Cool. I don't know why though. Cool. We are allowing people to arrive. Just give a few more minutes. I hope everyone is well. We will start my event soon. Hi, Sandra. Just give us the chat. We will enable the chat for people to ask questions. If you have questions, please share them in the Q&A. We did not enable the chat. Hello, everyone. Give us one more moment. Hopefully, we can arrive soon. We are experiencing a technical difficulty. We will start. I'm going to begin introducing the panel. Hopefully, we can elevate the additional speaker when they arrive. Hopefully, we... Yep. So, hi. Welcome. This is the Wiki for Human Rights 2023 launch webinar as happens each year with a campaign. And we are... Sorry, we're experiencing a panelist difficulty. Give me one moment. So, hi. Welcome to the launch event. This is an opportunity for us to discuss the Wiki for Human Rights campaign and the themes and topics important to the campaign. This launch webinar is hosted as a partnership between the Wikimedia Foundation and UN Human Rights. We are excited to have you here as part of the collaboration. And we're going to do a brief introduction before we get to our panel. And hopefully, our other panelists can arrive. And that process. So, we're so excited to have you. What is the Wiki for Human Rights campaign? What is the right to a healthy environment? It's often very important to have this context. It's often very important to have this context as we go into running a campaign. And so, this is the introduction. We've been running this campaign for about four years now. First with a focus on the general knowledge gaps about human rights and Wikimedia projects. And it's all based on one idea that we all have an opportunity to act for the right for our rights by sharing knowledge about the environmental crisis and connecting it to human rights. This is a partnership as part of UN Human Rights and the Wikimedia Foundation. And we've been supported by UN Environmental Program, which allows us to prioritize and document the various knowledge gaps around the connection between human rights and the environment. This isn't just about the legal process of human rights or simply the knowledge gaps about specific environmental crises. It's not just about the climate crisis, pollution crisis, biodiversity crisis, but rather it's about how do we prepare for future generations? How do we make sure all humans can live in dignity and in relation to the environment in a healthy, sustainable way? It's really important because we live in a context in a world where many environmental crises, many elements of environmental degradation are around us every day. It's happening everywhere, it's affecting us all and it's affecting our human rights in the process. And the unintended consequences of our choices of the various things we do as society, both as industry and as individuals, as governments and as communities, affects our right to a healthy environment and also our other human rights. And so telling the story, making this connection in public knowledge through platforms like Wikimedia and Wikipedia projects are absolutely critical. And so our focus this year on the launch webinar and the conversation we're having is on documenting the impacts of pollution as one of those main environmental crises. And to explain a bit more on why the pollution is in focus this year and to connect it to the right to a healthy environment, I want to invite Juliana Almiaida to discuss this focus. Over to Juliana. Thank you, Alex. Thank you so much and the Wikimedia Foundation as well for organizing this campaign and this launch event, which is so important to ensure that we bring light to human rights and the connection between human rights and the environment. And so as you've been saying, of course, the idea, the goal is to include and recognize these human rights based approaches in how we deal with the triple planetary crisis of climate change, of biodiversity and nature loss and of pollution, which of course is the focus of this year's campaign. And so this connection between human rights and the environment has been increasing and it's actually culminated, as you've been saying, with this recognition of these human rights to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment by the General Assembly last year. So the General Assembly is the main policymaking organ of the UN and this also follows a recognition done in 2021 by the Human Rights Council. So this is the main boy in the UN that addresses human rights and human rights violations. So it has been the past two years have been important, very important in this context. And why is this right important? It's important because it means that all people have a tool to hold governments, hold big polluters and others into account of their environment, the environment arms that they cause around the world. And so in these, without going to a lot of detail on the right to the environment, but there is one element that deserves special attention and that is the access to information, which is exactly what this company is promoting and ensuring and disseminating. And so the public access to environmental information actually enables individuals to understand how any environmental arm may undermine their own rights, including the right to life, the right to health, and also these access to information and its right supports the exercise of other rights, the right to expression, the right to association, the right to participation, to have remedies and so on. There's already legally binding instruments that ensure this and more under discussion. So it's already a consolidated element also at the international level. But now just going, you can move the slide, Alex, to the next one. So we can