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Cherokee Tribe Pushes to Restore name of Great Smoky Mountains' Highest Peak

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Cherokee Tribe Pushes to Restore name of Great Smoky Mountains' Highest Peak

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Why Suppressing Wildfires Might be Making the Western Fire Crisis Worse

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Why Suppressing Wildfires Might be Making the Western Fire Crisis Worse

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ASHLAND, Ore. - Jason Fischer watches a firefighting chopper scoop a big bucket of water out of the Klamath River, as it douses hotspots on the McKinney Fire in remote Northern California.

The flames threatening his sixth-generation cattle farm, Fischer looks across the narrow river canyon at a steep, charred mountainside. All the trees are blackened silhouettes.

His face twists into a scowl.

"This whole fire we knew ... it was a bomb," he says.

The last time the forests on the other side of the river burned was the Haystack Fire in 1955.

"And after that, they never did anything to manage the land, so all that grew back was brush," Fischer says. "The brush was 10 feet high, so one little spark when it's 113 degrees outside."

Fischer's frustration is one you hear a lot in this corner of the West, especially where the timber industry - once mighty - has largely shut down. The forests are neglected, not being managed, the saying goes. Environmental laws prevent them from being thinned or logged.

"People are tired and worn out from the downturn of the timber industry and the poverty and lack of funds and lack of action," says Larry Alexander, director of the Northern California Resource Center in nearby Fort Jones, Calif. "Then they look up and see everything burn up, and so they get angry."

Wildfires have burned about six million acres of land so far this year, mostly in the West and Alaska. Due to prior forest management decisions, including a century or more of suppressing wildfires, Alexander says many forests are a tinder box.

Severe drought and prolonged heatwaves - now more common with climate change - have exacerbated the problem. Yet Alexander and other foresters on the ground in Western states say there are finally signs that the needle is starting to move away from full fire suppression and toward more upfront mitigation and prevention work.
Really good timing
On a ridge, a couple thousand feet above Jason Fischer's farm, Clint Isbell, the fire ecologist for the Klamath National Forest, is looking across at the same forested land with a bit more optimism.

"We put in these strategic fuel breaks that you can see across the landscape," he says, pointing to the west into a brisk wind. "A lot of them are on ridges."

U.S. taxpayers recently paid to bulldoze and clear out these "strategic fuel breaks," which are built with the intention of slowing down a fire before it reaches homes, communities and critical infrastructure such aspowerlines. The idea is that firefighters can then try to at least make a stand in places like this.

A years-long, 10,000-acre hazardous fuels reduction project, including thinning in these rugged mountains and canyons, is ongoing. And to the east, down the mountainside, another federally funded project paid to clear out brush on private land around the perimeter of the town of Yreka, Calif.

Remarkably, that last project was completed just three days before the McKinney Fire ignited.

"Yeah, really good timing," Isbell says.

The agency believes this upfront work may have helped firefighters tackle the McKinney Fire, which is believed to have destroyed more than 100homes and killed four people. But despite fears, it didn't turn into as bad of an inferno as last summer's Dixie Fire, which burned more than one million acres in northeastern California, or the Calf Canyon-Hermits Peak Fire earlier this year that became the largest in New Mexico's history.

"We can't do anything about drought, it's climate change," says Nickie Johnny, an incident commander who managed the McKinney and Calf Canyon fires this summer.

There is growing acknowledgement among veteran managers that these modern wildfires burning amid record heat waves and extreme drought can never be stopped by firefighters alone.

"We just have to figure out how we're going to get out ahead of it or what we're going to do in the aftermath of it," Johnny says.

One recent hot afternoon, as more red flag warnings for extreme fire danger came into effect,Johnny took stock of the conditions that led up to elite teams like hers having to respond to Siskiyou County, Calif., where the McKinney was just one of several fires burning this August. While still too early to assess fully, she suspected some of the upfront mitigation work may have allowed her crews to position in safer places. That allowed them to begin digging a line around the perimeter of parts of the fire, eventually helping to contain it.

But in extreme drought made worse by climate change, Johnny says preparation work can only go so far. Now the U.S. government and other agencies like Cal Fire have no choice but to throw everything they can at the crisis in the moment. There's just too much at risk, she says, from lives and property to critical watersheds for cities.

At one point, 3,700 firefighters responded to the McKinney Fire.

