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thedailyrecord--2019-02-27--Military funeral at Ayr Auld Kirk for tragic soldier
| 2019-02-27T00:00:00 |
thedailyrecord
|
Military funeral at Ayr Auld Kirk for tragic soldier
|
Comrades and family will pay tribute to soldier Jock McKelvie this Friday. The 51-year-old will be given a full military send off from noon at the Auld Kirk in Ayr. The Staff Sergeant died in hospital six days after his armoured vehicle overturned at Catterick Garrison Jock, originally from Drongan, lived in Dundonald with his second wife Julie and he was a father of two. Funeral arrangements are being handled by director Lorraine Morton of ML Williams of Ayr. She has previous experience of a military funeral and took Jock into her care on Monday. Lorraine said:”This will be a big, big funeral and he will be given full military honours.” After the ceremony, led by the Rev David Gemmell, Jock will be laid to rest at Drongan Cemetery from 1.30pm onwards. The accident happened at Catterick Garrison on January 29 and Jock died on February 4 in the James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough. He had survived tours of duty in Iraq, Kuwait and Bosnia, only to die in a training exercise. His dad Robert said he “loved the army and was 25 years in the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards and was a Challenger tank commander.” John signed up for more army life after retiring from the regulars, joining the Scottish and Northern Irish Yeomanry.
|
Stephen Houston
|
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/military-funeral-ayr-auld-kirk-14060057
|
2019-02-27 10:41:33+00:00
| 1,551,282,093 | 1,567,547,148 |
human interest
|
ceremony
|
670,270 |
theepochtimes--2019-10-02--2000-Plus Turn Up at Funeral of Florida Veteran With No Kin
| 2019-10-02T00:00:00 |
theepochtimes
|
2,000-Plus Turn Up at Funeral of Florida Veteran With No Kin
|
An honor guard folds an American flag during an open funeral service for U.S. Army veteran Edward K. Pearson, on Oct. 1, 2019, at the Sarasota National Cemetary in Sarasota, Fla. Pearson has no family so his funeral home sent out a request on social media for the public to attend the service. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara) 2,000-Plus Turn Up at Funeral of Florida Veteran With No Kin SARASOTA, Fla.—Most of the 2,000-plus people who gathered in the Florida heat on Oct. 1 didn’t know Edward Pearson. They knew little, if anything, about the life of the 80-year-old Army veteran. But they knew of his death, and that was reason enough to attend his funeral. They came on rumbling Harley Davidsons and in sleek Mercedes. They walked into the service with the aid of canes and service dogs. Women clasped bouquets of white flowers. Men gripped American flags large and small. Pearson, a resident of Naples, Florida, died Aug. 31. His obituary went viral when the funeral director included this sentence in the service announcement: This veteran has no immediate family and all are welcome to attend. News of the ceremony at an open-air pavilion area at the Sarasota National Cemetery spread fast and wide in veterans’ forums and on social media networks. CNN host Jake Tapper and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio tweeted the information. For many in the region — a place with thousands of retirees and veterans — it was impossible to think they wouldn’t attend. “You know what? There’s no way I’m going to let him do this alone,” said Willie Bowman, 62, a Purple Heart recipient and career Army veteran. “I’ve never met the man. But he’s a veteran and he’s a brother of mine.” Pearson was born in Pennsylvania and moved to Florida 25 years ago. He worked at a grocery store for a bit, and at a hardware store. One woman in the community got to know him after Hurricane Irma in 2017: Patty Thrasher, a customer service representative for the Collier County Tax Collector’s office. The storm had damaged the roof of Pearson’s mobile home. Water rained into the kitchen through a blue tarp and when Pearson sought government aid to help with repairs and needed a title, Thrasher discovered that he didn’t actually own the home at all. The man who sold him the home wasn’t actually the owner, but a swindler who took advantage of an elderly person, she said. With Thrasher’s help, the community came together to secure a title for the home, fix the roof and pay a past electric bill. Pearson told Thrasher that he didn’t want to “be on the news” for his plight and was hesitant to ask for help at all. He was preparing to move into a new place when he died. Cemetery officials say it’s not uncommon for veterans to die—and be buried—without family. Volunteer groups, such as the Patriot Guard Riders, regularly attend such services. Some in the crowd on Tuesday said they attend veterans’ funerals at several cemeteries in Florida. In Texas, there is a formal effort called the “Unaccompanied Veteran Burial Program” that makes sure veterans in the state receive full military honors. On Tuesday, Thrasher said Pearson would have been overwhelmed by the thousands who stood in the heat to send him off. “I think he would have just totally been in tears,” she said. “He’s looking down and probably crying his heart out.”
|
The Associated Press
|
https://www.theepochtimes.com/2000-plus-turn-up-at-funeral-of-florida-veteran-with-no-kin_3103380.html
|
2019-10-02 03:51:36+00:00
| 1,570,002,696 | 1,570,221,799 |
human interest
|
ceremony
|
794,694 |
themanchestereveningnews--2019-02-04--Patricia died aged 79 with no family or friends and her funeral was arranged by social services - Sa
| 2019-02-04T00:00:00 |
themanchestereveningnews
|
Patricia died aged 79 with no family or friends and her funeral was arranged by social services - Salford needs to give her a proper send off
|
Patricia Sunderland died aged 79 with no family or friends. Her funeral was arranged by social services, with the help of a neighbour. She lived in Salford all her life, but her funeral could be empty. It's not the end anyone deserves. Patricia's neighbour Donna De, who found her dead at her Eccles home, is desperate Salfordians to come together and give her a proper send off. She went to Patricia's house to check on her after noticing her curtains had been shut for a few days. "I knew in my gut something was wrong. I felt sad for her", Donna said. Donna kept an eye on Patricia after noticing she was living alone a few years back. They would sit together while Patricia told her about her life, including working at Piccadilly station. She told Donna she never married and her only known relatives - her mum, dad and two brothers - died years ago. Donna, 40, said: "I used to see her in her flat. I saw her struggling with her bags. I started talking to her last January. "But I was always looking out for her before that, without speaking to her. "I would make sure her curtains were open. She said she didn't have a garden. I'd make her some food and she'd be happy in my garden for a few hours. "She used to sit and tell me about her life. She worked in the booking office for British Rail in Piccadilly Station for 35 years. She retired in March, 1993. "She used to speak about her mum and dad. I didn't want to ask her too much, I used to let her tell me. "She was nice, she wasn't very shy. She'd speak her mind. She had a bit of a glint in her eye." Born in Swinton, Patricia lived with her parents until they passed away, before living with her two brothers. She moved into a bedsit in Ellesmere Park, where she lived for 18 years before the landlord sold the property. It was around seven or eight years ago, Donna said, that she moved to a flat on Liverpool Road. Donna helped arrange Patricia's funeral with social services. A ceremony will be held at Peel Green Crematorium, Liverpool Road, on Tuesday, February 5 at 1.40pm. A wake will then be held at the Royal Sovereign Pub on Eccles Old Road. Donna, who works as a carer, is calling on members of the public to attend, so they can give Patricia the send-off she deserves. Otherwise, she said, it would just be her and the celebrant. A status put up by Donna on Facebook, calling on members of the community to attend has been shared 1,700 times. "It's nice for Patricia, she'd be proud", she said.
|
Rebecca Day
|
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/patricia-died-aged-79-no-15775627
|
2019-02-04 12:57:32+00:00
| 1,549,303,052 | 1,567,549,688 |
human interest
|
ceremony
|
933,445 |
thesun--2019-01-31--Hundreds turn out for funeral of army veteran who died aged 81 with no relatives
| 2019-01-31T00:00:00 |
thesun
|
Hundreds turn out for funeral of army veteran who died aged 81 with no relatives
|
AN army veteran who died with no relatives was given a hero's send off today as hundreds turned out to his funeral. George Formstone, a former Royal Welch Fusilier died aged 81 alone at his home in Ruabon, Wales on January 9. With no one to organise his funeral, Mr Formstone was not expected to receive a traditional military service. But the local community rallied round to ensure the veteran received a ceremony befitting his service to the nation. Mr Formstone is understood to have served with the 1st Battalion Royal Welch Fusiliers in Cyprus during the EOKA Emergency in the late 1950’s. Peter McGivern, the landlord at the Bridge End Inn, Ruabon — where Mr Formstone was a local — felt it was important that he should be buried with full military honours. An online appeal urging old comrades to attend was launched and Mr McGivern set about organising the funeral. Pentre Broughton funeral directors, Roberts Bros and Des Williams, assistant regional secretary for the Royal Welch Fusiliers organised for the coffin to be draped in the Union Jack flag. The Last Post was played as his coffin was lowered into the ground. Those who knew Mr Formstone attended the funeral at Plas Acton Cemetery at 10.30am this morning. A wake, organised by Mr McGivern, took place at the Bridge End Inn following the burial. Mr McGivern, who read a eulogy at the funeral, described Mr Formstone as a "good man". He said: "He was a loner, but he wasn't lonely. He had a wide circle of friends and angling was his life. He was part of the Prince Albert Angling Society for over 30 years. "He was a very independent and private man who would talk and listen to others. He had a great rapport with our bar staff and he was always very kind and helpful. "He didn't have a television but he listened to his radio regularly and he was a huge Leeds fan. "He was a good man I really liked him and we were his family for the last ten years or so." Born on October 5, 1937, Mr Formstone, is understood to have grown up in Hope, Flintshire, before leaving home at the age of 14. We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368. You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.
|
Daniel Hall
|
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8324335/army-veterans-funeral-hundreds-turn-out-no-relatives/
|
2019-01-31 15:07:39+00:00
| 1,548,965,259 | 1,567,550,124 |
human interest
|
ceremony
|
1,008,468 |
thetelegraph--2019-06-18--Mohammed Morsi swiftly buried after being denied public funeral in hometown
| 2019-06-18T00:00:00 |
thetelegraph
|
Mohammed Morsi swiftly buried after being denied public funeral in hometown
|
Egypt’s ousted president Mohamed Morsi was buried this morning at a small family ceremony in Cairo after authorities refused permission for a burial in his home province of Sharqiya. Morsi, who was deposed in a 2013 military coup after becoming the nation’s first democratically elected president, collapsed and died in court on Monday evening after suffering a fatal heart attack. He was facing several long-running prosecutions stemming from his year-long reign. The 67-year-old was buried at 5am on Tuesday next to the graves of other leaders of the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. The ceremony took place with just five family members in attendance. “The state wants to avoid this becoming a catalyst for any kind of mobilisation,” said Tim Kaldas of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East politics. “That was the point of burying him so quickly, and in a place that’s harder to turn into a pilgrimage site.”
|
Leila Molana-Allen
|
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/06/18/mohammed-morsi-swiftly-buried-denied-public-funeral-hometown/
|
2019-06-18 12:11:37+00:00
| 1,560,874,297 | 1,567,538,874 |
human interest
|
ceremony
|
1,024,493 |
thetorontostar--2019-05-14--Ex-Sen Lugar hailed as peacemaker ahead of Indiana funeral
| 2019-05-14T00:00:00 |
thetorontostar
|
Ex-Sen. Lugar hailed as peacemaker ahead of Indiana funeral
|
INDIANAPOLIS - Longtime U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar was hailed for being a peacemaker as a two-day tribute began Tuesday with a military honour guard leading his flag-draped casket into the Indiana Statehouse Rotunda. A couple hundred people gathered with Lugar’s wife, Charlene, and other family members for the Statehouse ceremony after which he was to lie in repose for 24 hours ahead of his funeral on Wednesday. Lugar was a leading Republican voice on foreign policy matters during his 36 years in the U.S. Senate, with his leading achievement being his work helping spur the dismantling of thousands of former Soviet nuclear weapons after the Cold War ended. Lugar, who was Indianapolis mayor for eight years before his first Senate election win in 1976, died April 28 at age 87. “In his love and through his courage, Richard Lugar helped bring more peace to an increasingly dangerous world,” Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett said. “He did so in every nuclear, chemical and biological weapon disarmed.” Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb and Hogsett placed wreaths with sashes reading “Indiana” and “Indianapolis” next to Lugar’s casket as public viewing began in the Statehouse. Vice-President Mike Pence will be travelling to his home state for Wednesday’s funeral. Pence said in a Twitter post that Lugar was “an American statesman whose contributions to our nation are countless.” The former Indiana governor said he would deliver a eulogy for a “great man who inspired so many in public service — including me.” Hogsett, a Democrat, extoled Lugar for his willingness to work across the partisan divide and alluded to the senator’s cerebral and soft-spoken nature. “He fought hatred, he did not court it,” Hogsett said. “He calmed fear, he did not attempt to use it. He extinguished violence, he did not countenance it.” Lugar was a reliable conservative vote in the Senate, but he worked closely with Democratic Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn in the early 1990s to launch the program under which the U.S. paid to dismantle and secure weapons in the former Soviet states. The Nunn-Lugar program led to about 7,600 Soviet nuclear warheads being deactivated and the destruction of more than 900 intercontinental ballistic missiles by the time Lugar left office in 2013, according to U.S. military figures. Lugar worked with Barack Obama after the future Democratic president entered the Senate in 2005, taking Obama with him to Russia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan to visit weapon dismantlement sites. Lugar’s co-operation with Obama, however, became a political handicap as his Senate career ended with a 2012 Republican primary loss to a tea party favourite. Obama awarded Lugar the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honour, soon after he left the Senate in 2013. Obama praised Lugar after his death as exhibiting “the truth that common courtesy can speak across cultures.” “In Dick, I saw someone who wasn’t a Republican or Democrat first, but a problem-solver — an example of the impact a public servant can make by eschewing partisan divisiveness to instead focus on common ground,” Obama said. Indiana’s governor on Tuesday credited Lugar with a long life of service to his state and country. “As we gather to say goodbye, it’s our job to carry that torch that this mighty man lived,” Holcomb said.
|
Tom Davies - The Associated Press
|
https://www.thestar.com/news/world/us/2019/05/14/indiana-statehouse-tribute-begins-services-for-ex-sen-lugar.html
|
2019-05-14 21:16:51+00:00
| 1,557,883,011 | 1,567,540,752 |
human interest
|
ceremony
|
1,025,356 |
thetorontostar--2019-06-01--Funeral for Congos Etienne Tshisekedi presidents father
| 2019-06-01T00:00:00 |
thetorontostar
|
Funeral for Congo’s Etienne Tshisekedi, president’s father
|
KINSHASA, Congo - Opposition icon Etienne Tshisekedi, whose son is now Congo’s president, was laid to rest Saturday in his homeland more than two years after he died during a political stalemate over the country’s long-delayed elections. A funeral procession joined by thousands made its way to the outskirts of Kinshasa following several days of tributes to the man who was the face of Congo’s opposition for decades but died before his political nemesis agreed to step aside and allow a new presidential vote to go forward. In life, Tshisekedi was at times put under house arrest and his supporters jailed. But on Saturday the 84-year-old received a farewell befitting a former leader now that his son, Felix, holds the presidency in this sprawling Central African nation. Tens of thousands greeted his casket as it was driven through the streets of the capital Thursday evening and then displayed at Martyrs Stadium the following day. Even the political coalition of his lifelong adversary, former President Joseph Kabila, issued a statement calling Tshisekedi “undoubtedly one of the major political actors of our country.” At the time of his 2017 death in Brussels, family members say Kabila had blocked the return of his body to Congo for fear it could foment unrest and more calls for his ouster. Tshisekedi was one of the most outspoken critics of Kabila, at one point accusing him of treason for not stepping down when his mandate ended. Kabila eventually allowed elections to be held in January, which Felix Tshisekedi won. It took the hearse seven hours to reach its destination in Kinshasa on Thursday night as throngs of supporters took to the streets. “I’m sorry that his body had to stay two years abroad but today we are showing our commitment to him still,” Georgette Lobota said as she sold bread at the sports stadium where Tshisekedi’s body lay in state Friday, dressed in fabric with his image. “He will finally be honoured as a dignified son of Congo.” On Saturday, Mass was celebrated and then he was interred at a mausoleum 30 kilometres (18 miles) from Kinshasa during a private ceremony with family members. Tshisekedi helped found Congo’s main opposition party, UDPS, back in 1982 during the rule of then-dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. Two years after the country allowed multiple political parties in 1990, Tshisekedi became prime minister in an uneasy on-again, off-again partnership with Mobutu. He went into exile in 2000 after repeated clashes with the government of Joseph Kabila’s father, Laurent, who became president after Mobutu’s departure and then was assassinated in 2001. At one point, Tshisekedi was banished to internal exile in his home village 700 kilometres (435 miles) west of the capital but he made a triumphant return in 2003. His international prominence grew in 2011, when he declared himself president after an election marred by allegations of vote-rigging by the ruling party. He was placed under de facto house arrest but later left for Belgium to get medical treatment. Tshisekedi kept up his criticism until the end, at one point accusing Kabila of a “coup d’état that was carried out with the blessing of the constitutional court.” Kabila’s government, under international pressure, eventually cleared the way for an election after 18 years in power, although Felix Tshisekedi’s victory early this year was disputed. Another opposition candidate, Martin Fayulu, maintains that he won. Critics suggested that Felix Tshisekedi had reached a backroom deal with Kabila as the most palatable candidate after Kabila’s chosen candidate fared poorly. Felix Tshisekedi has denied that claim.
|
Saleh Mwanamilongo - The Associated Press
|
https://www.thestar.com/news/world/africa/2019/06/01/funeral-for-congos-etienne-tshisekedi-presidents-father.html
|
2019-06-01 19:33:44+00:00
| 1,559,432,024 | 1,567,539,485 |
human interest
|
ceremony
|
1,031,554 |
thetorontostar--2019-12-25--Algeria buries contentious strongman in elaborate military funeral
| 2019-12-25T00:00:00 |
thetorontostar
|
Algeria buries contentious strongman in elaborate military funeral
|
ALGIERS, Algeria - Algeria held an elaborate military funeral Wednesday for the general who was the gas-rich country’s de facto ruler amid political turmoil throughout this year. Big crowds packed the route of the funeral cortege Wednesday to pay homage to Gen. Ahmed Gaid Salah, chief of the armed forces. Some people ran alongside flower-draped military vehicles, shouting in grief. Others saluted his coffin, draped in the Algerian flag, or kissed his portrait. The 79-year-old Gaid Salah died unexpectedly Monday after a heart attack, plunging Algeria into new uncertainty after 10 months of pro-democracy protests. After a ceremony at the Palace of the People, he was buried at the El Alia cemetery alongside others who fought in Algeria’s war for independence from France. Algeria’s military plays a central role in decision-making in this country, a key ally to Western powers in fighting Islamic extremism. Some mourned him as a symbol of the fading independence generation and a guarantor of stability amid this year’s protests. Others saw him as epitomizing an opaque leadership out of touch with worries of Algeria’s large youth population. Gaid Salah helped force out longtime President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in April amid unprecedented, peaceful protests against corruption and Algeria’s secretive power structure. The military chief then pushed for elections earlier this month, won by a former prime minister considered close to Gaid Salah, Abdelmadjid Tebboune. Protesters later turned against Gaid Salah, demanding his departure and a wholesale makeover of Algeria’s political structure. Students held their regular weekly protests Tuesday after his death, despite the three days of official mourning declared by Algeria’s leadership. Get more of the Star in your inbox Never miss the latest news from the Star. Sign up for our newsletters to get today's top stories, your favourite columnists and lots more in your inbox Sign Up Now
|
The Associated Press
|
https://www.thestar.com/news/world/africa/2019/12/25/algeria-buries-military-chief-de-facto-ruler-amid-protests.html
|
Wed, 25 Dec 2019 13:00:45 EST
| 1,577,296,845 | 1,577,318,549 |
human interest
|
ceremony
|
532,921 |
sputnik--2019-05-01--Thai King Marries Female General Ahead of Massive Coronation Ceremony
| 2019-05-01T00:00:00 |
sputnik
|
Thai King Marries Female General Ahead of Massive Coronation Ceremony
|
Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn has married Suthida Tidjai in a private ceremony, with the former commander of his personal bodyguard unit named the country's queen effective immediately, just three days before Vajiralongkorn's inauguration, Thailand's The Nation portal has reported, citing government media. Suthida, a 40-year-old former Thai Airways flight attendant and military officer, was appointed deputy commander of the king's household guard in 2014. Thai media speculated about the nature of their relationship for years following Vajiralongkorn's divorce from his former wife Srirasmi Suwadee in 2014, but these reports were never confirmed. Suthida became commander of the Special Operations Unit of the King's Guard and promoted to the rank of full general in December 2016, shortly after Vajiralongkorn's ascendancy to the throne, and bestowed the royal rank of Than Phu Ying ('High Lady'). Vajiralongkorn, 66, took power the throne two years ago, after the death of his father King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who served as Thailand's king from 1946 until his death in 2016. Vajiralongkorn and his bride will take part in a lavish $31 million coronation ceremony on Saturday, with some 150,000 people expected to attend the public ceremony at the Sanam Luang public square in front of the Grand Palace in Bangkok. The formal ceremony is expected to run until Monday. King Vajiralongkorn, who is the oldest Thai monarch to ever take the throne, was married and divorced three times before his marriage to Suthida, and is father to seven children. He is also believed to be the world's richest monarch, with Business Insider estimating the total holdings of the Crown Property Bureau to amount to over $30 billion.
| null |
https://sputniknews.com/asia/201905011074623152-thai-king-marries-general/
|
2019-05-01 16:54:00+00:00
| 1,556,744,040 | 1,567,541,557 |
human interest
|
ceremony
|
535,747 |
sputnik--2019-06-18--Angela Merkel Raises Concern as She Trembles During Ceremony With Ukrainian President VIDEO
| 2019-06-18T00:00:00 |
sputnik
|
Angela Merkel Raises Concern as She Trembles During Ceremony With Ukrainian President (VIDEO)
|
German Chancellor Angela Merkel laid to rest concerns for her health on Tuesday after she was spotted visibly shaking during a ceremony in Berlin during which she greeted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Merkel smiled when reporters asked her about her trembling incident an hour earlier, during the red-carpet reception for Zelenskiy, responding with: “Since then I've drunk at least three glasses of water, which I apparently needed, and now I'm doing very well.” It is not known if the German chancellor has any health issues, writes AP. Footage showed Merkel, who turns 65 next month, standing alongside Zelenskiy in the sweltering heat while a military band plays their national anthems outside the chancellery. Desperate to get a grip, the German chancellor is seen pursing her lips while her entire body shook visibly. At the subsequent joint news conference an hour later, Angela Merkel sought to redirect attention to her talks with the Ukrainian President, which dwelt on a number of bilateral issues and the Minsk peace process. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy arrived on Tuesday for his official visit to Germany. His agenda includes meetings with Bundestag President Wolfgang Schaeuble and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, as well as a number of other German politicians. The programme of the official visit will end with a working dinner with the management of the leading German companies operating in Ukraine. The Ukrainian delegation will leave for Kyiv late on Tuesday.
| null |
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201906181075937327-angela-merkel-raises-concern-shakes-ceremony-greeting-ukrainian-president-video/
|
2019-06-18 13:40:27+00:00
| 1,560,879,627 | 1,567,538,941 |
human interest
|
ceremony
|
538,789 |
sputnik--2019-07-25--US President Trump Attends Ceremony Welcoming New Defence Secretary
| 2019-07-25T00:00:00 |
sputnik
|
US President Trump Attends Ceremony Welcoming New Defence Secretary
|
US President Donald Trump is taking part in a Full Honours Welcome Ceremony for the new secretary of defence, Mark Esper, at the Pentagon in Arlington. Two days earlier, the US Senate confirmed Esper's nomination with a 90-8 vote. He previously served as the defence chief in an acting capacity. Esper has officially replaced Jim Mattis at the post. Follow Sputnik's live feed to find out more.
| null |
https://sputniknews.com/us/201907251076359422-us-president-trump-attends-ceremony-welcoming-new-defence-secretary/
|
2019-07-25 15:29:13+00:00
| 1,564,082,953 | 1,567,535,879 |
human interest
|
ceremony
|
547,579 |
sputnik--2019-10-19--Presidential Regiment's Guard Changing Ceremony Takes Place on Cathedral Square in Moscow – Video
| 2019-10-19T00:00:00 |
sputnik
|
Presidential Regiment's Guard Changing Ceremony Takes Place on Cathedral Square in Moscow – Video
|
The Presidential Regiment’s sentry guard is held annually in the Kremlin in the warm season, from May to September. If weather is good, the season of the guard changing ceremony can be extended. The sentry guard traditionally starts on Cathedral Square at noon. The special guard infantry, the cavalry honorary escort of the Presidential Regiment and the Presidential Orchestra take part in it. Follow Sputnik feed to find out more.
| null |
https://sputniknews.com/russia/201910191077091880-PresidentialRegimentsGuardChangingCeremonyTakesPlaceonCathedralSquareinMoscowVideo/
|
Sat, 19 Oct 2019 11:50:58 +0300
| 1,571,500,258 | 1,571,499,091 |
human interest
|
ceremony
|
561,298 |
tass--2019-02-12--IIHF President Rene Fasel to attend opening ceremony of 2019 Universiade in Russia
| 2019-02-12T00:00:00 |
tass
|
IIHF President Rene Fasel to attend opening ceremony of 2019 Universiade in Russia
|
### President of the International Ice Hockey Federation Rene Fasel © EPA/PETER SCHNEIDER MOSCOW, February 12. /TASS/. President of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Rene Fasel and heads of other international sports federations plan attending the opening ceremony of the 2019 FISU Winter Universiade, Oleg Matytsin, the president of the International University Sports Federation (FISU), said on Tuesday. "President of the International Olympic Committee [IOC] Thomas Bach will record a welcoming video for all participants of the Universiade," Matytsin told a news conference, hosted by TASS on Tuesday. "The opening ceremony will be attended by heads of major international sports federations, for instance, by President of the International Ice Hockey Federation Rene Fasel." "It speaks again for the fact that Russia sets high standards in the organization of international projects and presidents of global sports federations are willing to participate," the FISU president said. "Speaking about the broadcasting scale of the tournament, I should say that the television broadcast will cover 120 countries," Matytsin said. "An agreement with the Olympic channel has been also concluded and all FISU services will be rendering assistance regarding the broadcasting coverage of the tournament." The Russian Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, which has a population of over one million, was elected to host the 2019 Winter Universiade at the session of the FISU Executive Committee in Brussels in 2013. The event is scheduled for March 2-12, 2019. The Winter Universiade is an international sporting and cultural festival which is staged every two years in a different city. The name of the international sports event is a combination of two words, which are ‘University’ and ‘Olympiad.’ It is only second to the Olympic Games. The program of the Winter Universiade currently includes 6 compulsory sports (8 compulsory disciplines) and up to 3 optional sports chosen by the host country. In other media
| null |
http://tass.com/sport/1044270
|
2019-02-12 12:26:26+00:00
| 1,549,992,386 | 1,567,548,767 |
human interest
|
ceremony
|
588,844 |
theconservativetreehouse--2019-06-03--President Trump and First Lady Melania UK State Visit Arrival Ceremony Westminster Abbey Royal
| 2019-06-03T00:00:00 |
theconservativetreehouse
|
President Trump and First Lady Melania U.K. State Visit – Arrival Ceremony, Westminster Abbey, Royal U.S-U.K Collection…
|
President Trump and First Lady Melania arrived to Buckingham Palace for the official state visit reception and ceremony with HRH Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles and Lady Parker Bowles. (Video and pictorial below) President Donald Trump and the First Lady Melania view a special exhibition in the Picture Gallery of items of historical significance to the U.S. from the Royal Collection: President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arrive at Westminster Abbey to lay a wreath at the Grave of the Unknown Warrior and then take a tour:
|
sundance
|
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2019/06/03/president-trump-and-first-lady-melania-u-k-state-visit-arrival-ceremony-westminster-abbey-royal-u-s-u-k-collection/
|
2019-06-03 16:19:33+00:00
| 1,559,593,173 | 1,567,539,309 |
human interest
|
ceremony
|
589,075 |
theconservativetreehouse--2019-07-24--President Trump Remarks During Oval Office Swearing-In Ceremony Defense Secretary Mark T Esper
| 2019-07-24T00:00:00 |
theconservativetreehouse
|
President Trump Remarks During Oval Office Swearing-In Ceremony – Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper…
|
This evening President Trump delivered remarks during the swearing-in ceremony for newly appointed Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper. [Video and Transcript] The Senate voted 90-to-8 easily confirming Secretary Esper. [Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much everybody. We have a very important moment in our country’s history, actually. And we had a lot of our great Republican senators in the White House, and I invited them over and many of them wanted to be here. And as you probably heard, the vote just took place, and it was 90 to 8. That’s a vote that we’re not accustomed to, Mark, I have to say that. So congratulations, that’s great. But I’m honored to be here today for the swearing-in of our new Secretary of Defense, Mark T. Esper. I especially want to thank Justice Samuel Alito — highly respected and a great gentleman, a great man — for joining us to administer the Oath of Office. Thank you very much. Thank you, Sam. We’re also delighted to welcome several of Secretary Esper’s family members and friends to the White House today, including his mother, Polly. Hi, Polly. (Laughter.) Boy, are you proud of him, Polly? You better believe it. Yeah. (Laughter.) His wife, Leah. Thank you, Leah, very much. And his three children — Luke, John, and Kathryn. Thank you very much. Congratulations, too, most importantly. Congratulations. That’s an incredible thing. There is no one more qualified to lead the Department of Defense than Mark Esper. A West Point graduate — great student, actually — Secretary Esper served our military for 21 years, including in the Gulf War. He also advanced U.S. national security in government and in private sector, most recently as Secretary of the Army, where he played a critical role training and equipping our armed forces. That’s where I got to know Mark. And there was nobody that did a better job than Mark and there’s nobody that loves it more than Mark. And thank you very much. He is a recipient of the Bronze Star and Combat Infantryman Badge. He holds a doctorate in public policy from George Washington University and a master of public administration degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. I am confident that he will be an outstanding Secretary of Defense. I have absolutely no doubt about it. He is outstanding in every way. And we’re honored to have you aboard. And I would ask Justice Alito, please, to administer the Oath of Office. Thank you. Thank you, Judge. THE PRESIDENT: Would you like to say something? SECRETARY ESPER: Yes, sir, if I may. SECRETARY ESPER: Well, thank you, Mr. President, for your kind words, for your confidence in me, and for this incredible opportunity. And thank you, Justice Alito, for administering the Oath of Office. I really appreciate you being here this afternoon. I’d also like to Senate — to thank the Senate Armed Services Committee for its quick action on my nomination and for the strong bipartisan support that I received today from the entire United States Senate. It is an honor of a lifetime to be appointed Secretary of Defense and to lead the greatest military in history. And I will do so with that same energy and commitment to duty, honor, and country that I have for nearly four decades since my early days at West Point. Mr. President, it is a privilege for me and for my family to be here with you today. Thank you for your leadership and for your commitment to a strong national defense and to all of our service members. Our military has made tremendous gains in recent years thanks to your leadership and we stand ready today to take on any challenge. And while our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines stand guard each and every day, we will ensure their families are well taken care of. On a personal note, I would like to thank my wife, Leah, who has been by my side now for 30 years as a military spouse herself; my children, Luke, John, and Kate; my mother, Polly; my in-laws, Tom and Von; and my sisters who join me here today. And everybody else who has been a steadfast supporter of me over the years. Again, thank you, Mr. President, for allowing me to serve our great country once again, as Secretary of Defense. Thank you, sir. (Applause.) THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Mark. Congratulations. THE PRESIDENT: Fantastic. Proud of you. Come on over here. THE PRESIDENT: He’s going to be a great one. Thank you very much.
|
sundance
|
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2019/07/23/president-trump-remarks-during-oval-office-swearing-in-ceremony-defense-secretary-mark-t-esper/
|
2019-07-24 01:08:09+00:00
| 1,563,944,889 | 1,567,536,007 |
human interest
|
ceremony
|
540,803 |
sputnik--2019-08-11--Infantry and Cavalry Guard Changing Ceremony Showcased at All-Russian Exhibition Centre Video
| 2019-08-11T00:00:00 |
sputnik
|
Infantry and Cavalry Guard Changing Ceremony Showcased at All-Russian Exhibition Centre (Video)
|
A changing of the Infantry and Cavalry Guard of the Presidential Regiment is taking place on Sunday, 11 August, at the All-Russian Exhibition Centre in Moscow. The solemn ceremony is accompanied by a presidential military brass band. Following the ceremony, the spectators will be able to watch a performance by the Kremlin Equestrian School. FOLLOW OUR LIVE FEED TO FIND OUT MORE
| null |
https://sputniknews.com/russia/201908111076525152-infantry-and-cavalry-guard-changing-ceremony-showcased-at-all-russian-exhibition-centre-video/
|
2019-08-11 13:03:07+00:00
| 1,565,542,987 | 1,567,534,423 |
human interest
|
ceremony
|
490,565 |
slate--2019-09-14--Watch Portland Soccer Fans Boo When President is Mentioned in Military Swearing-In Ceremony
| 2019-09-14T00:00:00 |
slate
|
Watch Portland Soccer Fans Boo When President is Mentioned in Military Swearing-In Ceremony
|
Spectators at a Portland Thorns soccer game made their feelings on President Donald Trump very clear at a U.S. Armed Forces swearing-in ceremony at Providence Park. During the halftime of a game between the Portland Thorns and North Carolina Courage on Wednesday a group of enlistees came to the field and took the Oath of Enlistment. These types of events aren’t all that uncommon at sporting events across the country and the Thorns decided to schedule the ceremony after they realized they would be playing on Sept. 11. The crowd cheered for the enlistees but when they got to the part of the oath where they had to pledge to “obey the orders of the President of the United States,” the crowd erupted in boos and jeers. The move came as some soccer fans are still angry that Major League Soccer changed its code of conduct to ban any kind of political signs at games. Although the National Women’s Soccer League doesn’t have a similar blanket prohibition, the Thorns has enforced the ban on political signs this season. Some took to social media to complain that including a military swearing-in ceremony as part of a game was a political act and contradicts the current prohibitions. cancelled my Timbers season ticket. like, yeah, a lot going on with the league etc but last night’s military fetishization at the Thorns match was the last straw. if you’re gonna give anyone props on 9/11 it should be first responders. get it together, PTFC.#RCTID — dodgy nova (@DodgyNova) September 12, 2019
|
Daniel Politi
|
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/09/portland-soccer-fans-boo-president-military-swearing-in-ceremony.html?via=rss
|
2019-09-14 14:24:20+00:00
| 1,568,485,460 | 1,569,330,300 |
human interest
|
ceremony
|
519,907 |
sputnik--2019-01-03--116th US Congress Swearing-in Ceremony
| 2019-01-03T00:00:00 |
sputnik
|
116th US Congress Swearing-in Ceremony
|
The 116th US Congress is currently swearing in with a newly elected Democratic majority in the House of Representatives. The ceremony comes amid a partial Federal government shutdown that has been in effect since December 22 after Democratic lawmakers refused to meet President Donald Trump's demand for $5 billion to build the controversial wall on the US-Mexico border.
| null |
https://sputniknews.com/us/201901031071198813-ceremony-us-congress/
|
2019-01-03 18:04:00+00:00
| 1,546,556,640 | 1,567,554,157 |
human interest
|
ceremony
|
534,736 |
sputnik--2019-05-28--Pakistani Officials Not Invited to Modis Swearing-in Ceremony - Source
| 2019-05-28T00:00:00 |
sputnik
|
Pakistani Officials Not Invited to Modi’s Swearing-in Ceremony - Source
|
"The leaders of the BIMSTEC [Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation] member states — Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand and Bhutan — have been invited for the upcoming oath-taking ceremony. Representatives of Pakistan will not attend the event," the source stated. According to the source, the leaders of Kyrgyzstan and Mauritius were also invited to the ceremony. Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan congratulated Modi on his win shortly after the results were released, saying that he looked forward "to working with him for peace, progress and prosperity" in South Asia. India and Pakistan, two nuclear-armed rivals, have never been close allies throughout their history. Tensions in the Kashmir region, an area that is disputed by both countries, escalated in February when the Indian Air Force carried out an airstrike against what it claimed to be a camp belonging to the Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist group, located on the Pakistani side of Kashmir, in retaliation for an attack on an Indian paramilitary convoy earlier that month.
| null |
https://sputniknews.com/asia/201905281075417680-pakistani-officials-modi/
|
2019-05-28 14:30:20+00:00
| 1,559,068,220 | 1,567,540,047 |
human interest
|
ceremony
|
1,062,247 |
unian--2019-05-19--Zelenskys press service announces agenda of official events after swearing-in ceremony
| 2019-05-19T00:00:00 |
unian
|
Zelensky's press service announces agenda of official events after swearing-in ceremony
|
In the afternoon, the new president will be meeting with foreign guests. The press service of Ukraine's President-elect Volodymyr Zelensky has announced the agenda of official events on May 20 on the occasion of his entry into the presidency. According to the agenda, from 10:00 to 11:00 Kyiv time, Zelensky will be taking part in an official meeting of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, on taking the oath to the Ukrainian people. From 11:05 to 11:20, Zelensky will be participating in the introduction of the commanders of the divisions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and in the ceremony of raising the national flag of Ukraine. "From 11:20 to 11:50, Zelensky and First Lady Olena Zelenska will be welcoming heads of foreign delegations in Kyiv's Mariinsky Palace," the agenda says. From 12:00 to 13:30, Zelensky will be receiving heads of foreign delegations on the occasion of his presidency. From 14:30 to 17:00, Zelensky is scheduled to have bilateral meetings with heads of foreign delegations at the Presidential Administration's building.
| null |
https://www.unian.info/politics/10554795-zelensky-s-press-service-announces-agenda-of-official-events-after-swearing-in-ceremony.html
|
2019-05-19 15:54:00+00:00
| 1,558,295,640 | 1,567,540,500 |
human interest
|
ceremony
|
1,062,267 |
unian--2019-05-20--Volodymyr Zelenskys swearing-in ceremony
| 2019-05-20T00:00:00 |
unian
|
Volodymyr Zelensky's swearing-in ceremony
|
The official event is taking place in Ukraine's parliament. The official swearing-in ceremony of Ukraine's sixth president Volodymyr Zelensky has started on Monday, May 20. The newly elected president is taking the oath of allegiance to the Ukrainian people during the ceremonial meeting in parliament.
