide justification for imperial dynasties. Different kinds of these aquatic, intelligent, semidivine beings form a hierarchy in ancient Chinese cosmology and appear in creation myths of various indigenous traditions. When Jesuit missionaries reintroduced Christianity in China in the 16th century, the dragon’s existence was not contested. Instead, they became associated with a more Westernized explanation—the Devil.
Today, dragons are celebrated and revered in Buddhist, Taoist and Confucianism traditions as symbols of strength and enlightenment.
Dragons challenge the concept of human biological supremacy, raising questions about what it means if humans were forced to reposition themselves as lesser members of the food chain. More importantly, I believe, the beauty, terror and power of the dragon evokes mystery and suggests that not all phenomena are easily explained or understood.
The Mass with the College of Cardinals, with 197 in attendance, was offered for the Church. Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the Col lege of Cardinals, led the Liturgy of the Eucharist. Pope Francis preached at the Mass, in a cope. Participate in God’s plan IN his homily, the pope decried a “can cer of spiritual worldliness.” A minister of the Church, he said, is “one who experiences wonder be fore God’s plan and, in that spirit, passionately loves the Church and stands at the service of her mission wherever and however the Holy Spirit mayHechoose.”saidCatholics should marvel not only at God’s plan of salvation, but at the “even more amazing fact” that God calls them to participate in thisForplan.Catholics, there is a “double mystery of our being blessed in Christ and of going forth with Christ into the“Thisworld.”wonder,” he said, addressing the new cardinals, “does not dimin ish with the passing of the years; it does not weaken with our increasing responsibilities in the Church. No, thanks be to God. It grows stronger andThedeeper.”Mass with new cardinals fol lowed two days of closed-door meet ings with the College of Cardinals to discuss Pope Francis’s reform of the Roman Curia, as laid out in the consti tution Praedicate evangelium.
Long before Harry Potter Shang-Ch i and the Legend of the Ten Rings and other modern interpretations increased the dragon’s notoriety in the 21st century, artifacts from ancient civilizations indicated their importance in many religions across the world. As a scholar of monsters, I’ve found dragons to be a nearly universal symbol for many civilizations. Scientists have tried to come up with explanations for the myth of dragons, but their enduring existence is testimony to their narrative power and mystery.
Dragons also appear in Anatolian religions, Sumerian myths, Germanic sagas, Shinto beliefs and in Abrahamic scriptures.
Symbolic power
A LONG-PROPOSED theory is that there are natural explanations for dragons. That’s not to say the beasts of myth existed in real life but rather that fossils, living animals and geological features existing in the natural world inspired their creation.
Full or partial remains of numerous extinct species may explain the physical attributes of dragons.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author and scientist Carl Sagan wrote a book on the subject, arguing that dragons evolved from a human need to merge science with myth, the rational with the irrational, as part of an evolutionary response to real predators.
cardinals:
Parishes in N. Palawan to plant trees for Season of Creation
The creature’s repeated and important presence across global religions and cultures raises an interesting question: Why did dragons appear at all?
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Pope to We are all responsible for the Church
The Justice department filed criminal charges against 16 RMP workers, including five nuns, for al legedly providing financial support to the New People’s Army, which the gov ernment labelled as a terrorist group. RMP said the allegations are noth ing but an attack on their ministries, which involved documenting humanrights abuses throughout the country. “The law has been weaponized against us,” the missionaries said, but asserted they will neither be cowed nor impeded by the “re newed attacks.” “We will not cower, even as we are afraid. God gives us strength and wis dom, quickening our steps and assur ing our safety,” RMP added. It also said: “Those who seek to be smirch our ministry, by saying it sup ported or financed ‘terrorism,’ should be held to account; their lies will only further the suffering and poverty in marginalized communities.”
“As missionaries, we are unapolo getic and unwavering in our commit ment to work in poor areas, even when these areas are visited by militariza tion and armed conflict,” RMP said. “Bringing services and accom panying grassroots leaders are ef fective methods for resolving com munity issues, and sparking change and development that benefit the communities where we serve,” it said.
While Palawan is blessed with rich natural resources, the prelate empha sized that it also comes with great responsibility.Heaskedthe faithful “not to get tired of caring for our common home” amid combined threats of il legal logging and fishing. He also called on communities to oppose any mining and coalfired power plant projects in the province.“Letus strive to be responsible stewards of creation,” Pabillo said. The Season of Creation begins on September 1, World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, and ends on October 4, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, patron of ecology. In the Philippines, the annual Christian celebration of prayer and action for ecology is extended until the second Sunday of October, the Indigenous Peoples’ Sunday. This year’s worldwide theme is “Listen to the Voice of Creation,” a focus on the voices of those who suffer the impacts of the ongoing climate emergency and biodiversity crisis. CBCP News
“We continue to marvel at the un fathomable divine decision to evan gelize the whole world starting with that ragtag group of disciples, some of whom—as the evangelist tells us—still doubted,” Pope Francis said during Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on August 30. “Yet, if we think about it, we should marvel no less if we look at ourselves, gathered here today, to whom the Lord has spoken those same words, given that same mandate,” he added. Wonder is a way to salvation, the pope continued. “May God keep it ever alive in our hearts, for it sets us free from the temptation of thinking that we can ‘manage things.’ Or from the false security of thinking that today is somehow different, no longer like theFrancisorigins.”said: “Today the Church is big, solid and we occupy eminent posi tions in its hierarchy… There is some truth in this, but there is also much deception, whereby the Father of Lies seeks to make Christ’s followers first worldly, then innocuous.”
