A growing body of evidence over the last few years has demonstrated that air pollution is a significant risk factor for developing dementia in old age. It shouldn’t be much of a shock. “When sensitive people breathe in polluted air from outdoors, very small particles can penetrate the lungs and get into the circulation system,” Jiu-Chiuan Chen, a neuroscientist at the University of Southern California, told The Daily Beast. “These ‘toxic’ responses can make the blood-brain barrier leaky and cause damage to the brain.” It’s not all that different from how other risk factors like smoking can negatively impact human health, leaving it more vulnerable to degenerative conditions like dementia.
The big question scientists have had in the last few years was whether the impact of air pollution on dementia risk was permanent—or whether this was something that could be reversed. New findings published inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences bring good news: Improved air quality over several years is associated with a reduced risk of dementia in elderly women.
The findings bolster suspicions that external pollutants can contribute to accelerated aging in the brain (which is effectively what dementia is). But more critically, they also show that this aging can be slowed down if exposure to those pollutants decreases.
Led by Chen and others from USC, a group of researchers assessed the yearly physical and cognitive health of 2,239 women in the U.S. aged 74 to 92, from 2008 to 2018. (Chen and her colleagues focused on women since they are disproportionately affected by neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, which can lead to dementia). Those women were geographically spread out over the country, and all were dementia-free from at least 2008 to 2012. The researchers compared those assessments with yearly average concentrations of outdoor pollution from 1998 and 2012 to determine in what locations air quality was trending to healthier levels. The study focused on measurements for fine particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide—two very common pollutants resulting from traffic exhaust.
Over those 10 years, 398 women were diagnosed with dementia. But the researchers found that locations with larger improvements in air quality showed a smaller incidence in dementia diagnoses among the women who took part in the study. While the reduction in risk varies with other factors, Chen explained that lowering air pollution exposure to roughly 15 percent below the EPA’s current standard threshold led to a 20 percent reduction in dementia risk.
Moreover, the link between lower dementia risk and better air quality did not differ significantly by age, education, geography, or cardiovascular risk factors, suggesting that air pollution actually plays a bigger role in dementia than previously thought.
The study is far from perfect. The findings would probably translate to older men, but we can’t be certain yet without actual data to confirm it. Moreover, some women may have been exposed to much different levels of air pollution in their everyday lives than what the general air quality of their surroundings suggests. Other factors like green spaces may have affected air quality at the local level.
But there’s little reason to doubt the overall takeaway: There’s no disentangling human health from environmental health.
US could be under rightwing dictator by 2030, Canadian professor warns
Richard Luscombe – January 3, 2022
Photograph: Jonathan Drake/Reuters
The US could be under a rightwing dictatorship by 2030, a Canadian political science professor has warned, urging his country to protect itself against the “collapse of American democracy”.
“We mustn’t dismiss these possibilities just because they seem ludicrous or too horrible to imagine,” Thomas Homer-Dixon, founding director of the Cascade Institute at Royal Roads University in British Columbia, wrote in the Globe and Mail.
“In 2014, the suggestion that Donald Trump would become president would also have struck nearly everyone as absurd. But today we live in a world where the absurd regularly becomes real and the horrible commonplace.”
Homer-Dixon’s message was blunt: “By 2025, American democracy could collapse, causing extreme domestic political instability, including widespread civil violence. By 2030, if not sooner, the country could be governed by a rightwing dictatorship.”
The author cited eventualities centered on a Trump return to the White House in 2024, possibly including Republican-held state legislatures refusing to accept a Democratic win.
Trump, he warned, “will have only two objectives, vindication and vengeance” of the lie that his 2020 defeat by Joe Biden was the result of electoral fraud.
A “scholar of violent conflict” for more than four decades, Homer-Dixon said Canada must take heed of the “unfolding crisis”.
“A terrible storm is coming from the south, and Canada is woefully unprepared. Over the past year we’ve turned our attention inward, distracted by the challenges of Covid-19, reconciliation and the accelerating effects of climate change.