| null |
https://www.unian.info/politics/10555182-volodymyr-zelensky-s-swearing-in-ceremony-live-stream.html
|
2019-05-20 07:15:00+00:00
| 1,558,350,900 | 1,567,540,468 |
human interest
|
ceremony
|
565,220 |
tass--2019-05-04--Ukraines Verkhovna Rada to appoint inauguration date on May 14 - Zelensky
| 2019-05-04T00:00:00 |
tass
|
Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada to appoint inauguration date on May 14 - Zelensky
|
### Vladimir Zelensky © Petr Sivkov/TASS KIEV, May 4. /TASS/. The date for the inauguration of Ukraine’s new president will be appointed by the Verkhovna Rada, or national parliament, on May 14, President-elect Vladimir Zelensky said on Saturday. "The inauguration date will be appointed at a Verkhovna Rada session on May 14," he told reporters after his meeting with the Verkhovna Rada speaker, leaders of parliamentary factions and lawmakers’ groups. "I suggested it be done on May 19". The final results of the presidential polls in Ukraine were announced by the Central Election Commission on April 30. The race was won by Vladimir Zelensky who scored 73.22% of the vote in the runoff election, while incumbent president, Pyotr Poroshenko won 24.45% The voting results were published in the official newspaper Pravitelsvenny Kuryer (Government Courier) on May 3. The inaugurations ceremony is to be appointed within 30 days from that day, or before June 2. In other media
| null |
http://tass.com/world/1056935
|
2019-05-04 14:34:32+00:00
| 1,556,994,872 | 1,567,541,173 |
human interest
|
ceremony
|
565,221 |
tass--2019-05-04--Zelensky says he will offer parliament to hold inauguration May 19
| 2019-05-04T00:00:00 |
tass
|
Zelensky says he will offer parliament to hold inauguration May 19
|
### Vladimir Zelensky © Petr Sivkov/TASS KIEV, May 4. /TASS/. Ukraine’s president-elect Vladimir Zelensky has said he will offer the country’s Verkhovna Rada (parliament) to hold his inauguration ceremony on May 19. He was talking to reporters on Saturday ahead of his meeting with the Verkhovna Rada speaker, leaders of parliamentary factions and lawmakers’ groups. "At the meeting, we will suggest [holding the inauguration] on May 19, and then we’ll see," Zelensky said without explaining why that date was chosen. He added that the inauguration date will be the key issue at the meeting. "We will discuss other issues too," Zelensky noted. In accordance with Ukraine’s Constitution, the president should take office within 30 days after the official publication of the election results. The results of the presidential election were made public on Friday, May 3. In this case, the president-elect must take the oath of office by June 2 (inclusive). In other media
| null |
http://tass.com/world/1056927
|
2019-05-04 12:38:25+00:00
| 1,556,987,905 | 1,567,541,173 |
human interest
|
ceremony
|
995,158 |
thetelegraph--2019-01-09--World leaders to skip Maduro inauguration amid possible further EU sanctions on sham presidency
| 2019-01-09T00:00:00 |
thetelegraph
|
World leaders to skip Maduro inauguration amid possible further EU sanctions on 'sham presidency'
|
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro will be sworn-in for a second, six-year term on Thursday despite his country’s continued economic spiral that has sparked the region’s worst ever migration crisis. Maduro’s new term will bring further international presssure on Caracas as dozens of countries have called his May re-election fraudulent and pledged not to recognise his new government. The European Union is expected to release a strongly worded warning hinting that further EU sanctions could be levied on the country, should the president continue to flout human rights and the rule of law. Guy Verhofstadt, the influential MEP and leader of the liberals in the European Parliament, told the Telegraph, “The EU should no longer recognise the legality or legitimacy of Nicolas Maduro’s sham presidency.” The lack of international recognition will be apparent from the lack of foreign visitors inauguration ceremony for Maduro, due to be held at 10 am outside the Supreme Court building. Only Cuba and Bolivia have confirmed their presidents will attend, while a handful of other countries will send diplomats. Plans to organize a mass boycott of the investiture ceremony by all 28 EU ambassadors to Venezuela appeared to have fallen foul of divisions in the bloc, however.
|
Cody Weddle
|
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/01/09/world-leaders-skip-maduro-inauguration-amid-possible-eu-sanctions/
|
2019-01-09 19:01:22+00:00
| 1,547,078,482 | 1,567,553,268 |
human interest
|
ceremony
|
1,062,183 |
unian--2019-05-14--Ukraines President-elect Zelensky unhappy with delay in setting his inauguration date
| 2019-05-14T00:00:00 |
unian
|
Ukraine's President-elect Zelensky unhappy with delay in setting his inauguration date
|
Zelensky asked lawmakers to schedule the official event for May 19. Ukraine's President-elect Zelensky is unhappy with Ukraine's parliament because of its failure to decide on his inauguration date on time, accusing the parliament's speaker of deceit. "The acronym for the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is the VRU [stands for a 'lie' in Russian]. VRU is their middle name," Zelensky wrote on Facebook on May 14 when lawmakers were expected to vote on the inauguration date. Zelensky also quoted Parliament Speaker Andriy Parubiy, who reportedly said: "We promise you that the inauguration date will be known on May 14 for sure." "Remember these parliamentarians' names. And draw conclusions for the next parliament elections [in October 2019]. We'll draw them together!" Zelensky added. As of May 14, eight draft resolutions had been registered in parliament with different dates for the newly elected president's swearing-in ceremony. Yet, one of them was withdrawn. They propose different dates, namely May 17, May 19, May 20, May 26, and May 28 for the event. The parliament's committee for procedures and regulations will consider the draft resolutions on Wednesday, May 15, and should the committee take a positive decision, the documents will be put to the vote on Thursday, May 16. Zelensky asked lawmakers to schedule the official event for May 19.
| null |
https://www.unian.info/politics/10549008-ukraine-s-president-elect-zelensky-unhappy-with-delay-in-setting-his-inauguration-date.html
|
2019-05-14 15:58:00+00:00
| 1,557,863,880 | 1,567,540,760 |
human interest
|
ceremony
|
72,033 |
breitbart--2019-08-22--Donald Trump Awards Medal of Freedom to Boston Celtics Legend Bob Cousy
| 2019-08-22T00:00:00 |
breitbart
|
Donald Trump Awards Medal of Freedom to Boston Celtics Legend Bob Cousy
|
The president awarded the medal in the Oval Office of the White House surrounded by nearly two dozen family and friends. A point guard for the Boston Celtics, Cousy helped win six NBA championships in seven years from 1957-62. “You’re one of the all-time greats in the history of sports — not just basketball — and an inspiration to us all,” Trump said. “And today, America honors and celebrates everything that you have achieved.” Trump spoke at length about Cousy’s legendary performance in the game of basketball and his contributions to his community outside of the court. “If I’d known I was going to be eulogized I would probably have done the only decent thing and died,” Cousy joked. Cousy thanked Trump for the honor, calling him “the most extraordinary president in my lifetime.” West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin attended the ceremony with his wife and Fox News reporter Ed Henry. Speaking about his love for his family, Cousy started choking up with tears. “That’s why you shouldn’t invite old men to the White House. They get emotional.” Cousy said. Trump credited Manchin for reaching out to him about Cousy, after learning that Cousy would be honored to receive the award. Cousy, now 91, admitted in a recent interview that he did not vote for President Trump or Hillary Clinton, but rather Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson. But he said that would change in 2020. “This President will definitely have my vote in 2020,” he said. “I simply feel, without getting into the politics of it at all, like many Americans — I agree with some of the things he’s done and disagree with others.”
|
Charlie Spiering
|
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/breitbart/~3/FleEe02vJH0/
|
2019-08-22 22:30:57+00:00
| 1,566,527,457 | 1,567,533,672 |
human interest
|
ceremony
|
72,772 |
breitbart--2019-09-05--Donald Trump Awards Medal of Freedom to LA Lakers Legend Jerry West
| 2019-09-05T00:00:00 |
breitbart
|
Donald Trump Awards Medal of Freedom to L.A. Lakers Legend Jerry West
|
Born in West Virginia, West played at West Virginia University before playing for the Lakers in Los Angeles. West played 14 seasons in the NBA for the Lakers, making the all-star team every year. “In the years that followed, he was to become a legend and made plays that will be remembered forever,” Trump said. “I know many of them.” Trump recalled when West rallied his team in Game 3 of the NBA finals in 1962 back to tie the game and scored right before the end of the game, earning the nickname “Mr. Clutch.” After his career as a player, he became a legendary general manager for the Lakers during their triumphant domination of the sport in the 1980-2000s. “Jerry is one of the greatest negotiators, managers, and executives in the history of the NBA,” Trump said. He also highlighted West’s charitable efforts in Los Angeles and West Virginia and his work with veterans. He is also nicknamed as “The Logo,” as his silhouette is still featured in the NBA logo today. West was accompanied at the Oval Office ceremony with members of his family and one close friend from West Virginia University. Chris Wallace, the Chief Communications Officer for the Los Angeles Clippers also attended. “I was a dreamer,” he said, addressing the group. “My family didn’t have much, but we had a clear view of the Appalachian Mountains. And I’ve had several on our front porch and wonder if I ever make it to the top of that mountain. Will I see on the other side? Well, I did make it to the other side. My dreams have come true.” West Virginia officials Governor Jim Justice and Sen. Joe Manchin also joined the president for the ceremony.
|
Charlie Spiering
|
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/breitbart/~3/OwInt5jjEuM/
|
2019-09-05 22:45:48+00:00
| 1,567,737,948 | 1,569,331,177 |
human interest
|
ceremony
|
73,182 |
breitbart--2019-09-16--Enter Sandman Donald Trump Awards Yankees Legend Mariano Rivera Medal of Freedom
| 2019-09-16T00:00:00 |
breitbart
|
'Enter Sandman' — Donald Trump Awards Yankees Legend Mariano Rivera Medal of Freedom
|
Rivera entered the White House East Room with Trump for the ceremony to Metallica’s “Enter Sandman,” the same song that he used as a walkup song during his career with the Yankees. “Game after game, when his entrance song ‘Enter Sandman’ filled the arena, fans went wild knowing that the game was all but over,” Trump said. “His dominance on the mound mesmerized fans, teammates, and, unfortunately for them, it mesmerized the competitors.” Trump said that First Lady Melania Trump asked him why the song was so important to Rivera’s legacy. “Because he put the batter to sleep,” Trump recalled telling her. “’The Sandman’ A lot of people don’t know that, but the Yankee fans know that.” Rivera is a five-time world series champion and is the greatest relief pitcher in the history of the sport. He was elected by the first-ever unanimous vote into the National Baseball Hall of fame in July 2019. Trump also referred to Rivera’s prominent work for American communities through his charitable foundation inspired by his Christian faith. “Throughout Marino’s incredible career, he remained a humble man guided by a deep Christian faith that inspires everyone around him,” Trump said. “All I did was try to be the best and try to do the best for America,” he said. Born in Panama, Rivera told a story about his effort to learn English after coming to America to play baseball. “By the end of the year, I was able to communicate with my manager and my teammates and I was the happiest man in baseball,” he said, adding that as immigrants, “learning Engish is the first thing we can do.”
|
Charlie Spiering
|
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/breitbart/~3/Mcn8i9eyg9s/
|
2019-09-16 20:36:09+00:00
| 1,568,680,569 | 1,569,330,163 |
human interest
|
ceremony
|
73,227 |
breitbart--2019-09-16--Watch Live Donald Trump Presents Medal of Freedom to Yankees Pitcher Mariano Rivera
| 2019-09-16T00:00:00 |
breitbart
|
Watch Live: Donald Trump Presents Medal of Freedom to Yankees Pitcher Mariano Rivera
|
The Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian honor in the United States. The hall of fame baseball player will be awarded the medal during a 2:00 p.m. Eastern ceremony at the White House.
|
Charlie Spiering
|
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/breitbart/~3/55vJFGwlP6k/
|
2019-09-16 17:34:00+00:00
| 1,568,669,640 | 1,569,330,162 |
human interest
|
ceremony
|
75,944 |
breitbart--2019-11-18--Trump to Award Jon Voight with National Medal of Arts
| 2019-11-18T00:00:00 |
breitbart
|
Trump to Award Jon Voight with National Medal of Arts
|
President Donald Trump will award the Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight with the National Medal of Arts, the White House announced on Sunday. In a statement, the White House confirmed that Jon Voight, who is one of Trump’s few prominent Hollywood supporters, will be honored at a ceremony later this week for his “exceptional capacity as an actor to portray deeply complex characters.” “Captivating audiences, he has given us insights into the richness of the human mind and heart,” the statement read. Voight, who won the Academy Award for best actor in 1978 for his role as veteran Luke Martin in Coming Home, is a fervent supporter of the president. Earlier this year, the star declared President Trump the “greatest president since Abraham Lincoln.” “Our country is stronger, safer and with more jobs, because our president has made his every move correct,” he said Voight, who is the father of actress Angelina Jolie. “Don’t be fooled by the political left because we are the people of this nation that is witnessing triumph.” In July, Voight went viral as he was captured on camera wiping the rain off of chairs reserved for Gold Star family members who were set to attend President Trump’s Salute to America event on Independence Day. Other individuals to be recognized on Thursday include bluegrass-country singer Allison Krauss, philanthropist Sharon Percy Rockefeller, and The Musicians of the United States Military. “From concert halls to warzones, these extraordinary patriots have inspired and uplifted their fellow Americans over generations with their incredible courage and breathtaking musical talent,” the statement says of the military musicians.
|
Ben Kew
|
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/breitbart/~3/8SvFWPwI5z0/
|
Mon, 18 Nov 2019 12:35:46 +0000
| 1,574,098,546 | 1,574,104,089 |
human interest
|
ceremony
|
85,995 |
cbsnews--2019-10-08--Trump awards Medal of Freedom to Ed Meese
| 2019-10-08T00:00:00 |
cbsnews
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Trump awards Medal of Freedom to Ed Meese
|
President Trump awarded the Medal of Freedom, one of the highest civilian honors, to former Reagan-era Attorney General Edwin Meese on Tuesday. Meese, 87, is now widely thought of as a leader of the Reagan-era conservative movement. But he also left the administration in the face of ethical concerns. He was accused of "blindness to the abuse of the position" as attorney general in a report authored by former Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox. During the ceremony, Mr. Trump spoke about Meese's long list of roles in state and federal civil service. At one point, the president joked that Meese's contentious and lengthy confirmation process to be attorney general sounded like "what we go through," referring to his own administration. After receiving the award, Meese thanked all of those in attendance and congratulated Attorney General William Barr for the work he is doing. In a statement issued by the Heritage Foundation, where he is a fellow emeritus, Meese said he's grateful for the opportunity. "I am greatly honored to receive such recognition from President Trump," Meese said in a statement. "For many years, I had the privilege of serving the country under President Ronald Reagan. During that time and throughout my life and career, my aim has been to remain committed to the Constitution, the rule of law and the conservative American values that have made America 'the shining city upon a hill.'" The award comes as Mr. Trump faces a slew of questions over his abrupt decision to withdraw troops from northern Syria, and over the ongoing impeachment inquiry over his call with Ukraine's president.
| null |
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-awards-medal-of-freedom-to-ed-meese-today-2019-10-08-live-updates/
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Tue, 08 Oct 2019 22:01:57 +0000
| 1,570,586,517 | 1,570,573,337 |
human interest
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ceremony
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132,390 |
dailymail--2019-05-07--Trump gives Tiger Woods Medal of Freedom calls golfer great person
| 2019-05-07T00:00:00 |
dailymail
|
Trump gives Tiger Woods Medal of Freedom, calls golfer 'great person'
|
President Donald Trump awarded Masters champion and golfing buddy Tiger Woods the Medal of Freedom on Monday evening in a Rose Garden ceremony the athlete's new girlfriend also attended. The president said that Woods, 43, is 'one of the greatest athletes in the history of sports' and has inspired people worldwide with his barrier-breaking victories, capped by a comeback at this year's tournament. 'He's also a great person. He's a great guy,' Trump declared. 'He inspired millions of young Americans with his thrilling wire-to-wire victories. Tiger Woods is a global symbol of american excellence, devotion, and drive.' The first African-American to win the Masters and the youngest golfer to take the title, Woods won his first major tournament in 11 years in April after suffering severe injuries that threatened to end his career forever. Woods cried at the White House as he talked about his late father and spoke about his 'amazing' comeback this year and the'unbelievable experience' of winning the award in front his mother, children, caddy, girlfriend Erica Herman, the president and first lady Melania Trump. 'You've seen the good and the bad, the highs and the lows, and I would not be in this position without all your help,' he told his family. 'I've battled, I try to hang in there, and I've tried to come back and play the great game of golf again.' The citation for the award said that Woods was being honored for the 5 Masters tournament's he's won, beginning in 1997 when he became the first black man and the youngest golfer ever to clinch the title. He won again in 2019, becoming the second-oldest champ. President Trump also noted that Woods has 81 PGA tour victories under his belt - one victory behind the all-time record. Trump also had another statistic he wanted to point out: he said that Woods' victory in April was 'record-setting ratings' for a Masters tournament. 'We are in the presence of a true legend, an extraordinary athlete who has transformed golf and achieved new levels of dominance,' he said. He hailed Woods, whom he's relied on to boost his own popularity throughout his own career, as an entrepreneur and and philanthropist, as well as an athlete. 'That's how I originally met Tiger,' the former real estate mogul acknowledged in the Rose Garden on Monday evening. After Woods' first Masters victory in '97, he celebrated at Trump's Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City. The men have been business partners since 2014, when they opened the Tiger Woods Villa at the future president's golf club in Doral, Florida. Prior to the deal, the golfer took a break from the sport after tearing his ACL in 2008, admitting to infidelity in 2009 and divorcing his wife and mother of his children, Swedish model Elin Nordegren, the following year, in 2010. He was arrested for drunk driving in 2017, when Florida law enforcement officers found five types of drugs in his system. He said he'd over medicated in response to back pain that caused him to quit competing two years earlier. Woods was back on the course a month later in New Jersey, playing the Presidents Cup at Liberty National Golf Club, where he ran into his old friend who'd become president, Donald Trump. Trump hinted at the controversies at Monday's ceremony, as he recalled Woods' unexpected victory in the 2008 U.S. Open, despite having two leg fractures and a torn ACL. 'He's got a great memory, this guy. And he remembers the good stuff. Not the bad. We don't want to - we just, what you did there was amazing,' the president said, recounting the blow-by-blow of the victory. The president said that Woods 'fought through the terrible pain, and he fought all the way back to the summit of golf' to win the PGA championship a decade later. Last month, Woods shocked the world with 'one of the most incredible comebacks that golf or any sport as ever seen,' winning the Masters, Trump recalled on Monday. 'Tiger was back on top and won his first major in 11 years, and that was some major, with record-setting television,' he said. Trump said he'd present the golfer with the Medal of Freedom at a White House ceremony shortly after the surprise victory. Trump said Monday that Woods is known for 'pushing boundaries, defying limits and always striving for greatness' in a way that embodies the American spirit. 'Tiger, we are inspired by everything you have become and attained, the job you have done is incredible: your spectacular achievements on the golf course, your triumph over physical adversity, and your relentless will to win, win, win,' he said. He said Woods is someone 'whose tenacity, willpower and unrelenting drive' is an inspiration to everyone. 'Congratulations again on your amazing comeback and your amazing life,' he told his friend. 'And for giving sports fans everywhere a lifetime of memories. We can't wait to see what's next Tiger. It's going to be good. We know that, it's going to be good, because there are no winners like you.' Woods noted that Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Charlie Sifford had received the award before him. President George W. Bush honored the first two golfers and President Barack Obama gave the Medal of Freedom to the latter. Sifford was a mentor to Woods, who said in his speech that he thought of the late golfer as a grandfather. He named his son Charlie after the legendary athlete. 'So to have been chosen as the next golfer, after Charlie, is truly remarkable. So thank you, again, and thank you Mr. President,' he told Trump, before shaking his hand and posing for photos with the first couple and his family, including his Herman. Woods took to Instagram after the ceremony and wrote: 'It’s an incredible privilege to be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Considering the recipients, history, and what this means to me and my family, it’s also very humbling. Thank you all for your support and I hope this inspires others to never give up on their dreams.' Woods is a frequent golf partner of Trump's. So is Nicklaus. Both professionals play with the billionaire at his Florida properties. The next professional tournament that Woods will play the Zozo Championship in Japan. Held at Accordia Golf Chiba Narashino Country Club, the tournament takes place roughly 50 miles outside of Tokyo. It's at the end of October. He's also playing the Presidents Cup at the Royal Melbourne in Australia from Dec. 12-15, a tournament he's captaining on behalf of the United States. Trump and past American presidents has been invited to attend the golf tournament.
| null |
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6999317/Trump-gives-Tiger-Woods-Medal-Freedom-calls-golfer-great-person.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490
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2019-05-07 13:45:11+00:00
| 1,557,251,111 | 1,567,540,943 |
human interest
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ceremony
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132,392 |
dailymail--2019-05-07--You are truly one of a kind Trump shares video tribute of Tiger Woods after Medal of Freedom
| 2019-05-07T00:00:00 |
dailymail
|
'You are truly one of a kind!' Trump shares video tribute of Tiger Woods after Medal of Freedom
|
President Donald Trump has one more gift on Tuesday for golf legend Tiger Woods, whom he awarded the highest civilian honor to a day prior. The U.S. president and friend of the Masters champion released a video tribute to Woods of his winning shot and an award ceremony at the White House attended by lawmakers, the golfer's family and his girlfriend. 'Congratulations @TigerWoods - you are truly one of a kind!' the U.S. president said in a tweet. Trump awarded Woods the Medal of Freedom on Monday evening in a Rose Garden ceremony. The president said that Woods, 43, is 'one of the greatest athletes in the history of sports' and has inspired people worldwide with his barrier-breaking victories, capped by a comeback at this year's tournament. 'He's also a great person. He's a great guy,' Trump declared. 'He inspired millions of young Americans with his thrilling wire-to-wire victories. Tiger Woods is a global symbol of american excellence, devotion, and drive.' The first African-American to win the Masters and the youngest golfer to take the title, Woods won his first major tournament in 11 years in April after suffering severe injuries that threatened to end his career forever. Woods cried at the White House as he talked about his late father and spoke about his 'amazing' comeback this year and the 'unbelievable experience' of winning the award in front his mother, children, caddy, girlfriend Erica Herman, the president and first lady Melania Trump. 'You've seen the good and the bad, the highs and the lows, and I would not be in this position without all your help,' he told his family. 'I've battled, I try to hang in there, and I've tried to come back and play the great game of golf again.' The citation for the award said that Woods was being honored for the 5 Masters tournaments he's won, beginning in 1997 when he became the first black man and the youngest golfer ever to clinch the title. He won again in 2019, becoming the second-oldest champ. President Trump also noted that Woods has 81 PGA tour victories under his belt - one victory behind the all-time record. Trump also had another statistic he wanted to point out: he said that Woods' victory in April led to 'record-setting ratings' for a Masters tournament. 'We are in the presence of a true legend, an extraordinary athlete who has transformed golf and achieved new levels of dominance,' he said. He hailed Woods, whom he's relied on to boost his own popularity throughout his own career, as an entrepreneur and a philanthropist, as well as an athlete. 'That's how I originally met Tiger,' the former real estate mogul acknowledged in the Rose Garden on Monday evening. After Woods' first Masters victory in '97, he celebrated at Trump's Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City. The men have been business partners since 2014, when they opened the Tiger Woods Villa at the future president's golf club in Doral, Florida. Prior to the deal, the golfer took a break from the sport after tearing his ACL in 2008, admitting to infidelity in 2009 and divorcing his wife and mother of his children, Swedish model Elin Nordegren, the following year, in 2010. He was arrested for drunk driving in 2017, when Florida law enforcement officers found five types of drugs in his system. He said he'd over medicated in response to back pain that caused him to quit competing two years earlier. Woods was back on the course a month later in New Jersey, playing the Presidents Cup at Liberty National Golf Club, where he ran into his old friend, who'd become president, Donald Trump. Trump hinted at the controversies at Monday's ceremony, as he recalled Woods' unexpected victory in the 2008 U.S. Open, despite having two leg fractures and a torn ACL. 'He's got a great memory, this guy. And he remembers the good stuff. Not the bad. We don't want to - we just, what you did there was amazing,' the president said, recounting the blow-by-blow of the victory. The president said that Woods 'fought through the terrible pain, and he fought all the way back to the summit of golf' to win the PGA championship a decade later. Last month, Woods shocked the world with 'one of the most incredible comebacks that golf or any sport as ever seen,' winning the Masters, Trump recalled. 'Tiger was back on top and won his first major in 11 years, and that was some major, with record-setting television,' he said. Trump said he'd present the golfer with the Medal of Freedom at a White House ceremony shortly after the surprise victory. Trump said Monday that Woods is known for 'pushing boundaries, defying limits and always striving for greatness' in a way that embodies the American spirit. 'Tiger, we are inspired by everything you have become and attained, the job you have done is incredible: your spectacular achievements on the golf course, your triumph over physical adversity, and your relentless will to win, win, win,' he said. He said Woods is someone 'whose tenacity, willpower and unrelenting drive' is an inspiration to everyone. 'Congratulations again on your amazing comeback and your amazing life,' he told his friend. 'And for giving sports fans everywhere a lifetime of memories. We can't wait to see what's next Tiger. It's going to be good. We know that, it's going to be good, because there are no winners like you.' Woods noted that Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Charlie Sifford had received the award before him. President George W. Bush honored the first two golfers and President Barack Obama gave the Medal of Freedom to the latter. Sifford was a mentor to Woods, who said in his speech that he thought of the late golfer as a grandfather. He named his son Charlie after the legendary athlete. 'So to have been chosen as the next golfer, after Charlie, is truly remarkable. So thank you, again, and thank you Mr. President,' he told Trump, before shaking his hand and posing for photos with the first couple, his family, and Herman. Woods said in an Instagram post after the ceremony: 'It’s an incredible privilege to be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Considering the recipients, history, and what this means to me and my family, it’s also very humbling. Thank you all for your support and I hope this inspires others to never give up on their dreams.' Woods is a frequent golf partner of Trump's. So is Nicklaus. Both professionals play with the billionaire at his Florida properties. The next professional tournament that Woods will play the Zozo Championship in Japan. Held at Accordia Golf Chiba Narashino Country Club, the tournament takes place roughly 50 miles outside of Tokyo. It's at the end of October. He's also playing the Presidents Cup at the Royal Melbourne in Australia from Dec. 12-15, a tournament he's captaining on behalf of the United States. Trump and past American presidents has been invited to attend the golf tournament.
| null |
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7003033/You-truly-one-kind-Trump-shares-video-tribute-Tiger-Woods-Medal-Freedom.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490
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2019-05-07 20:18:16+00:00
| 1,557,274,696 | 1,567,540,943 |
human interest
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ceremony
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134,285 |
dailymail--2019-09-05--Trump gives Lakers legend Jerry West presidential Medal of Freedom
| 2019-09-05T00:00:00 |
dailymail
|
Trump gives Lakers legend Jerry West presidential Medal of Freedom
|
Donald Trump awarded another sports player, former Los Angeles Lakers basketball star Jerry West, the presidential Medal of Freedom at a small Thursday ceremony in the Oval Office. West is the sixth current or former professional athlete who Trump has honored with the prestigious award, and he joins basketball greats Michael Jordan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in winning the highest national honor for a civilian. Trump said the 81-year-old West, who went on to coach the Lakers is a 'great man, great player and is going to be around for a long time' in short remarks at the scripted event. The president said he is a 'legend and make plays that will be remembered for forever' by sports enthusiasts like himself. West told the president, 'I swear my name is going to look like a misprint on this list. Mr. President, thank you for including me on this incredible group of people.' West played for the Los Angeles Lakers for 14 seasons, until 1974, before he became the team's coach and later its general manager. Late in his career, he took over operations for the Memphis Grizzlies. He has also served as a board member for the Warriors and consulted for the Los Angeles Clippers. Reveling in his career as a player, the president said Thursday that one of West's best games came in the 1962 finals against the Celtics. 'Jerry rallied the Lakers and tried it and tried very hard I will tell you he tried so hard and it was a great rally, and he was up 115 to 115 with only three seconds left,' he said. 'The Celtics had the ball and Sam Jones. He was a good one...Sam Jones. They're all good on that team. He passed to the legendary Bob Cousy, who was here a few weeks ago.' Trump also awarded Cousy a Medal of Freedom in August in the Oval Office. He suggested that he was honoring West, too, immediately after because of his ties to West Virginia, a state the president won in the 2016 election. 'I shouldn't say this but I won it by 43 points,' he said in the Oval Office in front of the state's governor Jim Justice and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin. The president indicated that he'd be talking to the West Virginia politicians after the Medal of Freedom event about Manchin's bipartisan background check bill, which Trump has waffled on supporting. 'I think we're going to meet on a certain subject later on, and that's good,' he stated. Of West, he said the former basketball player 'taught himself on the the dirty surfaces of his neighborhoods' in West Virginia to play the sport. 'When it rained his sister would call him and say 'it's called the Mud Waller. Do you remember that at all, Jerry, you the mud waller? But nothing ever stopped you,' he asserted. Since his retirement, West has become a veteran's rights advocate, the president said in the Oval Office. 'As a passionate supporter of our nation's veterans,' the president said at the event, 'Jerry works harder than just about anybody I can imagine.' The White House said in a statement that Trump is honoring the sports hero and West Virginia native for his contribution to the game as an athlete and as an executive. 'After his playing career, Mr. West was a legendary NBA General Manager, responsible for building the successful Lakers organization of the 1980s and 2000s,' the White House statement said. 'The United States now proudly honors Jerry West, whose excellence and determination have made him an American sports icon.' For the last two decades of his professional career, West served as the executive vice president of basketball operations for the Lakers. In that role, the president said his hiring of Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal 'two truly great players' was notable as it helped the Lakers create 'an unstoppable force in the NBA.'
| null |
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7433021/Trump-gives-Lakers-legend-Jerry-West-presidential-Medal-Freedom.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490
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2019-09-05 22:59:49+00:00
| 1,567,738,789 | 1,569,331,182 |
human interest
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ceremony
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134,450 |
dailymail--2019-09-17--Melania Trump wows in a chic white suit at Medal of Freedom ceremony
| 2019-09-17T00:00:00 |
dailymail
|
Melania Trump wows in a chic white suit at Medal of Freedom ceremony
|
Melania Trump almost stole the spotlight from Medal of Freedom recipient Mariano Rivera when she arrived at the Yankee legend's ceremony in an incredibly stylish white suit. The 49-year-old first lady looked like she meant business as she made her way into the East Room of the White House on Monday in order to watch her husband Donald Trump present the honor to the retired baseball star. Keeping the look incredibly simple, Melania paired the suit - the same custom made Dior design that she wore to the State of the Union in 2018 - with a nude sweater and a pair of pale pink high-heels, which were on full display thanks to the cropped style of her wide-legged pants. Her brunette locks were left down in loose waves around her shoulders - a 'do that is known as Melania's signature style - and she also modeled her favorite smokey eye look. She finished the look off with some perfectly-manicured nails, which appeared to have been painted with a French tip, and a slick of pale pink lipstick. Melania looked fairly somber as she made her way into the East Room, walking past several members of the military who were standing on either side of the doorway in their dress uniforms. However once inside the ceremony, her mood appeared to lighten and she was seen cracking a smile as she stood among her fellow guests. During the touching ceremony, President Trump cited Mariano, an aggressive but well-loved relief hurler, for his bat-shredding cut fastball and his legendary humanitarian streak. Trump also praised him for becoming the only Major League player ever elected to the Hall of Fame with unanimous support. 'Just out of curiosity, Babe Ruth was not unanimously elected?' Trump mused. 'The Babe didn't make it? What was his problem? He did pretty good too!' Melania watched on quietly as the ceremony went on, smiling every now and then as both her husband and Mariano spoke at the podium. The first lady was then seen making a stylish exit alongside her husband, holding his hand as they made their way out of the East Room. Melania will no doubt have been thrilled to make such a stylish statement at Monday's event - particularly as her fashion choices came under some intense scrutiny last week, when critics slammed the mother-of-one over a seam on her dress. After President Trump tweeted a 9/11 tribute image on Wednesday - the 18th anniversary of the terrorist attacks - some people hit out at Melania over her choice of ensemble in the snap, insisting that a seam and button detail on the back of the custom Herve Pierre jacket she was seen wearing resembled a plane crashing into a skyscraper. Although the image, which captured the first couple from the back, was actually taken last year during their trip to the 9/11 memorial in Pennsylvania, when Melania was photographed wearing the coat from all different angles, Trump's decision to tweet the photo ignited a frenzy of outrage online. Shortly after the tribute image was shared on social media by the president, dozens of users responded to criticize the sartorial choice, prompting a furious backlash that White House spokesperson Stephanie Grisham has since slammed as 'ridiculous'. Hopefully this coming week will be filled with more positive experiences for the first lady, particularly after it was revealed on Friday that she is going to re-open the Washington Memorial on Thursday. The first lady will be front and center on Thursday when the famous landmark reopens to the public after it was closed for three years for repairs, her office announced on Friday. Melania will take part in an official ribbon-cutting ceremony, and will ride the elevator to the top of the iconic building, which suffered serious damage during an August 23, 2011, earthquake that struck the nation's capital and the rest of the Eastern seaboard.
| null |
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-7470941/Melania-Trump-wows-chic-white-suit-Medal-Freedom-ceremony.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490
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2019-09-17 11:35:02+00:00
| 1,568,734,502 | 1,569,330,030 |
human interest
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ceremony
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213,338 |
foxnews--2019-11-21--Trump honors Jon Voight, James Patterson, others with National Medal of Arts, National Humanities Me
| 2019-11-21T00:00:00 |
foxnews
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Trump honors Jon Voight, James Patterson, others with National Medal of Arts, National Humanities Medal
|
President Trump on Thursday honored eight people with the National Medal of the Arts and the National Humanities Medal -- four in each category. Recipients included novelist James Patterson, actor Jon Voight, and the musicians of the U.S. military, among others. “These are the highest honors available for contributions to American art and culture,” the president stated. Vice President Pence, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos were in the audience for the ceremony. Trump began by honoring actor Voight, whom he called a “great friend” and “one of America’s greatest living legends.” Trump called Voight’s movie “The Champ” “the greatest boxing movie of all time.” “Everyone was crying at the end of the movie but I tried not to, John,” Trump added. Voight has starred in dozens of feature films since the late 1960s, when he rose to prominence for his Oscar-nominated role in “Midnight Cowboy.” Voight, the father of actors Angelina Jolie and James Haven, is also known for his roles in “Coming Home,” “Heat,” “The Rainmaker,” and “Ali.” More recently, he was seen in the “National Treasure” series, “Zoolander,” and “Four Christmases,” among others. Voight was an outspoken liberal in his early career, protesting the Vietnam War alongside actress Jane Fonda. However, he endorsed both Sen. Mitt Romney in 2012 and President Trump in 2016. He spoke at an inauguration rally for Trump in January 2017. “We love having you here, especially since it happens to be somebody that I really like,” said Trump. Sharon Percy Rockefeller was the wife of former West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller, but her philanthropic work and public advocacy are what earned her the medal. As first lady of West Virginia, Rockefeller worked on behalf of the state’s schoolchildren, among other causes. Rockefeller promoted the Public Broadcasting Service and served as the CEO and president of WETA, D.C.’s flagship public television and radio stations. She chairs the Board of Trustees for the National Gallery of Art. She also serves on the board of the Museum of Modern Art, Sibley Memorial Hospital and the Rockefeller Foundation. Next, Trump presented a medal to author Patterson, whom he called a personal friend and “one of the most prolific and talented fiction authors of all time.” Patterson has written 277 books and sold over 400 million copies. “You’ve sold a lot more books than me. More than anyone except maybe one -- the Bible has you by a little bit,” said Trump. PRESIDENT TRUMP PRESENTS MEDAL OF HONOR TO GREEN BERET FOR 2008 AFGHANISTAN HEROICS Among Patterson’s works are “Red Alert,” “Along Came a Spider,” “The President is Missing” which he co-wrote with former President Bill Clinton, and “Filthy Rich,” a story of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, published in 2016, years before the shocking 2019 revelations that led to his arrest and subsequent apparent suicide. Of Patterson’s works, 218 titles have earned a spot on The New York Times bestseller list, and 95 have ranked No. 1. Trump then turned to Allison Krauss. Krauss is an American bluegrass-country singer. She’s won 27 Grammy awards and 42 nominations, earning more Grammy awards than any other woman. She’s known for hits such as “Every Time You Say Goodbye,” “Baby Now That I’ve Found You,” “Whiskey Lullaby” and "When You Say Nothing at All.” TRUMP PRESENTS MEDAL OF HONOR TO FORMER ARMY STAFF SERGEANT WHO RESCUED ENTIRE SQUAD IN IRAQ The president then honored Patrick O’Connell as “one of the greatest chefs of our time.” O’Connell opened The Inn at Little Washington, which Trump said he and the first lady planned to visit. Also honored was the Claremont Institute for informing Americans how America’s founding principles “made this nation the greatest of anywhere on earth.” He then honored Teresa Lozano Long for her support of the arts. Together with her husband, Long has donated over $130 million to universities and institutions in Texas. She is also the namesake of the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies (LLILAS) at the University of Texas at Austin, for which she and her husband created a $10 million endowment. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Lastly, Trump recognized the musicians of the U.S. military. “Forming 136 bands worldwide, they perform over 35,000 times each year, from concert halls to war zones,” the president said. “Many could be in great concert halls of the world but this is where they want to be.”
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Morgan Phillips
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http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/politics/~3/C7FE0mTSN-c/trump-honors-jon-voight-james-patterson-others-with-national-medal-of-arts-national-humanities-medal
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Thu, 21 Nov 2019 23:41:45 GMT
| 1,574,397,705 | 1,574,381,579 |
human interest
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ceremony
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252,962 |
inquisitr--2019-11-18--Actor Jon Voight To Receive The National Medal Of Arts From President Trump
| 2019-11-18T00:00:00 |
inquisitr
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Actor Jon Voight To Receive The National Medal Of Arts From President Trump
|
This will mark the first year that President Trump will recognize an artist with the award since taking office. President Donald Trump will be awarding Academy Award-winning actor Jon Voight with the National Medal of Arts at a White House ceremony to take place later this week. According to The Hill, Voight — who is one of the president’s most outspoken supporters in all of Hollywood — will receive the prestigious award for his “exceptional capacity as an actor to portray deeply complex characters,” a statement from the White House said. “Captivating audiences, he has given us insights into the richness of the human mind and heart,” the statement read. Thursday will mark the first time the president has chosen to recognize an artist with the award, as he declined to do so in his first two years in the White House, as Hot Air reported. The late President Ronald Reagan, a former actor himself, signed the bill into law in 1984, which created the program to recognize the accomplishments of those in the arts. The decision for Trump to recognize Voight for the award drew both criticism and praise from several media outlets. “Until this point, Trump has shown little enthusiasm for the arts world. For three years running, he’s proposed budgets attempting to zero out federal funding for the National Endowment for the Arts,” The Atlantic‘s Peter Nicholas wrote. Voight won an Academy Award for his 1978 performance in the movie, Coming Home. The 80-year-old actor also has several Academy Award nominations under his belt from a number of films spanning his long and successful career in Tinseltown. Not only has the actor publicly supported Trump and his presidency, he has often praised the president for his work in the White House while taking aim at his liberal counterparts in Hollywood and across the nation. “Our country is stronger, safer and with more jobs because our president has made his every move correct,” Voight said in May. “Don’t be fooled by the political left because we are the people of this nation that is witnessing triumph,” he added. Author James Patterson and bluegrass artist Alison Krauss will also be recognized at the White House ceremony on Thursday. Patterson, who authored a book about Jeffrey Epstein in 2016, will reportedly receive the National Humanities Medal. As The Inquisitr previously reported, the awards ceremony will take place during the same week that the House Intelligence Committee — chaired by Rep. Adam Schiff — will interview a number of new witnesses in the ongoing impeachment investigation into the president. One of the witnesses, Jennifer Williams, who works as an aide to Vice President Mike Pence, will be in the spotlight as a recent transcript release of her previous closed-door testimony revealed that she believed the president’s July 25 phone call with Ukraine’s president was “inappropriate.”
|
Ryan Ledendecker
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https://www.inquisitr.com/5748773/jon-voight-medal-of-arts-trump/
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Mon, 18 Nov 2019 02:30:22 +0000
| 1,574,062,222 | 1,574,104,401 |
human interest
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ceremony
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349,845 |
newspunch--2019-11-19--Trump to Honor Patriotic Actor Jon Voight with National Medal of Arts
| 2019-11-19T00:00:00 |
newspunch
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Trump to Honor Patriotic Actor Jon Voight with National Medal of Arts
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Conservative actor Jon Voight will become the first person to receive the esteemed National Medal of Arts since President Donald Trump took office, according to the White House. The four recipients of the National Medal of Arts and four of the National Humanities Medal were announced by the White House in a statement Sunday night. The medals will be awarded by President Trump during a ceremony at the White House on Thursday. Foxnews.com reports: In addition to his work in films and TV, Voight is one of Trump’s few vocal supporters in Hollywood, often deriding the president’s Democratic opposition and previously hailing him as “The greatest president of this century.” The honors have been an annual affair during past administrations, but they had not been awarded since Trump’s inauguration in January 2017. The most recent arts or humanities medals were bestowed by President Obama in September 2016. Voight will receive the accolade “for his exceptional capacity as an actor to portray deeply complex characters.” The actor starred in “Midnight Cowboy,” the 1969 film that won an Academy Award for best picture, and he won the best actor Oscar for 1978’s “Coming Home.” He appears in the Showtime series “Ray Donovan.” The other recipients of the National Medal of Arts will be Alison Krauss, Sharon Percy Rockefeller and The Musicians of the United States Military. Meanwhile, those receiving the National Humanities Medal this year will be The Claremont Institute, Teresa Lozano Long, Patrick O’Connell and James Patterson. Voight previously took to Twitter to explain to his followers and fellow conservatives in Hollywood why Trump is the best president the United States has seen in a long time. “This is not peace,” he began. “This is not love. This is hate among the radical left. No amount of book smart will show the given policy of what truth stands for. Truth is a powerful emotion. Love … is what we should be voting for. “And I must say that we — the Republican Party — have voted for renewal, for a place of safety, a community where all can have peace,” the 80-year-old Academy Award-winning actor continued. “But this is war among the left. They have hate. It’s like a venom. No words of God, no words of love, but a radical emotion of hate.” Prior to his impassioned speech on Twitter, Voight called Trump the greatest president since Abraham Lincoln, who died in office in 1865.
