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San
José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 197
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Government
caved in to fishing interest,
environmental organizations claim Special to A.M. Costa Rica
Stemming from the recent blockades of public highways by the fishery sector last Sept. 2, the government agreed to a series of reckless, illegal, and unconstitutional agreements, said a host of environmental agencies. The agreements and commitments were communicated to the environmental groups after a formal request to Serio Alfaro, minister of the Presidency, Sept. 7, a press release said. The organizations said they were concerned about these agreements and said they understand they call for: * The relaxing of shark commerce regulations. According to a draft decree to reform the wildlife conservation law, the legal responsibility of authorizing the importation, exportation and re-exportation of shark products will be transferred to commissions, the members of which will be assigned by the national system of protected areas. Such responsibility currently rests upon a council integrated by national scientists, appointed independently by their own institutions. Furthermore, a scientific authority condition is granted to the fishery sector, with the right to propose its own representatives to the non permanent commissions. This action is illogical, as the fishery sector participation during the decision-making process will be contrary to the public interest. * Future adoption of passive attitude towards the conservation and protection of threatened and endangered shark species that must be included under international treaties signed by Costa Rica. During this negotiation with the fishery sector, the government committed to not promoting nor supporting the listing of commercial interest shark species under international treaties. In other words, the government allows private commercial interests to prevail over environmental public interest. * Active promotion of shark fin exports. The government commits to ask international couriers that have committed to stop transporting shark fins to resume these activities. * The government agreed with the fishery sector to review the minimum catch size regulations under a participatory process, due to the denial of the fishery sector to abide by the limits established by the fisheries research department of the Instituto Costarricense de Pesca y Acuicultura. * Increasing fishing effort without technical foundation. The fifth agreement exposes a recurrent problem that the environmental sector has denounced over the last years: the lack of technical information upon which to support fishery management decisions. The government has committed to increase tuna quotas and has called on the legislature to vote on a law for the development, promotion, and sustainable use of shrimp in Costa Rica without any technical background information whatsoever. "We emphatically point out that Costa Rican law mandates that any administrative act must be clearly founded on technical grounds, especially when pertaining to the authorization of access to public domain goods, which belong to all Costa Ricans. The government must publicly indicate the technical foundation it used to adopt these commitments with the fishery sector," said Jorge Jiménez of the Marviva Foundation. The non-profit environmental sector said that its organizations consider that the agreements represent a setback to marine conservation and to the coastal communities that depend on the health of the seas. The government is favoring private interests over environmental public interest, putting the subsistence of thousands of fishers and the conservation of this country´s marine fishery resources at risk, the press release said. This press release was supported by: WIDECAST, Fundación Marviva, Pretoma, Conservación Internacional, AIDA, Misión Tiburón, UESPRA, Fundación KETO, The Leatherback Trust, Asociación Costa Rica por Siempre, Biocenosis, Fundación Amigos de la Isla del Coco, Sea Sheperd, Cedarena and Promar.  Jardín Botánico Regional de
Cadereyta
photo
This is a flowering Mammillaria
herrerae.Cactuses
reported to be very threatened
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Cactuses are among the world’s most threatened species, even more so than mammals and birds, according to the first ever global assessment. Native to arid parts of the Americas, cactuses have also been introduced to Africa, Australia and Europe. But the new research show that 31 percent are threatened with extinction. According to Barbara Goettsch, a scientist with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and co-lead author of the Global Cactus Assessment, prior to this work only 160 of the nearly 1,500 cactuses had been studied. “Now we have a complete picture,” she said. “And cacti are under increasing pressure from human activity, including illegal trade, which was much greater than we previously thought.” While an international convention prohibits the harvest of certain plants, Ms. Goettsch says that many are nonetheless prized by collectors. “They have amazing flowers and they have very unique form," she said. "There is a horticultural market outside the country of origin.” Ms. Goettsch adds that