Features

AMANGELDI, Kazakhstan — Dropping to his knees to weigh a spindly-legged newborn saiga antelope, conservationist Albert Salemgareyev finds himself in the midst of the Kazakh steppe’s most important baby boom.

It took his group of experts and volunteers several journeys into the vast, arid grasslands of Kazakhstan before they found the calving ground where a herd of critically endangered antelope had congregated for birthing.

Only several years earlier, a nasal bacteria had swept through populations of the animal, more than halving the global total and spurring disturbing images of carcasses strewn across the steppes.

But now it is bouncing back, with authorities hailing protective measures for a creature that survived the Ice Age, only to flirt with extinction several times in the modern era. 

“You feel excitement but you are also worried you might hurt this tiny creature that just came into the world,” said Salemgareyev, cradling one of the newborns, who were quickly finding their running feet. 

The latest aerial surveys of saiga populations in Kazakhstan — where the vast majority of the species is concentrated — showed a growth from 334,000 to 842,000 individuals in the last two years.

The calving is a particularly critical time for the animal when taking into account that the 2015 die-off happened at precisely this time during unusually humid weather.

Now the Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity of Kazakhstan (ACBK) where Salemgareyev works is seeing encouraging signs throughout its monitoring of the species, including an increase in the proportion of males, whose horns are highly prized in Chinese medicine. 

If five years ago the male to female ratio was as low as one to 18, recent monitoring of herds suggested a ratio closer to “one to seven, or one to eight”, Salemgareyev told AFP.

Kazakhstan’s ecology ministry last week called the population boom “an indicator of the effectiveness of measures to conserve saiga populations and counteract poaching”.

But despite stronger legislation and enforcement, poaching remains a threat, while others such as climate change and giant infrastructure projects loom on the horizon of the flatlands that are home to the antelope.

Bolshevik to Soviet era

It is the saiga’s bulbous, protruding nose, the beginnings of which are visible even on its bug-eyed, soft-featured babies, which marks it out as an animal from another time. 

But the expansion of poaching at the turn of the 20th century tested the animal’s famous talent for survival.

Around the time of the Bolshevik revolution, the global population had dwindled to the thousands.

The Soviet period offered unprecedented protections, first in the form of a three-decade hunting ban and later through strictly enforced quotas that helped push the population up to around two million.

But in the decade after Kazakhstan’s independence, madcap poaching fuelled by booming demand for the horn in next-door China again brought the animals to the brink.

Recent years have seen the government crack down on the practice, toughening legislation and tightening enforcement. 

In 2019, after two state rangers were killed by saiga poachers, the maximum prison term for poaching was increased from five to 12 years.

In a testimony to the strength of public sentiment over the murders, one of the two rangers, Yerlan Nurgaliyev, was honoured with a mural on an apartment building in Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty, in which he is depicted cuddling a saiga. 

Climate, 

infrastructure threats

The murders marked a turning point as “society began to train its attention on poaching”, with media also covering the problem more, according to Fariza Adilbekova, who serves as national coordinator for the Altyn Dala conservation project at ACBK.

While Adilbekova praised tougher anti-poaching measures, as well as the government’s recent decision to create a new national park in the west of the country, she said that new state infrastructure projects can threaten the saiga. 

One is a planned 1,300 kilometre highway through pristine steppe and semi-desert in central and western Kazakhstan, cutting across saiga migration routes and potentially causing “disruption and distress” for the species, she said. 

The die-off of 2015 hints at how other long-term, human-driven events could impact the saiga, meanwhile. 

A team of scientists that conducted postmortems of antelopes that died in that calving season said in 2018 that the deaths had coincided with excess humidity and higher-than-average daily temperatures on the steppes. 

These conditions may have turned a bacterium previously present in the saiga into a mass killer, the scientists argued in the journal Science Advances. 

That finding means “concern going forward, given that a climate change-induced increase in temperature is projected for the region over the short to medium term”, the authors wrote at the time.

PARIS — A mountain gorilla rises up and pounds its chest to signal for a mate or scare off a foe, but the drumming that resonates through the forest might also reveal details of their physique, according to a study published on Thursday.

Unlike the croak of a frog or the growl of a lion, the mountain gorilla’s chest thumping is unusual because it is not a vocalisation but rather a form of physical communication that can be both seen and heard. 

This display — mainly by the male silverbacks who pummel their chests with cupped hands — is thought to be a way to attract females and intimidate potential rivals. 

But researchers wanted to find out if the drumming sound, which can carry for a kilometre through the rainforest, also conveys information about the chest beater. 

They observed and recorded 25 adult male mountain gorillas monitored by the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund in Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda and found that bigger gorillas produced chest beats with lower peak frequencies than smaller ones. 

“In other words, chest beats are an honest signal of body size in mountain gorillas,” said Edward Wright, of Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, who led the study. 