just talk a bit on what is being done to actually address pollution at the international level, address pollution and toxics and it's the UN and the international community have been doing a lot on this. But pollution of course is not by any means a new phenomenon, is actually even more extensive, pervasive and persistent. It affects our health through the food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe. And even reports that came out last year from the Special Rapporteur of Human Rights and Environment identified pollution and toxic substances as the cause of at least 9 million premature deaths. So there's a lot of work to be done and I'll just go through some elements. Here in the photos you can see actually the agreement to start negotiations on a new plastics treaty that is meant to be finalized by the end of 2024. And it's the imperial recognition that from the international community that we need to deal with the plastics pandemic that we have right now. Let's think about the plastic in the Pacific, the block rivers in Guatemala, the micro plastics we have in our blood. So it's really a pandemic that we need also to address. Another ongoing initiative that I want to address is also the establishment of a science policy panel to contribute further to the sound management of chemicals and waste with the goal to prevent pollution. So this is under the assumption that all our work, policy work needs to be based on scientific evidence, which I think we will address these also during the launch. And so we have already panels like this one that wants to, that is being created for climate change and biodiversity. And now the goal is to have the same for pollution. Two more elements and then I finish, but just to say that there is also under discussion an update to the current policy framework to promote chemical safety around the world. It's a big name called the strategic approach to international chemicals management, but the idea is really to minimize the health and environmental impact of chemicals throughout their life cycle to ensure better protection of our health and the health of our planet. Finally, just to highlight that this year's World Environment Day on 5th of June will be focused on a beating classic pollution. It will be hosted by Cote d'Ivoire and the idea is really to call into further action and attention to challenges we are facing and of course gather momentum and call for more action. Thank you. I hope I wasn't too long and that I provided a good overview of what's happening and I wish everyone a good event and a good final discussion. Thank you so much, Juliana. It's wonderful to have partnership from UNEP and UN Human Rights to pursue and document the knowledge and it's so important for topics like climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss and I'm really excited we can talk about that theme just now. Before we get into the panel, we wanted to put a little bit of context. Why is the Wikimedia movement? Why is this community that forms, that edits Wikipedia and contributes to Wikipedia organizing to document this knowledge? What does that look like? We're going to show a video briefly that gives voice to some of our contributors in the Wikimedia movement and then I'm going to invite Euphemia Iwandu, who's our organizing fellow for this year to talk about how that works. Hopefully the audio for the video and can I give a thumbs up if the sound is working? No, just a second. So the sound was not working on the... No. Okay. Just a second. Share a sound. Let me try it again. Yep, we're ready. Yes, cool. It's an exciting place to be where you get to understand that you're not alone in the fights against this little knowledge of Wikipedia, listening to the African romantic literature. It was a nice training and a lot of experience, like I learned how to do my own things, like creating an article, editing an article. That was so fun. So that was just a brief preview of all the different community activities that we had last year, and I'm going to hand it over to you, Euphemia, to talk about how communities are organizing this year. I'm Euphemia Iwandu, the 2020 Tourist Senior Content Campaign Organizing Fellow at the Wikimedia Foundation. I'm also a youth activist working with the UNF Triple C, Youth Constituency, YONGO, a global network of youth voices that brings their experiences to the solution of the climate crisis. As you saw in the video, our organizing fellow for the Wiki for Human Rights in 2022, Ruby Damenshi Brown, was able to work with communities around the world to fuel key knowledge gaps related to their contest. And this year, I've had the opportunity to encourage Wikimedia communities to grow the campaign. Next slide. So as a young person and a woman from the global south, I have the greater understanding of the need to advocate for diversity and inclusion in building knowledge about how the world is facing and adapting to climate change. Because we are only able to understand how different or similar we are in the way climate change affects us when we have different people from diverse backgrounds share their experiences around the subject. And this is the unique space that the Wiki for Human Rights campaign creates, one that allows people from Africa, from the Maghreb Middle East, Latin America, Lucifer countries and Central and Eastern Europe to share their climate and environmental stories. But what is even more remarkable about sharing this knowledge is the ability to share it in a language that even a local farmer would understand if he experiences low crop yield as a result of drought or even affected by flooding. Because how can we even explain to him that those are the indirect effects of climate change if we do not explain to him in