"We've been focusing on fire suppression [in California] for the last three years because that's where the need is," Johnny says.
Stopping fires is making things worse
Some say we've backed ourselves into this corner.

Firefighters are really good at suppressing almost every wildfire on initial attack, only a few - 3% or less - of ignitions get away and turn into large blazes like McKinney. But every time they stop one, don't they just leave more fuel on the ground for the next fire?

This conundrum is often described as the fire paradox. And there's no easy solution, says forestry professor Andrew Sanchez Meador, who runs the Ecological Restoration Institute at Northern Arizona University.

"It took us 150 years to get into this problem , so it's not a problem we're going to get ourselves out of quickly," he says.

But Sanchez Meador is encouraged by what he sees is a paradigm shift starting to happen in the nation's hulking firefighting program, sometimes even dubbed the fire-industrial complex. Last year, the U.S. government spent a record $4.3 billion on fire suppression. But there are now tens of millions of federal and state dollars also going toward upfront mitigation work.
Allow fires to happen without killing everything
Just over the mountains from Yreka, Calif., near the historic gold mining town of Jacksonville, Ore., smoke and haze from the McKinney Fire hangs in the air as Rich Fairbanks steers his small pickup up a winding mountain highway.

Forests with dense stands of trees line the road, up to 300 packed into an acre in places.

"The people that are responsible for the safety of a fire crew, they don't like that at all," Fairbanks says looking up toward the dark woods. " They cannot see that spot fire starting up behind them and maybe trapping their crew."

Fairbanks is a retired U.S. Forest Service firefighter who now runs a small forestry company. They got a grant from the new Infrastructure Law that could make a big difference here. Further up the road, crews have already thinned out trees from private land that's peppered with homes and small outbuildings. The trees are stacked in piles awaiting to be burned this Fall when it's cooler and wetter.

"The idea is to make it so that the fires still happen, but they don't kill everything, and burn people up in their cars for heaven's sakes," Fairbanks says.

The thinning is also intended to create a bigger buffer around this already existing fire break - the highway. Fairbanks says a wildfire is probably inevitable here, but a catastrophic blaze with a chaotic evacuation along this road doesn't have to be.

"This [project] is a good use of tax dollars in my opinion," he says.

Everyone along this road signed up for the free treatments. Fairbanks also is encouraged by what he sees as a paradigm shift in state and federal agencies toward prioritizing work like this, and among Westerners who are starting to understand they have to learn to live with wildfires.

But some people still don't get it.

"Unfortunately, there are politicians who make hay out of saying, 'They should put out every single fire all the time forever,' which is just really dumb," Fairbanks says.

For foresters like him, a smarter path is the upfront work like this. It takes longer and doesn't make for dramatic headlines. But it might at least make some of these modern wildfires manageable again.

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Why suppressing wildfires may be making the Western fire crisis worse

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ASHLAND, Ore. - Jason Fischer watches a firefighting chopper scoop a big bucket of water out of the Klamath River, as it douses hotspots on the McKinney Fire in remote Northern California. The flames threatening his sixth-generation cattle farm, Fischer looks across the narrow river canyon at a steep, charred mountainside.

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The Future of Fashion: Made from Mushrooms

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The Future of Fashion: Made from Mushrooms

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The Future of Fashion – Made from Mushrooms | Dan Widmaier | TED

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - Years late and billions over budget, NASA's new moon rocket makes its debut next week in a high-stakes test flight before astronauts get on top.

The 322-foot (98-meter) rocket will attempt to send an empty crew capsule into a far-flung lunar orbit, 50 years after NASA's famed Apollo moonshots.

If all goes well, astronauts could strap in as soon as 2024 for a lap around the moon, with NASA aiming to land two people on the lunar surface by the end of 2025.

Liftoff is set for Monday morning from NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

The six-week test flight is risky and could be cut short if something fails, NASA officials warn.

"We're going to stress it and test it. We're going make it do things that we would never do with a crew on it in order to try to make it as safe as possible," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The retired founder of George Washington University's space policy institute said a lot is riding on this trial run. Spiraling costs and long gaps between missions will make for a tough comeback if things go south, he noted.

"It is supposed to be the first step in a sustained program of human exploration of the moon, Mars, and beyond," said John Logsdon. "Will the United States have the will to push forward in the face of a major malfunction?"