Earlier research had shown that size matters for silverback gorillas — bigger males are more dominant and have higher reproductive success than smaller ones, he told AFP. 

The scientists believe chest beating may allow gorillas to send a signal that lets potential mates or rivals judge their size even without seeing them. 

“As a male gorilla, if you want to assess the competitive ability of a rival male, it may be safest to do this at a distance,” said Wright. 

He added previous research showing that larger dominant males lead groups with more adult females suggests the females, who are known to transfer between bands of gorillas, may be influenced by size.

These transfers are usually done in person when groups meet and males thump their chests to advertise their prowess. 

But Wright said further research would be needed to show that males and females are actually judging body size by listening to the chest beats.

‘Power and strength’

To study the relationship between the size of the wild gorillas and the resonance of their chest drumming, researchers first had to measure them — without getting too close. 

To do this they used lasers. By projecting two beams a set distance apart at the animal and then taking a picture, researchers could use the lasers as a scale to measure areas of its body. 

They also had to be patient to record the gorilla chest beating, which happens in short bursts roughly once every five hours.

“You need to be at the right place at the right time,” Wright said. 

But when they were, he said, both the sound and the spectacle is impressive. 

“As a human, you definitely get the sense of power and strength,” he said. 

In the end, the researchers were able to use recordings of 36 chest thumps made by six of the males to measure their duration, number of beats and the audio frequencies and compare this to their body size.

The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, found a correlation between the animal’s size and the sound frequency of the drumming sound, but detected no link to the length of time they spent chest beating or the number of beats. 

It also found “a significant amount of variation” in the chest beating of the different males, said Wright. 

But each gorilla did not greatly vary their style of drumming, he said. 

“This hints that chest beats may have individual signatures, but further research is needed to examine this,” he said, adding some colleagues in the field say they can guess which silverback is chest beating just from the sound.

The German manufacturer’s short-lived foray into the dual private and business use mid-size pick-up truck segment, the Mercedes-Benz X-Class arrived in late 2017 as a response to the rising popularity of this Japanese-dominated segment in the wider context, and perhaps more specifically to the success Ford was enjoying with the Ranger in Europe. 

A disappointing sales venture for Mercedes-Benz, the X-Class was discontinued as of only 2020. Nevertheless, it is an impressive premium-brand interpretation of a more utilitarian segment that has struck a chord with some motorists. 

Never introduced officially to the Jordanian market, the X-Class is however available locally through independent importers and is becoming a not too uncommon sight. Popular with a certain brand conscious strata of Jordanian motorists, the X-Class’ press pack underlines the sort of clientele being targeted in countries where such pick-ups are similarly popular, including examples such as Argentine “land owners and farmers”, Australian “business owners and building contractors”, Brazilians with “an affinity for premium products”, “trend-conscious” South Africans and Britons, and “sporty adventurers in New Zealand”.

West looks East

Despite a rich truck, van and off-roader making history, including the all-conquering Unimog, Mercedes-Benz however looked to occasional collaborator Nissan, for developing the X-Class. Largely based on the highly regarded Nissan Navara, the X-Class avoided the development costs of adapting something like the Mercedes’ G-Class platform, and instead relies on the Navara’s thoroughly proven and long-running pick-up experience. In fact, the X-Class wasn’t the only recent Japanese-based European pick-up, with both the Renault Alaskan and Fiat Fullback borrowing platforms from the Navara and the Mitsubishi L200, respectively.

Recognisable to keen observers as a Navara relation from profile views, with its short front overhang, small rear window kink and general proportions, the X-Class’s fascia however clearly identifies it as a Mercedes-Benz. Seamlessly integrated with the German manufacturer’s corporate look, the X-Class’s features a snouty slotted two-slat grille with tri-star emblem and muscular lower “chin”. While its slim headlights and twin crease clamshell bonnet are typically handsome Mercedes fare, its elegantly slim vertical rear lights are meanwhile more unique to the segment and brand.

Sophisticated set-up

More than just a simple badge-engineered Navara, the Mercedes-Benz X-Class features premium noise, vibration and harshness refinement. But more importantly, it is built on the more sophisticated European market version of the Navara, which pairs multi-link coil spring rear suspension with a rigid rear axle, instead of the Middle East market Navaras’ more traditional and work-oriented leaf springs. Using the same body-on-frame F-Alpha platform, the X-Class rides on independent double wishbone suspension at the front, and features hydraulic-assisted power steering inherited from the Navara.

Available with four engines including Mercedes-sourced entry-level and range-topping options and two Nissan-sourced mid-range units, the penultimate X250d 4Matic variant is however the best pick for its combination of performance, efficiency and compactness. With sophisticated twin-turbo common-rail diesel 2.3-litre 4-cylinder engine, the X250d 4Matic develops 187BHP at 3,750rpm and a massive 332lb/ft torque throughout 1,500-2,500rpm. Coupled with optional 7-speed automatic gearbox and a weight of 2,234kg to propel, this output translates into confident 11.8-second 0-100km/h acceleration, a 175km/h top speed and 7.9l/100km combined cycle fuel efficiency.

