FRANCE: Urban heat amplifies death risk for elderly

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia / Environmental Health News / April 13, 2012

Older people living in urban areas that do not cool down sufficiently at night are twice as likely to die during heat waves than those living in the suburbs, finds a study from Paris, France.

The impact of heat islands on mortality in Paris
Laaidi, K, A Zeghnoun, B Dousset, P Bretin, S Vandentorren, E Giraudet and P Beaudeau 


Synopsis by Kai Zhang

At least 35,000 people died as a result of the record heatwave that scorched Europe in August 2003 

During heat waves, elderly people living in city areas where night temperatures remain higher are more likely to succumb to the heat than those in nearby suburban areas where temperatures dip when the sun goes down.

Researchers found that night temperatures matter when they studied the 9-day hot spell that hit Paris, France, in 2003. The average temperature differences between the city and the suburb varied about 1 or 2 degrees during nights and days, respectively.

Yet, even with these slight temperature changes, older people living in the city had twice the risk of dying from the heat than those in the suburbs, according to a study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

The results suggest that certain areas of cities where heat concentrates – called urban heat islands – contributed to the disaster in Paris because they cooled down more slowly at night compared to the suburbs. These heat intensive areas are more common near city centers and tend to retain heat more than suburban areas due to the pavement and buildings made of heat-trapping cement and concrete.

The findings increase understanding of how these urban heat islands impact human health. This is important as rising temperatures associated with climate change may increase the number and intensity of heat waves. The study also tests the use of satellite images to more precisely identify the heat intensive areas that are more likely to affect people.

Overall, more resources, improved communication with the public and better city planning could help reduce deaths due to prolonged summer heat waves, the authors suggest.

Urban heat islands increase the intensity of prolonged hot temperatures – heat waves – for those who live in the heart of cities. Heat waves are associated with increased hospital admissions and death, especially in the elderly and children. These age groups are more vulnerable to the higher temperatures because their bodies cannot adjust to the heat as well as healthy adults.

In general, heat waves mainly affect city dwellers, because more people live in cities where the heat concentrates. The temperature differences found between urban and suburban areas depend on time of a day, location, season and other factors.

But, too few ground-based weather stations make it difficult to estimate the differences. Thus, how urban heat islands contribute to the health effects caused by heat waves is not well studied.

In this study, researchers used more than 60 satellite images to identify and compare temperature differences between an urban area in Paris and in the suburban area Val-de-Marne during the heat wave in August of 2003. They estimated the daily mean, maximum and minimum surface temperatures and the day/night differences from the images. The estimates were a substitute for temperatures measured directly at city and suburban weather stations.

The heat patterns were then compared to human health data collected from a previous study that included people 65 and older. They examined 241 persons who died in the studied regions during the heat wave and matched them with 241 persons of similar age, sex, city region and demographics who survived. They adjusted for age and other factors.

Satellite images show that downtown Paris was a heat island with higher day and night temperatures than the suburban area. The difference in average high and low temperatures between the city and suburbs during the 9-day heat wave where study subjects lived was about 2 degrees and 1 degree Fahrenheit, respectively.

Although higher temperature differences were seen in the day than at night, the researchers found that a major risk factor was night temperature, not day temperature. The researchers estimated that it doubled the risk of death in the older person living in Paris than a similar person living in the suburban area.

These results highlight the importance for public health practitioners to target resources to elderly people living in hot spots. This study also suggests the need for urban planners to create more parks with grass and trees and implement other measures that will minimize urban heat islands and reduce heat-related health effects.

Copyright © 2011 Environmental Health Sciences.  

In lighter vein:  Hot pants in anti-burka ban protest by Henry Samuel in Paris. Courtesy: atomicshogun.com

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Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

JAPAN: A breath of fire for nature this new Year of the Dragon

TOKYO, Japan / The Japan Times / Life In Japan / Environment / January 1, 2012

The year 2012 is the Year of the Dragon


OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
By C. W. Nicol


May I wish all our readers, in Japan and abroad, a very happy New Year. After 2011, I think we need one.

Honored guest: C.W. Nicol with Ainu leader Shigeru Kayano
at his home in Nibutani, Hokkaido, on Jan. 17, 2006, after
being presented with this embroidered Ainu kimono. 
NATSUYO SEARLE PHOTO

The year 2012 is the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese and Japanese 12-year cycle. I've always been rather fond of dragons, what with having been born in Wales, whose national flag centers on a red dragon.

Since 1980, though, I have made my home in northern Nagano Prefecture, at the foot of a mountain whose name is Kurohime, which means "black princess" in Japanese. As legend has it, this dormant volcano is home to a black dragon, a shape-changer who, in the form of a handsome young lord, once won the heart of a princess.

The story goes thus: The fair maid's father sets this suitor many cruel tasks, and though he completes all of them, mean old dad still denies the dragon his daughter's hand. At this, the young lord reverts to his dragon-self and wreaks havoc with fire and water across the land. Distraught, the princess pleads with the dragon to save her people — and as the price of their salvation she is taken away to the mountain today named in her honor as Kurohime.

It was in October 1962 that I first set foot in Japan, when I landed in Haneda Airport in Tokyo — so 2012 will mark my 50th year since originally arriving in this country. Over those 50 years, I have celebrated New Year's about 40 times in Japan — and that's a lot of mochi (rice cakes) and sake, I can tell you!

New Year's celebrations are very much a family affair in this country, with all kinds of food treats set out in special boxes so that nobody really has to cook. People visit each other, have snacks and drinks, and give children little envelopes with money in them. It's all rather quiet, actually.

Apart from the few times I've gone back to Wales, I have celebrated Christmas here in Kurohime — and it's always me who cooks Christmas dinner. However, on Dec. 23, the eve of Christmas Eve just gone, I was in the city of Higashimatsushima, about 25 km northeast of Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture. I'd gone there to be Santa Claus to children who had lost family members and homes in the Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent tsunami on March 11, 2011, and so I was only just back home in time to ensure the turkey thawed out properly and there was enough bedding and toilet paper for the guests.

Since 1986, I have been nurturing a woodland here in Kurohime, one which became a trust (the C.W. Nicol Afan Woodland Trust, actually) in 2002. Over the last 10 years I have been conducting my own special New Year's Day ritual. So, when the traditional Japanese exchanges of greetings and sippings of sake are done and the New Year's cards have been read, I take a short walk in the woods. And there I greet and thank the trees.

A tree-hugger? Sure, I've been known to hug a tree or two, but this division of people who profess to love nature and people such as loggers, who need jobs; between airy-fairy idealists and pragmatic realists is more destructive than all the insults and epithets they have thrown at each other. I know plenty of environmentalists who are very practical and pragmatic, as well as loggers and foresters who are idealistic and love nature.

Just as a rethink of issues like that is overdue, here in Japan we must really change our course.

It's reckoned that 67 percent of the country is covered in trees, most of which are neglected, secondary-growth mixed woodland or single-species plantations of conifers — and here in Nagano Prefecture it's almost 80 percent woodland and forest. Yet despite such abundance, Japan imports 80 percent of its lumber and employs only 50,000 people in the forestry business. Germany, whose roughly 36,000-sq.-km area is just slightly smaller than Japan's, employs 20 times that number.