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Sean Adl-Tabatabai
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https://newspunch.com/trump-honor-patriotic-actor-jon-voight-national-medal-arts/
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Tue, 19 Nov 2019 20:45:38 +0000
| 1,574,214,338 | 1,574,208,203 |
human interest
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ceremony
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380,359 |
newyorkpost--2019-10-08--Trump awards Medal of Freedom to former attorney general Edwin Meese
| 2019-10-08T00:00:00 |
newyorkpost
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Trump awards Medal of Freedom to former attorney general Edwin Meese
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WASHINGTON — President Trump awarded the Medal of Freedom Tuesday to Edwin Meese III, calling the former attorney general “a titan” and “a star.” Meese was attorney general under President Ronald Reagan and has since been a longtime conservative legal and thought leader at the Heritage Foundation. “He was a star,” Trump said of Meese’s work in the Reagan administration during a crowded Oval Office ceremony. “You are a loyal fighter for freedom, champion for law and order,” Trump told Meese. Trump put the medal around Meese’s neck and praised him for a “lifetime of exceptional service and devotion to our country.” Meese was joined by his wife, Ursula, and their children, grandchildren, grandson and other family members. Also on hand were conservative radio host Mark Levin and his wife Julie, who are personal friends of Meese. Meese, 87, thanked the president and said he would cherish the medal forever. He praised Trump and Vice President Mike Pence for making “one of the finest teams we’ve ever had in our country.” Meese thanked President Reagan, his family, his colleagues and friends, including Levin. Levin also spoke and thanked Trump “for everything you’re doing for this country.” The White House gave Meese the highest civilian honor because he “helped to craft a foreign policy strong enough to end the Cold War and played a pivotal role in securing historic tax cuts,” a White House statement said. “As Attorney General, he promoted Federalism and the original public understanding of our Constitution.” Trump has awarded the Medal of Freedom to a number of politicians and athletes. The recipients have included former Yankee closer Mariano Rivera, former NBA players Jerry West and Bob Cousy, golfer Tiger Woods, former Sen. Orrin Hatch and former NFL quarterback Roger Staubach.
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Marisa Schultz
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https://nypost.com/2019/10/08/trump-awards-medal-of-freedom-to-former-attorney-general-edwin-meese/
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Tue, 08 Oct 2019 18:06:23 -0400
| 1,570,572,383 | 1,570,574,060 |
human interest
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385,421 |
npr--2019-05-07--Trump Gives Presidential Medal Of Freedom To Tiger Woods
| 2019-05-07T00:00:00 |
npr
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Trump Gives Presidential Medal Of Freedom To Tiger Woods
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Trump Gives Presidential Medal Of Freedom To Tiger Woods President Trump Monday awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to golfer Tiger Woods in a ceremony at the White House. Trump praised Woods' many accomplishments on the golf course and his ability to come back from debilitating physical adversity that might have permanently sidelined any other athlete. "Tiger Woods is a global symbol of American excellence, devotion and drive," Trump said as Woods stood by him. "These qualities embody the American spirit of pushing boundaries, defying limits and always striving for greatness." With his mother and two children in attendance, Woods thanked his family, personal friends and aides in brief and emotional remarks. "You've seen the good and the bad, the highs and the lows, and I would not be in this position without all of your help," he said. Trump has had a contentious relationship with many black athletes but Woods has a long history with the president. Trump has long been a fan and recently, a business partner of Woods. He announced his decision to give the award to Woods in a tweet, after Woods won the Masters tournament last month at age 43, capping a remarkable comeback from personal turmoil and physical injuries. In February, Trump tweeted about a round he played with Woods and another champion golfer, Jack Nicklaus, at Trump's course in Jupiter, Florida. Woods designed a golf course at a Trump property in Dubai. Trump also named a villa after Woods at his Trump Doral resort near Miami. Not everyone is a fan of Trump's decision to award Woods the Medal of Freedom, or of Wood's decision to accept it. Writer Rick Reilly, whose book Commander In Cheat portrays Trump as a notorious flouter of golf rules, tweeted Woods should spurn the award, because he says, Trump "thinks golf should only be for the rich." Monday's ceremony is the second time in less than six months that Trump has awarded Medals of Freedom. In November, the President gave the award to a number of people, including Elvis and Babe Ruth. Woods becomes the fourth professional golfer to receive the medal, along with Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Charlie Sifford. Woods said in the ceremony that Sifford was a mentor and that he named his own son, Charlie, after him.
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Brian Naylor
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https://www.npr.org/2019/05/06/720656746/trump-gives-presidential-medal-of-freedom-to-tiger-woods?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news
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2019-05-07 00:01:56+00:00
| 1,557,201,716 | 1,567,540,987 |
human interest
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475,412 |
rt--2019-05-07--Trump critics drag Tiger Woods over Medal of Freedom
| 2019-05-07T00:00:00 |
rt
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Trump critics drag Tiger Woods over Medal of Freedom
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Golfer Tiger Woods received the highest US civilian decoration from President Donald Trump, prompting media and Democrats to brand him a Trump crony and dismiss his accomplishments in sports and life. At the ceremony in the White House Rose Garden on Monday, Trump called Woods a “global symbol of American excellence, devotion and drive,” an extraordinary golfer, entrepreneur and philanthropist. Anyone associated with the president in any way becomes a target for Trump’s critics, however – including the legendary golfer. Woods, now 43, became the first golfer of African-American or Asian heritage to win a Major when he claimed victory at the Masters in 1997. He has also won a ‘Career Grand Slam’ of all four Majors, at one stage holding the US Open, British Open, PGA Championship, and Masters titles simultaneously. He hit a rough patch for several years due to personal trouble and injury, but came back to win the Masters last month, prompting Trump to announce he would honor him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Some in the mainstream media, which has spent years accusing Trump of corruption, being an agent of the Kremlin, or both, now insinuated that some kind of money-making scheme was behind the president’s decision to decorate Woods. Trump is an avid golfer and owns some 17 golf resorts in the US and abroad. He has also bestowed the Medal of Freedom on three other athletes so far: football players Roger Staubach and Alan Page, and baseball legend Babe Ruth. Woods is the fourth golfer ever to be decorated with the medal, after Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Charles Sifford, the first African-American to play on the PGA Tour. Nicklaus tweeted in support of Woods, as did the PGA. The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian decoration handed out by the executive branch, and recognizes people who have made “an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.” Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
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RT
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https://www.rt.com/usa/458529-tiger-woods-trump-medal/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS
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2019-05-07 00:08:00+00:00
| 1,557,202,080 | 1,567,540,968 |
human interest
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ceremony
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476,506 |
rt--2019-09-16--Trump awards Medal of Freedom after hard-rocking walkout to Metallicas Enter Sandman
| 2019-09-16T00:00:00 |
rt
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Trump awards Medal of Freedom after hard-rocking walkout to Metallica’s ‘Enter Sandman’
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The awarding of the Presidential Medal of Freedom is usually a formal affair, but President Donald Trump has broken the mold, walking into the ceremony to the driving metal riffs of Metallica’s ‘Enter Sandman.’ Presenting the medal to New York Yankees Hall of Fame pitcher Mariano Rivera on Monday, the President entered the East Room of the White House, with ‘Hail to the Chief’ giving way to the instantly recognizable main riff of Metallica’s 1991 megahit. The music choice was fitting, as ‘Enter Sandman’ would reverberate through New York’s Yankee Stadium as Rivera walked onto the field to the pitcher’s mound during his career with the ‘Bronx Bombers.’ “Why do they call him the sandman?” Trump said that his wife Melania asked him before the ceremony. “I said because he put the batter to sleep, right, the sandman.” While the choice of tunes was a hit with Trump and Rivera’s fans, the anti-Trump crowd were predictably displeased. “Few moments in live sports were more enjoyable than Metallica’s Enter Sandman playing as Mariano Rivera came out from bullpen with 50,000 fans on their feet,” journalist Chuck Modi tweeted. “Now Trump has ruined that too.” Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
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RT
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https://www.rt.com/usa/468955-trump-metallica-enter-sandman/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS
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2019-09-16 20:45:00+00:00
| 1,568,681,100 | 1,569,330,201 |
human interest
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588,893 |
theconservativetreehouse--2019-06-20--President Trump Presents Medal of Freedom to Economist Dr Arthur Laffer Video and Transcript
| 2019-06-20T00:00:00 |
theconservativetreehouse
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President Trump Presents Medal of Freedom to Economist Dr. Arthur Laffer – Video and Transcript…
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Earlier today President Donald Trump presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Dr. Arthur Laffer in the Oval Office. [Video and Transcript] [Transcript] – 5:16 P.M. EDT – THE PRESIDENT: Well, this is a big day. Very important for a very important subject. Today it’s my privilege to award our nation’s highest civilian honor to the father of supply-side economics: Dr. Arthur Laffer. (Applause.) I know Art has been to the Oval Office, unlike most people, many times. But this is a very special time for you. This is a tremendous award. You have the Congressional Medal of Honor on the military side, which, of course, is something incredibly special. And the presidential medal is — I just want to congratulate you. There’s nothing like it, right? THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Art. Joining us for this momentous ceremony are Art’s six children. Thank you very much. Congratulations. (Applause.) And we’re also grateful to be joined by Vice President Mike Pence. We just got back from Florida. (Applause.) Had a big night. That was a big night in Orlando, Mike. Right? Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Alex Acosta, Elaine Chao, and Ben Carson, thank you very much for being here. And our top economic advisor and a great friend — of all of us, actually. I hear that voice and I just say “money, money, money.” Larry Kudlow. (Laughter.) Right? Larry. Thank you, Larry. THE PRESIDENT: Few people in history have revolutionized economic thought and policy like Dr. Art Laffer. He developed a brilliant theory, shaped unprecedented economic reforms, and helped turn a severe recession into a remarkable boom. He proved that the most powerful way to grow the economy and raise government revenue was not to increase tax rates but to adopt strong incentives that unleash the power of human freedom and innovate, create jobs, and deliver greater opportunity to all Americans. And he’s proved it over and over again. A Yale graduate, Art went on to earn his PhD in Economics from Stanford University. He became the youngest-ever tenured professor at the University of Chicago. Oh, that’s good. That wasn’t too long, was it? (Laughter.) He’s very deceiving. He’s a little older than he looks. He looks like he’s in his forties. (Laughter.) He’s a little older than that. Just a little bit, right? THE PRESIDENT: Don’t talk about it. (Laughs.) In 1970, Art served as the very first chief economist at the Office of Management and Budget, where he designed an economic model that is still used today to forecast tax revenue and accurately predict economic growth. Art then returned to the University of Chicago. At the start of the Ford administration, our nation’s economic situation was becoming dire indeed. We remember. In 1974 alone, 2 million Americans joined the unemployment lines, and inflation hit 11 percent. Right now, we have inflation at almost nothing. (Applause.) I like that better. Don’t you? It’s good to read this because we read this and we realize how well we’re doing right now. The consensus in Washington, on both sides of the aisle, was that the government could tax, inflate, and regulate its way to prosperity. But Art had a different idea. Right? You did have a different idea. I’d have you tell it. It would be much more interesting, huh? In 1974, Art came to dinner with the White House Chief Staff — Chief of Staff Don Rumsfeld; Deputy Chief of Staff Dick Cheney — who’s been, by the way, a tremendous supporter, and we appreciate Dick very much; and Wall Street Journal reporter Jude Wanniski. The dinner has since become very, very legendary in many minds. Art drew on his napkin a series of lines and a curve that changed history. With the now famous “Laffer Curve” — still, a very, very highly respected economic curve — Art showed that if tax rates are too high, people stop spending and they stop investing. The result is less growth and lower tax revenues. On the other hand, at the certain point on the curve, lower tax rates spur investment, economic growth, and raise government revenue. I think Steve Forbes agrees with that. (Laughter.) Where’s Steve? I’ve heard you for a long time talking about that. Very much agree. Prominent academics called this theory “insanity,” “totally wacky,” and “completely off the wall.” With optimism, confidence, and exceptional intellect, Art would go on to prove them all wrong. He proved them wrong on a number of occasions. In 1978, California Governor Jerry Brown asked Art to help him implement Proposition 13, which the people had overwhelmingly enacted to dramatically reduce the state property tax. I think they could use it again out there, by the way. They should do that immediately. The results were so successful that job creation soon grew at twice the nationwide rate. Within two years, 43 states adopted similar reforms. During that same period, Art also advised Ronald Reagan, and helped shape his low-tax, pro-growth agenda. After President Reagan’s election, Art served on the President’s Economic Policy Advisory Board. He played a vital role in both the 1981 and 1986 tax rate cuts, which ultimately lowered the top marginal tax rate from 70 percent to 28 percent. That’s not bad. That’s a pretty big reduction, I would say. The Reagan economy soared, creating sustained economic growth, shrinking poverty, expanding incomes, and dramatically increasing federal revenue. Sounds very familiar. Sounds very, very familiar, actually. Our economy has never, ever been stronger than it is today. (Applause.) It’s true. Dr. Laffer’s policies not only expanded opportunity for our citizens; they spurred economic reforms around the world and helped lift untold millions out of poverty. Art has advised many world leaders, including former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher — a great one. Staying true to the pro-growth vision that Dr. Laffer helped develop, in 2017, we passed historic tax cuts and reforms into law. Now, unemployment has reached its lowest level in over 51 years, with fast-growing wages, low inflation, and real GDP. And this is GDP growth that’s higher than anybody ever thought possible. First quarter was 3.2. And everybody said the first quarter is not going to be so good because the first quarter is never very good for us. But it was not only good; it was double and even triple what people expected. And we’re going to see some other very pleasant surprises, especially when the trade deals are all worked out. And they’re coming along very well, Art, as you know. Our tax cuts and reforms also created Opportunity Zones in distressed communities, another idea that Dr. Laffer helped develop early in his career. In 1999, TIME magazine named Dr. Laffer one of the greatest minds of the 20th century. Former Wall Street Journal reporter Jude Wanniski wrote, “In studying public finance, there is nothing more important than an appreciation of the Laffer Curve.” I’ve heard and studied the Laffer Curve for many years in the Wharton School of Finance. It’s a very important thing that you’ve done, Art. Very important. Dr. Laffer helped inspire, guide, and implement extraordinary economic reforms that recognize the power of human freedom and ingenuity to grow our economy and lift families out of poverty and into a really bright future. Today, our nation is stronger, our people more prosperous, and the world a much better place because of the brilliance and boldness of Dr. Arthur Laffer. And it’s now my profound honor to ask the military aide to come forward as I present Dr. Laffer with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It’s my great honor. Thank you. (Applause.) MILITARY AIDE: Arthur B. Laffer, the Father of Supply-Side Economics, is one of the most influential economists in American history. He is renowned for his economic theory, “The Laffer Curve,” which establishes the strong incentive effects of lower tax rates that spur investment, production, jobs, wages, economic growth, and tax compliance. Among other accomplishments during his distinguished career, Dr. Laffer was the first chief economist of the Office of Management and Budget and a top economic advisor to President Ronald Reagan. The United States proudly recognizes Arthur B. Laffer for his public service and his contributions to economic policy, which have helped spur prosperity for our nation. DR. LAFFER: Oh, my gosh. (Laughter.) When your staff said, “Keep it short,” I didn’t know that’s what they meant. (Laughter.) No, I’m just joking. THE PRESIDENT: This is your day. DR. LAFFER: Thank you very much. Let me, if I can: Sincerity and brevity — or so they say — go hand in hand. And in that vein, Mr. President, I want to thank you from the top, the middle, and the bottom of my heart. Thank you. Good economic policy is a team effort. And goodness knows my fellow teammates are the best ever: Larry Kudlow, my friend forever and ever and ever. Steve Moore. Where are you, Steve? Steve Moore. Steve Forbes. Steve Forbes canceled his trip abroad to be here today. Is David Malpass here? Kevin Hassett. Team players, Steven Mnuchin, wherever — there you are. You’re way back there. Steven. You don’t get a better team than that, ever. I mean, this is the team of all teams. And I just want to reflect for a second on some of my past colleagues and working with other administrations. For example, in the past, my colleagues included Nobel Laureate and dear friend Bob Mundell; the legendary editorial page editor, Bob Bartley, of the Wall Street Journal; Jude Wanniski, the crazy, wild revolutionary for supply-side economics; Milton Friedman, of course; my godfather and dearest supporter, Justin Dart; George Schultz, my mentor who has hired me four times and not gotten tired of it yet, I guess; Jack Kemp, who we called, “The Weapon” — he’s delivered it; and my classmate at Yale, and my dear friend, a guy named Dick Cheney. It’s just really wonderful to have — each of whom deserves a lot of praise. By the way, just for the record, Bob Bartley, Milton Friedman, Justin Dart, George Schultz, Jack Kemp, and Dick Cheney all received the President Medal of Freedom. Isn’t that amazing? I’m in great, great company, let me tell you. I’m awed by that. But to get over the — to get the ball over the — to get the ball over the goal line, committed leadership is the sine qua non for this. And we had President Kennedy, President Reagan, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and of course, you, Mr. President, Donald Trump, to really make it all happen. Without the leaders — (applause) — and all I can say is, wow. I mean, you know, President Kennedy established the current Presidential Medal of Freedom, and both President Reagan and Margaret Thatcher were recipients. My business partner is here. My business partner’s friends and fellow dreamcatchers — a number of whom are here today, by the way — have allowed all of this to happen for me, and I am eternally grateful. They are the salt of the Earth. And, in fact, they actually lived the lives that we economists just talk about. They actually do it. And it is for them that we do what we do. They have kept, do keep, and will keep America prosperous. And my final shout-out, if I may, is to my family — my wonderful family. All six of my children are here today, as well as Mike Madzin and Mike Stabile. I’m missing my 13 grandchildren and my 4 great-grandchildren, for which I am sure the White House staff is eternally grateful. (Laughter.) My family makes me very, very proud and gives me a reason every morning to get up and get to work. Thank you. (Applause.)
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sundance
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https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2019/06/19/president-trump-presents-medal-of-freedom-to-economist-dr-arthur-laffer-video-and-transcript/
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2019-06-20 03:05:30+00:00
| 1,561,014,330 | 1,567,538,654 |
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theconservativetreehouse--2019-06-25--President Trump Presents Medal of Honor to Staff Sergeant David Bellavia US Army Video and Tra
| 2019-06-25T00:00:00 |
theconservativetreehouse
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President Trump Presents Medal of Honor to Staff Sergeant David Bellavia, U.S. Army – (Video and Transcript)…
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Earlier today in the East Room of the White House U.S. President Donald Trump presented the nation’s highest honor for bravery to Staff Sergeant David Bellavia, U.S. Army [Video and Transcript Below] [Transcript] – 3:36 P.M. EDT – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Please. Thank you, Chaplain, very much. It’s really beautiful. Today, it’s my privilege to award the highest military honor to an American soldier who demonstrated exceptional courage to protect his men and defend our nation. Will you please join me in welcoming Staff Sergeant David Bellavia? David, thank you. (Applause.) David is the first living recipient to earn the Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery in the Iraq War. (Applause.) We are honored to have with us distinguished leaders of our military. I want to recognize Acting Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist. David, thank you very much. And congratulations. Acting Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy. Come here, Ryan. Let me just say hello to you. (Laughter.) Congratulations. Just happened yesterday, so I have to congratulate. Congratulations. Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Paul Selva. Thank you, Paul. Army Chief of Staff General Mark Milley. Hi, Mark. And Sergeant Major of the Army Daniel Dailey. Thank you, Daniel, very much. Thanks as well to members of Congress who join us: Representative Liz Cheney. Thanks, Liz. Chris Collins. Thanks, Chris. Dan Crenshaw. Tom Reed. Thank you. Thank you, Tom. I see you over there, Tom. THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Joining David for this special ceremony is his wife Deanna and three children, Evan, Ayden, and Vivienne, along with his mother Marilyn, and his brothers Daniel and Rand. I want to thank you all for being here. A very special day for you and for all of us. For the nation, actually. Thank you. (Applause.) David’s father William passed away in 2017. And though he’s no longer with us, we know that today he must be one of those proud dads. He’s looking down upon us from Heaven, and he’s very proud of his son and his son’s family. I have to say that. Thank you, David. Finally, we are gratified to be joined by eight previous Medal of Honor recipients. And, I have to tell you, I’ve got to know just about all of them. You are forever with us. You inspire us. You are truly brave, great people. Thank you very much for being here. (Applause.) Brave people. Thank you. David grew up in Western New York. He was the youngest of four children. As a boy, he would listen to stories from his grandfather, a World War Two veteran, and hero in his own right, who earned a Bronze Star in the Normandy campaign. I just came back from Normandy. That was something. As David remembers, his grandfather’s stories were always “vivid with a source of pride.” And they were delivered very beautifully. There was a nobility and purpose in the infantry. And David saw that a very young age. “I wanted to be what my grandfather was,” David would often say. “I wanted to be part of this noble adventure.” Is that right? That’s a pretty good quote, would you say? Better say “yes,” otherwise I have a problem. (Laughter.) In 1999, David followed the example of his grandfather, and joined the United States Army Infantry. Several months after the September 11th attack on our nation, David deployed, saying goodbye to his wife and his son, Evan. He served in Germany, Kosovo, and then in Iraq. In November of 2004, after nearly a year of intense enemy combat in Iraq, David led his squad into battle to liberate the city of Fallujah and anti-Iraqi forces. That was a tough place. This operation was the bloodiest battle of the Iraq War. For three days straight, David and his men kicked down doors, searched houses, and destroyed enemy weapons, never knowing where they would find a terrorist lurking next. And there were plenty of them. The third day of battle was November 10th, David’s 29th birthday. That night, his squad was tasked with clearing 12 houses occupied by insurgents. A very dangerous operation. They entered house after house, and secured nine of the buildings. Then came the 10th. That was a tough one. It was a three-story building surrounded by a nine-foot wall. As they entered the house and moved into the living room, two men were behind concrete barricades. They opened fire on David and everybody. In the dark of night, shards of glass, brick, and plaster flew into the air, wounding multiple soldiers. The rounds of fire ripped holes into the wall separating the Americans from the terrorists. The wall was ripped to shreds. David knew they had to get out. David thought that they had had it. He leapt into the torrent of bullets, and fired back at the enemy without even thinking. The insurgents — he just took cover. David took over. He provided suppressive fire while his men evacuated, rescuing his entire squad at the risk of his own life. Only when his men were all out did David exit the building. But the fighting was far from over. Militants on the roof fired down at them with round after deadly round. A Bradley Fighting Vehicle came to the scene to suppress the enemy and drove them further into the building. Knowing that he would face almost certain death, David decided to go back inside the house and make sure that not a single terrorist escaped alive, or escaped in any way. He quickly encountered an insurgent who was about to fire a rocket-propelled grenade at his squad. David once again jumped into danger and killed him before he had a chance to launch that grenade. Next, two more insurgents came out of hiding and fired at David. He returned fire, killing them both. Then, a third assailant burst out of a wardrobe — wearing a wardrobe — and opened fire. David shot and wounded the man, but he escaped up the stairs. Racing after him, David engaged in hand-to-hand combat and killed him too. Bleeding and badly wounded, David had single-handedly defeated the forces who had attacked. Just then, yet another combatant jumped down from the third-story roof and attacked. David shot him, and the assailant fell off the balcony. Alone, in the dark, David killed four insurgents and seriously wounded the fifth, saving his soldiers and facing down the enemies of civilization. Here with us today are 32 American service members who fought with David in Iraq, including 12 who were with David on that very, very horrible and dangerous November night. Please stand. Please. (Applause.) Did he do a good job? THE PRESIDENT: If not, you know, it’s not too late. (Laughter.) Thank you very much for being here. We appreciate it very much. Also with us are five families of David’s brothers-in-arms who made the supreme sacrifice. To the Gold Star families of Sean Sims, Steven Faulkenberg, Scott Lawson, JC Matteson, and Michael Carlson: Our entire nation expresses our love, loyalty, and everlasting gratitude. Please, stand. Please. (Applause.) Thank you very much for being here. Appreciate it. Thank you. David often tells young people, “Americans don’t want to fight, but if someone picks a fight with us, we will always win. Because we don’t fight for awards or recognition. We fight for love of our country, our homeland, our family, and our unit — and that’s stronger than anything the enemy has.” So, thank you. And thank you to his family very much. Great family, David. Thank you. David exemplifies the same warrior ethos that gave his grandfather and all the heroes of Normandy the strength to defeat evil exactly 75 years ago. I hear that his grandfather Joseph is now 99 years old and that today he’s watching this ceremony at his home in Jamestown, New York. A lot of people are watching, David. America is blessed with the heroes and great people like Staff Sergeant Bellavia whose intrepid spirit and unwavering resolve defeats our enemies, protects our freedoms, and defends our great American flag. David, today we honor your extraordinary courage, we salute your selfless service, and we thank you for carrying on the legacy of American valor that has always made our blessed nation the strongest and mightiest anywhere in the world. And we’re doing better today than we’ve ever done. Our country is stronger now, and we’re doing better economically than ever before. We’re setting records, and you fought for something that’s really good, and we appreciate it, David. We really appreciate it. Thank you. And now I’m very pleased to ask the military aide to come forward while I present the Congressional Medal of Honor to Staff Sergeant David Bellavia. Please. MILITARY AIDE: The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, March 3rd, 1863, has awarded in the name of Congress the Medal of Honor to Staff Sergeant David G. Bellavia, United States Army, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Staff Sergeant David G. Bellavia distinguished himself by acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty on November 10, 2004, while serving as squad leader in support of Operation Phantom Fury in Fallujah, Iraq. While clearing a house, a squad from Staff Sergeant Bellavia’s platoon became trapped within a room by intense enemy fire coming from a fortified position under the stairs leading to the second floor. Recognizing the immediate severity of the situation, and with disregard for his own safety, Staff Sergeant Bellavia retrieved an automatic weapon and entered the doorway of the house to engage the insurgents. With enemy rounds impacting around him, Staff Sergeant Bellavia fired at the enemy position at a cyclic rate, providing covering fire that allowed the squad to break contact and exit the house. A Bradley Fighting Vehicle was brought forward to suppress the enemy; however, due to high walls surrounding the house, it could not fire directly at the enemy position. Staff Sergeant Bellavia then re-entered the house and again came under intense enemy fire. He observed an enemy insurgent preparing to launch a rocket-propelled grenade at his platoon. Recognizing the grave danger the grenade posed to his fellow soldiers, Staff Sergeant Bellavia assaulted the enemy position, killing one insurgent and wounding another who ran to a different part of the house. Staff Sergeant Bellavia, realizing he had an un-cleared, darkened room to his back, moved to clear it. As he entered, an insurgent came down the stairs firing at him. Simultaneously, the previously wounded insurgent reemerged and engaged Staff Sergeant Bellavia. Staff Sergeant Bellavia, entering further into the darkened room, returned fire and eliminated both insurgents. Staff Sergeant Bellavia then received enemy fire from another insurgent emerging from a closet in the darkened room. Exchanging gunfire, Staff Sergeant Bellavia pursued the enemy up the stairs and eliminated him. Now on the second floor, Staff Sergeant Bellavia moved to a door that opened onto the roof. At this point, a fifth insurgent leapt from the third floor roof onto the second floor roof. Staff Sergeant Bellavia engaged the insurgent through a window, wounding him in the back and legs, and caused him to fall off the roof. Acting on instinct to save the members of his platoon from an imminent threat, Staff Sergeant Bellavia ultimately cleared an entire enemy-filled house, destroyed four insurgents, and badly wounded a fifth. Staff Sergeant Bellavia’s bravery, complete disregard for his own safety, and unselfish and courageous actions are in keeping with the finest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself and the United States Army.
|
sundance
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https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2019/06/25/president-trump-presents-medal-of-honor-to-staff-sergeant-david-bellavia-u-s-army-video-and-transcript/
|
2019-06-25 22:35:39+00:00
| 1,561,516,539 | 1,567,538,253 |
human interest
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ceremony
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589,744 |
theconservativetreehouse--2019-10-30--President Trump Presents Medal of Honor to Sgt. Matthew Williams – 5:00pm Livestream…
| 2019-10-30T00:00:00 |
theconservativetreehouse
|
President Trump Presents Medal of Honor to Sgt. Matthew Williams – 5:00pm Livestream…
|
Today President Trump will be presenting Master Sergeant Matthew Williams with the Medal of Honor for leadership under fire in Afghanistan. Anticipated start time 5:00pm EDT. [Video and Transcript Added] [Transcript] THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Chaplain. I appreciate that. Please, sit down. Well, this afternoon, it’s my privilege to present our nation’s highest and most revered military distinction. It’s called the “Congressional Medal of Honor.” There’s nothing like it. Please join me in welcoming today’s extraordinary recipient, Master Sergeant Matthew Williams. (Applause.) Thank you very much. We are delighted to have with us the Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper. Thank you, Mark. And great job to you and to everybody and General Milley for the incredible act you performed seven days ago with al-Baghdadi. He — he was hit hard, the way he should’ve been. And I just want to say, for all of our military: We’re very proud of you. That was something very special. The whole world is proud of you, frankly. So thank you very much. Thank you, Mark. Great job. (Applause.) Also with us is Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Byrne — thank you — thank you, Jim; Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy — thank you; Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley — thank you, General — great job, incredible job; Army Chief of Staff James McConville; and Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Grinston. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for being here. Also thank you to some very special warriors — in a little different kind of war, maybe, but they are warriors: Senators John Cornyn, Ted Cruz, and Thom Tillis. Thank you very much, fellas. Thank you. (Applause.) Along with Representative Richard Hudson for being here. We have a few other great politicians here, but we won’t bother because we want to get on with this one. This is a very special thing. It’s such a great honor. Joining Matt for this special ceremony is his wife Kate, his father Michael, his mother Janet, brother Cody, and his sister Amy. Please stand up. Please. Thank you. Great family. (Applause.) Each of you has strengthened our nation through your steadfast love and support. And we want to just thank you. You’re a very, very special family. We’re also honored to be in the presence of eight previous Congressional Medal of Honor winners — recipients are here. And I thought maybe we should — what do you think? — we should introduce them. I think so, right? Huh? Come on, let’s do that. William Swenson. William, thank you very much, William. (Applause.) Ronald Shurer. Thank you. Thank you, Ronald. Thank you. (Applause.) Robert Foley. Thank you, Robert. Thank you, Robert. (Applause.) Brian Thacker. Thank you very much. (Applause.) Florent Groberg. Thank you. Thank you, Florent. (Applause.) David Bellavia. David. (Applause.) I heard you, maybe, are going to be running for office — but someday, I know, huh? I’ll tell you. Boy, I’ll tell you what: He has my vote. (Laughter.) You have a brave politician for a change, right? That’s great. Nice to see you, David. Thank you very much. And Salvatore Giunta. Thank you, Salvatore. (Applause.) Thank you very much. Thank you. Matt Williams grew up in the small town of Boerne, Texas — a very small town. He met Kate for the first time in elementary school. In college, he planned to pursue a career in law enforcement. But after 9/11, Matt decided his place was on the frontlines of the war on terror. He wanted to be the best of the best; he worked so hard at it. So, after graduation, he enlisted in the Army to become a Green Beret. Matt finished his Special Forces training in August 2007 and deployed to Afghanistan by October. On April 6th, 2008, he joined dozens of American Special Forces and Afghan commandos on a mission to take down a terrorist leader in a remote mountain village. It sounded simple — not simple. On that cold spring morning, the soldiers arrived in helicopters and jumped 10 feet from their Chinooks into the rocky and freezing terrain of Shok Valley. When the first Americans reached the edge of the valley, at the base of a 100-foot mountain, a handful of Special Forces scouted ahead. The lead group was 60 feet up the slope when roughly 200 insurgents savagely attacked. And it was a big surprise — a very unwelcome surprise, I might add. The terrorists filled the valley with a hail of bullets and explosions. Matt soon received word that the soldiers on the mountain were pinned down and suffering from mounting casualties. He organized the Afghan infantry under his command and he led a bold counterassault to stop the enemy advance. As machinegun fire rained down from above, Matt and his fellow American soldiers, Scott Ford and Ronald Shurer, charged up the mountain. Once they reached their trapped comrades, Matt realized that several of them were too gravely wounded to be quickly evacuated. He ran down the mountain to get support and then climbed back up with bullets spraying all around. Not a good place to be. Again and again, Matt exchanged fire with the enemy and rescued his fellow soldiers. He guided his injured team sergeant, Scott Ford, down the mountain to safety. When Matt noticed two combatants moving toward a group of the badly wounded, he immediately engaged the enemy fighters and killed them both. But Matt was not done yet. In order to rejoin the battle on the mountain, he and Sergeant Seth Howard scaled a sheer cliff completely exposed to attack. Matt quickly reengaged the adversary and shielded the injured from falling rubble as American warplanes bombed insurgent positions above and rocked the mountain from top to bottom. He then helped evacuate the wounded down a very, very steep cliff. As the terrorists continued to try to overrun their position, Matt raced back into battle. He fought for several more hours, valiantly protecting the wounded and putting his own life in great peril to save his comrades. Matt’s incredible heroism helped ensure that not a single American soldier died in the Battle of Shok Valley. His ground commander later wrote: “I’ve never seen a troop so poised, focused, and capable during a… fight.” And Matt is without question and without reservation, “one of the bravest soldiers” and people “I have ever met.” But Matt wants all Americans to know that he was not alone in his heroism that day. Joining us this afternoon are other heroes of Shok Valley. Please rise when I read your name: Lieutenant Colonel Kyle Walton. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you. Master Sergeant Scott Ford. Thank you, Scott. (Applause.) And Luis Morales. Thank you very much. Thank you, Luis. (Applause.) Karl Wurzbach. Where is Karl? Thank you, Karl. (Applause.) Thank you. Sergeants First Class Seth Howard, Dave Sanders, John Walding, Dillon Behr, and Ryan Wallen. Thank you, fellas. (Applause.) Thank you, fellas. And very importantly, as you know better than anyone, Afghan translators Bahroz Mohmand and Zia Ghafoori. (Applause.) How was that? Okay? Not bad? Good. He said it was okay. He said it was okay. Thank you both very much. Fantastic job. Fantastic job. Thank you. I assume you all agree with this choice, right? Okay? Your last chance, eh? They all agree. Thank you very much. I agree, too. We all do. Staff Sergeant Ronald Shurer was with us and privileged to be here. And we had a, not so long ago — a great ceremony with the Medal of Honor and that was really amazing that you both here are together. To each and every one of you, I want to thank you and I want to thank the fearless defense and what you’ve done for our country. It’s incredible. Your valor, your bravery, your strength, your heart, your soul — it’s incredible. Incredible what you’ve done. The Battle of Shok Valley is a testament to the overwhelming strength, lethal skill, and unstoppable might of the United States Army Special Forces and all of our military. The enemy that really held a high ground, superior numbers, and an element of surprise — they had it all going; everything they’re not supposed to have, they had. But they had one major disadvantage: They were facing the toughest, strongest, and best-trained soldiers anywhere in the world. We showed that a few days ago. And these guys didn’t know what the hell hit them. (Laughter.) No adversary on Earth stands a chance against the American Green Berets. A few years after that first perilous deployment, Matt married Kate. Did you make a good decision, Kate, in allowing this to happen, right? (Laughter.) Well, you definitely have a brave guy. I can’t speak for the rest. Okay? (Laughter.) He’s a brave guy and he’s a great guy, so good luck. That’s nice. Today, they have a young son, Nolan, who will turn three next week. That’s beautiful. In the years to come, Nolan will learn that his father stands among the ranks of our nation’s greatest heroes. For more than a decade, Matt has stared down our enemies, fought back the forces of terror, and exemplified the virtue and gallantry of the American warrior. He has completed five tours in Afghanistan, a deployment in Africa, and he continues to serve our country on active duty today. That’s something — to have Congressional Medal of Honor and be serving in active duty. It’s very rare. Matt, we salute your unyielding service, your unbreakable resolve, and your untiring devotion to our great nation and the nation that we all love. Your spirit keeps our flag waving high, our families safe at home, and our hearts beating with American pride. On behalf of the entire nation — our great USA, our incredible United States of America — we are forever grateful for your life of service and your outstanding courage. It’s now my privilege to present Master Sergeant Matthew Williams with the Congressional Medal of Honor. And I would like to ask the military aide to come forward and please read the citation. Thank you. MILITARY AIDE: The President of the United States of America has awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor to Sergeant Matthew O. Williams, United States Army. Sergeant Williams distinguished himself by acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty on April 6, 2008, while serving as a Weapons Sergeant, Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha [DEL: 336 :DEL] [3336], Special Operations Task Force-33, in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Sergeant Williams’s actions are in keeping with the finest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-Afghanistan, Special Operations Command Central, and United States Army. Master Sgt. Matthew Williams, a 3rd Special Forces Group operations sergeant, graduated from Angelo State University with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. Driven to serve, Williams enlisted into the Army under the 18X Special Forces enlistment program in September 2005. After completing Infantry One Station Unit Training, Williams attended Basic Airborne Training at Fort Benning, Georgia. He then went through the Special Forces assessment and selection process in 2006 and was accepted into the program. In 2007, Williams graduated as a weapons sergeant from the Special Forces Qualification Course and was assigned to Charlie Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne). – MORE
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sundance
|
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2019/10/30/president-trump-presents-medal-of-honor-to-sgt-mattnew-williams-500pm-livestream/
|
Wed, 30 Oct 2019 21:05:36 +0000
| 1,572,483,936 | 1,572,535,836 |
human interest
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ceremony
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603,637 |
thedailycaller--2019-05-31--Trump To Award Art Laffer Presidential Medal Of Freedom
| 2019-05-31T00:00:00 |
thedailycaller
|
Trump To Award Art Laffer Presidential Medal Of Freedom
|
President Donald Trump will award economist Art Laffer with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The ceremony will take place June 19, the White House announced in a press release. (RELATED: White House Aide Says WSJ Falsely Accused Him Of Speaking To Meeting He Didn’t Attend) “Arthur B. Laffer, the ‘Father of Supply-Side Economics,’ is one of the most influential economists in American history,” the White House said in a statement. “He is renowned for his economic theory, the ‘Laffer Curve,’ which establishes the strong incentive effects of lower tax rates that spur investment, production, jobs, wages, economic growth, and tax compliance.” Laffer is widely considered the intellectual founder of “Reaganomics,” the economic philosophy named after former Republican President Ronald Reagan, which emphasizes tax cuts, deregulation, and supply side economics. He is also the namesake for the Laffer Curve, a disputed political theory that postulates cutting taxes actually increases tax revenue in some circumstances. The decision to award Laffer the Medal of Freedom comes a year after Laffer wrote a book titled “Trumponomics,” a book co-written by fellow conservative economist Stephen Moore. (RELATED: Art Laffer Explains Why The US Isn’t In A Trade War) The White House’s move will likely be met with intense criticism from liberals who have spent decades opposing Laffer’s economic philosophy.