“But now we must focus on the urgent problem of what to do about the likely unraveling of democracy in the United States. We need to start by fully recognising the magnitude of the danger. If Mr Trump is re-elected, even under the more optimistic scenarios the economic and political risks to our country will be innumerable.”
Homer-Dixon said he even saw a scenario in which a new Trump administration, having effectively nullified internal opposition, deliberately damaged its northern neighbor.
“Under the less-optimistic scenarios, the risks to our country in their cumulative effect could easily be existential, far greater than any in our federation’s history. What happens, for instance, if high-profile political refugees fleeing persecution arrive in our country and the US regime demands them back. Do we comply?”
Trump, he said, “and a host of acolytes and wannabes such as Fox [News]’s Tucker Carlson and Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene”, had transformed the Republican party “into a near-fascist personality cult that’s a perfect instrument for wrecking democracy”.
Worse, he said, Trump “may be just a warm-up act”.
“Returning to office, he’ll be the wrecking ball that demolishes democracy but the process will produce a political and social shambles,” Homer-Dixon said.
“Still, through targeted harassment and dismissal, he’ll be able to thin the ranks of his movement’s opponents within the state, the bureaucrats, officials and technocrats who oversee the non-partisan functioning of core institutions and abide by the rule of law.
“Then the stage will be set for a more managerially competent ruler, after Mr Trump, to bring order to the chaos he’s created.”
5 Things to Do in 2022 for Better Heart Health, According to the American Heart Association
Leah Goggins December 27, 2021
After a few weeks of enjoying rich meals and seasonal sweets, the new year marks a fresh start and for many, that means making some healthy changes. Whether you’re looking for a little post-holiday reset or some tips to stick to for years to come, you might appreciate some guidance on how, exactly, you can make changes that are easy to stick to. Luckily for those looking to improve their heart health, the American Heart Association (AHA) just shared a roundup of easy-to-achieve goals and resolutions that will help you take care of your ticker in the new year.
“The most important thing is to set realistic expectations and start with small changes that you can amp up over time,” said American Heart Association volunteer cardiologist John A. Osborne, M.D, Ph.D., in a press release. “And if you get off track, don’t be discouraged or give up. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle takes time, so be kind to yourself and realize that making a new, healthy start doesn’t always need to coincide with January 1.”
Portrait of woman during sunbath in winter
Getty Images / Westend61
Even if heart health isn’t your top concern in the new year, you can’t go wrong staying on top of your cardiovascular wellbeing. Sadly, heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). And, a recent study found that 40% of adults between the ages of 50 and 64 without a heart-disease diagnosis still had early signs of a condition called atherosclerosis that put them at a greater risk of experiencing a heart attack (read more on that specific study here). You can never start taking care of your ticker too early. Read on for five ways you can stay on top of your heart health in 2022.
1. Take it one step at a time.
You don’t need to tackle all of these goals at once. Look for ways to sneak some healthier options onto your plate or find ten minutes in the day to stretch your legs between meetings. Simple changes add up.
“Balance food and calorie intake with physical activity to maintain a healthy weight,” the AHA recommends. As long as you find a version of exercise that you enjoy, it doesn’t matter what it is—though research suggests that both strength training and high-intensity interval training are both excellent ways to protect your heart. Going for an afternoon walk has plenty of benefits too, so those who prefer something low-impact are in good shape.
4. Give yourself a break.
Stress can be tough on the heart. Whether you have a pet whose presence helps you relax or a walking path that helps you clear your head, giving yourself time to enjoy the things that relax you can make a big difference. Try meditation if you’re looking for a calming activity to add to your routine.
5. Make a plan.
You don’t have to meal prep every week if that’s not your style—but you should think about meals and snacks ahead of time if you want to set yourself up for success, the AHA says. When you’re making your next big grocery list, think about adding heart-healthy items like anti-inflammatory foods and whole grains to your cart. Or, if you’d like to start meal planning for the week but need some inspiration, look to simple ideas like this meal plan for beginners.
Bottom Line
You don’t have to center healthy changes around a new year’s resolution this year. Instead, focus on simple, manageable goals that you can take on day by day. Adding heart-healthy ingredients to your meals and taking care of yourself the best you can are both simple, effective ways to stay healthy in the new year.