So, with such a wonderful natural and employment resource, we must obviously revive the forestry industry here in Japan — but in a way that is sustainable and respectful to wildlife, biodiversity and local culture.

C.W. Nicol, wearing a Mongolian wolfskin jerkin over
an embroidered Ainu kimono. SIMON WEARNE PHOTO

We don't need huge concrete logging roads, we need well-built but simple working trails, wide enough and strong enough for a two-ton truck with a small crane to pass. Logging for the most part should be done selectively, not by clear cuts that leave mountain slopes bare and prone to erosion and landslides. And when the trails are not being used for logging, they can be opened up so people can use them when they go gathering mushrooms and wild mountain vegetables, for hunting deer or wild boar or for any number of other activities and recreations.

As well, caring and careful forestry will also restore ecological health to mountain streams, which in turn — by delivering more oxygen and eco-heathy nutrients — can help to heal the serious wounds we have inflicted on our coastlines. But all of this has been said and written so many times before . . .

But there are those spiritul dimensions, too. Although I went into the Canadian Arctic at the age of 17 as an assistant to a scientist, and despite the fact that almost all the work I have done in nature has been scientifically orientated, my contact with the original and now minority peoples of the world makes me more spiritual inside as each year passes.

Nonetheless, in our small woodland trust we do more scientific field studies, backed with laboratory work, than do any of the Japanese national parks. I was raised to believe in scientific thought and method. But simply and honestly, what are we looking for in science? I think that we want answers to things we wonder about, to seek to discover the unknown and the new, and to confirm or deny beliefs or opinions we have made or which have been passed on to us by others.

When I go through the woods on New Year's Day, I feel genuinely grateful to the trees, and so should I be, for they give us warmth in winter, cooling beauty in summer and all kinds of good things to eat. When I lay my cheek against the bark of a tree, even when there's snow and ice all around, the tree feels warm; there is no doubt that it is alive.

And if you think that's mere tree-hugging sentiment, then I can say with confidence that our data, taken automatically in the woods, confirms that in summer they are on average about 2 degrees cooler than a gravel parking lot outside (and 10 degrees cooler, or more, on a hot day) — and in winter they're on average 2 degrees warmer. Are tree trunks absorbing radiation from the sun, or is this something we don't know yet?

Speaking of great unknowns, though I was raised as a Christian and enjoyed singing carols in the church choir as a boy, I feel no deep sense of reverence in a church, a cathedral or a Buddhist temple. I've never been inside a mosque, so I don't know about that. However, in a great, ancient forest, I feel a deep sense of awe and wonder. In our woodlands I feel gratitude and a confirmation of life.

I've spent a lot of time with the Canadian Inuit, and learned more from their elders than I ever have from any vicar, bishop, preacher or priest. So when I first heard about Ainu beliefs from the great Ainu leader and linguist Shigeru Kayano (1926-2006), Inuit chords were strummed in my heart. I felt that here in Japan, there also still lived a vibrant and genuine respect and reverence for sustaining nature.

Twenty-five years ago, on a freezing winter day in Hokkaido, I sat around a fire outside going through an Ainu ritual with a group of elders who had urged me to take part. Not long after, a photograph of us all garbed in Ainu robes and headdresses appeared in The Japan Times — with a caption indicating that I was one of the Ainu elders. Oh, how my head swelled! I was proud.In traveling many times to Hokkaido, and having made several documentaries there, I have taken part in many Ainu rituals.

However, it was particularly special for me when, at his home in Nibutani on Jan. 17, 2006, Shigeru Kayano declared that I was an "honorary Ainu," and handed me an Ainu kimono his wife — who'd prepared a delicious venison stew — had made and embroidered for me.It was the last time I would meet and talk and laugh with that wonderful elder. In the evening, when I gave a public lecture, the Kayano family told me to wear the kimono, and ever since I've started going into our woods on New Year's Day, I've worn it. With the kimono I remember him.I never forget that the woods, the streams, the lakes, the shores and all life are a part of us and that we are a part of them.

This is, as far as I am concerned, an indisputable truth. Therefore, are we to be a healthy, renewing part of the body of life — or a cancer destroying it?

The choice must be made by each and every one of us. The planet itself is not endangered;

Earth has gone through many trials before and has immense time on its side. But we humans, and everything altered or created by us, could easily wither and vanish.Let's not keep on doing the same old things, challenging and presenting futile barriers to nature.

Let this Year of the Dragon be the year of a happy dragon, not a rejected and angry one.

(c) The Japan Times

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Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights. 
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

USA: Every slope is a puzzle for map artist

SHANGHAI, China / The Shanghai Daily / Art / December 4, 2011

His trail maps are as much a part of skiing as snow

LOVELAND PARK, Colorado
By Karen Schwartz

TRAIL map artist James Niehues has a strong dislike for uniformity and strongly dislikes computer-generated maps. Karen Schwartz talks to the American and discovers he may be the last artist of his kind.

If you've ever gone skiing at an unfamiliar resort without getting lost, chances are you have James Niehues to thank.

Jim Niehues, the Mapmaker,  painting mountain majesties

Photo by courtesy: jamesniehues.com


Niehues, 65, is the man behind the trail map. His hand-painted panoramas have been reproduced into millions of pocket-sized maps handed out by ski resorts in North America, Japan, South Korea, China, New Zealand, Australia, Chile and Serbia.

"His trail maps are as much a part of the sport as snow," said Greg Ditrinco, executive editor of Ski Magazine.

That's high praise for a fellow whose formal art training consisted of a "learn to draw" mail-order course, taken in ninth grade while home sick from school.

Niehues always wanted to find a job that "had a little art." After the Army, he worked as an offset pressman, an ad layout artist and a designer before contacting Bill Brown, who painted the majority of the ski maps in the 1970s and 1980s.

Niehues went to Brown looking for some encouragement, but left with a commission. Brown was moving away from maps and into video, and asked Niehues to take over painting an inset for a Winter Park, Colorado, trail map.

From his start in 1987 until today, Niehues has painted about 300 panoramas, mostly of ski resorts, but also of golf courses, hiking trails, resort property and tourist regions.

His style is distinctive. He paints from an aerial perspective, distorted if necessary to bring a labyrinth of runs and mountain faces into a single plane.

"That's why I've lasted so long doing what I do," explained Niehues. "Every ski slope is a puzzle to me; to turn all those slopes so you can get the best view."

Niehues works out of a well-organized basement studio in the modest house he shares in Loveland Park, Colorado, with his wife, Dora, who handles the business end of things.

To craft a map, Niehues researches his subject, checking satellite images on Google Earth, existing maps, blueprints and photographs. Then, whenever possible, he visits the resort, taking photographs from the air while being flown over at various altitudes.

"By the time I get down from the flight I know what perspective I can get to represent the mountain," he said. If he can't make the flight personally, he asks the resort to supply aerial photographs.