Saint Pope Paul VI’s encyclical IN his homily, Pope Francis pointed to Saint Pope Paul VI and his 1964 encyc lical on the Church, Ecclesiam Suam. Saint Paul VI loved the Church with “a love which is first and fore most gratitude, grateful wonder at her mystery and at the gift of our be ing not only members of the Church, but involved in her life, sharing in and, indeed, jointly responsible for her,” he said. “At the beginning of his program matic encyclical Ecclesiam Suam, writ ten during the [Second Vatican] Coun cil,” Francis said, “the first thought that came to the pope’s mind was that ‘the Church needs to cultivate a deeper awareness of her identity… her origin and her mission.’” “In this regard, he made explicit reference to the Letter to the Ephe sians, to ‘the providential plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God… so that through the Church… it may be made“Thisknown.’”wasthe case with the Apostle Saint Paul, as we see from his letters. His apostolic zeal and the concern for the community was always accompa nied, and indeed preceded, by words of blessing filled with wonder and gratitude: ‘Blessed be God…’” Pope Francis“Maysaid.italso be the case with us,” he said. “May it be the case with each of you, dear brother Cardinals. May the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, obtain this grace for each and every one of us.” What the cardinals discuss behind closed doors?
CBCP News
Dragons have long been part of many religions
Yearly average temperatures in the US are already more than 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius) warmer than at the beginning of the 1900s. By the end of this century, global temperatures are on pace to be nearly 5 F (2.7 C) warmer. Dangerous extreme heat waves, currently rare, will be come more Changingcommon.climate is also affecting levels of outdoor fine particulate pol lution—for example, through weather changes, such as air stagnation events, wind and dust storms, and drier and warmer conditions that contribute to increasingly frequent and intense wildfires.
The risk of death on those extra-hot and polluted days was about three times greater than the effect of either high heat or high air pollution alone. The more extreme the tempera tures and pollution, the higher the risk. During the top 10 percent of hottest and most polluted days, the risk of death increased by 4 percent compared to days without extremes. During the top 1 percent, it in creased by 21 percent; and among older adults over age 75, the risk of death increased by more than a third on those days.
GMA Network, Nestlé PHL ink pact for plastic waste advocacy
ON the morning news, you see the weather forecast is for high heat, and there is an “excessive heat watch” for later in the week. You were hoping the weather would cool down, but yet another heat wave is threatening human health and increasing the chance of wildfires. On top of these warm days and nights, air quality data has been showing unhealthy levels of pollution.
Heat waves plus air pollution can be deadly
THE number of deaths rose both on hot days and on days with high levels of fine particulate air pollution, known as PM2.5.Buton days when an area was hit with a double whammy of both high heat and high air pollution, the ef fects were much higher than for each condition alone.
The event, titled “Klima Eskwela: Climate Science, Adaptation and the Arts,” was organized by ICSC, The Climate Reality Project Philippines (Climate Reality Philippines), and the VSU Regional Climate Change Research and Development Center (RCCRDC), ICSC said. “Climate change is already happen ing in different regions around the world and on multiple levels. We are all affected, whether we come from rich or from developing countries. Everyone has to participate and do their part,” said Lourdes Tibig, a Filipina climate scientist and Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) advisor. “In the Philippines, there is still a disconnect in government systems in terms of adapting to and mitigat ing climate change. Local commu nities sometimes lack access to the needed resources,” Tibig said. “There is no going back regarding the changes happening in the climate system, which is why we have to do what ever we can to contribute to the efforts to address climate change,” she added. For years, the Eastern Visayas region has been at the forefront of climate impacts, both slow onset impacts—such as sea level rise, in creasing sea surface temperatures, and ocean acidification—and extreme weather events. The region was the first to be hit by Super Typhoon Yolanda (interna tional code Haiyan) in 2013. Dr. Eduardo Mangaoang, director of the VSU RCCRDC and member of the National Panel of Technical Experts of the Climate Change Commission, presented the study that aims to bring Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance (CDRFI) to Yolandaaffected communities. He pointed out the importance of building on local resources and op portunities, and the need for proper coordination among stakeholders with local governments at the helm, in order to ensure the effective and sustainable implementation of CDRFI in Eastern Visayas, ICSC added. “While the idea of insurance for disaster-related purposes is locally appreciated, there is a certain degree of skepticism among locals on its reli ability and assurance of claim if ever receivables are due,” Mangaoang said. “If CDRFI is to be implemented in the region, we need a simple, do able, and localized process to make it more accessible to all,” he added. Local government, civil society, academia and youth representatives from Eastern Visayas signed an agreement to put people first and at the center of climate financing, especially those most at risk. “We affirm the primacy of the humanitarian imperative: that ac tion should be taken to prevent or alleviate human suffering arising out of disaster or conflict, and that nothing should override this prin ciple,” they said in the document. Arts and humanities also play an important role in climate action. In this sphere, the youth have been step ping up, according to Climate Reality Philippines branch manager Nazrin Camille Castro. On the second day of Klima Eskwela, young artists and youth leaders of Bay bay City brainstormed ideas for a mural as part of the “Poets for Climate” proj ect of the branches of Climate Reality in the Philippines, Africa and Canada. The leaders will create the mural in the coming weeks, ICSC said. “We trust that the artists will incorporate what they have learned in the first day of the learning ses sion—including their insights on the latest climate science findings, and the experiences of the most vulnerable sectors in Baybay City— into the mural they will develop and its call to action,” Castro said.
