Children and Vegetarian/Vegan Diets

"When my children were born, I was referred to a nutritionist because we were vegan, but when I went to the appointment I knew more than she did."
"I know how important it is to get protein, calcium, iron and vitamin B12. You can get these plentifully in plant-based foods -- so we have lots of stir fries, with tofu, which is excellent for calcium and protein, or spaghetti bolognese with a soya mince, and they have soya milk that's fortified with calcium and things like avocado and nut butters for healthy fats."
"But we also give a multi-vitamin supplement, too, just to make sure."
"I think if you compared their diets to an average two- or six-year-old, they'd probably be healthier."
"There's a lot of scare-mongering about it [plant-based diet for children], and we're always told that vegans need to be especially careful, but I find that vegans are actually more clued up about nutrition than most."
Karrie McCulloch, 32, mother of two, Glasgow, Scotland

"My children suffer from eczema and asthma and it really helped [switching to a vegan diet] -- you could see a change in their skin."
"You do need to do your research, especially with  young children, and be prepared to be inventive -- you don't want to be a junk food vegan."
Lizzy Tigh, artist, mother of four, Herefordshire, Great Britain

"Until fairly recently, we tended to advise against vegan diets for babies. It can be done, but just not on a whim. Children need to have supplements, for example for vitamin B12, as they won't get their full requirement from food."
"Vegetables contain a lot of fibre so if a child is filling up on these, they might not end up consuming enough high calorie, high protein foods."
Mary Fewtrell, professor of paediatric nutrition, University College London

Greater numbers of people than ever are turning away from meat-based diets and adopting a vegetarian lifestyle, citing various reasons, from environmental to a refusal to eat other animals to a concern for living more healthfully. Exit meat, fish, dairy products, eggs, all healthful sources in moderation of quality protein. Quinoa, nut butters, chia seeds and soy products are introduced to the palate and valued for their special qualities. People who make these adjustments to their lifestyles are increasingly including those choices for their children from babyhood up.

Raising alarm from some nutritional experts and pediatricians who warn that "clean eating" trends could be responsible for nutritional deficiencies being seen in children. Clearing all gluten-based foods and dairy-derived foods from a diet can be fraught with problems. Researchers from France have announced their findings that non-dairy milks are in fact dangerous for babies of parents who choose to replace breast or formula milk with an alternative before their child has reached the age of one. Children studied in the June-released research were found to be suffering from malnutrition.

Reports of children raised on vegan diets being admitted to hospital suffering from malnutrition have been common in recent years. Children throughout their optimum growing years have special requirements in their diet to promote linear growth, weight gain and brain development. Nutrition in the first two years of life has a vital role for growth, a well established scientific-health reality which also plays into later life disease onset.

Vegan organisations have responded that raising children vegan isn’t about diet, but about ‘teaching them compassion’.(Picture: Getty)

Even so, experts feel that with adequate advice and careful planning it is entirely possible to safely raise children on vegetarian and vegan diets. With the proliferation of readily available information, including on the National Health Service website in Britain, and other reliable sites throughout North America sponsored by government health services and university medical colleges health education sites, parents can be educated on best practices for wholesome outcomes for their children's diets.

Where alarm bells ring is with the introduction of "clean eating" which is to say the restriction or elimination of foods containing gluten and dairy, for children. A good many people have succumbed to the appeal of celebrities and bloggers and food writers claiming the benefits in health to be gained by eschewing gluten and dairy, citing 'intolerance', when none exists save for people who legitimately suffer from celiac disease, a very small number of people who have been diagnosed by a medical professional and advised to avoid gluten.

Vegan diets could be damaging to small children’s health, nutritionists have warned. (Picture: Getty)

"We're certainly seeing adult trends in nutrition and food exclusion starting to translate to children."
"If you're cutting out something like gluten, you're cutting out a huge number of foods, which is going to make life hard."
"We're seeing a rise in true allergy and a rise in parental anxiety -- which corresponds with adults diagnosing themselves with things like gluten intolerance. But we would never recommend excluding anything without good medical reasons."
"There's a paradox where we're not picking up the right children, but also inappropriately cutting out milk in the wrong children."
"There are all these nutrition noises in the back of your head, that you might have read online or heard at the antenatal group. Lots of these symptoms can be quite normal, but people are not getting the right advice and are self-diagnosing."
"Eating should be enjoyable and sociable, and anxiety is very infectious. If they're having things whipped out of their hands, what will that do to their wider relationship with food?"
Lucy Upton, pediatric dietitian, Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust, spokesperson, British Dietetic Association

Little protein can lead to stunted growth, while too much fibre can cause children to feel full too quickly, the nutritionists also warn (Picture: Getty)

A third of British parents believe, according to a 2015 study by allergy specialists, that their child has a food allergy, yet only one in 20 children would pass a clinical diagnosis. Researchers found as well, that among parents in affluent areas, allergies were more likely to be declared by parents concerned with the welfare of their children. Cow's milk protein allergy is extremely difficult to diagnose, affecting up to four percent of children and parents, anxious to relieve their children of symptoms concerning them claim improvement as soon as a dairy-free alternative was given them.

Statistics provided by the NHS indicate that formula prescriptions treating babies with cow's milk allergy rose by close to 500 percent in the last decade, a situation interpreted through parents looking for information on line. Lucy Upton recommends that parents seek medical advice prior to cutting any major food group from their child's diet, that a thorough professional medical history be taken of allergy in the family: "If you're not sure, you can try putting them on a milk-free diet for four weeks to see if matters improve."

How to safely raise your child vegan

• When cooking for your children, use unsweetened fortified soya milk. This contains as much calcium as cows’ milk and a similar amount of protein.
• To ensure they’re getting enough protein, provide them with beans, chickpeas, lentils, soya mince, fortified soya yoghurt and tofu.
• The Department of Health also recommends daily vitamin A, C and D supplementation for all children aged six months to five years

Vegetarianism as a lifestyle choice is becoming more popular among Canadian families. A 2002 survey (1) in Canada revealed that 4% of adults claimed to be vegetarian. Approximately 2% of six- to 17-year-olds in the United States are described as vegetarians, and approximately 0.5% of this age group professes to be strictly ‘vegan’ (2). A variety of influences are acknowledged by vegetarians including concern for the environment, long-term health benefits, religious beliefs and economic concerns (3,4). In addition, the influence of a diverse ethnic population now seen in North America has had some effect (5). Restaurants and the retail food industry have responded to this interest by offering a great variety of products.

