Along St. Petersburg’s waterfront, the park is quiet but the smell is strong

Along St. Petersburg’s waterfront, the park is quiet but the smell is strong

 

ST. PETERSBURG — The 9 a.m. bayside air reeked of dead fish.

Megan McDonald smelled it as she approached the park with her friend’s two dogs, and walked up to the concrete seawall and looked down at the water. There were thousands of tarpon and snook floating sideways.

“I didn’t expect it to be like this,” said McDonald, 27.

The six volleyball courts, usually full, had only two in use.

“Where is everybody?” a passerby asked between points.

“Red Tide,” replied a player.

Normally packed on a Saturday morning in July, the stench was strong and the scene was quiet at Vinoy Park as thousands of dead fish lined the seawall, spread out into the bay and turned St. Petersburg’s bayside into one of the state’s epicenters for Red Tide.

The scattered blooms of the organism that causes Red Tide, Karenia brevis, is concentrated near St. Petersburg’s beaches and parks. Of the 15 tons of dead fish the city has collected in the past 10 days, city officials believe nine were blown in by Tropical Storm Elsa, St. Petersburg Emergency Manager Amber Boulding said at a Friday news conference.

Crews stood on the edge of the seawall, scooping fish in their nets, adding to the nine tons of fish they collected in the previous 24 hours. The volleyball nets soon emptied. A biker sped along the sidewalk, one hand on the handlebar and the other on her nose.

One couple walked over to see the damage. Morgan Janssen had told Freddy Hensley about the strong stench and closed businesses that Red Tide blooms from 2017 to 2019 had caused along the Gulf Coast. Hensley visited to see a widespread outbreak for the first time.

“I wanted to show him this morning because I was like, ‘No, you have to believe me. There’s fish everywhere,’” Janssen said as Hensley scooped at the fish with a tree branch.

Others continued their normal routines. Along his favorite breezy spot at the park, Al Nixon sat on his bench, resting his arm on its back and greeting passersby like always.

He visits Vinoy Park every day, a friendly face to some and a confidant to others, but lately, he’s seen less foot traffic than normal. He noticed people “just trying to get through the walk” because of the smell. For some people who stopped to chat, the conversation often led to the stench of the water.

“It doesn’t change my mood. I’m just a play-it-by-ear, why-be-sad type of person,” he said. “It’s somewhat disappointing because you don’t see the people that you normally see and have normal chats with.”

Pinellas County helped city efforts in cleaning up waterways and beaches in St. Petersburg, Mayor Rick Kriseman said in a Saturday morning Facebook post. The city called on a debris removal contractor that usually helps with storms to clean the debris. It also sought assistance from the state.

Dead fish are also popping up in Treasure Island, scattered mostly one-by-one instead of in groups, several people who lead beach cleanups said. The Bay Side Yacht Club, a cleanup group from a cul-de-sac on Bay Plaza, met for free eggs and bacon at Caddy’s before starting their monthly beach cleanup.

City crews picked up the dead fish, but what bothered Richard Harris the most was what had caused one of the more pervasive problems from storms: the cigarette butts that Elsa had pushed to the high tide line.

“Last month, during the month of June, when I did the cleanup, I picked up 271 (cigarette butts),” he said just after 10 a.m. “Today, I’m up to 535.” (He ended the morning with 821).

As noon approached in Vinoy Park, Daniel Larouche sat in his hammock, next to a candle he lit to keep the flies away. He sleeps in the hammock most nights by a lake, then walks 30 minutes each morning to the edge of the park, where there’s a bathroom he can use and cold water fountains. He grew up in St. Petersburg, working various jobs, but ended up homeless. Vinoy Park is his go-to spot.

“A lot of people you see walking, they’re in air conditioning most of their lives. So they come out here for 20 minutes or 30 minutes to walk,” he said. “And they don’t really feel that smell. You just get used to it.”

He set up at the edge of the park, far enough where if the air is still, coffee and cigarettes can help dull the smell of the water. It was “kind of, sort of” less crowded than normal away from the main sidewalk, he said.

Fitness classes came and went. It would clear out more as the afternoon heat approaches. Crews would continue to net the fish. Eventually, the smell would return to normal.

But not on Saturday.

“There’s only so much (the city) can do,” Larouche said.

Red Tide resources

There are several online resources that can help residents stay informed and share information about Red Tide:

Florida Poison Control Centers have a toll-free 24/7 hotline to report illnesses, including from exposure to Red Tide: 1-800-222-1222

To report fish kills in St. Petersburg, call the Mayor’s Action Center at 727-893-7111 or use St. Petersburg’s seeclickfix website.

Visit St. Pete/Clearwater, the county’s tourism wing, runs an online beach dashboard at www.beachesupdate.com.

The agency asks business owners to email reports of Red Tide issues to pr@visitspc.com.

Pinellas County shares information with the Red Tide Respiratory Forecast tool that allows beachgoers to check for warnings.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has a website that tracks where Red Tide is detected and how strong the concentrations.