Climate change threatens drinking water quality across the Great Lakes
Gabriel Filippelli, Chancellor’s Professor of Earth Sciences and Executive Director, Indiana University Environmental Resilience Institute, IUPUI and Joseph D. Ortiz, Professor and Assistant Chair of Geology, Kent State University. January 2, 2022
Harmful algal bloom in Lake Erie, Sept. 4, 2009. NOAA/Flickr
This story is part of the Pulitzer Center’s nationwide Connected Coastlines reporting initiative. For more information, go to https://pulitzercenter.org/connected-coastlines-initiative.
“Do Not Drink/Do Not Boil” is not what anyone wants to hear about their city’s tap water. But the combined effects of climate change and degraded water quality could make such warnings more frequent across the Great Lakes region.
A preview occurred on July 31, 2014, when a nasty green slime – properly known as a harmful algal bloom, or HAB – developed in the western basin of Lake Erie. Before long it had overwhelmed the Toledo Water Intake Crib, which provides drinking water to nearly 500,000 people in and around the city.
Tests revealed that the algae was producing microcystin, a sometimes deadly liver toxin and suspected carcinogen. Unlike some other toxins, microcystin can’t be rendered harmless by boiling. So the city issued a “Do Not Drink/Do Not Boil” order that set off a three-day crisis.
Local stores soon ran out of bottled water. Ohio’s governor declared a state of emergency, and the National Guard was called in to provide safe drinking water until the system could be flushed and treatment facilities brought back on line.
The culprit was a combination of high nutrient pollution – nitrogen and phosphorus, which stimulate the growth of algae – from sewage, agriculture and suburban runoff, and high water temperatures linked to climate change. This event showed that even in regions with resources as vast as the Great Lakes, water supplies are vulnerable to these kinds of man-made threats.
The Great Lakes together hold 20% of the world’s surface freshwater – more than enough to provide drinking water to over 48 million people from Duluth to Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and Toronto. But human impacts have severely harmed this precious and vital resource.
In 1970, after a century of urbanization and industrialization around the Great Lakes, water quality was severely degraded. Factories were allowed to dump waste into waterways rather than treating it. Inadequate sewer systems often sent raw sewage into rivers and lakes, fouling the water and causing algal blooms.
Problems like these helped spur two major steps in 1972: passage of the U.S. Clean Water Act, and adoption of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement between the United States and Canada. Since then, many industries have been cleaned up or shut down. Sewer systems are being redesigned, albeit slowly and at great cost.
The resulting cuts in nutrient and wastewater pollution have brought a quick decline in HABs – especially in Lake Erie, the Great Lake with the most densely populated shoreline. But new problems have emerged, due partly to shortcomings in those laws and agreements, combined with the growing effects of climate change.https://www.youtube.com/embed/D4Nsp96zV-E?wmode=transparent&start=0
Warmer and wetter
Climate change is profoundly altering many factors that affect life in the Great Lakes region. The most immediate impacts of recent climate change have been on precipitation, lake levels and water temperatures.
Record high precipitation in 2019 caused flooding, property damage and beachfront losses in a number of coastal communities. Precipitation in 2020 is projected to be equally high, if not higher. Some of this is due to natural variability, but certainly some is due to climate change.
Another clear impact of climate change is a general warming of all five Great Lakes, particularly in the springtime. The temperature increase is modest and varies from year to year and place to place, but is consistent overall with records of warming throughout the region.
More polluted runoff
Some of these climate-related changes have converged with more direct human impacts to influence water quality in the Great Lakes.
Cleanup measures adopted back in the 1970s imposed stringent limits on large point sources of nutrient pollution, like wastewater and factories. But smaller “nonpoint” sources, such as fertilizer and other nutrients washing off farm fields and suburban lawns, were addressed through weaker, voluntary controls. These have since become major pollution sources.