Pulling power

A powerful and refined turbo-diesel with comparatively smooth delivery and well-suppressed diesel clatter, the X250d 4Matic is thoroughly capable with effortless mid-range pull and overtaking, hill climbing and towing confidence, including a maximum 3,500kg unbraked towing capacity and 1,016kg payload. A sophisticated sequential twin-turbo design, the X250d features small and big turbos, operating independently or in unison, to provide effective boost and performance over a broader rev range, including better low-end response and high rev urge than many turbo-diesels that operate best in a narrow bandwidth.

Channelling its considerable output through a slick and responsive 7-speed automatic gearbox, the X250d 4Matic delivers power to the rear wheels under normal conditions and features four-wheel-drive for most off-road situations. For more challenging conditions that call for high power crawling, low gear ratio can be engaged. A capable off-roader with 202mm ground clearance and generous 29° approach, 20.4° break-over and 24° departure angles, the X250d 4Matic is also available with optional locking rear differential and 20mm raised ground clearance for even greater off-road ability.

Confidence and class

A refined, smooth and stable highway cruiser, the X-Class’s ride and handling abilities owe much to its more sophisticated multilink coil spring rear set-up, which keeps it settled and buttoned down vertically over road imperfections as it confidently dispatches lumps, bumps and ruts in its stride, and delivers improved rear traction through tight corners. Turning into corners tidily and with good in-class body control. Balanced through corners, the X-Class’s hydraulic steering deliver comparatively good directness and road feel, while all-round ventilated discs deliver confident stoppage. 

Easy to manoeuvre with its commanding driving position, tight turning circle and reversing camera, the X-Class’s cabin is a posh affair compared to most pick-ups, and would not feel out of place in Mercedes-Benz’ saloons with its good materials, chunky steering wheel and six crosshair style vents. Thoroughly Mercedes in its design and generous standard and optional, safety, assistance and mod con equipment list, the X-Class delivers generous cabin room for five occupants, a well-adjustable, comfortable and supportive driving position, and accommodating cargo capacity.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 2.3-litre, twin-turbo diesel, in-line 4-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 85 x 101.3mm

Compression ratio: 15.4:1

Valve-train: Common-rail, 16-valve, DOHC

Gearbox: 7-speed auto, four-wheel-drive

Driveline: low gear transfer case, optional locking rear differential

Gear ratios: 1st 4.886:1; 2nd 3.169:1; 3rd 2.027:1; 4th 1.411:1; 5th 1.0:1; 6th 0.864:1; 7th 0.774:1

Reverse/final drive: 4.041:1/3.357:1

High/low range: 1:1/2.7:1

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 187 (190) [140] @3,750rpm

Specific power: 81.4BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 83.7BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 332 (450) @1,500-2,500rpm

Specific torque: 195.8Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 201.4Nm/tonne

0-100km/h: 11.8-seconds

Top speed: 175km/h

Fuel consumption, urban/extra-urban/combined: 9.6-/6.9-/

7.9-litres/100km

CO2 emissions, combined: 207g/km

Fuel capacity: 73-litres

Length: 5,340mm

Width: 1,920mm

Height: 1,819mm

Wheelbase: 3,150mm

Track, F/R: 1,632/1,625mm

Overhang, F/R: 888/1,302mm

Gross vehicle weight: 3,250kg

Towing capacity, braked: 3,500kg

Suspension, F: Double wishbone, coilovers, anti-roll bar

Suspension, R: Multi-link, live axle, coil springs, anti-roll bar

Steering: Power-assisted rack & pinion

Turning circle: 13.4-metres

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs, 320mm/308mm

Tyres: 255/60R18

By Christeen Haddadin
Certified Money Coach

The COVID-19 pandemic thrust us into embracing a digital-first mindset. Here we bite into the sweet flavours of online banking, an easy and effective way to manage our finances.

I landed a job in corporate finance 16 years ago. I was so excited about the new job and firm, and one of the things I was grateful for was that the firm was located right above my bank!

You see, in those days, a bank transaction meant traffic, parking stress, queuing in line, and paperwork. You had to allocate a few hours of your already over-packed day for a simple transfer or to fill a loan application. With the endless blessings of technology, all of this is long gone! I can now complete my banking transactions at 11pm on a Friday in my PJs while binge-watching Netflix.

Today, technology has changed how we deal with our money; we can pretty much do everything online. And banking transactions are no exception. Banks have launched online services under creative names (i-banking, e-banking, among others) to convey that we can carry out financial transactions over the Internet through our computers and smartphones.

Open access anytime, anywhere

Online Banking gives us open access to our bank accounts with no restrictions on working hours, dress codes or locations. It provides us with the flexibility and efficiency to monitor our spending, investments, loans and credit cards, giving us data about our financial reality that is easily accessible. 