The price tag for this single mission: more than $4 billion. Add everything up since the program's inception a decade ago until a 2025 lunar landing, and there's even more sticker shock: $93 billion.

Here's a rundown of the first flight of the Artemis program, named after Apollo's mythological twin sister.

ROCKET POWER

The new rocket is shorter and slimmer than the Saturn V rockets that hurled 24 Apollo astronauts to the moon a half-century ago. But it's mightier, packing 8.8 million pounds (4 million kilograms) of thrust. It's called the Space Launch System rocket, SLS for short, but a less clunky name is under discussion, according to Nelson. Unlike the streamlined Saturn V, the new rocket has a pair of strap-on boosters refashioned from NASA's space shuttles. The boosters will peel away after two minutes, just like the shuttle boosters did, but won't be fished from the Atlantic for reuse. The core stage will keep firing before separating and crashing into the Pacific in pieces. Two hours after liftoff, an upper stage will send the capsule, Orion, racing toward the moon.

MOONSHIP

NASA's high-tech, automated Orion capsule is named after the constellation, among the night sky's brightest. At 11 feet (3 meters) tall, it's roomier than Apollo's capsule, seating four astronauts instead of three. For this test flight, a full-size dummy in an orange flight suit will occupy the commander's seat, rigged with vibration and acceleration sensors. Two other mannequins made of material simulating human tissue - heads and female torsos, but no limbs - will measure cosmic radiation, one of the biggest risks of spaceflight. One torso is testing a protective vest from Israel. Unlike the rocket, Orion has launched before, making two laps around Earth in 2014. This time, the European Space Agency's service module will be attached for propulsion and solar power via four wings.

FLIGHT PLAN

Orion's flight is supposed to last six weeks from its Florida liftoff to Pacific splashdown, twice as long as astronaut trips in order to tax the systems. It will take nearly a week to reach the moon, 240,000 miles (386,000 kilometers) away. After whipping closely around the moon, the capsule will enter a distant orbit with a far point of 38,000 miles (61,000 kilometers). That will put Orion 280,000 miles (450,000 kilometers) from Earth, farther than Apollo. The big test comes at mission's end, as Orion hits the atmosphere at 25,000 mph (40,000 kph) on its way to a splashdown in the Pacific. The heat shield uses the same material as the Apollo capsules to withstand reentry temperatures of 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,750 degrees Celsius). But the advanced design anticipates the faster, hotter returns by future Mars crews.

HITCHHIKERS

Besides three test dummies, the flight has a slew of stowaways for deep space research. Ten shoebox-size satellites will pop off once Orion is hurtling toward the moon. The problem is these so-called CubeSats were installed in the rocket a year ago, and the batteries for half of them couldn't be recharged as the launch kept getting delayed. NASA expects some to fail, given the low-cost, high-risk nature of these mini satellites. The radiation-measuring CubeSats should be OK. Also in the clear: a solar sail demo targeting an asteroid. In a back-to-the-future salute, Orion will carry a few slivers of moon rocks collected by Apollo 11′s Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969, and a bolt from one of their rocket engines, salvaged from the sea a decade ago. Aldrin isn't attending the launch, according to NASA, but three of his former colleagues will be there: Apollo 7′s Walter Cunningham, Apollo 10′s Tom Stafford and Apollo 17′s Harrison Schmitt, the next-to-last man to walk on the moon.

APOLLO VS. ARTEMIS

More than 50 years later, Apollo still stands as NASA's greatest achievement. Using 1960s technology, NASA took just eight years to go from launching its first astronaut, Alan Shepard, and landing Armstrong and Aldrin on the moon. By contrast, Artemis already has dragged on for more than a decade, despite building on the short-lived moon exploration program Constellation. Twelve Apollo astronauts walked on the moon from 1969 through 1972, staying no longer than three days at a time. For Artemis, NASA will be drawing from a diverse astronaut pool currently numbering 42 and is extending the time crews will spend on the moon to at least a week. The goal is to create a long-term lunar presence that will grease the skids for sending people to Mars. NASA's Nelson, promises to announce the first Artemis moon crews once Orion is back on Earth.