A PubMed search (1980 to 2008) using the key words “children”, “adolescents”, “vegetarian diets”, “growth” and “nutritional problems” was conducted on this topic.

The concept that a well-balanced vegetarian diet can provide for the needs of a growing child and adolescent is supported by Canada’s Food Guide (6), the American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada (7), and the American Academy of Pediatrics (8). There is sufficient evidence from well-developed studies (9–14) to conclude that children and adolescents grow and thrive well on vegetarian diets that are well designed and supplemented appropriately.

However, certain components of these diets and some required nutrients may be in short supply and need specific attention. This is particularly true in the case of strictly vegan diets and other very restrictive diets in which significant medical consequences could result from inattention to nutrient needs. The present statement highlights some of these areas and recommends appropriate interventions.

M Amit, Canadian Paediatric Society, Community Paediatrics Committee 

US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health

 

Conservation, Inuit Tradition, Climate Change

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

"They had to sit tight. It was pretty scary. They didn't sleep and they were out there for a while."
"It looks like it was a mother [polar bear] and a cub. The mother and the cub were killed."
"[The hunters] killed at least one more. There were multiple other bears in the area that were attracted by blood and scent."
Rob Hedley, administrator, hamlet of Naujaat, Nunavut

"I can't even describe the pain we're feeling right now."
"Those [bears] could have been caught if we didn't have these laws from the government."
"[Bears] are in our land and they are very, very dangerous. I just want Inuit to kill all the bears they see."
"It was a heavy burden to share the sad news with our community."
Helena Malliki, Naujaat, Nunavut

"The past few years, sightings and encounters have been rising. We're at a different level now."
"The guys I've been talking to say the bear population is at a level where it's safe to not have a quota."
Gordy Kidlapik, Rankin Inlet

"The seal harvest dropped dramatically [once the European ban on seal fur destroyed the market]."
"Bears start to move ashore [once the sea ice cover is lost]. Once all those bears are on shore, the likelihood of them coming into conflict with people increases."
"The ecosystem is changing. People in polar bear habitat have to look at changing some of their behaviour."
Andrew Derocher, polar bear biologist, University of Alberta

A polar bear walks over sea ice floating in the Victoria Strait in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. RCMP say a hunter died after a polar bear attack near Naujaat, Nunavut. (David Goldman/Canadian Press)

Inuit communities in Canada's far north are resentful of interference by the federal and territorial governments that limits their hunting of polar bears. Quotas limiting the numbers of polar bears to be killed in each of the territorial regions act to constrain Inuit from thinning out the bear population, they contend. The result, they charge, is an overabundance of the powerful beasts who then threaten the existence of the people of the north. Inuit say they are exposed to greater numbers of 'interactions' with bears on the land than ever before.

In early July a man from Arviat was enjoying a family outing on an island close by the community with his children. A polar bear suddenly appeared. The 31-year-old Inuit man shouted to his children to run as he placed himself in harm's way to protect his children. He was killed, and the children survived, having run to safety. More recently, two Inuit hunters spent three days huddling alongside the body of a third hunter, killed by a polar bear. Four bears circled their camp, as the hunters hoped for rescue.

The bitter response from Inuit at the news that another of their community members has been killed by a rampaging bear, is that southern interference by people who have no idea of the dangers northern people can be exposed to, are the architects of legislation that complicate their lives in the interests of conserving bears, even while their habitat is being impacted by climate change. The stranded men had left from Naujaat on the northern shore of Hudson Bay on August 21, planning to hunt for narwhal and caribou.

Expectations were that they would be returning last Thursday; when the three hunters hadn't returned by Sunday, police were notified. The following day federal, territorial and local teams set out to investigate, knowing approximately where the hunters had been headed. Heavy sea ice conditions blocked the search boats, so the Coast Guard icebreaker Louis St.Laurent went into action, its helicopter discovering the hunters early the next day, 100 kilometres east of Naujaat.

The two hunters who had remained by their dead companion had been injured, but not seriously. Polar bear biologist, Dr. Derocher, commenting on the situation, pointed out that the quotas being criticized for hampering the Inuit from thinning out the presence of polar bears, ensuring the safety of the community, are set in Nunavut but only after consultation with hunters. Lacking careful management of the bears, the likelihood of a backlash from the international community, he pointed out, would have a deleterious effect on the communities' well-being.

A mother polar bear and her cub near Churchill, Man. A hunter from Naujaat, Nunavut, was killed after a polar bear and cub attacked him and his two friends on Thursday. (Elisha Dacey/CBC)

The European Union would possibly spearhead a ban on exports of polar bear products from Canada, essentially destroying an important income source for those Inuit communities. Inuit would end up killing even fewer bears, just as occurred when the ban on seal fur destroyed that market. Local hunters, he pointed out, had failed to take their allotted one hundred bears last year, despite the complaints of insecurity now being cited by community members in the wake of those two deadly polar bear attacks.

He also pointed out that the Foxe Basin bear population around Naujaat has seen the loss of some 30 days of sea ice seasonally over the last number of decades. Once the sea ice is unstable, the bears that usually hunt seals and other polar wildlife from the ice, abandon their uneasy perches for land. And this is when the intersection of bear and man becomes acute. A problem, however, attributed now to climate change propelling the bears into areas where that interaction becomes more common, with its potential for unfortunate occurrences.

The last death has been attributed to an interaction between the hunter, a mother bear and her cub. Bears are known to be acutely protective and angrily reactive to anything they perceive to be threatening to their cubs. This is elementary, and common knowledge. That a seasoned hunter would come to grief in this type of scenario is indeed inexplicable. The mother and cub were killed at the scene of the unfortunate encounter, along with another bear.

