North Carolina
Youth Climate Stories – Dr. Seuss has a lesson about the environment
By Daisy Morales Bravo
“I converse for the timber,” stated the Lorax.
I heard this phrase in elementary college. Virtually each single certainly one of us did. However many people had been too younger to understand that on this line, Dr. Seuss was going past simply making a youngsters’s e-book. He was making an attempt to reveal a real-life problem: habitat loss.
Dr. Ron Sutherland, the chief scientist for the conservation nonprofit group known as the Wildlands Community, lately sat down to speak concerning the environmental impacts of huge constructions on animals.
“I imply, there’s this concept on the market that the animals form of deliver the Lorax motion pictures/books to thoughts, the brown barbaloots, packing up and going out some other place,” Sutherland stated. “And the fact is there may be nowhere else for these species to go.”
Sutherland defined that with so many homes and buildings being constructed, these creatures are in nice peril.
“There’s simply not that a lot pure habitats left, particularly dry pure habitats,” Sutherland stated. “In North Carolina, we now have a number of wetlands which can be nonetheless left, due to some wetland safety legal guidelines.”
The uplands, nonetheless, don’t have sufficient safety, he added.
“Wilmington, for instance, has little or no pure forest left, regardless that it was a extremely wealthy space with every kind of biodiversity,” Sutherland stated.
Because of this, animals are wanting in new locations for meals. Landscaper Curtis Grainger, who works for a landscaping firm in Corolla, sees animals akin to deer consuming flowers or shrubs that had been planted as ornament.
When requested how we, as people, can deal with this drawback, Grainger responded: “We should always go away the smallest footprint damages to the land and we should always restrict land gross sales for brand new properties.”
Whereas having animals in our yard might be fairly disturbing, Sutherland recommends appreciating these magnificent creatures whereas they final.
“Animals generally is a nuisance,” Sutherland stated. “But when animals are additionally a blessing, and like in case you have wildlife in your yard, you in all probability ought to simply be having fun with it.”
Particularly since, in accordance with Sutherland, habitat loss is predicted to extend within the coming years, and wildlife shall be pushed to search out new properties.
“Oftentimes they attempt to conceal in timber and the tree will get minimize down and brought,” Sutherland stated.
Sutherland added that generally these animals will escape however that it’s uncommon after they discover a new place as a result of principally, they must carve out new territory.
“Mainly, after we lose wildlife habitat in North Carolina proper now, there’s the species that used to dwell there, they’re simply principally going to die except they get actually fortunate,” Sutherland stated.
Sutherland famous that some animals are in additional hazard than others, such because the field turtles which had been chosen in 1979 as North Carolina’s official state reptile. They usually grow to be roadkill as automobiles and people encroach on their habitats.
“They’re gradual, slow-growing, and gradual to breed and to allow them to’t deal with that a lot highway mortality,” Sutherland stated. “When you get too many automobiles across the field turtles, they principally disappear.”
Regardless that conservationists have been doing their finest to guard wildlife and forestall habitat loss, not all animals could possibly be saved.
For instance, the identify of North Carolina’s skilled soccer group, the Carolina Panthers, didn’t come out of nowhere. At one level panthers had been truly present in North Carolina. Sadly resulting from habitat loss and searching, Sutherland stated that the panther inhabitants has grow to be extinct within the wild.
“Sooner or later, we form of closed the frontier, folks had been chasing the mountain lions with canine and the whole lot,” Sutherland stated. “Sooner or later, they killed the final one.”
One other animal with a historical past much like the panther is the purple wolf. These uncommon animals are very near extinction, being listed as certainly one of North America’s most endangered animals.
Purple wolves had been as soon as part of the ecosystem of your complete Southeastern coast. However just like the panthers, Sutherland stated, their numbers began reducing enormously resulting from habitat loss and searching.
“I feel North Carolina misplaced its final wolf by round 1900 after which, about 50 years later, folks type of assumed the wolves had been gone,” Sutherland stated. “However then they realized there have been a number of wolves left and they also determined to catch them and produce them in captivity and breed them after which put them someplace safer within the wild.”
With 100,000 acres of habitat, Alligator River Nationwide Wildlife Refuge was the right place to begin releasing purple wolves. In line with Sutherland, biologists began releasing pairs of purple wolves into the refuge in 1987.
The purple wolf restoration program, which Sutherland is part of, noticed success over the previous 20 years.