a language that he understands. And this is the most exciting part of the campaign because it empowers people and communities to express climate change and environmental issues in diverse languages and formats ranging from rating, visual and audio recordings, while learning from each other. And this is what makes it so powerful to the Wikimedia communities. It empowers them to discuss the environmental issues in their own context, giving voice to the very problems that they are facing in the communities. And when we look at the human and environmental communities, for example, we also see this as a great opportunity for them to share in communicating in public platforms about how these crises are affecting them directly. And this is why I'm really so joyful accompanying Wikimedia communities to ensure that every voice and every story is brought to the table. Thank you and back to you, Alex. And I have to say Eufemia has been doing a wonderful job connecting our communities to the skills and opportunities they need to run these events this year. And a lot of credit goes to her for just creating the best space we possibly can for communities around the world to participate. At the end of the panel, I will share a bit on how we can get evolved. But for now, I want to turn to the actual panel itself and introduce you to our wonderful guest panelists. As I'm going to do a brief introduction to each of you, and then I'll ask you to introduce yourself as well. And your own voice kind of describing how did you get involved in the climate crisis or addressing the pollution, which is the theme of our panel. And what do you do? So first, I want to introduce Monica Stence-Kiewicz, who is the general, sorry, I'm getting your title wrong, executive secretary of the Minamata Convention on Mercury. Hi, Monica. How did you get involved in the space? Thank you so much, Alex. And good day, everyone. I hope you can hear me well. I'm actually traveling and I do not have a full control on the environment around me, so my life is really bad. I apologize for that. Nevertheless, I'm really happy to join you and thank you for organizing the webinar and again for having me at the webinar. Perhaps I would like to say that my first job was in the public administration in Poland, where I dealt with the protection of the marine environment of the Baltic Sea. The Baltic Sea is a small semi-enclosed sea in the north of Europe, and often it is or was referred to as the most polluted sea in the world. I'm not sure whether that's true and longer, but through that work, I got to know where the pollution comes from, how it impacts the marine environment. I also had the possibility to witness how through international collaboration, concrete measures to prevent pollution or reduce pollution were taken by the countries bordering the Baltic Sea.  And in the Baltic Sea, the so-called legacy pollution, pollution that has accumulated over the decades, is a major concern. And one such legacy pollution is mercury. Now I'm working in the secretariat of the Minamata Convention on Mercury and have a chance to work to prevent similar contamination with mercury in other parts of the world. So this is perhaps a short introduction of how I got to work with the topic of pollution and how I have been doing it actually for my entire career. Thank you. Over to you, Alex. Thank you, Monica. It's so great to have you here on the panel on such a well-planned experience. Next, I want to introduce Joe Banner, who is the co-founder and co-director of the Descendants Project, a group working with communities in the south of the United States to advocate for their own protection of the environment and rights. So, Joe, how did you get involved and protect pollution? Hello, everyone. And I feel Monica's pain because I'm also traveling internationally. And I was so concerned that I would get the times all messed up, so I'm happy I am here and thank everyone for being here and also that I was invited to be a part of the panel. I'm from Louisiana from an area known as my home, but it's also known as cancer alley. That's because my area is inundated with facilities or polluters that produce a lot of dangerous chemicals in our air, water, land, and my community is suffering with that, is suffering from the impacts of this pollution through high cancer rates, asthma rates that are through the roof, and different ailments. So, as I saw this happening in my community, I wanted to speak out and do the best that I could to alleviate the problem and also prevent any more introduction of polluters. Unfortunately, I have a government that cooperates with polluters in the name of economy, a false economy, in my opinion, and from what our information shows. So, we're constantly having to fight back against the introduction of more pollution to our area, despite the fact that numerous research has shown our community is suffering. Peer reviewed studies, many really respected information that says that our community has its status limit. We're drowning and everyone keeps handing us water in order to save us. So, we need another way, we need another path forward. What we have done is we've organized our community, we shared as much as we could as we can about the permitting process. Oftentimes, communities don't know that there are steps for these organizations, these companies that come in in order for them to achieve the permits they need to operate. So, what we do is we inform our community as much as possible when those permit opportunities exist. And also, we let them know about what's happening in our air and our atmosphere, what these chemicals do to us, and how they are dangerous, and what it means to suffer from this. Right now, we're fighting, for example, our latest, the