Typically, patients with coronavirus exhibit symptoms such as fevers, coughs, difficulty breathing, and other similar respiratory problems. However, a new study has shown that your gut health plays a larger role in determining how COVID-19 effects you than previously thought. The molecule in our body that the virus targets is present both in our lungs and our gastrointestinal tract, this explains why many patients show gastrointestinal symptoms as opposed to respiratory systems.

Why do symptoms in your gut mean you might get a worse case of COVID-19? It’s likely that the composition of your microbiome – the millions of bacteria and other organisms that usually live in our gastrointestinal tract – is a critical part of how an individual responds to COVID-19.

WHY YOUR MICROBIOME MATTERS

Related: How to Eliminate IBS, IBD, Leaky Gut 

Previous studies have shown that less than 4% of COVID-19 cases showed gastrointestinal symptoms but this study indicates that it could be closer to 11% of patients, while some studies have shown that the rate of gastrointestinal symptoms could be as high as 60%. The study also showed that those with gastrointestinal problems often have a more difficult time recovering from the virus.

Having a healthy gut is the best thing you can do to avoid getting sick. Read this article to learn how to heal the gut naturally.

Dutch company Avantium is in the process of developing a biodegradable plastic bottle made from plant sugars, rather than fossil fuels. Several major beverage companies like Carlsberg, Coca-cola, and Danone have already expressed support for the project, and Avantium’s chief executive, Tom van Aken, will reveal other partnerships during the summer. The plastic bottles could potentially reach shelves in 2023.

This plastic has very attractive sustainability credentials because it uses no fossil fuels, and can be recycled – but would also degrade in nature much faster than normal plastics do,”

Tom van Aken, Chief executive of Avantium

Avantium uses polyethylenefuranoate (PEF), a bio-based plastic derived corn, wheat, or beet sugars and plans to source materials from biowaste in the future. The bottles are recyclable and may be compostable under certain conditions. Trials found the plant plastic would decompose in a composter in one year, and in a few years longer in normal outdoor conditions.

Sources:

• Synvina PEF bottle gets green light for recyclability – Beverage Daily
• New Plant-Based Plastic Bottles Are Designed To Degrade In A Year – Ubergizmo

Tesla is set to restart full production in California this week after telling employees that they have the county’s full approval to start working again.

This is after Tesla founder Elon Musk reportedly sued Alameda county for claiming that they did not have the criteria to reopen. Musk threatened to move his Tesla base to Texas or Nevada where they would be allowed to work. The county has since approved Tesla’s work plan and safety measures.

Tesla’s vice president for environmental, health, and safety, Laurie Shelby, told employees that, following a visit by local authorities, “we have local support to get back to full production at the factory starting this upcoming week.”

Tesla Tells Employees It Has County Approval to Reopen Plant

Elon Musk tweeted out that he would be on the line with workers when production starts back up. Musk has also been very vocal about his disagreements with the virus restrictions through twitter.

Sources:

• Tesla Tells Employees It Has County Approval to Reopen Plant-Bloomberg News
• Elon Musk Reopens Tesla Plant in Defiance of California County– Bloomberg News

While the majority of Americans find themselves shut-in during the pandemic, the Department of Interior (DOI) through the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has offered more than 200,000 acres of public land to oil and gas companies in five different lease sales. These sales have continued with little to no opportunity for public oversight, other than the mandatory 10 day protest period. The duration of that protest period was shortened to 10 days from 30 days in January 2018. That year generated $1.1 billion in revenue for the BLM, nearly tripling the previous annual sales record ($408 million in 2008) and almost equaling the bureau’s budget. According to the BLM Deputy Director for Policy and Programs, that’s a good thing.

This was a historic year for oil and gas, and clearly illustrates what is possible when public lands are put to work using innovation, best science, and best practices…Our sound energy policy continues to ensure reliable, safe, abundant, and affordable energy for all Americans, without putting unnecessary burdens on industry. In fact, this policy generated nearly as much revenue as the BLM’s $1.1 billion budget for 2018.”

Brian Steed, BLM Deputy Director for Policy and Programs

But maybe it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.

How To Get Away With It, Legally

Oil and gas leases are nothing new for the DOI as the BLM is required to offer these competitive leases quarterly. Of the 213,000 acres offered by the BLM, 89,000 were sold at the competitive sale. The remaining acres will continue to be offered by the BLM for 10-year non-competitive leases, a process that allows oil and gas companies to control large portions of public lands for incredibly cheap. Companies with non-competitive leases, which are issued on a first-come, first-serve basis, pay $1.50 an acre for the first five years of the lease. Yet 55% of these leases are terminated early, and only 3% of them are under production at the termination at the end of their 10-year term. Those defaulted leases are returned to the BLM so they can sell them again.

The noncompetitive leasing program resembles a hamster wheel in which the BLM reviews parcel nominations; holds an auction; issues unsold oil and gas leases noncompetitively; terminates the leases when the companies fail to pay rent—and then repeats the cycle, often recycling the same parcels over again.”

The Center for American Progress

Bread and Circuses

Constantly listing, selling, managing, repossessing, and relisting public lands for oil and gas leases takes time and resources. These are time and resources that could be spent doing things that are less beneficial for the fossil fuel industry, like environmental impact reports. A judge in Montana recently ruled to vacate 287 oil and gas leases because they were improperly issued. According to the judge, his decision…

…largely relates to the absence of analysis rather than to a flawed analysis. In other words, the Court does not fault B.L.M. for providing a faulty analysis of cumulative impacts or impacts to groundwater, it largely faults B.L.M. for failing to provide any analysis.”