WHAT'S NEXT

There's a lot more to be done before astronauts step on the moon again. A second test flight will send four astronauts around the moon and back, perhaps as early as 2024. A year or so later, NASA aims to send another four up, with two of them touching down at the lunar south pole. Orion doesn't come with its own lunar lander like the Apollo spacecraft did, so NASA has hired Elon Musk's SpaceX to provide its Starship spacecraft for the first Artemis moon landing. Two other private companies are developing moonwalking suits. The sci-fi-looking Starship would link up with Orion at the moon and take a pair of astronauts to the surface and back to the capsule for the ride home. So far, Starship has only soared six miles (10 kilometers). Musk wants to launch Starship around Earth on SpaceX's Super Heavy Booster before attempting a moon landing without a crew. One hitch: Starship will need a fill-up at an Earth-orbiting fuel depot, before heading to the moon.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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EXPLAINER: NASA tests new moon rocket, 50 years after Apollo

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - Years late and billions over budget, NASA's new moon rocket makes its debut next week in a high-stakes test flight before astronauts get on top. The 322-foot (98-meter) rocket will attempt to send an empty crew capsule into a far-flung lunar orbit, 50 years after NASA's famed Apollo moonshots.

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BEFORE COMPLETING THE ASSIGNMENT: Log into Padlet through Google or using your MCSD email so that your classmates can view your responses.

Choose one of the articles or videos from this section and write a 200-300 word response that addresses the following questions:
What is the issue or topic described in the article?
What stuck out to you the most as you were reading/listening?
How does the topic in this article affect the entire world?
Would/does the topic of your article affect people living in Mifflin County? How?
What is something new you learned from the article?

Please do not format your comment by numbering answers to your questions. The answers should be in paragraph form and should make sense when read as a whole.

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Remembering the legacy of Queen Elizabeth II

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Remembering the legacy of Queen Elizabeth II

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Remembering the legacy of Queen Elizabeth II | Nightline

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2 decades later, 9/11 self-professed mastermind awaits trial

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2 decades later, 9/11 self-professed mastermind awaits trial

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NEW YORK (AP) - Hours before dawn on March 1, 2003, the U.S. scored its most thrilling victory yet against the plotters of the Sept. 11 attacks - the capture of a disheveled Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, hauled away by intelligence agents from a hideout in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

The global manhunt for al-Qaida's No. 3 leader had taken 18 months. But America's attempt to bring him to justice, in a legal sense, has taken much, much longer. Critics say it has become one of the war on terror's greatest failures.

As Sunday's 21st anniversary of the terror attacks approaches, Mohammed and four other men accused of 9/11-related crimes still sit in a U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, their planned trials before a military tribunal endlessly postponed.

The latest setback came last month when pretrial hearings scheduled for early fall were canceled. The delay was one more in a string of disappointments for relatives of the nearly 3,000 victims of the attack. They've long hoped that a trial would bring closure and perhaps resolve unanswered questions.

"Now, I'm not sure what's going to happen," said Gordon Haberman, whose 25-year-old daughter Andrea died after a hijacked plane crashed into the the World Trade Center, a floor above her office.

He's traveled to Guantanamo four times from his home in West Bend, Wisconsin, to watch the legal proceedings in person, only to leave frustrated.

"It's important to me that America finally gets to the truth about what happened, how it was done," said Haberman. "I personally want to see this go to trial."

If convicted at trial, Mohammed could face the death penalty.

When asked about the case, James Connell, an attorney for one of Mohammed's co-defendants - one accused of transferring money to 9/11 attackers - confirmed reports both sides are still "attempting to reach a pretrial agreement" that could still avoid a trial and result in lesser but still lengthy sentences.

David Kelley, a former U.S. attorney in New York who co-chaired the Justice Department's nationwide investigation into the attacks, called the delays and failure to prosecute "an awful tragedy for the families of the victims."

He called the effort to put Mohammed on trial before a military tribunal, rather than in the regular U.S. court system, "a tremendous failure" that was "as offensive to our Constitution as to our rule of law."

"It's a tremendous blemish on the country's history," he said.

The difficulty in holding a trial for Mohammed and other Guantanamo prisoners is partly rooted in what the U.S. did with him after his 2003 capture.

Mohammed and his co-defendants were initially held in secret prisons abroad. Hungry for information that might lead to the capture of other al-Qaida figures, CIA operatives subjected them to enhanced interrogation techniques that were tantamount to torture, human rights groups say. Mohammed was waterboarded - made to feel that he was drowning - 183 times.