|
William Davis
|
https://dailycaller.com/2019/05/31/trump-art-laffer-presidential-medal-of-freedom/
|
2019-05-31 21:05:45+00:00
| 1,559,351,145 | 1,567,539,628 |
human interest
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ceremony
|
607,651 |
thedailycaller--2019-11-21--Jon Voight Dances For Trump At Medal Of Arts Ceremony
| 2019-11-21T00:00:00 |
thedailycaller
|
Jon Voight Dances For Trump At Medal Of Arts Ceremony
|
Jon Voight was a hit at the White House when he started showing off his dance moves for President Donald Trump during the Medal of Arts ceremony. It all went down Thursday in the East Room, after Trump had begun the ceremony to hand out the National Medal of Arts and the National Humanities Medal to a handful of “artists, musicians and scholars,” the 80-year-old actor included. (RELATED: Jon Voight: We Must ‘Stand With President Trump For His Next Win’) The president suddenly stops speaking as the theme music from “Midnight Cowboy” began to play in the background and we hear off-camera people clapping, per video from CSPAN shared on Twitter. (RELATED: Jon Voight: Trump Is ‘Greatest President Since Abraham Lincoln’) The next thing we see is the camera panning over to see what the Trump and others are looking at as Voight jumps to his feet and saunters over to where the president’s standing while the music from the 1969 classic played. Trump smiles at the legendary actor who then points at the president as he continued smiling. “We love having you [Voight] here, especially since it is someone that I really like,” Trump shared with the room. A short time later, the president presented the actor with a National Medal of the Arts for his contributions.
|
Katie Jerkovich
|
https://dailycaller.com/2019/11/21/jon-voight-dances-trump-medal-ceremony/
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Thu, 21 Nov 2019 22:43:03 +0000
| 1,574,394,183 | 1,574,381,438 |
human interest
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ceremony
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648,319 |
thedailyrecord--2019-04-30--Polar explorers are guests of honour at medal ceremony
| 2019-04-30T00:00:00 |
thedailyrecord
|
Polar explorers are guests of honour at medal ceremony
|
A special ceremony has been held to mark the success of a group of Bathgate Academy’s pupils. Over 120 guests attended a special dinner and medal ceremony at Dundas Castle near Edinburgh to recognise the achievements of 10 pupils who took part in a 10-day expedition in Eastern Greenland with the youth charity, The Polar Academy. During April, the pupils and Ellis McKay (pupil support manager) participated in the life-changing trip. To loud cheers and more than a few tears, a parent of each expedition team member presented their son or daughter with the prestigious polar medal. Looking on were family members and many of the growing number of supporters and patrons of The Polar Academy. This included founding supporter, Tiso the outdoor adventure retail specialist and representatives of ski manufacturer, Åsnes Skis who travelled from Norway and attended wearing traditional Norwegian clothes. Craig Mathieson, the Bo’ness-based expedition leader and founder of The Polar Academy, said: “Supported by the charity, their school and families, all at Bathgate Academy involved in this year’s expedition fully committed to the programme that included tough and regular physical training. Every week I could see their self-confidence steadily grow. In Greenland, whether tasked with navigating, cutting ice blocks or pitching tents, when the going got tough it was fantastic to watch everyone work as a team and to develop that all important ‘can do’ mentality. “I am so proud of these pupils who over the past nine months of committing to the methods of The Polar Academy have transformed into confident and resilient young men and women. They now know that with focus and effort the seemingly impossible can be achieved.” Team member Adam Rayner (16) said: “I feel that The Polar Academy has changed me from being a quiet, shy follower to someone with the confidence to lead. I’m definitely much more confident. The Polar Academy has changed my life and I’m really going to miss it.” And Alex Cochrane (15) added: “It’s an almost indescribable feeling to explain how grateful I am to Craig (Mathieson) and The Polar Academy for the opportunity to be part of the expedition team. It has been a truly life-changing experience. Since getting involved with the programme I’ve increasingly noticed small positive changes in myself.” Over the past year the expedition team and their families fundraised £75,000 to support their expedition and the future work of The Polar Academy, a charity that’s wholly dependent on donations to operate. Pupils on the expedition team will visit schools about their life-changing experiences. It is the fifth year that The Polar Academy has successfully selected and trained individuals from within Scotland’s secondary education sector. The Polar Academy and the expedition team from Bathgate Academy will feature in a four-part documentary to be broadcast on BBC Scotland later this year. The 2018/2019 Polar Academy Expedition Team was again accompanied by expert guides Craig Mathieson, Nigel Williams, George MacHardy, Mollie Hughes and Dr Naomi Dodds.
|
Marjorie Kerr
|
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/polar-explorers-guests-honour-medal-14974468
|
2019-04-30 18:08:00+00:00
| 1,556,662,080 | 1,567,541,642 |
human interest
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ceremony
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664,281 |
thedenverpost--2019-08-23--President Trump awards Medal of Freedom to NBA star Bob Cousy
| 2019-08-23T00:00:00 |
thedenverpost
|
President Trump awards Medal of Freedom to NBA star Bob Cousy
|
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump presented 91-year-old basketball legend Bob Cousy with the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Thursday, praising the Boston Celtics star as “one of the all-time greats in the history of sports.” Cousy played for the Celtics from 1950 to 1963, winning six league championships and the 1957 MVP title. The Bob Cousy Award, given to the country’s best point guard in men’s college basketball, is named for him. He is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and played a pivotal role in founding the NBA Player’s Association. After hanging up his No. 14 jersey, the 13-time NBA All-Star went on to coach basketball at Boston College. “This acknowledgment allows me to complete my life circle,” Cousy said during the Oval Office awards ceremony. “I can stop chasing a bouncing ball. The Presidential Medal of Freedom allows me to reach a level of acceptance in our society I never once ever dreamed of.” Trump spoke of Cousy’s childhood during the Great Depression and discovering his talent for basketball at a young age. The president said Cousy never forgot his first mentor’s advice to never be predictable, and jokingly added: “Hey, I’ve heard that lesson, too.” The president recognized Cousy’s achievements on and off the court, lauding his support for underprivileged young athletes and speaking out against racism. Cousy, who is white, ardently supported his black teammates who faced discrimination during the civil rights movement. Still, Cousy lamented in Gary Pomerantz’s biography “The Last Pass: Cousy, Russell, the Celtics, and What Matters in the End,” that he didn’t do more for his black teammates, including 2011 Medal of Freedom recipient Bill Russell. The Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, celebrates individuals for their “especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the U.S., to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.” Trump credited West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin for suggesting the medal be given to Cousy. Cousy is the second Medal of Freedom recipient this year. Trump presented the award to golfer Tiger Woods in May. Cousy is the 10th honoree under Trump, who is Cousy’s candidate of choice in the 2020 presidential election. In a recent interview with NBA.com, Cousy described himself as politically moderate. He said that although he disagrees with some of the president’s actions, he plans to vote for Trump next year. During the award ceremony, Cousy said the medal was made all the more special because it had been presented by the “most extraordinary” president in his lifetime. “I know in your world, you’re well on your way to making America great again,” Cousy told the president. “In my world, it’s been great for 91 years. Only in America could my story have been told.”
|
The Associated Press
|
https://www.denverpost.com/2019/08/22/medal-of-freedom-bob-cousy-nba-star/
|
2019-08-23 02:21:38+00:00
| 1,566,541,298 | 1,567,533,554 |
human interest
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ceremony
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668,967 |
theepochtimes--2019-08-22--Trump Awards Medal of Freedom to NBA Star Bob Cousy
| 2019-08-22T00:00:00 |
theepochtimes
|
Trump Awards Medal of Freedom to NBA Star Bob Cousy
|
President Donald Trump presents the Medal of Freedom to retired Boston Celtic Bob Cousy in the Oval Office at the White House on Aug. 22, 2019. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images) WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump presented 91-year-old basketball legend Bob Cousy with the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Aug. 22, praising the Boston Celtics star as “one of the all-time greats in the history of sports.” Cousy played for the Celtics from 1950 to 1963, winning six league championships and the 1957 MVP title. The Bob Cousy Award, given to the country’s best point guard in men’s college basketball, is named for him. He is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and played a pivotal role in founding the NBA Player’s Association. After hanging up his No. 14 jersey, the 13-time NBA All-Star went on to coach basketball at Boston College. “This acknowledgment allows me to complete my life circle,” Cousy said during the Oval Office awards ceremony. “I can stop chasing a bouncing ball. The Presidential Medal of Freedom allows me to reach a level of acceptance in our society I never once ever dreamed of.” Trump spoke of Cousy’s childhood during the Great Depression and discovering his talent for basketball at a young age. The president said Cousy never forgot his first mentor’s advice to never be predictable, and jokingly added: “Hey, I’ve heard that lesson, too.” The Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, celebrates individuals for their “especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the U.S., to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.” Trump credited West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin for suggesting the medal be given to Cousy. Cousy is the second Medal of Freedom recipient this year. Trump presented the award to golfer Tiger Woods in May. Cousy is the 10th honoree under Trump, who is Cousy’s candidate of choice in the 2020 presidential election. In a recent interview with NBA.com, Cousy described himself as politically moderate. He said he plans to vote for Trump next year. During the award ceremony, Cousy said the medal was made all the more special because it had been presented by the “most extraordinary” president in his lifetime. “I know in your world, you’re well on your way to making America great again,” Cousy told the president. “In my world, it’s been great for 91 years. Only in America could my story have been told.”
|
The Associated Press
|
https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-awards-medal-of-freedom-to-nba-star-bob-cousy_3052878.html
|
2019-08-22 23:06:08+00:00
| 1,566,529,568 | 1,567,533,781 |
human interest
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ceremony
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669,492 |
theepochtimes--2019-09-05--Trump Presents Medal of Freedom to NBAs Jerry West
| 2019-09-05T00:00:00 |
theepochtimes
|
Trump Presents Medal of Freedom to NBA’s Jerry West
|
President Donald Trump (R) presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to former NBA basketball player and general manager Jerry West, in the Oval Office of the White House on Sept. 5, 2019. (Alex Brandon/AP Photo) WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump is continuing his run of recognizing American sports greats with the nation’s highest civilian honor. Trump has awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to pro basketball great Jerry West, formerly of the Los Angeles Lakers, during a White House ceremony. Trump says West “richly deserved” the medal for his years as a player, general manager and supporter of the nation’s war veterans. The 81-year-old West noted his humble beginnings growing up in West Virginia and where sports has taken him, saying “it never ceases to amaze me the places you can go in this world chasing a basketball.” Last month, Trump awarded the medal to 91-year-old basketball great Bob Cousy. Earlier this year, golfer Tiger Woods received the same honor.
|
The Associated Press
|
https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-presents-medal-of-freedom-to-nbas-jerry-west_3070821.html
|
2019-09-05 23:48:16+00:00
| 1,567,741,696 | 1,569,331,344 |
human interest
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ceremony
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809,368 |
themoscowtimes--2019-05-23--Putin Awards FIFAs Infantino State Medal for 2018 World Cup
| 2019-05-23T00:00:00 |
themoscowtimes
|
Putin Awards FIFA's Infantino State Medal for 2018 World Cup
|
FIFA President Gianni Infantino thanked Russia on Thursday for hosting the "best World Cup ever" as President Vladimir Putin presented him with a state award for his role in making last year's tournament possible. In a Kremlin ceremony broadcast on television, Putin thanked "all those who helped to make this dream come to life," including the head of football's global governing body. Infantino, with the Order of Friendship medal pinned to his lapel, replied: "You welcomed the world as friends, and the world has created bonds of friendship with Russia that will last forever." Russia's successful 2010 bid to host the 2018 tournament, which FIFA oversaw under Infantino's discredited predecessor Sepp Blatter, was marred by allegations of corruption in the bidding process which also saw the 2022 event awarded to Qatar. In 2014, FIFA cleared Russian authorities of wrongdoing, though Western critics continued in the run-up to the tournament to question its safety credentials and suggest it could play into Putin's hands politically. Qatar has also been cleared of wrongdoing. But last year's month-long event, spread across 11 cities, passed off without major security incidents and was deemed a success by players and fans. Putin said at the time that the World Cup had helped debunk stereotypes about his country. Blatter was honored with state awards by Germany and South Africa, which hosted the 2006 and 2010 tournaments.
| null |
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/05/23/putin-awards-fifas-infantino-state-medal-for-2018-world-cup-a65716
|
2019-05-23 13:29:00+00:00
| 1,558,632,540 | 1,567,540,213 |
human interest
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ceremony
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814,308 |
thenewyorktimes--2019-06-20--Trump Awards Presidential Medal of Freedom to Arthur Laffer Tax-Cut Guru
| 2019-06-20T00:00:00 |
thenewyorktimes
|
Trump Awards Presidential Medal of Freedom to Arthur Laffer, Tax-Cut Guru
|
WASHINGTON — President Trump bestowed the nation’s highest civilian honor on the conservative economist Arthur Laffer on Wednesday, praising him for policies that he said brought “greater opportunity for all Americans.” Mr. Laffer is the father of so-called supply-side economics, and is the namesake of a famed theory — the Laffer Curve — which posits that reducing certain tax rates can actually increase government tax revenues by accelerating economic growth. He helped write Mr. Trump’s campaign tax plan and has advised the president on economic policy. He is also the mentor of Larry Kudlow, the director of the White House National Economic Council. Mr. Laffer’s relentless and sunny advocacy of tax cuts, deregulation and free trade have influenced decades of Republican policy proposals, most famously under President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. Democrats have criticized him for repeatedly promising that tax cuts would deliver growth and revenues that did not appear, such as damaging state tax cuts in Kansas that produced a large shortfall in the state budget and prompted the Republican-controlled Legislature to ultimately reverse them. In a ceremony in the Oval Office, with Mr. Laffer’s six children in attendance, Mr. Trump said, “I’ve heard and studied the Laffer Curve for many years.” He called the theory, which Mr. Laffer famously sketched on a cocktail napkin in the 1970s for Donald H. Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, then Republican policy hands, “a very important thing you did, Art.”
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Jim Tankersley
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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/19/us/politics/arthur-laffer-medal-of-freedom.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
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2019-06-20 01:07:46+00:00
| 1,561,007,266 | 1,567,538,583 |
human interest
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ceremony
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815,667 |
thenewyorktimes--2019-09-06--For Second Time in 2 Weeks Trump Awards Medal of Freedom to an Ex-NBA Star
| 2019-09-06T00:00:00 |
thenewyorktimes
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For Second Time in 2 Weeks, Trump Awards Medal of Freedom to an Ex-N.B.A. Star
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WASHINGTON — President Trump awarded the Medal of Freedom to the former N.B.A. great Jerry West on Thursday, the second time in two weeks that the president has honored a long-retired standout from a league whose current generation of stars is known for refusing to visit his White House. Mr. Trump called the former Los Angeles Lakers star “a legend” who made “plays that will be remembered for forever — I know many of them.” Known by the nickname “The Logo” — a photograph of him was used a model for the N.B.A.’s silhouette logo — Mr. West was named an all-star in each of his 14 seasons, all with the Lakers, and was inducted in the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1980. He won one championship as a player and eight more as a basketball executive. The Oval Office ceremony took place only two weeks after the president awarded the medal to the former Boston Celtics star Bob Cousy, a 13-time N.B.A. all-star during the 1950s and 1960s who is worshiped as one of Boston’s greatest sports heroes. As Mr. Trump noted on Thursday, Mr. West and Mr. Cousy also played against each other.
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Michael Crowley and Kevin Draper
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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/05/us/politics/jerry-west-medal-of-freedom.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
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2019-09-06 03:25:28+00:00
| 1,567,754,728 | 1,569,331,069 |
human interest
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ceremony
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1,054,161 |
truepundit--2019-08-24--Trump Awards Mr Basketball With the Medal of Freedom a True American Original VIDEO
| 2019-08-24T00:00:00 |
truepundit
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Trump Awards ‘Mr. Basketball’ With the Medal of Freedom: ‘a True American Original’ (VIDEO)
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Celebrating a basketball legend who made a difference on and off the court, President Donald Trump honored a “beloved basketball legend and a true American original.” The president awarded former National Basketball Association (NBA) player Bob Cousy, also known as “Mr. Basketball,” with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award, on Thursday. Cousey — who retired from his time playing for the Boston Celtics 1963 after 1,026 games — is a six-time NBA champion and 13-time NBA All-Star, among garnering several other achievements, the president shared. “Off the court, he fought for racial equality by standing up to racism directed at his teammates, and he helped organize the NBA Players Association,” a military aide read allowed during the ceremony in the Oval Office. – READ MORE
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admin
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https://truepundit.com/trump-awards-mr-basketball-with-the-medal-of-freedom-a-true-american-original-video/
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2019-08-24 18:56:45+00:00
| 1,566,687,405 | 1,567,533,526 |
human interest
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ceremony
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1,054,774 |
truepundit--2019-09-10--Trump Awards Six Law Enforcement Officers With Medal of Valor for Their Heroic Effort to Stop Dayton
| 2019-09-10T00:00:00 |
truepundit
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Trump Awards Six Law Enforcement Officers With Medal of Valor for Their Heroic Effort to Stop Dayton Gunman
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President Donald Trump honored several brave Americans for their heroic actions during two mass shootings that recently struck the nation. The president presented on Monday the Medal of Valor to six law enforcement officers who stopped a gunman within 32 seconds of the first gunshot during a shooting in Dayton, Ohio, on August 4. Additionally, five civilians were presented with the Certificate of Commendation for their actions in El Paso, Texas, where a gunman opened fire at a Walmart the day prior. The two shootings during that weekend left the nation mourning as 31 lives were lost, nine in Dayton and 22 in El Paso. “These incredible patriots responded to the worst violence and most barbaric hatred with the best of American courage, character, and strength,” Trump said during Monday’s ceremony. “Faced with grave and harrowing threats, the men and women standing behind us stepped forward to save the lives of their fellow Americans.” – READ MORE
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admin
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https://truepundit.com/trump-awards-six-law-enforcement-officers-with-medal-of-valor-for-their-heroic-effort-to-stop-dayton-gunman/
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2019-09-10 21:37:18+00:00
| 1,568,165,838 | 1,569,330,598 |
human interest
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ceremony
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1,057,119 |
truepundit--2019-11-02--President Trump presents Medal of Honor to Green Beret for 2008 Afghanistan heroics
| 2019-11-02T00:00:00 |
truepundit
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President Trump presents Medal of Honor to Green Beret for 2008 Afghanistan heroics
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President Trump awarded the highest military honor on Wednesday evening to an Army Green Beret who fought his way up a frozen mountain in Afghanistan to help rescue wounded comrades during a mission to kill or capture a terrorist leader. Master Sgt. Matthew O. Williams, who helped save four critically wounded comrades and prevented the lead element of a special operations force from being overrun in Afghanistan, received the Medal of Honor on Wednesday as he was joined by his wife, Kate, and their 2-year-old son, Nolan. Williams “put his own life in great peril to save his comrades,” Trump said during the White House ceremony. “Matt’s incredible heroism helped ensure that not a single American soldier died in the battle of Shok Valley,” he added. Williams, of Boerne, Texas, previously was awarded the Silver Star for his heroics during the six-hour battle on April 6, 2008, in Afghanistan’s Shok Valley. Williams was part of a joint U.S.-Afghan raid hunting Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the leader of the former Hezebela Islami Gulbadin militia, Army Times reported. – READ MORE
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admin
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https://truepundit.com/president-trump-presents-medal-of-honor-to-green-beret-for-2008-afghanistan-heroics/
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Sat, 02 Nov 2019 19:08:42 +0000
| 1,572,736,122 | 1,572,883,593 |
human interest
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ceremony
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1,067,397 |
upi--2019-11-07--Trump awards Presidential Citizens Medal posthumously to Col. Rick Rescorla
| 2019-11-07T00:00:00 |
upi
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Trump awards Presidential Citizens Medal posthumously to Col. Rick Rescorla
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WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump awarded a posthumous Presidential Citizens Medal Thursday to former Army Col. Rick Rescorla, a Vietnam veteran who died while leading evacuations from the World Trade Center during the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The Presidential Citizens Medal is considered the nation's highest civilian honor after the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It was established in 1969 and recognizes those who have "performed exemplary deeds or services for his or her country or fellow citizens." Rescorla is credited with helping to save 2,700 people during the terror attacks on the Twin Towers. He told everyone to ignore the PA system that was urging them to remain at their desks, instead directing people down the stairs. The South Tower collapsed while he was still inside. "Today we come together to pay tribute to a fallen hero who devoted his life to defending freedom and who made the supreme sacrifice to save others," Trump said at the White House ceremony. Rescorla was born in Cornwall, England, in 1939 and served in the British army in Cyprus. At the age of 24, he moved to the United States and enlisted in the Army. He was deployed to Vietnam as a platoon leader and left active duty in 1967. The veteran later worked as a private security contractor and became head of security for Morgan Stanley in the company's offices in the World Trade Center. "Our debt to [Rick and his family] is beyond measure," Trump said. "We can never reverse the horrors of that day. We can never replace the precious lives we lost. On behalf of our entire nation, I pledge that we will forever and always remember this incredible American hero." Rescorla's wife, Susan, spoke briefly at the ceremony, thanking Trump and remembering her first date with her deceased husband. "He said to me: 'When I was a very young man, I declared what I wanted to be, and I knew that if I stayed on that path at the end of my life I would have done the very best I could'," she said. "And that's exactly what he did." The veteran also received two Bronze Stars, a Silver Star, the Purple Heart and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry for his service.
| null |
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2019/11/07/Trump-awards-Presidential-Citizens-Medal-posthumously-to-911-first-responder/2811573176040/
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Thu, 07 Nov 2019 20:54:33 -0500
| 1,573,178,073 | 1,573,185,967 |
human interest
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ceremony
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139,904 |
democracynow--2019-12-10--Amazonian Forest Protectors Rally Outside COP25 Amid Death of Two Indigenous Chiefs
| 2019-12-10T00:00:00 |
democracynow
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Amazonian Forest Protectors Rally Outside COP25 Amid Death of Two Indigenous Chiefs
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This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form. AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. We’re broadcasting from inside the U.N. Climate Change Conference, the U.N. climate summit, here in Madrid, Spain. I’m Amy Goodman. On Monday, indigenous activists from the Brazilian and Ecuadorian Amazon rallied outside this COP25 venue to protest the assassination of indigenous forest protectors and the destruction of their lands, known as the “lungs of the Earth.” Their protest came just two days after two indigenous chiefs, Firmino Prexede Guajajara and Raimundo Guajajara, were gunned down in a drive-by shooting Saturday in Brazil. LEO CERDA: I am Leo Cerda from the indigenous community of Tena in the Ecuadorian Amazon. I am here to support the Brazilian delegation that is denouncing the deaths of two indigenous people that just passed away on Saturday due to the policies that Bolsonaro is pursuing in Brazil. We are here denouncing the policies, because Bolsonaro is not only bad for Brazil, Bolsonaro is bad for the whole world. DAIARA TUKANO: I’m Daiara Tukano from the Tukano people from Brazil in the border between Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela. And we are here at the climate conference with a Extinction Rebellion group and many other climate justice movements, pleading for the survival and the support to indigenous peoples that are the guardians of the forest and are the first ones to be attacked in this moment of genocide and ecocide that we are living. Brazil is one of the countries that kills the most of nature protectors and climate activists in the world, and many of them are indigenous nations, because our territories are those that protect more than 80% of biodiversity in the world. HELENA GUALINGA: My name is Helena Gualinga. I’m 17 years old, and I’m from the Ecuadorian Amazon. So, my community has been fighting oil since forever, as long as I can remember. And I grew up during this process of fight, and my people has been fighting this for such a long time. And that has made me part of this movement. And I think that it’s my responsibility as a young person and as an indigenous youth to make the people of the Amazon, their voices heard in spaces like this. LAURA GOTTESDIENER: Here you can see there’s two lines of activists from Extinction Rebellion from the Global North. And they have said that they’re putting their bodies on the line, that they’re risking arrest in order to be in solidarity with indigenous people who put their bodies on the line every day. We spoke to many of these Extinction Rebellion activists earlier while they were blocking the road right next to the press conference of these Brazilian indigenous activists. ELAINE: My name is Elaine. I’m from Extinction Rebellion Belgium. We are now in front of the COP25, where it is all happening, sitting down on the road, blocking the traffic. That’s what we are doing, especially to support the indigenous people in the Amazon that are suffering a lot from the way that we live, that we all live, and that needs to change. ALBERTO: I’m Alberto. I’m from Nice. And we are fighting for life, literally, because we are seeing that biodiversity is being lost. We are losing more than 200 species of animals and plants every day. And the risk is that the next ones will be us. CARRIE: I am Carrie. I’m from the U.K. And we’re blocking this road to support the indigenous people. And I’m personally doing it for my children, because time — this is our last chance now. This is our last chance, and we need to stand up for these people and those people who died in the Amazon and for our children. LAURA GOTTESDIENER: Right behind us, we see a delegation from the Brazilian Amazon who have come to denounce the killings of Brazilian activists and leaders, particularly indigenous Brazilian activists and leaders. In the center, you can see Sônia. She’s a relative of two indigenous activists from Brazil who were murdered this weekend, on Saturday, as they were coming back from a meeting of the electrical company and the indigenous federation, demanding their rights as indigenous people. SÔNIA GUAJAJARA: [translated] I’m Sônia Guajajara. I am from the state of Maranhão in Brazil. I am the executive director of the Indigenous Peoples’ Articulation of Brazil. In Brazil at the moment, it’s very hard to live as an indigenous person. For the legal certification of logging and mining and agribusinesses that are destroying the Amazon, in 35 days there have been three killings. This is a direct result of Bolsonaro’s direct policies that are threatening the indigenous lives in Brazil. AMY GOODMAN: And that was Sônia Guajajara, indigenous leader from Brazil, whose two relatives were assassinated on Saturday.
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[email protected] (Democracy Now!)
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http://www.democracynow.org/2019/12/10/indigenous_organizers_of_brazilian_colombian_ecuadorian
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Tue, 10 Dec 2019 08:41:36 -0500
| 1,575,985,296 | 1,576,025,645 |
human interest
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plant
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19,558 |
anonnews--2019-06-26--Petals From This Flower Look Like Tiny Humming Birds
| 2019-06-26T00:00:00 |
anonnews
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Petals From This Flower Look Like Tiny Humming Birds
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A fascinating photo was recently posted to Reddit by the user “OctopusPrime,” showing flowers that looked just like hummingbirds. People commenting on the thread discovered that the plant was a Pareidolia. These flowers do not always look like hummingbirds, but because of how the petals grow, sometimes they do appear to show wings. Some experts who have found these plants in the wild also suggest that they sometimes look like butterflies. A postdoc scientist studying the evolution and ecology of flowers commented on the post, explaining some of the science behind the photo. “This plant inhabits remote and arid Australia. The fact that the flower looks like a bird to humans cannot have evolved adaptively because as a signal receiver, there is nothing humans could have done to increase the fitness of individuals that evolved this signal (to look like a bird). Unless indigenous Australians in arid Australia bred or traded the plant because it looks like a bird,” the Reddit user SolitaryBee said. “We have no evidence for ornamental horticulture in indigenous Australian culture, further, the scarcity of water and food makes this a waste of resources, therefore highly improbable. Now one could argue that today, the plant has increased fitness because it is traded and bred due to its appearance. But that does not say anything about the selection that gave rise to the traits we find so interesting,” the anonymous scientist added. The scientist’s post went on to explain that this is most likely an optical illusion, that is experienced only by humans based on our point of reference and how we perceive the world around us. Most animals probably don’t recognize this plant as being the same shape as a bird. In fact, if this plant appeared to be a bird to other plants and insects, it would probably never get pollinated. This is because birds are predators to bees, so they would avoid the flower instead of pollinating it. In the Reddit thread where the photo originated, there is a lively and intelligent discussion about the evolution of plants. Below are some other photos, showing the flower species from different angles.
|
David Cohen
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https://www.anonews.co/tiny-humming-birds/
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2019-06-26 19:44:19+00:00
| 1,561,592,659 | 1,567,537,985 |
human interest
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plant
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167,807 |
eveningstandard--2019-03-15--Best Motheraposs Day flowers 2019
| 2019-03-15T00:00:00 |
eveningstandard
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Best Mother's Day flowers 2019
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Flowers are to Mother's Day what champagne is to human survival - necessary. Well, that's what I think anyway. With the floral houses of the UK having a moment (have you seen all of those pretty bloom adorned facades?), it's no wonder they've all upped their games. Whether you just want a chic but simple bunch for maman or a cute tussie-mussie with the most luxe boho couture roses on the planet, the country's flower emporiums are at your service to dazzle you (and your pockets) with some rather top notch and stellar mixes. Below we've life tested, plucked, examined, picked at and smelt every single stem, petal and stamen to bring you this year's best pick of bouquets to suit all mums to ensure she has the happiest Mother's Day ever. From Instagram favourites Wild Things to floral set designer Carly Rogers, here's 15 bouquets worthy of your hard earned moolah. Best for: getting your money's worth Suggested vase size: medium with an extra large rim How long does it last for? An unbeatable 11 days before it looked visibly knackered Known for being a firm fav of the fash crowd, and stellar hotels Claridge's and the Connaught are huge fans too. From our building's reception to my extremely cluttered desk, praise was unanimously high for McQueen's stonkingly beautiful Mamma Mia bouquet. Designed to ' draw gasps of delight', this hearty floral soiree is inspired by a spring garden and features on-trend pink roses, delphiniums, super fun lashings of Mexican bouvardia and dense seasonal foliage. Fresh and contemporary, the bijou is perfectly proportioned, effortlessly feminine and has been executed with a proper vintage England in mind. Scent wise, it was the best of the lot and acts as a natural perfume in the home. To sum it all up, Mamma Mia celebrates all the things we love about our mums: constant beacons of joy and happiness. Cringe, but very true. From £110 | McQueens | Best for: mums who love a strong scent Suggested vase size: small and circular with a large and spacious rim How long does it last for? Four gloriously scented days Forty's, as I affectionately call them, has always been a firm favourite of mine when it comes to florals. As the name of this bouquet would suggest, this mesmerising bundle of flowers is rather enchanting. Delicate, yet bold in appearance, Fortnum & Mason offers a glorious pastel combo which wreaks absolute Britishness. Hand-tied with of lavender flowers, senecio stems, mint, peonies, roses and herbs, this exceedingly fragrant bouquet is an absolute nose-stopper. In other words it smells impeccable. It's also worth noting that the Enchanted Bloom is only one of the few options on this list that is ethically luxe. Each rose is grown on Fairtrade accredited Tambuzi Farm, Kenya, with a goal to help society in everything they do from engaging in the community to building partnerships with the local schools and youth groups in the area. High praise for the ultra-protective Fortnum & Mason packaging too. Best for: delivering mum a fabulous bunch even if you can't do it in person Suggested vase size: small and circular with a small-sized rim How long do they last for? Five absolutely fabulous days each If you've never come across Floom before, it's about time you did. The flower-finder delivery service has been championing independent florist's fine flower power globally since launch day. Just enter your postcode and voilà, Floom will give you a nice-and-tidy list of all the florists in your area you can price compare and buy directly on Floom. With an ethos that's always local at heart, the online shop is great for last-minutes types - especially for kids who forget about Mother's Day on the day - and people who appreciate all things indie and alternative. We got two bunches: one from Your London Florist - a magical thing made up of peony's, dahlia's and roses and the other from Rose and Mary loaded with hydrangea, roses, snapdragon and lisi. The inspiration behind both? Pantone's 2019 colour of the year of course, which if you need a memo, is coral. Fragrant, lush and beautifully presented, both mixes's on-trend and demi-retro vibe has a vintage appeal that will keep ma' smiling for days. Best for: mums who go gaga for labels and like to show off. Suggested vase size: medium long. How long does it last for? Six wondrous days. At first glance with all its mammoth foliage and piercing sticks, the wonderfully chic Tea Garden bouquet from Aoyama Flower Market looks like it has been plucked straight out of Game of Thrones: CC Jon Snow for Danerys. For those unfamiliar with the brand, it was born in Tokyo and sources its impressive selection of flowers direct from Japan. Its ethos is simple - to live in harmony with the plants you put in your home - which probably explains the Zen blooms, icy hues and picture-perfect seasonal foliage the floral house is now known for. Hand-tied and wrapped in stamped imported Japanese paper, the luxe spray includes white alstroemeria, lilies and the purest white roses. Before you order however, know this - all the flowers offered by Aoyama are seasonal only, so you may get something completely different to what you see above. What we can attest to however is the quality of the tussie-mussie. In a word, it was exceptional. Best for: mums who love all things classic Suggested vase size: medium tall with a small rim How long does it last for? A very good nine days Expertly arranged, this simple yet chic mix of cream and brilliant white petals from Interflora is guaranteed to make mum smile. Several large white-headed roses, white antirrhinums, oriental lilies, white alstroemeria, thlaspi and salal make up the medium sized jumble, which gives it a perfectly neutral effect suitable for any room in the home. Tip: keep this bunch within sunlight's reach. The moment they hit the shade they will wilt and not in a pretty way either. With this in mind, it's worth mentioning you check the water levels daily as these are a very thirsty bunch of flowers - we learned that the hard way. Whilst not as extravagant on the eye, it's a well-trimmed stunner, thoughtfully hand-tied with a big fat and cute purple ribbon. Best for: mums who love their luxury Suggested vase size: large with a giant rim How long does it last for? Our bouquet lasted a good six days It's luxe. It's huge. It's stunning. It's Neill Strain. If you're not familiar with this fine Belgravia boutique, read on intently. An Instagram favourite, the House of Neill Strain Floral Couture is nothing short of regal, which probably explains how he's managed to nab a rather sweet spot in the Harrod's Food Hall. Advice? Check it out. Part of the summer collection, this 'mother of bouquets' is crowned by an enviable collection of spray and garden roses, kaleidoscopic orchids (the undisputed pièce de résistance of the entire thing), plump hydrangea, lisianthus, astilbe, wax flower, double bouvardia and scenecio. The textured foliage gives it added star appeal and enhances each flower's ludicrously astounding petal count. Speaking of the petals, they're like silk to the touch, which in terms of calibre, is quite simply top notch. Yes, it's on the more expensive side, but as the saying goes: you get what you pay for; and in this instance, it's supreme quality. Best for: The fun mother who still wants to party at 60 Suggested vase size: medium with a large rim How long does it last for? A reasonable five days Princess & KO have gone all out with their ridiculously pretty corals of deep bright pinks and lush greens to create a playful mix of quirky florals that will brighten up any boudoir, dull or not. Blooms include lysianthus, spray roses, deep purple roses and astilbe. The only other thing you need to know is that it smells absolutely incredible. Best for: mums who are as creative as a Vogue cover Suggested vase size: none needed How long does it last for? Ours lasted a decent three days, but it's really the set piece you're paying for here If you want something original, Carly Rogers is your girl. Designer of set pieces for the likes of, Sketch, Insider and Conde Nast Traveller, Carly brings an added touch of creativity to whatever her already uber creative fingers touch. An expert in turning people's heads, her abstract creations are often inspired by classicist art and nature with an added dash of modernity to make sure it's all v. on trend. The arrangement above is just an idea of what you could get, but the best thing is that everything is bespoke, so if you want a single arrangement with a rose coming out of a moss covered log, she can do it. Best for: mums who like a bouquet that doesn't require much effort Suggested vase size: medium with a giant rim How long does it last for? A stupendous six days First things first, the picture above does not give this Odd Flower spray any justice at all. Stocked with beautiful, blousy and large avalanche roses, bursting Australian ozothamnus and soft, elegant lashings of fragrant phlox, it's almost guaranteed to make mum purr with glee. Before you order though, know this: all the flowers from the Wandsworth-based florist are seasonally picked and curated, so you never know what you might end up getting - especially if you subscribe to their weekly, fortnightly or monthly flower delivery service. Ours was lush either way, and out of all of the other mixes on here, was the easiest to care for. Packaging is fantastic too. Best for: the classic mum who stills dreams of yesteryear How long does it last for? A praise Jesus worthy seven days If a bunch of flowers comes to us in a super cute reusable tote bag, it's worthy of our attention. Not because it's on trend or environmentally conscious, but because it's just plain fun. Like many of the other florists on this list, Lavender Green offers another selection of whites and greens, but this time with added height for a more sophisticated, pure (hence the name) and illustrious look. Seasonal blooms include white roses, lizianthus, wax flower to stabilise, olive and ornithogalum, and can be ordered in medium or large cuts. Scent wise, it's soft and perfect for those who prefer something less harsh on the nostrils. Where to place it you're wondering? It's ideal coffee table or prime kitchen island material. Best for: fashionista mothers who spend endless days maxing out their credit cards Suggested vase size: very tall with a medium sized rim How long does it last for? Five wonderful days Statement roses are always a good buy, especially when you want to bring some added wow factor on Mother's Day. For those Flowerbx virgins, quality reigns over quantity when it comes to this florist's bloomin' beautiful blooms. Set up by former Tom Ford PR guru Whitney Bromberg Hawkings, every chic petal, steam and stamen comes direct from the never-ending flower fields of Holland ensuring unrivalled style, quality and A-Grade class. Our delivery of towering Mondial roses was no exception. Wrapped in bespoke and easy to carry Flowerbx packaging, the fragrant bunch will make a very, very welcome addition to budding floraltopias. No wonder Tom Ford himself, Victoria Beckham, Louis Vuitton and Dior are fans. Best for: mums who were destined for social media glory Suggested vase size: medium with a roomy rim How long does it last for? Six fabulous days. If only it was that long until Summer You know when you walk past Liberty and see 6,000 wannabe influencers posing by all those pretty metallic barrels of flowers? Well, that's the work of Nikki Tibbles. Purveyors of all things florally fabulous and decorators to some of the most major bashes in town known to man, this is one bunch serious flower puffs need to know (and respect). Warm, fuzzy and Disney-esque, Nikki Tibbles Wild at Heart has gone total spring with her Mother's Day offering this year. Celebrating everything turn of the season, the Eden is an intense mix of golden roses, apricot ranunculus, peach stocks and pretty exuberant foliage which smells just as good as it looks. FYI, their easily the most Insta-friendly on this list, so nab it before all the 'grammers do. Best for: mother's who appreciate a hand-tied bunch that comes from a florist with a Royal Warrant Suggested vase size: medium and tall How long does it last for? It takes five days for the roses petals to start falling at which time you'll be rushing to buy another Shades of Blue from Moyses Stevens is very much like your traditional afternoon tea: it's loud, a little crazy, eccentric (in a good way) and yet classic all at the same time. Very English then? Indeed. Stunningly rich, the earthy number is more vintage than the florist's usual lovingly bonkers style and includes a sensorial mix of amnesia’ roses, fragrant clematis, veronicas, imperial thistles, lilac and thiaspi. Scent wise: think a freshly cut garden meets the lawns of a sun-kissed Hyde Park. All very lush. Available in three sizes, you can also pair your florals with everything from a bottle of Dom to uber posh heritage chocolates. Overall, our bunch stayed true to Moyses Stevens flamboyant, grand and totally out there style (and we loved it). We just wished it lasted a little longer than five days, but alas, you can't have everything. Best for: guys and gals who want to make their mums scream 'wow!' Suggested vase size: large and steep, although it's important to note that one is already included How long does it last for? Ours lasted a very impressive eight days before we had to reluctantly say goodbye There's not much else we can say about Wild Thing's Flowers offering this year except: epic. The winner of last year's coveted Mother's Day ES floral Best, owner Louise has pulled out all the stops with this towering wedding-esque masterpiece. The 1-metre tall palace-worthy floral spruce is inspired by the palest pastels and includes a generous offering of David Austin Juliet roses, fluffy white hydrangea, tea cup sized heards of Secret Garden roses, pistache and fragrant eucalyptus foliage. White dill, scabiosa seed heads and vanilla roses give the bouquet greater depth while quicksand roses ranunculus Klooney Hanoi prunus blossom, white lilac, nerines and snapdragon allow for extra oomph. Instagrammable to a T, ma' will also be happy to nab the included apothecary vase wrapped in Wild Thing's signature grosgrain ribbon - it's been stamped too. At £250, it's definitely not the cheapest option on this list, but hey, your mother's worth it. Available on request, just reference this list. Best for: mums who like simple bling - yes, that is indeed a thing Suggested vase size: small with a medium rim How long does it last for? five fancy days V chic and v fashion - Maison de Fleurs (the House of Flowers for those not well-schooled in Francais) is all about collections inspired by the runways of New York, London, Milan and Paris. Seasonal mixes often include rare orchids and uber lush roses, so even though it's on the higher priced side of the spectrum, you really are getting what you pay for - superb quality. If all this jargon is ticking all the boxes, go for The Marvellous, a fresh and feminine mix of on-trend pastel garden and lilac spray roses. Perfect for corners, alcoves and kitchen counters, the bouquet's lovely combo of clematis, delicate matricaris and seasonal foliage make the whole thing visibly stand out for extra luxe factor - in other words, mama's friends will be so jealous. If you do order it, go for the clear vase option as the "Couture Collection box" packaging doesn't give it the luxe attention it deserves. All in all, prepare to go mad for its #springvibes. For its longevity, wow factor, value, practicality and literal (and enviable) gasps of delight it brought to all who saw it, stonker wins the battle of best Mother's Day bouquets 2019. If you're after something especially purse friendly or would like to buy locally from your (or your mums) area then Floom is your all-in-one site for stunning flowers delivered all over the UK. ES Best product reviews are unbiased, independent advice you can trust. On some occasions, we earn revenue if you click the links and buy the products, but we never allow this to bias our coverage. The reviews are compiled through a mix of expert opinion and real-world testing. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter
|
Luke Abrahams
|
https://www.standard.co.uk/shopping/esbest/home-garden/best-mothers-day-flowers-2019-a4093011.html
|
2019-03-15 21:02:00+00:00
| 1,552,698,120 | 1,567,546,093 |
human interest
|
plant
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169,553 |
eveningstandard--2019-03-29--The best fast-growing flowers to plant now for an easy summer garden
| 2019-03-29T00:00:00 |
eveningstandard
|
The best fast-growing flowers to plant now for an easy summer garden
|
So you're a renter who is not intending to stay forever but you want a riot of colour this summer in the patch of garden that comes with your flat? No problem. There are plenty of plants out there that have your name on them. They grow fast, giving you flowers and climbers that will create a dazzling jungle by midsummer. This is all quite a contrast from typical London rental gardens which are often boring and featureless because tenants don’t feel very inspired to cultivate them, believing they won’t be around long enough to benefit from the results. Well-chosen, fast-growing annual plants will clothe fences and walls and fill borders, all for the price of a few packets of seeds. All you have to do is scatter them on the ground and water them in. After they’ve put on a great show they will die in the autumn, so no landlord could object. If you have a balcony or courtyard all these plants can also be grown in peat-free multipurpose compost in pots. Perfect for renters, Crocus has a good range of large lightweight galvanised pots for £49.99 that will make a decent mini garden but won’t be too hard to hoik down the stairs when you come to the end of the lease. Some of these pots have handles for easy transport. If you’re worried about drilling holes in your rental property to put up supports for climbing plants, push some bamboo canes into soil to make wigwams around the garden instead. Or try SH1 fence clips (six for £9.50) which can simply be hooked over the top of a fence or wall. A trellis panel, a wall chain climber support (£18.39) or some jute netting (from £5.50) can then be hung on to the clips, so when you move just unhook the whole thing and you won’t have left any trace. Now’s a great time to sow hardy annuals such as poppies, corncockle, marigolds, nigella and cornflowers that will fill your beds with orange, pink and blue by June. Higgledy Garden and Chiltern Seeds are good online suppliers. Preparing the ground is easy. Just remove any weeds from the area you want to sow, then dig it over lightly. No need to add compost because these plants like poor soil. Then just sprinkle the seeds thinly over the area, rake them in, water and that’s it. Once the seedlings have come up it’s a good idea to thin them to 10cm apart and then again to 30cm apart in mid-June so they have plenty of space to flower abundantly. Other failsafe plants are annual climbers, reaching up to eight feet by the summer and easily covering a fence or scrambling over an ugly shed to bring clouds of vivid flowers. If your garden gets plenty of sun, nasturtiums are perfect, with their profusion of cheerful orange and yellow flowers and you can sow them from now until May. Empress of India (£2.95) has scarlet flowers contrasting with deep green leaves while Tropaeolum majus Tall Mixed (£1.95) is a lovely mix of yellows and oranges. You can eat the slightly peppery flowers, leaves and seed pods, too. Bury the seed to twice their depth in the soil, no deeper. Nasturtiums will find their own way up a fence, or grow them up wigwams or trellis. Once they have got going you won’t have to water them all summer. If you want something more unusual, another one to sow straight into the soil from April is the rather gothic Hyacinth bean (£2.75), with sultry, deep purple leaves and seed pods and pink flowers. There are other amazing annual climbers, best ordered as inexpensive plug plants and planted out in early May. The glamorous cup-and-saucer vine cobaea scandens Purple (£7.95) is like a blousy, supercharged clematis. The buds start greenish white and then transform themselves into tubular purple flowers. Black-Eyed Susan Thunbergia alata African Sunset and Rhodochiton Purple Bells are two other troopers that will soon cover a fence or wigwam and would make an incredible focal point in a large pot, too. The Half-hardy Climber Collection buys you five seedlings of each (£12.50). I have a particular soft spot for the Chilean Glory Flower (£5.95) with its unashamedly garish orange and yellow little bell flowers. In London’s relatively mild climate, this is likely to survive a couple of winters. Spanish Flag (£5.95) is even more fabulously in-your-face, with flame red-tipped flowers fading to cream.