Executing financial transactions

Internet banking allows us to manage and maintain our bank accounts, including opening bank accounts, updating personal information, transferring funds, getting a loan application approved, requesting a credit card or a chequebook.

Settling bills

I use online banking to pay my utilities and mobile bills, traffic tickets, property tax, social security, school fees and endless other obligations. It saves me so much time and effort, all the while keeping records of all the transactions as part of my financial data, which I can easily trace and reference. No more paper files or tins! Yes, I have seen those!

Realising how technology transformed their client’s banking experience, banks have invested a lot in their technology platforms, especially in security measures, including encrypted websites, automatic logouts and multiple authentication codes. Online banking is generally safe as long as we, online banking clients, educate ourselves on how to bank safely online. 

I suggest you call your bank or research online how you can be a responsible online banking client.

Five tips for safe online banking

•Never replying to emails from your “bank” asking you for personal details or passwords

•Using a secure Wi-Fi connection for your online banking

•Checking your statements for unfamiliar transactions and reporting them

•Not using your “one password for everything” for your online banking. Choose a strong password and check with your bank if it is advisable to change it periodically

•Ensuring your anti-virus software is up and running and your mobile updates are in check

Happy Online Banking!

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

CANNES, France — The Cannes Film Festival returns in July with a rich official selection competing for the Palme d’Or after the COVID pandemic robbed the world’s leading film festival of its 2020 edition.

Here are the 24 films competing from July 5 to 17 for the prestigious prize awarded by a jury headed by US director Spike Lee.

‘Annette’ by Leos Carax, France

Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard star as a glamourous celebrity couple whose lives are upended by the arrival of their first child. 

The first film in a decade from auteur Carax is also the first in English from the eccentric French mind behind arthouse favourites “Holy Motors” and “The Lovers on the Bridge”. 

‘The French Dispatch’ by Wes Anderson, US

Film fans can never get enough of Wes Anderson, and his latest quirky bauble can be counted on for more obsessively curated sets and shots, 20th-century nostalgia, family disharmony and Bill Murray. 

Plus yet more megastars in Anderson’s menagerie in the form of Timothee Chalamet and Benicio Del Toro, and the set-up — foreign correspondents in France — likely to play well with critics at Cannes. 

‘Benedetta’ by Paul Verhoeven, Netherlands

From “Robocop” to “Basic Instinct” to “Starship Troopers”, Dutch director Paul Verhoeven has always walked a fine line between gaudy schlock and cinematic genius. His latest tale recounts a lesbian affair in a 17th-century convent, starring Virginie Efira and Charlotte Rampling.

‘A Hero’ by Asghar Farhadi, Iran

The new film shot in Iran and in the Farsi language by the Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, known for “The Salesman”, which won best Cannes screenplay in 2012, and “A Separation” — both of which also won Oscars.

‘Tout s’est Bien Passe’ (Everything Went Well) by Francois Ozon, France

Featuring French stars Sophie Marceau and Charlotte Rampling, the film by Francois Ozon tells the story of a woman asked by her father to help him die.

‘Tre Piani’ (Three Floors) by Nanni Moretti, Italy

Exactly 20 years after winning the Palme d’Or with “The Son’s Room” and nine years after heading the main jury at Cannes, Moretti is back with his first-ever adaptation of a novel, which looks at three families who live on three different floors, in three chapters.

‘Titane’ by Julia Ducournau, France

Starring French veteran actor Vincent Lindon, “Titane” is the second feature film after “Grave” by horror film specialist Ducournau, which she reportedly wrote in six weeks between two episodes of France’s COVID-19 lockdowns.

‘Red Rocket’ by Sean Baker, US

The comedy-drama by indie filmmaker Baker features Simon Rex as an over-the-hill porn star who returns to his hometown in Texas, where he is not very welcome.

‘Petrov’s Flu’ by Kirill Serebrennikov, Russia

An alcohol-fuelled stroll by a cartoonist and his friend in post-Soviet Russia brings back childhood memories that get mixed up with the present.

‘Par un Demi Clair Matin’ (France) by Bruno Dumont, France

Adapted from a work by French writer Charles Peguy, who was killed in battle in the first months of World War I, the film charts the fall from grace of a star TV reporter whose life crisis is shown against a backdrop of contemporary France.

‘Nitram’ by Justin Kurzel, Australia

After his 2015 smash hit adaptation of “Macbeth” starring Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard, and his take on the Assassin’s Creed video game in 2016, the Australian director looks at events leading up to the Port Arthur mass shooting in Tasmania, in which 35 died and led to reforms of Australian gun control laws.