How to stay safe near the water
  • Beachgoers should avoid swimming around dead fish.
  • Those with chronic respiratory problems should be particularly careful and “consider staying away” from places with a Red Tide bloom.
  • People should not harvest or eat mollusks or distressed and dead fish from the area. Fillets of healthy fish should be rinsed with clean water, and the guts thrown out.
  • Pet owners should keep their animals away from the water and from dead fish.
  • Residents living near the beach should close their windows and run air conditioners with proper filters.
  • Visitors to the beach can wear paper masks, especially if the wind is blowing in.

Source: Florida Department of Health in Pinellas County

St. Petersburg cleans up 9 tons of dead fish in 24 hours due to Red Tide, Elsa

St. Petersburg cleans up 9 tons of dead fish in 24 hours due to Red Tide, Elsa

ST. PETERSBURG — The city’s shoreline was besieged by dead fish and Red Tide blooms.

 

The sidewalk along the shore at North Shore Park reeked of death Friday. Just off into the water, crews in yellow jumpsuits and tall rubber boots scooped dead fish off the top of the water with pool skimmers, put them into trash bags and loaded them into a dump truck. Hundreds of dead fish were still out there, floating just a few feet from shore.

Crews picked up 9 tons of dead fish in 24 hours — and they weren’t even done.

The fish were killed by toxic Red Tide blooms and then pushed ashore by Tropical Storm Elsa, said St. Petersburg Emergency Manager Amber Boulding at a Friday news conference. The city has collected 15 tons of dead fish in the past 10 days, she believes the 9 tons that recently washed ashore was blown in by the storm’s winds.

“You look at Elsa and that push of water from the wind seems to have definitely pushed in more of the fish kill,” Boulding said.

The conclusion to Justin Bloom, a board member for the environmental groups Tampa Bay and Suncoast Waterkeeper, is inescapable:

“Tampa Bay is really sick right now, really extraordinarily bad. Conditions that we haven’t seen in decades.”

Several high concentrations of Karenia brevis, the microorganism that causes Red Tide blooms, also dot St. Petersburg’s shore. They were detected in water samples taken off Vinoy Park, Bayboro Harbor, Big Bayou and Coquina Key, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Red Tide map.

The result, Boulding said, is that St. Petersburg is seeing a greater number of fish kills than the massive 2017-19 Red Tide outbreak that crushed the county’s tourism industry and led to more than 1,800 tons of dead marine life to wash up onto the Pinellas beaches. But that outbreak afflicted the Gulf of Mexico side of the Pinellas coast, while the current outbreak is on the Tampa Bay side, which affects St. Petersburg the most.

“It’s very serious,” Boulding said.

Bloom believes the April Piney Point disaster helped fuel strong, harmful Red Tide blooms. The owner of the Manatee County fertilizer plant released 215 million gallons of polluted wastewater into Tampa Bay. Scientists are studying whether the release fueled the algal blooms.

The most impacted areas, according to St. Petersburg officials, were along the east and southeast coast from Tierra Verde to Gandy Boulevard.

Boulding said aerial footage of Tampa Bay has shown there is a lot more dead fish in the water waiting that will need to be cleaned after it comes ashore. While she assured residents and tourists that crews are working as fast as they can, she said this isn’t a problem that will be resolved quickly.

The city’s efforts are “at the mercy” of the winds and tides pushing Red Tide blooms and dead fish piles around the bay, she said.

Boulding said residents and visitors can see the dead fish on their morning runs and smell them the moment they step outside. Officials don’t know when the current situation will get better. Pinellas County officials say that, including St. Petersburg, the county has collected 427 tons of dead marine life and debris.

“What makes our city so wonderful is all of our waterfront,” Boulding said. “And that also is what makes it so tough when it comes to tackling Red Tide.”

Crews of about 120 people from across city departments are on clean-up duty. The effort started last week but paused as workers helped distribute sandbags in advance of Elsa. When the storm passed by, she said, they went back out cleaning fish.

The focus on the clean-up has delayed other city services like roadway mowing, tree trimming and pot hole repairs.

Boulding asks anyone who sees dead fish on land or in the water to report it by calling the Mayor’s Action Center at 727-893-7111 or through St. Petersburg’s seeclickfix website.

Red Tide resources

There are several online resources that can help residents stay informed and share information about Red Tide:

Florida Poison Control Centers have a toll-free 24/7 hotline to report illnesses, including from exposure to Red Tide: 1-800-222-1222

Visit St. Pete/Clearwater, the county’s tourism wing, runs an online beach dashboard at www.beachesupdate.com.

The agency asks business owners to email reports of Red Tide issues to pr@visitspc.com.

Pinellas County shares information with the Red Tide Respiratory Forecast tool that allows beachgoers to check for warnings.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has a website that tracks where Red Tide is detected and how strong the concentrations.

How to stay safe near the water
  • Beachgoers should avoid swimming around dead fish.
  • Those with chronic respiratory problems should be particularly careful and “consider staying away” from places with a Red Tide bloom.
  • People should not harvest or eat mollusks or distressed and dead fish from the area. Fillets of healthy fish should be rinsed with clean water, and the guts thrown out.
  • Pet owners should keep their animals away from the water and from dead fish.
  • Residents living near the beach should close their windows and run air conditioners with proper filters.
  • Visitors to the beach can wear paper masks, especially if the wind is blowing in.