|
Alex Mitchell
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https://www.standard.co.uk/homesandproperty/top-gardening-tips-for-renters-the-best-fastgrowing-flowers-for-creating-a-bright-and-colourful-a4103926.html
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2019-03-29 08:51:00+00:00
| 1,553,863,860 | 1,567,544,750 |
human interest
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plant
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156,231 |
drudgereport--2019-12-15--Deforestation in Amazon up by more than double...
| 2019-12-15T00:00:00 |
drudgereport
|
Deforestation in Amazon up by more than double...
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Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon, shown in this photo taken in Para state in August 2019, has risen sharply this year (AFP Photo/Joao LAET) Rio de Janeiro (AFP) - Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon in November surged by 104 percent compared to the same month in 2018, according to official data released Saturday. The 563 square kilometers (217 square miles) deforested that month is also the highest number for any November since 2015, according to Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE), which provides official data on deforestation. That is considered a significant increase, particularly during the rainy season, when deforestation generally slows. For the first 11 months of the year -- also the first months in office of Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right leader who has eased restrictions on exploiting the Amazon's vast riches -- deforestation totaled 8,974.3 square kilometers. That is nearly twice the 4,878.7 square kilometers reported for the first 11 months of 2018. The data was collected by the satellite-based DETER system, which monitors deforestation in real time. Another satellite-based system used by the INPE known as PRODES, considered more reliable but slower to compile data, reported in late November that in the 12 months beginning August 2018, deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon had passed the 10,000 square kilometer threshold for the first time since 2008. That represented a 43 percent increase from the preceding 12-month period. Deforestation in indigenous areas rose even faster, by 74.5 percent from the preceding period, INPE reported. Overall, PRODES showed that the world's largest tropical forest lost 10,100 square kilometers in that 12-month period, compared to 7,033 square kilometers in the previous 12 months. On Friday, Ricardo Galvao, INPE's former president, was named one of the 10 most important scientists of the year by the respected British journal Nature. In early August he was fired by the Bolsonaro government, which accused him of exaggerating the extent of deforestation.
| null |
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DrudgeReportFeed/~3/F1L_S1EMgyM/deforestation-brazils-amazon-more-double-data-160504525.html
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Sun, 15 Dec 2019 00:16:37 GMT
| 1,576,386,997 | 1,576,369,146 |
human interest
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plant
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182,644 |
eveningstandard--2019-08-22--Amazon rainforest fire Dramatic satellite images show devastating scale of wildfire destruction
| 2019-08-22T00:00:00 |
eveningstandard
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Amazon rainforest fire: Dramatic satellite images show devastating scale of wildfire destruction
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These dramatic images show the destruction sweeping the Amazon as wildfires rage through the Brazilian rainforest. Satellite photos show smoke tearing across four states – spanning a distance of around 1,500km – as the country battles a record number of wildfires. Another picture captures the once-lush land of Mato Grosso, western Brazil, torched by the furious blaze. The National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) has detected 74,155 fires in Brazil’s Amazon region this year, a surge of 84 per cent over the same period in 2018. In one week, Inpe satellite images spotted 9,507 new forest fires in the country, mostly in the Amazon basin. Strong winds carried smoke from the fires more than 1,700 miles on Monday and caused an hour-long blackout in the city of Sao Paulo. The images emerged as President Jair Bolsonaro suggested non-governmental organisations (NGOs) could be to blame for the landscape’s incineration. Brazil’s leader suggested NGO workers might be starting the fires to make him look bad. "Maybe - I am not affirming it - these people are carrying out some criminal actions to draw attention against me, against the government of Brazil," Mr Bolsonaro said in a video posted on his Facebook account on Wednesday. "This is the war we are facing." When asked by reporters if he had evidence, the president did not provide any. The states that have been most affected this year are Mato Grosso, Para and Amazonas, all in the Amazon region, accounting for 41.7 per cent of all fires. Mr Bolsonaro, who once threatened to leave the Paris climate accord, has repeatedly attacked environmental non-profits, seen as obstacles in his quest to develop the country's full economic potential, including in protected areas. Mr Bolsonaro and Environment Minister Ricardo Salles have pushed for increased development and economic opportunities in the Amazon region, which they consider overly protected by current legislation. Some NGOs, environmentalists and academics have been blamed the administration's pro-development policies for the sharp increase in Amazon deforestation shown in the latest data from the space research institute. The government is also facing international pressure to protect the vast rainforest from illegal logging or mining activities. Citing Brazil's apparent lack of commitment to fighting deforestation, Germany and Norway have decided to withhold funds earmarked for sustainability projects in Brazil's forests. French and German leaders have also threatened to abandon a trade deal between the EU and Mercosur countries to pressure Brazil into complying with its environmental pledges within the Paris Climate Agreement.
|
Harriet Brewis
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https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/dramatic-satellite-images-show-wildfire-destruction-of-amazon-rainforest-a4219076.html
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2019-08-22 10:08:00+00:00
| 1,566,482,880 | 1,567,533,695 |
human interest
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plant
|
189,558 |
eveningstandard--2019-11-18--Brazil's Amazon deforestation at highest rate in 11 years, country's space agency says
| 2019-11-18T00:00:00 |
eveningstandard
|
Brazil's Amazon deforestation at highest rate in 11 years, country's space agency says
|
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon hit the highest level in more than a decade this year, the country's space agency has said. Almost 10,000 square kilometres - 4,000 square miles or 1.37 million football pitches - were lost between July 2018 and the same month this year, Inpe said. This is up roughly 30 per cent from the year before. It comes after President Jair Bolsonaro, who says the rainforest belongs to his country and not the world, came under criticism for his handling of the issue. The region was plagued by out of control fires over the British summer months. Inpe today said deforestation reached 9,762 sqkm (3769.129 sqm), the the worst level of deforestation since 2008, heaping further pressure on the environmental policy of President Bolsonaro who favours developing the Amazon region economically. The Amazon is the world's largest tropical rainforest and is considered key to the fight against climate change because of the vast amounts of carbon dioxide it absorbs. Risks to the forest drew global concern in August when fires raged through the Amazon, drawing sharp criticism from France's President Emmanuel Macron. At a briefing to discuss the numbers, Environment Minister Ricardo Salles said the rise in deforestation showed the need for a new strategy to combat the illegal logging, mining and land grabbing which he blamed for the increase in deforestation. Beef prices are also at record highs in Brazil, encouraging land grabbing for cattle ranching, which is one of the biggest drivers of deforestation in the region. Environmentalists and nongovernmental organisations place the blame squarely on the government, saying that President Bolsonaro's strong pro-development rhetoric and his policies to weaken environmental enforcement are behind the rise in illegal activity. "The Bolsonaro government is responsible for every inch of forest destroyed. This government today is the worst enemy of the Amazon," said Marcio Astrini, public policy coordinator for Greenpeace, in a statement. President Bolsonaro's office directed Reuters to remarks made by Mr Salles and another official and did not comment further on the issue. In August, Reuters reported that President Bolsonaro's government had systematically weakened environmental agency Ibama, grounding a team of elite enforcement commandos and forbidding agents from destroying machinery used to illegally deforest. Brazil's Climate Observatory, a network of nongovernmental organisations that includes Greenpeace, said that the 2019 increase in deforestation was the fastest in percentage terms since the 1990s and the third fastest of all-time. Mr Salles said Brazil would roll out a series of measures to counter the rising deforestation, including stepping up enforcement efforts assisted by high-resolution satellite imaging. The minister said he would meet governors of Amazon states on Wednesday to further discuss tactics to counter deforestation. All options are on the table for countering deforestation, including activating the military for use in environmental enforcement operations, Mr Salles said.
|
Tim Baker
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https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/brazils-amazon-deforestation-at-highest-rate-in-11-years-countrys-space-agency-says-a4289986.html
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Mon, 18 Nov 2019 21:33:59 GMT
| 1,574,130,839 | 1,574,123,857 |
human interest
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plant
|
571,229 |
tass--2019-09-24--Brazils president refuses to consider Amazon rainforest as world heritage
| 2019-09-24T00:00:00 |
tass
|
Brazil’s president refuses to consider Amazon rainforest as world heritage
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UN, September 24. /TASS/. The issue of preserving the Amazon rainforest where terrible wildfires continue to be fought should be resolved considering the Brazilian sovereignty over a significant part of this territory, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said at the opening of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York on Tuesday. "It is a fallacy to think that Amazonia is a world heritage. It has also been proven wrong by scientists that the Amazon forests are the lungs of the planet. Guided by these misconceptions, certain countries act with no respect, like colonialists, instead of trying to help. They undermine the most sacred thing we have - our sovereignty," the president said. "I reiterate, any initiative regarding support of the Amazon forests should take Brazil’s sovereignty into account," Bolsonaro added. The Brazilian National Institute for Space Research estimates that wildfires destroyed more than 1.8 million hectares of the Amazon forests in Brazil in the time between January and August. Amid the uncontrolled spread of the fire, Brazilian society started criticizing Bolsonaro and his government over their disregard for environmental protection, as their opponents say. In turn, the authorities claim that some fires can be explained by natural seasonal reasons, while others are a result of deliberate arsons. In late August, Bolsonaro engaged in a heated debate with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron. The remarks were made after Macron proposed discussing the Amazon wildfires at the G7 summit in Biarritz. Brasilia strongly criticized this decision, accusing the French leader of infringement of Brazil’s sovereignty.
| null |
https://tass.com/world/1079645
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2019-09-24 15:38:02+00:00
| 1,569,353,882 | 1,570,222,329 |
human interest
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plant
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771,790 |
theindependent--2019-09-22--Amazon fires Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro to use UN speech to reject criticism over response
| 2019-09-22T00:00:00 |
theindependent
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Amazon fires: Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro to use UN speech to reject criticism over response to blaze ravaging rainforest
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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro will head to New York on Monday in an attempt to defuse the international outcry over the fires raging through the Amazon while simultaneously asserting the country’s right to develop the rainforest as it sees fit. Until recently, few countries enjoyed such widespread affection as Brazil did, with its tradition of multilateral and “soft power” diplomacy, its unrivalled footballing prowess and vast natural beauty. But Mr Bolsonaro will address the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday amid global indignation over his government’s handling of the deforestation in the Amazon. Brazil’s government believes the international criticism is unfair, but its actions show that it’s worried, including about the potential economic consequences. Fund managers with more than $16 trillion (£12.8tn) in assets have demanded action on deforestation, while European lawmakers are lining up to attack the trade deal between the European Union and the South American trade bloc that Brazil leads, Mercosur. Austria’s parliament rejected the agreement on Wednesday. In response, the Bolsonaro administration launched a public relations campaign asserting Brazil’s sovereignty over the Amazon and commitment to protecting and sustainably developing the rainforest. Now the president is taking that message to the UN. “The United Nations General Assembly could be a great opportunity for Brazil to present and clarify its foreign policy,” said Sergio Amaral, Brazil’s ambassador to Washington DC until earlier this year. “It’s also a chance to demonstrate its “commitment to sensitive issues for the international community, like the environment.” The question remains of how Mr Bolsonaro can both calm fears over deforestation while asserting Brazil’s right to develop the Amazon. There’s also the added tension of his likely interaction with French President Emmanuel Macron - whose wife the Brazilian leader insulted. “I am preparing a fairly objective speech,” the president said on his weekly Facebook live broadcast on Thursday night. “No one is going to fight with anyone, you can rest assured.” In the same breath, however, he said that he’d receive a beating in the press, no matter what he said, and that some countries were more interested in buying up the Amazon than saving it. For the government the international outcry is vastly disproportionate to the amount of environmental damage. “This has been orchestrated by Brazilian groups that are systematically against the government,” Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo said in an interview on 3 September. “They want to use any tools at their disposal to attack the government even if this harms the country.” Environment Minister Ricardo Salles argues that the Bolsonaro administration’s development policies highlight how much previous Brazilian governments failed the 20 million people who live in the Amazon region. “This is the first government that engages in a serious discussion about how to develop the Amazon,” he said. “The worst human development indicators in Brazil are in the Amazon.” Mr Araujo, as well as Institutional Security Minister General Augusto Heleno and Eduardo Bolsonaro, the president’s son and nominee to be Brazil’s next ambassador to Washington DC, are helping the president to draft his speech. While he may seek to minimise reports of environmental destruction, an emollient address is unlikely, particularly given that Bolsonaro retains the support of the US government in his approach to the Amazon. Given the president’s outspoken nature - and love of social media - even a softer tone would probably not last long. “Brazil used to communicate this idea of great sociability,” Andreza dos Santos Souza, the director of the Brazilian Studies Program at Oxford University, said. “These intolerant speeches are changing this perception.” The outrage over the Amazon fires clearly has the potential to harm Brazil. Ahead of the G7 Mr Macron threatened to scrap the EU-Mercosur trade deal over what he described as Bolsonaro’s “lies” over his commitment to climate change. The US clothing company VF Corporation, which owns Timberland, Kipling Bags and The North Face, has suspended Brazilian leather purchases, and Norway’s two biggest investors have warned global companies against contributing to environmental damage. Brazilian embassies have also been targeted by protesters. Fitch Solutions Macro Research, formerly BMI Research, issued two reports warning of “increased scrutiny” and “economic risks” after the fires. “We believe that international concern over deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon basin will create headwinds to export demand and investment inflows,” Mr Fitch wrote. For Amaral, Brazil has rapidly lost its hard-won reputation as a leader on environmental issues. Aside from the blow back from certain countries or corporations, individual consumers may start to reject Brazilian products. “This change is terrible for the country, terrible for the image of the country and for the perception of consumers,” he said. Brazil has fallen four places this year in the global ranking of the Country Brand Index, a measure developed by the Sao Paulo-based global branding consultancy FutureBrand, and now ranks 47th out of 75. The survey was completed in July, before the fires in the Amazon, but took into account the first six months of Mr Bolsonaro’s government. “The Amazon is a very sensitive topic, with huge repercussions, and it comes on top of a number of negative issues associated with Brazil in the past few years,” Daniel Alencar, partner-director of FutureBrand, said. But, he added, a country’s brand is constantly in flux. “No single event is going to destroy the image of Brazil.”
|
Bruce Douglas, Simone Iglesias
|
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/amazon-fires-response-jair-bolsonaro-brazil-far-right-united-nations-climate-change-summit-a9115646.html
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2019-09-22 14:36:47+00:00
| 1,569,177,407 | 1,570,222,491 |
human interest
|
plant
|
1,092,492 |
vox--2019-12-12--Supertrees: Meet the Amazonian giant that helps the rainforest make its own rain
| 2019-12-12T00:00:00 |
vox
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Supertrees: Meet the Amazonian giant that helps the rainforest make its own rain
|
UATUMÃ SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT RESERVE, Brazil — The white mist is thick and creamy, and it envelops me as I plod up the steep stairs of the exposed steel tower. In this swirling fog, it’s hard to tell how high I am and how much further I have left to go. Wearing a climbing harness that’s a little too snug and secured by a cable that looks a little too thin, I unclip my carabiner from the railing and attach it to the next one up. The diamond plate flexes under my weight as I move toward the next set of steps. I can’t see the ground, but I can see that the gaps between steps on the stairs are wide enough for my boot to easily slip between them. I have inadvertently ended up at the front of our little group, far ahead of everyone else who set out on this climb. The scientist guiding us suggested we get to the top of the tower by sunrise, which meant waking up at 4 am and scaling the structure in the dim light of early morning. Alone in the clouds, I pause at a landing marked “200 meters,” feeling the whole tower sway in the wind. It’s silent and still, save for a breeze roiling wisps of fog between the steel braces of the tower. I am here in the jungle, a half-day’s journey by pickup truck and boat from the nearest major city, two-thirds of the way up the Amazon Tall Tower Observatory, the tallest structure in South America, to experience a force that defines the Amazon rainforest as we know it. The hundreds of billions of trees, spread over the 2.1 million square miles of forest below, channel a colossal volume of water into the air every day. Alongside that water, they emit an elixir of chemicals that react to form particles, inducing that moisture to fall back out of the sky. The rainforest, amazingly, makes about half of its own rain. In the early morning hours, a huge upward torrent of fog emanates from the treetops, spreading so thick that it’s impossible to see more than a few feet in any direction. This moisture rises into the sky and condenses as it cools, forming clouds (scientists call this the evapotranspiration process). When it meets dust and particles, it forms drops that create rainfall. It’s a vital mechanism for keeping the Amazon’s vine-draped greenery lush. The downpours top up the aquifers that slake the thirst of tens of millions of people in Brazil’s cities and irrigate the farmlands that feed them, even those thousands of miles away and far from the rainforest itself. In some parts of the jungle, the rain is so regular that locals plan their days around it, scheduling breaks and short naps during afternoon rainstorms before returning to work once the skies clear. The daily churn of rainfall and evaporation has a cooling effect on the region and can influence rainfall patterns as far away as the United States. And as its rain-drenched vegetation grows, the Amazon inhales and stores a gargantuan volume of carbon, an effect that ripples throughout the global climate system. The Amazon rainforest has been described as the lungs, the sweat glands, and the heart of the planet, but these metaphors are inadequate. The Amazon is not an organ, but an organism unto itself, sprawling beyond the sum of its parts. Nothing else compares to what the Amazon rainforest does for itself, the region, and the rest of the planet. Yet a soccer-field-sized area of the Amazon rainforest is cleared every 60 seconds due to logging for timber, or clearing space for cattle ranching, soy farming, and mining. As the forest loses trees, it loses its rhythm: rain, evaporation, transpiration, condensation, rain. Without these towering giants and the soil beneath them acting a gargantuan reservoir of carbon, fewer heat-trapping gases will be absorbed and the process will eventually reverse. The carbon in the forest will enter the atmosphere, accelerating the planet’s warming. The Brazilian Amazon this year has suffered an alarming spike in deforestation and forest fires that environmental activists blame on lax law enforcement and tacit approval from Brazil’s right-wing government. Scientists say that there are seldom natural fires in the rainforest; almost all are ignited by humans. These losses sparked international outrage. “Our house is burning. Literally,” wrote French President Emmanuel Macron on Twitter in August. “It is an international crisis.” But Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was defiant, arguing at the United Nations General Assembly that the Brazilian Amazon belongs to Brazil and that international alarm over its destruction is a threat to the country’s sovereignty. Eventually, Bolsonaro deployed the military to fight the fires and declared a moratorium on new blazes. But the losses the Amazon has experienced are already having consequences. The dry season is getting longer, and scientists are finding imprints of deforestation in the record droughts seen in major cities like São Paulo, some 1,500 miles away. A scenario even more alarming lies ahead. About 17 percent of the Amazon has been lost since 1970, and if deforestation reaches around 25 percent, scientists warn that the Amazon may not create enough of its own rain to sustain itself. The ecosystem could enter an irreversible cascade of collapse and degrade from tropical rainforest into savanna, a process known as a dieback. This prospect has added urgency to research conducted atop this swaying steel tower. Scientists here are racing to understand all of the complicated ways in which the Amazon rainforest interacts with the world around it — before it’s lost. But to truly appreciate the breathtaking power of the rainforest, it helps to start with a single tree. The towering Brazil nut tree is a microcosm of how the rainforest makes its own rain The Amazon rainforest is home to nearly a quarter of the planet’s terrestrial biodiversity, and its waters have more fish species than any other river system. More than 100,000 invertebrate species, 378 reptile species, 400 amphibian species, 427 mammal species, 1,300 bird species, 3,000 kinds of fish, and 40,000 types of plants live in this magnificent ecosystem. Life here has yielded novel scientific insights and produced lifesaving medicines. New species and benefits are still being discovered. There are even tribes of people that, to this day, have eluded contact with the outside world. Yet amid this splendor, the trees in the rainforest still stand out. One example is the iconic Brazil nut tree, Bertholletia excelsa, also known as Para nut. It’s not as massive as the sinuous, sprawling kapok tree, nor as precious to loggers as the chocolate-colored mahogany. But Bertholletia excelsa is one of the most powerful tree species in the jungle. It’s the only member of its genus and it thrives deep in the jungle, surrounded by billions of other trees, drenched by the near-daily downpours it helps create. Humans are still learning how to grow Bertholletia in plantations, so almost all of the world’s crop of Brazil nuts comes from wild trees. It’s just a tiny example of how the Amazon’s expansive, interlocking ecosystem can be impossible to replicate. En route to the Amazon Tall Tower Observatory, or ATTO, I spotted one of the trees from a boat on the Uatamã River, a tributary of the Amazon River. Its crown of wavy oval leaves towered over its neighbors along the riverbank. After we unloaded our gear from the boats, I walked along a dirt path up to the tree. Standing at its roots, the tree’s nearly 6-foot-wide trunk filled my view and eclipsed the smaller trees around it. The ground was spongy with leaf litter and damp from the rain. Even mid-afternoon, the hottest time of the day, the thick, looming canopy cast a cool shadow. Vines draped down the sides of its gray bark; highways of leafcutter ants scurried over its roots. A screaming piha bird called out with its resounding three-tone chirp. From the soil to the sky, every layer of the Amazon rainforest pulsates with life. And every day, this Bertholletia bridges the two, channeling more than 260 gallons of water into the air daily. Of course, Bertholletia is not alone. It stands alongside more than 390 billion trees in the Amazon, belonging to an estimated total of 16,000 tree species throughout the rainforest, of which 6,727 species have been described, many of which can also gush hundreds of gallons into the air daily. The sun crests over this verdant ocean every morning, and as the light hits the leaves, the rainforest takes its first steamy breath of the day. All of this moisture feeds into a massive body of water floating above its canopy, constantly fed by evapotranspiration and dispatching rain throughout the forest. In a way, the mightiest rivers in the Amazon flow through the sky. Scientists are still learning about all the ways the Amazon rainforest is linked to the rest of the planet From Manaus, Brazil — the capital of Amazonas state — the journey to the Amazon Tall Tower Observatory starts with a three-hour car ride across highways and dirt roads, followed by a two-hour boat ride, capped with a bouncy 30 minutes on a jungle road in a pickup truck. Researchers from Brazil and Germany teamed up in 2009 to select a site and build this tower to study the rainforest with minimal human influence, where diesel exhaust and road dust wouldn’t interfere with measurements of pollen, carbon, and volatile organic compounds. They also wanted to make sure the roads they built to support the research station couldn’t be easily used for illegal logging and poaching. “If you create a street [all the way to the research site], people are going to cut down the rainforest,” warned Stefan Wolff, a meteorologist at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry who is studying the exchange of gases between rainforest and atmosphere. The tedious trip, across the river and dirt roads, that scientists and supply crews make to ATTO three times per week serves as a barrier to miscreants. The amenities at the research station are austere. The main camp is just a corrugated-roof mess hall and a bunk, where about two dozen people — scientists, staffers, maintenance workers, cooks — all sleep in hammocks just a couple of feet apart from one another. There is running water and a nearby generator that provides electricity, but internet is brought in via satellite, and much of its bandwidth is reserved for scientists transmitting data to research centers in Brazil and Germany. The logistics are all in support of an effort to measure and monitor the rainforest in its most pristine state. The key questions the scientists are trying to answer here are how the rainforest influences the world around it and how the world, in turn, influences the rainforest. It’s part of a truly global system, the scale of which is difficult to comprehend. It begins 3,000 miles away in the Sahara Desert, where dust crosses the Atlantic on trade winds and lands in the rainforest, nourishing the Amazonian soil. The dust whipped up in the Bodélé Depression in Chad, an ancient lake bed, contains phosphorus that is vital for plants. Without this movement of dust — about 22,000 tons of it per year — the forest would be starved of important minerals, and the specific makeup of trees, shrubs, and ferns would change. That would, in turn, alter how much water is evaporated and how much carbon is absorbed, creating an altogether different ecosystem. The Amazon rainforest currently takes in about 2 billion metric tons of carbon each year, roughly 5 percent of annual global output. Within its biomass, it holds about a decade’s worth of human-produced greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, the Amazon generates far-reaching effects of its own. The movement of moisture from the rainforest influences patterns of rainfall across much of South America, and signs are emerging that deforestation is worsening droughts around the continent. But scientists were long in the dark about just how all these local, regional, and international links to the rainforest came together. In 2012, scientists here constructed an 80-meter steel tower outfitted with instruments to measure rain, carbon dioxide, volatile organic compounds, and aerosols going into and coming out of the Amazon rainforest. It was a start, but they soon realized they needed to cover more areas, which meant getting higher above the forest. It helps to think of the tower as a wide-angle camera lens. If you mount the instruments close to the treetops in the canopy, you pick up only the movement of gases from the trees immediately below. Move the sensors higher, and you can monitor a wider region. In 2015, the team inaugurated a 325-meter-tall orange and white steel tower, stayed with guy-wires, sending steel, scaffolding, and construction equipment by boat and dirt roads to this remote part of the jungle. The tall tower houses tubes that suck in air from the top and pump it to a laboratory housed in a shipping container at its base. The instruments there — like chromatographs and spectrometers — measure the churn of gases, moisture, aerosols, and particles above the tops of the trees that link this forest to the global climate system. Scientists can even identify the source of some particles by testing the DNA they find. However, these tools remain vulnerable to the peculiarities of the jungle, like torrential rainfall and defecating birds. I watched a pair of scientists remove a bee infestation from a box of electronics on top of another 80-meter tower at the site, delicately scraping away the hive and capturing the queen in a plastic bottle. But at the top of the main tower, one doesn’t need sophisticated devices to sense the immense scale of the rainforest’s influence on the weather. It’s playing out right before me. The sun is rising over the horizon. Breaks appear in the fog, the mist condenses into discrete clouds, and the forest starts to peek through. Heated clouds begin to rise straight up as winds at different altitudes shuffle the puffy white cotton balls past each other like overlapping highways. The tower sways as the wind picks up. Clouds soon start pouring out fine shrouds of rain. A few minutes later, mist begins to rise from the trees again. The scene plays out thousands of times a day over the Amazon, recycling moisture over and over until it reaches the ocean. The scientists at ATTO are also tracking this cycling of moisture on much smaller scales. Back on the ground, some of the researchers are zooming in on individual trees, and sometimes, down to their leaves. Around sections of the camp, researchers have placed baskets that capture falling leaves, seeds, and sticks to track the biological productivity of diverse biomes of the rainforest, like the low-lying campina. It’s a part of the forest with poor, sandy soil and a high water table that stunts the growth of plants, but shelters a large variety of epiphytes like orchids. The campina stands in contrast to other parts of the forest with imposing, fast-growing trees that quickly blot out the light above and thin out the vegetation below. Layon Demarchi, a botanist at the National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA), measured the growth of tree trunks in a 50-by-50-meter section of the campina with a micrometer, tracking how they change with rainfall patterns. “It’s a little island in the forest,” Demarchi says. The Amazon rainforest isn’t one big ecosystem as much as it is dozens of unique biomes stitched together, he explained, each with its distinct library of life, but working together to spread moisture and nutrients that sustain the rainforest as a whole. There are other experiments scattered throughout the research station. Behind the bunk, a laser cloud-measuring instrument is pointed upward to the skies monitoring their volume and composition. Laboratories in shipping containers track the opening and closing of stomata, the pores on the leaves of various trees, studying how they release moisture and take in carbon dioxide. The stomata emit volatile organic compounds like isoprenes, which react in the air to form particles, explains Cybelli Barbosa, a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry who frequently conducts her work with a machete at her side. Those particles then serve as nucleation points, allowing moisture to condense and form droplets. Rain in the rainforest isn’t just an accident of the weather; Bertholletia, like millions of other trees in the Amazon, induces rainfall. The findings at ATTO will eventually feed into global climate models that will help us understand the changes we’re making and what the future holds for life as we know it. “Our work can very practically be used to make policy decisions,” Wolff says. “As we are performing long-term measurements of various meteorological parameters, we directly see the differences in those variables from season to season, year to year.” But the baseline for the forest is rapidly changing. Preserving the Amazon benefits the whole world, but there’s immense pressure on the ground to exploit it About an hour’s boat ride downriver from ATTO is the village of Maracarana, home to about 300 people. Maracarana was settled in the 1970s as this part of the forest was cut away to make room for ranching cattle. But in 2004, the Brazilian government established the area as part of the Uatumã Sustainable Development Reserve. It’s a forest protection system that attempts to combine conservation with sustainable forest uses by local traditional communities. The designation created legal protections for more than 1 million acres of this section of the rainforest and punishments for those who would destroy it. Residents were given cash to stop cutting down the forest but were still allowed to reap its bounties, provided they did so in a way that allowed it to regenerate. Claudomiro Dos Santos Gomes, 52, works in Maracarana as a farmer and volunteer conservationist. He explains that people in the village now grow manioc, corn, beans, and watermelon on the cleared pastureland. From the forest, they harvest Brazil nuts, acai berries, and andiroba oil, a popular ingredient in incense and organic cosmetics. The government also helps the people in the village take their products to market in major cities like Manaus. The area’s clear and calm waters have made it a popular destination for sport fishers, too. Nomadic indigenous groups who once roamed the reserve taught the newer arrivals about the cures and remedies of the rainforest, according to Dos Santos Gomes, and there are many more benefits that have yet to be discovered. “It’s more lucrative right now to preserve the forest,” Dos Santos Gomes says. But he notes that there are more than a dozen villages along the Uatamã River in this rainforest reserve, and not all of them are good stewards. There is little oversight or monitoring, so in many villages, people end up taking conservation money from the government to preserve the rainforest while also taking bribes from illegal loggers. And in Maracarana, the residents in this remote area still need to power their homes, charge their phones, build health clinics, and send their children to school, which means they need to trade for resources from the outside. If people stop buying the crops from them, or if the demand for rainforest products surges, the pressure to clear the forest or over-exploit it will grow. With the Amazon far-off and remote — even for most Brazilians — its value as a global store for carbon, a generator of rainfall, and a regional air conditioner is abstract and easy to take for granted. And it’s even more difficult to get other countries to step in when almost two-thirds of it is contained within the borders of just one country. Brazil’s election of far-right President Bolsonaro has sparked a new surge of deforestation. His administration has made no secret of its desire to sell off the wood, land, and mining rights to the forests, as well as to roll back protections for the indigenous people who live there. His administration has scoffed at the idea of the rainforest as a global asset. “It is a fallacy to say that the Amazon is the heritage of humankind, and a misconception, as confirmed by scientists, to say that our Amazonian forests are the lungs of the world,” Bolsonaro told the UN in September. “Using these fallacies, certain countries, instead of helping, followed the media’s lies and behaved in a disrespectful manner and with a colonialist spirit. They even called into question that which we hold as the most sacred value: our own sovereignty.” The accelerating pace of disruption has sparked bloody confrontations with indigenous groups that want to preserve the forest and their way of life. And for the planet as a whole, time is rapidly running out for humanity to drastically cut its greenhouse gas emissions to limit this century’s warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the more ambitious target of the Paris agreement. The Amazon rainforest is one of the most important barriers against unchecked warming and intensifying drought cycles in Brazil and beyond. But scientists are concerned that deforestation and fire are pushing the Amazon too close to an irreversible cycle of collapse. And evidence shows that the rainforest’s capacity to absorb carbon is already declining. “We believe that negative synergies between deforestation, climate change, and widespread use of fire indicate a tipping point for the Amazon system to flip to non-forest ecosystems in eastern, southern, and central Amazonia at 20-25% deforestation,” Carlos Nobre and Thomas Lovejoy wrote in a 2018 editorial in the journal Science Advances. And at the current rates of deforestation, “we are 20 to 30 years off from reaching this tipping point,” Nobre recently told Yale Environment 360. Leaders from around the world are in Madrid through December 13 to negotiate the details of implementing the Paris climate agreement. A key point of the talks is how countries around the world can develop concrete ways to preserve and restore critical ecosystems like the Amazon rainforest. Several Brazilian states and France are expected to announce a partnership for rainforest conservation during the conference, bypassing Brazil’s central government. But time is running short. If scientists can get their message out about how trees like Bertholletia benefit people across the Earth — even those who may never taste its nut or stand in its shade — they may help secure the future of the rainforest. Victor Moriyama is a Brazilian documentary photographer with a focus on public security and violence, indigenous communities, environmental conflicts, and deforestation.
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Umair Irfan
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https://www.vox.com/2019/12/12/20991590/amazon-rainforest-deforestation-climate-change-trees-rain-brazil-nut
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2019-12-12T07:11:40-05:00
| 1,576,152,700 | 1,576,153,069 |
human interest
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plant
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927,508 |
thesun--2019-01-16--Amazing fairytale forest looks like scene from Lord of the Rings but its real and in the UK
| 2019-01-16T00:00:00 |
thesun
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Amazing fairytale forest looks like scene from Lord of the Rings but it’s real and in the UK
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THIS amazing fairytale forest looks like it has been pulled from a Lord of the Rings scene - but it's real and can be found in the UK. A photographer stumbled upon the atmospheric wood deep in the heart of Dartmoor, Devon, and has been taking stunning pictures of the Middle Earth-esque spot. Neil Burnell, 44, has captured incredible images of Wistmans Wood over the course of the last year. The woodland conjures up images of the fantasy scenes described by JRR Tolkien in his famous stories. He named his photo project The Mystical and visited the difficult-to-find woodland 20 times to get the perfect shots. He said: "I'm often told by people the photos look like a forest from Middle Earth. “It felt like I was in a film set, so I wanted to portray the cinematic feel in the photo series. “My favourite image from the set is Empire, as this was the first time in many visits where I had the conditions I wanted and was the shot that got the series started. "I personally feel the forest looks like more like Dagobah from Star Wars, which is why I called the photo Empire, after Empire Strikes Back. “I love to try and produce an atmosphere in my images, and Wistmans Wood is one of the most atmospheric places I've visited. “The woodland is also notoriously difficult to photograph and I love a challenge. “I have probably visited Wistmans Wood around 20 times in the last year but unfortunately, it has only had the required mist on two occasions. "Photographing it without the fog is a hard task, and almost impossible to make images with the atmosphere I was looking for." We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368. You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.