‘Memoria’ by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand

Tilda Swinton stars as a Scottish horticulturist in the Thai director’s first film since “Cemetery of Splendour”, and 11 years after he won the Palme d’Or for the dreamlike “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives”. Shot in Colombia, “Memoria” explores the relationship of Swinton’s character with a French archaeologist and a musician as she tries to understand sudden strange sounds in the night.

‘Lingui’ by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Chad

Set in the outskirts of N’Djamena, “Lingui” tells the story of an adolescent whose unwanted pregnancy puts her in conflict with her country’s traditions and the law. Haroun lives in France, but most of his films have been produced in his birth country, which he left during unrest there in the 1980s.

‘Les Olympiades’ (Paris 13th District) by Jacques Audiard, France

A film by the veteran Palme d’Or winner, based on three graphic novels by US author Adrian Tomine and set in a mixed neighbourhood of the French capital, about three young women and a young man who are sometimes friends, sometimes lovers and sometimes both.

‘Les Intranquilles’ (The Restless) by Joachim Lafosse, Belgium

Starring Leila Bekhti and Damien Bonnard, the film tells the story of a couple under stress due to Bonnard’s character suffering from bipolar disorder, and who do their best to protect their child.

‘La Fracture’ by Catherine Corsini, France

Two decades after her film “Replay” entered the Cannes competition, Corsini returns with a drama about a couple stuck in a hospital that comes under siege during a violent Paris demonstration inspired by the Yellow Vests movement.

‘The Worst Person in the World’ by Joachim Trier, Norway

A film about love and its complications, Trier’s “Worst Person” — the third of Trier’s Oslo trilogy — looks at Julie, who turns 30 and is looking for answers in a new relationship only to realise that the much-hoped-for new perspective on life is not really happening. 

‘Compartment No. 6’ by Juho Kuosmanen, Finland

Two strangers — a Finnish woman and a gloomy Russian — share a compartment of a train winding its way up to the Arctic circle in a road movie set against the backdrop of the 1980s Soviet Union, by the Finnish director who claims that “the only way to be free is to accept the absurdity of life”.

‘Casablanca Beats’ by Nabil Ayouch, France-Morocco

Ayouch rocks the suburbs of Casablanca with a film about young people seeking an outlet through hip hop in a neighbourhood that in 2003 became a target of Al Qaeda suicide attacks on hotels, restaurants and community centres.

‘Ahed’s Knee’ by Nadav Lapid, Israel

After winning prizes in Locarno, Cannes and Berlin for his first three films, Lapid explores two battles waged by an Israeli director, one against the death of freedom and one against the death of a mother, both of which are doomed to failure.

‘Drive My Car’ by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Japan

An aging, widowed actor looking for a chauffeur ends up hiring a 20-year-old woman. Things go wrong between them at first, but then a special relationship emerges. 

‘Bergman Island’ by Mia Hansen-Love, France

An American film-making couple spends a summer on Faro, the windswept Baltic island that inspired Ingmar Bergman. Reality and fiction start to blur as the weeks pass.

‘The Story of My Wife’ by Ildiko Enyedi, Hungary

Featuring Lea Seydoux, who starred in “Blue Is The Warmest Colour” that won Cannes in 2013, Enyedi’s film kicks off with a bet by a sea captain that he’ll marry the first woman who walks in. The film is based on a novel by Milan Fust.

‘Flag Day’ by Sean Penn, US

Star actor Penn again steps behind the camera — as well as in front of it — for “Flag Day”, also starring his daughter Dylan Penn as well as Josh Brolin, in which a father lives a double life as a con man, a fact his daughter, an investigative journalist, tries to come to terms with.

By Patrick Galey
Agence France-Presse

PARIS — Using higher doses of antibiotics in a bid to tackle the growing problem of drug resistance may end up strengthening certain bacteria, according to research released on Wednesday that highlights a previously unthought-of risk.

Antimicrobial resistance has been labelled by the United Nations as "one of the greatest threats we face as a global community" and is predicted to cause 10 million deaths annually by 2050.

Previous research has shown that inflicting higher antibiotic doses on bacteria can slow its ability to develop resistance, yet little attention has been paid to how those higher doses impact the overall health of microbes. 

A team of Britain- and Europe-based researchers looked at how populations of E. coli reacted to varying concentrations of three common antibiotics.

They found that while higher antibiotic doses slowed the rate at which the bacteria developed resistance, they also gave rise to bacteria with "higher overall fitness" — meaning it had a higher rate of reproduction.

"We consider growth rate as a proxy for fitness, under the assumption that a strain that grows faster is more likely to take over the population and become dominant," lead author Mato Lagator, from the University of Manchester's School of Biological Sciences, told AFP. 

The team behind the research, published in the journal Royal Society Biology Letters, said it showed how higher antibiotic doses presented a "dilemma" and could result in ultimately more-resistant bacteria.

"Considering the fitness of the evolved strains adds another dimension to the problem of optimal antibiotic dosing," they wrote.