The Avoidable Component in B.C. Wildfires

"It's important to note that every time we run into a human-caused wildfire, that's a wildfire that didn't have to happen."
"These human-caused wildfires during periods of heightened fire activity can in some cases divert critical resources away from the natural caused wildfires that we can't prevent." 
"If you were to really break it down, there are hundreds of different ways that wildfires start [as 'incendiary devices'."
"There isn't one silver bullet solution to reducing the number of human-caused fires, given that human-caused fires are attributable to a very wide array of activities and circumstances, so it is important for the B.C. Wildfire Service to continue educating the public about wildfire prevention as it relates to all human activities that can result in unnecessary wildfires."
Ryan Turcot fire information officer, British Columbia

"The Muddy Lake, Lovell Creek South, and Tahltan River fires have now merged with the Alkali Lake BCwildfire in the Stikine Complex in the Northwest Fire Centre," the B.C. Wildfire Service wrote on social media on August 22. "Heavy smoke is making this fire difficult to map, but it is approximately 100,000 ha."

"The most prominent communications theme referenced was the need to better communicate human-started fire considerations such as the direct impacts of negligence and fines for cigarettes in high-risk areas."
Report, independent review

"[Residents enjoying the outdoors urged to use extra caution in recognition of] record breaking hot and dry conditions having caused widespread elevation of drought levels."
"Be aware of the wildfire hazard in your area and carry a small fire extinguisher, collapsible bucket and small shovel to extinguish any fire that you accidentally start."
"Avoid carrying glass containers into the backcountry, since they can start fires by acting like a magnifying glass."
Province of British Columbia public alert

Wildfires have burned through nearly 400,000 hectares in B.C. this year. (B.C. Wildfire Service)

Over 1.2 million hectares of forested land burned in British Columbia in 2017, at a cost of over $568-million for fire suppression, along with the displacement of about 65,000 people. It was the worst wildfire season ever in the province. Once the fire season was over an independent review was launched that recommended initiatives to increase public awareness of the risks and personal responsibilities inherent in everyone knowing that they have a role to play in ensuring that their careless actions do not lead to devastating human-started fires.

The previous year the province of British Columbia took the step of increasing fines reflective of a number of wildfire-related violations. Fines enacted for lighting a fire against regulations or restrictions came to $1,150 for each offence. Another fine of $575 on conviction for failing to comply with a fire control order, and for failing to report a fire, a fine ranging between $383 and $575. But the greatest emphasis has been placed on an effort to educate people about their role in avoiding the setting of wildfires.

Some two thousand wildfires were and are still being fought across the province this year. And of that number an estimated 400 wildfires were identified as having been set by people through campfires, cigarettes, flares and car accidents among many other and varied actions, mostly avoidable, that have resulted in wildfires in a particularly dry year for 2018. Fire bans and allied restrictions aside, many people remain oblivious to the desperate messages alerting them to their responsibilities.

Over the past decade, an average of 40 percent of fires; about 666 per year, have been identified as being caused by humans, according to the B.C. Wildfire Service. This, apart from the fact that lightning activity has been the cause of an unusual number of fires. But the statistics are firm, that of 1,950 wildfires in British Columbia, over 420 were caused by irresponsible fire usage, many of which incidents are still under investigation regarding the multitude of possible causes.

There are ten broad categories that are known by the Wildfire Service to spark fires; smoking, electrical, and structure or vehicle fires. The broad umbrella of "incendiary devices" include matches, lighters, flare guns and others, representing the start of 23 percent of wildfires, while an estimated 22 percent are known to start and spread from campfires. A like number of starts begin with open fires including burn barrels, pile burning and industrial burning on a large scale.

Before even entering the backcountry people should be well versed in fire prevention. Off-road vehicle prohibitions were implemented in the Cariboo, Kamloops and southeast fire centres of northern British Columbia and full backcountry closures implemented in two of those areas, while campfires were banned across most areas throughout the summer.

More of B.C. has burned in wildfires in 2018 than any year on record. (@CONAFOR/Twitter)

Um, Cinderella Surgery? 

U.S. women have started a trend for so-called 'Cinderella surgery' which sees them having the size and shape of their feet surgically altered so they can fit into designer shoes

"Life takes its toll on feet. I get lots of requests to make feet smaller. It's really difficult for women who love glamorous shoes and are over a size 8. By shortening toes and removing bunions, Cinderella surgery can reduce feet by up to one full size."
"Everyone wants that perfect parabola, with the toes forming a smooth arch. Shoes are usually fitted to the big toe, so women with over-long second and third toes wear shoes that are too small, causing corns, swollen, painful joints and toe deformities."
"It's very important to have a specialist look at underlying causes before considering surgery."
"Some [women] never wear sandals; others won't go swimming, even on holiday or with their children. One patient told me she'd never shown her feet to anyone, even her husband of twenty years."
Jason Hargrave, consultant podiatric surgeon, Albany, New York

Some podiatrists, offer foot surgeries which include nail resizing, foot narrowing, a toe tuck - a surgical procedure to shorten the second toe, and toe obesity surgery that make fat toes thinner and more beautiful.

"Varicose foot veins can be removed via surgery or by injecting a chemical to close them down. Up to twenty percent of women have hidden varicose veins in their legs that affect blood flow. If they aren't treated, foot veins will recur."
"An ultrasound scan of the leg is necessary before surgery."
"Almost all vein procedures are now walk-in-walk-out, performed under local anesthetic, with minimal downtime, apart from two weeks of compression stockings after sclerotherapy."
Prof.Mark Whiteley, consultant vascular surgeon, Whiteley Clinic, Guildford, Surrey, GB

As a pioneer of "Cinderella Surgery" Dr. Hargrave is, unsurprisingly, a proponent of it; for its beneficial health effects in altering misshapen feet, of course. His surgical procedures include bunion removal resulting in foot slimming; toe shortening, shaving lumps and bumps and separating webbed toes, all of which conditions make women very aware of their imperfections and loathe to have anyone view them. The last word in elegance is fashionable footwear for women, with high heels and narrow toes, and they certainly take their toll of the wearer, over time.