while cactuses can be grown legally, illegal trafficking, driven by “the unscrupulous collection of live plants and seeds for horticultural trade and for private ornamental collections,” threatens more species than the iconic rhinos and elephants. Other threats include the destruction of habitat with small livestock and farm operations, residential and commercial development, quarrying and aquaculture. “Knowing what is affecting each species and where, you can actually plan conservation action,” Ms. Goettsch said. “So, for example, you would look at very different things to do in southern Brazil, where most of the threatened species are affected by Eucalyptus plantations, than for Perú, where species are mainly impacted by illegal trade for international markets.” Cactuses are key components for biodiversity and critical to the survival of wildlife in arid lands, providing an important source of water and nutrients. They are also gathered by local communities. “If we care about the planet, we need to care about arid lands as well,” Ms. Goettsch says. The Global Cactus Assessment is described in the journal Nature Plants. Vice president is off to India today By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Second Vice President Ana Helena Chacón leaves today for India and the India-Latin America Caribbean Conclave. The event is Thursday and Friday in New Delhi. It is organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry, jointly with the Ministry of Commerce & Industry and the Ministry of External Affairs. There are representatives attending from most Latin countries, according to an agenda that is online. The vice president is scheduled to meet with Rodolfo Nin Novoa, minister of foreign affairs in Uruguay and to give two presentations. One is on women in Costa Rican society and the other is on the handicapped here, said Casa Presidencial. Have you got an original Halloween tale? A.M. Costa Rica announces another of its annual Halloween story contests. We invite readers to submit a Halloween story related to Costa Rica. Stories should be 1,000 words or under. And we’ll publish the Halloween stories next month. We will try to publish as many as we can. Stories will be judged by professional writers, and the winner will get $100. By submitting the stories, the authors give A.M. Costa Rica the non-exclusive right to publish them. Send your story to editor@amcostarica.com |
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 197 | |
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| Government's digital telecom plan would cover just about
everyone |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The telecom ministry announced an ambitious plan Monday to connect most Costa Rican homes to the Internet, particularly the homes of the poor. The proposal is part of a national telecom development plan that also includes moving the country toward digital television. The government said that the Internet could be used to reduce poverty, provide jobs and give citizens more ways to interact with officials. The plan speaks of universal access and says that resources can come from the Fondo Nacional de Telecomunicaciones. That money comes from the assessments on telecom providers. The plan is to reduce the digital divide that the government sees in the use of digital technologies. |
The project
also suggests realigning the use of the radio spectrum,
including that now used by radio. The proposal is to also put public
spaces, schools and entire
communities within reach of digital access. The plan also said that the state would be converted into a virtual space for the exchange of information, the submission of government paperwork online and the reduction of the environmental impact of telecommunications. The plan received a chilly reception from the Spanish-language daily La Nación, which said today that the government plan lacks specifics. Early government officials said the project would cost in excess of $100 million. The plan was put together by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología y Telecomunicaciones. |
| Postal agency says those in high-crime areas can pick up
their letters |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Defensoria de los Habitantes has accused fire fighters, the Cruz Roja and even the postal service of avoiding certain high-crime areas in the country. Both the Cuerpo de Bomberos and the Cruz Roja denied the charge. The fire-fighting organization is even bringing a complaint against Monserrath Solano Carboni, the defensora, over the allegation. The Cruz Roja said that its ambulance crews go where they are needed, although they sometimes are confronted by robbers and other forms of crooks. Monday the Coreos de Costa Rica S.A., the postal service, said that the allegation is true to the extent that it tries to preserve the lives and physical integrity of those who deliver the mail. In the case of high-crime areas, those that are designated as such by the Ministerio de Seguridad |
 Pública, the postal service uses an alternate delivery system, it said. Postal workers place telephone calls to letter recipients and make arrangements for the individual to come to the nearest post office, the agency said. Workers ask those mailing the letters to put a telephone number on the envelope, Correos said. Correos de Costa Rica announced Monday that the Sala IV constitutional court, accepted this explanation when it dismissed a case brought by the Defensoria. |