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ecambridge
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https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8206050/wistmans-wood-dartmoor-devon-lord-of-the-rings/
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2019-01-16 10:04:15+00:00
| 1,547,651,055 | 1,567,552,225 |
human interest
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plant
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946,764 |
thesun--2019-03-21--Amazing aerial picture shows cross-shaped forest used for target practice in WW2
| 2019-03-21T00:00:00 |
thesun
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Amazing aerial picture shows cross-shaped forest used for target practice in WW2
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A CROSS-shaped forest in Suffolk was used by the RAF as target practice in the Second World War. The 300mx300m cross made up of trees is located on Berner’s Heath, near Icklingham, where inert bombs - filled with concrete were dropped onto the site. It is also believed it was a dumping ground used by squadrons returning from missions who needed to dump any bombs that were out of date or unexploded. The high-altitude bombing range, were explosives were often dropped from heights such as 20,000ft, was used by the RAF from 1936 until the 1950s. Barner’s Heath was also used as a training area during the First World War for tanks as far bank as 1916. Owned by the Elveden Estate it was a top secret site for battling training and tanking testing. The area can now be accessed by members of the public. We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368. You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.
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Danny De Vaal
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https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8692063/aerial-picture-cross-shaped-forest-target-ww2/
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2019-03-21 18:29:15+00:00
| 1,553,207,355 | 1,567,545,372 |
human interest
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plant
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19,421 |
anonnews--2019-04-23--Brazilian Couple Plants Over 2 Million Trees To Restore A Destroyed Forest
| 2019-04-23T00:00:00 |
anonnews
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Brazilian Couple Plants Over 2 Million Trees To Restore A Destroyed Forest
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When the rain forest around their home was destroyed, a Brazilian photographer and his wife took matters into their own hands and slowly reforested the area, planting over two million trees throughout the course of many years. When Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado went off to travel the world and pursue a career in journalism several years ago, his home was deep in a tropical forest, and a habitat for many exotic plants and animals. Sadly, when he returned, he found that his home had been destroyed. The rainforest that he lived in had been entirely cut down, and the lush tropical forest that he once knew and loved had become a barren wasteland. Seeing his homeland in this state sent him spiraling into a deep depression. Then one day, his wife Lélia Deluiz Wanick Salgado, got an amazing idea. She suggested that they try to replant the forest all on their own, and she truly believed that it could be done. The couple quickly got to work on replanting the forest that they once knew and loved. The job wasn’t easy, but eventually, they were able to reforest the area around their home. Miraculously not long after the plants begin to bloom again, the animals started to come back also, giving new life to the region. “The land was as sick as I was – everything was destroyed. Only about 0.5% of the land was covered in trees. Then my wife had a fabulous idea to replant this forest. And when we began to do that, then all the insects and birds and fish returned and, thanks to this increase of the trees I, too, was reborn – this was the most important moment,” Salgado told The Guardian back in 2015. “Perhaps we have a solution. There is a single being which can transform CO2 to oxygen, which is the tree. We need to replant the forest. You need forest with native trees, and you need to gather the seeds in the same region you plant them or the serpents and the termites won’t come. And if you plant forests that don’t belong, the animals don’t come there and the forest is silent,” he added. 20 years later, the area is nearly unrecognizable because there are so many trees and so much wildlife. Once the project really started to pick up steam and show promise, the couple founded Instituto Terra, an organization through which they hired other members who care about the environment just as much as they do. “We need to listen to the words of the people on the land. Nature is the earth and it is other beings and if we don’t have some kind of spiritual return to our planet, I fear that we will be compromised,” Salgado explained. The feats that have been achieved by this couple show that individuals really can make a difference if they put in the effort. The average person today feels very disempowered and they don’t believe that they can do anything to make a difference in this world. However, the people who actually try to make a difference, oftentimes end up with some incredible results. The couple responsible for this incredible restoration worked very hard to make it happen, but all of that hard work is only necessary because very few others are doing their part. With so many people not paying attention to the state of the environment, it requires a great deal of effort from dedicated people to actually make a change. It doesn’t have to be like this though, because the more people that chip in, the less work we all have to do. If every single person in the world planted just one tree, we would have billions of new trees. Sadly it doesn’t seem like the global population is up to the task yet, so the job rests on a few dedicated people, who will try to show the rest of the world that change is possible.
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David Cohen
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https://www.anonews.co/brazilian-couple-plants-over-2-million-trees-to-restore-a-destroyed-forest/
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2019-04-23 19:31:49+00:00
| 1,556,062,309 | 1,567,541,997 |
human interest
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plant
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649,885 |
thedailyrecord--2019-06-25--Colourful larch forests in Perthshire at risk from disease
| 2019-06-25T00:00:00 |
thedailyrecord
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Colourful larch forests in Perthshire at risk from disease
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A tree disease that forces all affected trees to be felled is coming close to Drummond Hill beside Loch Tay, prompting land managers to make plans for the inevitability of its arrival in an area famous for its colourful larch forest. Phytophthora ramorum, a disease which infects and kills larch, has been confirmed to be on trees less than 10 kilometres from Drummond Hill. Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS), an executive agency of the Scottish Government which manages the large forested site, is preparing its management plan for the next five years and is factoring in the certain encroachment of the disease. Robin Almond, planning forester for the FLS team in the Highland Perthshire area, said: “The Drummond Hill woodlands are a vital part of the local landscape above Loch Tay. “However, with the presence of the larch disease in the area, there is an increasing likelihood it will reach the slopes of Drummond Hill within the next few years. “Those few years give us an opportunity to look at how we can manage this in a sympathetic manner. “Once we have a fully formed proposal, we will invite members of the public to comment on how we tackle this issue.” If the disease is confirmed on trees in a woodland, the land owner or manager is served with a statutory plant health notice requiring the infected larch – and all other larch within 250m – are felled and removed. Perthshire has been recording small outbreaks but compared to the west coast of Scotland, central areas are not experiencing such rapid infection. Phytophthora ramorum spreads through water droplets and so far, is less common the further east you go in Scotland. The long-term forecast is serious enough that forestry bodies are no longer planting large areas with larch for timber because new trees may not reach maturity. Mr Almond added: “Drummond Hill is within an ‘area of great landscape value’ and is part of the Taymouth Castle designed landscape, so we don’t want to wait until the disease arrives because felling all the larch would have a huge impact on the amazing woodlands.” Dates for drop-in sessions on the proposals will be announced in due course but anyone looking for more information on the land management plan process for Drummond Hill can contact [email protected]
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[email protected] (Melanie Bonn)
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https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/colourful-larch-forests-perthshire-risk-17157676
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2019-06-25 07:00:00+00:00
| 1,561,460,400 | 1,567,538,190 |
human interest
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plant
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716,966 |
theguardianuk--2019-12-07--‘Felling this forest would be like knocking down a cathedral’
| 2019-12-07T00:00:00 |
theguardianuk
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‘Felling this forest would be like knocking down a cathedral’
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An ornithologist cradles a nuthatch in his hand as the low December sun throws the stark winter canopy of trees into relief. Frost-covered leaves crunch underfoot along a path which meanders through ancient oaks, sycamores and willows. It is fringed with wood piles playing host to multiple types of fungi. Buzzards swoop overhead and birdsong fills the air. This 3.2 hectares on the Northamptonshire/Warwickshire border has been woodland since the 1600s when James VI was on the throne. It is a breeding ground for many British birds, including tawny owls, woodpeckers and the now globally-at-risk marsh tit, willow tit and woodcock. As such it qualifies as ancient woodland, a unique and now increasingly threatened habitat in the United Kingdom. Walking through Glyn Davies wood, Luci Ryan, lead ecologist for the Woodland Trust, points to the pink flags marking out how the HS2 rail link will – if the railway goes ahead – tear apart this old English woodland. Her job is to try to save not just Glyn Davies wood, which is owned by the Banbury Ornithological Society, but more than a thousand other ancient woodlands in the UK from the relentless encroachment of development. “Ancient woodlands are an ecological goldmine,” said Ryan. “They are the most biodiverse habitats in the UK. They are uniquely British, and part of our heritage. They are our natural cathedrals, and cannot be replaced just by planting trees elsewhere. It is like knocking down St Paul’s Cathedral, putting the pile of bricks somewhere else and trying to say it’s the same thing.” Increasingly, the UK’s ancient woodland is being lost to housing or industrial developments and transport links, and protecting these incomparable habitats makes up much of the workload of the Woodland Trust, one of four charities supported by the 2019 Guardian and Observer climate emergency charity appeal. The trust’s job has never been tougher; 1,064 ancient woodlands are currently under threat across the UK – the highest number since the trust’s records began in 1999. Since that year, the campaigning work of the trust has saved 1,101 from destruction, while 800 have suffered loss or damage. “It is deeply frustrating,” said Ryan. “Ancient woodland only covers 2.4% of the UK, so you would have thought it could be avoided. But that isn’t happening.” The trust supports a team of 60 volunteers across the country who act as an early warning system. Known as the “threat detectors”, they scour planning applications for any sign of woodlands at risk, and pass details on to Ryan and the campaign team at the trust. In the last seven years, it has been the Goliath of HS2 – created through an act of parliament rather than the normal planning process – which Ryan has been up against. The planned railway link between London, Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester will destroy or partially destroy 108 ancient woodlands covering 56 hectares of land. Tenacious campaigning by the Woodland Trust has managed to save 14 hectares of ancient woodland, mostly by persuading ministers and HS2 of technical solutions – including tunnelling – to avoid desecrating the woodlands and the soil habitats within them which have been untouched for 400 years. The trust also protects woodland through the purchase of areas which are threatened. Their sites range from ownership of a hedge in Sherborne, Dorset, to Loch Arkaig, a Caledonian pine forest in Spean Bridge, and Ben Sheildaig, a mountain in the west Highlands, which they purchased earlier this year. Decades of pressure by the trust helped to change the national planning framework, which sets out the government’s planning policies for England. It now states that any development resulting in the loss of ancient woodland or ancient and veteran trees must be refused unless wholly exceptional. In Harrogate Keith Wilkinson, a trust volunteer, was among an army of campaigners who fought successfully to save dense ancient woodland covering the steep sides of Nidd Gorge, where the River Nidd enters a deep ravine, from the bulldozers clearing land for a relief road. A combination of high-profile marches attended by hundreds, and petitions thousands strong, finally reaped rewards when North Yorkshire county council withdrew the relief road project in October. “For a fairly modest charity, with a small staff, trying to cover the whole of the UK, the Woodland Trust is amazing,” said Wilkinson. “They are tenacious. They are the protectors of the country’s woodlands. In the fading light at Glyn Davies wood Helen Franklin, from the Banbury Ornithological Society, completes the ringing of blue tits, nuthatches and other birds – part of the society’s work to closely monitor population changes and movement. Remembering the moment that the threat from HS2 was confirmed, Franklin is emotional. “I burst into tears. It is heartbreaking,” she says. “There is no logic to it and it makes me angry and deeply frustrated.” There remains a glimmer of hope that the wood may be saved; its fate rests on the whim of a new government, even as the diggers wait a few feet away in a siding.
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Sandra Laville
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https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/dec/07/guardian-and-observer-charity-appeal-2019
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Sat, 07 Dec 2019 16:26:00 GMT
| 1,575,753,960 | 1,575,764,618 |
human interest
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plant
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685,294 |
theguardianuk--2019-01-15--To save the rainforest we need to work with the palm oil industry Jennifer Lucey
| 2019-01-15T00:00:00 |
theguardianuk
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To save the rainforest, we need to work with the palm oil industry | Jennifer Lucey
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Lots of academics worry that focusing too much on the real-world impact of research threatens pure, curiosity-driven science. But really the two go hand in hand, especially when it comes to solving the complex question of how we achieve sustainability despite increasing human pressures on our planet. As a tropical field ecologist studying rainforest destruction in Borneo, I saw the impact of the expanding palm oil industry on tropical biodiversity first hand, and so it was always a high priority to ensure the research I was doing made a difference. I was driven by scientific curiosity about how nature responds to the most drastic human activity, but also by the motivation to find solutions. A Natural Environment [Research](https://www.theguardian.com/education/research) Council-funded fellowship allowed me a rare opportunity to devote all my energies to using science to teach palm oil companies how to look after biodiversity. In just under four years I was able to translate the pure ecological research I had done for my PhD, studying the responses of ants and butterflies to the destruction of tropical forests, into practical knowledge which will actually save rainforests. I worked with the industry to develop a practical toolkit for stopping deforestation in tropical commodity industries, by showing how big rainforest reserves need to be to conserve biodiversity in land dominated by plantations. The toolkit, spearheaded by Greenpeace and several key palm oil industry players, has so far been used to conserve half a million hectares of forest in multiple countries – not only in the palm oil sector, but also in rubber, pulp and paper, and cocoa. Last month the major certification standard for palm oil, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), voted to use the toolkit to strengthen its “no deforestation” policy. Hopefully this will lead to larger areas of forest being protected from an industry that has been responsible for worrying levels of habitat destruction. Work like this doesn’t just have an immediate impact on the environment; it has a multiplier effect on the wider research landscape. The government’s research excellence framework, the exercise that assigns universities funding, is coming up in 2021, and much discussion has focused on whether it’s fair that it places a lot of emphasis on research projects being able to demonstrate impact through case studies. My experience has confirmed their importance: work on the toolkit has secured nearly £2m in new research funding. An understanding of the knowledge needs of the industry has resulted in repeat funding from the RSPO for our [socially and ](http://www.sensorproject.net)[environmentally ](http://www.sensorproject.net)[sustainable ](http://www.sensorproject.net)[oil ](http://www.sensorproject.net)[palm ](http://www.sensorproject.net)[research programme](http://www.sensorproject.net) aimed at testing the impact of certification. The work has also helped me forge new academic collaborations. My links with Indonesian academics resulted in a project with the [Universities](https://www.theguardian.com/education/universities) of York and Leeds and the Zoological Society of London to investigate the impacts of peatland restoration in Sumatra. This wouldn’t have come about without those critical local partner contacts. These varied perspectives have also been a source of new routes of scientific enquiry. For me, questions about how to develop conservation policy changed the debate from “How do species respond to habitat fragmentation?” to “How big is big enough to support biodiversity?”. So why aren’t we seeing more of this in UK academia? Positions in universities focused on building links between pure research and the industries, organisations and individuals that will use it tend to be short-term or administrative. To really make a difference, we need long-term networks led by academic staff who are experts in working with industry. There is no reason why science with a social or environmental impact should compete with the need for pure research. As with my own example, applied science is usually generated from the building blocks of blue skies research. The presence of permanent knowledge exchange expertise in universities can help identify and translate unforeseen links between pure science and its applications, as well as generate funding from unexpected sources. Equally, a wider pool of ideas will produce more exciting research directions than academia can provide alone. This will bring the vital new thinking required to help balance the need to provide for our growing global population with the importance of protecting our planet for future generations.
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Jennifer Lucey
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https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/jan/15/to-save-the-rainforest-we-need-to-work-with-the-palm-oil-industry
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2019-01-15 07:00:11+00:00
| 1,547,553,611 | 1,567,552,415 |
human interest
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plant
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708,478 |
theguardianuk--2019-08-24--Jair Bolsonaro claims profound love for Amazon rainforest as criticism intensifies
| 2019-08-24T00:00:00 |
theguardianuk
|
Jair Bolsonaro claims 'profound love' for Amazon rainforest as criticism intensifies
|
Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has professed to feeling “profound love and respect” for the Amazon as fires continued to rage in the world’s biggest tropical rainforest and criticism of his environmental policies intensified. In a televised address to the nation – met with pot-banging protests in several Brazilian cities – Bolsonaro said he was “not content” with the situation in the Amazon and was taking “firm action” to resolve it by deploying troops to the region. But the rightwing populist played down both the significance of the forest fires that have mushroomed into a major political and environmental crisis – as well as his administration’s responsibility for it. “Forest fires exist in the whole world and this cannot serve as a pretext for possible international sanctions,” Bolsonaro said in his brief, scripted address. Forest fires are an annual occurrence in the Amazon region – about 60% of which lies in Brazil. But experts and campaigners blame the scale of this year’s blaze on the green light they believe Bolsonaro has given to those who wish to destroy the rainforest. Bolsonaro hit back at such criticism in his Friday night address, claiming the spreading of “disinformation” – inside or outside Brazil – would do nothing to solve the Amazon crisis. “Brazil is an example of sustainability,” he claimed, as the Amazon state of Acre became the latest to declare a state of emergency because of the wildfires. “It is our duty to protect the forest. We are aware of this and we are taking action to fight illegal deforestation and any other criminal activities that put our Amazon at risk,” Bolsonaro added. “We are a government that shows zero tolerance to crime and it will not be different when it comes to the environment.” Marina Silva, Brazil’s former environment minister, told the Guardian it would take more than propaganda and “words in the wind” to solve the Amazonian “environmental emergency” caused by Bolsonaro’s policies. “Bolsonaro won the election with his anti-environment, anti-human rights and anti-indigenous discourse and on taking office he has transformed these words into deeds,” said Silva, who oversaw a significant reduction in deforestation while minister from 2003 until 2008. “These policies cannot be allowed to prosper.” Amid a growing chorus of international criticism, Donald Trump came to Bolsonaro’s defense on Friday. “I told him if the United States can help with the Amazon Rainforest fires, we stand ready to assist!” the US president tweeted. “Our future Trade prospects are very exciting and our relationship is strong, perhaps stronger than ever before,” Trump said. Bolsonaro tweeted that he had discussed “a big trade negotiation” with Trump and that the US president “had also offered to help us protect Amazonia and fight the fires, if we wish, as well as to work together on environmental policies that respect the sovereignty of nations.”
|
Tom Phillips Latin America correspondent
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/24/jair-bolsonaro-claims-profound-love-for-amazon-rainforest-as-criticism-fires-intensifies
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2019-08-24 01:03:46+00:00
| 1,566,623,026 | 1,567,533,518 |
human interest
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plant
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710,796 |
theguardianuk--2019-09-25--Rewilding will make Britain a rainforest nation again George Monbiot
| 2019-09-25T00:00:00 |
theguardianuk
|
Rewilding will make Britain a rainforest nation again | George Monbiot
|
The forests still burn, but the world now looks away. In both [the Amazon basin](http://queimadas.dgi.inpe.br/queimadas/portal-static/situacao-atual/) and the [rainforests of Indonesia](https://news.mongabay.com/2019/09 /indonesia-haze-fire-forest-jokowi-negligent/), the world-scorching inferno rages on, already forgotten by most of the media. Intricate living systems, species that took millions of years to evolve, are being incinerated in moments, then replaced with monocultures. Giant plumes of carbon tip us further into climate breakdown. And we’re not even talking about it. But underneath the grief and frustration, I also feel disquiet. We rightly call on other nations to protect their stunning places. But where are our rainforests? I mean this both metaphorically and literally. Out of 218 nations, the [UK ranks 189th for the intactness of its living systems](https://www.rspb.org.uk/globalassets/downloads/documents /conservation-projects/state-of-nature/state-of-nature-uk-report-2016.pdf). Having trashed our own wildlife, our excessive demand for meat, animal feed, timber, minerals and fossil fuels helps lay waste the rest of the world. Among our missing ecosystems are rainforests. Rainforests are not confined to the tropics: a good definition is forest wet enough to support epiphytes – plants that grow on other plants. Particularly in the west of Britain, where tiny fragments persist, you can find trees covered in rich growths of a fern called polypody, mosses and lichens, and flowering plants climbing the lower trunks. Learning that Britain is a rainforest nation astounds us only because we have so little left. We now know that, alongside keeping fossil fuels in the ground, natural climate solutions – using the mass restoration of nature to [draw down carbon from the air](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/19/greta- thunberg-we-are-ignoring-natural-climate-solutions) – offer perhaps the last remaining chance to prevent [more than 1.5C, or even 2C](https://www.naturalclimate.solutions/the-science), of global heating. Saving the remaining rainforests and other rich ecosystems, while restoring those we have lost, is not just a nice idea: our lives may depend on it. But in countries like the UK, we urge others to act while overlooking our own disasters. Foreigners I meet are often flabbergasted by the state of our national parks. They see the sheepwrecked deserts and grousetrashed moors and ask: “What are you protecting here?” In the name of “cultural heritage” we allow harsh commercial interests, embedded in the modern economy but dependent on public money, to complete the kind of [ecological cleansing we lament in the Amazon](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/28/britain- national-parks-reclaim-rewild). Sheep farming has done for our rainforests what cattle ranching is doing to Brazil’s. Then we glorify these monocultures – the scoured, treeless hills – as “wild” and “unspoilt”. When the [International Union for Conservation of Nature](https://www.iucn.org/) sought to classify our national parks, it had to invent a new category. Most of the world’s national parks are category I or II: set aside principally for nature. But all of [ours are category V](https://www.iucn.org/theme/protected-areas/about/protected-areas- categories/category-v-protected-landscapeseascape): places where, in practice, business comes first and nature last. Much of the land in our national parks is systematically burned. In the northern parks, this destruction is [wreaked by grouse estates](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/24/grouse- estates-investigated-over-heather-burning), and in Snowdonia by farmers. But on Dartmoor and Exmoor, the [park authorities do it themselves](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/georgemonbiot/2016/jan/14 /swaling-is-causing-an-environmental-disaster-on-britains-moors), torching wildlife, roasting the soil, pouring carbon into the skies: everything we condemn elsewhere. The government’s new [Landscapes Review](https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/833163 /landscapes-review-final-report.pdf) is better than I expected, but its positive proposals are in no way commensurate with our ecological and climate crises. It suggests that England’s national parks and other protected landscapes should “have a renewed mission to recover and enhance nature … simply sustaining what we have is not nearly good enough”. But it does not argue that any of our parks should aim for something better than category V. Nor does it recommend that burning should cease, or that farming should withdraw from some places to allow rainforests and other rich habitats to recover. Where is the ambition our emergencies demand? We urgently need more trees, but we appear to believe that the only means of restoring them is planting. We have [a national obsession with tree planting](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/23/call-for-1m- people-join-uk-biggest-mass-tree-planting-campaign), which is in danger of becoming as tokenistic as bamboo toothbrushes and cotton tote bags. In many places rewilding, or natural regeneration – allowing trees to seed and spread themselves – is much faster and more effective, and tends to produce far richer habitats. Burning gorse on Dartmoor. Photograph: Marc Hill/Alamy All over the country, I see “conservation woodlands” that look nothing like ecological restoration and everything like commercial forestry: the ground blasted with glyphosate (a herbicide that kills everything), trees planted in straight rows, in plastic tree guards attached with cable ties to treated posts. It looks hideous, it takes decades to begin to resemble a natural forest and, in remote parts of the nation, it is often the primary cause of plastic litter, much of which is never recovered. There are no woodland creation grants in this country supporting natural regeneration: public money is pegged exclusively to the number of trees planted. This is one of the reasons for the [shocking failure to meet the UK’s targets](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/13/tree-planting-in- england-falls-72-short-of-government-target) for new woodlands. The government should follow the [hierarchical approach ](https://naturalareasblog.wordpress.com/2018/12/28/tree-planting-and-natural- regeneration/)suggested by the conservationist Steve Jones. It should fund natural regeneration wherever possible. Where trees struggle to establish themselves, it should finance assisted regeneration (clearing competing vegetation). Only where those options won’t work should it offer grants for tree planting. But while nature loves a mess, officialdom abhors one: instead of natural exuberance it seeks neat industrial rows. Don’t expect much help from politicians. Michael Gove’s successor as environment secretary, Theresa Villiers, seems tongue-tied, apparently terrified of offending vested interests. Labour’s vote for a Green New Deal, with a 2030 deadline for decarbonisation (20 years before the government’s) is exciting. But we now need to see its commitments on industrial emissions matched by ambitious proposals for ecological restoration. Nor are the big conservation groups filling the void. Ours is an extraordinary situation: a nation of nature lovers, obsessed by wildlife programmes, represented by gigantic NGOs, but apparently incapable of preventing the precipitous decline of wildlife and habitats. The conservation groups have manifestly failed to translate our love of nature into action. They betray their radical roots. The National Trust [arose from the Commons Preservation Society](https://www.monbiot.com/1995/09/27/whose-nation-whose- trust/), that tore down fences to return land to the people. Now it allows the forces it once contested to ride roughshod over its land, [allowing trail hunts](https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/our-position-on-trail- hunting) and exclusive grouse shoots to erode the sense of national ownership. On its Exmoor estate, in the resource book it publishes for school teachers, it celebrates burning the land. The RSPB was founded by women seeking to ban the import of birds’ plumage for hats – they eventually succeeded. Now, as independent ecologists raise massive petitions to [ban driven grouse shooting](https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/266770), the RSPB undermines their campaigns by calling for this [devastating practice to be, er, licensed](https://community.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/b/martinharper/posts/why- we-need-a-review-of-driven-grouse-moor-management-in-england). Hesitation and appeasement reign. We should continue to mobilise against the destruction of the world’s great habitats, and its terrifying implications. But the most persuasive argument we can make is to show we mean it, by restoring our own lost wonders. • George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist
|
George Monbiot
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/25/rewilding-britains-rainforest-planting-trees
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2019-09-25 05:00:24+00:00
| 1,569,402,024 | 1,570,222,261 |
human interest
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plant
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1,017,941 |
thetelegraph--2019-10-15--Plants taught to take 'selfies' in move which could help scientists discover more about the rainfore
| 2019-10-15T00:00:00 |
thetelegraph
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Plants taught to take 'selfies' in move which could help scientists discover more about the rainforest
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Scientists have taught plants how to take 'selfies' in a move which will make monitoring the wildlife in rainforests far easier. The first ever "plant selfie" has been taken with the help of researchers from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) after they managed to invent a camera which works using energy generated by the plant. This is an exciting new development for conservationists, as they have been able to harness the natural energy created by living plants to create small amounts of electricity, allowing them to "plug in" to nature. Earlier this year, they installed microbial fuel cells in ZSL London Zoo’s Rainforest Life exhibit, in order to power a plant to take its own picture - with the ultimate aim of using plants to power camera traps and sensors in the wild. Now, the experiment has been a success, with the plant able to take pictures of itself without further human interference. After spending the summer growing in strength, Pete - a maidenhair fern whose delicate leaves and shiny stalks are clearly visible in the images - now photographs "himself" regularly.
|
Helena Horton
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https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/10/15/plants-taught-take-selfies-move-could-help-scientists-discover/
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Tue, 15 Oct 2019 12:21:10 GMT
| 1,571,156,470 | 1,571,144,455 |
human interest
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plant
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116,099 |
collectiveevolution--2019-03-10--Research Reveals Plants Can Think Choose Remember
| 2019-03-10T00:00:00 |
collectiveevolution
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Research Reveals Plants Can Think, Choose & Remember
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Facebook, which seems to have become a government-run agency claiming to help fight the war on ‘fake news,’ has pledged to delete and flag content that spreads misinformation. This is great, and should be done, but the only problem is that content around the internet is being taken down, flagged, and deemed as a ‘conspiracy theory’ when it is well-supported, factual, and backed by peer-reviewed science. I just wrote an article about the recent measles outbreak in Washington State for example, and how that state is pushing hard for all school-aged children to receive a mandatory MMR vaccination. These outbreaks are constantly being blamed on unvaccinated children, but the mainstream never points people towards the actual statistics showing that Washington State, like many other states, have not experienced a drop in MMR vaccination coverage. Instead, MMR vaccine coverage is very high. Furthermore, they don’t mention that there’s been a long history of measles outbreaks in highly vaccinated and fully vaccinated populations (see article linked below for examples and sources), and they don’t mention the deaths, disabilities, and adverse reactions that’ve occurred as a result of the MMR vaccine either. Why don’t they mention that the death rate from measles in Washington State was just 1.4/10,000 (source in article below) before the introduction of the vaccine? You can read more about that and access multiple studies and testimonies on this subject in the article linked below: Biochemical Engineer Drops Bombshell Facts About Measles & The MMR Vaccine In Washington Information and science are constantly emerging regarding vaccinations, but we never hear about any of it from mainstream media. I also recently published an article of Robert F. Kennedy explaining how big pharmaceutical companies are the biggest lobbyists, even more than big oil, and how they’ve completely compromised both the Democrats and the Republicans. So, what’s some of the latest information regarding vaccine safety? An article published in Nature, International Journal of Science titled “Italian scientists protest funding for vaccine-safety investigation” outlines how The National Order of Biologists made a €10,000 donation to a group that questions the safety of vaccines. The groups name is Corvelva, and they received the donation on the 26th of October of 2018. The group believes that the research it conducts is necessary because “previous studies it has funded, which have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, indicate that some vaccines contain impurities, or lack the active ingredients they claim to contain.” Nature points out that “Some scientists in Italy are up in arms over a donation from the organization that oversees the nation’s professional biology qualification to an advocacy group that opposes the country’s policy of mandatory childhood vaccination.” This part is confusing: Why would any group or any scientist oppose more safety studies regarding vaccinations? Wouldn’t professionals on both sides of the coin be in support of as much vaccine safety testing as possible? ONB president Vincenzo D’Anna told Nature in an e-mail interview that there is a need for truly independent vaccine research because, in his opinion, work conducted in public laboratories and at universities is usually influenced or funded by companies that produce vaccines. “The goal is to contribute to complete the biological and chemical analyses on vaccines,” he said in the interview, part of which the ONB has published in its Bulletin. Again, Nature points out that many scientists dismiss the need for more vaccine safety testing and that they are upset. That being said, it’s a comforting thought that ONB disagrees and that they are supporting this type of thing. Clearly, many professionals within that organization don’t believe that vaccines go through rigorous safety testing, as is claimed by many. Again, what harm could be done by further testing? The first vaccine that was tested was the Infanrix Hexa vaccine. It’s a six-in-one vaccine that’s manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) that’s supposed to contain the following antigens: tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis toxoids; inactivated poliomyelitis viral strains 1-2-3; and hepatitis B surface antigen. Corvelva discovered that none of these antigens were actually in the vaccine, which means it had zero antibodies to the intended antigens to be created. This was a huge shock, and in addition to that they also found the following: Traces of 65 chemical cross-contaminants from other manufacturing lines: Tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis toxoids, D antigens of Poliomyelitis 1-2-3, hepatitis B proteins obtained with genetic engineering and Haemophylus polysaccharides chemically linked to tetanus toxoid as carrier. Toxoids are created by treatments with formaldehyde and glutaraldehyde that should remove toxicity keeping intact their ability to stimulate protective antibodies against original toxins. We were expecting to find the three toxoids and the other antigens not modified by treatment with formaldehyde and glutaraldehyde, to separate the antigens from each other and to be digestible by the enzyme specific for proteins (trypsin). We have found instead a real polymer, insoluble and indigestible, that we supposed to be the set of antigens chemically bound together (has to be defined if this is present as an aggregate of the individual antigens or a single macromolecule), on which we can find in literature partial information regarding the single antigens. This macromolecule could not be recognized in any way by the protein databases, and in fact it turned out to be a solid compound of an unknown chemical structure. Proteins solubility and their digestion (i.e. the capacity to divide them into small peptide fragments) are two typical proteins characteristics that not only makes it possible to study them through some specific analysis methods but are also fundamental for the interaction with the immune system to create protective antibodies, because if the protein structure is heavily altered from the original one, the new antibodies result completely different from those that are able to attack the original antibodies causing illnesses. Since this polymer we have encountered, derived from the antigenic mix, is not only different for its spatial conformation but it’s chemically different, so we can state that we are not facing antigens similar to the original ones but in the form of a compound with an unknown and unpredictable toxicity and efficacy. (source) The fact that the vaccine antigens were not detected is seriously concerning, and so is the fact that, of the 65 signs of chemical contaminants, only 35% are known. This was only the first phase of this safety testing, as a second analytical study with standard controls will be released. 7 chemical toxins were also identified, and the group states that these toxins have a structure that could probably be partially derived from the formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde and cyanogen bromide reactions with other chemical contaminants in the vaccine. We’d like to point out that the toxicity of many of these toxins have been confirmed and published in Pubchem or Toxnet and this poses important safety problems, issues and concerns. From the protein and peptide fraction study, various free peptides of bacterial origin have been obtained probably coming from the bacterial culture cells used for the antigen extraction. Literature reports bacterial peptides as potential allergens 5 and also as capable of inducing autoimmune reactions 6 and these too put a safety issue that needs to be further clarified with the regulatory bodies. Coming back to the two basic principles that have been our topic on this analysis path, we reaffirm what we have said in the recent interview on the scientific journal Nature: we are inquiring the vaccines efficacy and safety and we can’t quite understand how it is possible to claim that this vaccine is even able to generate the 6 protective antibodies – reason why it is designed for – and furthermore to understand how this cluster made of 6 neurotoxic antigens bound together can be claimed as not toxic for newborns. Infanrix Hexa hexavalent, as for the method we have commissioned, casts major doubts on both its effectiveness and on its safety… One thing is for sure: we will not stop to proceed. In the 90s, Dr. Antonietta Gatti discovered the relationship between micro- and nano-particles as well as a great number of pathologies: cardiovascular diseases, many forms of cancer, multiple neurological diseases, and autoimmune diseases. She’s taken part in many international research projects, including the pathologies induced by depleted uranium, waste incineration, food polluted with inorganic particles, and more. Currently, she is the coordinator of the Italian Institute of Technology’s Project of Nanoecotoxicology, called INESE. She is also a selected expert of the FAO/WHO for the safety in nanotechnological food, a Member of the NANOTOX Cluster of the European Commission, the author of the book “Nanopathology: the health impact of nanoparticles,” on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Biomaterials Applications, and a Member of the CPCM of the Italian Ministry of Defense. Furthermore, her and her husband Dr. Stefano Montanari founded a laboratory called Nano-diagnostics for the evaluation of the pathological tissues of patients. It’s presently at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy. Recently, the Italian police raided their home, and the police took all digital assets that were owned by the the two nanopathologists including their laptops, computers, and flash-drives; basically years of work and research. James Grundvig via the World Mercury Project describes what happened quite well: “Because Gatti and Montanari had taken their research of nanodust and nanoparticles, from in-vivo (performed in a living organism) and in-vitro (performed in a test tube) to what unseen contamination might reside in vaccines in 2016, they came under the microscope of the United States, European, and Italian authorities. They had touched the third rail of medicine. They had crossed the no-go zone with the purported crime being scientific research and discovery. By finding nano-contamination in random vaccines, Gatti and Montanari revealed, for the first time, what no one knew: Vaccines had more than aluminum salts adjuvants, Polysorbate-80, and other inorganic chemicals in them, they also harbored stainless steel, tungsten, copper, and other metals and rare elements that don’t belong in shots given to fetuses, pregnant women, newborns, babies and toddlers developing their lungs, immune and nervous systems.” The scientists published their work in January of 2017, titled, New Quality‐Control Investigations on Vaccines: Micro‐ and Nanocontamination. If science wasn’t plagued by corruption, an investigation would have started, healthcare agencies would be involved, and vaccine safety policies would have come under intense scrutiny, but that never happened. You can read more about this story and access an interview with the scientists here. There are numerous vaccine safety issues. The bioaccumulation of various vaccine ingredients, for example, are one. Ingredients like aluminum have been added to vaccines for more than 100 years under the assumption that they are safe. It’s only within the last couple years that scientists decided to look to see where these ingredients go after being injected. They found that aluminum, when injected, doesn’t exit the body, it actually travels to distant organs and the brain. You can access those studies and read more about that here. You can also watch a short video from Dr. Christopher Shaw from the University of British Colombia explaining the difference between injectable aluminum and the aluminum our body takes in from food. Here is another related study you can read that goes into further detail. The main point I’m trying to make is that no parent should ever be made to feel guilty for not vaccinating their children. Vaccines are clearly not as safe as they’re marketed to be, and it’s important that we ask ourselves why this type of information goes virtually unacknowledged by the masses.
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Collective Evolution
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https://www.collective-evolution.com/2019/03/10/research-reveals-plants-can-think-choose-remember/
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2019-03-10 06:00:47+00:00
| 1,552,212,047 | 1,567,546,791 |
human interest
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plant
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284,303 |
latimes--2019-11-04--10 million pot plants worth $1 billion destroyed in Kern County
| 2019-11-04T00:00:00 |
latimes
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10 million pot plants worth $1 billion destroyed in Kern County
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Authorities in Kern County destroyed about 10 million marijuana plants being grown under the guise of industrial hemp. Investigators with the Kern County Sheriff’s Office seized the plants, which they estimate to have a street value of more than $1 billion, from 11 fields in the Arvin area on Oct. 25, according to a news release from the Sheriff’s Office. The seizure was first reported by the Bakersfield Californian. Industrial hemp is a variety of cannabis sativa plant that has much lower levels of the psychoactive chemical THC than are found in marijuana. Industrial hemp grown for commercial sale must, by law, contain no more than 0.3% THC, though there’s an exemption for hemp grown for research purposes, the Sheriff’s Office said. The plants seized by investigators were being grown for commercial consumption and contained THC contents “well over” the legal limit, meaning that they “were in fact cannabis,” the sheriff’s office said. Kern County voted to ban commercial cannabis activity in 2017. No arrests were made, and authorities haven’t determined whether they’ll seek charges, a spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Office said. The investigation remains ongoing. It was conducted jointly with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the FBI.
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Alex Wigglesworth
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https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-11-04/authorities-destroy-10-million-plants-marijuana-hemp
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Mon, 4 Nov 2019 13:22:38 -0500
| 1,572,891,758 | 1,573,063,844 |
human interest
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plant
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335,109 |
naturalnews--2019-03-18--Plants can remember environmental changes and adapt researchers discover
| 2019-03-18T00:00:00 |
naturalnews
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Plants can "remember" environmental changes and adapt, researchers discover
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(Natural News) No plant in the world has a feature that’s remotely similar to a brain. However, British researchers recently found out that flowering plants contained proteins that can store information about changes in their environment, such as shifts in temperatures when one season gave way to another. These data served as “memories” for a plant. When the plant experienced stimuli that matched what it “remembered” from the past, it would respond accordingly. These PRC2 proteins can be found in cereals and vegetables, both of which are important plants for making food. Researchers from the University of Birmingham and the University of Nottingham believed that the memory function was vital to a plant’s success in acclimatizing to a new and different kind of environment. The memory-storing proteins allowed plants to effectively oversee their activities in response to external stimuli like stress or seasonal change. A plant that experienced the long periods of cold temperatures during winter will “know” that it should only start growing delicate flowers when the weather was warmer. (Related: The Swiss Army knife of plants — why sea buckthorn oil is such a powerful remedy.) The PRC2 proteins combined into a structure whenever the temperature grew cold. They were also responsible for getting the plant to produce flowers. However, there was little information on the means used by this group of proteins to detect environmental changes. Support our mission and enhance your own self-reliance: The laboratory-verified Organic Emergency Survival Bucket provides certified organic, high-nutrition storable food for emergency preparedness. Completely free of corn syrup, MSG, GMOs and other food toxins. Ultra-clean solution for years of food security. Learn more at the Health Ranger Store. The Birmingham-Nottingham researchers investigated the ability of PRC2 proteins in Arabidopsis thaliana to evaluate the conditions of the environment. They found that the structure heavily relied on a particular protein called VRN2. VRN2 displayed high instability. It broke down at a steady rate under hospitable conditions, such as warm weather and the presence of more than enough oxygen. However, the behavior of the protein drastically changed once the environmental conditions got worse. During floods that cut off the supply of oxygen, the stability of VRN2 greatly increased. In turn, this improved the chances of the plant to survive the crisis. Furthermore, the VRN2 protein increased in number during winter conditions. Once spring arrived, the accrued amounts of VRN2 made it easy for the PRC2 protein complex to activate the flowering process. Curious as to why the protein accumulated during cold weather, the researchers compared the plant’s response to cold temperatures and its reaction to oxygen shortages during flooding. They were surprised by the similarities between the two responses, given the differences in their respective stimuli. Birmingham researcher Daniel Gibbs stated that the ability to sense and recall environmental changes was of critical importance for plants. The organism depended on this protein-based “memory” so that it could successfully reproduce and create a new generation of plants. “VRN2 is continually being broken down when it is not needed, but accumulates under the right environmental conditions,” Gibbs said in a press release. “In this way, VRN2 directly senses and responds to signals from the environment, and the PRC2 remains inactive until required.” His Nottingham colleague and co-author, Michael Holdsworth, said that they were planning to look into the reason as to why VRN2 proteins become much more stable when it got colder. They also want to determine why the plant reacted to cold temperatures in the same way it did when confronted with a flooded environment. The PRC2 protein complex was also present in animals. However, animal PRC2 lacked the unstable VRN2 protein. “This system appears to have evolved specifically in flowering plants,” said Holdsworth. “Perhaps it gives them more flexibility in their ability to adapt and respond to environmental change, which is important since they are fixed in the ground and can’t move.”
