World News

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/35691626

By 2050, the government expects half of the capital, Funafuti, to be flooded by tidal waters. By the end of the century, more than 90% of the land could be submerged. “As our land disappears, we have no choice but to become the world’s first digital nation,” Kofe declared in a video address to delegates at the UN climate conference Cop27. In the background was an islet of Funafuti, Te Afualiku.

“Islands like this one won’t survive,” Kofe said. Then came the twist: “So, we will recreate them virtually.”

Organ music swelled, the camera zoomed out, and the image of Kofe standing on the island flickered like a glitch in a video game. The leaves of the trees behind Kofe were bathed in sunlight, but as the view widened, the sky was revealed as a black void: Kofe was delivering his address from a digital rendition of the islet. As he continued his speech, the camera went higher, as if on a drone, and Kofe became smaller and smaller. Frigate birds circled above him, signifying bad weather. “Without a global conscience and a global commitment to our shared wellbeing,” Kofe continued, “we may soon find the rest of the world joining us online, as their lands disappear.”

As an advertisement to draw attention to Tuvalu’s grim predicament, it was designed to shock. The words Kofe spoke had been polished by an Australian creative agency affiliated with Accenture. They generated a tremendous market response: travel vloggers began to descend on the “sinking nation”, followed by country-counting tourists who wanted to get a glimpse before it disappears.

The idea of a virtual future for Tuvalu generated frenzied commentary. By creating a digital clone of the islands, a headline in the Guardian pondered, could we not “preserve the island nation before it’s lost to the collapsing climate?” The Sydney Morning Herald reported, “Tuvalu turns to metaverse to guarantee its existence.” The video won an award at the Cannes Lions international festival of creativity, beating ads for Mastercard and Budweiser. Adweek reported on the “award-winning metaverse project that’s saving a nation”.

This was a time when the US media was producing two articles a day about the metaverse: it was going to “shape our future”, it was the “future of connection”, it was “reality beyond fantasy”. It also became something that might save poor Tuvalu from extinction. Yet this outlandish idea sidestepped the most basic question posed by Tuvalu’s possible submersion: where are the people going to go? Last year, I flew from New York to Fiji, which provides the only aerial connection to Tuvalu, to find out how Tuvaluans felt about the future that the government had imagined for them.

In Spain, dozens of ships carrying civilian activists and loaded with humanitarian aid departed Barcelona on Monday, bound for the Gaza Strip. The Global Sumud Flotilla is the largest attempt yet to challenge Israel’s blockade of Gaza. Swedish activist Greta Thunberg helped to organize the flotilla.

Greta Thunberg: “Israel are very clear about their genocidal intent. They want to erase the Palestinian nation. They want to take over the Gaza Strip. And if that doesn’t make people act, if that doesn’t make people go out of their couch and take action, fill the streets, get organized, then I don’t know what will.”

In Australia, peace activists held a nonviolent protest Monday blocking the entrance of Port Melbourne, demanding Australia suspend trade with Israel. Meanwhile, in Colorado, dozens of Jewish peace activists and allies rallied on Friday outside the Denver office of Senator Michael Bennet.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/35603443

Doctors have raised the alarm about high levels of vaping among children worldwide, saying they are convinced e-cigarettes are causing irreversible harm to their health.

Cardiologists, researchers and health experts said they were “extremely concerned” about the harmful effects of e-cigarettes on millions of teenagers and young people, including exposure to toxins and carcinogens – some of which are still unknown.

Nicotine levels in e-cigarettes can be very high, raising the risk of addiction and injury to the developing brains of adolescents. Children are also risking long-term cardiovascular effects as a result of vaping at school and college, experts say.

Speaking at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) annual congress in Madrid, the world’s largest heart conference, Prof Maja-Lisa Løchen, a senior cardiologist at the University hospital of North Norway, said she was concerned that millions of children could face ill health in future.

... he read while vaping

cross-posted from: https://altmedia.house/post/84651

cross-posted from: https://piefed.ca/post/173354

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/41190620

https://archive.is/y8op8

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/46086887

SC has asked all stray dogs to be put into a containment facility.

Air Canada flight attendants say they have reached a “tentative” deal with the airline to end a strike over wages and ground work that has cancelled travel for half a million people worldwide.

Roughly 10,000 flight attendants walked off the job after midnight Saturday, insisting Air Canada had failed to address their demands for higher pay and compensation for unpaid ground work, including during boarding.

The attendants’ union defied two orders from a regulatory tribunal to return to work, forcing Air Canada to roll back plans to partially restore service.

But after resuming talks on Monday evening, the union said it had reached a potential deal with the airline that it would put to its members for consideration.

Temperatures are expected to reach up to 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) in some areas on Sunday, Spanish national weather agency AEMET said.