Source: Florida Department of Health in Pinellas County

Yellowstone Is Losing Its Snow, with Repercussions for Everyone Downstream

InTheseTimes – Rural America

Yellowstone Is Losing Its Snow, with Repercussions for Everyone Downstream

A climate assessment found that snowfall is declining in Greater Yellowstone — and likely to keep declining. The problems trickle down to impact everyone from trout to grizzly bears to people.

Bryan Shuman                    July 7, 2021

Bison walk the prairie beneath Electric Peak in Yellowstone National Park. PHOTO BY JACOB W. FRANK / NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

Editor’s Note: This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

When you picture Yellowstone National Park and its neighbor, Grand Teton, the snowcapped peaks and Old Faithful Geyser almost certainly come to mind. Climate change threatens all of these iconic scenes, and its impact reaches far beyond the parks’ borders.

A new assessment of climate change in the two national parks and surrounding forests and ranchland warns of the potential for significant changes as the region continues to heat up.

Since 1950, average temperatures in the Greater Yellowstone Area have risen 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit (1.3 C), and potentially more importantly, the region has lost a quarter of its annual snowfall. With the region projected to warm 5 – 6 F by 2061 – 2080, compared with the average from 1986 – 2005, and by as much as 10 – 11 F by the end of the century, the high country around Yellowstone is poised to lose its snow altogether.

The loss of snow there has repercussions for a vast range of ecosystems and wildlife, as well as cities and farms downstream that rely on rivers that start in these mountains.

Broad impact on wildlife and ecosystems

The Greater Yellowstone Area comprises 22 million acres in northwest Wyoming and portions of Montana and Idaho. In addition to geysers and hot springs, it’s home to the southernmost range of grizzly bear populations in North America and some of the longest intact wildlife migrations, including the seasonal traverses of elk, pronghorn, mule deer and bison.

The Greater Yellowstone Area includes both Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, as well as surrounding national forests and federal land. MAP COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

 

The area also represents the one point where the three major river basins of the western U.S. converge. The rivers of the Snake-Columbia basin, Green-Colorado basin, and Missouri River Basin all begin as snow on the Continental Divide as it weaves across Yellowstone’s peaks and plateaus.

How climate change alters the Greater Yellowstone Area is, therefore, a question with implications far beyond the impact on Yellowstone’s declining cutthroat trout population and disruptions to the food supplies critical for the region’s recovering grizzly population. By altering the water supply, it also shapes the fate of major Western reservoirs and their dependent cities and farms hundreds of miles downstream.

Rising temperatures also increase the risk of large forest fires like those that scarred Yellowstone in 1988 and broke records across Colorado in 2020. And the effects on the national parks could harm the region’s nearly $800 billion in annual tourism activity across the three states.

A group of scientists led by Cathy Whitlock from Montana State University, Steve Hostetler of the U.S. Geological Survey and myself at the University of Wyoming partnered with local organizations, including the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, to launch the climate assessment.

We wanted to create a common baseline for discussion among the region’s many voices, from the Indigenous nations who have lived in these landscapes for over 10,000 years to the federal agencies mandated to care for the region’s public lands. What information would ranchers and outfitters, skiers and energy producers need to know to begin planning for the future?

Less water in rivers can harm cutthroat trout, which grizzly bears and other wildlife rely on for food. Climate change also threatens white bark pines, high-elevation trees that historically provided an important food source for Yellowstone grizzlies. PHOTO BY KAREN BLEIER/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Shifting from snow to rain

Standing at the University of Wyoming-National Park Service Research Station and looking up at the snow on the Grand Teton, over 13,000 feet above sea level, I cannot help but think that the transition away from snow is the most striking outcome that the assessment anticipates – and the most dire.

Today the average winter snowline – the level where almost all winter precipitation falls as snow – is at an elevation of about 6,000 feet. By the end of the century, warming is forecast to raise it to at least 10,000 feet, the top of Jackson Hole’s famous ski areas.

The climate assessment uses projections of future climates based on a scenario that assumes countries substantially reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. When we looked at scenarios in which global emissions continue at a high rate instead, the differences by the end of century compared with today became stark. Not even the highest peaks would regularly receive snow.

In interviews with people across the region, nearly everyone agreed that the challenge ahead is directly connected to water. As a member of one of the regional tribes noted, ​Water is a big concern for everybody.”

Precipitation may increase slightly as the region warms, but less of it will fall as snow. More of it will fall in spring and autumn, while summers will become drier than they have been, our assessment found.

The timing of the spring runoff, when winter snow melts and feeds into streams and rivers, has already shifted ahead by about eight days since 1950. The shift means a longer, drier late summer when drought can turn the landscape brown – or black as the wildfire season becomes longer and hotter.

The outcomes will affect wildlife migrations dependent on the ​green wave” of new leaves that rises up the mountain slopes each spring. Low stream flow and warm water in late summer will threaten the survival of coldwater fisheries, like the Yellowstone cutthroat trout, and Yellowstone’s unique species like the western glacier stonefly, which depends on the meltwater from mountain glaciers.

Preparing for a warming future

These outcomes will vary somewhat from location to location, but no area will be untouched.

We hope the climate assessment will help communities anticipate the complex impacts ahead and start planning for the future.