There are surgeons whose specialties include bulging veins, and adding fillers to smooth out scrawny feet. Anti-aging techniques through plastic surgery of the face and various body parts to renew that lithe and youthful look that the middle-aged regret having lost remain hugely popular with a youth-transfixed society, so why not 'correct' the appearance of ungainly, misshapen feet to restore them to a more comfortable version of returning youth?

With the prospect of taking advantage of the availability of anti-aging foot-lifts there is also the delightful prospect of being able, once again, to fit that foot into those beloved designer shoes. Of course those same shoes whose constant stress on the foot caused the problems to begin with, will once again recreate damage to the foot, but in the meanwhile, the foot has gained the advantage of more time to flaunt its graceful appearance in a beautiful, ill-fitting shoe.

Got bumps on your instep? They "may be an overgrowth of bone above the first metatarsal-cuneiform joint", all very technical and medically professional, so don't sweat the terminology just be assured that the surgeon can correct that unsightly, uncomfortable, limiting situation for you. Bumps like that, be assured, have a tendency to develop in "people with high-arched feet". The bad news is that underlying osteoarthritis may be involved. Take your pick; alternately the bumps might only be a soft tissue lump caused when lubricating fluid leaks from a joint.

Shaving down bone may take only fifteen minutes, performed under local anesthetic, and all there is that attests to the procedure is a tiny, hidden scar. "Once healed, they feel much more comfortable in shoes day to day", assures Dr. Hargrave. The very descriptive, "Cinderalla Surgery" can be deceptive, however, masking the fact that the surgery represents a serious medical intervention with its own risks. Shortening of long toes require that a segment of bone be removed from the joint with a metal clip fusing it to the correct position ($5,843).

On the medical side, "This will also prevent a too-long toe becoming a hammer toe", assures Dr. Hargrave -- an intervention that can be performed under local anesthetic. Risks? Infection, thickened scars, failure of bone to heal, and the possibility of thrombosis. For at least three months following surgery, toes will be swollen and bruised. There are interventions for mallet toes and hammer toes; stunted digits to be elongated with a bone graft from the heel. "It's a complex procedure", the cost a cool $11,684, each toe.

A special boot must be worn for six weeks, recovery is in terms of months, and when all is said and done, the toe may not be perfectly aligned. Bunions? They form when the big  toe joint begins an outward slide, causing the toe to lean toward its partners. Bunions can make feet very broad since they can occur on both sides of the feet, and it becomes a trial and a tribulation to find shoes that will fit that broadened foot. Even so, their presence can cause pain wearing shoes and walking about.

New feet: Sandie Shaw shows off the results of her 'foot lift' which involved surgeons shortening and straightening her toes

Hunting Bats, Fireflies and Bioluminescence

"[These ferocious hunters -- little brown bats -- exert  incredible selective pressure on their prey [consuming their body weight insects nightly]."
"These bats are from the western United States, where there are essentially no fireflies [big brown bats introduced to eastern fireflies]."
"[The large brown bats rejected the taste of fireflies; never have I] seen a stronger negative reaction [to a chemically defensive insect. The bats] salivate a bunch and they cough and shake their head and just generally completely despise us [researchers] for giving them that prey."
"This is, to my knowledge, the first work to show that a three-dimensional flight pattern is information that bats can associate with bad taste."
"Getting a natural predator and its prey to interact in a way where components of the warning signal can be isolated and dissected is inherently challenging and requires novel methods and experimental design. In fact, this study took us two years to refine methods and two additional years of data collection."
Jesse M. Barber, biologist, Boise State University

Fireflies are often toxic to bats, which see the nighttime flashing and steer clear of the insects, according to a new study.  Paul Moosman Jr.

"I had found a new species [of firefly] and was trying to catch as many as I could in my net [so held a few in his lips and mouth preparing an enclosure]."
"As it was, my throat started constricting and my lips went numb [reacting to the bitter, acidic taste from holding the beetles in his mouth careful not to crush them]."
"With all of the data that is currently available it certainly appears as though the first bioluminescent fireflies first arose around the same time as bats."
Marc A. Branham, biologist, University of Florida, study co-author

Fireflies repel bat attacks with bioluminescence and slow, predictable flight. | Stephen Marshall

"[The study presents] convincing evidence that bats of this particular species learned to avoid fireflies more quickly when they received information through two different sensory channels."
"Flying plus bioluminescence was the magic combination that really enhanced bats' avoidance learning."
Sara M. Lewis, biologist, Tufts University

"Any discussion on how bats may have impacted the evolution of firefly bioluminescence is pure speculation and certainly does not apply to larval bioluminescence, which defines fireflies."
Kathrin F. Stanger-Hall, firefly expert, University of Georgia

There we are again, a new 'breakthrough' study convincing its authors they have discovered the natural revulsion of a carnivorous species to the natural chemical protection of a prey species through diligent research led by intuition, building on a previous century's observation by an earlier biologist reaching his conclusion by observation alone. The carefully constructed study leading to the conclusion by the researchers involved that fireflies' famous bioluminescence goes beyond a courting ritual to represent a warning to predators that they needn't bother hunting them because they taste awful, has other experts in the field both approving and denigrating the conclusion.

The sight at night of tiny winged creatures lighting up their presence couldn't be more charming; a sight that parents enjoy exposing their children to, for the fairyland-like atmosphere it evokes and the wonder it brings to children's imagination. Well, scientists too have wondered about why it is that fireflies light up as they do in the dark. In the late 19th Century entomologist George H. Bowles theorized: "May not the light then serve ... as a warning of their offensiveness to creatures that would devour them?"

That inspired hint to the purpose of the fireflies' bioluminescence was taken up over a century later by two present-day biologists, Drs. Barber and Branham and their colleagues. That fireflies communicate through the light they emit has been known; that there is a firefly 'language' in blinks that 'speak' to other fireflies. But it was the intriguing thought that another function attributable to the light exists, one that served to prolong the lives of fireflies, that motivated the study and led to its conclusions, more or less verifying the brilliant guesswork of 19th Century Dr. Bowles.