| Six police officers accused of abusing their authority and
robbery |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Judicial agents reported Monday that they had detained six Fuerza Pública officers on allegations of abusing their authority, causing injury and stealing a cell telephone. The crime took place in June, said the Judicial Investigating Organization. The judicial agency said the location where the crime took place was in Guadalupe, but the Ministerio de Seguridad Pública said that the six were assigned to the |
Carmen
district police station in San José. The allegation is that officers on patrol tried to stop a 21 year old, but the man did not follow the orders of the police. Thereafter he said he was followed by police, beaten repeatedly and had his cell telephone stolen, judicial agents said. The police officers, a woman and five men, were detained while at work in San José. |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 197 | |||||
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 Earth Observatory graphic
Estimates are that the
tsunami was an incredible 800 feet. |
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| Researchers think that an ancient tsunami reached 800 feet
in height |
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By the Earth Observatory news staff
Scientists working off west Africa in the Cape Verde Islands have found evidence that the sudden collapse of a volcano there tens of thousands of years ago generated an ocean tsunami that dwarfed anything ever seen by humans. The researchers say an 800-foot wave engulfed an island more than 30 miles away. The study could revive a simmering controversy over whether sudden giant collapses present a realistic hazard today around volcanic islands, or even along more distant continental coasts. The study appeared in the journal Science Advances. The apparent collapse occurred some 73,000 years ago at the Fogo volcano, one of the world's largest and most active island volcanoes. Nowadays, it towers 2,829 meters (9,300 feet) above sea level, and erupts about every 20 years, most recently last fall. Santiago Island, where the wave apparently hit, is now home to some 250,000 people. There is no dispute that volcanic flanks present a hazard. At least eight smaller collapses have occurred in Alaska, Japan and elsewhere in the last several hundred years, and some have generated deadly tsunamis. But many scientists doubt whether big volcanoes can collapse with the suddenness that the new study suggests. Rather, they envision landslides coming in gradual stages, generating multiple, smaller tsunamis. A 2011 French study also looked at the Fogo collapse, suggesting that it took place somewhere between 124,000 to 65,000 years ago; but that study says it involved more than one landslide. The French researchers estimate that the resulting multiple waves would have reached only 45 feet, even at that, enough to do plenty of harm today. |
A handful of
previous other studies have proposed much larger
prehistoric collapses and resulting megatsunamis, in the Hawaiian
islands, at Italy's Mt. Etna, and the Indian Ocean's Reunion Island.
But critics have said these examples are too few and the evidence too
thin. The new study adds a new possible example. It says the estimated 160 cubic kilometers (40 cubic miles) of rock that Fogo lost during the collapse was dropped all at once, resulting in the 800-foot wave. By comparison, the biggest known recent tsunamis, which devastated the Indian Ocean's coasts in 2004 and eastern Japan in 2011, reached only about 100 feet. Like most other well documented tsunamis, these were generated by movements of undersea earthquake faults, not volcanic collapses. Santiago Island lies 55 kilometers (34 miles) from Fogo. Several years ago, Ricardo Ramalho and colleagues were working on Santiago when they spotted unusual boulders lying as far as 2,000 feet inland and nearly 650 feet above sea level. Some are as big as delivery vans, and they are utterly unlike the young volcanic terrain on which they lie. Rather, they match marine-type rocks that ring the island's shoreline: limestones, conglomerates and submarine basalts. Some weigh up to 770 tons. The only realistic explanation the scientists could come up with: A gigantic wave must have ripped them from the shoreline and lofted them up. They derived the size of the wave by calculating the energy it would have taken to accomplish this feat. Ramalho did the research as a postdoctoral associate at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, where he is now an adjunct scientist. |
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 197 | |||||||