Since the mid-1990s, climate-driven increases in precipitation have carried growing quantities of nutrient runoff into Lake Erie. This rising load has triggered increasingly severe algal blooms, comparable in some ways to the events of the 1970s. Toledo’s 2014 crisis was not an anomaly.
These blooms can make lake water smell and taste bad, and sometimes make it dangerous to drink. They also have long-term impacts on the lakes’ ecosystems. They deplete oxygen, killing fish and spurring chemical processes that prime the waters of Lake Erie for larger future blooms. Low-oxygen water is more corrosive and can damage water pipes, causing poor taste or foul odors, and helps release trace metals that may also cause health problems.
So despite a half-century of advances, in many ways Great Lakes water quality is back to where it was in 1970, but with the added influence of a rapidly changing climate.
Filtering runoff
How can the region change course and build resilience into Great Lakes coastal communities? Thanks to a number of recent studies, including an intensive modeling analysis of future climate change in Indiana, which serves as a proxy for most of the region, we have a pretty good picture of what the future could look like.
As one might guess, warming will continue. Summertime water temperatures are projected to rise by about another 5 degrees Fahrenheit by midcentury, even if nations significantly reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. This will cause further declines in water quality and negatively impact coastal ecosystems.
The analysis also projects an increase in extreme precipitation and runoff, particularly in the winterand spring. These shifts will likely bring still more nutrient runoff, sediment contaminants and sewage overflows into coastal zones, even if surrounding states hold the actual quantities of these nutrients steady. More contaminants, coupled with higher temperatures, can trigger algal blooms that threaten water supplies.
But recent success stories point to strategies for tackling these problems, at least at the local and regional levels.
A number of large infrastructure projects are currently underway to improve stormwater management and municipal sewer systems, so that they can capture and process sewage and associated nutrients before they are transported to the Great Lakes. These initiatives will help control flooding and increase the supply of “gray water,” or used water from bathroom sinks, washing machines, tubs and showers, for uses such as landscaping.
Cities are coupling this “gray infrastructure” with green infrastructure projects, such as green roofs, infiltration gardens and reclaimed wetlands. These systems can filter water to help remove excess nutrients. They also will slow runoff during extreme precipitation events, thus recharging natural reservoirs.
Municipal water managers are also using smart technologies and improved remote sensing methods to create near-real-time warning systems for HABs that might help avert crises. Groups like the Cleveland Water Alliance, an association of industry, government and academic partners, are working to implement smart lake technologies in Lake Erie and other freshwater environments around the globe. Finally, states including Ohio and Indiana are moving to cut total nutrient inputs into the Great Lakes from all sources, and using advanced modeling to pinpoint those sources.
Together these developments could help reduce the size of HABs, and perhaps even reach the roughly 50% reduction in nutrient runoff that government studies suggest is needed to bring them back to their minimum extent in the mid-1990s.
Short of curbing global greenhouse gas emissions, keeping communities that rely so heavily on the Great Lakes livable will require all of these actions and more.
Gabriel Filippelli receives funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation and the American Chemical Society-Petroleum Research Fund
Joseph D. Ortiz receives funding from NASA, the HW Hoover Foundation and the National Geographic Society. He is a participant in the Cleveland Water Alliance, which includes Kent State University. His spouse owns an environmental consulting firm, which is not involved in this project or his research.
Schumer: Senate to vote on filibuster change on voting bill
LISA MASCARO January 3, 2022
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks to reporters after a Democratic policy meeting at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2021. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Days before the anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced the Senate will vote on filibuster rules changes to advance stalled voting legislation that Democrats say is needed to protect democracy.
In a letter Monday to colleagues, Schumer, D-N.Y., said the Senate “must evolve” and will “debate and consider” the rules changes by Jan. 17, on or before Martin Luther King Jr. Day, as the Democrats seek to overcome Republican opposition to their elections law package.
“Let me be clear: January 6th was a symptom of a broader illness — an effort to delegitimize our election process,” Schumer wrote, “and the Senate must advance systemic democracy reforms to repair our republic or else the events of that day will not be an aberration — they will be the new norm.”