Niehues starts by providing the client with a couple of small sketches, followed by a large pencil on vellum drawing. The sketch time can take from a day to a week, depending on the size of the resort.

Once he gets the client's approval, he begins painting in gouache, an opaque watercolor, on a 0.75-by-1 meter illustration board. This method allows him to lift the color and update sections as resorts change over the years.

Small ski areas might require three days of painting, while large resorts require 10, depending on the number of trees. Regional representations can take up to three weeks.

Niehues licenses the image to the client, but he maintains the copyright. His most lucrative job was US$13,500 for a regional map, six years ago.

"If there were two really good artists in this business, we'd both starve," he said.

Niehues will sketch one resort while painting another, but he only paints one at a time.

"I tried doing several at a time in my early career. It was Oklahoma but they would end up looking similar and I didn't like that," he explained.

And that is what Niehues doesn't like about his nemesis: computers. He'll use a computer to adjust the color or perspective on a nearly finished map. But in Niehues' opinion, computer-generated maps lack any character.

"They can't do what I can do," he explained. "A computer-generated map is obviously computer generated. They have cloned trees; all of them identical."

Copyright © 2001-2011 Shanghai Daily Publishing House.
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Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights.
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

MALAYSIA: Elderly go green to stay active

PENANG, Malaysia / The Star / Metro / November 28, 2011

By Aida Ahmad


BEING an octogenarian does not stop environment-conscious Ang Chui Pek from mowing his lawn and tending to his garden.

The 85-year-old retired school headmaster from SS2 Petaling Jaya believes staying physically and mentally active is important for one’s well-being.

“I cut the grass myself as it keeps me active and is a form of exercise. At the same time, I also cut cost when I do these chores myself.

“My wife and I also compost garbage and use it as fertiliser for our fruit trees,” said Ang, whose household is among the 49 households who took part in Petaling Jaya City Council’s (MBPJ) Low-Carbon Green Rebate Assessment Scheme.

Ang has turbine ventilators to help regulate the temperature of his house.

Spending time wisely: Ang composts garbage at home and plants his own fruit trees.

The pilot project, which was kicked off by the council in the middle of the year gives applicants rebates of up to RM500 for incorporating energy-efficient methods or follow a green lifestyle.

Six categories — energy, water, household waste management, transport and biodiversity, were taken into account in the scheme.

Ang took part in the programme under the categories of energy, waste management and biodiversity.

Practices such as composting, using a solar water heater or collecting rain water for washing are considered “green”.

MBPJ One-Stop Centre chief Lee Lih Shyan said the programme promoted the green efforts of residents and rewarded those who incorporated energy-efficient equipment in their homes.

“We would also be carrying a similar project next year to reward house owners who live a green lifestyle,” said Lee during a site visit to the applicants’ homes to evaluate their green efforts.

Accompanying Lee was a team of independent consultants each specialising in waste management, energy, transportation, biodiversity and water consumption.

“After visiting the homes, we will have a meeting on Nov 30 to determine the applicants’ entitlement for the rebates,” added Lee.

Independent evaluator specialising in waste management Dr Theng Lee Chong, who accompanied Lee to 12 houses in SS2, said some residents still needed to grasp the overall concept of energy conservation.

“Although there are many who use solar panels, their electricity bill is still high.

“We will need to integrate new criteria next year to ensure the applicants can achieve the overall green concept.

“In terms of waste management, composting needs to be done properly and people need to segregate their rubbish and use environment-friendly products,” said Theng.

SS2B Rukun Tetangga (RT) chairman Lee Kwee Cheng has planted a variety of fruit trees and herbs in her garden.

She also said she used public transport as much as she could and drove a hybrid car.

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KENYA: Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Dies at 71

NEW YORK, NY / The New York Times / Africa / September 27, 2011

By Jeffry Gettleman

NAIROBI, Kenya — Wangari Maathai, the Kenyan environmentalist who began a movement to reforest her country by paying poor women a few shillings to plant trees and who went on to become the first African woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize, died here on Sunday. She was 71.

The cause was cancer, said her organization, the Green Belt Movement. Kenyan news outlets said that she had been treated for ovarian cancer in the past year and that she had been in a hospital for at least a week before she died.

Dr. Maathai (click for slide show), one of the most widely respected women on the continent, played many roles — environmentalist, feminist, politician, professor, rabble-rouser, human rights advocate and head of the Green Belt Movement, which she founded in 1977. Its mission was to plant trees across Kenya to fight erosion and to create firewood for fuel and jobs for women.

Dr. Maathai was as comfortable in the gritty streets of Nairobi’s slums or the muddy hillsides of central Kenya as she was hobnobbing with heads of state. She won the Peace Prize in 2004 for what the Nobel committee called “her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace.” It was a moment of immense pride in Kenya and across Africa.

Her Green Belt Movement has planted more than 30 million trees in Africa and has helped nearly 900,000 women, according to the United Nations, while inspiring similar efforts in other African countries.

“Wangari Maathai was a force of nature,” said Achim Steiner, the executive director of the United Nations’ environmental program. He likened her to Africa’s ubiquitous acacia trees, “strong in character and able to survive sometimes the harshest of conditions.”

Dr. Maathai toured the world, speaking out against environmental degradation and poverty, which she said early on were intimately connected. But she never lost focus on her native Kenya. She was a thorn in the side of Kenya’s previous president, Daniel arap Moi, whose government labeled the Green Belt Movement “subversive” during the 1980s.

Mr. Moi was particularly scornful of her leading the charge against a government plan to build a huge skyscraper in one of central Nairobi’s only parks. The proposal was eventually scrapped, though not long afterward, during a protest, Dr. Maathai was beaten unconscious by the police.

When Mr. Moi finally stepped down after 24 years in power, she served as a member of Parliament and as an assistant minister on environmental issues until falling out of favor with Kenya’s new leaders and losing her seat a few years later.

In 2008, after being pushed out of government, she was hit with tear gas by the police during a protest against the excesses of Kenya’s entrenched political class.

Home life was not easy, either. Her husband, Mwangi, divorced her, saying she was too strong-minded for a woman, by her account. When she lost her divorce case and criticized the judge, she was thrown in jail.

“Wangari Maathai was known to speak truth to power,” said John Githongo, an anticorruption campaigner in Kenya who was forced into exile for years for his own outspoken views. “She blazed a trail in whatever she did, whether it was in the environment, politics, whatever.”

Wangari Muta Maathai was born on April 1, 1940, in Nyeri, Kenya, in the foothills of Mount Kenya. A star student, she won a scholarship to study biology at Mount St. Scholastica College in Atchison, Kan., receiving a degree in 1964. She earned a master of science degree from the University of Pittsburgh.

She went on to obtain a doctorate in veterinary anatomy at the University of Nairobi, becoming the first woman in East or Central Africa to hold such a degree, according to the Nobel Prize Web site. She also taught at the university as an associate professor and was chairwoman of its veterinary anatomy department in the 1970s.