KAIS MARZOUKI (left), chairman and CEO of Nestlé Philippines, and Atty. Felipe Gozon, chairman and CEO of GMA Network during the virtual signing of a partnership between the two companies to intensify consumer education and encourage action on plastic waste.
NESTLÉ PH PHOTO
Impaired body temperature regula tion in response to heat can also oc cur with aging. And older adults may be less mobile and therefore less able to get to cooling centers or to medi cal care and be less able to afford air conditioning.
Erika Garcia, University of South ern California/The Conversation (CC) via AP
Erika Garcia, University of Southern Califor nia/The Conversation (CC) via AP
ICSC Climate Science Advisor Lourdes Tibig and The Climate Reality Project Philippines Branch Manager Nazrin Castro guide the young artists of Baybay City, Leyte, in “Klima Eskwela: Climate Science, Adaptation, and the Arts,” a two-day knowledge exchange session on climate science, adaptation, finance and the arts held in the city on August 25 and 26.
In a virtual ceremony, Atty. Felipe Gozon, chairman and CEO of GMA Network, and Kais Marzouki, chairman and CEO of Nestlé Philippines, signed a memorandum of agreement for the partnership. “We believe that our partnership with GMA Network can help move the needle to involve more consumers in creating a lasting, positive impact on the environment. GMA has the credibility, reach and influence to mobilize people for the cause of sustainability and ultimately the regeneration of the planet,” Marzouki said. “If we put all our efforts together, we can make a difference. Our joint campaign to build awareness on the impact of plastic waste can go a long way,” he added. “With this partnership, we will be able to communicate that it does not take a lot to become environmentalists. Through our joint efforts, Nestlé and GMA will inspire Filipinos that through basic acts at home, like proper waste disposal, power and water conservation practices, creative recycling and re-purposing, and even simply embracing a less material lifestyle, all these can make a big difference,” Gozon said. The advocacy campaign will feature relevant and timely educational content and sustainability practices focusing on plastic waste management.
Sounds familiar? This scenario is increasingly the new normal in many parts of the world. High heat and air pollution are each problematic for human health, particularly for vulnerable popula tions, such as older adults. But what happens when they hit at the same time? We examined over 1.5 million deaths from 2014 to 2020 registered in California—a state prone to sum mer heat waves and air pollution from wildfires—to find out.
Why risks are higher when both hit at once THERE are several ways the com bined exposure to extreme heat and particulate air pollution can harm humanOxidativehealth.stress is the most common biological pathway linked with particulate air pollution and heat exposure. Oxidative stress is an imbalance between production of highly reac tive molecules known as reactive oxygen species (ROS), and the body’s ability to remove them. It’s been linked with lung diseases, among otherAntioxidantsillnesses. help clean up these molecules, but particulate air pollution and heat disrupt this balance through excessive metabolic ROS production and lowered antioxidant activity. Our research also showed that the effects of particulate air pollution and heat extremes were larger when high nighttime temperature and pollution occurred together. High nighttime temperatures can interfere with normal sleep and potentially contribute to chronic health conditions, such as heart dis ease and obesity, and disrupt how the body regulates temperature. Older adults may be more suscep tible to effects of extreme heat and air pollution exposure, in part because this stress comes on top of age-related chronic health conditions like heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes or chronic lung disease.
THE HEALTH RISK TOGETHER IS WORSE THAN EITHER ALONE
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AYBAY CITY, Leyte—Students, teachers and officials of the Visayas State University (VSU) in Baybay City, Leyte, together with representatives from Eastern Visayas civil society and local governments, joined a two-day event that was held at the school recently in order to build climate-change resilience in the region through science and the arts.
ATMOSPHERIC
T HE Philippines is one of the world’s biggest sources of plastic waste. With only 33 percent of total plastic waste in the country disposed of in landfills or dumpsites, and just 9 percent recycled, plastic pollution has become a complex problem that requires a whole of society approach. As a major food and beverage manufacturer, Nestlé PHL has made local sustainability commitments in line with Nestlé’s global ambition and roadmap to achieve net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050. With plastic as a significant source of GHGs, the company is taking a leadership role in tackling plastic waste toward a waste-free future. Among its pioneering initiatives in the country, Nestlé PHL is the first multinational fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) firm to achieve and maintain plastic neutrality, recovering the equivalent volume of plastic packaging it puts out in the market. Timed with the celebration of its second year of plastic neutrality this month, Nestlé PH has inked a partnership with leading broadcast company, GMA Network, to intensify consumer education and encourage collective action on plastic waste. Through the years, the GMA Network has launched various environmental initiatives under its Kapuso ng Kalikasan advocacy.