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| U.S. and 11 other nations agree on Pacific Partnership By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The United States and 11 other countries reached agreement Monday on a massive free trade deal that will lower trading barriers and set common standards among Pacific Rim countries that together account for nearly half of the world’s global output. News of the landmark trade agreement was announced Monday in Atlanta. Now it’s up to lawmakers in all of the countries to determine if the terms of the Trans-Pacific Partnership is in their country’s best interests. "We, the trade ministers of Australia, Brunei Darusssalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam, are pleased to announce that we have successfully concluded the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations," said U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman. After five years of back and forth negotiations, the 12 Pacific Rim nations say they have a deal, one that Froman says will lower tariffs and improve living standards across the Asia-Pacific region. "We expect this historic agreement to promote economic growth, support higher paying jobs, enhance innovation productivity and competitiveness, raise living standards, reduce poverty in our countries, and promote transparency, good governance and strong labor and environmental protections," said Froman. Lawmakers have 90 days to ratify the deal. But very few expect easy passage in Congress. Scott Kennedy is an expert on global economic relations at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “This will be a very contentious debate where they talk about all the different issues, and since we're entering the silly season of campaigns for 2016, you’re going to see every argument thrown at this deal," said Kennedy. The strongest opposition is expected to come from labor groups and from President Obama’s own party, which claim the pact will lead to job losses and hurt the environment. But free trade advocates say the agreement will expand U.S. exports and open doors for American farmers. It also extends patent protections for some U.S. drug makers. “It’s a proven fact that even though some sectors, some specific companies, may lose, by and large, the economy as a whole will gain. More jobs ought to be created as a result of this deal, rather than less," said Kennedy. Analysts say the pact expands U.S. opportunities in the Pacific and could counter the growing influence of China, now the world's second largest economy. U.S. creates ocean sanctuaries in Chesapeake and Michigan By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
President Barack Obama has announced the creation of two new marine sanctuaries in the states of Maryland and Wisconsin as part of a video-address delivered to Our Ocean 2015, a major international conference on the world's marine ecosystems in Valparaiso, Chile. "The United States is taking serious steps to curb our carbon pollution and protect our waters," Obama said in the video message, citing his special love for the ocean from growing up in Hawaii and Indonesia. The country is developing the first new marine sanctuaries in more than a decade, both of historical and ecological importance. One is in the tidal waters of Maryland, part of the Chesapeake Bay system rich in marine life. The other is in Lake Michigan, one of the five Great Lakes, the world’s largest freshwater system. Obama’s video also announced a plan designed to bring a halt to the world's illegal and unregulated fishing trade. It involves new partnerships to empower developing fishing nations to fight illegal in their own waters, the president said. For instance, a new U.S. task force traces seafood catches from their source to a U.S. entry point to ensure sustainability and legality. A new partnership with Palau is testing remote surveillance technology. And the mFish partnership provides mobile devices and apps to small-scale fishing operators in Indonesia so they can obtain weather reports and market information. The pilot program is being broadened to other developing nations. Attending the two-day conference in person, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called for more international stewardship in an address that warned of persistent overfishing and pollution. "Because of illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, one-third of the world’s fish stocks are overexploited," Kerry said. “We’re not just fishing unsustainably, my friends. We are living unsustainably,” Kerry added. “Our ocean is taking in a massive amount of pollution, 8 million tons of plastic alone every single day.” Carbon dioxide from greenhouse gases, when mixed with saltwater, reduces the pH of oceans to dangerous levels, "stunting growth of shellfish, degrading coral reefs and putting the entire marine food web at risk," the secretary said. Kerry encouraged conference discussions and future initiatives to focus on three areas: better monitoring of the open seas, vigorous enforcement of laws against illegal fishing, and a global agreement to curb climate change. The United Nations has organized an international climate-change conference for late this year in Paris. At the Chile summit, several countries, organizations and foundations are discussing pledges and proposing initiatives to fight pollution, overfishing and the acidification of the ocean by carbon emissions. Norway, for instance, has committed over $150 million for global fisheries development and management. Maryland’s newly designated Mallows Bay sanctuary is the first in the Chesapeake Bay, the country’s largest estuary. It also contains the country’s largest and most diverse collection of historic shipwrecks, according to nomination papers, with 200 recorded