Category: Climate Change

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever – Tick Story from Washington Post

I just finished reading a story about the increasing prevalence of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF), particularly in the southwest U.S. and northern Mexico. It was published in the Washington Post today (August 29, 2023). I’m posting a link here (see below) because I can’t post the link on FB these days (that “news blocking” thing). I feel this is such an important story that everyone living in that and even other more northerly regions should see it.

Ticks carrying the disease have been around in the western states for many years. However, I guess the change is that the proliferation of infected ticks is increasing, particularly in certain regions. They have been found in quite large numbers in southeast Arizona — one of the locations was on the San Carlos Apache Reservation near Globe — so if they are there, they are probably in plenty of other locations in Arizona and beyond.

One of the points that really struck me as significant was the apparent finding that the Brown Dog Ticks that carry RMSF are becoming more prevalent in areas where they weren’t plentiful before. Also, that they become more aggressive about biting humans rather than dogs when the weather is very hot and dry. Thus the disease is being spread more frequently to humans than in the past. Climate change is considered to be an important factor.

The disease is often fatal when children become infected, and it can make adults seriously ill and can even cause death if left untreated. Sadly, the ticks and disease are most problematic in areas where people are too impoverished to purchase tick prevention products for their pets, or where there are a lot of street dogs. While reading the story and looking at the photos, I felt like ordering up a case of tick treatment to be sent to one of these communities.

Anyhow, I think that this story is well worth a read if you’re living or visiting the southwest or northern Mexico, particularly if you have your dogs with you. I use tick protection for my dogs here in Nova Scotia as we have a lot of ticks here that are known to carry Lyme, Anaplasmosis and Babesia. I’m hearing that RMSF is moving northward, so I suppose that we’ll eventually have to contend with that as well as some other tick-borne diseases and new tick species that are on their way here. Recently, I saw photos someone in the upper midwest (Ohio as I recall) posted on an insect forum, of a Gulf Coast tick (Amblyomma maculatum). That species *normally* was found along the Gulf Coast and up the southeast coast of the U.S., but now they are showing up further north. They carry several serious pathogens that can infect livestock, dogs and humans. Anyhow, it is wise to be informed about all of this stuff as, sooner or later, at least some of these problems will be turning up on our doorstep.

LINK TO WASHINGTON POST STORY – AUGUST 29, 2023
A deadly tick-borne epidemic is raging. Dogs are key to ending it.
Rocky Mountain spotted fever is on the rise in parts of Mexico and the United States. Climate change and dogs could be crucial to the fight against the tick-borne scourge.
By Lena Sun | Photos by Michael Robinson Chávez

What I’m Reading, Watching, or Listening To . . .

I’ll be using this blog to share links to some of the stories I’m reading, listening to, or watching. I’ll be doing so, in part, because I can’t share links to news stories via FB anymore. As most of you probably know by now, Canadians are being blocked from sharing stories from both Canadian and international news services because Facebook is angry at new Canadian legislation. Anyhow, it’s easier and maybe even better to be sharing links to news stories via my blog.

So, here are a few stories that I found very interesting or particularly relevant to nature, ecology and the environment::

Basket makers brace for emerald ash borer impact
Good story on the CBC from August 16/2023, concerning the spread of the Emerald Ash Borer to the Black Ash used for traditional basketmaking. There are quotes from several Indigenous basketmakers, and also a land manager from the Akwesasne Mohawk Territory (which straddles Quebec, Ontario and New York state), saying “”We’ve seen the spread of the emerald ash borer from one corner of the reservation … throughout the entire territory.” To learn more, please read the article. Good photos.

What Wildfire Smoke Means for Birds.
Article from the New York Times – “Bird Project” newsletter on August 18, 2023. This seems to NOT be behind a paywall but you will probably have to sign in using your Google or Facebook account. A summary of some of the ways in which smoke from wild fires impacts birds, especially during migration – causing them to either stop in an unfamiliar place to wait out the smoke, try to fly far far above, or around the smoke, or fly through the smoke and likely suffer respiratory and other damage.

If you found the above article about the effects of wild fire smoke on birds of interest, this is a more in depth paper which is referred to in the NYT’s article. It was published in Ecology (journal of the Ecological Society of America), October 8, 2021. Well worth a read:
Megafires and thick smoke portend big problems for migratory birds

N.S. farmers grapple with stress after string of extreme weather events – Article from the CBC from August 21 — on what Nova Scotia farmers are facing as far as repeated extreme weather events as well as rising production costs — and how this impacts farmers (many are deeply discouraged) — but also what it means for food security here in Nova Scotia. There is a link to a good audio recording from Information Morning as well. Worth a listen.