A study published in the journal Science Advances had the research team introduce common eastern fireflies to a group of big brown bats, unfamiliar with fireflies in their geographic region. In the region of the U.S. where the big brown bats live, fireflies don't produce bioluminescence. Both bats and fireflies were placed in a dark chamber for between one to four days. The bats snatched fireflies on day one, reacting swiftly by rejecting the firefly, once tasted. High-speed video cameras set up in the chamber showed bats eating scarab beetles and moths, and rejecting the fireflies.

The beetles' toxic taste was quite obviously not to the bats' taste; once introduced to the bitter flavour of the fireflies the bats never again attempted to catch and eat the fireflies. The blinking lights were associated with a disgusting meal evidently; the intuited purpose of the lights. And it was not only visual identification through blinking lights that led the bats to understand the fireflies did not represent a tasty meal. Researchers took to brushing red or black paint directly on the beetles' abdomens to block out the light.

The warning lights now absent, the brown bats reacted once again by catching the fireflies, then immediately spitting them back out in reaction to their nasty taste. In response to this new challenge, the predators began to recognize the flight patterns of the light-darkened beetles, the result of which, once again forewarned, the bats rejected the beetles as prey. Echolocation to sense the wing beats of the fireflies was used by the bats to recognize the characteristic lazy flight patterns of the fireflies.

The "nonchalance of a chemically protected insect", observed Dr. Barber, comparing it to the leisurely waddle of a porcupine, an animal endowed with a natural potential threat to would-be predators, complacent in the knowledge that other animals will give it wide berth or risk being uncomfortably skin-penetrated by the porcupines' long barbs.

All Eyes On The Weather

"It had been playing on my mind that we are not having a harvest. With no rain predicted, you have to make a decision."
"As of Monday, my wife and I have accepted that we are not having a harvest. That is hard. It is heart-breaking."
"Until then you are looking to hope. Every time they predict rain, it doesn't come. It just sucks the energy out of you. You start getting your head around getting more debt. My wife still struggles with the notion that you can do everything right and it all comes down to the weather."
"We have always been able to harvest a crop before and then you have good years that help you through the bad."
"Our turn will come on too. I hope we are still in the game to take advantage of it."
James Hamilton, sixth generation farmer, southeast Australia

"I think the long-term future of drought assistance can't be divorced from the judgement that ultimately has got to be made about the sustainability of agriculture in certain parts of the country in the face of climate change."
"Just throwing cash at farmers [government relief packages]  in what seem to be increasingly frequent droughts is ultimately not helping the farmers, as well as being a waste of taxpayers' money."
Saul Eslake, economist, vice-chancellor's fellow, University of Tasmania

"There is a fair wedge of the farming community that is starting to suffer mentally. Financially they may be OK -- they can borrow money if they have to -- but the sense of failure is a big thing for them.
"They think they messed it all up, having to sell all the sheep or the cattle off the farm."
Tim Wiggins, stock agent, Narromine, Australia

Pastoralist Lachlan Gall checks the water tank on his property north of Broken Hill in outback NSW. 100% of the state is impacted by the drought. Photograph: David Mariuz/AAP

Farmer Hamilton felt that he had no choice but to bite the bullet At age 47, a man whose family had been farming the land close by the inland town of Narromine, west of Sydney, where his farmland inheritance lies, whose family has locally been farming the land for 150 years, it was impossible at this juncture viewing the barrenness of his land, that he could continue that tradition. That conditions of weather; lack of rain leading to serious drought, ensures that the tradition of farming is no longer feasible.

Although he still holds out hope for the future, that something may change and the weather turn around to reflect what it once was, enabling his fields and those of other farmers to once again yield the crops they had depended upon for their living, for the time being that does not reflect reality. Reality is that his farm fields are now devoid of crops, the wheat crops usually covering the fields are but tiny shoots scarcely rising above the hard-packed soil. In his sheep paddock the pond is at ten percent capacity.

The hard choice was made that the 475 sheep will have to go; the Hamiltons can no longer afford their feed. Anything green that did manage to creep above the soil has been browsed by the arrival of hordes of kangaroos, desperate to find feed, moving in from the west, where conditions are even worse. The drought of 18 months' duration and counting recalls an earlier drought of 1902. New South Wales declared the entire state in drought last week. Residents are restricted to three-minute showers, and two weekly wash loads in some areas.

Australia as a whole has seen a drop of 20 percent of its former total of 123,000 farms, since 2006. The average age of Australian farmers is now 56. Then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had promised relief valued at $12,000 to each struggling farmer. "It is designed to keep body and soul together, not designed to pay for fodder", he explained of the proposed payments. "I think there's just no understanding of what people need and how dire it is", responded Edwina Robertson, campaigning for support for drought-affected farmers, declaring the package "very disappointing".

Photo: Storm clouds are gathering at a property at Silvervale, west of Ipswich, in south-east Queensland. (Supplied: Sarah Woodforth )

Nature, however, had a little bit of a relief gift for parts of New South Wales on Saturday and Sunday, where copious amounts of rain fell in some areas, causing hope and exultation in area farmers. Two days of rain, it is generally acknowledged, is no compensation for a year and a half without rain. The drought conditions will not be lifted simply because a rainy weekend occurred. But hope springs eternal, and many farmers visualize the possibility, however remote, of a new pattern possibly emerging....

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

The Neighbour Who Cares

"Every eight-yer-old is different, every neighbourhood is different, and every parent is different, so you can't make an overall judgement like that."
"Apparently whoever called the police didn't think the police were a good enough judge of what was okay and not okay."
"Then they called DCFS [Department of Children and Family Services]. The police did not call DCFS."
"The funny thing is … I’m a joke with my friends because my kids are around me all the time. These are upper-middle class, stay-at-home moms [her friends] who have been investigated because someone didn’t have anything better to do with their time and called the police on them."
"For something like this to happen to me, there’s something really wrong. She was gone for five minutes. I was in the backyard and I could see her through the yard."
"Everyone needs to allow the parent to do what is best for their family. No one will dictate my parenting choices."
Corey Widen, 48, mother, Wilmette, Illinois

Corey Widen (right), daughter Dorothy and dog Marshmallow near their Wilmette, Illinois, home

Chris Walker/Chicago Tribune/TNS via Getty

Parents have a duty and an obligation to teach their children many social and personal lessons, building on their natural traits as they learn how to become disciplined and responsible individuals. And Dorothy Widen's mother Corey, took her responsibility as a mother seriously. When her children clamoured, as children do, to have a family pet she considered their request and spoke to them about their zeal for the pleasure of having a little dog around, having to match the level of personal responsibility they would exhibit in learning to take care of that pet.