there, including some dating from the late 1700s. More than 30 shipwrecks have been recorded in the newly designated Wisconsin National Maritime Sanctuary in Lake Michigan. Wisconsin's National Marine Sanctuary stretches along 96 kilometers of shoreline just north of the state’s largest city, Milwaukee. "We’re really focused on the shipwrecks," said John Broihahn, state archeologist, though he also pointed out that "Wisconsin and other Great Lakes states and Canada are working hard to re-establish lake trout fisheries" and confront invasive species. Chilean President Michelle Bachelet and Foreign Minister Heraldo Muñoz also spoke at the conference. First court case this year was injury case in Austria By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The U.S. Supreme Court began a new term Monday with several contentious cases on the docket, including ones involving affirmative action, abortion and teacher's unions. The nine justices took to the bench for the first time since high-profile rulings in June that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide and rejected a challenge to President Barack Obama's signature health care law. The term's first oral arguments Monday were about a low-profile liability case involving an American woman who lost her legs trying to board a train in Austria. At issue is whether the woman can sue the state-owned Austrian railway in U.S. courts because she bought her ticket in the United States. The court also rejected hundreds of appeals that had piled up over the summer, including one that the U.S. government says will allow executives who engage in insider trading to go unpunished. The court also declined to hear a challenge about Major League Baseball's longstanding exemption from antitrust laws. The justices will add more cases in the coming months for the current term, which ends in June. Already on the docket is a conservative challenge to affirmative action at the University of Texas. It questions the constitutionality of using race as one of the various factors in the college admissions process. The justices also have agreed to hear a challenge by abortion providers to Republican-backed abortion restrictions in Texas. The challengers say the current restrictions are more focused on shutting down clinics than on ensuring women's health. In addition, the justices will rule in a case involving California teachers, about whether labor unions in the public sector can require employees to pay collective bargaining fees even if they do not share the union's views. This Supreme Court term will play out as the U.S. presidential race heats up, with the candidates likely fielding questions about the prospects of replacing justices who might retire in the next few years. Five of the court's justices were appointed by Republican presidents and four by Democrats, with 79-year-old Justice Anthony Kennedy often making the pivotal vote between the court's liberal and conservative sides. Influenza called largest risk for world as season begins By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The top U.S. public health official on Monday called Influenza the largest single risk the world faces. Even in a good year, when the flu is relatively mild, hundreds of thousands of people die from flu around the world, said Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "And in a bad flu year, it goes into the millions," he said. According to the agency, more than 200,000 people are hospitalized from flu-related complications each year in the U.S. alone. The Centers' web site says the flu can exacerbate chronic health problems. According to a Centers-sponsored study on flu and pneumonia by researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, of more than 2,000 pneumonia patients who visited U.S. hospitals over three flu seasons, those who received vaccinations were 57 percent less likely to be admitted with flu-pneumonia than those patients who were not vaccinated. The study also found vaccines were somewhat less effective for older patients and for those who had weak immune systems, but worked well for healthy people under the age of 65 and young children. Because the flu vaccine isn't 100 percent effective, doctors also recommend frequent hand washing and staying away from those who have the flu. In the meantime, staffers at the Centers are on alert as this year's flu season gets underway. "A flu pandemic remains the nightmare scenario for public health," said Frieden, adding that epidemiologists work around the clock to better detect flu as it spreads so public health officials can better respond to outbreaks of influenza and so medical scientists can work to produce a better vaccine. The study appears in JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association. U.N. chemical conference agrees to cut human risks By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