A similar article from August 25, 2023 in Rabble.ca concerning the situation in B.C.. A lot of this is very applicable to Nova Scotia and Ontario this year. I read a couple of Maritime farming FB groups and the price of hay and grain has been rising (as it is everywhere due to weather extremes). Earlier this summer, there were problems related to drought and wells going dry, heat and humidity bothering animals, rain when trying to harvest crops, and so on. Farmers are having to deal with a lot. That should concern all of us as anything that impacts the farming community is going to inevitably work its way up to the consumer to result in food insecurity.
BC farmers are at the mercy of climate change, and things look grim.

Lastly, a link to a review of a documentary that I have just heard about in a post on a fibre arts group to which I belong. The film has just been released for viewing in the U.K., but hopefully will be available to a wider audience before long. “The Nettle Dress” is just that — a dress that was made from nettles that were harvested and spun by fibre artist, Allan Brown. There’s a lot of backstory – the spinning and weaving of the cloth became part of his way of carrying on after the death of his father and then his wife. He makes the dress for his daughter. I watched the trailer last night. I’d like to see the film when it becomes available. Here’s a link to a review and a director’s Q&A, and to the trailer. I’ll embed the trailer here in this post as well.
The Nettle Dress – a review and director’s Q&A

beyond eco-anxiety


Clouds at my old farm back in Ontario on a hot, humid day. © Bev Wigney

Yesterday, I read an article on the CBC website that linked to TWO interviews by Jeff Douglas for CBC Mainstreet, Halifax. The title of the story was, “Why ‘climate anxiety’ must be redirected to inspire community action.” I’ve provided the links to the story and directly to the interviews below.

I found the story quite interesting and timely, perhaps because, like most Nova Scotians, I’ve been experiencing some uneasiness when thinking about the series of extreme weather events of the past year — Hurricane Fiona, the wildfires that burnt not only forests but dwellings in the Halifax area earlier this summer, the recent terrible flash-flooding that caused 4 deaths, and the repeat flash flooding in the Halifax area last week. I wasn’t even in the midst of any of these events, but I know people who were, and can’t even begin to imagine the kind of stress they have been under. Then as I look around and see really weird insect declines this summer, like nothing I can remember in all my years of photographing insects. Then hear from people from all over the place that they have noticed weird declines as well. And then I see my friends in Ottawa area being hit with a couple of tornadoes and last year’s very destructive derecho winds, and last week, they got flash-flooded right in the same neighbourhood where my family’s house was located. Then turn on the news to read about the deadly fire in Maui, the baking heat domes in several parts of the world, and the crazy heating in large areas of the oceans. Is it any wonder that I feel a bit uneasy? Last week, when I really started to take note of the insect declines, I actually felt pretty sad — and I’m not normally one to get depressed over things — but I confess to feeling perturbed and quite weirded out.

Anyhow, back to this article and the interviews. It was about how, in spite of all that is going on — the extreme weather, the wild fires, the flooding caused by extreme rains — we need to avoid framing our concerns as “anxiety”, which suggests a fearful state of mind that needs to be suppressed, dismissed, or “treated” — but instead, to acknowledge our concerns and try to find ways to turn them into action.
The interviews were with:
* Tina Oh, a community and union organizer on climate change and labour in Halifax – speaking from the viewpoint of a young person faced with climate change.
* Dr. Stan Kutcher, Professor Emeritus at Dalhousie University in the Faculty of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry, who is also one of the Senators from Nova Scotia and co-founder and co-chair of Senators for Climate Solutions.

Both had very interesting and fairly positive things to say about taking action over being paralyzed by anxious feelings. There are links in the article to listen to the interviews, but I’ll also create some direct links for anyone who might want to go straight to one or the other interviews (see links below).

I have to add that, after reading the article and listening to the interviews, I made the mistake of reading some of the comments posted below on the CBC website. Arrrgggh!!! I whole lot of what were written (in all probability) by curmudgeonly old men, who almost undoubtedly, didn’t actually read the article. In essence, most declared that life has always been scary and (to paraphrase) that the young people of today are pretty wimpy, and that things aren’t really so bad. Everyone is just being dramatic and need to suck it up. Of course, there were their stories of “When I was young, we had to endure the Cold War and do practice drills hiding under our desks!!” Well, I lived through that same time and it only went on for a VERY SHORT WHILE. I well remember the drills to hide under our desks, and the wail of test siren alerts in our neighbourhood, but at most, both happened a scant few times. I don’t think you can draw much comparison between something that happened during a few months about 60 years ago, to what is happening today. Their comments were, for the most part, very dismissive and disingenuous. Unfortunately, it’s such attitudes that lie behind so much of the sluggish inaction to do anything to deal with a wide spectrum of problems.

Anyhow, here are some links for those who want to read or listen:

link to “Why ‘climate anxiety’ must be redirected to inspire community action” – story and Interviews on CBC

Interview with Tina Oh – community and union organizer on climate change in Halifax – “How climate change is making young people uncertain about the future” – aired August 9

Interview with Dr. Stan Kutcher on CBC Mainstreet with Jeff Douglas – “Reframing ‘climate anxiety’ and the way we talk about climate change concerns” – aired August 11