“We could use the recent ex treme weather events to put a spot light on climate change impacts plaguing vulnerable countries, like the Philippines, for many years now. And there is no better way to show case the similarities, diversity and connectedness of these lived experi ences than through the arts. When we act collectively, we will definitely have a bigger impact,” Castro added. The research study led by the VSU RCCRDC was done under the global Multi-Actor Partnership (MAP) proj ect, which aims to provide spaces for discussion and discourse around CDRFI.Recently, ICSC organized a work shop for MAP in Asia, where rep resentatives from the Philippines, Lao PDR, Vietnam, Indonesia and Sri Lanka agreed to make climate finance in the region more pro-poor, equitable, and people-centered. Poets for Climate supports the global poetry and arts campaign “When Is Now,” organized by the Cli mate Vulnerable Forum, ICSC, and The Agam Agenda. To date, it has generated more than 60 poems from around 40 climate advocates across the globe and unveiled murals in several cit ies worldwide, including in Iloilo and Isabela in the Philippines to demand for urgent action among global leaders in the upcoming 27th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, ICSC said.
FORMATION of a heat wave: a high-pressure circulation in the atmosphere acts like a dome or cap, trapping heat at the surface near the ground. US NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ADMINISTRATION/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
SALIE AGUSTIN/ICSC PHOTO
Deaths spike when both risks are high
A7Editor: Lyn Resurreccion Sunday, September 4, 2022 Biodiversity SundayBusinessMirror Asean Champions of Biodiversity Media Category 2014 Science, arts merge for climate action in E. Visayas
Future of high temperatures and air pollution THIS isn’t just a California problem. Climate change will increase exposure to high heat and air pollution in many parts of the country.
What to do to stay safe FURTHER research is needed to better understand these effects, such as the full impact of wildfire smokeHowever,exposure.enough is known that people should take measures to reduce their risk of harm during periods of extreme heat or air pollution. That means staying well hydrated and keeping cool. Shopping malls and other air-conditioned public spaces can provide a refuge from heat. Home air conditioning, especially during nighttime, can reduce mortal ity. A portable air filter in the bed room can markedly reduce particle pollutionPeoplelevels.with symptoms of heat stress, such as headache, nausea, diz ziness or confusion, especially the el derly, should seek medical care. Many county and state health departments already provide alerts about extreme heat and extreme air pollution. Developing a special category of alert during co-occur ring extremes may be beneficial to publicGovernmentshealth. also need to take steps now to avoid the worst future climate change scenarios. Some best practices for cities include creating cooling shade cover and green space that will also reduce particle pollution.
T he target score concept is something that the NBA began seriously considering for some events in 2019, when then-National Basketball Players Association president Chris Paul—a big fan of The Basketball Tournament, a winner-take-all summer event composed mostly of college alumni teams—reached out to say the league should explore the concept.
AP
English soccer flaunts financial power in Lowspending$2.2Bspreeonwater, prep football adapts in Mississippi’s capital
ARCUS GIBSON never realized how much water a high school football program used until it was gone. Even so, he considers his team one of the lucky ones as a water crises roils Mississippi’s largest city. The football coach at Murrah High School—right in the middle of Jackson, Mississippi, not far from the state capitol—says that his fieldhouse has about 40 to 50 cases of bottled water stacked along the walls thanks to players’ parents, administration and other benefactors. That should be plenty for his team to drink over the next few days at practice. “Hydration isn’t much of a problem,” he said “It’s everything else.” Many Jackson residents have been without running water in their homes and businesses this week because of breakdowns in the city’s main water treatment plant. Torrential rains caused the Pearl River to flood, exacerbating problems with pumps. Jackson schools moved to online classes and canceled some of this weekend’s high school football games because of uncertainty about water. Some restaurants closed, while others are bringing in tankers of clean water from the suburbs. People are waiting in long lines to receive bottled water for drinking or non-potable water for flushing toilets. Even before the water pressure dropped perilously low, Jackson’s water system was fragile and officials had warned for years that widespread loss of service wasNpossible.owit’shappened—right in the middle of the hottest part of football season. While there are certainly more important things to worry about during a crisis, football is a staple of the state’s cultural identity. Coaches and players are trying to find ways to press forward, even in less than optimal conditions.
A nother new twist for the G League this season is that the league-sponsored Ignite team will be a full-fledged member, with a 50-game schedule and eligible for the league championship for the firstThtime.eGLeague Ignite, which will play this season out of a new home in Henderson, Nevada, exists to develop young prospects in preparation for the NBA draft. It featured three eventual top-10 draft picks—Jalen Green and Jonathan Kuminga last year, Dyson Daniels this year—in its first two seasons. A lso playing a full schedule this season: the Mexico City Capitanes. They’ll host the first G League regular-season game played in Mexico on Nov. 6, when they face the defending champion Rio Grande Valley Vipers.