As the report indicates, that future will depend on choices made now and in the coming years. Federal and state policy choices will determine whether the world will see optimistic scenarios or scenarios where adaption becomes more difficult. The Yellowstone region, one of the coldest parts of the U.S., will face changes, but actions now can help avoid the worst. High-elevation mountain towns like Jackson, Wyoming, which today rarely experience 90 F, may face a couple of weeks of such heat by the end of the century – or they may face two months of it, depending in large part on those decisions.

The assessment underscores the need for discussion. What choices do we want to make?

Bryan Shuman is professor of paleoclimatology and paleoecology at the University of Wyoming.

Wind and solar power surges in record year

Wind and solar power surges in record year

The sun sets behind power-generating turbines of a local wind farm in Crimea
The sun sets behind power-generating turbines of a local wind farm in Crimea

 

China led a record increase in wind and solar power during 2020 – even as the emerging superpower continued to build new fossil-fuel burning coal plants.

Capacity of wind and solar power grew by 238GW globally last year, about 50pc larger than any previous expansion, according to the latest annual review of world energy by BP.

The jump in renewable output amounts to about seven times the total installed capacity in the UK, and came in a year marked by a slump in energy use as the pandemic triggered a slowdown in global travel.

China accounted for over half of the growth in wind and solar capacity. Some of the increase was driven by changes to the Chinese subsidy regime, which pulled projects forward, but BP said there was a significant increase even accounting for this.

Wind, solar and other renewable sources are on the rise as countries and companies pledge to slash their carbon emissions in line with the Paris agreements to cut global warming. Last year China said it would cut its emissions to net zero by 2060.

The share of renewable power, including wind and solar, in the global power mix also rose from 10.3pc to 11.7pc.

In Europe, that share reached 23.8pc, making it the first region where renewables are the main source of fuel, BP said.

The figures appear to allay concerns at the start of the pandemic that low oil prices and distracted politicians might slow down the push towards cleaner power.

Meanwhile the share of coal in power generation fell 1.3 percentage points to 35.1pc.

This is a record low share, although coal-fired generation overall is relatively flat compared to 2015.

Coal consumption among countries in the OECD club of developed nations fell to the lowest level recorded in BP’s annual review, which stretches back to 1965. However, coal consumption rose in China and Malaysia.

Despite its push on renewables, China approved 13GW of coal-fired plants, a 45pc increase on 2019 levels, last year, according to a report in June by the International Energy Agency.

Officials lowered restrictions on new plants to help the country recover from the pandemic.

Bernard Looney, chief executive of BP, said: “The relative immunity of renewable energy to the events of last year is encouraging.

“The challenge is to achieve sustained, comparable year-on-year reductions in emissions without massive disruption to our livelihoods and our everyday lives.”

The collapse in demand for energy, and particularly oil, during the pandemic led to a 6pc fall in carbon emissions from energy use, the largest decline since 1945, BP said.

However, this came at considerable cost, with GDP falling globally by more than 3.5pc.

Spencer Dale, BP’s chief economist, said: “Despite the turmoil, despite the collapse in world GDP, wind and solar just continue to grow.

“The increase in installed capacity last year is 50pc bigger than any time in history.”

BP is among several major companies pledging to slash their carbon emissions, and is investing more in renewables while cutting back on oil and gas production.

Dahlen, N.D., rancher deals with burnt-up pastures and low or empty water holes

Dahlen, N.D., rancher deals with burnt-up pastures and low or empty water holes

 

DAHLEN, N.D. — Grass crunched under Jeff Trenda’s boots as he walked across a parched pasture, where a herd of about 20 Angus-Simmental crossbred cows gathered under a tree as the temperature neared 90 degrees.

The combination of too much heat and too little rain dried up the pasture grass that usually would be green and lush in early summer. On this day, it’s brown and sparse.

Trenda’s situation echoes across North Dakota’s farms and ranches. North Dakota pasture and range conditions for the week ending Sunday, June 27, were rated 33% very poor, 32% poor, 27% fair and 8% good, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service-North Dakota. Stock water supplies were rated 38% very short, 36% short and 26% percent adequate. No pasture or rangeland in North Dakota was rated excellent and there was no surplus of water in the state, the statistics service said.

In late June, Trenda already was resigned to the fact that this year’s summer grazing season would be greatly shortened.

“If we get to the first of August, we’ll be lucky,” Trenda said. Most years, he would leave the cows in the pasture until mid-October.

Because pasture conditions are poor late last month, half of his herd of 120 cow-calf pairs were still in a corral, where he was feeding them hay and silage.

“We’re trying to hold them in the yard to let the grass get a little longer,” Trenda said. He’s grateful that last winter was mild so he didn’t use all of the hay he baled in 2020.

This year’s hay crop is likely to be scanty, and Trenda figures he’ll get less than a third of the bales he usually does. He is hoping Conservation Reserve Program acres will be opened early for haying. If farmers and ranchers aren’t allowed to cut and bale CRP land until August, the quality of the grass, which generally isn’t good, will be even poorer, Trenda said.

“It’s going to be better than nothing, but it would be a lot better if we could get it earlier, quality-wise,” he said.