proposed project is a grain terminal by Greenfield, Louisiana that wants to locate into our community. Grain terminals produce a lot of pollution. In addition to that, the size of the pollution, which is PM 2.5, is small enough to enter into our lungs and cause a lot of issues with the nobody. But those small microns also allow other dangerous chemicals to attach to it. Like ethylene oxide or benzene, they can all attach to these molecules and enter into our lungs. I heard an analogy recently that it's like a suitcase. And that's what grain dust will do, about 85 tons coming from this facility should it happen. So, just breaking it down to our community and saying, we have to stop this because we are already at capacity. We cannot allow any more of these industries to enter into our communities to destroy communities. They break up even our livelihood and our happiness and just our human rights to our heritage will be eliminated by this. So, we advocate by educating our community. Also, I'd go wherever I can to spread the news about what's happening in Kansas Rally in Louisiana. I'm going to Geneva, going to Uruguay, I go to DC. I try to go into my local government in St. John and Baptist Paris. But unfortunately, we are given the space to even advocate on a very local level because our government has been so captured by corporations and polluters. So, we have to go all, I mean, I'm in a Mexican city right now. But wherever we can spread the message and encouraging intervention, that's why that's where me and my sister Joy, who's also with me, that's where we go in order to do whatever we can to get assistance. That's such a powerful kind of step into activism to have to spread the word to share the knowledge everywhere you can. That's just like such a powerful origin story or need that your community has. I also want to introduce Soledad, who also works actively with local communities. Soledad is the vice president of the Association Nacional Recycleadores de Chile, which is a community of both formal and informal recyclers and waste-gatherers in Chile. Hola, Soledad. Welcome, and can you introduce yourself? I'm a recycler of all kinds. From plastic, metals, cardboard, cellulose in general. It was an important definition that Wikimedia was able to present on its pages, on its platform, because in some ways or another, it is visible to an invisible actor. I've been a recycler for 17 years. I belong to the Association of Recycleers in Chile. I'm president. I'm part of the Latin American network of the Caribbean and of Recycleers de Base, where we are 17 countries. I belong to the International Recycle Alliance of the World, where there are 38 countries of all the continents of the world. We are, in some way or another, unconsciously, and today more consciously than ever, in charge of something that no one in their principle has done in charge, which has to do with this time that today everything is here, gathered, which has to do with contamination and climate change in our world. The Recycleers de Base we have collected for many years, thousands and thousands of tons. In my country, Chile, we are up to the fourth generation of Recycleers de Base. There are up to the sixth generation of recyclers in other countries, which we have not done in charge of these residues in an unconscious way, due to an economic need. The Recycleers de Base are consequences of economic models of our countries, where, unfortunately, our human rights, our basic rights are totally vulnerable.  From there we look at a valuable material, a waste and we are also part of a very important human group that participates and works directly in the Recycleers de Base, to the open sky, where our colleagues try to collect and take out the largest number of materials in that place. When asked what is our way of supporting or helping this process, this importance of this change so important of paradigm among us human beings, in a scenario as complex as the climatic change, we can say that we, the Recycleers de Base, the Peppinators, the Caters, the Reconnectors, the Cartooners, as it is called in different places, we have been in charge of this for a long time. There is no way of quantifying it in the work of a recyclator that has been collecting waste for 60 years, avoiding that thousands and hundreds of tons end up in the river, in the sea, or even buried in the greenhouses. We are not in charge of this in a very necessary way for our economic life, supporting our homes, but today we also know the importance of what we have done for so long. In Nairobi, Kenya, 5.2, we managed to possess the Recycleers de Base as a primordial soap, if not the first of the recycling and this important impact that is the contamination by plastic. Unfortunately, in our daily life of the recollection we do, we are also affected directly by the contamination by plastic.  We know that plastic today has a great contamination of chemicals that generate cancer and important kidney diseases, even to our skin. That is why it is so important to understand what the work of these men and women is, that we are not small. We are more than 20 million recyclers in the world. Today we are trying to instill in this treatment as important as the treatment of plastic, but not only from the economic perspective and the vulnerable of our rights, but also from the vulnerable of human rights of our system, of our ecosystem, of the environment. How the rights have been vulnerable not only to human beings, but also to the great species that exist on this planet, taking it to the extermination. Today we have an important work, but that work is important, always and when it is recognized that it is not only the protagonist and the pioneers of this process, that without wanting, we have