AP
TheAP pressures of being a young athlete growing up while significantthrough,tryingthetravelingworld,tobreakseekingresults,cantakeatoll.
G League sets target score for OT games
DOWN BUT NOT OUT Rafael Nadal holds a bottle to his face during his match against Fabio Fognini in the second round of the US Open at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Friday in New York. Nadal cut himself on the bridge of his nose when his racket bounced off the court and smacked him in the face. He was bleeding and took a medical timeout and a trainer had to put a bandage on his nose. The 22time Grand Slam champion won the match, though, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-1.
OVERTIME in the G League this season will be a race to seven points. The schedule for the G League’s 22nd year was released recently, with the 50-game slate—an 18-game Showcase Cup to start the year, then a 32-game regular season—beginning on November 4 and ending on March 25. Playoffs begin March 28. A nd the league is making some changes, with a switch to a “target score” ending for its overtime games among the most significant. The first team to score seven points in the OT period wins, and that extra session will be untimed. The G League set seven points as the overtime target because it wanted to ensure the extra period lasts longer than two possessions. The move mirrors what the National Basketball Association (NBA) has done at its last three All-Star Games, when a target score—whichever team was leading after three quarters, plus 24 points, in a nod to one of Kobe Bryant’s jersey numbers—was set for an untimed fourth quarter. A v ariation of the target score also will be in use for all games at the G League’s Winter Showcase at Las Vegas in December. There will be no clock in the fourth quarter of those games—the leading score after three quarters will have 25 points added to it, and the first team to that number wins. For example, if Team A leads Team B 75-74 after three quarters, the first team to 100 points would be the winner.
C allaway High School coach Dameon Jones said he just takes his team’s clothes home and washes them himself since he lives a few miles outside of the city. We’re taking it one day at a time,” Jones said. “What I tell my kids— adversity is going to come. It’s how you’re going to deal with it.” Murrah and Callaway are among four of the biggest city schools preparing to play in a “Graduation Classic,” which was originally expected to be at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium. That’s been canceled due to the lack of water, though there’s hope the games can be moved elsewhere. Thousands of fans wereThexpected.reehighschool football games remained on schedule for Thursday and Friday nights as of Wednesday. AP MURRAH High School football offensive linemen square up against the blocking sled at practice in Jackson, Mississippi.
NEW YORK—Back in 2011, when Rebecca Marino was just 20, everything seemed to come so easily to her on a tennis court. The Canadian reached the third round at the French Open that year—soon after, she rose to No. 38 in the world rankings. It was not quite so easy off the court. At the US Open last Friday, for the first time since then, Marino played in the third round of a Grand Slam tournament, marking the high point so far of her comeback from a five-year absence from the tour brought about by anxiety and what she calls “burnout.” If you talked to me during my retirement, I don’t know if I believed that I’d be back here. So that’s why I’m really proud of myself, just overcoming a lot of things and making it this far—and hopefully, even further,” Marino said. “The word I keep kind of coming back to is ‘gratitude.’ I feel very, very fortunate that I’m able to return to the sport again and that I’ve had success. Every moment I get on court, I’m grateful.” The pressures of being a young athlete growing up while traveling the world, trying to break through, seeking significant results, can take a Naomitoll.Osaka, a four-time champion,majorisjust one prominent example of a tennis player who has discussed her struggles with mental health in recent years. Ash Barty left the tour for two-and-ahalf years in her teens, came back to play and win three Grand Slam titles, then retired this year while ranked No. 1 at age 25. “ You can’t stop kids doing what they need to do, especially with these young players. You have to let them live their lives,” Marino’s mother, Catherine, said in a phone interview from her home in Vancouver, where she has been watching Rebecca’s matches from the same spot in the kitchen she tracked the French Open in 2011. “Every point, I’m there with her, definitely. When she won (against Daria Snigur in the second round), I had to pinch myself. I couldn’t believe it,” said Mom, who has been sending Marino photos of the two family dogs, goldendoodles Jasper and Stanley, this week. “I am so proud of her.... We’ve been on a bit of a journey.” Th ings became overwhelming for Marino in 2012, and she tried a six-month break to see if that would help. When she played next, things were not appreciably better. So she stopped for good. Or so she thought. I was just burnt out completely— not just physical, but mental and emotional burnout. I was done. I was just cooked,” said Marino, who is 31. “Now that I’m more mature and looking back, I wish I could help my younger self to sort of go through all of that. But it also made me who I am today.” Out of the professional game, Marino tried new things. She studied English literature at the University of British Columbia. She took up rowing (her uncle, George Hungerford, was a gold medalist in the sport at the 1964 Olympics). She gave tennis lessons. G oing back to her former life was not in the picture, she says, until 2017, when her father was diagnosed with prostate cancer. (He passed away in 2020, his life was celebrated during Billie Jean King Cup matches on the two-year anniversary of his death this April). It made me reflect on a lot of things,” said Marino, who found speaking to a therapist helped and encouraged others to do the same.