Trenda plans to sell 10 older cows in the next couple of weeks to ease pressure on his feed supply. It’s likely he’ll also have to sell some heifers that he wanted to keep and use as breeding stock.

The drought, besides damaging pastures, has resulted in dry or nearly dry water holes, like the one in his pasture east of Dahlen.

“There was water there a week ago when I put the cows in it, but now there’s nothing” Trenda said. The water hole not only was empty, but the top of the ground had cracked into brittle pieces, and the sides of the hole showed no signs of moisture.

Other pasture water holes have a small pool of water but it’s poor quality, and Trenda is concerned his cattle will get sick if they drink from them. He’s hauling water to his herd to ensure they have access to good water. For the past few weeks, Trenda has been filling a 3,000-gallon water trailer, pulling it to the pastures, and then pumping the water into troughs.

Two years ago, Trenda and his neighbors were struggling to cut corn silage because the fields were knee-deep in mud. That year, 2019, farmers banded together and modified manure spreaders and used them to haul their silage through the field.

“It’s a battle. Every day is a battle. You just don’t know what’ s going to happen,” he said.

Super rich’s wealth concentration surpasses Gilded Age levels

Super rich’s wealth concentration surpasses Gilded Age levels

Ethan Wolff – Mann, Senior Writer                     July 7, 2021
FILE - In this June 6, 2019, file photo Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos speaks at the the Amazon re:MARS convention in Las Vegas. The Amazon founder officially stepped down as CEO on Monday, July 5, 2021, handing over the reins as the company navigates the challenges of a world fighting to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic. Andy Jassy, the head of Amazon’s cloud-computing business, replaced Bezos, a change the company had announced in February. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

The wealth of the richest 0.00001% of the U.S. now exceeds that of the prior historical peak, which occurred in the Gilded Age, according to economist Gabriel Zucman.

In the late 19th century, the U.S. experienced rapid industrialization and economic growth, creating an inordinate amount of wealth for a handful of families. This era was also known for its severe inequality; and some have called the period that began around 1990 a “Second Gilded Age.” Back then, just four families represented the richest 0.00001% – today’s equivalent is 18 families.

Zucman, a French economist whose doctoral advisor was the historical economist Thomas Piketty, author of bestseller “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” released data this week showing that as of July 1, the top 0.00001% richest people in the U.S. held 1.35% of the country’s total wealth. These 18 families include those of Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates.

Image

Zucman used real-time data from Forbes for the calculations. In 1913, at the end of the Gilded Age, the Rockefeller, Frick, Carnegie, and Baker families – names all tied to monopolistic power – held 0.85% of the country’s total wealth.

The richest 0.01% — around 18,000 U.S. families — have also surpassed the wealth levels reached in the Gilded Age. These families hold 10% of the country’s wealth today, Zucman wrote. By comparison, in 1913, the top 0.01% held 9% of U.S. wealth, and a mere 2% in the late 1970s.

The increasing concentration of wealth comes as the ultra-rich face more scrutiny for the money they’re not paying in taxes. Recent reports have highlighted that because so much of their wealth consists of unrealized gains in stocks and real estate, they pay little or nothing in income tax. Many CEOs and founders take small salaries given their outsized stock holdings, as lower capital gains tax is preferable to a higher tax on ordinary income.

Seated portrait of John Davison Rockefeller (1839 - 1937), American oil magnate, early twentieth century. (Photo by Interim Archives/Getty Images)
Seated portrait of John Davison Rockefeller (1839 – 1937), American oil magnate, early 20th century. (Photo by Interim Archives/Getty Images)

Zucman gained fame in 2019 as an architect of then-presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s wealth tax plan, which aimed to address the fact that the extremely rich pay little in taxes compared to their net worth. The plan would have imposed a 2% tax on net wealth above $50 million and 6% above $1 billion.

Since the pandemic began, the stock market’s gains have widened the gap between the wealthy and non-wealthy because stock ownership is largely concentrated among wealthy people. The number of millionaires globally jumped 5.2 million to 56.1 million, according to Credit Suisse. Though the pandemic’s wealth gains largely benefitted the richest Americans, “most” Americans did fare well financially during the pandemic, according to the Federal Reserve. Around $13.5 trillion of wealth was added to all households. Still, while a large portion of the country got somewhat richer, the rich saw most of that, with the top 1% seeing a third of the $13.5 trillion and the top 20% seeing 70% of it.

Ethan Wolff – Mann is a writer at Yahoo Finance focusing on consumer issues, personal finance, retail, airlines, and more. 

The Phrase That Completely Transformed How I Think About Exercise

The Phrase That Completely Transformed How I Think About Exercise

Working out isn't supposed to be torture, but many of us are taught from a young age that it should feel that way. (Photo: Kamon Saejueng / EyeEm via Getty Images)
Working out isn’t supposed to be torture, but many of us are taught from a young age that it should feel that way. (Photo: Kamon Saejueng / EyeEm via Getty Images)

 

For most of my life, I’ve had a tumultuous relationship with exercise.

This was mostly due to the fact that I felt like it was a requirement and I was never any “good” at it. I loathed team sports as a kid, and I’d put more energy into pretending I was sick so I could sit on the bench rather than participating with my peers. I had very little stamina and terrible coordination. Not to mention the fact that I felt like my abilities were being measured against my classmates’.