A Senate investigation later concluded the interrogations didn't lead to any valuable intelligence. But it has sparked endless pretrial litigation over whether FBI reports on their statements can be used against them - a process not subject to speedy trial rules used in civilian courts.

The torture allegations led to concerns that the U.S. might have ruined its chance to put Mohammed on trial in a civilian court.

But in 2009, President Barack Obama's administration decided to try, announcing that Mohammed would be transferred to New York City and put on trial at a federal court in Manhattan.

"Failure is not an option," Obama said.

But New York City balked at the cost of security and the move never came. Eventually, it was announced Mohammed would face a military tribunal. And then over a dozen years passed.

Kelley said talk of military tribunals two decades ago surprised many in the legal community who had been successfully prosecuting terrorism cases in the decade before. The concept of a tribunal, he said, "came out of the blue. Nobody knew it was coming."

Then-Attorney General John Ashcroft was not in favor of tribunals and had been supportive of the Manhattan federal terrorism prosecutions, he said.

Now, Kelley said, with the passage of time it will be much more difficult to prosecute Mohammed in a tribunal, much less a courtroom. "Evidence goes stale, witness memories fail."

The passage of time hasn't dulled the memories of the victims' families or dampened their interest in witnessing justice.

Eddie Bracken's sister Lucy Fishman was killed at the trade center. The New Yorker opposed Obama's proposal to move the trial to federal court - Mohammed is charged with "a military act," and should be tried by the military, he reasoned. And while he is somewhat frustrated by the delays, he understands them.

"The whole world is looking at us and saying, 'What are they doing after all this time?'" he said. But he realizes the case is "a process that the world is seeing, that needs to be done under a microscope. ... It's up to the United States to do their due diligence, make sure it's done right."

"The wheels of justice turn. They turn slowly, but they turn. And when the time comes, and it's said and done, the world will know what happened," he adds.

While Mohammed has lingered at Guantanamo, the U.S. killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in a 2011 raid and deputy-turned-successor Ayman al-Zawahri in a drone strike just this August.

Investigators with the military commission at Guantanamo Bay said he plotted the 9/11 attacks for three years. They cited a computer hard drive seized at his arrest which they said contained photographs of the 19 hijackers, three letters from bin Laden and information about some hijackers.

Mohammed, at his tribunal hearing, conceded in a written statement that he swore allegiance to Osama bin Laden, that he was on al-Qaida's council and that he served as operational director for bin Laden for the organizing, planning, follow-up and execution of the Sept. 11 plot "from A to Z."

According to the statement, he also took credit for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center; an attempt to down U.S. jetliners using bombs hidden in shoes; the bombing of a nightclub in Indonesia; and plans for a second wave of attacks after the 2001 attacks targeting landmarks like the Sears Tower in Chicago and Manhattan's Empire State Building.

He also claimed credit for other planned attacks, including assassination attempts against then-President Bill Clinton in 1994 or 1995 and an assassination plot against Pope John Paul II at about the same time, the statement said.

Mohammed's nearly two decades in legal limbo differs from the fate of his nephew, Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing that killed six people, injured 1,000 others and left a crater in the parking garage beneath the twin towers.

Yousef is serving life in prison after being convicted at two separate civilian trials. He was also captured in Pakistan, in 1995, but was brought to the United States for trial.

At the time, Yousef said his right to kill people was comparable to the U.S. decision to drop a nuclear bomb in World War II. Mohammed has offered a similar justification, saying through an interpreter at a Guantanamo proceeding that killing people was the "language of any war."

Bracken traveled to Guantanamo in 2012 to watch one hearing for Mohammed and his co-defendants, and would probably go again if a trial ever happened.

"I don't know if I want to go there again to bring back all the hurt and pain. But if I'm allowed to go, then I guess I would go. Yeah. My sister would do that for me."

"She's that type of a woman," he added. Then he corrected himself: "She was that type of a woman."

___

Antlfinger reported from West Bend, Wisconsin. Associated Press writers Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington and Tom Hays in New York contributed to this story.