Most parents know that when their children wax enthusiastic about the sweet little dog they see being walked by someone on the street and how wonderful it would be to share a little companion animal of their own, that it is they, in the long haul, that will have to do the required maintenance work once the excitement of acquiring a family pet has become normalized with the pet in place and no one wanting to offer to do the work of care, feeling satisfied with doing the playing about with the pet.

Corey explained in an interview that when she and her children discussed acquiring a pet it was with the proviso that they would have to share all the responsibilities of pet care, including walking their pet. In the interests of teaching her daughter Dorothy, eight years of age, a little responsibility and giving her a sense of independence along with it, she allowed Dorothy to go out with leashed Marshmallow for a walk on August 2nd.

A neighbour, seeing the child and the dog and no adult accompanying them reported to police, claiming a child who looked about five years old was walking a dog on her own. The concerned neighbour has not been identified. Wilmette police in their response to the call visited the Widen home, arriving just as Dorothy returned from her walk with Marshmallow. When Dorothy saw police at the door linked to her walk with her little dog, she was understandably upset.

"I was like really scared. I saw the police just there, like the police's car and I heard the like sirens going off", Dorothy later recalled of her experience. While no charges were filed after the police spoke to the family, swiftly determining there was nothing awry, the investigation was dropped. The unnamed neighbour, however, forged on, contacting the Illinois DCFS which launched a weeks-long investigation of their own.

The DCFS representatives interviewed family members, family friends and went so far as to interviews the pediatrician looking after the Widen family, eight-year-old Dorothy and her 17-year-old brother. As it was explained by a spokeswoman from the DCFS, when a complaint is lodged the agency doesn't know whether it represents a legitimate concern until it investigates. When it did so in this instance the agency closed the case since nothing amiss was revealed.

So is this an instance of a 'neighbour's' legitimate concern for the welfare of an under-age child exposed to a situation that could be a problem for that child's safety, just doing the responsible thing by alerting authorities when she could have approached the mother to discuss her concerns and have them allayed? Or is it conceivably a malicious intervention by someone who disapproves for whatever personal reason of the family concerned?

Does this call for the police laying charges of unjustifiable mischievous slander against a neighbour by a nasty character posing as a social conscience?

Wilmette, Illinois, resident Corey Widen was investigated by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services after an anonymous caller reported that her daughter was walking the family dog alone.WBBM

Think About It

"We wanted to create premium experience. We've curated every element and obviously are in the Yorkville area [upscale downtown Toronto] to appeal to a certain demographic."
"If you [told] someone in the 1950s you were going for a run, people would be like, 'Who are you running from'?"
"The attitude on fitness has completely changed from 'What's that?' to a niche part of the market to an accepted necessity."
"The brain is the next frontier of that."
Sean Finnell, Mindset Brain Gym co-founder, Toronto

Mastermind

Meditation, it appears, works. The "use it or lose it" admonition we've heard so often about our physiognomy had a reason; exercise or allow the body to slump into disuse and eventually frailty. Mindfulness is the new gym for the brain; sustaining attention to thoughts, to objects, or to actions; cognitive focus for the purpose of refocusing the mind. As a regular performance, meditation has been shown to increase focus, positive emotions, cognitive reasoning skills and rapid memory recall.

In 2012, Gaelle Desbordes, an instructor at Harvard Medical School's Center for Biomedical Imagining, made use of brain scans to demonstrate beyond doubt that brain activity changes remain constant long beyond meditation-practising subjects are no longer meditating. The practise alters the way the mind works. 'Brain gyms' sound like a gimmick and perhaps they are, but they provide lessons for people wanting to be instructed on how to meditate.

At Mindset Brain Gym, newly opened in Toronto, young professionals sit cross-legged in rows under iridescent indigo lights while soothing ocean music provides the background as an instructor guides those present through a session of meditation lasting 30 minutes. The participants' brainwaves are measured with the use of plastic headbands, monitoring the calmness of their minds and the wandering thought "recoveries" produced throughout a session.

Mastermind

"Performance" to improve concentration and memory, "Resilience", to reduce anxiety and promote bounce-backs from failure, and "Human" meant to improve empathy and emotional intelligence are all achieved through these sessions in mindfulness. These lessons are reflected in what happens at a popular meditation studio in the Flatiron District of New York City in "The Dome" studio with its appearance of a giant spaceship interior glowing with multi-colour LED lights.

A boutique sells "moon dust", herb and mushroom blends meant to improve one's state from the sleep cycle to sex life. Also available are "cleansing grains" and "radiance nectar", at a substantial price. Granted, this element of commercialization is recognizable as a silly scam.

At Den Meditation in Los Angeles, classes are offered from an a la carte "private healing menu" including crystal therapy (60 min. for $125); sound therapy (30 min for $65); Theta Healing deep meditation to release past traumas (60 min. for $150). For those with deep pockets, full meditation retreats to destinations such as the Himalayas start at $4,000.

Upselling meditation is what it's called; typical examples of U.S.-style entrepreneurial enterprise. Which fits right in with the culture of virtue-signalling. We know virtue signalling best from watching the political sphere of the Lib-left deeply embedded in its uncompromising 'progressive' agenda and shrill shrieks of condemnation against their conservative political opposites whom they usually describe in such gentle terms as 'right-wing' or 'fascist'.