'Trade-offs'

Several studies in recent years have warned of the risks of antibiotic over-prescription in medicine and over-use in livestock rearing, with the US Centre for Disease Control estimating that one in three prescriptions for antibiotics are unnecessary. 

"New drugs are typically developed with one dominant focus — how well they get rid of the infection," said Lagator. 

"What is rarely considered is the likelihood of target bacteria evolving resistance to those drugs, as well as the fitness of the resistant strains that are likely to emerge."

With antibiotic-resistant superbugs predicted to kill more people globally than cancer by mid-century, Lagator said that more research was needed into how higher doses impact the long-term evolution of bacteria. 

"Personally, I would say that the focus on immediate rewards — that drug effectiveness increases at higher doses — without understanding long term consequences can cause problems," he said. 

"There are trade-offs here that are complex and need further examination. Even in our fairly simple study, we found that resistance does emerge more slowly at higher doses, but when it does, those strains are in general better off."

By Eric Randolph
Agence France-Presse

PARIS — From making algae-sequin dresses, dyeing clothes with bacteria to planting trackable pigments in cotton, an emerging tide of technological innovations offers the fashion industry a chance to clean up its woeful environmental record.

Change is urgently needed, since the industry consumes 93 billion cubic metres of water per year, dumps 500,000 tonnes of plastic microfibres into the ocean, and accounts for 10 per cent of global carbon emissions, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. 

The growing demands for change have generated ingenious responses, such as New York designer Charlotte McCurdy’s seaweed raincoat.

The shimmering algae-plastic she concocted in a lab made for a striking (and carbon-free) garment, even more so when she teamed up with fashion designer Phillip Lim to make a sequin dress.

They are unlikely to show up in department stores. She sees them more as a way to demonstrate that de-carbonised clothes are possible. 

“I’m not trying to monetise it. I just want to plant a seed,” she told AFP. 

“Material development is so slow and it’s so hard to compete with cellphone apps for funding. Frankly, I take climate change seriously and I don’t have time,” said McCurdy, whose focus now is on forming an innovation and outreach hub.

Bacterial colours

Others, like Dutch designers Laura Luchtman and Ilfa Siebenhaar of Living Colour, are finding ways to reduce the toxic chemicals and intensive water consumption of dyeing clothes.

They found an unlikely ally in bacteria. 

Certain micro-organisms release natural pigments as they multiply and by deploying them on fabric, they dye clothes in striking colours and patterns.

The research is published freely online and the pair have no interest in mass-production.

Luchtman, who previously worked in fast-fashion, saw “up close the negative impact of that industry in terms of exploiting people and ecological problems” and is determined to stay small-scale.

Others, however, hope such ideas can infiltrate big business.

Californian start-up Bolt Threads recently teamed with Adidas, Lululemon, Kering and Stella McCartney to build production facilities for Mylo, a leather made from mushroom roots.

McCartney displayed her first Mylo collection in March, and Adidas has promised a Mylo sneaker by the end of the year.

Business imperative

Some experts are sceptical that such initiatives can lead to large-scale transformation.

“Maybe some of these things will get a foothold in the industry, but the bar is very high for new approaches,” warns Mark Sumner, a sustainability expert at the University of Leeds School of Design.

“It’s an incredibly diverse industry with thousands of factories and operators all doing different things. It’s not like the car industry where you only have to convince six or seven major companies to try something new.”

Sumner sees the biggest impact coming from improving rather than replacing the existing systems and says pressure from consumers and NGOs means this is already happening.

“Among responsible brands and retailers, this has genuinely moved away from being a fad. They are now considering sustainability as a business imperative,” he told AFP.

Not that there are any right or wrong answers. The sustainability movement’s strength comes from many actors pulling in the same direction. 

“Many different strategies need to run together,” said Celine Semaan, founder of the Slow Factory Foundation which supports multiple social and environmental justice initiatives around fashion, including McCurdy’s algae-sequin dress.

“Technology won’t resolve the issues on its own. It needs policy, culture, ethics,” Semaan said.

Cotton tracing

One area many see as a priority, however, is transparency, and here technology has a clear role to play.

Such is the complexity of supply chains that “many companies have no idea where their garments are made, where fabrics come from, who provides their raw materials,” said Delphine Williot, policy coordinator for Fashion Revolution, a campaign group.

Recent uproar over reports that cotton from China’s Xinjiang region was picked by forced labour was compounded by the difficulty of knowing where this cotton ended up. Beijing denies the allegations. 

Fibretrace, which won a sustainability award from Drapers magazine this year, offers a possible solution. 

It implants an indestructible bioluminescent pigment into threads. Any resulting garment can then be scanned like a barcode to find its origins.

“You can’t find the environmental impact of anything unless you know where it was made,” Andrew Olah, Fibretrace’s sales director, told AFP.

Combined with data sites like SourceMap and Open Apparel Registry that give companies unprecedented clarity on their supply chains, it has become increasingly hard to plead ignorance. 