Federal Judge Brian Morris

Oil and gas companies don’t care if these leases default. The amount spent on the leases is virtually equal to the Bureau of Land Management’s yearly budget. While the department is meant to represent public lands and public interests, fossil fuel money is what keeps it operating. The money spent on leases that don’t yield significant oil or gas deposits pays off in diverting resources and influence.

The BLM is spending taxpayer money on an ineffective and unnecessary program. Furthermore, Americans are losing out on a fair return for the use of their resources, and the BLM’s hands are tied from actively managing the public lands for conservation, recreation, or other beneficial purposes. The BLM is already stretched thin, lacking adequate staff and resources to fulfill its complex multiple use mission on public lands, of which oil and gas development is a fraction. Devoting significant time to this program that, for all intents and purposes, appears to mainly benefit companies looking to pad their books or engage in speculative practices, takes away much-needed resources that the BLM could better use for public benefit elsewhere.”

Center for American Progress

This not a new practice from either the government or the fossil fuel industry. The government makes its decisions based on the resources they have available. These resources are provided by the interests the government is elected to regulate. The pandemic has not changed their businesses at all, essential or not. In fact, the pandemic and subsequent shutdown have served to further remove roadblocks for the massive corporations that rule our nation.

Sources:

• Giving Away Our Lands as Americans Shelter in Place – National Resources Defense Council

Researchers have discovered a correlation between vitamin D deficiency and COVID-19 mortality rates. A research team led by Northwestern University has examined data from hospitals in China, France, Germany, Italy, Iran, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, the UK, and the US. The data collected shows that patients from places with high mortality rates (Spain, Italy, the UK) had lower vitamin D levels compared to countries that were less affected by the virus.

While I think it is important for people to know that vitamin D deficiency might play a role in mortality, we don’t need to push vitamin D on everybody. This needs further study, and I hope our work will stimulate interest in this area. The data also may illuminate the mechanism of mortality, which, if proven, could lead to new therapeutic targets.

Vitamin D appears to play role in COVID-19 mortality rates

Recommended: How To Heal Your Gut

Backman and his team felt compelled to examine the correlation between death rates and vitamin D levels after noticing “unexplainable differences” in death rates from various countries. They point out that northern Italy, despite its death rate, has one of the best health care systems in the world. Through their research, they found a correlation between lower vitamin D levels and Cytokine storms, a hyperinflammatory condition.

Cytokine storm can severely damage lungs and lead to acute respiratory distress syndrome and death in patients,” Daneshkhah said. “This is what seems to kill a majority of COVID-19 patients, not the destruction of the lungs by the virus itself. It is the complications from the misdirected fire from the immune system.

Vitamin D appears to play role in COVID-19 mortality rates

Source:

• Vitamin D appears to play role in COVID-19 mortality rates –Medical Xpress

More than 200 celebrities, Nobel prize winners, and scientists have signed an open letter calling for systematic change rather than a return to normalcy. In the midst of the pandemic, many have talked about what our return to normalcy will look like and when it will arrive. Others, however, have spoken out on the importance of using this opportunity to make the changes our environment needs to survive.

Consumerism has led us to deny life in itself: that of plants, that of animals and that of a large number of humans. Pollution, global warming and the destruction of natural spaces are leading the world to a breaking point. For these reasons, combined with the ever increasing social inequalities, it seems to us unthinkable to “return to normal”.

“No to a return to normal”: from Robert De Niro to Juliette Binoche, the call of 200 artists and scientists

Related: Coronavirus Has Saved Millions Of Lives

The letter calls for changes to how we, as humans, consume. They point out that while the pandemic will do damage, it will not compare to the consequences of the damage done to the environment.

It’s important to remember that despite their call for change, these celebrities have directly benefited from our rampant consumerism and that they too are part of the problem. It is easy to speak from a soapbox about change after you have made millions of dollars off the broken system.

You can read the full letter and a list of signees below.

Source:

• “No to a return to normal”: from Robert De Niro to Juliette Binoche, the call of 200 artists and scientists -Le Monde

Many people have celebrated the fact that in the midst of the global lockdown air quality has improved and emissions have dropped by 5.5%, a decrease greater than the time of the Great Recession, or the drop after WW2. However, an article by grist brings up an important point – 5.5% is not a lot and not enough. Where is the other 95% coming from?

Massive amounts of transportation overall has been cut out and we’re still only expected to see a 5.5% drop, so how are we on an individual level supposed to fix the climate crisis when radically reducing our carbon footprint didn’t make that big a difference? Transportation makes up around 20% of global carbon dioxide emissions (closer to 30% in America) so even if we went completely green without transportation, there’s still a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions.

“I think the main issue is that people focus way, way too much on people’s personal footprints, and whether they fly or not, without really dealing with the structural things that really cause carbon dioxide levels to go up,”

-Climatologist at NASA, Gavin Schmidt

Related: Best Supplements To Kill Candida and Everything Else You Ever Wanted To Know About Fungal Infections 

Electricity and heating make up for 40% of global emissions, while 60% of electricity is still generated from coal, oil, or natural gas. The last 20% of CO2 emissions come from manufacturing industries. Neither manufacturing industries or electricity have seen a significant decrease in emissions during the pandemic.

To combat global warming, emissions need to be cut by 7.6% every year, and we’re not even there with an economic shutdown. Despite clear skies in LA and clear water in Venice, CO2 emissions are invisible and still very much present. This lockdown is proof that humans on an individual level are not responsible for combating climate change alone. In order for significant changes to be made, corporations have to be held accountable for their actions.

Related: Coronavirus Has Saved Millions Of Lives

Source:

• The world is on lockdown. So where are all the carbon emissions coming from? -Grist