An international conference on chemicals management has agreed on a plan that could prevent the annual deaths of more than one million people exposed to toxic chemicals. More than 800 participants, including ministers, industry and civil society leaders, have agreed on a strategy to reduce risks from chemicals at a week long U.N. Environment Program conference. Chemicals are an integral part of peoples’ lives. Yet while they are essential and beneficial, they also can be hazardous. Managing those hazards is difficult because little is known about many of them. The U.N. Environment Program notes only a fraction of the estimated 100,000 chemicals on the market have been thoroughly evaluated to determine their effects on human health and the environment. But enough is known to determine they can be dangerous. The program reports the infant death rate from environmental causes is 12 times higher in developing than in developed countries. It says childhood lead exposure contributes to about 600,000 new cases of mental disabilities in children every year. Part of the strategy conference participants agreed to on chemical management includes gathering better information about the chemicals that affect lives and, in too many cases, cause harm. Olga Speranskaya is co-chairwoman of IPEN, an international network of more than 700 organizations that fight toxic chemicals and works with people who suffer from contamination from farm pesticides, mercury hotspots and other toxic products. “So, we came here and we are really pleased with the outcomes of this political conference because the delegates adopted … concrete risk reduction activities, which, if implemented, will result in the reduction of toxic exposure on human health and the environment," said Ms. Speranskaya. "Note that I say 'if implemented.'" And implementation is a problem: Ms. Speranskaya says she does not believe the plan of action can be implemented by 2020 because the project is severely underfunded. She says the chemicals managements program only has $27 million available instead of the $100 million needed to implement the program. Nevertheless, conference delegates say they are committed to investing in efforts to prevent deaths and illness through sound chemical management by 2020. |
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 Nationwide Children's Hospital
graphic
Falls represent the
greatest number of injuriesInjuries from
zipline reported on increase
By the Nationwide Children's Hospital news
staff
The popularity of ziplining has skyrocketed rapidly in recent years. The number of commercial ziplines in the U.S. rose from 10 in 2001 to more than 200 in 2012, in addition to more than 13,000 amateur ziplines which can be found in outdoor education programs, camps, and backyards. The increase in popularity has also increased the number of injuries related to ziplining. A new study by researchers in the Center for Injury Research and Policy of The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, found that an estimated 16,850 non-fatal zipline-related injuries were treated in U.S. emergency departments from 1997 through 2012. Almost 70 percent of the injuries occurred during the last four years of the study period, indicating a growing problem. In 2012 alone, there were more than 3,600 people treated in U.S. emergency departments for zipline-related injuries, nearly 10 per day. More than 90 percent of the injuries occurred April through October, with the number of injuries peaking in July. The study, published online and in an upcoming print issue of the American Journal of Emergency Medicine, found that falls accounted for more than three-quarters (77 percent) of zipline-related injuries followed by collisions (13 percent), including those with tree and other anchor structures. The most frequent types of injuries that occurred as a result of ziplining included broken bones (46 percent), bruises (15.2 percent), strains/sprains (15.1 percent), and concussions/closed head injuries (7 percent). Eleven percent of patients were admitted to the hospital for their zipline-related injury. Children younger than 10 years of age accounted for almost half (45 percent) of the zipline-related injuries while youth, ages 10-19, accounted for an additional 33 percent of injured patients. Many injuries reported in the study were associated with ziplines located at sport and recreation facilities, such as outdoor education centers, challenge courses, canopy tours, summer camps and parks. Although these ziplines are often open for use by the public, they are not regulated in many states and may not meet industry standards. These self-regulated zipline operations represent an unaddressed potential hazard to the public, the study said. Do-it-yourself zipline kits and specific zipline components (wires, harnesses, etc.) are available for purchase online. These backyard/homemade ziplines are built for private use and researchers warn against these types of ziplines. |
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| From
Page 7: Restaurants seeking Burger King staffers By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
With the announcement that the Burger King franchise here will close its 29 stores, other food firms are seeking to hire some of the estimated 430 persons who are being fired. Among them is the Costa Rica Beer Factory, which said it will open in Avenida Escazú at the end of the year. The firm has been in Barrio Escalante for three years. The firm said it was interested in hiring 15 persons with experience as chefs, waiters and other restaurant jobs. The problems with Burger King have been known for some time. They involved the relationship with the franchise holder here and the foreign trademark owner. |