“The wolf inhabitants grew fairly nicely as much as about 130 to 250 animals round 2006,” Sutherland stated.
Their numbers began to say no once more in 2012 for quite a lot of causes, in accordance with Sutherland.
“As of final 12 months, the inhabitants acquired right down to solely eight confirmed animals,” Sutherland stated. “Within the wild, it’s some of the endangered species on the planet; it’s seemingly that it has a captive inhabitants.”
Whereas Sutherland has all the time been a fan of nature and of serving to animals, his actual curiosity for conserving wildlife began after a giant building undertaking took away what he used to name his playground.
“We had this good forest that we performed in and in the future I went on the market and it was lined in purple tape,” Sutherland stated. “All of the timber had red-flagging tape throughout them.”
That finally led Sutherland to grow to be a die-hard conservationist.
“That form of hit house deeply to me, I used to be actually pissed off by that,” Sutherland stated. “Since then, I’ve seen locations all around the nation, particularly right here within the Southeast, getting ripped as much as make increasingly more developments.”
Developments and new building initiatives have been tearing up locations stuffed with lush vegetation. That’s why Sutherland means that taking good care of the atmosphere proper now could be extra essential than ever.
“Wildlife is necessary for its personal sake, it’s necessary for the ecosystem that we dwell in,” Sutherland stated. “A variety of people neglect that we dwell in an ecosystem and that we mess with the ecosystem to our personal peril.”
Sutherland defined extra about how, as people, we dwell in an ecosystem, and as such we now have to behave as a part of it.
“I attempt to be cognizant of the truth that I’m simply a part of one species, and there’s all these different thousands and thousands of species across the planet,” Sutherland stated. “People ought to not likely have the fitting to destroy house for these different species.”
Sutherland additional famous that animal conservation is not only necessary for us, however for future generations as nicely. Grainger shares that sentiment.
“We should always defend our future.” Grainger stated. Our grand- and great-grandchildren must have animals round and animals want house to thrive for our subsequent generations.”
As Sutherland acknowledged, everybody ought to care about what is occurring to the wildlife in North Carolina, even younger individuals who can’t but vote. Particularly since, in accordance with Sutherland, within the upcoming years we’ll lose one other couple million acres of wildlife habitat in North Carolina.
So if we don’t rise up and take motion, then we may be a world with no timber left. The Lorax summed up the whole lot Sutherland suggests.
“Except somebody such as you cares an entire terrible lot,” Dr. Seuss’s the Lorax says. “Nothing goes to get higher. It’s not.”
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By Jane Doe
North Carolina Well being Information
North Carolina Well being Information is an impartial, non-partisan, not-for-profit, statewide information group devoted to masking all issues well being care in North Carolina. Go to NCHN at northcarolinahealthnews.org. (on the internet, this may be hyperlinked)
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North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has informed Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign that he does not want to be under consideration in her search for a vice presidential candidate, the governor said Monday night.
Cooper said in a statement explaining his decision that although he was taking himself out of consideration for the role, he’s still backing Harris’ candidacy.
“I strongly support Vice President Harris’ campaign for President,” Cooper said. “I know she’s going to win and I was honored to be considered for this role. This just wasn’t the right time for North Carolina and for me to potentially be on a national ticket.”
“As I’ve said from the beginning, she has an outstanding list of people from which to choose, and we’ll all work to make sure she wins,” he added.
The New York Times first reported that Cooper was withdrawing his name from consideration.
One source directly involved in Harris’ search for a running mate said Cooper took himself out of the mix because he wants to run for the U.S. Senate in 2026. The source said Cooper never indicated to the campaign that he wanted to be vice president and told Harris aides that he did not want to be considered.
NBC News previously reported that interviews with some Democratic insiders pointed to Cooper, along with Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, as top contenders to join Harris on the Democratic ticket.
Other governors, including Kentucky’s Andy Beshear and Minnesota’s Tim Walz, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg are among those who have also been floated as potential running mates.
The Harris campaign previously said she plans to select a running mate by Aug. 7.
North Carolina
Feds approve Cooper plan to relieve up to $4B in NC medical debt, as Harris weighs in
A plan unveiled at the beginning of this month by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper to leverage Medicaid funds to help North Carolinians struggling with medical debt has been approved by the federal government.