A day before she was scheduled to receive the Nobel, Dr. Maathai was forced to respond to a report in The East African Standard, a daily newspaper in Nairobi, that she had likened AIDS to a “biological weapon,” telling participants in an AIDS workshop in Nyeri that the disease was “a tool” to control Africans “designed by some evil-minded scientists.”

She said her comments had been taken out of context. “It is therefore critical for me to state that I neither say nor believe that the virus was developed by white people or white powers in order to destroy the African people,” she said in a statement released by the Nobel committee. “Such views are wicked and destructive.”

In presenting her with the Peace Prize, the Nobel committee hailed her for taking “a holistic approach to sustainable development that embraces democracy, human rights and women’s rights in particular” and for serving “as inspiration for many in the fight for democratic rights.”

Dr. Maathai received many honorary degrees, including an honorary doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh in 2006, as well as numerous awards, including the French Legion of Honor and Japan’s Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun. She was the author of several books, including “Unbowed: A Memoir,” published in 2006.

She is survived by three children, Waweru, Wanjira and Muta, and a granddaughter, according to the Green Belt Movement.

Former Vice President Al Gore, a fellow Peace Prize recipient for his environmental work, said in a statement, “Wangari overcame incredible obstacles to devote her life to service — service to her children, to her constituents, to the women, and indeed all the people of Kenya — and to the world as a whole.”

In her Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Dr. Maathai said the inspiration for her work came from growing up in rural Kenya. She reminisced about a stream running next to her home — a stream that has since dried up — and drinking fresh, clear water.

“In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness,” she said, “to reach a higher moral ground. A time when we have to shed our fear and give hope to each other. That time is now.”

© 2011 The New York Times Company
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USA: Rockford's Japanese gardens an oasis of tranquility

TOKYO, Japan / The Japan Times / AP / July 30, 2011

The Pond Strolling garden at the Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford, Illinois.

Jeffrey Anderson/AP

ROCKFORD, Illinois -

Japanese gardens are about inspiring and soothing the soul. And you don't have to be a gardening expert or Zen Buddhist to appreciate all they have to offer — the beauty, the tranquility, even the Zen.

Anderson Japanese Gardens, a 4.8-hectare wonderland of landscaping and design, is regarded as one of the top Japanese gardens in North America, along with ones in Portland, Oregon, and Delray Beach, Florida.

Almost every day, diverse groups of visitors can be seen strolling through the site: hospice patients, cancer survivors, people practicing yoga and tai chi, brush painting classes, Red Hat women, grief counselors, church congregations holding services and just plain tourists.

Reflecting a design that originated in 12th-century Japan, the gardens contain a large pond, a five-story waterfall, a granite pagoda, curving bridges over boulder-strewn streams, and well-manicured plants and trees leaning toward the water. They attract about 40,000 visitors a year in Rockford, Illinois, 130 km northwest of Chicago.

"It's a great space to cast away a lot of the baggage of the modern world and tune back into something more elemental," said curator Tim Gruner.

The gardens were the inspiration of industrialist John Anderson (no relation to the 1980 independent presidential candidate from Rockford with the same name).

During a business trip to Oregon in 1977, Anderson visited the Portland Japanese Garden on a cab driver's recommendation, and was so impressed by its calm and serenity that he decided to create his own version. He invited the garden's highly regarded Japanese landscape architect, Hoichi Kurisu, to Rockford and asked him to design a garden around a swampy pond next to his new hillside house.

Construction began the following year, with Kurisu remaining faithful to the style and methods used in the Kamakura Period, for manmade structures as well as the dozens of natural features. An authentic Japanese guesthouse, tea house and gazebo were built by a traditional craftsman using just files, chisels and hammers.

The gardens were opened to the public in 1998 when the Andersons turned them over to a foundation.

John Anderson, 69, recently handed off the chief executive's duties to his son, David, but remains actively involved. Kurisu, too, still visits periodically to provide guidance.

David Anderson, 40, first got to know the gardens as a "pretty cool" place to grow up next to, riding his bike, playing hockey and fishing there. Now his goals are to add a children's garden, carry out a shoreline restoration and overcome patrons' disappointment at the closure of the popular onsite restaurant, which he said had become a distraction.

The gardens are costly to maintain and unprofitable, he said, breaking even only with several hundred thousand dollars in annual contributions from his father.

This landscaping marvel shows no outward sign of financial challenges, however.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prune, lean, let creek run through it

AP

The gardens embody three essential elements of Japanese gardening: the permanence of stone; plants for texture and color; and the soothing, reflective qualities of water. Even the most basic of backyard gardeners can take home ideas on how to use those elements themselves.

With input from curator Tim Gruner, here are some tips to help create the feel of a Japanese garden:

Prune heavily: Pruning keeps plants in proper scale for their space. It also makes your garden more interesting if you can see through to the other side.

Lean your plants: Lean plants in to a focal point, whether it's a waterfall or your front door.

Incorporate water features: The sound of running water creates interest in a garden. It also attracts frogs, dragonflies and birds bathing and preening.

Use big rocks: Go with the biggest rocks you can afford, handle and move. You can also use rocks to change the flow if you have a water feature.

Copyright: The Japan Times
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CANADA: Research seeks cold facts on how winter affects elderly

TORONTO, Ontario / The Globe and Mail / National / Time To Lead / July 11, 2011

Researcher Yue Li, a biomedical engineer, right, and her research assistant, U of T masters student, Oliver Chung, in the cold room, demonstrate the set-up they use to study the effects of the cold on the health of elderly patients at the Toronto Rehab Hospital, July 8.

By Karen Howlett


Canada’s largest rehabilitation centre is putting the finishing touches on a lab capable of measuring how the worst winter conditions – sub-zero temperatures, icy sidewalks, snow and winds up to 30 kilometres an hour – affect the elderly.

The WinterLab, which will be up and running in November, will help researchers at Toronto Rehabilitation Institute develop new clothing, footwear and mobility aids to help seniors cope better with cold weather, a season that typically leads to a spike in deaths for those with chronic health conditions.

The research at Toronto Rehab is oriented toward finding alternatives to warehousing patients in acute-care hospital beds so they can live independently and safely in the community for as long as possible, said Mark Rochon, chief executive officer of Toronto Rehab.

“That’s where we all want to be,” he said.

Acute-care beds are not designed to serve the needs of people who no longer require medical intervention. As a result, they end up deteriorating mentally, emotionally and physically very rapidly, said David Walker, a professor of emergency medicine at Queen’s University and head of an Ontario government committee examining the challenges of providing care to seniors.

“Our health system is designed for what was in the past rather than what’s coming in the future,” Dr. Walker said. “We are a little behind the times.”.....

Continue reading

© Copyright 2011 The Globe and Mail Inc.
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AUSTRALIA: Carbon cash for retirees

SYDNEY, NSW / The Sydney Morning Herald / Environment / July 3, 2011

By Jessica Wright

EXCLUSIVE

Retirees to get a helping hand after the carbon tax is introduced.

Photo: Glen Hunt

SELF-FUNDED retirees will receive quarterly cash payments from the federal government to make up for rises in everyday household bill costs associated with a carbon tax.