So premium.Getty Images

 

Nature's Baffling Changes

"It's totally out of everyone's wheelhouse."
"I had calls -- 'Really? The reds aren't running? Are you sure the sonar is even working'?"
"It was very unexpected for the general public."
"They [smolt; young salmon] would have hit some very warm ocean water right in a critical life stage. They out-migrated into a marine environment [that[ wasn't really conducive to sockeye development and survival."
Stormy Haught, biologist, Prince William Sound, Copper River areas

"It's just like everybody is in total shock."
"Nobody can afford to buy gas on their four-wheelers. It's going to be a hard winter for a lot of people."
Elliot Lind, 70, commercial fisherman, Aleut fishing village, Chignik

"Some researchers are pointing toward warmer water, but it kind of depends on which populations we're talking about and where they are."
Bill Templin, Alaska chief scientist, commercial salmon fisheries

"That's what we're seeing, massive changes in all kinds of things."
"It's not going to be one thing only, it's going to be a combination of insults that cause these problems."
Kathi Lefebvre, research biologist, Northwest Fisheries Science Center, Seattle

Nick Hall/Getty Images

A mass of warm ocean water known as "the Blob" came out of Mexico and began to raise temperatures in the Gulf of Alaska in 2014. Since then, algae blooms have spread north, the result of which toxins they emitted have poisoned the areas where birds and mammals have been exposed to the deadly toxins. From 2014 through to 2017, a large seabird die-off occurred across Alaska. There were reports of paralytic shellfish poisoning and mysterious whale perishings.

A great number of problems not only toxic algae growth can accompany ocean temperatures that are unaccustomedly warmer, leading to starvation, increased susceptibility to disease, as well as reproductive problems. Higher oceanic temperatures have the potential to harm plankton, the main meal of salmon. But the absence of red salmon in this fishing season remains a puzzle to scientists who are left to hypothesize the reason for their diminished return in Alaskan waters.

Climate change and pollution are always the quickest, easiest answers, but they may not accurately describe the whole reason for the startling absence of red salmon from Alaska rivers where once they were so abundant they fell in wholesale numbers into fishermen's nets. Expected to return as usual to the rivers where they spawn after feeding in the open sea, they have failed to materialize. The absence follows a pattern that king salmon initiated.

These are large, muscular fish held in great esteem for their mild flavour and flesh that is oil-rich and nutrient-dense. In the last decade their numbers have diminished hugely, leading the large community of natives, Alaskan residents in general, commercial fisheries and the restaurant trade to depend more heavily on the usually abundant red salmon and other locally caught fish.

The red salmon with its raspberry-bright colour and slightly salty flavour exemplify high summer in Alaska. Everyone catches them, smokes them, freezes them, barbecues them, brines them in sugar and salt, and alder-smokes them. Restaurants depend on them for a bustling summer business. They are vital to the state's economy. Freezers in cities and rural villages are crammed with them; plentiful, inexpensive and readily caught even by rank amateurs.

They were, that is.

This summer when late July rolled around, marking the end of the red-salmon season, an estimated half of last year's total had arrived. The glacier-fed fishing ground of the Copper River experienced its leanest red-salmon run in 38 years, along with other rivers across the state. River after river was closed to fishing in July by state wildlife managers to ensure that enough salmon would be left to reach their spawning grounds.

Scientists remain cautious about the causes, suspecting that warmer ocean temperatures resulted in this phenomenon. One area only, Bristol Bay, noted as the world's largest wild red-salmon fishery in south-west Alaska, saw no difference in the number of their catch this year. Unfortunately for most Alaskans, most of its catch leaves  he state, shipped around the world.

Off Kodiak Island in July, commercial fishermen saw their nets full of jellyfish, just jellyfish. In the rural Aleut fishing village of Chignik there is a sombre atmosphere in view of its fishing fleet, the economic lifeblood of the village sitting idle during the red-salmon fishing season. Townspeople who ordinarily smoke and freeze fish vital to their winter diet, now face the necessity of buying costly groceries. Food aid may have to be shipped in to help the town get over the winter months.

Over the last century, scientists well know the opposition that all varieties of salmon in the Pacific Northwest face, through the proliferation on the rivers of dams, deforestation, warming water and pollution. Chief scientist Bill Templin feels that it is not the rivers that are somehow at fault, that whatever has impeded the red-salmon return happened in the ocean itself.

Warmth appears to have persisted in the Bering Sea, home to some of the world's largest fisheries, even while water off much of the Alaskan coast has cooled this year.

Melody Miller (left) disentangles a salmon she just netted on Kenai’s north beach with the help of her daughter Manuia Tufi on Thursday, July 26, 2018 in Kenai, Alaska. The two had recently after arrived from Anchorage and had caught the day’s first fish. Miller said this is her seventh year of dipnetting in Kenai. On Thursday afternoon, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced the fishery will close two days early, at 12:01 a.m on Monday. (Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion)

Pot: Reservations from the Medical Perspective

"It's interesting that [the results were] so polarized."
"The other interesting thing is that regionally, we didn't notice any significant differences. That level of support, that level of opposition was relatively consistent across the country."
"Those that supported legalization tend to view recreational cannabis as a viable treatment option."
Rahim Shah, vice-president, client services, MD Analytics

"There are other treatments we know well, are well-studied and we know how to give them."
"We don't know that about cannabis."
Dr. Eric Cadesky, president, Doctors of British Columbia

Inside the cannabis greenhouse at Pure Sunfarms in Delta on Aug. 1. Arlen Redekop / PNG

The medical and pharmaceutical marketing research firm, MD Analytics conducted a survey just recently of family physicians in Canada, in anticipation of the looming October 17 deadline for federal legalization of recreational cannabis. And what the survey revealed is that there remains a deep division among the Canadian medical establishment on whether the legalization, on the cusp of becoming reality, with be a positive or a negative change for Canadian health outlooks.

It would appear from the conclusions of the survey that 47 percent of general practitioners in the country firmly oppose legalization, 32 percent of family doctors support it and 21 percent have a neutral attitude. The survey of 235 family doctors by MD Analytics is, on the basis of the results, indication that legalization is not a universally approved move by the federal government, on the part of medical professionals.

The Canadian Medical Association's attitude toward legalization, expressing its concern to the government made it clear both to legislators and the medical community that they view the change in the law with great unease and no little amount of trepidation. The CMA urged the government to adopt a "broad, public-health policy" approach. That sentiment, originally expressed in a 2016 submission to the federal task force on legalization did not criticize the legislation directly, but expressed concern over the results and urged government to be prepared to respond to fallout from the legislation.