Those feelings followed me into adulthood. I found myself avoiding the gym or fitness classes because I didn’t want people to see how “bad” I was at working out. And, like many people, I also inherently looked at exercise as a way to counter the food I consumed during the day or what I saw in the mirror.

It took me a very long time to change my outlook on working out ― to not see it as disciplinary or a way to embarrass myself but as something that makes me feel good. I read about a concept a few years ago that helped me get there: Exercise is a celebration of what your body can do.

Stop and read that again.

We’re trained to think we always have to be making gains or shrinking ourselves ― that exercise is for changing our body, not honoring how it is right now.

I spent years thinking I was never “good enough” when it came to exercise. I wasn’t good enough to play sports, wasn’t good enough to use gym equipment, wasn’t good enough with my diet to not need to work out so hard in the first place. Instead, what if I had looked at exercise as a way to celebrate what my own body could do? Even if that varies day-to-day.

Once I adopted that mindset, everything started to change. It helps on those days when I’m looking at fitness as a dreadful obligation rather than a choice.

We’re trained to think we always have to be making gains or shrinking ourselves ― that exercise is for changing our body, not a way to honor how it is right now.

Of course, an affirmation can only take you so far. You also need to put it into practice. Here’s some other advice on how to see exercise as a celebration of your body:

Spend time discovering what movement brings you joy.

The American Heart Association recommends that you get 150 minutes of moderate physical activity per week, which is defined as anything that gets your heart rate 50% to 60% higher than your resting heart rate. Any movement that gets you there works. Avoid the mental trap of thinking that you have to destroy yourself in order for your workout to count; you do not have to engage in any type of exercise that you hate.

“Think of these two categories: Does it make your body feel good, and do you enjoy it?” said Jessica Mazzucco, a certified fitness trainer in New York City and founder of The Glute Recruit. “There are so many formats out there to choose from, including playing tennis, swimming, dancing, biking, weight training, boxing, yoga, running, pilates, etc. If you find yourself excited and wanting to go back and perform that workout again, then you know you have found what works for you.”

Then don’t hesitate to change up your workout routine (even if you used to love it).

I briefly got into running during quarantine. I loved that it was a safe activity that got me outside and that I was able to measure my progress. Now, I’d rather wait in a long line at the bank than even think about jogging.

I’ve gone through similar phases with strength training and cardio. There was a time where nothing could coerce me into cardio; instead, I was going to different weight-focused fitness classes multiple times a week. Today, I prefer cycling and I look forward to spending 30 or 45 minutes on a spin bike.

It’s perfectly fine to switch up your routine. In fact, it’s highly encouraged.

“Some people get bored of the same workout routine day in and day out,” Mazzucco said. “It’s a good idea to add excitement into your routine by participating in different workouts a few days a week.”

Make your workouts a social activity.

Working out with others might feel intimidating, but it actually helps when these get-togethers are a regular part of your social life. I started viewing time working out with friends as a way to catch up with people I love rather than an hour-long torture session. Make a walking date with your partner or spend some adventure time with your best friend trying out an aerial yoga class. It’s a bonding experience that takes you out of the negative mentality you might have toward exercise.

Don’t turn to exercise when you’re feeling bad about what you ate.

I had a habit of telling myself I had to sign up for a workout class or go for a run after eating a big meal. Turning to exercise when I felt guilty about what I ate or how I looked made fitness a penalty rather than a priority. (Not to mention the fact that this mentality also damages your relationship with food.)

In order to have a healthy relationship with fitness, it needs to be unlinked from food and appearance, Mazzucco said. “It’s easier to bring yourself to move each day, and fitness seems like less of a chore and more of an act of self-care,” she added.

Focus on the emotional effects of working out.

A runner’s high doesn’t happen because running itself has some magical powers ― it’s the exercise that brings the mood boost. You can get the same outcome from walking, cycling, dancing in your kitchen, swimming, using the monkey bars or whatever else you choose to do. I constantly try to remind myself that I’m working out for my mental health, and the physical perks are just a bonus.

“I love the mantra ‘love yourself first, love yourself most.’ Exercise is one of the best ways you can love yourself,” said Jennifer Conroyd, a certified fitness trainer, ironman and founder of Fluid Running. “You’re reducing your risk of disease. You’re strengthening your body and your heart. You’re de-stressing yourself and making yourself feel better. Think of exercise as a gift that you’ve been given.”

Remember that your relationship to exercise ― and how often you do it ― will change. A lot.

I’m not some jacked fitness expert who never misses a workout. There are some days that I mentally or physically can’t bring myself to sweat — just today, I set my alarm for a workout and slept right through it. This is to be expected.

“It’s important to remember that our bodies evolve and age, and we have to stop putting harsh expectations on our bodies if they don’t look or perform the way we want them to,” Mazzucco said, adding that you should “accept that you won’t always want to work out, and that’s OK. Even the most motivated exercisers have days where they do not want to go to the gym.”

It’s OK to move your body how you want to move it and when you want to move it. Anything else shouldn’t be called exercise ― it’s punishment.