As the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee inches closer to a final deal on the tax, the government will match the sweetener delivered to pensioners when it unveils details of its compensation package.

The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, will also pledge that motorists will be spared an increase in petrol prices as fuel will never be subject to the carbon tax, even if an emissions trading scheme is introduced in 2015, News Ltd reports.

For almost 300,000 self-funded retirees who already hold a Seniors Health Card, household assistance would be delivered through the seniors supplement.

It is understood that, of this number, 100,000 self-funded retirees will also receive tax cuts to help meet the added costs of the carbon tax.

Single people who earn up to $50,000 a year and couples earning $80,000 a year combined from their superannuation or other investments would receive a dollar-for-dollar payment equal to any indexed rise in the pension.

Pensioners are expected to receive a 2.5 per cent increase to their regular payments - a rise of about $500 a year for singles and $760 for couples - and that would be replicated for the nation's low- to middle-income-earning retirees.

The Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Greg Combet, has promised ''millions of households will be better off under the carbon price''. More than 1 million low-income households will receive assistance equal to 120 per cent or more of their cost of living increases.

The Treasurer, Wayne Swan, said self-funded retirees had been hit hard in recent years by the global recession and would not be excluded from extra financial help.

"Self-funded retirees have worked hard all their lives to build up our country and provide for their own retirement, so the Gillard government is determined to provide cost-of-living help as we go about cutting carbon pollution," he said. "Australians on low, middle and fixed incomes have been front and centre for the Gillard government and we'll make sure we keep looking after them."

The government has already confirmed nine out of 10 households would receive a mix of tax cuts and increased payments to offset costs associated with the carbon tax.

Ms Gillard confirmed last week that tax cuts and increased family payments would form the bulk part of the carbon price compensation package.

Copyright © 2011 Fairfax Media
__________________________________________________________
Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights.
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

INDIA: A different league of senior citizens

LUDHIANA, Punjab / The Times of India / News / June 30, 2011

By Deepti Dua, Times News Network

Avatar Singh, Surinder Paul Dua, Jeevanlal Shori, Ravinder Kumar Arora and Sudarshan Sharma — all residents of Dugri — are not the kinds to sit and discuss problems in their area. They are purpose driven senior citizens who have the guts to dream of and affect change.

The barren wasteland that was sort of an infamous landmark in Urban Estate of Dugri has transformed into a lush green park, all thanks to the five powerpuff men. Till three years ago the land was used to dump garbage and most residents cribbed about its condition. Now, it is a hot spot with swings for kids to play, benches and umbrellas where elders can relax, a fountain and a tube well too.

The change began when the five senior citizens got together and decided to take charge of the park's maintenance. The men did everything from going door-to-door and requesting residents to pool money, to constituting a special committee for the project. They also opened a bank account where the contributions were deposited.

Their hard work pays off every evening when the park turns into a lively hangout where women, children and elderly people spend time. Morning walkers also frequent the park to stay fit. Any public function or ceremonies are strictly not allowed in the park.

A gardener has been appointed to take care of the plants and ensure the park stays clean. To make the garden more attractive and beautiful, the flower plants have been bought from Punjab Agricultural University (PAU).

Sheetu Chawla, a regular morning walker, said, "I am really lucky that I have a park so close to my house where I can go for brisk walks and stay fit. The greenery this has brought to our locality makes the scene pleasant and soothing to the eyes."

Another resident, Renu Shori, said, "After closing my boutique every evening I rush to the park for a walk. It infuses me with energy and helps to restore my energy."

Copyright © 2011 Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.
__________________________________________________________
Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights.
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

WORLD: A world of 10 billion

TORONTO, Ontario, Canada / Macleans.Ca / Environment / June 15, 2011

A world of 10 billion

Mass extinctions, water shortages, dwindling oil reserves, grinding poverty. Can the Earth sustain every one of us?

By Charlie Gillis and Kate Lunau.

For the world, as for his family, the birth of Adnan Nevic was cause for celebration. No less an eminence than the secretary-general of the United Nations attended his arrival, posing with the swaddled child as camera strobes lit a maternity room in central Sarajevo. He was born four minutes past midnight on October 12, 1999, and Kofi Annan had made his way to the hospital like a wise man following a star. There were 5.999999999 billion people on the face of the planet, depending on whose “population clock” you went by. The time had come to designate a six billionth.

The challenges that lay before this infant reflected those of human populations around the globe. His parents, Jasmin and Fatima, were poor. The family lived cheek by jowl in a bleak apartment. His father needed work. Ethnic conflict remained a dormant but ever-present threat to their country. The UN chief offered words of hope, saying this “beautiful boy in a city returning to life should light a path of tolerance and understanding for all people.” But a long and happy life? For that, Adnan Nevic would need a few breaks.

Today, as demographers look ahead to a 10-billion-strong global population, the future of No. 6,000,000,000 is no less clouded. By day, he is an apple-cheeked sixth-grader who loves dogs and cheers on the fabled Spanish soccer team, Real Madrid. At night, he watches over a father stricken by bowel cancer, and sleeps in the same bedroom as his parents in their two-room flat in Visoko, a run-down town 28 km outside Sarajevo. Adnan’s plight could never really stand in for that of all humanity. But it does, to borrow the UN boss’s trope, illuminate the road we will travel over the course of his life.

By 2050, according to the UN’s mid-range estimates, Adnan will count among some 9.3 billion people on the face of the Earth, and 10.1 billion if he lives to see the turn of the next century. Each new addition will pose the same challenges he does. Can we feed, clothe and house them? School them? Provide them with health care and drinkable water?

Do continue to read.....Click here
Source: Macleans.Ca
______________________________________________________  
Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights.
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

USA: TV’s Hazards - The Health Risk of Doing No Exercise

WASHINGTON, DC / ScienceNews.org / Science / June 16, 2011

Illustrative Photo courtesy: kk.no. of Oslo

Couch potatoes: Where the risks lie
By Janet Raloff

Several new studies finger television viewing as a potentially unhealthy pastime. I know, that hardly sounds surprising. For years, research has been linking hours in front of TV screens with an elevated risk of developing heart disease and diabetes, not to mention obesity. But what makes the recent spate of analyses different, researchers argue, is that they’re finally homing in on consistent estimates of the magnitude of risks — and hints at what underlies them.

For instance, the conventional wisdom has been that TV sickens by enticing people to become increasingly sedentary. And it certainly does that. But if just sitting still were the problem, knitting or reading should be equally toxic. And they don’t appear to be, says Frank Hu of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, who coauthored the most recent analysis of TV’s threat to health in the June 15 Journal of the American Medical Association.

“There is something special about watching TV,” Hu contends, “because when people watch they tend to eat — and are bombarded with junk food commercials.” That doesn’t happen when you read, he points out. And at least in the United States, he notes, “the amount of time spent watching TV is just incredible. Could you read for 5 hours nonstop? Could you knit for 5 hours nonstop?” Yet he cites survey data indicating Americans now plant themselves in front of TV screens an average of 5 hours daily.