The election and voting rights package has been stalled in the evenly-split 50-50 Senate, blocked by a Republican-led filibuster and leaving Democrats unable to mount the 60-vote threshold needed to advance it toward passage.
Democrats have been unable to agree among themselves over potential changes to the Senate rules to reduce the 60-vote hurdle, despite months of private negotiations.
Two holdout Democrats, Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, have tried to warn their party off changes to the Senate rules, arguing that if and when Republicans take majority control of the chamber, they could use the lower voting threshold to advance bills Democrats oppose.
President Joe Biden has waded cautiously into the debate — a former senator who largely stands by existing rules but is also under enormous political pressure to break the logjam on the voting legislation.
How the Senate rules would be changed remains under discussion.
Voting rights advocates warn that Republican-led states are passing election legislation and trying to install elections officials loyal to the former president, Donald Trump, in ways that could subvert future elections.
Trump urged his followers last Jan. 6 to “fight like hell” for his presidency, and a mob stormed the Capitol trying to stop Congress from certifying the state election tallies for Biden. It was the worst domestic attack on the seat of government in U.S. history.
Liz Cheney says Trump is unfit for office and ‘clearly can never be anywhere near the Oval Office ever again’
Yelena Dzhanova January 2, 2022
Liz Cheney says Trump is unfit for office and ‘clearly can never be anywhere near the Oval Office ever again’
Republican Rep. Liz Cheney on Sunday said Donald Trump should never be in office again.
Cheney said his inaction during the January 6 Capitol riot last year was unacceptable.
She said he had the power to put an end to it but did not despite repeated pleas to do so from his allies.
Rep. Liz Cheney scorched former President Donald Trump on Sunday, saying he has proven that he cannot be “anywhere near the Oval Office ever again.”
In an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” Cheney, a Republican representative from Wyoming, said Trump had the power to put an end to the Capitol riot on January 6 but did not despite repeated pleas to do so from his allies and family members.
“I think it’s also important for the American people to understand how dangerous Donald Trump was,” Cheney said in the interview. “We know as he was sitting there in the dining room next to the Oval Office, members of his staff were pleading with him to go on television to tell people to stop. We know Leader McCarthy was pleading with him to do that. We know members of his family. We know his daughter — we have firsthand testimony — that his daughter Ivanka went in at least twice to ask him to please stop this violence.”
Cheney is part of the House select committee charged with investigating the January 6 insurrection.
“Any man who would not do so, any man who would provoke a violent assault on the Capitol to stop the county of electoral votes, any man who would watch television as police officers were being beaten, as his supporters were invading the Capitol of the United States, is clearly unfit for future office, clearly can never be anywhere near the Oval Office ever again,” Cheney continued.
Rioters were emboldened by Trump’s calls to protest the results of the 2020 election, despite Democrat Joe Biden’s victory. While members of Congress were meeting inside the Capitol to certify the results and verify Biden’s presidency, Trump supporters attempted a coup and stormed the Capitol.
The January 6 Select Committee, made up of a group of Republican and Democratic representatives, has been issuing subpoenas to collect documentation and testimony in its investigation of the Capitol riot.
The Heartbreaking Note Left With Abandoned Infant in Alaska: ‘My Mom Is So Sad to Do This’
Tracy Connor January 2, 2022
Downtown Fairbanks
A newborn boy was found abandoned in a cardboard box in freezing weather in Alaska on New Year’s Eve—with a heartbreaking note saying the parents did not have food or money.
The temperature was just 1 degree when a Fairbanks woman spotted the blanket-filled box near her home. Alaska police said the child was taken to the hospital and “was found to be in good health.”
The note left with the infant—headlined “Please help me!!!”—indicated he was born 12 weeks premature, though authorities did not confirm that.
‘My parents and grandparents don’t have food or money to raise me,” the handwritten note said. “They NEVER wanted to do this to me.
“My mom is so sad to do this,” it continued. “Please take me and find me a LOVING FAMILY. My parents are begging whoever finds me. My name is Teshawn.”
The note was posted in video by a Facebook user with the handle Roxy Lane. She also posted video of herself pulling back the blankets to show a baby nestled beneath.