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Edsel Cook
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http://www.naturalnews.com/2019-03-18-plants-can-remember-environmental-changes-and-adapt.html
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2019-03-18 20:43:27+00:00
| 1,552,956,207 | 1,567,545,790 |
human interest
|
plant
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337,079 |
naturalnews--2019-09-19--Plants from the laurel family found to exhibit potent antiviral properties
| 2019-09-19T00:00:00 |
naturalnews
|
Plants from the laurel family found to exhibit potent antiviral properties
|
 * * * ([Natural News](https://www.naturalnews.com)) The genus _Litsea_ is comprised of evergreen or deciduous trees or shrubs that belong to the Lauraceae (laurel) family. It contains about 200 plant species, and some of them have been used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat traumatic injuries and relieve symptoms of pain. From this genus, _Litsea verticillata_ was the first plant species identified by the _National Institutes of Health_ (NIH)-funded International Cooperative Biodiversity Group (ICBG) project to have anti-HIV activities. In an effort to explore the antiviral properties of other Litsea species, ICBG researchers from the U.S., Hong Kong, and Vietnam evaluated nine other plants for their anti-HIV and cytotoxic activities. They discovered that some of them exhibit [potent inhibitory effects against HIV replication](https://www.science.news/2019-07-09-litsea-species-tcm-shows- promise-as-antiviral.html). The results of their study were published in _The American Journal of Chinese Medicine_. ## Litsea and its bioactive components Plants that belong to the genus _Litsea_ are mainly [distributed in tropical and subtropical regions](https://kundoc.com/pdf-the-genus-litsea-in- traditional-chinese-medicine-an-ethnomedical-phytochemical-a.html) around the world. In China, 74 Litsea species have been found, and 20 of them have a long history of use in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). The ancient Chinese used the fruits of these plants to treat gastrointestinal diseases, [asthma](https://naturalpedia.com/asthma-causes-side-effects-and-treatments- at-naturalpedia-com.html), and traumatic injuries. The leaves, stems, velamina, roots, and barks, on the other hand, were used to treat stomachache, colds, pain, [arthritis](https://naturalpedia.com/arthritis-causes-side- effects-and-treatments-at-naturalpedia-com.html), and diarrhea. Several studies have been done on the phytochemical content and pharmacological properties of different _Litsea_ species used in TCM. To date, researchers have identified more than 200 active compounds that are present in these medicinal plants. These active components include flavonoids, terpenoids, alkaloids, butanolides and butenolactones, lignans, amides, steroids, fatty acids, and megastigmanes, among others. Of these, [flavonoids](https://naturalpedia.com/flavonoids-sources-health-benefits-and- uses.html) and terpenoids contribute the most to the therapeutic potential shown by Litsea plants. [](https://prevent-and-reverse-heart-disease.naturalnews.com) | _**Discover how to prevent and reverse heart disease (and other cardio related events) with this free ebook** : Written by popular Natural News writer Vicki Batt, this book includes [everything you need to know](https://prevent-and- reverse-heart-disease.naturalnews.com) about preventing heart disease, reversing hypertension, and nurturing your cardiac health without medication. [Learn More.](https://prevent-and-reverse-heart-disease.naturalnews.com)_ ---|--- Flavonoids are [polyphenolic plant compounds](https://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic /dietary-factors/phytochemicals/flavonoids) present in many fruits and vegetables. They affect cell-signaling pathways and exhibit anti-inflammatory, anti-thrombogenic, anti-diabetic, anti-cancer, and neuroprotective activities. Litsea plant species that are rich in flavonoids include _L. cubeba_ , _L. glutinosa_ , and _L. coreana_. According to numerous studies, the flavonoids isolated from _L. coreana_ have anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and hepatoprotective properties. Terpenoids, on the other hand, are a [modified class of terpenes](https://www.intechopen.com/books/terpenes-and-terpenoids /introductory-chapter-terpenes-and-terpenoids) used to treat a variety of diseases and can be classified into the following: * **Monoterpenes** â naturally present in essential oils; have antiseptic, antiviral, and antibacterial properties * **Sesquiterpenes** â potent antimicrobial, antiviral, and anti-insecticidal agents * **Diterpenes** â exhibit anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, anticancer, and antifungal activities * **Sesterpenes** â can be found in fungus, marine organisms, insects, sponges, lichens, and insect wax; also possess anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antimicrobial, and antifungal properties * **Triterpenes** â derived from squalene biosynthetic pathway; can be converted into [saponins, which have anti-tumor](https://www.phytochemicals.info/phytochemicals/saponins.php), antimutagenic, cholesterol-lowering, antimicrobial, antioxidant, and osteoprotective activities. * **Meroterpenes** â present in animals, plants, bacteria, and fungi; exhibits anti-inflammatory and anticancer activities ## Litsea species are rich sources of antiviral compounds In a previous study, researchers involved with the ICBG discovered eight novel compounds â prototypic sesquiterpenes â that exhibit anti-HIV activities. In subsequent studies, they identified 26 additional compounds with different structural types from the plant. They also discovered two new litseanes, litseaverticillols L and M, and a new sesquiterpene butenolide, litseasesquibutenolide. They reported that litseaverticillols L and M inhibit HIV-1 replication. To further explore the antiviral properties of _L. verticillata_ , the researchers evaluated several relatively abundant isolates, including a litseane compound, two eudesmane sesquiterpenes, and three lignans by testing them against an additional 21 viral targets. They found that lignans 8 and 9 are active against Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV), a member of the [herpes](https://naturalpedia.com/herpes-causes-side-effects- and-treatments-at-naturalpedia-com.html) family that causes [infectious mononucleosis](https://www.cdc.gov/epstein-barr/about-mono.html). Typical symptoms of this disease include extreme fatigue, fever, swollen lymph nodes, swollen liver or spleen, and rashes. Since many antiviral compounds have already been discovered in _L. verticillata_ _,_ for the current study, the researchers prepared 38 plant extracts from different parts of nine other Litsea species and evaluated their [anti-HIV and cytotoxic activities](https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0192415X16500166). They reported that four extracts from three different Litsea species showed 97â100 percent inhibitory effects against HIV replication. These extracts also did not show cytotoxicity to a panel of human cell lines at a concentration of 20 micrograms per milliliter (ug/mL). Based on their findings, the researchers concluded that the Litsea species are [good plant sources of antiviral compounds](http://phytonutrients.news) that can be used against harmful viral infections, including [HIV](https://naturalpedia.com /hiv-causes-side-effects-and-treatments-at-naturalpedia-com.html). (Related: [HIV-1 people can boost their immune system with Korean red ginseng](https://www.naturalnews.com/2019-01-05-hiv-1-people-can-boost-their- immune-system-with-korean-red-ginseng.html).) **Sources include:** [Science.news](https://www.science.news/2019-07-09-litsea-species-tcm-shows- promise-as-antiviral.html) [Kundoc.com](https://kundoc.com/pdf-the-genus-litsea-in-traditional-chinese- medicine-an-ethnomedical-phytochemical-a.html) [LPI.OregonState.edu](https://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/dietary- factors/phytochemicals/flavonoids) [IntechOpen.com](https://www.intechopen.com/books/terpenes-and-terpenoids /introductory-chapter-terpenes-and-terpenoids) [Phytochemicals.info](https://www.phytochemicals.info/phytochemicals/saponins.php) [CDC.gov](https://www.cdc.gov/epstein-barr/about-mono.html) [WorldScientific.com](https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0192415X16500166)
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Evangelyn Rodriguez
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http://www.naturalnews.com/2019-09-19-plants-from-laurel-family-exhibit-antiviral-properties.html
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2019-09-19 18:31:13+00:00
| 1,568,932,273 | 1,569,329,846 |
human interest
|
plant
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384,299 |
npr--2019-03-10--Scientists Thread A Nano-Needle To Modify The Genes Of Plants
| 2019-03-10T00:00:00 |
npr
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Scientists Thread A Nano-Needle To Modify The Genes Of Plants
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An artist's rendering shows a needle-like carbon nanotube delivering DNA through the wall of a plant cell. It also may be possible to use this method to inject a gene editing tool called CRISPR to alter a plant's characteristics for breeding. **Courtesy of Markita del Carpio Landry** ****hide caption**** ****toggle caption**** Courtesy of Markita del Carpio Landry An artist's rendering shows a needle-like carbon nanotube delivering DNA through the wall of a plant cell. It also may be possible to use this method to inject a gene editing tool called CRISPR to alter a plant's characteristics for breeding. Courtesy of Markita del Carpio Landry Is there an efficient way to tinker with the genes of plants? Being able to do that would make breeding new varieties of crop plants faster and easier, but figuring out exactly _how_ to do it has stumped plant scientists for decades. Now researchers may have cracked it. Modifying the genetics of a plant requires getting DNA into its cells. That's fairly easy to do with animal cells, but with plants it's a different matter. "Plants have not just a cell membrane, but also a cell wall," says [Markita Landry](https://chemistry.berkeley.edu/faculty/cbe/landry), assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. Scientists have tried different ways to get DNA and other important biological molecules through the cell wall – by shooting microscopic gold bullets coated with DNA into the cell using a [gene gun](http://passel.unl.edu/pages/informationmodule.php?idinformationmodule=958077244&topicorder=3&maxto=7) or by hiding DNA inside [bacteria](http://passel.unl.edu/pages/informationmodule.php?idinformationmodule=958077244&topicorder=4&maxto=7&minto=1) that can infect plant cells. Both methods have limitations. Gene guns aren't very efficient, and some plants are hard, if not impossible, to infect with bacteria. UC Berkeley researchers have found a way to do it using something called carbon nanotubes, long stiff tubes of carbon that are really small. Landry came up with the idea, and the curious thing is she's neither a nanotechnology engineer nor a plant biologist. "I'm a physicist," Landry says. "When I started my lab at Berkeley two years ago, my lab was focused exclusively on imaging between cells." Markita Landry, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, came up with the idea of using carbon nanotubes to get DNA into plant cells. **Courtesy of Marcelo Perez del Carpio** ****hide caption**** ****toggle caption**** Courtesy of Marcelo Perez del Carpio Markita Landry, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, came up with the idea of using carbon nanotubes to get DNA into plant cells. Courtesy of Marcelo Perez del Carpio She was planning to use carbon nanotubes as kind of external scaffolding around the cells to make it easier to see what was going on between them. "This was a project that failed pretty hard and pretty quick, because instead of staying outside of the plant cells as we had presumed, these nanotubes were going straight into the cells," Landry says. So in the spirit of corporate management gurus, she turned a problem into an opportunity. "We flipped it around and made it a DNA delivery platform instead," she says. A strand of DNA is small enough to slip through the plant cell wall, but it's not rigid enough. "You can kind of think of it like a floppy string," Landry says. "If you try to push a floppy string through a sponge, it's not really going to work, but if you take a solid needle and try to push it through a sponge, that will work much better." Attaching the DNA to the carbon nanotube gives you that nano-needle. But that DNA only affects the single cell and lasts for just a few days before it degrades. To make a permanent change, you need to affect the plant's genome using a gene editing tool such as as CRISPR. Landry says it also might be possible to use nanotubes to deliver CRISPR. Once inside a cell, from let's say an apple tree, CRISPR could, for example, turn off a gene that causes browning in apples. "We would end up with an apple tree whose apples don't go brown when you cut into them," Landry says. The idea of using carbon nanotubes to get DNA into plant cells is intriguing to some scientists, but "I think they've got a little ways to go to make it really interesting," says [Laura Bartley](https://www.ou.edu/cas/mpbio/people/faculty/bartley), associate professor of plant biology at the University of Oklahoma. Bartley says it will be important to show that the method works in different varieties of plants besides the two Landry describes in a [recent paper](https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2018/01/30/179549.full.pdf) in _Nature Nanotechnology:_ arugula and wheat. But she's impressed that the new approach appears to be able to get DNA into grass plants such as wheat. "If it works the way they think it does, I can imagine a lot of people wanting to use that," Bartley says. In fact, she says she's thinking about trying the invention in her work on grass plants.
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Joe Palca
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https://www.npr.org/2019/03/10/701498728/scientists-thread-a-nano-needle-to-modify-the-genes-of-plants?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news
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2019-03-10 21:23:00+00:00
| 1,552,267,380 | 1,567,546,794 |
human interest
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plant
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385,862 |
npr--2019-06-21--Music For Plants Is Real Even If The Science Isnt
| 2019-06-21T00:00:00 |
npr
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Music For Plants Is Real (Even If The Science Isn't)
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Music For Plants Is Real (Even If The Science Isn't) At the dawn of the 1970s, Mort Garson installed a Moog synthesizer in his Laurel Canyon home studio. In those early days of Moogs, the modular synthesizer was a massive piece of equipment — a dizzying wall of knobs and inputs. "It looked like a switchboard from the 1940s," Garson's daughter Day Darmet remembers. "It was just huge, with all these wires. My mom and I thought that he had really lost it." Garson self-released the album Mother Earth's Plantasia in 1976. He used his Moog to create the suitably groovy vibe of each of its 10 instrumental tracks. "Concerto for Philodendron & Pothos" twinkles like the first stars to emerge after a sunset. "Symphony for a Spider Plant" bubbles with wonder. "A Mellow Mood for Maidenhair" bears traces of a psychedelic awakening. But the stated audience of this strange but soothing music was not people. It was for plants. Befitting its esoteric origins, Plantasia was only sold at the Mother Earth plant store on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, or it came for free if you ordered a Simmons mattress from Sears. Plantasia's cheeky liner notes were written by Mother Earth's owners, Lynn and Joel Rapp, who were members of the TV industry before they turned to selling ferns and ficuses. In the description for the title song, they told an apocryphal tale: "[A] professor took three identical sets of plants and put them in three rooms under identical growing conditions. In the first room, he played only classical music and those plants thrived; in the second room, he played only rock music and those plants thrived; in the third room he played only the news. Those plants died. Let that one grow on you while you listen ... ." Though it wasn't the first album touted as being for plants, collectors have been on the lookout for copies of Plantasia for decades. In recent years its desirability has only increased. Records and CDs have been bootlegged and the audio has been uploaded to YouTube without permission. Original vinyl copies get posted on the resale site Discogs for hundreds of dollars. But now, Plantasia has finally gotten an official rerelease by the Brooklyn-based Sacred Bones Records, with streaming services picking it up this spring and physical copies arriving today. Sacred Bones owner Caleb Braaten first heard Plantasia in the early 2000s, when he was working at the record store Twist & Shout in Denver. A coworker told him about a cheap copy in the used bin, since he knew Braaten was into old, weird electronic records, like Wendy Carlos' soundtrack for A Clockwork Orange. The appeal of Plantasia was instantaneous for him. "There's something about it: It hits these nostalgic sensors in your brain that make it feel so warm and familiar, but it's kind of from another planet at the same time," Braaten says. Plantasia arrived three years after the release of Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird's book The Secret Life of Plants, which appeared on The New York Times' bestselling nonfiction list amongst titles like The Joy of Sex and How to Be Your Own Best Friend. In The Secret Life of Plants, Tompkins and Bird recounted experiments conducted around the planet that supposedly proved that plants were far more complex and cosmically attuned beings than most humans imagined. One of its central claims was that the health and productivity of plants could be affected not only by playing music for them, but by what kind of music you played for them. With this notion vibrating through the consciousness, artists began making compositions designed specifically for plants, in tribute to plants, or in collaboration with plants. Prolific French composer Roger Roger released the electronic-classical hybrid De la Musique et des Secrets pour Enchanter vos Plantes (Music and Secrets to Enchant Your Plants). Even Stevie Wonder embraced these ideas at the end of his transcendent run of albums in the 1970s, resulting in Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants, his double-disc soundtrack for the documentary film version of Tompkins and Bird's book. Solange is a noted fan of Wonder's collection, and during a recent conversation that streamed on Apple Music, she called her latest album, When I Get Home, "[A] tribute to that record and what it did for me." Though Garson's album came out before Wonder's, his background didn't necessarily indicate he'd be the type of guy to embrace this kind of new age thinking. Garson wasn't from a musical family — his parents bought a baby grand piano and installed it in their New York City house's living room just for decoration. But Garson showed an early natural ability on the instrument, and later, all instruments. He graduated from Juilliard before serving in World World II, and then entered the music business. After Ruby and the Romantics' "Our Day Will Come," a song he co-wrote, knocked The Four Seasons' "Walk Like a Man" from the top of Billboard's singles chart in 1963, Garson moved his family to Los Angeles. There he arranged songs for decidedly square artists like Doris Day and Mel Tormé. The plaintive strings on Glen Campbell's "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" are his. He made songs for commercials and game shows, and used a Moog to create a piece that soundtracked the first TV footage of the Apollo 11 crew walking on the moon. As the 1960s got more far out, so did his output. He composed the music for The Zodiac: Cosmic Sounds, an album conceptualized by Elektra Records owner Jac Holzman where each of the 12 songs was dedicated to a different astrological sign. (DJ Shadow used a snatch of the track about Cancer for his 1996 album Entroducing......) He put together a goofball retelling of The Wizard of Oz called The Wozard of Iz. (The Avalanches sampled it and used its name on their 2016 return, Wildflower.) As Garson's two children entered adulthood, he turned to his Moog to indulge his even deeper experimental tendencies, first with a dark conceptual piece called Black Mass under the name Lucifer, and then the breezier Mother Earth's Plantasia. Though the Secret Life of Plants book found believers among a growing movement of people who'd embraced the green revolution or were dabbling in mysticism, Garson's daughter thinks he was more inspired by his wife, Peggy, an avid gardener who taught her children about humans' connection to the natural world long before such thinking became trendy. Still, Darmet acknowledges that Plantasia was probably more of a thought exercise for her father, rather than an actual attempt to make music for the benefit of plants. "I don't think he sat and put a plant in front of him while he was creating the music and measured it every day to see if it was growing an inch or so," she says. "I think it was purely conceptual." Even if Wonder was the more popular figure, his Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants may be an even stranger listen than Plantasia. Wonder spent the 1970s finding the glories of what pop music could be with albums like Talking Book and Innervisions (often with the help of his own Moog). After ending his prolific run with the 1976 double-album masterwork Songs in the Key of Life, Wonder didn't put out new music under own name until his Plants soundtrack arrived at the end of '79. Listeners were largely flummoxed by it, as Wonder narrated a song from the perspective of a bug caught in the jaws of a Venus flytrap and sang a tender love ballad to a literal black orchid. It features vocals in Japanese and Mali's Bambara language. Many of the tracks are instrumental. For the listener, it often feels as though Wonder used this album to totally indulge himself creatively. As with many superstars' "misunderstood" albums of the period, there are now those who champion Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants for its bold choices and lack of pandering. Others would still rather hum "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" to their petunias. Over time, most of the experiments referenced in The Secret Life of Plants book were discredited. They weren't designed to rule out other explanations that were equally plausible and their results couldn't be replicated by other researchers. Nowadays, most academics regard the book as pseudoscience. "We know that [plants] have all the same kind of senses we do, but they don't have specialized organs for them," explains Heidi Appel, a plant biologist and professor at the University of Toledo. "People always underestimate plants at one level, because they aren't like us, and yet our propensity to anthropomorphize everything — to project the way we see the world, we view the world, we think about the world — on other things that are not human means that we also have this ability to overestimate what plants can do." Appel's own work with University of Missouri professor Rex Cocroft showed that an Arabidopsis thaliana plant indeed produces more chemical defenses when it hears the sound of a munching caterpillar, but that doesn't mean it feels any kind of way about it. "The premise that plants communicate within themselves with chemicals and electrical signalling has been well demonstrated now. It's just that they don't have emotions," she says. Still, in recent years, a new generation of artists, many with connections to the ambient electronic music community, have embraced the idea of making music in highly specialized ways to foster a connection with plants. Among them is Kurt Attard of Australia's Brainwave Power Music, whose YouTube channel has over half a million subscribers. He used "binaural beats and isochronic tones" for several videos aimed towards plants; combined they currently have over 800 thousand plays. In Germany, B. Ashra's Music for Growing was made specifically for nurturing hemp plants by using what he calls THC's "molecular frequency" of 10.77 Hz. David Edren of Belgium was inspired directly by Garson's Plantasia when he made Music for Mimosa Pudica & Codariocalyx, a sprightly minimalist project dedicated to a pair of houseplants he kept in his home. "The album invoked an extra layer of focus in my life and work," says Edren, "which is gentleness and positiveness towards all beings around us." Others have figured out how to get the plants themselves to create new sounds. Data Garden was started as a zero-waste record label, but its founders soon realized they were generating the most interest with the installations they would set up at festivals and museums where plants were connected to custom-made hardware to generate harmonious tones. This Venice, Los Angeles-based duo of Joe Patitucci and Jon Shapiro developed (and sell) a device called the MIDI Sprout that translates plants' electrical impulses into musical notes. "Sometimes I would hear people talk about accessing this creative force of the universe while they're playing an instrument; it's just like the universe is flowing through them," Patitucci says. "I never had that ability with an instrument, but I felt like I could really allow the universe to express itself through my music by designing a system to allow the universe to express itself through plants." As the planet faces impending ecological crises, plants are seen as one of our greatest allies to combat climate change. After years of mistreatment, many artists may feel like it's time to normalize relations between humankind or plant life, or at least do something to foster a greater bond. "We're at this pivotal moment where people are understanding that the only way to come back into harmony with our environment is to realize that we're not separate from it," Patitucci says. This renewed interest in plant-based music also comes at the same time that the houseplant industry is booming. To capitalize on this demand, there are entire side industries of plant management apps and plant delivery services for a new generation of obsessive plant owners. Everyone has their own way of coping with possible cataclysmic doom. "In Brooklyn where I live, there's a f****** new plant store on every corner. It's the new coffee shop," says Sacred Bones' Braaten, who admits that he, too, loves gardening. Appel recognizes and appreciates the creativity of plant-based music. While she notes that all the emotional work is one-sided, that doesn't mean the plants won't be rewarded from this attention. "Forming connections with plants or any other kind of living thing is very beneficial to humans. Creating that atmosphere that makes the human more relaxed, creative, productive — all the things that we know music can do for us — is great," she says. "[And] if we connect with other organisms, we take care of them better. So they may even grow better — not because of music, but because of our sense of connection to them." Mort Garson, who died in 2008, never made another album about plants after Mother Earth's Plantasia. With less interest in doing commercial projects, he stopped getting offers for TV game show intros or exploitation film soundtracks. He sold his Moog by the end of the '70s, but he happily kept following his own inspirations. He wrote a musical about Marilyn Monroe that opened in London in 1983, and after he moved to San Francisco, he created an operetta about the city's neighborhoods. Braaten has been sorting out the legal rights to Garson's music for about four years now, and Plantasia is the first of several reissues of his music that Sacred Bones has planned. Meanwhile the plants of the world, for now, keep growing.
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Eric Ducker
|
https://www.npr.org/2019/06/21/734471703/music-for-plants-mort-garson-plantasia-stevie-wonder?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news
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2019-06-21 11:00:15+00:00
| 1,561,129,215 | 1,567,538,473 |
human interest
|
plant
|
507,964 |
sottnet--2019-11-09--House plants aren't purifying the air - major review
| 2019-11-09T00:00:00 |
sottnet
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House plants aren't purifying the air - major review
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Filling your house with potted plants happier and more productive , but it's not going to make the air you breathe any cleaner. That is, unless you had a ludicrous number of indoor plants: somewhere between 10 and 1,000 for every square metre of your living space.A critical review, drawing on 30 years of research, has once again found that houseplants have little - if any - real value as air removers.Obviously, that's not a smart use of space. Even one plant per square metre is ineffective and impractical for most people.If you wanted to improve air quality in your house beyond what windows, doors or a normal building's air handling system can do, you'd need roughly a hundred plants per square metre, the authors say. And nobody has the time, space or patience to accommodate that much greenery."This has been a common misconception for some time," says environmental engineer Michael Waring at Drexel University."Plants are great, butof your home or office environment."But a small sealed chamber is very different to a real indoor environment in a big building. Over time, the NASA study and subsequent research has been largely taken out of context.In a normal building, the authors argue, stale indoor air is continuously being replaced with fresh air from the outdoors, orders of magnitude faster than the chamber experiments.The authors demonstrated this by taking 196 experimental results and translating them into clean air delivery rates (CADR). Using this metric, they calculated that for nearly all the studies,"The CADR is the standard metric used for scientific study of the impacts of air purifiers on indoor environments," says Waring, "but many of the researchers conducting these studies were not looking at them from an environmental engineering perspective and did not understand how building air exchange rates interplay with the plants to affect indoor air quality."While a few of the studies did measure real indoor environments, Waring and Cummings say the equipment they used was prone to inaccuracies and they used unrealistically high concentrations of toxic pollutants. What's more, absolutely none of them controlled or measured the outdoor air exchange rate."Only two publications were found that not only acknowledge these issues, but explicitly refute the notion that common houseplants improve indoor air quality," they write These two studies were also written by indoor air and building scientists. Andthey wrote at the time."It is not possible to obtain meaningful quantitative results of pollutant removal in a field study without also measuring ventilation rates. The ventilation rate variability in most buildings is simply too large a confounder."A decade later, Cummings and Waring are in strong agreement. In a building with an extremely low air flow and under the most generous CADR assumptions, they found one potted plant per square metre might achieve 20 percent effectiveness. But that number quickly falls when the air exchange rate is changed even a little bit.Still, it's important that researchers and the media don't extrapolate such findings to real world environments. Filling your house with plants may make you feel great, but you don't have to do it just to make an impact on air quality. Especially when you consider"This is certainly an example of how scientific findings can be misleading or misinterpreted over time," Waring says "But it's also a great example of how scientific research should continually reexamine and question findings to get closer to the ground truth of understanding what's actually happening around us."The study was published in the Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology
| null |
https://www.sott.net/article/423560-House-plants-arent-purifying-the-air-major-review
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Sat, 09 Nov 2019 14:30:29 +0000
| 1,573,327,829 | 1,573,346,423 |
human interest
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plant
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509,340 |
sottnet--2019-12-07--Recordings reveal that plants make ultrasonic squeals when stressed
| 2019-12-07T00:00:00 |
sottnet
|
Recordings reveal that plants make ultrasonic squeals when stressed
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Although it has been revealed in recent years that plants are capable of seeing, hearing and smelling , they are still usually thought of as silent. But now, for the first time, they have been recorded making airborne sounds when stressed, which researchers say could open up a new field of precision agriculture where farmers listen for water-starved crops."These findings can alter the way we think about the plant kingdom, which has been considered to be almost silent until now," they write in their study, which has not yet been published in a journal.On average, drought-stressed tomato plants made 35 sounds an hour, while tobacco plants made 11. When plant stems were cut, tomato plants made an average of 25 sounds in the following hour, and tobacco plants 15. Unstressed plants produced fewer than one sound per hour, on average.Although Khait and his colleagues only looked at tomato and tobacco plants, they believe other plants may make sounds when stressed too. In a preliminary study, they also recorded ultrasonic sounds from a spiny pincushion cactus (Mammillaria spinosissima) and the weed henbit dead-nettle (Lamium amplexicaule). Cavitation is a possible explanation for how the plants generate the sounds, they say.Enabling farmers to listen for water-stressed plants could "open a new direction in the field of precision agriculture", the researchers suggest. They add that such an ability will be increasingly important as climate change exposes more areas to drought "The suggestion that the sounds that drought-stressed plants make could be used in precision agriculture seems feasible if it is not too costly to set up the recording in a field situation," says Anne Visscher at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the UK.She warns that the results can't yet be broadened out to other stresses, such as salt or temperature, because these may not lead to sounds. In addition, there have been no experiments to show whether moths or any other animal can hear and respond to the sounds the plants make, so that idea remains speculative for now, she says.If plants are making sounds when stressed, cavitation is the most likely mechanism, says Edward Farmer at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. But he is sceptical of the findings, and would like to see more in the way of controls.Farmer adds that the idea moths might be listening to plants and shunning stressed ones is a "little too speculative", and there are already plenty of explanations for why insects avoid some plants and not others.
| null |
https://www.sott.net/article/425252-Recordings-reveal-that-plants-make-ultrasonic-squeals-when-stressed
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Sat, 07 Dec 2019 07:26:11 +0000
| 1,575,721,571 | 1,575,722,251 |
human interest
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plant
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741,235 |
theindependent--2019-01-16--First plants ever grown on moon have now died says Chinese scientist
| 2019-01-16T00:00:00 |
theindependent
|
First plants ever grown on moon have now died, says Chinese scientist
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Just 24 hours after releasing photographs of the first ever plants grown on the moon, China has revealed the tender green shoots are now all dead. The cotton plants had been the only seeds to sprout inside their aluminium container, known as a “moon surface micro-ecological circle”, which cost more than 10 million yuan (£1.15m). But the probe is now in lunar night, and temperatures have fallen too low for life to survive. The Chang’e-4 probe, which landed on the far-side of the moon on 3 January, apparently entered “sleep mode” on Sunday as the first lunar night after the probe’s landing fell, Professor Xie Gengxin, chief designer of the experiment, told China’s Xinhua state news agency. “Life in the canister would not survive the lunar night,” Professor Xie said. It is not clear why, if the Chinese space agency knew the falling of the lunar night would kill the plants on Sunday, their death was not announced along with the successful germination of the seeds on Tuesday. Other reports have suggested the pod was supposed to last three months and create a self-sustaining environment for life away from our planet. The South China Morning Post even said the China National Space Administration planned to broadcast such an experiment in “less than a hundred days’ time”. The moon lander was carrying soil, cotton seeds, rock cress, rapeseed and potato seeds, yeast and fruit fly eggs. On Tuesday Professor Liu Hanlong of Chongqing University, who led the research, said the rapeseed and potato seeds had also germinated, but the cotton seeds were first to sprout, according to the South China Morning Post. Cotton plants seen sprouting on the left hand side of the picture are the first seeds to germinate on the Moon (AFP/Getty ) “We have given consideration to future survival in space. Learning about these plants’ growth in a low-gravity environment would allow us to lay the foundation for our future establishment of space base,” Mr Liu said. The report gave no indication the plants had already all died. It also said the 3kg aluminium container was designed to maintain a temperature of between 1 and 30 degrees, allow in natural light and feed the plants with water and a nutrient solution. It did not add that when lunar night fell, its contents would all be killed. The experiment was in part designed to provide an indication of how lengthier space voyages could maintain food sources for astronauts without them having to return to Earth for supplies.
|
Harry Cockburn
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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/moon-plants-dead-china-probe-chang-e-4-organic-life-a8730816.html
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2019-01-16 14:15:00+00:00
| 1,547,666,100 | 1,567,552,187 |
human interest
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plant
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771,179 |
theindependent--2019-09-11--The scientist who aposspeaks to plantsapos to help stop climate change
| 2019-09-11T00:00:00 |
theindependent
|
The scientist who 'speaks to plants' to help stop climate change
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Monica Gagliano says that she has received Yoda-like advice from trees and shrubbery. She recalls being rocked like a baby by the spirit of a fern. She has ridden on the back of an invisible bear conjured by an osha root. She once accidentally bent space and time while playing the ocarina, an ancient wind instrument, in a redwood forest. “Oryngham,” she says, means “thank you” in plant language. These interactions have taken place in dreams, visions, songs and telekinetic interactions, sometimes with the help of shamans or ayahuasca. This has all gone on around the same time as Gagliano’s scientific research, which has broken boundaries in the field of plant behaviour and signalling. Currently at the University of Sydney in Australia, she has published a number of studies that support the view that plants are, to some extent, intelligent. Her experiments suggest that they can learn behaviours and remember them. Her work also suggests that plants can “hear” running water and even produce clicking noises, perhaps to communicate. Plants have directly shaped her experiments and career path. In 2012, she says, an oak tree assured her that a risky grant application – proposing research on sound communication in plants – would be successful. “You are here to tell our stories,” the tree told her. “These experiences are not like, ‘Oh you’re a weirdo, this is happening just to you,’” Gagliano says. Learning from plants, she says, is a long-documented ceremonial practice (if not one typically endorsed by scientists). “This is part of the repertoire of human experiences,” she says. “We’ve been doing this forever and ever, and are still doing this.” Gagliano knows that these claims, based on subjective experiences and not scientific evidence, can easily be read as delusional. She also knows that this could damage her scientific career – plant scientists in particular really hate this sort of thing. Back in 1973, an explosively popular book, The Secret Life of Plants, made pseudoscientific claims about plants, including that they enjoy classical music and can read human minds. The book was firmly discredited, but the maelstrom made many institutions and researchers reasonably wary of bold statements about botanical aptitude. Regardless, last year Gagliano published a heady and meandering memoir about the conversations with plants that inspired her peer-reviewed work, titled Thus Spoke the Plant. She believes, like many scientists and environmentalists do, that in order to save the planet we have to understand ourselves as part of the natural world. It’s just that she also believes the plants themselves can speak to this point. “I want people to realise that the world is full of magic, but not as something only some people can do, or something that is outside of this world,” she says. “No, it’s all here.” As environmental collapse looms, we’ve never known so much about life on earth – how extraordinary and intricate it all is, and how loose the boundary where “it” ends and “we” begin. Language, for example, doesn’t seem to be limited to humans. Prairie dogs use adjectives (lots of them) and Alston’s singing mice, a species found in Central America, chirp “politely”. Ravens have demonstrated advanced planning, another blow to human exceptionalism, by bartering for food and selecting the best tools for future use. The list goes on. Leaf-cutter ants not only invented farming a couple of million years before we did, but they also have their own landfills – and binmen. Even slime moulds can be said to make “decisions” and are so good at determining the most efficient route between resources that researchers have suggested we use them to help design highways. But it may be plants whose capacities are the most head-rattling, if only because we tend to view them as decor. Plants can do a lot of things we cannot. Trees can clone themselves into 80,000-year-old superorganisms. Corn can summon wasps to attack caterpillars. But research suggests we also have some things in common. Plants share nutrients and recognise kin. They communicate with each other. They can count. They can feel you touching them. So we know that plants respond to their environments in sophisticated, complex ways – “far more complex than most of us realised a few years ago”, says Ted Farmer, a botanist at University of Lausanne in Switzerland and one of the first to defend the concept of inter-plant communication. Farmer is among those still “very” uncomfortable describing plants, which lack neurons, as “intelligent”. But now it’s “consciousness” – another word without a firm definition – that’s really raising hackles in the scientific community. A group of biologists published a paper this in July with the matter-of-fact title “Plants Neither Possess Nor Require Consciousness”. The authors warned against anthropomorphism, and argued that proponents of plant consciousness have “consistently glossed over” the unique capacities of the brain. Though her book went unremarked upon, Gagliano’s experiments and statements ascribing feelings and subjectivity to plants were among those critiqued, and she was categorised witheringly within “a new wave of Romantic biology”. Versions of this debate have been simmering for years. In 2013, Michael Pollan wrote about Gagliano presenting the results of an experiment to an incredulous audience. That study is probably her most widely known. In it, she sought to discover whether plants, like animals, could demonstrate a basic type of learning called “habituation”. The Mimosa pudica – you may know it as the “sensitive plant” – contracts its leaves when touched. So, in the experiment, potted mimosas were dropped a few harmless inches onto foam. At first, the leaves closed up immediately. But over time, they stopped reacting. It was not that they were fatigued, Gagliano wrote, because, when the pots were shaken, the leaves closed up again. And when the dropping test was repeated a month later, their leaves remained unruffled. The plants had “learned” that the drop was not a threat, Gagliano argued. The plants remembered. And subsequent research has suggested that plants may indeed be capable of some type of memory. But Gagliano’s conclusion didn’t go over well at the time. Her framing of the data didn’t help. She insists that she doesn’t use metaphors in her work, and that “learning” is the best description we have for what took place, even if we don’t know how the plants are doing it. This experiment was “a remarkable piece of work”, Pollan says. “Humans do tend to underestimate plants, and she’s one of a small group of scientists who are trying to change that story.” Dr Heidi Appel, a scientist who found that rock cress produce more defensive chemicals when exposed to the stressful sound of a caterpillar chewing, says: “Monica is a brilliant young woman, and she’s been a major idea generator in the field of plant sensory biology. We’re investigating things I don’t think we would have otherwise.” But, in Gagliano’s memoir, Appel says, “there’s a commingling of science and spiritual experiences that I feel are best disentangled”. Pollan says: “I think it’s important to separate out what you can prove and what might be true in a more subjective way. And I don’t know where you draw the line, exactly.” I meet Gagliano at an outdoor cafe in San Francisco, next to a pot filled with bright, chubby succulents. I find myself watching it, wondering if its inhabitants are aware that we are debating their awareness. Gagliano grew up in northern Italy and is a marine ecologist by training. She spent her early career studying ambon damselfish at the Great Barrier Reef. After months underwater observing the little fish, Gagliano says she started to suspect that they understood a lot more than she had thought – including that she was going to dissect them. A professional crisis ensued. Plants were inching their way into her life. As Gagliano tells it, she had been volunteering at an herbalist’s clinic, and had begun using ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic brew that induces visions and emotional insights (and often nausea). She says that one day, sober, she was walking around her garden and heard, in her head, a plant suggest that she start studying plants. In 2010, she travelled to Peru for the first time to work with a plant shaman called Don M. To communicate with plants, Gagliano followed the dieta, or the shamanic method in the indigenous Amazonian tradition by which a human establishes a dialogue with a plant. The rules can vary, but it usually involves following a diet (no salt, alcohol, sugar or sex; some animal products may also be prohibited, depending on the culture) and drinking a plant concoction (sometimes hallucinogenic, sometimes not) in isolation for days, weeks or months. An icaro, or medicine song, is said to be shared by the plant, as well as visions and dreams, and the plant’s healing knowledge becomes a part of the human. It’s not fun, she warns. Gagliano worked with multiple plant shamans, or vegetalistas, in Peru. There she bathed in the foul-smelling pulp of an ayahuma tree, which then designed a scientific experiment for her, instructing her to “train young plants in a maze and give them freedom of choice.” The ayahuma also helped her diagram a 2017 study investigating pea plants’ use of sound to detect water. In the memoir, she wrote that she also travelled to California to work with a healthcare professional who conducts vision quest ceremonies (that’s when the oak tree spoke to her). She visited “the diviner,” a man trained by the Dagara people of Ghana and Burkina Faso to channel nature spirits. At a certain point, Gagliano began going solo, “working with” plants like basil in her own veggie patch. “Did you ever wonder if you were going insane?” I ask. “Absolutely,” she says, and laughs. “I still do.” But she believes she should be free to talk openly about these experiences. “Maybe we should admit that we hardly understand who we are, we hardly understand where we are at, we know very little compared to what there is to know,” she says. “To be open to explore and learn, I think that is the sign of wisdom, not of madness. And maybe wisdom and madness do look very similar, at some point.” As a white woman on a journey through sampled bits of sacred rituals, Gagliano speaks thoughtfully and often about the legacies of colonialism, capitalism and exploitative New Age trends, which certainly includes the rise in ayahuasca retreats. A term like “shaman” can now bring to mind its plunder by an unpopular modern archetype – the personal-growth-obsessed wellness devotee, dreamily trailing sage in circles around her unvaccinated children. But Gagliano’s journey, her supporters say, is rooted in a desire to challenge dominant assumptions. “I have been working with the idea of plant intelligence for many years,” says Luis Eduardo Luna, an anthropologist and ayahuasca researcher in Brazil who has collaborated with Gagliano. Back in 1984, he published a paper in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology detailing the concept of plants as teachers in the Peruvian Amazon. Luna says he was excited to hear these ideas expressed by a scientist, rather than someone in the humanities. “Perhaps we are living in a much more interesting universe, perhaps we are living in a planet full of intelligent life,” Luna says. “I think it’s very important that we recover, somehow, this idea of the sacrality of nature, in the terrible situation in which we are today.” Robin Wall Kimmerer, an author, botanist and State University of New York professor who is a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, says: “I’m really interested in the notion of plants as teachers, what we can learn from them as models. And that comes from my work with indigenous knowledge, because that is a fundamental assumption of indigenous environmental philosophy.” Kimmerer doesn’t see Gagliano’s experiences as mystical processes so much as poorly understood ones. “Some of the medicines that people have made are sophisticated biochemistry over a fire,” Kimmerer says. “You think, how in the world did people learn this? And the answer is almost always, ‘The plants told us how to do this.’ This is not a matter necessarily of walking in the woods and being tapped on the shoulder, but indigenous cultures have sophisticated protocols that are research protocols, in a sense, for learning from the plants. They involve fasting, ceremonial practices that bring one to a state of such openness to the conversations of other beings that you can hear them.” I ask: “Have you ever had an experience like that?” She says she has, preferring to leave it mostly at that. “Suffice it to say, I have had experiences of intense focus and attention with plants where I came away knowing something that I didn’t know before, and it’s quite incredible. You feel like, ‘Wow, where did that come from?’” The problem with talking about these experiences, Kimmerer says, is that they “are grounded in a cultural context that is so different from western science that they are easily dismissed.” Reality has become rather strange lately. Tech billionaires are trying to colonise the moon. UFOs appear to exist, in some capacity. Parents in conspiracy-minded Facebook groups are poisoning their autistic children with bleach. Reality TV has fused with politics. The future of the planet looks grim. (Or maybe we’re in a simulation.) Gagliano’s more subjective claims may feed, in an unnatural time, a spiking hunger for naturally sourced answers. People are looking for “wisdom from nature”, Pollan says, when describing the rising interest in psychedelic compounds like ayahuasca and psilocybin mushrooms. The booming wellness industry is certainly packed with all things “natural” and “plant-based”. The novel that won the most recent Pulitzer Prize was inspired by a giant redwood that produced a “religious conversion”; caring for houseplants seems to be a national obsession. Given this context, it’s logical that critique over her approach hasn’t stopped Gagliano from finding an audience. She spoke about plant intelligence at last year’s Bioneers Conference, and was invited to speak at last year’s Science and Nonduality conference, along with Deepak Chopra and Paul Stamets, a respected mycologist who believes that mushrooms are trying to communicate with humans through their hallucinogenic properties. This summer, Gagliano sat on a sold-out panel called “Intelligence Without Brains” at the World Science Festival. There I eavesdropped on a woman excitedly explaining Pollan’s recent book on psychedelic therapy to her mother. Why had they come? “We’re plant ladies!” said one, beaming. “There’s a lot about plants that we don’t know that might end up saving us, in some regard.” Gagliano spoke about plants with pointed familiarity. In her telling, they became jaunty little characters; she used pronouns like “he” and “they” – never “it”. At the festival, a young woman asked Gagliano how her scientific work had changed her understanding of the world. “The main difference is that I used to live in a world of objects, and now I live in a world of subjects,” she said. There were murmurs of approval. “And so, I am never alone.”