Even if other activities were as sedentary as TV viewing, they don’t appear to be as prevalent, according to nationally representative U.S. data reported in a 2008 study by Charles Matthews (then at Vanderbilt and now at the National Institutes of Health) and his colleagues. More than 6,000 Americans wore activity monitors for up to one week. These showed that most people daily spent at least 7.7 waking hours sedentary. The least active segments of society: older adolescents and the elderly, who spent some 60 percent of their daytime largely immobile.

Athletes aren't immune

Last summer, Alpa Patel of the American Cancer Society, in Atlanta, and her colleagues evaluated how much of their non-working day 123,000 Americans spend sitting. Although most of this time was probably spent watching TV, Patel says, some of it also would have included time reading, riding in a car or bus — even, presumably, seated in the bath or at the dinner table (although increasingly, most Americans spend only short periods dining).

After 14 years of followup, a clear trend emerged. People who typically spent more than 6 hours seated each day were substantially more likely to die prematurely from chronic disease — conditions that included heart disease, diabetes, stroke and cancer — than were active individuals who spent their day on the move all but three hours or less.

Moreover, Alpa V. Patel notes, this analysis didn’t just focus on sedentary time. It also attempted to quantify the intensity of energy expenditures when people were moving. The researchers describe this facet in terms of metabolic — or MET — rates; they’re characterized as multiples of rate at which the body uses energy while sitting. Walking and dancing got MET scores of 3.5, jogging or lap swimming were a whopping 7, shopping was a more leisurely 2.5, and gardening or mowing the yard came in at 3. These MET scores were then multiplied by the number of hours each week people engaged in associated pastimes.

In the August 15, 2010, American Journal of Epidemiology, Patel’s group reported that people who spent more than 6 hours of their leisure time each day on their butts — and who racked up fewer than 24.5 MET-hours per week in mobile activities — were substantially more likely to die early than were individuals who averaged fewer than 3 hours sitting each day and who also racked up at least 52 MET-hours per week. How much higher the risk of premature death was varied dramatically by gender: The least active women experienced a 94 percent spike, their male counterparts just a 48 percent increase.

Patel and her colleagues say their evaluating risk in terms of both sitting time and physical activity is novel. And also important. Because using these data, they can now argue that even for people who are quite active during the week, there remain detrimental effects of being sedentary for hours each day. Going to the gym regularly helps, Patel says – but does not give athletic types license to veg out the rest of the time with impunity.

Emmanuel Stamatakis of University College London, in England, and his colleagues performed a related analysis of heart- and death risks (from all causes) in a study of more than 4,500 Scottish adults. Instead of focusing on time sitting, they correlated these health outcomes with average daily leisure time spent in front of a “screen” — be that a television, computer, smart phone or something else.

Here they divided daily screen time into: less than 2 hours per day, more than 2 but fewer than 4 hours, or at least 4 hours. People averaging the most screen time were 50 percent more likely to die prematurely during the roughly four years they were followed up than were people who watched screens the least each day, they reported January 18 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Risk of developing a cardiovascular event (such as heart arrhythmia or heart attack) during that followup period more than doubled for people who were in the highest screen-viewing group (versus the lowest).

As had Patel’s group, this one adjusted its analyses to account for how active their participants typically were when they weren’t partaking of screen entertainment. And this diminished “only slightly” the apparent risk associated with viewing time, the reported.

Homing in on mechanisms

Such findings raise the obvious question: What’s going on?

“Our work suggests that inflammation may explain some of the risk,” Stamatakis says. C-reactive protein, or CRP, is a blood marker of systemic inflammation, which is associated with a host of chronic diseases, including diabetes, cancer and heart disease. And among the Scots that his group studied, there was a steady average increase in CRP as daily viewing time increased. Among people watching screens at least four hours a day, the CRP average was almost double that measured in people watching screens fewer than two hours per day.

In addition, people who engaged in screen entertainment the most also tended to be heavier and to have lower concentrations of high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol, the so-called good cholesterol.

Stamatakis points to animal data as indicating yet another possible risk factor. Being sedentary reduces the activity of lipoprotein lipase — an enzyme that breaks down fats (such as triglycerides) in the blood so that they are available to fuel the energy needs of muscle. In animals, he says, sitting reduces this enzyme’s activity up to 90 percent compared to when they are standing or moving. If the same occurs in humans, it could foster heart disease.

“Humans are simply not made to sit down for long periods,” Stamatakis contends. He recommends that people put less of a premium on labor-saving devices and processes. Go for a walk, stand instead of sit and look for screen entertainment that invites action. Society would be healthier, he argues, if it evolved back to where “body movement is the default state and sitting a necessity that should be avoided when possible.”

© Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2011

HONG KONG: Elderly suffer as heat alert smashes record

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HONG KONG / The Standard / May 13, 2011

By Natalie Wong

Nearly 1,200 elderly residents sought help yesterday as the SAR sizzled under the earliest "very hot weather warning" since records began 12 years ago.

The Senior Citizen Home Safety Association said 74 sufferers needed hospital treatment as the mercury hit 35 degrees Celsius in Tai Po and Sheung Shui and 34 degrees in most other areas of the New Territories.

Observatory scientific officer William Shum Chi-tai said the very hot weather warning had only been issued in May twice before - in 2000 and 2007 - and then not as early as yesterday.

"The precipitation for the period is much lower than normal. Therefore, there has been a lengthy hot and sunny period with not many clouds," Shum said.

The observatory said temperatures will begin to fall today as a trough of low pressure over Guangdong moves gradually southwards, bringing with it thundery showers and southerly winds.

Association deputy director Carmen Ng Ka-man said the senior citizens taken to hospital were suffering from dizziness and pain-related disorders.

Assistant director of health promotion Regina Ching Cheuk- tuen warned those engaged in strenuous outdoor activities to avoid beverages containing caffeine and alcohol, as the substances speed up water loss from the body.

The Labour Department advises employers to set up temporary sunshades and provide mechanical aids during extremely hot weather.

A vendor at a home appliances chain said he has sold twice the number of air conditioners over the same period last year thanks to the temperatures.

"Some customers even have to wait until the end of the month to have their sets installed," he said.

Fujikon Industrial Holdings' head of overall strategic planning and business development Johnny Yeung Chi-hung said the prices of electronic appliances from Japan, including air conditioners, have soared by 30 percent because Japanese manufacturers reduced production after the March 11 earthquake.

Yeung said more locals are now switching to products from the mainland or Southeast Asia.

© 2011 The Standard, The Standard Newspapers Publishing Ltd..

INDIA: “At my age, money ceases to be important”

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BANGALORE, Karnataka / Bangalore Mirror / Story / April 25, 2011

By Kumaran P

In all of her 85 years, Salumarada Thimmakka has lived in abject poverty. Despite this, she had planted more than 290 Banyan saplings near Nelamangala by dipping into her own pocket. She has lost count of the honours and awards she has received for her efforts.