been in charge of something that nobody has ever wanted to do, and that without wanting today we have such an important work that is the recollection. They can make 600 thousands of recollection campaigns, they can make 600,000 campaigns of awareness and of humanizing the human being within these processes, but if there is no clear awareness of who they are and how we should really take care of the waste, they will continue to make communication campaigns. In our vision, we believe that there are several important actors within that, on the one hand the production of plastics, which are the great producers of petrochemicals and also the producers of packaging and packaging. On the other hand, we are also responsible for the consumers that, in some way or another, we have not wanted to be in charge of this overproduction of plastics. It is also important responsibility, as many of those who have already spoken about it, of the state, how the state, in some way or another, is in charge and responsible for stopping overproduction of plastics and putting this once and for all. And finally, and not less important, we are the collectors, the recyclers, the waste pickers, which in some way or another we are not in charge of this, but we cannot do this alone. We need it to be validated, to be seen as such an important process as in the recollection. We can stop the production of plastics, but at least 20 years still exist to be able to recover what was already in the market, what was already in the streets, what was already in the rivers, what would be in the oceans. There is an island of plastics that we can take up to 20, 30 years to be able to clean our sewers. And the only way to do it is to really unify forces and take care of us in a concrete and real way. The plastic treatment is only a treatment and many laws can be applied within the treatment, but if we do not take conscience and do not take its real and concrete and concrete approach to the recollection of waste, unfortunately, it will be a treatment more. We have seen many treatments and we have also seen many scenarios of processes, of important campaigns of recollection of waste, especially of plastics, but that end only in that, in a beautiful campaign. And this does not have continuance. The recycling of waste, yes, we have continuance. We are there, we are on the street, we are within the greenhouses and sanitary resorts. We are in all places and we believe that it is important that our work be visibilized. A campaign of recycling, of recollection or of environmental consciousness must go hand in hand with the great actors that we are. The recycling of waste. Those who, in some way, insist that we have already taken care of a topic that no one has taken care of, returning all our human rights without any payment, without recognition, not even that it is a job, because it is a job, because it is a service, it is not recognized. The cinema is putting important points on the theme of informal workers, but none part says that the recycling of waste is only part of those informal workers. It is spoken of transition, but it is not spoken of fair transition. That is why for us, the incidence and our protagonist in UNEA and in all the international treaties that are being made are fundamental. But it is also fundamental, the voice of you. The voice of you is key to be able to really get to a system that really is, that is made synergistic, real and concrete, both with environmentalist actors and with the recycling of waste. We have a great task, we have a great challenge. We, the white speakers, the recyclers, the recollectors, the cartons, the pickers, the pickers, we are already doing it, and we have been doing it for many years. Fourth generation in Chile and in other countries up to sixth generation. We have fulfilled and we are taking a very important role. It is just missing that the community, the civil society is in charge of this in a concrete way, not only with communication impacts, not only with large press, not only with the title, but with concrete actions. And we are doing concrete actions. Thank you very much. Gracias. It is so important to draw the connection, the cross-generational work required to both address pollution and to acknowledge the work that has already been done. As you were starting to highlight human rights, the basic economic and social and environmental rights of every person is implicated, but particularly those who are on the front lines. I'm wondering if, Monica, you would like to maybe draw some connections here between this human rights-centered approach and these global pollution issues? How do we do the work better if we focus on human rights and this multi-generational challenge that's really done? Thank you. Thank you to my co-panelists for these very useful, interesting perspectives. I mean, there are a number of global environmental agreements dealing with pollution. The one I am working for is Juan Polot and Mercury, but it's a good example, I would say. The aim of the convention on Mercury is to protect human health and environment from emissions and the releases of Mercury. And I don't know how much audience knows about Mercury and its use. And if you do an internet search, you will find quite fascinating information about Mercury characteristics and that it has been used since the ancient times that is still being used in everyday products like lamps and batteries and they can end up on landfill where exactly recyclers would then be exposed to Mercury containing such a waste. You will also find some rather worrying information on the health effects of Mercury and also about the so-called Minamata disease which is a neurological disease caused by Mercury poisoning which was first discovered in the city