In January of this year, the Canadian Medical Association repeated its concern and recommendations to Health Canada on the implementation of Bill C-45. The potential health effects linked to marijuana, and which the CMA outlined to both the government and Health Canada range from marijuana health effects in smoked form; addiction; cardiovascular and pulmonary illness; all the way to mental illness, psychosis in particular.

Dr. Cadesky recommends that the "top priority" of the medical community in response to the reality that many already use cannabis for medical reasons, mandates that patient safety be top of mind. Much of doctors' concerns relate to unknowns involved in constant cannabis use. What doctors do know, however is the possible damage that can be the outcome of cannabis on developing brains, at the same time that they haven't much data on best practice prescribing of the drug.

Doctors, urged family physician Dr. Cadesky, must acquire more knowledge relating to the therapeutic benefits of cannabis, along with its potential harms, inclusive of smoking cannabis and the resulting risks. Dr. Shah points out that his company's survey pinpoints fears raised by the CMA of the drug's abuse and the related expectation that doctors will come across increasing numbers of patients with mental health concerns.

Legalization led 88 percent of the family doctors opposed, to anticipate an increase in patient visits stemming from dependence, compared with 48 percent among doctors who support legalization who also expect that fewer patients will ask for prescriptions while patients begin to experiment with substituting prescription drugs with cannabis under the freedom of availability. In the same token 60 percent of physicians in support of legalization anticipate fewer visits from patients asking for prescription medication for anxiety or stress.

Of that number as well, 43 percent feel there will be a diminished number of patient visits to obtain drugs for chronic pain, as well as 41 percent expecting that fewer patients will be seeking out medications related to panic attacks. In other words, patients will feel freer to 'self-medicate' with the legal availability of recreational marijuana.

Medical marijuana is shown with its packaging label in Toronto. More Canadian physicians oppose legalizing recreational pot than support it, according to a nationwide survey. Graeme Roy / THE CANADIAN PRESS

Incendiary Solutions

"[British Columbia has] a landscape that's full of contiguous fuel. There's any number of combinations [contributing to wildfire potential; topography, weather, fuel] there."
"When it's doing those runs [such as a fire vortex], you just back off."
Robert Gray, fire ecologist, Chilliwack, British Columbia

"It doesn't matter how much rain you've had in the spring or winter; once the snow's gone you give me a week of hot, dry, windy weather, I can give you a raging inferno."
"It;s just Mother Nature, cycle of life, and if anything, it may be beneficial to the forest."
Mike Flannigan, professor, fire researcher, University of Alberta

"Really, it is one of our primary firefighting tactics [stalling a fire by removing its flammable fuel]."
"When you see them [firefighters setting a back burn] in action, being used for a burn-off on a wide-scale operation, it's pretty impressive."
Claire Allen, fire information officer

A wildfire burns on a logging road approximately 20 km southwest of Fort St. James, B.C., on Aug. 15, 2018. Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press

The government of British Columbia declared a state of emergency last week in the face of 500 wildfires threatening the forests of the province, and in some instances, human habitation, necessitating evacuation of thousands of people, and an alert to many thousands of others who might be in harm's way should the wildfire close to their community approach so threateningly close that they must be prepared to evacuate on order.

Over three thousand, five hundred firefighters and support staff are working non-stop to control wildfires. Of that number 731 people are from out-of-province working alongside over a hundred members of the military deployed to assist the firefighters. Most of those fires were spontaneous, caused by lightning strikes, in a highly combustible environment of dry and brittle matter on the forest floor and trees obligingly accelerating the fires as hot winds encourage the spread.

Those fires that burn in remote and isolated areas are not considered a priority, and are left to burn themselves out, that conclusion reliant on the fact that scientists now recognize the ecological and practical benefits that ensue from forest fires. Those forests will in time regenerate; the forests that were at their prime will be renewed with new growth in nature's endless cycle. In another sense a burnt area is a bonus since the next fire season it will represent a fire break that could conceivably bring a fresh wildfire to a halt for lack of fuel.

At the present time there are 550 wildfires burning in British Columbia. Discounting attending to those in remote areas or difficult terrain where water bombers cannot fly and firefighters are unable to approach, those whose proximity to towns are viewed as high risk and are priorities for aggressive shut-down. Smoke from all these fires blankets Western Canada. Forty-eight evacuation alerts have gone out, affecting 15,770 people, while 4,830 people have already received 31 evacuation orders.

Smoke billows over the northern shoreline of Nadina Lake, B.C., captured in a photo by a helicopter pilot who has been working on the fires in the area. (Dylan De La Mare)

On windy days the fires go through immense growth spurts in a forest landscape that can be endless as well as hot and dry in the wildfire season. Atmospheric conditions have the potential to create a fire vortex, where the resulting fierce energy feeds the fire to immense proportions to the extent that no intervention can take place; such fires left to their own devices until the environment changes. Such fires are capable of leaping the area of a football field in fifteen minutes.

The Shovel Lake fire, the largest blaze at the moment taking up some 850 square kilometres, less than ten kilometres from the village of Fraser Lake, was roused to more rapid expansion resulting from windy weather last week. One firefighting tactic in the face of such immense, swift-burning fires is a backburn where a fire is deliberately set in front of the wildfire to burn up the fuel, leaving the large out-of-control fire no flammable material, so it dies.

Fire retardant or water dropped from planes and helicopters represent another tactic. Digging firebreaks by hand or with machinery, trying to use natural breaks like rivers and roads to guide, fight and discourage fire spread represent additional tactics in response to wildfires. Those that pose no threat to towns and human life, well in the interior, are simply left.

The variety of types of fires also predicates their outcomes. One burning in the forest canopy, feeding on the tops of trees is recognized as unstoppable. Another type of fire smouldering in the ground can continue to burn for a lengthy period of time; months, even years.

A helicopter being used to fight a smaller fire nearby flies past a large plume of smoke rising from a wildfire near Fraser Lake, B.C., on Aug. 15. (Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press)