So when this champion of the environment was conferred the Karnataka Rajya Parisara Prashathi in 2007, which included a cash prize of Rs one lakh, it certainly came as good news. But, instead of being able to enjoy that money on some much deserved comfort, she has been forced to spend it on two showcases to safeguard her prizes and trophies.

“Visitors simply walk away with any trophy they can lay their hands on. She doesn't know how many prizes she is missing,” says Vanasri Umesh who has been looking after Thimmakka for more than seven years at her residence in Hulikal taluk near Magadi. Yet, neither of the showcases is locked. “I cannot insult my guests. In any case, I did not have great plans for that money. Maybe, I could have added another room to my house to ensure that people who come to see me have a little more space,” says Thimmakka who gives visitors benefit of the doubt. “It is not that they want to steal the awards. Most people even ask me if they can take a trophy or two, which they want to worship in their homes,” she says.

The last straw was when somebody stole the gold medal that comes along with the national award conferred on Thimmakka in the year 2006.

“We just have the trophy now. It is not just her trophies. Many people would even siphon off the cash prize given to her. If the amount is Rs 10,000, they would put Rs 1,000 in an envelop and give it to her,” says Umesh. But, Thimmakka brushes aside the loss philosophically saying, “At my age, money ceases to be important.”

The statement takes on a deeper meaning considering that Thimmakka’s old age pension is Rs 400 and there’s no family to take care of her. Last week, she had been admitted to Vani Vilas Hospital for breathing problems and allergy issues. She could not have afforded the care if it had not been provided to her free of cost.

Dr M Mallikarjun, HoD, department of Dermatology, Victory Hospital, said, “It is a chronic dry skin problem because of aging. She kept rubbing the area and the allergy became worse. We have put her in the VVIP ward and given her the necessary medicine. She will be alright in a couple of days.”

But, medical experts say that considering her age, health problems are inevitable.

With no family to take care of her, she has only the awards to comfort her. If only unscrupulous people did not deny her that little pleasure.

Copyright 2011 © Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd

JAPAN: May the forest be with you. And the oceans

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TOKYO, Japan / The Japan Times / News / October 23, 2010

To the rescue: nature advocate Harrison Ford

By Eric Johnson, Staff writer

As Han Solo and Indiana Jones, Harrison Ford has saved galaxies far, far away, battled Nazis, and found the Holy Grail. Can he now save the planet from biodiversity loss?

Ford, the man who fought beside Luke Skywalker in "Star Wars" and cracked a whip against all manner of baddies in "Indiana Jones," is also a dedicated environmentalist who will be in Nagoya next week to speak at a side event sponsored by Conservation International, where he serves on the board of directors.

Ford has been particularly involved in climate change issues and forest protection work, and has a Central American ant, the Pheidole harrisonfordi, named after him. He is also a helicopter pilot and has flown in the jungles of Venezuela and Columbia on behalf of Conservation International.

Ford is expected to be in Nagoya on Tuesday through Thursday to encourage a strong COP10 agreement on protection and preservation of the world's forests and marine areas.

May the forest be with you. And the oceans.

Harrison Ford (Born July 13, 1942) AP Photo

(C) The Japan Times

UK: Design tool evaluates living environments of elderly

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LONDON, England / The Engineer / News / September 23, 2010

Researchers at Sheffield University have developed a housing design tool that could help to improve the quality of life of older people in the UK.

The EVOLVE (Evaluation of Older People’s Living Environments) evaluation tool, which has been funded by the Economic and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), can be used to assess how well a building contributes to both the physical support of older people and their personal wellbeing.

The tool was developed by a team from the School of Architecture at Sheffield University and the Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU) at Kent University, in partnership with the Department of Health Housing Learning and Improvement Network (LIN) and the Elderly Accommodation Counsel (EAC).

The EVOLVE tool, which is free to download, can be used to assess a housing development, as a briefing and design guide or to evaluate design proposals for new buildings. EVOLVE is designed to evaluate a range of buildings in terms of how well the accommodation and facilities it offers support older people, not the number of facilities available. Therefore, a small building with limited facilities can score the same as a large complex development.

Judith Torrington, a reader in architecture at Sheffield University, said: ’The population of people aged over 65 will increase substantially over the next 25 years. It is important that the housing options available meet their needs both in terms of supporting them physically as they age and enabling them to maintain a good quality of life. EVOLVE is a tool that can be used to assess the design of the home environment, whether it is a large new housing development or an individual private home.’

An ageing society presents design opportunities for today’s engineers. Click here to read more.

See Also
iCARE system could provide home help for the elderly
23 Sep 2010.

AUSTRALIA: Getting back to work is the best medicine, study finds

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MELBOURNE, Victoria / The Age / Executive Style / Management / September 16, 2010

Paul Bibby WORKPLACE

THE biggest health risk posed by workplace injuries is not the injury itself, or returning to work too quickly, but not returning to work quickly enough, a new report reveals.

Yet across Australia the proportion of injured workers who never return to the workplace has risen consistently over the past five years.

A report by the Australasian Faculty of Occupational and Environmental Medicine presented in Adelaide yesterday shows that the longer someone is off work, the worse their health becomes.

The tendency towards a sedentary lifestyle after a workplace injury, and the loss of identity and social status produced by long-term worklessness, massively increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, lung cancer and suicide.

The risks associated with not working were higher than working in the most dangerous construction or forestry occupations and were equivalent to smoking multiple packets of cigarettes daily, contributing to elevated mortality rates.

''Not working for long periods of time is one of the greatest known risks to public health,'' the co-author of the report, Dr Robin Chase, said. ''It reduces life expectancy to a greater extent than cardiovascular disease. For example, suicide among young men out of work for more than six months increases 40-fold. It increases six-fold among the population more generally.'' Conversely, workers who return to work soon after suffering an injury have far better health.

But messages about the benefits of returning to work appear not to be getting through to employers, doctors, or the workforce more generally.

The return-to-work rate among injured workers has fallen from 80 per cent in 2005-06 to 72 per cent in 2008-09.

The authors of the report found that many people with mild to moderate musculoskeletal problems, such as back pain, were being wrongly certified unfit fit for work for long periods. This was despite the fact that most of these health conditions could be accommodated in a willing workplace with the right support.

''When doctors give people a script for medication they'll weigh the side effects against the benefits,'' the other co-author of the report, Dr Mary Wyatt, said.

''But we don't do that when time off work is proscribed. After all, people take holidays all the time right? But there are side effects and they are quite profound. We need a community approach - it's the guys down the pub who need to say: 'What do we need to do to help you get back to work mate?' and the doctor working hard with workers to figure out a solution.''

Associate Professor Baigent, a clinical adviser to beyondblue, said the organisation often found that rates of mental illness and drug and alcohol addiction were higher among the unemployed.

''There's no doubt that working plays an important role in people's mental health - not only does it pay the bills, but gives us social contact,'' Dr Baigent said.

''When you've got someone who has to take time off, it can precipitate depression … there are higher rates of depression for the unemployed.''