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2 decades later, 9/11 self-professed mastermind awaits trial

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NEW YORK (AP) - Hours before dawn on March 1, 2003, the U.S. scored its most thrilling victory yet against the plotters of the Sept. 11 attacks - the capture of a disheveled Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, hauled away by intelligence agents from a hideout in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

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New 988 mental health crisis line sees jump in calls and texts during first month

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New 988 mental health crisis line sees jump in calls and texts during first month

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The new 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is already reaching more Americans in distress - and connecting them to help faster - than the old 10-digit suicide prevention line it replaced July 16.

New data released Friday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services show that in August - the first full month that 988 was operational - the Lifeline saw a 45% increase in overall volume of calls, texts and chats compared to August 2021.

The number of calls answered went up from 141,400 to 216,000 - a more than 50% increase, according to HHS officials. And texts answered went up by a whopping 1000% - from 3,400 in August, 2021, to 39,900 in August of this year. The number of chats on the Lifeline's website that were answered saw a 195% increase.

"Our nation's transition to 988 moves us closer to better serving the crisis care needs of people across America," said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra in a statement.

The numbers encouraging, says psychologist Ben Miller, a mental health policy advocate.

"As far as data points go, this is good news," he says. "People are using the line, which is what we want. It's going to help save lives, which is what we want."

Particularly heartening is the data showing people are having to wait less to connect to a trained counselor in one of the more than 200 call centers that make up the national 988 network, he adds.

HHS officials say that in August of 2021, the average response time for calls, chats and texts was 2 minutes and 30 seconds, which Miller says is a long time to wait for someone in crisis.

But, this August, that response time dropped down to 42 seconds - a significant improvement, he adds.

The Biden administration has invested historic amounts of money towards beefing up the 988 infrastructure, and much of the money has gone towards adding new backup call centers, as well as hiring more people to answer calls at the existing call centers.

"I don't really know how this will play out over time, but to see such a huge increase, I have to attribute it to the fact that there's more resources, meaning more call center staff, meaning more opportunities to develop the appropriate infrastructure to help get to people quicker," says Miller.

Kellene Diana, 41, a resident of Baltimore and a mental health advocate says she's used this the suicide prevention line several times, especially during the pandemic, when she had frequent panic attacks.

"It has been instrumental in getting me through dark nights, long nights, scary nights," says Diana, who has also called 988 recently to help loved ones and community members in crisis.

But, while 988 is certainly helping more people overall, we don't know yet how the system is faring in individual states, cautions Miller. The newly released data doesn't have a state-by-state breakdown.

"There's going to be massive disparities across the states," he says.

While the 988 Lifeline is accessible nationally, with a national network of call centers, it essentially functions as a state-run system. And states vary vastly in how much they have invested in the former 10-digit Lifeline and associated services. According to a recent analysis by the National Institute of Mental Illness, very few states have passed legislation to supplement the recent federal funds into 988.

So, seeing how individual states are doing is key to understanding which states will need more help and funding, and in what way, explains Miller.

And the quality of service can even vary between people who work at the crisis call centers, says Diona, 34, a resident of Harlem, N.Y., and a member of Fountain House, a social club for people with mental illness.

Diona has long struggled with suicidal thoughts and attempts, and is a frequent caller to 988 and the previous 10-digit lifeline. (NPR is only using her first name because of the stigma of mental health conditions.)

"I think it really depends on who's working there, who is answering the call," she says, "because there have been a few times where the person has not been hopeful or hasn't believed me."

Though many of her calls to the line have helped her, she says one time, in June 2021, she felt even more hopeless after talking to the counselor on the line, and ended up attempting suicide.

And despite all the recent additional funding for the network, calls during the weekend still take a long time to be answered, says Diona.

"Workforce remains a major issue and will continue to be in the foreseeable future," notes Miller. "Almost every state is looking to hire more professionals to staff the over 200 [call centers.]"

The pandemic has worsened a pre-existing shortage of mental health care providers and many call centers have had trouble hiring counselors at call centers. The level and quality of training counselors staffing the phone lines also varies widely, according to mental health experts.

"I think if we don't aggressively pursue solutions in recruiting and retaining the workforce, we're going to have a lot bigger problems down the road," says Miller.

It's a problem that HHS recognizes. Today, the agency also announced a new $35 million grant to support 988 services in tribal communities, where the need is high but access to care has additional challenges. This new funding is specifically to add more trained counselors to address the needs of tribal communities.