“I’ve been processing my feelings all day and running through all the different scenarios and reasons, with my bf and family, as to why something like this could have happened,” Lane wrote.
She suggested that the parents might be too young to realize that Alaska has a safe haven law that allows unwanted babies to be dropped with police, firefighters, or paramedics until they are 21 days old.
“I hope the mother gets the help she might need. I doubt they could have afforded to take her to the hospital and she may be in need of medical attention. Please, someone knows this new mom, check on her! She might be in a desperate situation, feeling abandoned herself,” Lane wrote.
She used the discovery of Teshawn to call for unity in the Fairbanks community.
“Clearly, someone in our community felt so lost and hopeless that they made probably the hardest choice of their lives to leave that innocent life on the side of the road with nothing but some blankets and a name,” she wrote.
“But she named him! There’s some love there, even if she made a terrible decision. I know we’re all struggling, I see it. I see you. I love you all and I’m here. Today I saved a baby and I’ll probably think about Teshawn for the rest of my life.”
In a message to The Daily Beast, Lane said she released the video only “in the hopes that everyone involved got the help they might need and that whatever justice needed to be served would be served.”
“I only hope for more awareness in the community, and maybe some compassion for a difficult situation for everyone involved,” she said, declining an interview.
The Alaska Daily News said Fairbanks Memorial Hospital reported that “the baby is doing well and very healthy.”
Pressure Grows on Biden to Shut Down Trump-Era Medicare Privatization Scheme
A petition calling on the president to end the Medicare Direct Contracting pilot program has now garnered more than 10,000 signatures.
Jake Johnson December 30, 2021
Doctors attend a protest at the headquarters of the Health and Human Services Department on November 30, 2021 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Physicians for a National Health Program)
Calls are mounting for President Joe Biden to terminate an under-the-radar Trump-era pilot program that—if allowed to run its course—could result in the complete privatization of traditional Medicare by the end of the decade.
“The Biden administration is moving the DCE program forward, threatening the future of Medicare as we know it.”
A petition recently launched by Physicians for a National Program (PNHP) has garnered more than 10,000 signatures as doctors and other advocates work to raise public awareness of the Medicare Direct Contracting program, which the Trump administration rolled out during its final months in power.
“Under this model,” the petition warns, “the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) could move more than 30 million traditional Medicare beneficiaries into mostly commercial, for-profit plans called Direct Contracting Entities (DCE) without the enrollees’ understanding or consent.”
“In ways similar to commercial Medicare Advantage plans, DCEs have the potential to interfere with care decisions and waste taxpayer money when compared with the efficiency of traditional Medicare,” the appeal continues. “The Biden administration is moving the DCE program forward, threatening the future of Medicare as we know it. We, the undersigned, demand that CMS immediately stop the DCE program to keep Medicare public and nonprofit for future generations.”
Late last month, as Common Dreamsreported, a group of physicians from across the U.S. traveled to the headquarters of the Health and Human Services Department in Washington, D.C. to demand that HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra halt the pilot program in its tracks.
The doctors were ultimately blocked from delivering a petition signed by around 1,500 physicians calling for an end to the privatization scheme, which inserts profit-seeking companies between traditional Medicare and healthcare providers.
“Just like corporate middlemen stand between patients and the healthcare they need, security staff stood between PNHP doctors and the policymakers who want to privatize Medicare,” PNHP tweeted during the demonstration at the nation’s capital.Play
While the doctor-led protest was followed by a brief uptick in reporting on the obscure initiative, Biden’s HHS has yet to act and few members of Congress have publicly spoken out against the Direct Contracting program despite the massive implications for the future of Medicare and its tens of millions of beneficiaries.
“People don’t know that it’s happening,” Dr. Ed Weisbart, chair of PNHP’s Missouri chapter, told Common Dreams in an interview last month. “Most people in Congress don’t know that it’s happening. We’ve started having some of these conversations with congressional staff… but it’s not on their radar either.”
One notable exception is Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Earlier this month, Jayapal penned an op-ed with PNHP president Dr. Susan Rogers urging Biden to stop the Direct Contracting program “while we have the chance.”