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

GERMANY: Grandmothering may have had little effect on helping in longevity

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LONDON, England / NATURE / News / August 24, 2010

Despite its anecdotal support and intuitive appeal, the grandmother hypothesis lacked much quantitative proof showing that it was possible for longevity to....

'Grandmother hypothesis' takes a hit

Pinning longevity to benefits women bestow on their grandchildren may not be plausible
says a report by Ewen Callaway published in NATURE.

While vital socially, grandmothering may have had little effect on helping us live longer. Grandma may not be as important as we thought — at least when it comes to evolution. A model published this week questions a popular theory dubbed the 'grandmother hypothesis', which says that human females, unlike those of the other great apes, survive well past their reproductive prime because of the benefits that post-menopausal women offer to their grandchildren.

iStockphoto

The evolutionary biologist William Hamilton initially proposed the idea in a 1966 paper2 that built on the theoretical work of George Williams and Peter Medawar.

But the grandmother hypothesis really took off during the 1980s and 90s on the basis of field data collected by Kristen Hawkes, an anthropologist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, and her colleagues.

These researchers found that among Tanzanian hunter-gatherers, the Hadza, mothers faced a trade-off between foraging for food for themselves and any weaned offspring, and caring for new infants. But if grandmothers helped with foraging, they were rewarded with healthier, heavier grandchildren who weaned at a younger age. Over evolutionary time, this fitness boost could have selected for women who survived long past menopause, an anomaly among humans' evolutionary kin.

"Chimps almost never live into their forties in the wild, but most humans, if they're lucky enough to make it to adulthood, live beyond the childbearing years," says Hawkes.

Further support for the grandmother hypothesis came from studies of other subsistence cultures, as well as from historical records, although not all studies back up the hypothesis.

"It has been very influential and very important, and sparked a lot of research," says Friederike Kachel, an evolutionary biologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.

Doing the maths

Despite its anecdotal support and intuitive appeal, the grandmother hypothesis lacked much quantitative proof showing that it was possible for longevity to evolve from grandmothering, says Kachel, whose team ran a mathematical simulation to test the theory's plausibility.

Their agent-based model, which simulates the actions and interactions of individuals, begins with a population of 1,000 people whose lifespans and reproductive windows are an inherited trait that mutates over time. Half are female. Initially, the females die when they stop reproducing, at 50. In some simulations, when females are not nursing their own children, they provide fitness benefits to their grandchildren by reducing the age at which they're weaned.

After about 500 generations, the model demonstrated that the assistance of a grandmother during infancy shortened the interval between the times their daughters give birth, and led to shorter reproductive windows. However, compared with simulations in which grandmothers did not help out, the benefits never result in a change in longevity.

In hindsight, Kachel says, the result isn't as surprising at it might seem. Natural selection is strongest early in life, and its influence on a trait wanes as an organism ages. Therefore, the benefits of grandmothering would have to be enormous to extend human lifespan.

Significant doubts

Hawkes is taking the new paper in her stride. She thinks the model includes all the right life history and evolutionary factors, and can't wait to sink her teeth into the software code. But she has doubts about some of the assumptions Kachel's team made about the rates of mortality and fertility. "I bet a lot that if we modify some of those assumptions, we'll get a different result."

Frank Marlowe, an anthropologist at Florida State University in Tallahassee, thinks that the grandmother hypothesis is still the best in town, even if it isn't perfect. However, any successful theory of longevity must also account for males, he says, "even if males are only dragged along with females who were the target of selection".

Kachel is agnostic on the matter of what other forces might have lengthened humans' lives, but our longevity could be a cultural artefact due to the disappearance of traditional causes of mortality, such as predation.

"Grandmothers are important in many societies and they do have an important social role, but that doesn't prove they are the cause of longevity," she says.

© 2010 Nature Publishing Group
 
Also read:
Grandmothering and Natural Selection

USA: Kurt Hoelting, wilderness guide, commercial fisherman, practicing Zen Buddhist, meditation teacher is now also an author

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SEATTLE, Washington / The Seattle Times / Books / Interview / June 7, 2010

Whidbey Island author, 60, gives up cars for a year

An interview with Kurt Hoelting, a Whidbey Island resident and author who spent one year within 100 kms of his home.

Whidbey Island resident Kurt Hoelting spent a year without

using a car and stayed within 62 miles of his home,

and then wrote a book about the experience.

DAN KOWALSKI

Lit Life

By Mary Ann Gwinn
Seattle Times book editor

Kurt Hoelting has spent a lifetime weighing the implications of his actions. A former Harvard Divinity School student and campus minister, wilderness guide, commercial fisherman, practicing Zen Buddhist and meditation teacher, Hoelting has watched the emerging evidence for climate change with a deepening sense of gloom and a burden of responsibility for his own role in it.

So for a year — from winter solstice 2007 to winter solstice 2008 — the Whidbey Island resident embarked on a radical experiment: He vowed to forgo the use of vehicles, other than public transit, and to travel only within a circle approximately 62 miles from his home. He writes about the results in "The Circumference of Home: One Man's Yearlong Quest for a Radically Local Life" (Da Capo Press, 262 pp., $25).

Though he got a book out of his experience, Hoelting says the project was no "stunt" — rather, a desire to slow global warming by making choices within his control. Personal actions are "the low-lying fruit that can be harvested without delay, " he writes, until technology and policy can catch up.

Hoelting is a quoter of deep thinkers such as philosopher Henry David Thoreau and poets Gary Snyder and T.S. Eliot. As a Northwest native and commercial fisherman, he doesn't mind the rain (this project involved several spectacular drenchings). So I asked him to come up with some practical advice, tooled for well-intentioned weather wimps hoping to reduce their carbon footprint. Here's what he learned:

Getting out of your car is a mood enhancer. Hoelting writes that he's grappled with depression and Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). He found that getting out into the weather, regardless of how wet or cold, took a lot of the emotional weight off.

Kurt Hoelting EMI MORGAN

Environmental degradation is hard to contemplate; "it's easy to be discouraged and fall into depression and despair," he says. "I benefited from the physical exercise and exertion and the contacts with the elements. It grounded me. "

Getting out of your car is a social lubricant. Walking, busing, biking or kayaking got him talking to people he might otherwise never have met. "I found people quite responsive to what I was doing, regardless of their politics or opinions about climate change," he says. "They were appreciative of what I was doing because I was putting my money where my mouth was, rather than just ranting about my concerns."

Getting out of your car doesn't have to be a sacrifice. Quoting the Sightline Institute, Hoelting notes that short, solo passenger trips within three miles of home "burn a third of all gas pumped at our service stations." Many short trips could be walked, biked or bussed. Those kinds of trips, which he still does every day, keep him grounded, healthy and balanced.

I thought of Hoelting's words last week as I contemplated the current Gulf of Mexico deep-water oil spill/blowout, a depressing catastrophe with no solution in sight. Maybe I can't stanch the gusher, but I could walk to the grocery store next time I need a banana. So much healthier than pulling further into the foxhole, waiting for someone else to come up with a solution.

Mary Ann Gwinn
E-Mail: mgwinn@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2010 The Seattle Times Company