AP Sports BusinessMirror A8 | SundAy, September 4, 2022 Editor:mirror_sports@yahoo.com.phJunLomibao
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AP
“And something that I kept coming back to was my tennis and how that was sort of unresolved.” S he was invited to be a hitting partner at the Vancouver Open and that did the trick: She thought, for the first time, she was ready to return. “ I wanted to see if I was comfortable around a tournament environment and then I’d make my decision,” she recalled. “So by the end of the week, I was like, ‘I’ve got to do it.’ ... I was in a fantastic place mentally. So two weeks before school started for my last year of university, I dropped my classes, quit my job, stopped the rowing team and went all in.” B y early 2018, Marino was competing. In 2021, she played her first Grand Slam event in eight years. This July, she climbed back into the Women’s Tennis Association’s top 100 for the first time in 10 years (she is No. 106 this week). Now came Marino’s chance to get to the fourth round of a major for the first time in her career: She faced 36th-ranked Zhang Shuai of China on Court 5 last Friday. She’s gone through more than anyone can imagine and done it on her own. To be in such a dark place, and be able to walk out of this and still love to play tennis and get to the situation she is now, is just amazing,” said Austin Nunn, who has known Marino for about a decade and began representing her this year. “And I think she appreciates it a bit more, because she understands where she came from.” AP
T he Basketball Tournament, commonly called TBT, uses what is called the Elam Ending—in those games, the clock is turned off at the first stoppage with 4:00 or less in the fourth quarter, and the target score there is eight points more than the leading score at the time.
A RECORD spending spree by Premier League clubs in the summer transfer market passed the $2.2 billion mark before the window closed Thursday with Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool and—belatedly—Chelsea all signing players to conclude the reshaping of their squads. The headline transfer on a typically frantic final day of trading was the arrival of Brazil winger Antony at United from Ajax for $95 million, making him the fourth expensive player in Premier League history and soccer’s most expensive deadline-day signing. Th at took United’s total spend in this wildest of transfer windows to about $240 million—a figure only topped in the whole of Europe by Chelsea, which finally signed an out-and-out striker in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from Barcelona. In the club’s first transfer window in the post-Roman Abramovich era, Chelsea spent a staggering $280 million. M an City’s signing of Switzerland center back Manuel Akanji for $17.5 million felt low-key by comparison, while Liverpool’s only move—the loan signing of Brazil international Arthur Melo from Juventus—was still significant as it strengthened the team’s injury-hit midfield. Fueled by income from huge global broadcasting deals worth about £10 billion ($11.8 billion) over three seasons, Premier League clubs have reverted to pre-pandemic levels of spending—and then some—to leave the rest of Europe in its wake. E ngland’s top-flight clubs spent about the same on players as those in the top leagues in Spain ($500 million), Italy ($750 million), Germany ($485 million) and France ($540 million) combined, according to calculations by the Transfermarkt web site. The net spend of the Premier League teams was $1.35 billion, compared to Italy ($8 million) and Spain ($64 million). In France and Germany, the leagues actually made a profit according to Transfermarkt. S umming up the outrageous splurge by English clubs was the business conducted by Nottingham Forest since securing a return to the Premier League for the first time since 1999. Forest signed three players on deadline day to take its total number of incomings across the window to a remarkable 21, at a cost of $160 million.
REBECCA MARINO: I was just burnt out completely—not just physical, but mental and emotional burnout. I was done. I was just cooked.
MARINO RETURNS AFTER BURNOUT,DEFEATINGANXIETY
“ We’re kind of used to it,” said Murrah receiver Christian Jackson before Wednesday’s practice. “After two years of Covid-19 , we just make it work. You bring your own water to practice if you can and make the most of opportunities, because some of our practices have been canceled.” Gibson said keeping everything clean is the biggest challenge. He said assistant coaches are working out plans to wash practice and game uniforms at laundromats outside the city or at any other place with enough water pressure.
BusinessMirror September 4, 2022
Gen Z, millennials speak out on reluctance to become parents
SPOTLIGHT ON K-POP
B.I, ITZY, and SEVENTEEN headline Spotify’s campaign on the popular genre SPOTIFY recently launched its newest global campaign with a series of dynamic films headlined by superstars B.I, ITZY and SEVENTEEN. The campaign puts the spotlight on Spotify’s flagship K-Pop ON! playlist, a range of top K-Pop artists, and its vision to be the ultimate destination for artists and fans to embrace all that K-Pop has to offer.
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A catalyst for emerging and established artists to reach fans with their music and a platform for K-Pop stans and casual fans to discover the best in K-Pop, Spotify’s K-Pop ON! playlist has scaled the genre beyond regional boundaries, languages, and cultures. Since its launch in 2014, the playlist has accumulated over 4 million followers worldwide, and over 2 billion streams, establishing itself as a global hub for the genre that continues to touch lives, spread positivity, and unite listeners through a shared passion for the music. Following the release of the films, Spotify will continue to engage and inspire fans to turn on the K-Pop movement with a pipeline of exclusive artist content. Uncover your idols’ favorite tracks on @ SpotifyKpop, and tune into K-Pop ON! to engage with a series of exclusive reels featuring some of the biggest K-Pop artists. Stay tuned to new and noteworthy music with K-Pop ON!. With more than 4 million followers today, fans aren’t just plugging into a playlist when they tune into K-Pop ON! - they are turning on the movement in music, culture, and community.