"The transition to 988 is just the beginning," said Becerra in a statement. "We will continue working towards comprehensive, responsive crisis care services nationwide to save lives."

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New 988 mental health crisis line sees jump in calls and texts during first month

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The new 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is already reaching more Americans in distress - and connecting them to help faster - than the old 10-digit suicide prevention line it replaced July 16. New data released Friday by the U.S.

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Should K-12 Students Dissect Animals in Science Classrooms?

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Should K-12 Students Dissect Animals in Science Classrooms?

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Dissecting a frog might be one of the most memorable school experiences for many students, whether they are enthusiastic participants, prefer lab time to lectures, or are conscientious objectors to dissection.

The use of animal dissection in education goes back as far as the 1500s when Belgian doctor Andreas Vesalius used the practice as an instructional method for his medical students. [ 1]

Animal dissections became part of American K-12 school curricula in the 1920s. About 75-80% of North American students will dissect an animal by the time they graduate high school. An estimated six to 12 million animals are dissected in American schools each year. [ 2] In at least 18 states and DC, K-12 students have the legal option to request an alternate assignment to animal dissection. [ 3]

While frogs are the most common animal for K-12 students to dissect, students also encounter fetal pigs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, rats, minks, birds, turtles, snakes, crayfish, perch, starfish, and earthworms, as well as grasshoppers and other insects. Sometimes students dissect parts of animals such as sheep lungs, cows' eyes, and bull testicles. [ 2]

Are animal dissections in K-12 schools crucial learning opportunities that encourage science careers and make good use of dead animals? Or are animal dissections unnecessary experiments that promote environmental damage when ethical alternatives exist?

Should K-12 Students Dissect Animals in Science Classrooms?

Pro 1

Dissecting a real animal provides students with more learning opportunities.

87.5% of teachers polled agreed that "real animal dissection is important to the teaching of biology," while 56.3% agreed that "there are no substitutes for real animal dissection." [ 4]

Dissecting an animal offers education in fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and handling sharp objects carefully. Hands-on learning keeps students more engaged, which facilitates assimilation of information. [ 5] The American Psychological Association adds that animal dissection "engenders creativity, original thought, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills." [ 6]

Using a real animal also helps to instruct students on the ethics of using animals in research. [ 4] Teachers can explain how the animals were sourced, demonstrate proper treatment of dead animals, and imbue a respect for life among students.
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Pro 2

Dissection can encourage students to pursue careers in science.

Vicki Besack, a high school science teacher in Florida, said, "Dissection ... is an amazing hands-on experience," adding that it "has the power to cause a student to change how they think about science and possibly what they may pursue as a career. It gives them that 'aha' moment." [ 7]

Teachers report that students gain invaluable hands-on science experience from dissection, including putting on lab coats and gloves, handling scalpels, and looking at samples under microscopes. The entire process can spark inspiration and excitement. [ 8]

Julianna Music, a former high school student, argued in favor of dissection in the classroom by stating, "Biology is the study of life, and dissection is crucial for the understanding of life; it is a hands-on way to learn and paves a pathway for students with dreams of careers in that field... [I]t lays the foundation for possible discoveries in animal diseases and prepares young people to become future veterinarians." One of Music's classmates developed a desire to become an optometrist after dissecting a sheep eye in school. [ 9]
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Pro 3

Animal dissection is a productive and worthwhile use for dead animals.

A large portion of dissected animals were already dead before being allocated for dissection. Having students dissect the animals allows for a learning opportunity instead of just wasting the animal.

Bio Corp, a biological supply company, reported that more than 98% of the animals they received were already dead. Bill Wadd, Co-Owner of Bio Corp, stated, "We just take what people would throw away. Instead of throwing it in the trash, why not have students learn from it?" [ 10]

Most animals used in classroom dissections are purchased from biological supply companies. Some animals, such as cats, are sourced from shelters that have already euthanized the animals. However, cats and dogs account for fewer than 1% of lab animals. Fetal pigs are byproducts of the meat industry that would have otherwise been sent to a landfill. [ 11] [ 12]
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Con 1

Methods used to supply animals for dissections are bad for the environment and inhumane.