Related…

Report: Great Lakes region needs about $2B for flood repairs

Report: Great Lakes region needs about $2B for flood repairs

FILE – In this Dec. 4, 2019 file photo, erosion reaches a house along Lake Michigan’s southwestern shoreline in Stevensville, Mich. Shoreline cities and towns in the Great Lakes region will be spending heavily in coming years to fix public infrastructure damaged by recent flooding and erosion, with estimated costs approaching $2 billion, officials said Thursday, June 8, 2021. (Robert Franklin/South Bend Tribune via AP. File)

 

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Shoreline cities and towns in the Great Lakes region will be spending heavily in coming years to fix public infrastructure damaged by recent flooding and erosion, with estimated costs approaching $2 billion, officials said Thursday.

Communities already have poured about $878 million into repairs over the last two years, according to the results of a survey by the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, a coalition of mayors and local officials in the region’s eight states and two Canadian provinces.

But the survey of 241 cities, villages and other jurisdictions found that at least $1.94 billion more will be needed over the next five years. The total is certain to be even higher because the report didn’t include all shoreline municipalities, said Jon Altenberg, the initiative’s executive director.

“Communities around the Great Lakes face a growing crisis, and we need both the federal governments of the U.S. and Canada to assist with the necessary investments,” Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said. “Our coastal infrastructure is vital to the economic and recreational health of our communities, and coordinated action is required.”

Abnormally high lake levels and severe rains since 2019 have hammered drinking water intake pipes, sidewalks, ports and docks. Parkland, beaches and wetlands have washed away. Portions of roads have crumbled.

Great Lakes levels fluctuate annually with the seasons and historically experience prolonged high- and low-water periods. But scientists say the warming climate may be making those multi-year swings more abrupt and extreme.

Lakes Huron and Michigan reached their lowest levels on record in early 2013, while the other Great Lakes — Superior, Erie and Ontario — were well below average. Then came a turnabout, as wetter weather filled the lakes to the brim. All five set record highs during the past two years.

Although levels have dipped this year, intense storms have brought flooding to some cities on the lakes or rivers connecting them, including Chicago and Detroit.

The cities group is joining other government, business and environmental organizations in pushing for the Great Lakes region to get a generous share of the infrastructure funding proposed by President Joe Biden and under consideration in Congress.

In addition to continued funding of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative cleanup program established in 2010, the groups in a June 24 letter to congressional leaders requested billions for water and sewer upgrades, flood prevention and related needs.

“These investments will address longstanding basin-wide priorities while stimulating economic activity in hard-hit communities throughout our region,” the letter said.

This Texas family overcame hardship to buy a new home, but builder rips up the contract

This Texas family overcame hardship to buy a new home, but builder rips up the contract

After losing their home because of financial problems years ago, Gabriela Lopez and her husband worked hard to rebuild their credit, save money and buy a dream home.

The couple, who have five children and live in a two-bedroom home in the Runaway Bay area about 60 miles northwest of Fort Worth, finally prequalified for a loan. They signed a construction contract in January for a 1,947-square-foot, four-bedroom home to be built in the Wise County community of Boyd, closer to the Dallas-Fort Worth urbanized area.

Construction was slow, but everything seemed to be going OK until June 28, when the builder, Doug Parr Custom Homes, abruptly canceled the contract.

“It feels like they ripped the rug out from under our feet,” said Lopez, a long-time Wise County resident who works as a receptionist and assistant at a Southlake medical office. Her husband, Jose Juan Lopez, works at a rock-crushing operation in Wise County.

Officials from Doug Parr Custom Homes did not respond to messages left with a call taker at the company’s office in Boyd, as well as emails to the company and to Clinten Bailey, Doug Parr director of operations.

Rising construction costs drive trend

This setback for the Lopez family is the latest example of a trend in which North Texans sign contracts with new home builders, only to have the contracts ripped up while the house is under construction. In Lopez’s case and many other instances, the builders cite the rising cost of construction materials such as lumber.

“I’ve been doing this 20 years. I’ve never seen this,” Rick Shelhorse, branch manager of Synergy One Lending in Plano, said in an interview. He said his office has three clients, including the Lopez family, who have been told by a builder they will have to pay thousands of dollars more if they want to keep their home.

In Lopez’s case, she was notified June 25 that the price of her $320,000 home would be raised to about $384,400, and she could either pay the additional money or walk away from her contract. Three days later, before she had notified the builder of her decision, Lopez received a letter notifying her that it was no longer her decision, and the contract had been canceled by the builder.

“I think they’re just taking advantage of the market, and they can do that to people because they know somebody is going to pay it,” Shelhorse said.

In the June 28 letter, Bailey, the director of operations for Doug Parr, wrote to Lopez that the contract was being canceled because “it is clear that certain disputes and/or material misunderstandings between the parties have arisen concerning the Contract, including but not limited to, the escalation of material costs.”

But Lopez and her real estate agent, Ryan Barnes, said there were no such disputes or misunderstandings. Lopez said that when she spoke by phone with company owner Doug Parr on June 25, she expressed concern about whether she would still qualify for a loan that was nearly $65,000 higher than her original loan, but she never said yes or no to the higher price.