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Inspired by the endless possibilities in the vast and varied world of K-Pop, the campaign films transport viewers to magical dreamlands where music and culture collide to transform the world around us. Fans can expect to join rapper B.I as he cruises through a futuristic digital metropolis, catch the girls of ITZY as they set up for an electrifying Neon Carnival, and escape with the boys of SEVENTEEN to a mysterious wonderland hidden in lushStansmountains.mayhead to Spotify’s K-Pop ON! to learn about what K-Pop means to ITZY, discover who’s on SEVENTEEN’s collab wish list, and get inspired as B.I shares more of his ritual when he’s in the mood for some music - K-Pop ON! Track is set to be your hub for exclusive content to get up close and personal with the campaign’s star-studded cast. Behind-thescenes footage is now also available on the platform, and fans can also look out for artist interviews over the course of the campaign.
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AS a Filipino growing up in Oman, Middle East, music was far from what Jason Dhakal imagined his career would be. He said his family suggested he pursue something more practical like a doctor or an IT but never an artist—as there is a collective belief that pursuing the arts is chasing one’s own tail.
‘JUST THE START’
R&B Artist Jason Dhakal promises more music in the future Recording company 88rising also included him in their Paradise Rising’s debut mixtape, with other local artists Kiana V, Fern., and LeilaForAlcasid.now,Jason still has a long way to go. But so far, the music he released is profoundly resonating with his creativity, which is clearly evident in his recent release neo-soul single, “can’t get enough.”“can’t get enough” starts softly with a sensual lyricism about the “smoothness of his skin,” establishing the sense of tactility. But he smoothly transitions into an “all-out” Neo-soul tempo, proving that his genre as an artist mostly falls under R&B. Although Jason shared that his inspiration mostly comes from Mariah Carey, Erykah Badu, and Amy Winehouse, his songs also resonate the same poetics as Frank Ocean with its profound lyricism on queer love and neosoulJasonmusic.admitted that “can’t get enough” is the perfect song that echoes his own personal life. “I’m really happy with that,” he said, reflecting on his new single.
Text by Patrick V. Miguel Interview by Edwin P. Sallan
“I started writing songs when I was 15 and then I realized it was maybe attainable to do, so I just kept doing it,” he said. He and his family moved back to the Philippines at 16, and from there, he started looking for the right listeners who could help make his musical pursuits a reality.Jason added that he was also motivated by their financial problems, so he had to figure out how to make money with what he had—music.Heshared, “There was that time where we had financial problems at home… and I was thinking I need to make money somehow, you know? So I really tried to. I remember when I started messaging every single label here in the Philippines or anyone.”In2019, he signed with Warner Music Philippines.
“The quality just seems much more than different than my other past work, and I’m very happy [because] it feels like the most “me” right now.”
Yes, Jason has been around for quite a while and has been releasing music for the last three years including the albums, Night In and lovesound, in 2018 and 2020 respectively. In those albums, the R&B artist got to collaborate with fellow local artists dot.jaime, LUSTBASS, crwn, and Cavill. Asked on who he would like to collaborate with in the future, Jason named Jake Zyrus. “I wanna collaborate with Jake Zyrus,” he said. “I really love Jake Zyrus. He’s someone I would really love to work with.”
JASON Dhakal
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Jason added that he also wants to work with Sitti Navarro as he loved her song, “Para Sa Akin.” Jason Dhakal has gone far from writing songs at 15 to signing with a major record label in 2019. Still, the 22 year old artist insists that he is still at the infancy of what he hopes to be a very fruitful career in music.“This is just the start,” Jason said. “I’m only getting started right now. There’s so much more in store and I’m excited to show you. I’m really grateful to show all of this stuff.” Music video of “can’t get enough” is available on YouTube. Released and distributed by Warner Music Philippines, the single is now available on all major streaming platforms.
“When I was growing up, I never thought being an artist was attainable, you know,” the 22 year old artist admitted in a recent interview with SoundStrip. Despite not being involved in any music clubs in high school, he started putting his creative ideas on paper, writing music that reverberated in his mind and making sure that other people would hear it in the future.
Revamped timelines
Gen Z, millennials speak out on
I don’t think it’s responsible to bring children into this world,” says El Johnson, 24. “There are already kids who need homes. I don’t know what kind of world it’s going to be in 20, 30, 40 years.”
The graduate student who works in legal services in Austin, Texas, has a list of reasons for not wanting to give birth: the climate crisis and a genetic health condition among them.