According to PNHP, Jayapal is collecting signatures from fellow lawmakers’ for a letter pressuring Biden to shut down the pilot, which sparked legal concerns and general revulsion among career CMS staff when it was launched toward the end of former President Donald Trump’s White House tenure.
“This shit is so fucking gross,” one staffer wrote in a group text viewed by The Intercept.
In their op-ed for The Hill earlier this month, Jayapal and Rogers warned that the Direct Contracting program “could radically transform Medicare within a few years, without input from seniors or even a vote by Congress.”
“After our experience with commercial Medicare Advantage plans,” they added, “we already know that inserting a profit-seeking middleman into Medicare ends up costing taxpayers more, with fewer choices and worse outcomes for seniors.”
Oregonian Chuck Sams has big plans for national parks
By Monica Samayoa (OPB) and Bradley W. Parks (OPB) December 30, 2021
Sams, the first Native American director of the National Park Service, wants to make good on major investments in the park system.
Charles “Chuck” Sams shakes hands with Interior Secretary Deb Haaland after being sworn in as the next director of the National Park Service at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., Dec. 16, 2021.U.S. Department of the Interior / Heilemann
Charles F. “Chuck” Sams III shook Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s hand moments after she officially made Sams the next director of the National Park Service on the sunbathed steps of the Lincoln Memorial in mid-December.
It was a historic moment: the United States’ first Native American cabinet member, Haaland, who is a member of the Pueblo of Laguna, swearing in Sams, enrolled Cayuse and Walla Walla with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, as the first Native American to lead one of the nation’s foremost public lands agencies.
The significance was not lost on Sams, who spoke recently with OPB.
“I’m so happy and I’m so grateful to President Biden for nominating me to be the 19th director of the National Park Service,” Sams said, “and to continue on in my stewardship responsibilities as an American Indian.”
Sams is the first permanent director of the park service since 2017. He enters the office as the country has made a pair of enormous investments in the park system to clear a hefty maintenance backlog and bolster national parks, monuments and memorials for a growing crush of visitors.
“We’re just very excited to be able to take the investments from the American people and put those on the ground so that we can ensure that parks are here for the next seven generations,” Sams said.
OPB environment reporter Monica Samayoa spoke with Sams about his plans for the park service, overcrowding on public lands and his first-ever trip to a national park.
Monica Samayoa: So your confirmation has been a cause of celebration because you are the first Native American to lead the park service. What does that mean to you?
Chuck Sams: I couldn’t ask for a better opportunity to serve the United States than in national parks. National parks are America’s treasure, America’s gem. Since the founding of the parks in 1916 there has been a dedicated staff who have done that stewardship and continue to do that stewardship. And it really aligns with my values as an American Indian and my values as an American citizen.
Samayoa: I want to talk about your relationship with national parks growing up as a Native American and as an Oregonian.
Sams: My parents regularly took us on summer vacation to Arizona where my mother’s people are from. My mother is Cocopah from southwest Arizona near the town of Somerton, and, of course, I grew up here in Eastern Oregon on the Umatilla Indian Reservation. … I can look back at age 4 or 5 and remember probably the first national park I was able to go to was Grand Canyon. Since then I’ve been to well over 125 parks across the United States and U.S. territories. And so I’ve had a wonderful relationship of being able to walk into the footsteps of my fellow Americans, whether that was the Seminole Indians in Florida and the Everglades, or whether that was Union or Confederate soldiers on a number of battlefields between Maine and Florida itself — in addition to walking in my ancestors’ own homelands here in Oregon, down in the John Day Fossil Beds or at Crater Lake.
The Grand Canyon National Park is covered in the morning sunlight as seen from a helicopter near Tusayan, Ariz., on Oct. 5, 2013.Julie Jacobson / AP
Samayoa: You shared with us that your first experience at a national park was the Grand Canyon. Can you tell us what that feeling was when you first stepped foot in that national park?