An estimated 99% of animals used in dissections are caught in the wild, a practice that may decrease local populations, lead to an imbalance in the ecosystem, and reduce biodiversity. [ 13] [ 14]

Fetal pigs used in schools are sourced from the meat industry and grown in horrific conditions. Animalearn, the educational arm of the American Anti- Vivisection Society, said, "they are deprived of space, fresh air, and fresh forage for the duration of their shortened lives... The fetuses that end up in the dissection tray are taken from pregnant sows at the slaughterhouse." [ 11]

Animals sold to schools for dissection may have died by suffocation, electrocution, drowning, or euthanasia. Cats and dogs used for dissection are sourced from shelters that unnecessarily euthanize the animals instead of adopting them out to families. [ 11]
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Con 2

Medical studies do not require or benefit from animal dissection.

Animal dissection is not required by the College Board for AP Biology, the International Baccalaureate for IB Biology, or the Next Generation Science Standards. [ 15] The inclusion of dissection units actually dissuades some students from taking elective science classes. [ 7]

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine says that "Animal dissection is not required for students to learn about and be engaged in science." [ 15] The group found that no medical schools in the US or Canada use animals to train new physicians; revered medical programs at schools such as Stanford, Yale, Harvard, and the Mayo Clinic all use alternatives to animals. [ 15] [ 16] [ 17] [ 18]

Nedim C. Buyukmihci, Professor of Ophthalmology at the Veterinary Medicine School of the University of California at Davis, stated, "As one who did not dissect in high school, and who now is a veterinarian and trains doctors-to-be, I can unequivocally state that the experience of dissection is totally unnecessary for the biologically minded precollege student." [ 19]
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Con 3

Dissecting real animals is unnecessary since alternatives exist.

Synthetic frogs made by SynDaver have the same visual and textural qualities as a dead female frog: skeletons with muscles, skin, and organs, including a reproductive system with eggs. The models can be reused year-after-year and don't need toxic formaldehyde for preservation. Students can use the model multiple times to gain a deeper understanding of the animal's anatomy. [ 20][ 21]

Technological advances have led to computer programs that can simulate the dissection of frogs, squid, fetal pigs, starfish, and cow eyes. [ 22]

According to a meta-review by the Humane Society, students learn just as well or better when models and computer simulations are substituted for dead animals. [ 22] Models and simulations also eliminate the "gross-out factor" of smelly, slimy real dead frogs, allowing students to focus on the learning activity rather than nausea. [ 23]
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Discussion Questions

1. Several cultures, including those of many Native American tribes [24], consider animal dissection taboo. Consider animal dissection as a cultural matter. Which communities disagree with animal dissection for cultural or religious reasons? What is their reasoning? How can schools accommodate these cultural views while promoting STEM studies and careers to the communities? Explain your answers.

2. ProCon.org has listed three pros and three cons above. What other pros and cons can you list? Brainstorm a list and then choose one pro or con to research and write a sourced and cited paragraph to support.

3. Have you had to (or will you have to) dissect an animal for science class in school? What are your thoughts? Will you perform the dissection or ask for an alternative assignment? Explain your answers.

4. Biological supply companies often use formaldehyde to preserve animals for dissection. According to Ken Roy, writing for the National Science Teaching Association, formaldehyde is "a known nasal and dermal carcinogen" and can cause allergy-related symptoms. Roy cautions, "no specimens that are preserved in formaldehyde should be used in middle school science!" [25] What safety precautions should be taken if animals preserved in formaldehyde are used in high school or college classrooms? Should animals be preserved in another way? Explain your answers.

Take Action
1. Explore Carolina Biological Supply Company's reasoning in favor of classroom dissections.

2. Determine whether your state has a student choice law or policy for dissection alternatives.

3. Consider dissection alternatives with the American Anti-Vivisection League.

4. Consider how you felt about the issue before reading this article. After reading the pros and cons on this topic, has your thinking changed? If so, how? List two to three ways. If your thoughts have not changed, list two to three ways your better understanding of the "other side of the issue" now helps you better argue your position.

5. Push for the position and policies you support by writing US national senators and representatives.
Sources

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Top 3 Pros and Cons of Animal Dissection - ProCon.org

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Dissecting a frog might be one of the most memorable school experiences for many students, whether they are enthusiastic participants, prefer lab time to lectures, or are conscientious objectors to dissection. The use of animal dissection in education goes back as far as the 1500s when Belgian doctor Andreas Vesalius used the practice as an instructional method for his medical students.