The realization that they didn’t want to have kids came on slowly for both of them.“It was in our early 20s when the switch sort of flipped,” Kyah said. “We had moved to California and we were really just starting our adult lives. I think we talked about having three kids at one point. But just with the economy and the state of the world and just thinking about the logistics of bringing children into the world. That’s really when we started to have our doubts.” Finances are top of mind. Before taxes, the two earn about $160,000 combined, with about $120,000 in student loan debt for Kyah and about $5,000 left for Walter. The couple said they wouldn’t be able to buy a house and shoulder the costs of even one child without major sacrifices they’re not willing to make. But for Kyah, the decision goes well beyond money.
reluctance to become parents
Alyssa Persson, 31, was raised in small town South Dakota. Getting married and having children was ingrained in the culture, she said. It wasn’t until after her divorce from her high school sweetheart that she took a step back and asked herself what she actually wanted out of “Mostlife.women where I’m from lose their identities in motherhood,” said Persson, who now lives in St. Louis and earns about $47,000 a year as a universityShe’slibrarian.carrying student loan debt of about $80,000. Persson is a former teacher who loves children, but she feels she is now thinking more clearly than ever about the costs, implications and sacrifices of parenting. “ h aving children sounds like a trap to me, to be frank,” she said. “Financially, socially, emotionally, physically. And if there were ever any shadow of a doubt, the fact that I cannot comfortably support myself on my salary is enough to scare me away from the idea entirely.”
Walter and Kyah King live in suburban Las Vegas. Walter, 29, a sports data scientist, and Kyah, 28, a college career counselor, have been together nearly 10 years, the last four as a married couple.
JORDA n DAVIDSOn interviewed more than 300 people for a book out in December titled, So When are You Having Kids? The pandemic, she said, led many to delay childbirth among those contemplating children at all. “These timelines that people created for themselves of, I want to accomplish X by three years from now, changed. People weren’t necessarily willing to move the goalposts and say, OK, I’m going to forgo these accomplishments and do this differently,” she said. “People still want to travel. They still want to go to graduate school. They still want to meet certain financial benchmarks.” Fears about climate change have cemented the idea of living without children for many, Davidson said. “ no w with increased wildfires, droughts, heat waves, all of a sudden it is becoming real that, OK, this is happening during my time, and what is this going to look like during the time that my children are alive?” she said.
In ne w York City, 23-year-old e m ily Shapiro, a copywriter for a pharmaceutical ad agency, earns $60,000 a year, lives at home as she saves money and has never wanted children. “They’re sticky. I could never imagine picking up a kid that’s covered in ice cream. I’m a bit of a germaphobe. I don’t want to change a diaper. If I did have one, I wouldn’t want them until they’re in, like, sixth grade. I also think the physical e a rth isn’t doing so great so it would be unfair,” she said. Among those Jordan interviewed, concerns over the environment were far more prevalent among the younger group. Questions of affordability, she said, troubled both millennials and members of Gen Z. “There is a lot of fear around having children who would be worse off than they viewed themselves during their childhoods,” Davidson said. ‘Both of us at one point would have said yes to kids’ DA n n I e LY n n M U RPh Y, who helps find software engineers for Google, said she was nearly 17 when she was removed from her home by child protective services due to a pattern of child abuse. he r wife, she said, was similarly raised in a “not great” environment. “Both of us at one point would have said yes to kids,” she said. “In my late teenage, early adult years, I saw and understood the appeal and was attracted to the idea of getting to raise someone differently than I was raised. But the practical realities of a child kind of Murphysuck.”earns about $103,000 a year, with bonuses and equity that can drive that amount up to $300,000. he r wife earns about $60,000 as an attorney. They don’t own their Seattle home. “I can’t see myself committing to a mortgage, let alone a child,” the 28-year-old Murphy said. “I think the primary reason is financial. I would prefer to spend that money on traveling versus sinking a half a million dollars into raising a child. Secondarily, there’s now the fear of behaving with our children the way our parents behaved with us.”
“I don’t think it’s responsible to bring children into this world,” Johnson said. “There are already kids who need homes. I don’t know what kind of world it’s going to be in 20, 30, 40 years.”
She’s so sure, in fact, that she’ll soon have her tubes removed. It’s a precautionary decision sealed by the fall of Roe v. Wade and by tight restrictions on abortion services in her state and around theOthercountry.women interviewed also cited climate change, along with overwhelming student debt coupled with inflation, as reasons they’ll never be parents. Some younger men, too, are opting out and more are seeking vasectomies. Whatever the motivation, they play a role in dramatically low birth rates in the US.
The US birth rate fell 4 percent in 2020, the largest single-year decrease in nearly 50 years, according to a government report. The government noted a 1-percent uptick in US births last year, but the number of babies born was still lower than before the coronavirus pandemic: about 86,000 fewer than in 2019.
The US birth rate fell 4 percent in 2020, the largest single-year decrease in nearly 50 years, according to a government report. Jordan Davidson, author of So When are You Having Kids?, said questions of affordability trouble the younger generation with regard to bearing children.
BusinessMirror September 4, 20224 “ by Leanne Italie The Associated Press NeW
A financial issue, among other things
“I think we would be great parents, but the thought of going into our health system to give birth is really scary. Black women, black mothers, are not valued in the same way that white mothers are,” said Kyah, who is Black. When Kyah’s IUD expires, Walter said he’ll consider a vasectomy, a procedure that went on the rise among men under 30 during the pandemic.
YOrK—At 24, el Johnson has made up her mind that she won’t bear children, though she and her girlfriend haven’t ruled out adoption.