“When you don’t share your supply chain, you either do it because you’re hiding something or you’re stupid,” said Olah. 

“There’s a lot of work to do,” he added. “But I’m very optimistic.”

By Marlowe Hood
Agence France-Presse

PARIS — More than a third of summer heat-related fatalities are due to climate change, researchers said on Monday, warning of even higher death tolls as global temperatures climb.

Previous research on how climate change affects human health has mostly projected future risks from heatwaves, droughts, wild fires and other extreme events made worse by global warming.

How much worse depends on how quickly humanity curbs carbon emissions, which hit record levels in 2019 but dipped sharply during the pandemic.

But a new study by an international team of 70 experts is one of the first — and the largest — to look at health consequences that have already happened, the authors said. 

The findings, published in Nature Climate Change, were stark: data from 732 locations in 43 countries spread across every inhabited continent revealed that, on average, 37 per cent of all heat-related deaths can be attributed directly to global warming.

“Climate change is not something in the distant future,” senior author Antonio Gasparrini, a professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told AFP.

“We can already measure negative impacts on health, in addition to the known environmental and ecological effects.”

The authors said their methods — if extended worldwide — would add up to more than 100,000 heat-related deaths per year laid squarely at the feet of manmade climate change.

Differences across countries

That number could be an underestimate because two of the regions for which data was largely missing — south Asia and central Africa — are known to be especially vulnerable to extreme heat deaths. 

The 100,000 figure is consistent with a recent analysis from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluations (IHME), published in The Lancet.

Th IHME calculated just over 300,000 heat-related deaths worldwide from all causes in 2019. If just over a third of those deaths are due to climate change, as Gasparrini’s team reported, the global total would indeed be more than 100,000. 

India accounted for more than a third of the total in the IHME tally, and four of the five worst-hit countries were in south Asia and central Africa.

The share of heat-related deaths attributable to global warming in the new study varied widely from country to country.

In the United States, Australia, France, Britain and Spain, for example, that percentage was roughly in line with the average across all countries, between 35 and 39 per cent.

For Mexico, South Africa, Thailand, Vietnam and Chile, the figure rose above 40 per cent.

And for half-a-dozen countries — Brazil, Peru, Colombia, the Philippines, Kuwait and Guatemala — the percentage of heat-related mortality caused by climate change was 60 per cent or more.

A complex methodology combining health data and temperature records from 1991 to 2018, coupled with climate modelling, allowed researchers to contrast the actual number of heat-related deaths with how many fewer deaths there would have been without manmade warming.

Adapt or die

The researchers found that it is not the increase in average summer temperature — up 1.5ºC since 1991 in the locations examined — that boosted death rates, but heatwaves: how long they last, nightime temperatures, and humidity levels.

Also crucial is the ability of the population to adapt. 

If 95 per cent of the population has air conditioning, mortality will be lower. But if they don’t, or if farmers must work outside in 45ºC heat to feed their families, the impacts can be catastrophic. 

Even wealthy nations remain vulnerable: in 2003, a relentless heatwave in western Europe claimed 70,000 lives.

Deadly heatwaves that might have occurred once a century before climate change kicked in could, by mid-century, happen far more frequently, scientists warn. 

The burgeoning field of attribution climate science measures by how much, for example, a typhoon’s intensity, a drought’s duration, or a storm surge’s destruction has been amplified by global warming.

But little research has tried to do the same for human health, notes Dan Mitchell, a researcher at the Cabot Institute for the Environment at the University of Bristol. 

“This shift in thinking is essential ... so that global leaders can understand the risks,” he said in a comment in Nature Climate Change.

A car-like compact crossover introduced for the 2020 model year, the Mazda CX-30 is a stylish and sporty addition to the Hiroshima-based manufacturer’s ever more premium-oriented line-up. Boasting a more connected driving dynamic than most crossovers in its class and an evocatively jutting and urgent design, the CX-30 also features an ergonomic and upmarket driver-oriented cabin. Driven in M Hybrid guise, the CX-30 incorporates a subtle and fluently integrated mild hybrid system to lower fuel consumption and emissions without corrupting the driving experience, as more heavy-handed hybrid systems often do.

Jutting athleticism

Slotting between CX-3 and CX-5 models, the CX-30 is Mazda’s second smallest crossover, styled with the automaker’s current “Kodo” design language. Distinctly Japanese, the CX-30’s aesthetic is characterised by its jutting, almost forward lunging fascia, dominant wire-mesh style grille and narrow, squinting and heavily browed headlights. Assertive with its urgent sense of momentum and forward motion, the CX-30’s design, however, steers clear of brutal aggression, but instead has an elegantly flowing sense athleticism and incorporates a pert rear with short overhang and rakishly descending roofline tipped with a sharp tailgate spoiler.