Sams: Just looking at that huge canyon and recognizing the grandeur and the beauty and how small we are, what a great, immense responsibility we have as American Indians to be stewards of our resources. My own creation story — whether that is here among the Umatilla, Walla Walla and Cayuse or the Cocopah people — tells us that we are supposed to protect these lands and these resources for the next seven generations. And so seeing that and being able to travel to a number of national parks, it invigorates me and excites me to join such a dedicated staff who do that stewardship.
Samayoa: Can we talk a little bit more about your priorities now that you are the director of the National Park Service?
Sams: I’m very appreciative of the House and Senate passing the Great American Outdoors Act and the bipartisan infrastructure law. Both of those bring resources to the table that allow us to [take on] a number of issues and infrastructure build-up. National parks have over 5,000 miles of roads and over [1,400] bridges. Many of those have a backlog of issues that need to be addressed so that they can get up to standard. This funding allows us to do that. … I want to be able to prove to the American people that those investments are going to be made soundly as we are able to put that money on the ground across all 50 states and U.S. territories. In addition, I want to help prepare for the growing workforce. As you probably know, the National Park Service [staffing] is down by 20% and yet we’ve seen a 20% increase in people coming into national parks — well over 300 million visitors a year. And so I want to look out and make sure that we are making investments into the next generation of stewards and making sure that workforce is diverse and reflects Americans across the spectrum.
Samayoa: You just mentioned there’s a 20% increase of people just flocking to national parks, especially over the past year. How are you going to balance overcrowding problems and still encourage all Americans to visit public parks without “loving them to death”?
Sams: First, I want to applaud what has been done in the past couple years with the national park staff, who have come up with innovative ways, whether that is timed entry or figuring out how to use new technology to bus people in and shuttle them in and around the parks. But what may work at Acadia is not necessarily what’s gonna work at Yosemite. What works down in the Everglades may not necessarily work at Zion or Denali. And so we really have to work very closely with the local communities to help address these issues, especially the gateway communities and how we can ensure that folks still have equal and open access to the parks and yet that we are not loving them to death. I mean it’s a good problem to have, don’t get me wrong, but we have to find that balance so that we can ensure that what we’re stewarding will be here for the next seven generations ahead.
Crater Lake is pictured in an undated file photo.Vince Patton / OPB
Samayoa: You also mentioned encouraging other communities that are not as engaged with parks. How will you work with those communities?
Sams: I want to sit down and talk with them so that we can see what those realities are and see where we can help and make sure that those resources are available so that they aren’t excluded from being able to get into those national parks. National parks fees are localized. The majority of that funding where parks do charge a fee goes right back into helping maintain that park. But we also want to make sure that we don’t price anyone out in America to be able to get into their national parks. And so those are conversations that we’re definitely going to be having across the United States.
Samayoa: So I want to switch into talking about climate change and how it’s altering our national parks. I’m curious how this is informing the way you plan to serve as a steward for these treasured places.
Sams: I think that we can look at our national parks as still some of the strongest anchors on being able to do climate adaptation and fight climate change. That being said, of course, they’re also some of the first places that we see that are being affected — whether that is Denali and the road closures up there due to landslides because of permafrost actually becoming defrosted, whether that is the drought that we’re experiencing at Lake Mead and how the water affects recreation and water needs and uses throughout the West. This administration, the Biden-Harris administration, is committed to fighting and figuring out how we can do climate adaptation. National Park Service staff regularly steward those resources so well that I think that we can be the model for a number of federal agencies and federal land managers to help in figuring out best practices, best management and also the things that we didn’t do well so that we can go out and see how climate adaptation can affect and build a stronger and more resilient United States.
Samayoa: Is there anything else you’d like to share with us on what we can expect from you and the National Park Service within the next year?
Sams: As an Oregonian, I’m very proud to be able to serve at a national level to help and inspire my fellow Oregonians to be out there and be the strong stewards, and to inspire Indian Country that they have a steward here in this chair and that we will continue to fulfill our responsibilities of making sure that the landscape is not only protected, preserved, but also enhanced in the way that will be here for future folks to be able to enjoy and recreate in.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Interview by Monica Samayoa. Additional reporting and writing by Bradley W. Parks.