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Ellie Shechet
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https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/climate-change-scientist-secret-life-of-plants-a9090106.html
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2019-09-11 10:17:14+00:00
| 1,568,211,434 | 1,569,330,396 |
human interest
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plant
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923,505 |
thesun--2019-01-07--Plants may HEAR gardeners talking to them say scientists
| 2019-01-07T00:00:00 |
thesun
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Plants may HEAR gardeners talking to them, say scientists
|
IF YOU'RE a gardener who speaks to your shrubs, there's hope for you yet: A new study shows plants can hear. Scientists found that some flowers listen for the buzz of a bee's wings and make their nectar sweeter if they hear it. This entices the insects to visit more often, giving the plant a better chance of spreading its pollen. The discovery boosts our understanding of the evolution of flowers and insects, say researchers at Tel Aviv University in Israel. When they played recordings of bee buzzes to evening primrose flowers, the plants boosted the sugar content of their nectar. But when played sounds at a higher frequency, like those made by a mosquito, the flowers did not change their nectar. Researchers suggest that the sound of a bee makes tiny vibrations in flower petals that trigger the sugar response. The finding is the first evidence that plants can respond to sounds in "an ecologically relevant way", scientists wrote in their study published on the website BioRxiv. It hints that plantlife is also impacted by human-made noises, which may damage the ability of flowers and bees to communicate. This is not the first time scientists have investigated the hearing ability of plants. Research has found plants can also listen out for flowing water through vibrations made in soil. This helps them grow their roots in the right direction. Another recent plant study suggested that plants know when you're eating them. Shrubs release special chemicals in response to damage that sends signals "like a pain response", scientists found. We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368 . We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.
|
Harry Pettit
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https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/8136629/plants-hear-gardeners-talking/
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2019-01-07 10:25:48+00:00
| 1,546,874,748 | 1,567,553,617 |
human interest
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plant
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984,622 |
thesun--2019-11-05--This is why you keep killing your plants – they’re scared of water
| 2019-11-05T00:00:00 |
thesun
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This is why you keep killing your plants – they’re scared of water
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PLANTS go into a state of all-consuming 'panic' when it rains, according to surprised scientists. This response is so unusual because plants obviously need water to live. The researchers think that the 'panic' response is due to the fact moisture creates the number one way for diseases to spread in vegetation. Biochemist Harvey Millar from The University of Western Australia explained: "When a raindrop splashes across a leaf, tiny droplets of water ricochet in all directions. "These droplets can contain bacteria, viruses, or fungal spores. "A single droplet can spread these up to 10 metres to surrounding plants." The longer a leaf is wet, the greater the chance that a disease can take hold. So this is why the researchers think plants react to rain like humans would react to someone sneezing on them. They conducted an experiment in which they mimicked rain with a spray bottle and noticed rapid microscopic reactions from the plants that are invisible to the human eye. After the first 10 minutes of fake raining, over 700 genes in the plants were said to respond in a panic-like manner and most of them continued to do so for around 15 minutes. In this time chemical reactions like how the plant creates proteins and its hormone balance were affected. A single touch of water activated an immediate response from plants. The reactions created warning signals that travelled from leaf to leaf and resulted in the plant undertaking a range of protective measures. Plants that were repeatedly watered eventually suffered from stunted growth and delayed flowering. Interestingly, the plants were also found to be communicating their 'fears' with nearby vegetation. They did this by secreting airborne chemicals that can be picked up by other plants and inform them what's going on and how they're coping. Millar said: "If a plant's neighbours have their defence mechanisms turned on, they are less likely to spread disease so it's in their best interest for plants to spread the warning to nearby plants." This study has been published in the journal PNAS. In other news, the smell of your freshly cut lawn is grass ‘screaming’ to warn other plants they’re under attack. A terrifying plant that kills sheep and ‘feasts’ on their rotting flesh is growing in Cornwall. And, the real ‘Garden of Eden’ where all humans originated 200,000 years ago has finally been found in Botswana. Are you surprised by this plant revelation? Let us know in the comments... We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Tech & Science team? Email us at [email protected]
|
Charlotte Edwards
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https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/10281689/watering-plants-makes-them-panic/
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Tue, 05 Nov 2019 12:06:17 +0000
| 1,572,973,577 | 1,572,960,180 |
human interest
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plant
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995,872 |
thetelegraph--2019-01-15--Plants grown on Moon for first time paving way for lunar base
| 2019-01-15T00:00:00 |
thetelegraph
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Plants grown on Moon for first time paving way for lunar base
|
Plants have sprouted on the Moon for the first time in a mini biosphere paving the way for bases which produce their own food and air. Pictures of the first tiny green shoots of cotton were released by researchers at the Advanced Technology Research Institute at Chongqing University who are running the experiment on board the Chang'e-4 lunar lander. The Chinese space agency spacecraft became the first to make a soft landing on the far side of the Moon earlier this month. Plants and flowers have been grown on board the International Space Station (ISS), and Chinese 'taikonauts' grew rice in China's Tiangong-2 space lab.
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Sarah Knapton
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https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2019/01/15/plants-grown-moon-first-time-paving-way-lunar-base/
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2019-01-15 11:49:49+00:00
| 1,547,570,989 | 1,567,552,374 |
human interest
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plant
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997,824 |
thetelegraph--2019-01-31--Fill your garden with Mediterranean plants to beat future droughts new RHS guidance says
| 2019-01-31T00:00:00 |
thetelegraph
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Fill your garden with Mediterranean plants to beat future droughts, new RHS guidance says
|
Gardeners across the country looked despondently at their brown, parched flowerbeds during the heatwave last year. Now, the Royal Horticultural Society is advising British people plant brightly coloured Mediterranean trees and flowers to drought-proof their gardens. The charity has released a list of ten attractive, colourful plants which can be put in the ground from April and can survive extremely dry conditions. Included in the list are the bright magenta rock rose, aromatic rosemary and lavender, silvery Russian sage and the bright yellow Spanish broom. This advice comes from the charity's recently-recruited environmental horticulture team, which is coming up with new ways to protect British gardens from the effects of climate change and extreme weather. Mark Gush, Head of Environmental Horticulture at the RHS, said: "It may seem counter-intuitive that while much of the UK is under snow and ice gardeners should be considering Mediterranean plants for their gardens this summer. However, with the UK expected to experience warmer, drier summers over the coming years, hardy exotic varieties that can cope with periods of drought will enable gardeners to better manage water resources in their gardens. "RHS Garden Hyde Hall in Essex is situated in one of the driest parts of the country but its Dry Garden survived - even thrived - last summer, and has lasted an astonishing 18 years without being watered, instead capturing only the occasional rains that fall. "Of course, early establishment is imperative so plants have good root structures deep in the soil meaning it’s important gardeners plan ahead." The new team will research and advise on sustainable resource management, soil health and ecosystem services, including how the UK’s 27 million gardeners can contend with weather extremes, air and noise pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Findings and advice will be shared with industry and the public.
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Helena Horton
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https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/01/31/fill-garden-mediterranean-plants-beat-future-droughts-new-rhs/
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2019-01-31 22:00:00+00:00
| 1,548,990,000 | 1,567,550,106 |
human interest
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plant
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1,067,598 |
upi--2019-11-12--Plants are ineffective at maintaining indoor air quality
| 2019-11-12T00:00:00 |
upi
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Plants are ineffective at maintaining indoor air quality
|
Don't count on potted plants to keep your home's air clean. Dispelling a common belief, researchers at Drexel University in Philadelphia found that natural ventilation does a far better job than houseplants in maintaining air quality in homes and offices. "This has been a common misconception for some time. Plants are great, but they don't actually clean indoor air quickly enough to have an effect on the air quality of your home or office environment," said Michael Waring, head of Drexel's indoor environment research group. His team analyzed dozens of studies conducted over 30 years. Their findings were published online Nov. 6 in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology. The researchers said air-exchange rates indoors -- either natural or from ventilation -- dilute concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) far faster than plants can pull them from the air. VOCs are the air pollutants that plants are supposed to clean. Many of the studies reviewed did find that plants reduced concentrations of VOCs over time. This likely led to the widespread belief that plants can purify indoor air, the study authors said. But it would take between 10 and 1,000 plants per square meter of floor space to match the air cleaning capacity of a building's air-handling system or even just a couple of open windows in a house, the investigators found. "This is certainly an example of how scientific findings can be misleading or misinterpreted over time," Waring said in a university news release. "But it's also a great example of how scientific research should continually reexamine and question findings to get closer to the ground truth of understanding what's actually happening around us," he added. The American Lung Association has more on indoor air quality.
| null |
https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2019/11/12/Plants-are-ineffective-at-maintaining-indoor-air-quality/5811573592707/
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Tue, 12 Nov 2019 16:43:25 -0500
| 1,573,595,005 | 1,573,606,532 |
human interest
|
plant
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1,093,472 |
wakingtimes--2019-12-07--Plants Emit Ultrasonic Squeals When Stressed, Recordings Reveal
| 2019-12-07T00:00:00 |
wakingtimes
|
Plants Emit Ultrasonic Squeals When Stressed, Recordings Reveal
|
New research shows that plants can actually talk. But don’t expect them to help you with your homework or sing along with the radio. A new study shows that plants are creating frequencies in responses to their surroundings, or in other words, they are reacting. These “reactions” in plants, that we could see as analogical to human senses, is actually nothing new. We have learned over the past few years that plants are capable of seeing, hearing, and smelling. And with this newest finding we are just one sense away from completing the five human senses in some species of the plantae kingdom. For the first time, plants have been recorded making airborne sounds when stressed, which researchers say could open up a new field of precision agriculture where farmers listen for water starved crops. This study was done by Itzhak Khait and his colleagues at Tel Aviv University in Israel. The researchers found that tomato and tobacco plants made sounds at frequencies humans cannot hear when facing situations such as lack of water or when being cut. On average, drought-stressed tomato plants made 35 sounds per hour, while tobacco plants made 11 and unstressed plants produced fewer than one sound per hour, on average. The researchers trained a machine-learning model to discriminate between the plant’s sounds and the wind, rain, and other ambient noises of the greenhouse, in order to correctly identify the source of stress. Sound exists in both low and high frequencies. Humans cannot hear the entire spectrum of frequencies around us. If we could, we would likely become distracted and anxious by always hearing the frequencies around us including radio frequencies from cell towers near us or even cooking a frozen meal in the microwave. Thankfully, the range of human hearing is typically considered to be only 20 Hz to 20 kHz. With the above in mind, we can now understand why humans are not sensitive to the sounds that plants are emitting. A possible mechanism by which they generate the sounds is cavitation (the process whereby air bubbles form and explode in the xylem): “Cavitation explosions have been shown to produce vibrations similar to the ones we recorded… but it has never been tested whether these sounds are transmitted through air at intensities that can be sensed by other organisms. Regardless of the specific mechanism generating them, the sounds we record carry information, and can be heard by many organisms. If these sounds serve for communication a plant could benefit from, natural selection could have favoured traits that would increase their transmission.” Further research must be conducted to find the potential applications this discovery may have, but these are big steps to understanding the reality of the plants that surround us.
|
WTStaff
|
https://www.wakingtimes.com/2019/12/06/plants-emit-ultrasonic-squeals-when-stressed-recordings-reveal/
|
Sat, 07 Dec 2019 00:03:53 +0000
| 1,575,695,033 | 1,575,677,874 |
human interest
|
plant
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73,329 |
breitbart--2019-09-18--Union Theological Seminary Holds Confession to Plants in Chapel Ceremony
| 2019-09-18T00:00:00 |
breitbart
|
Union Theological Seminary Holds ‘Confession to Plants’ in Chapel Ceremony
|
“Today in chapel, we confessed to plants,” UTS tweeted, together with a picture of the ritual. “Together, we held our grief, joy, regret, hope, guilt and sorrow in prayer; offering them to the beings who sustain us but whose gift we too often fail to honor.” “What do you confess to the plants in your life?” it asked: On Wednesday, after receiving a fair amount of derisive feedback, the seminary sent out a flurry of tweets defending its actions. “When Robin Wall Kimmerer spoke at Union last year, she concluded her lecture by tasking us—and all faith communities—to develop new liturgies by which to mourn, grieve, heal and change in response to our climate emergency,” one UTS tweet said. “We couldn’t be prouder to participate in this work.” “So, if you’re poking fun, we’d ask only that you also spend a couple moments asking: Do I treat plants and animals as divinely created beings?” another tweet proposed in its ecological examination of conscience. “What harm do I cause without thinking? How can I enter into new relationship with the natural world?” Tuesday’s ritual seemed in consonance with the seminary’s approach to the Christian faith. “Progressive theology has long taken shape at Union, where faith and scholarship walk together to be a moral force in the world,” declares the seminary website in its mission statement. “Grounded in the Christian tradition and responsive to the needs of God’s creation, a Union education prepares its students for committed lives of service to the church, academy, and society.” The education offered makes connections between Christian traditions and the insights of other faiths and “the most profoundly challenging issues of our contemporary experience: the realities of suffering and injustice, world religious pluralism, the fragility of our planet, and discoveries of modern science.”
|
Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D.
|
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/breitbart/~3/r7PXHshyRT8/
|
2019-09-18 23:39:01+00:00
| 1,568,864,341 | 1,569,329,906 |
human interest
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plant
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336,972 |
naturalnews--2019-09-06--Just like humans plants also have an immune system and we might be poisoning it
| 2019-09-06T00:00:00 |
naturalnews
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Just like humans, plants also have an immune system – and we might be poisoning it
|
(Natural News) Plants do more than just beautify gardens and lawns. Fruit-bearing plants, herbs, and vegetables provide the nutrients that you need to stay healthy, while all plants provide oxygen. But according to a study, plant breeding and pesticide use negatively affects the immune system of plants. The study, which was published in the journal Science, involved a collaboration between researchers from the University of Basel, the VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology, and the VIB-UGent Center for Medical Biotechnology. During the course of the study, the researchers found that metacaspases (a class of proteolytic enzymes) are crucial for the activation of immune response in plants. They warned that common plant breeding strategies and the use of pesticides may be impeding this natural response. When multicellular organisms, like humans, are hurt, their damaged cells transmit signals to alert the surrounding tissue of the wound. These signals can then trigger the immune system to respond to the injury and promote tissue regeneration. These signals also result in wound healing. The same thing happens to plants, albeit with certain differences. Peptides (short protein fragments) in plants are essential for the proper functioning of their immune system. These peptides are produced from precursor proteins that have been “cut into shape” by proteases (proteolytic enzymes). But since there are a lot of proteases, it is necessary to identify those with roles in the plant immune system. For their study, the researchers wounded thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) leaves and found that metacaspases play a crucial role in the plant’s response. The response also involves the release of calcium and PROPEP1, a peptide precursor protein. Support our mission to keep you informed: Discover the extraordinary benefits of turmeric gummy bears and organic "turmeric gold" liquid extract, both laboratory tested for heavy metals, microbiology and safety. Naturally high in potent curcuminoids. Delicious formulations. All purchases support this website (as well as your good health). See availability here. The scientists verified their initial findings by producing a plant with a mutation in the gene coding for a crucial metacaspase. They noted that the plant was incapable of releasing the immune signal following injury. Simon Stael, one of the authors of the study, explained that damage elevates calcium levels in the plant cell interior. High calcium levels activate metacaspases, which then work on PROPEP1, the protein that regulates the immune response and other related efforts to limit further damage. Standard plant breeding practices and the use of pesticides could negatively affect the immune system of plants. An impaired immune system could result in slower recovery from damage. Plant breeding refers to a technique that combines plant seeds to produce nutrient-rich, high-quality fruits and vegetables that will grow well in ideal planting conditions. However, since farmers aren’t familiar with metacaspases, they could unknowingly be limiting plant resilience due to damage caused to their immune system by plant breeding. (Related: Health Basics: Understanding GMO engineering and why altering plant DNA in laboratories becomes so DANGEROUS to human health.) The research team remains hopeful that their findings can be used in future studies. Proteases often cleave more than one protein. New research can look into different plant processes that require metacaspases and are linked to wound response and immunity. If you have a home garden, refrain from using pesticides to maintain optimum plant health. Use the following alternatives in place of harmful pesticides. Try using natural alternatives to keep your plants healthy and avoid using pesticides that contain harmful chemicals.
|
Zoey Sky
|
http://www.naturalnews.com/2019-09-06-plants-have-immune-system-we-might-be-poisoning-it.html
|
2019-09-06 18:30:47+00:00
| 1,567,809,047 | 1,569,331,056 |
human interest
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plant
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687,327 |
theguardianuk--2019-01-27--Why Ive turned my house into a home for rescued plants Eva Wiseman
| 2019-01-27T00:00:00 |
theguardianuk
|
Why I’ve turned my house into a home for rescued plants | Eva Wiseman
|
There’s a greenhouse at the back of my local garden centre where they keep the big houseplants and each one is carefully labelled: “Plant”. I buy one at a time to avoid ongoing domestic dispute and they collect greenly in my house under varying levels of care. Varying levels of care, but infinite love, love I learned from my parents’ relationship with a plant that lives at the top of their stairs which they call the “moon flower”. I’ve identified it online as a night-blooming cereus – further, an _[Epiphyllum oxypetalum](https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/dec/05/flatworms- epiphyllum-oxypetalum)_ , and my sister and I receive texts alerting us to news of an opening bud. My parents will have woken to a smell, sickly but good, like someone’s caramelising a memory, and they will tell us to be round at dusk. Because then we can stand on the stairs and watch it open, actually watch the petals creak open, until it is there basking in the moonlight, that smell now quite raw and conquering. By morning the flower will have died, and hang from a leaf like a washed up squid. When I moved house, my dad gave me a cutting, which now stands dwarfed by a giant version I found in the garden centre bin. But much as I love the garden centre with its jolly disregard for potted things, my preferred way to acquire new plants is via adoption. It’s a similar feeling I get on my weekly tour of the local charity shops – the cancer one is good for books, the hospice one is better for furniture, and the one raising funds for sick children is excellent for pottery. All are bursting in the wake of _[Kondo](https://www.theguardian.com/global/2018/dec/30/dont-mess-with-marie- tidying-up-with-author-netflix-star-marie-kondo)_ , our neighbourhood having watched the entire series in a single weekend, talked about it endlessly at supermarket checkouts, on phones to daughters, in newspaper columns, etc, found joy lacking in 99% of their possessions, shovelled them into a binbag and dumped it on the pavement outside Barnardos at midnight. Which is great for me, a person that read Marie Kondo’s [book in 2015](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jun/14/decluttering-a-load-of- junk-the-life-changing-magic-of-tidying) and concluded that, actually, I love stuff, that stuff is brilliant, often reminding me who I am; and that clutter is just matter out of place. So I buy a lot of homemade pots, a lot of vase-like structures made during a difficult period in someone’s life, glazed and signed hopefully, that have sat on a shelf filled with pencils and old screws until one day their owner realises their life has improved, or at least moved beyond the short-lived pottery class crisis of 1991, and that their misshaped vessels are holding mainly resentment. The pots, often brown, with occasional patterns made with thumbs, call to me from among the Sports Direct mugs, and part of me buys them because I’m fond of things handmade, but a more complicated part buys them because I pity them. One particular vase springs to mind, in the shop for awful mental health, which the shop assistant was openly laughing at. He was holding it, and he was laughing at it, and he was saying: “Dunno man, what even is it?” It was a vase, well. A vase in the shape of a very robust toilet roll, painted green with brown details, and extremely heavy. I offered £2 for it, he talked me down to 50p. When my boyfriend works nights I go to bed early and scroll gleefully through local websites searching for unwanted plants that I can resurrect. “Healthy and big” ads will typically start, or “Can anyone care for my baby?” As with the pots, I like to feel that I’m rescuing them. We once drove to an estate in Stanmore where a woman showed us the cactus she’d bought from Ikea when it first opened. Having arrived the size of a lightbulb, today it stood, slightly bowed in the corner of a smoky living room, 6ft something in a plastic pot. She called her lodger out of bed with his girlfriend to try and help us move it, but even as he helped shuffle it across the carpet we knew it wouldn’t fit in the car. The next day, her neighbours brought it round, having laid a hundred blankets over their laps and squeezed it into the boot. Now sharp new growths make its silhouette slightly fuzzy against the window, and it stands delighted and massive, bringing me daily joy. It joined a large and as yet unidentified plant with fingerlike leaves whose previous owner, a stranger from Gumtree, needed to get rid of it because it “scared her boyfriend”. I love them all, my large prickly sons, perhaps too much – they need far less water than I want to give them. I fuss. I move them too much. I repot with abandon. Delighting in a new shoot on a small plant this morning, I pulled it off. Often I must smother the thought that actually all these plants (a room full, with more scattered wildly around the house, reaching, reaching for the light) would live better lives without my clumsy interventions. That they would thrive untouched by my cold meat hands. That I’m not rescuing them, but instead, they’re rescuing me. ## And another thing… I’ve just read Pulitzer prize-winning feminist Susan Faludi’s _**In the Darkroom**_ , a book about reconnecting with her macho father after they transitioned to female. One extraordinary element is Stefanie’s past as an airbrusher of fashion photographs. When they meet she’s using her skills to transform her own image through similar means. This morning I tried a **£15 coffee** from a farmer in Yemen, via Le Café Alain Ducasse. It was delicate, almost tea-like, and they served it with tiny doll-sized slabs of dark chocolate, and a side shot of something like ice tea. I still feel quite high. The ****_Observer Magazine’s_ own agony aunt, the wise and brilliant **Mariella Frostrup,** has published a collection of the greatest escapades ever experienced by women, including Junko Tabei, the first woman to climb Everest, and Nellie Bly, who circumnavigated the globe in under 80 days. _Wild Women_ is out now. _Email Eva at[[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) or follow her on Twitter[@EvaWiseman](http:)_
|
Eva Wiseman
|
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/jan/27/why-i-have-turned-my-house-into-a-home-for-rescued-plants
|
2019-01-27 09:00:37+00:00
| 1,548,597,637 | 1,567,550,676 |
human interest
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plant
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690,532 |
theguardianuk--2019-02-17--The joy of growing extinct plants
| 2019-02-17T00:00:00 |
theguardianuk
|
The joy of growing extinct plants
|
There is something fascinatingly weird about us gardeners. For as much as horticulture is all about the therapeutic art of nurturing and caring for plants, it is also often just as much about the feverish need to amass collections of them. From the 19th-century oligarchs who would send teams of plant hunters to scour the earth for the undiscovered to 21st-century urban flat dwellers like me who will spend hours (and far too much money) on internet auction sites and rare plant markets to track down elusive varieties, this pursuit of rarity seems for many an intrinsic part of what it is to be a gardener. All too often, however, this desire can put pressure on wild populations, as plants are over-collected to fuel this insatiable demand. There is a solution. If you have this hunger for growing the weird and wonderful, look to plants that are so rare they are actually extinct in the wild. For those with only a windowsill, things don’t get much better than the Hawaiian palm Brighamia insignis. Its stout, fleshy, silvery sheened trunk is topped with a lush crown of lobed, apple-green leaves, making it look like something out of a sci-fi film. In early summer, mature plants throw out a spray of elegant white, star-shaped flowers with funnel-like throats. Sadly it is this elegance that was part of their undoing. With such long throats to their flowers, they could only be pollinated by a moth that evolved alongside them. When that became extinct, it doomed the plants to relying on humans to propagate them. Fortunately hand-pollinated plants are now sold widely in the houseplant trade, with a percentage of funds going to conserve its native habitat. For those with a sunny conservatory, angel’s trumpet, or brugmansia, is a dramatic shrub from the high Andes, sending out dozens of sweetly scented hanging trumpets in a range of pastels. All seven species in this genus are thought to be functionally extinct in the wild, as although they are capable of setting viable fruit, the seeds within remain trapped inside a tough husk and undispersed. It is thought this vital ecological service was once carried out by giant sloths, hunted to extinction millennia ago. Fortunately, indigenous people prize these species for religious and ritual use, which has helped keep them going. Finally, for those with garden space, my pick is a ginkgo. Despite being one of the world’s most ancient plants, predating dinosaurs, they are believed to be totally extinct in the wild. The last remaining forest stand of them in their native east Asia, was recently found to not be wild at all, but an ancient plantation tended to by monks. With beautiful fish-tail leaves that turn butter yellow in the autumn, wonderful architectural structure and potential medicinal value (the leaves are used to make a tea believed to enhance memory), you can’t ask for much more. If you don’t have much space, ginkgos make good candidates for pots, which dramatically restrict their growth rate. Horticulture is the only thing keeping many of these species alive, so by choosing to grow these plants you are playing a direct part in their conservation. It is how to get some of the rarest plants on earth in your collection, in a sustainable way. Email James at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter@Botanygeek
|
James Wong
|
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/feb/17/joy-growing-extinct-plants
|
2019-02-17 11:00:40+00:00
| 1,550,419,240 | 1,567,548,256 |
human interest
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plant
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769,555 |
theindependent--2019-08-25--Plants prescribed for anxiety and depression in new aposfeelgoodapos scheme
| 2019-08-25T00:00:00 |
theindependent
|
Plants prescribed for anxiety and depression in new 'feelgood' scheme
|
Doctors have started prescribing pot plants instead of pills in a new scheme for patients in Manchester. A GP practice is harnessing the well-known feelgood effects of greenery and gardening to treat people suffering from anxiety, depression and loneliness. Instead of sedatives and anti-depressants, patients may get herbs, veg and pot plants to help lift their spirits. The new scheme – believed to be a first in the country – means patients who may be experiencing low mood could be given a plant to care for before bringing it back to the surgery for transfer into a communal garden. This then gives patients a chance to join in with further gardening and social activities. The grassroots idea comes from Cornbrook Medical Practice in inner-city Hulme, where many patients live in flats and may not have access to gardens or greenery. Augusta Ward, a medical secretary at the practice, said: “The plants we will be giving people are mainly herbs – things like lemon balm and catmint, which all have mindful qualities. “Having something to care for brings so many benefits to people – especially for those who may not have a garden or be able to have pets. The plant is then a reason to come back to the surgery and get involved in all the other activities in our garden and make new friends.” The idea is backed by the city’s health commissioners, who want to promote community support or “social prescribing” as one of the holistic ways to improve wellbeing. Many of the plants for the scheme have been donated or have been funded through the social enterprise group Sow the City. Plants in the Cornbrook garden range from herbs to tomato plants and vegetables like cauliflower, broccoli and kale. Dr Philippa James, one of the surgery’s GPs, said: “I’ve seen how our patients relax in the garden – and how they then get involved in wider events like picking litter, which all adds to pride in our area. There’s a lot of evidence now about how two hours a week in a green space can lift mood – and then that too has physical, mental and emotional benefits. That’s something we need to harness.” Dr Ruth Bromley, GP and chair of Manchester Health and Care Commissioning, added: “So much of what keeps people happy and well isn’t medical. That’s why ideas like this one are so wonderfully effective, building on what is best about our communities and supporting patients close to where they live.” More information about the scheme and health and social care plans for Manchester, is available at healthiermanchester.org.
|
Pat Hurst
|
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/plants-prescribed-depression-anxiety-manchester-trial-a9078041.html
|
2019-08-25 07:21:00+00:00
| 1,566,732,060 | 1,567,533,427 |
human interest
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plant
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770,865 |
theindependent--2019-09-09--Ecosia Could a search engine that plants trees really help save the Amazon
| 2019-09-09T00:00:00 |
theindependent
|
Ecosia: Could a search engine that plants trees really help save the Amazon?
|
Images of the Amazon being ravaged by wildfires has unified the public in shock and sadness. Scientists warn that these fires are destroying “the lungs of the Earth” which will seriously jeopardise our ability to avoid catastrophic levels of global warming. In response to this destruction, people have been downloading a tree-planting search engine called Ecosia – the eco-friendly rival to Google – which has seen a 1,150 per cent surge in users. It has pledged to plant an additional 1 million trees in the next six months in response to Brazil president Jair Bolsonaro’s anti-environment policies. The Berlin-based firm donates 80 per cent of its advertising profits to tree-planting schemes – which it runs in Brazil and elsewhere – and says it now plants a tree every 0.8 seconds. It has been described as a “modern and inventive method of saving the world climate without a huge effort”. For many it might seem “too good to be true” – but is it? Each month the company releases financial reports which show how it is spending money. Its July 2019 report shows that 52 per cent of its total income was spent on tree-planting (which is 80 per cent of surplus revenue). This amounted to more than €800,000 (£725,000). It spent 5 per cent on advertising, 30 per cent on operational costs and 12 per cent was saved to fund future investments. Organisations that work with Ecosia confirmed to online fact-checking website Snopes that they received the money as outlined in the financial report. Experts agree that the company is a progressive and environmentally conscious organisation. However, funding tree-planting schemes must not distract people from stopping deforestation – much of which is driven by unregulated trade agreements with the EU and US. “Users who have downloaded the browser since the Amazon fires obviously feel they are playing a part in helping plant trees in the Amazon, but it is too little to initiate the urgent large-scale action required,” said Andre Laperrière, executive director of UK-based NGO Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (Godan). “What the Amazon needs at this stage is not more trees, it needs a policy level change at the government level, to truly make a difference. Temporary planting of trees only to be cut down by the industries and farming communities would be unhelpful.” Brazil is home to 200 million cows and is the largest beef exporter in the world. The proposed EU-Mercosur free trade agreement could mean South American countries can increase their beef quota to 99,000 tonnes on a new low 7.5 per cent tariff. Investigations have found meat farmed on illegal pasture in the Amazon can already be bought on the shelves of five major British supermarkets. Mr Laperrière said global governments – particularly those that import Brazilian beef and agricultural produce – need to put pressure on the country to create better environmental certification standards. The EU and US are some of Brazil’s largest traders and hold considerable influence over how produce is grown. Reducing beef consumption, avoiding food waste and shopping more ethically can also avoid environmental destruction. “The individual carbon footprints have the biggest impact, often in places hundreds of miles from your home,” said Mr Laperrière. In an open letter published in April this year, more than 600 scientists and 300 Brazilian indigenous groups asked the EU to ensure that trade deals with Brazil respect the environment. Richard George, head of forests at Greenpeace UK, agreed that reforestation is essential but means nothing if the Amazon is still going up in smoke. He said people can make a difference by eating less meat and dairy and eating more plant-based foods. “Alongside this, governments must suspend trade deals and companies suspend purchasing until the Amazon and its people are protected – we can all put pressure on them to do this ... We can’t just plant our way out of the climate emergency by using a different search engine – if only it were that simple,” he said. According to Anna Kitulagoda from WWF-UK, it is important that tree-planting projects – although important – don’t make people lose focus from tackling deforestation. “Well-designed projects to plant trees – ensuring the right trees in the right places – are urgently needed. But it’s critical that projects like these continue to complement and don’t replace a focus on tackling deforestation, and the loss of the most carbon and biodiversity-rich forests on our planet: our tropical rainforests,” she said.
|
Phoebe Weston
|
https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/ecosia-tree-planting-search-engine-amazon-wildfires-bolsonaro-google-a9095181.html
|
2019-09-09 05:28:35+00:00
| 1,568,021,315 | 1,569,330,672 |
human interest
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plant
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781,135 |
theindependent--2019-12-27--How gardeners are working together to protect the world's plants, one seed at a time
| 2019-12-27T00:00:00 |
theindependent
|
How gardeners are working together to protect the world's plants, one seed at a time
|
Agriculture has changed significantly in the past century. Bigger machines, bigger farms and bigger budgets allow fewer farmers to produce more food. Changes in science and policy have also resulted in an industry in which power over what we grow and eat is increasingly held by very few. Consider one of agriculture’s most basic inputs: the seed. Although there have long been farmers and merchants who specialised in growing and selling seeds, it wasn’t until the 20th century that people started talking about seed production as an industrial process. Thanks to changes in farming, science and government regulations, most of the “elite” seed that is bought and sold around the world today is mass produced and mass marketed — by just four transnational corporations. This transition has made many people uneasy. As a result, a new movement is growing, one that aims to wrest power back through the renewal of an age-old agricultural task: setting aside some seeds from each season’s harvest to plant in the next. Community gardeners, home growers and small-scale farmers increasingly insist that seeds should be something they produce themselves, or get from a friend or neighbour, rather than something they buy off the shelf. For some, seed saving is a way of keeping history alive, for example by growing the vegetable varieties their grandparents enjoyed. For others, it’s a way to save money, or to connect with their community. And today, it is increasingly a political statement – a choice that allows consumers to avoid fruits, vegetables and other foods produced at an industrial scale. Depending on the grower, it may even be all of these — and more. Many seed savers are motivated by the idea that their actions contribute to keeping diverse crop varieties from disappearing, especially those ignored by industrial farms or commercial seed companies in their pursuit of profit. Organisations such as the Heritage Seed Library (UK) and the Seed Savers Exchange (US), and the growers they represent, routinely connect the individual acts of growing, storing and sharing seed with a global conservation mission. In cultivating awareness of this connection, they have transformed a timeless task into a powerful political act. So how exactly did this transformation occur? New historical research shows that concerned citizens and organisations have worked hard to make it happen. The Heritage Seed Library, today a part of the British non-profit Garden Organic, offers a case in point. This collection of 800 or so local and rare vegetable varieties has its roots in a campaign to save endangered vegetables that Garden Organic launched in the 1970s, back when it was known as the Henry Doubleday Research Association, or HDRA. At the time, the HDRA was well established as source of expert advice on organic gardening in Britain. Its director Lawrence Hills had founded the organisation in 1954 to encourage gardeners to experiment with natural pest deterrents, green manures and other alternatives to the synthetic chemicals that were becoming common in agriculture. Among the many subjects on which the HDRA offered advice from its earliest days was helping “own growers” — backyard gardeners, allotments holders, and others growing food to eat themselves — to decide what varieties to plant. Hills was adamant that newer types of tomatoes, carrots and green beans lacked the flavour of earlier generations and performed worse in small-scale cultivation. He was therefore dismayed to learn in the early 1970s that changes in British agricultural regulations would make it difficult for seed companies to sell “old-fashioned varieties”. He feared, rightly, that the small market for such seeds would not justify the price that a company would now have to pay to register these for legal sale. If seed companies weren’t stocking them – and growers accustomed to buying their seed weren’t saving them – these old-fashioned varieties would simply disappear. In a 1975 letter to The Times, Hills announced an initiative of the HDRA intended to address this impending extinction crisis: establishing a collection of Europe’s “vanishing vegetables” at the HDRA. Hills asked fellow gardeners to help him locate as many uncommon varieties as possible. Ambitious as it was, that collection was only the start. The HDRA soon began a campaign to start a “seed bank”. Hills envisioned that this long-term storage facility would gather and preserve vegetable varieties from around the world. In this sense, it would be just like a few already existing international seed banks, which ensured that diverse seeds would be available for plant breeders in the future. Unlike those seed banks (also called “genebanks”), the vegetable collection that Hills imagined would have a public-facing component, a “seed library” that any grower, regardless of professional expertise, would be able to access. Both seed bank and seed library eventually came to fruition, though not in a single institution. When it became apparent during planning that a government-supported Vegetable Gene Bank would mainly serve professional researchers, Hills and HDRA staff organised The Heritage Vegetable Seed Library for Research and Experiment — later shortened to the Heritage Seed Library — to serve the needs of ordinary gardeners. Launched in February 1978, the library gave away seed of its rare varieties to subscribing members. The Heritage Seed Library was the more innovative of the two projects, and arguably the more transformative of British vegetable conservation in the long term. This was because it emphasised the need for the active participation of individual gardeners to to achieve conservation goals. The library only functioned with the help of “seed guardians” who helped keep it stocked with seed. HDRA also encouraged library users to learn how to save their own seed. Together with other HDRA initiatives, the seed library helped cement the idea that conservation of vegetable diversity would only succeed through the commitment of ordinary gardeners to purchasing, growing, saving and circulating seeds of useful or delicious varieties. Today, many home and allotment gardeners who save seeds see themselves as protectors of endangered plants – and their gardens as repositories of important biodiversity. They believe that their stewardship of vegetable diversity contributes to the possibilities for a better, fairer global food system in the future. The history of the HDRA reminds us that there was — and still is — work involved in connecting these individual acts of seed saving to the future of the world’s food. Helen Anne Curry is a Peter Lipton senior lecturer in the history of modern science and technology at the University of Cambridge. This article first appeared on The Conversation
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Helen Anne Curry
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https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/gardening-farming-conservation-seed-saving-gene-bank-a9257776.html
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Fri, 27 Dec 2019 19:45:05 GMT
| 1,577,493,905 | 1,577,580,656 |
human interest
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plant
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