Among the most innovative and independently-minded auto makers in its on-going development of the combustion engine, Mazda’s Skyactiv technologies incorporate high compression, direct injection, optimised gas flow, shortened combustion duration, and piston cavities for improved efficiency and performance. Powering the Jordanian market CX-30 is the naturally-aspirated 2-litre four-cylinder Skyactiv-G engine, now mated to Mazda’s take on hybrid drive-lines, in the form of the M Hybrid system, which incorporates an integrated starter generator and regenerative braking to scavenge kinetic energy to power a small electric motor and comparatively small 24V battery.

Eager delivery

Positioned transversely and driving the front wheels, as driven, the Mazda CX-30’s naturally-aspirated engine develops 153BHP at 6,000rpm and 147lb/ft torque at 4,000rpm. Smooth and linear in delivery, the CX-30’s combustion engine is subtly assisted by its electric motor during acceleration from standstill and through gears, to ensure smoother cog changes and un-interrupted power flow. The electric motor also seems to chip in at higher revs and throttle positions for improved on-the-move acceleration urgency, but otherwise its main task is to unburden the combustion engine by powering electrical ancillary systems.

With its combustion engine delivering precise throttle control and seamlessly smooth and progressive power accumulation, the CX-30 allows the driver to dial in exact power increments, for a predictable yet engaging driving experience. For its part, the CX-30’s electric assistance is well-integrated, responsive and almost imperceptible coming on, and while there is a brief moment of throttle lift-off delay, this is rare and much less than most hybrids. The CX-30’s six-speed automatic gearbox is meanwhile, smooth and responsive to inputs and through gears, in both auto and manual paddle-shift modes.

Silky and seamless

As sporty in character as its looks suggest, the CX-30’s engine may not be the most powerful among comparable crossovers, but is among the most rewardingly visceral, as it eagerly and urgently revs to it redline, accompanied by a sweet, soft-edged guttural soundtrack. Assisted by its electric motor when necessary, it is confident from standstill and in overtaking, with 0-100km/h arriving in 10-seconds or less, and is meanwhile capable of a top speed of 194km/h. Braking is similarly confident and with good pedal feel and precision for easy modulation.

With eager and silky smooth delivery and handling abilities complementing each other, the CX-30 allows one to utilise its full performance and dynamic package through winding roads, hill climbs and whenever else called upon, as one comes back on throttle early when exiting corners. Turning into corners tidily and with only hint of understeer at its high grip limit, the CX-30 finely balances cornering agility and adjustability, with road-holding, commitment and confidence. Meanwhile, its quick, well-weighted steering offers direct precision and better road feel than most in its class.

Fluency and finesse

Offered with optional all-wheel-drive in some markets, the CX-30 seems more fluent and predictable in front-wheel-drive guise, without sudden rearwards power delivery. Among the best handling in its class, the CX-30 dispatches winding switchbacks with fluency and finesse, and is ever willing to adjust weight to the outside and rear when asked, to tighten a cornering line. Well-controlling cornering body lean, the CX-30 is meanwhile, stable and refined on highway. Settled vertically, with buttoned down confidence on rebound, the CX-30’s ride is forgiving but slightly firm over jagged lumps and bumps.

A well equipped compact crossover available in three specification packages locally, the CX-30 offers plenty of comfort, convenience and safety features including reversing camera and rear cross-path warning system, as driven in top spec. Classy and with convincing premium intentions, the CX-30’s cabin is ergonomic and user-friendly with clear instrumentation, and highly adjustable, comfortable and supportive driving position. Incorporating quality materials, soft textures and stylishly clean and uncluttered design, it has a sportily upmarket ambiance. Meanwhile above average rear space better accommodates taller, larger passengers than most rivals, while boot space is well packaged.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 2-litre, transverse 4-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 83.5 x 91.2mm

Compression ratio: 10:1

Valve-train: 16-valve, DOHC, variable timing

Hybrid system: Integrated starter generator, 24V battery

Gearbox: 6-speed automatic, front-wheel-drive

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 153 (155) [114] @6,000rpm

Specific power: 76.5BHP/litre

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 147.5 (200) @4,000rpm

Specific torque: 100.1Nm/litre

0-100km/h: under 10-seconds (estimate)

Top speed: 194km/h

Fuel capacity: 51-litres

Length: 4,395mm

Width: 1,795mm

Height: 1,540mm

Wheelbase: 2,655mm

Tread: 1,565mm

Overhang, F/R: 915/825mm

Ground clearance: 175mm

Headroom, F/R: 967/973mm

Shoulder room, F/R: 1,412/1,361mm

Hip room, F/R: 1,388/1,352mm

Luggage volume, min/max: 430-/1,406-litres

Kerb weight: under 1,500kg (estimate)

Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts/torsion beam

Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion

Turning circle: 11.36-metres

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs/discs

Tyres: 215/55R18

Price, on-the-road, without insurance: Starting from JD24,500