Barnes, who works with the Cassie Samons Team and JP & Associates in Justin, said he repeatedly asked the builder for evidence of the price increases, including the dates in which the builder purchased the materials, but was refused. He said he visited the builder’s office in person June 30, but was told to leave.

Lopez, who also holds a second job as a caregiver for an elderly client, said she isn’t sure what to do next. The family can stay at their home in the Runaway Bay area, but it is cramped for such a large family.

She said her children, who had been excited to move into their new, spacious bedrooms, are hurt and confused by the loss of the home.

Experts: Have lawyer review contracts

Prospective home buyers should read their contracts with builders carefully to make sure they are aware of any language that may make it possible for the builder to raise the sales price, several real estate finance and legal experts said. In new home construction, contracts are often drawn up with language that favors the builder — for example, making it difficult for the buyer to cancel the deal, but relatively easy for the seller.

It’s worth spending a few hundred dollars to have a lawyer look over the contract before signing, the experts said.

And, Lopez was even more frustrated to find out that another Doug Parr Custom Homes buyer on the same street is not being asked to pay higher prices because of construction costs. She knows this because her lender, Synergy Lending, also represents the other buyer.

“I assumed they were raising all the prices at the same time,” she said. “Why us?”

“I still don’t understand how you can sign a contract and not mean it,” she said.

Europe is becoming a right-wing continent

Europe is becoming a right-wing continent

Europe.
Europe. Illustrated | iStock

 

For a certain kind of American liberal, it’s almost a reflexive gesture to wish the United States were more like Europe. There, health care is provided on a more egalitarian basis and a university education is much cheaper, if not free; sexual mores are more relaxed and gun ownership is rare; religion is vestigial and militant nationalism is strictly taboo. Widespread European distress over the presidencies of George W. Bush and Donald Trump only confirmed what American liberals knew: that the Old Country was also the dreamland of their imagined liberal American future.

I wonder how it will feel when Europe becomes distinctly more right-wing than the United States.

It’s not an inconceivable prospect. The United Kingdom has a Tory government right now, and based on current polling their position looks increasingly secure. France’s centrist president Emmanuel Macron would likely be re-elected if the election were held today, but Marine Le Pen’s right-wing National Rally party polls considerably higher today in a one-on-one contest with Macron than it did in 2017. Italy’s fragile coalition could be followed by a right-wing coalition of Matteo Salvini’s Lega and the neofascist-derived Fratelli D’Italia.

Even in Germany, where the Christian Democrat Angela Merkel’s 16-year rule is coming to a close, the next government may once again be a coalition led by the CDU/CSU, if not with the center-left SDP, then in a “Jamaica coalition” with a reinvigorated center-right FDP joining the Greens by their side.

Of course polls can and do change, and one election does not imply a radical cultural shift. But the overall political climate in Europe has been trending rightward for some time. After the financial crisis, and the austerity that followed, the traditional left-wing parties began to collapse, and more nationalist and extreme-right alternatives to the mainstream — the AfD in Germany, National Rally in France, UKIP in England — began to arise. The surge in immigration that followed Syria’s and Libya’s collapse into civil war were further sources of fuel. These parties and movements — critical of the European Union, strongly opposed to immigration, frequently more friendly to Russia — were initially and in many cases still are opposed by all the mainstream parties, but that opposition did little to stem their growth. Eventually, in countries like Hungary and Poland, they began to win elections and assume the powers of government.

In Europe today, the most viable traditional parties are often mainstream right-wing parties that have sought to coopt the nationalist right’s issues — most notably Boris Johnson’s Tory Party, which eclipsed UKIP by adopting Brexit for itself — or parties self-consciously constituted around the technocratic center so as to unite the mainstream against the far right. True left-wing parties like Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s in France or Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour have largely fizzled. Meanwhile, the far right continues to produce new phenomena, most recently France’s Eric Zemmour, who has outflanked Le Pen on the right by being even more nationalist than she is.

If the result of all this ferment is a European political realignment that contains the far right by reviving a more inward-focused traditional conservatism, that would be good for Europe and, ultimately, for European relations with America. A Europe that was more oriented around national solidarity than global humanitarianism, open immigration, or free markets is a Europe America could readily live, work, and trade with. If by that means the continent achieved greater political stability and democratic accountability, most observers would consider it far preferable to either a lurch to the far right or a descent into civil strife.

But it might be startling for the American left to hear even centrist European politicians like Emmanuel Macron blame them for undermining national solidarity with their “woke” leftism. They might have to get used to it, though. Nothing is more useful for promoting national unity than a foreign threat. And while America’s foreign policy establishment would likely prefer that China be that threat, it makes far more sense for a Europe turning inward to decry pernicious American influence on their social fabric than China’s threats to Taiwan or its oppression of the Uyghur people.

The question then would be whether America’s left will take a lesson from the demise of their European cousins, and rethink their own approach to politics before they face a similar eclipse, and downgrade cultural questions in favor of bread and butter issues. Or, perhaps, whether Europe’s turn to the right will inspire America’s left to see unique promise once more in our own country’s distance from nationalism of the Old World, and redefine their own vision of a culturally egalitarian future not as a necessary redemption of our nation’s sinful history, but as a hoped-for fulfillment of distinctively American promise.