Was Deborah Birx Worse Than Fauci? This Documentary Says ';Yes';

As the rush for copper‚ lithium‚ nickel‚ cobalt‚ and other rare earth elements heats up‚ the impact of mining on Africas great apes may be even higher than previously thought.New research has looked at where African mining areas overlap with great ape habitats and found that one-third of the continent';s gorillas‚ chimpanzees‚ and bonobos around 180‚000 individuals in total are at risk.Researchers at Re:wild studied mining sites in 17 African countries and worked out how they might impact local great ape populations‚ both directly and indirectly.They included 10-kilometer (6-mile) buffer zones around each mining site to account for direct impacts‚ such as habitat destruction and noise pollution. Crucially‚ they also included a wider 50-kilometer (30-mile) buffer zone for indirect impacts linked to increased human activity near mining sites‚ such as new roads and infrastructure.Currently‚ studies on other species suggest that mining harms apes through pollution‚ habitat loss‚ increased hunting pressure‚ and disease‚ but this is an incomplete picture. The lack of data sharing by mining projects hampers our scientific understanding of its true impact on great apes and their habitat‚ Jessica Junker‚ lead author of the study and researcher at Re:wild‚ said in a statement.Chimpanzee habitat cleared for a railway to transport iron ore to a port in Guinea.Image credit: Genevieve CampbellThe problem was particularly severe in the Western African nations of Liberia‚ Sierra Leone‚ Mali‚ and Guinea where there was the most significant overlap of mining and ape density. In Guinea‚ for example‚ more than 23‚000 chimpanzees around 83 percent of the countrys ape population are set to be directly or indirectly impacted by mining activities.Ironically‚ the current mining boom in Africa is being driven by the rapid growth of clean energy technologies. Rare earth elements‚ like cobalt and lithium‚ are vital for rechargeable batteries and other green technology that will play an invaluable role in the transition away from fossil fuels.However‚ they come at a cost. These minerals are deposited beneath the Earths surface and require disruptive mining practices to obtain them‚ resulting in ecosystem destruction and Indigenous land grabs.Mining companies need to focus on avoiding their impacts on great apes as much as possible and use offsetting as a last resort as there is currently no example of a great ape offset that has been successful‚ explained Genevieve Campbell‚ senior researcher at Re:wild and lead expert of ape conservation at the IUCN.Chimpanzees walking along a human-made road.Image credit: Tatyana Humle";Avoidance needs to take place already during the exploration phase‚ but unfortunately‚ this phase is poorly regulated and baseline data are collected by companies after many years of exploration and habitat destruction have taken place. These data then do not accurately reflect the original state of the great ape populations in the area before mining impacts‚"; she added.The demand for so-called decarbonization minerals isnt just set to impact wildlife; humans are also getting tangled up in this mess. On the Indonesian island of Halmahera‚ mining for nickel and cobalt threatens to wipe out an uncontacted tribe called the Hongana Manyawa‚ which means People of the Forest in their own language.The new study is published in the journal Science Advances.

The Dead Sea is one of the planets saltiest bodies of water. Technically a land-locked lake‚ rather than a sea‚ its nestled between Jordan‚ Israel‚ and Palestine‚ and as its total lack of fish‚ bird‚ or plant life is a testament to‚ it really is quite dead.Why is the Dead Sea so salty?The Dead Sea is so salty because its fed by the Jordan River but has no outlet‚ meaning water can only exit by evaporating and leaving its minerals and salts behind. This means the Dead Sea has become increasingly briny over time as the salts accumulated‚ and its now estimated to be 9.7 times saltier than the ocean.The saltiness has been intensified by human activity as less water reaches the Dead Sea from the Jordan River due to things like damns and diversion for agriculture. As weve either redirected or prevented the flow of water‚ less fresh stuff is reaching the Dead Sea‚ meaning theres less available to dilute the salty lake. Add to that the regions heat and mineral-rich springs sprouting along the Dead Seas shores due to tectonic activity‚ and you have yourself one salty body of water.The Dead Sea is so salty you can float with ease.Image credit: Ido Meirovich / Shutterstock.comHow salty is the Dead Sea?The Dead Sea is the second saltiest lake on the planet‚ topped in brininess by Gaet';ale Pond‚ located in Danakil Depression‚ Ethiopia. That pond is a staggering 43.3 percent salt compared to the Dead Seas 34 percent‚ but given the ocean is on average 3.5 percent‚ you get an idea how of incredibly salty that still is.The extreme salinity gives the Dead Sea a feeling like olive oil mixed with sand‚ reports the NASA Earth Observatory‚ and means that anybody climbing in can float with ease. Its levels have also been dropping at a rate of around 1.2 meters (3.9 feet) per year as a result of human activity‚ and as it gets even saltier‚ scientists have noticed something happening on the lakes bed.The water is so saturated with salt that it doesn';t take much for salt crystals to precipitate on the Dead Sea';s lake bed.Image credit: NASA Earth ObservatoryThe Dead Sea Observatory discovered that in response to increasing saline levels‚ salt has been precipitating on the lakebed‚ creating a salt layer thats getting thicker by several inches each year. It happens through a process known as salt fingering (aka‚ double-diffuse convection) as hot water travels to the comparatively cooler bottom‚ losing its capacity to hold salt as it cools. Instead‚ the salt gets dumped in crystal form‚ and this happens relatively quickly because the Dead Sea is already at the extreme end of how much salt can be saturated into water.Does anything live in the Dead Sea?The only life to be found in the Dead Sea is microscopic. As you might imagine‚ living things dont really vibe with this degree of salinity‚ and even the most salty of extremophiles like brine shrimp arent interested.However‚ since the 1930s weve known that the Dead Sea isnt completely dead‚ home to microbes that Scientific American reports exist in concentrations of around 1‚000 to 10‚000 archaea per milliliter. In 1992‚ life put on quite a show in the Dead Sea when a bloom of Dunaliella parva flushed the top layer of water that was likely diluted enough by rainwater to make it possible.Despite D. parva being a green alga‚ the bloom turned the Dead Sea red due to high levels of bacterioruberin. So good work‚ the Dead Sea. Nothing will convince the planet youre still alive quite like looking like a big puddle of salty blood.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte is the top candidate to become the next NATO Secretary-General with sources within NATO saying that Rutte now has the backing of 28 of the 32 allied nations. []

by Brian Shilhavy‚ Health Impact News: Hip-hop star P Diddy‚ whose legal name is Sean Combs‚ has been hit with five civil lawsuits in four months‚ while the Department of Homeland Security raided his homes in Miami and Los Angeles recently. Similar to Jeffrey Epstein‚ Combs allegedly ran a sexual blackmail operation to leverage the []