On Friday, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) approved a plan that has the potential to relieve $4 billion in existing hospital medical debt for people in the state, according to a news release. In order for the plan to take effect, hospitals would need to sign on.
“Unlike most other debts, medical debt is not intentional because people don’t choose to get seriously ill or have an accident,” Cooper said, according to the news release.
“Medical debts are often beyond people’s ability to pay, ruining their credit, keeping them from getting credit cards, loans and jobs and sometimes driving them into bankruptcy. That’s why we’re working with hospitals and federal partners to help relieve the burden of medical debt for North Carolina families,” he said.
Vice President Kamala Harris — who appears set to become the Democratic presidential nominee for the November election, and has been considering Cooper as a possible running mate — has been “coordinating” with state officials on the medical debt plan, The Washington Post reported.
“No one should be denied access to economic opportunity simply because they experienced a medical emergency,” Harris said in a statement sent as part of a news release Monday.
“Yet today, more than 100 million Americans struggle with medical debt — making it more difficult for them to be approved for a car loan, a home loan, or a small-business loan, which makes it more difficult for them to just get by, much less get ahead.”
“I applaud North Carolina for setting an example that other states can follow by advancing a plan that has the potential to relieve $4 billion in medical debt for two million individuals and families. This critical step also strengthens financial assistance for emergency medical procedures moving forward,” Harris said.
Harris wrote that over $650 million in medical debt had been forgiven through the American Rescue Plan, which was passed under the Biden administration.
The News & Observer has contacted several hospitals and the North Carolina Healthcare Association, which represents hospitals, regarding their stances on the plan.
UNC Health “continues to have discussions with state and federal officials,” UNC Health spokesperson Alan Wolf said in an email.
“We support efforts to reduce medical debt and we expect to receive more details on the approved plan soon,” he said.
Medical debt relief provided
According to Cooper’s news release, hospitals that opt in to the plan must implement the following to be eligible for enhanced payments offered under the plan:
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For those on Medicaid, relieve all unpaid medical debt dating back to Jan. 1, 2014.
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Relieve all unpaid medical debt that has become virtually impossible to collect dating back to Jan. 1, 2014, for people not enrolled in Medicaid whose income is at or below at least 350% of the federal poverty level (FPL) or whose total debt exceeds 5% of their annual income. A family of two at 350% of the FPL makes about $71,000 a year.
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Provide discounts on medical bills for people at or below 300% FPL.
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Automatically enroll people into financial assistance, known as charity care.
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Not sell medical debt of people making below 300% FPL to debt collectors.
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Not report debt covered by policies laid out in the plan to a credit reporting agency.
Patients of participating hospitals will not need to take any actions to benefit from medical debt relief, according to the news release.
Plan to leverage Medicaid funds
When the state expanded Medicaid in December, it implemented a mechanism that allowed hospitals to receive higher federal reimbursements in return for paying the state’s share of costs under the expansion bill.
The federal government covers 90% of Medicaid coverage costs for the expansion population, while the state covers 10%. This funding mechanism was called the Healthcare Access and Stabilization Program.
The medical debt relief plan further leverages federal funds by providing higher HASP payments to hospitals that choose to implement the plan.
Hospitals often only collect a small fraction of the medical debt they are owed, Cooper said during a press conference announcing the plan on July 1.
However, large debts that remain on the books can prevent people from buying a home or getting a credit card and sometimes can lead people into homelessness and bankruptcy, he said.
North Carolina has one of the highest percentages — 13.4% — of adults with medical debt, according to KFF, a health policy organization. About 20 million people — or nearly 1 in 12 adults — owe a combined total of at least $220 billion in medical debt in the United States, KFF says.
NORTH CAROLINA (WTVD) — A North Carolina river is deemed ‘too dirty’ to swim in.
People are advised to refrain from swimming in the French Broad River near Asheville for 24 to 48 hours, or until the water is less muddy.
Samples showed high levels of bacteria, including e-coli from recirculating water. According to officials, it’s because of the recent heavy rains.
“What we recommend for folks to do is…find somewhere else to go swim,” Anna Alsobrook, the watershed science and policy manager at MountainTrue, said. “We’ve seen everything from ear infections to GI issues (to) sinus infections.”
Officials are also telling people to avoid ingesting any water until the quality level improves, which could be in a matter of days.
French Broad River flows from North Carolina into Tennessee.
SEE ALSO | NC farmer losing crop because of unsafe levels of chemicals in water
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