of Minamata in Japan in 1956 and it was caused by one form of Mercury that was released from industrial waste water from a chemical factory and the convention takes its name after this place in Japan. So environmental degradation due to Mercury pollution affects everyone everywhere because Mercury once emitted to the air will be transported over long distances and will end up in waters and land far away from a regional source and contaminate the air we breathe and the food we eat in particular fish and seafood but also some other foodstuff like rice, can elevated levels of Mercury are found nowadays in arctic species of wildlife and Mercury from human activities has recently been found even in the Mariana trench the deepest ocean trench on earth. So the current Mercury contamination prevents people on the entire globe from enjoying a right to clean, healthy and sustainable environment but particular maybe or the biggest human rights concern is how marginalized people or people vulnerable to impacts of Mercury exposure are disproportionately affected by Mercury pollution and other other type of pollution and more concretely pregnant women and children are especially vulnerable to impacts from Mercury exposure as Mercury impacts nervous system of fetuses and children and affect their development also people and communities relying on traditional foods for their nutrition such as fish and mammals are especially at risk such people and communities may live in remote locations where access to variety and choice of affordable and nutritious food is limited or they may prefer some traditional food for cultural reasons or they may be fully dependent on food they find in natures such as indigenous people in Amazon for example so here their rights to food are affected marginalized and vulnerable people are indigenous people in other communities including women and children living nearby or engaging in so-called artisanal and small-scale bone miling and processing where mercury is used mercury is very easy to use to extract gold from ore it amalgamates with gold and amalgamate is then burned to separate gold from mercury then which is then released to the air and such a burning is of amalgamate is often done in residential areas and poses direct threats to health of people and just give you why I'm bringing this artisanal and small-scale gold mining just give you a perspective that this is a huge sector of informal economy engaging some 20 million workers including four to five million of women and children in many continents around the globe and some root problems of this is that indigenous people and other communities engage in this informal mining due to lack of other livelihood options to learn they're leaving often they are not aware of health risks and such communities need to receive support to shift to other livelihood options or to shift to other extraction methods and countries that are part is to the Minamata Convention are obliged to support to provide such support and they can do so by using the Minamata Convention financial mechanisms for example and there are also communities including indigenous people such as in Amazon who are affected by mercury use in such a gold mining but they are themselves not engaged in it however this activity is carried out near their homes or on their land and pollutes the environment where they live and sometimes criminal groups may also engage in artisanal small-scale gold mining that is illegal and affecting local communities even beyond policy and the the Minamata Convention is one of the or the youngest multilateral environmental agreement recognizes these health concerns and environmental concerns and and also how it may affect future generations and it provides means tools and measures for countries to address this problem and to phase out mercury use in everyday life in industrial processes I mean artisanal small-scale gold mining so I would say Minamata Convention is one of the youngest convention quite well recognizes these linkages we are talking about and could serve as a model for future treaties one of those currently being negotiated is a new plastic treaty so thank you Alex over to you yeah um and I I actually had a follow-up with Joe but she's reconnecting for the moment so I um yeah I think these you know the the mercury treaty for me has been really useful in understanding that that direct connection because it's very much like economics human rights and pollution are tied together in very intimate ways and I think what I've read about the plastics treaty it feels like it's doing that um Solidad you were very focused on like the fact that we've accumulated an overproduction and you've highlighted this like economic problem that has a human rights implication um I for for those of us and other parts of the world uh it would be useful like how does the human rights advocacy in your context like help your your community of recyclers uh advocate for for change what what how does like a human rights focus really help facilitate what you are doing might be a slight delay in translation uh for for Solidad uh my my question is uh how are the human rights concerns in your area work like that how does it actually affect the the work you're doing in the postpartum there is nothing this is all the rights of our confederates especially talking about the the the previous panelist the most vulnerable rights of us are the right to leave many of our companions and recyclers of base today suffer from cancer suffer from kidney disease we have diseases in our skin we have direct contact with the pollution diploma and bad plastic pollution that is all all the rights are violated thanks thank you Solidad it's um really important to acknowledge that these informal roles uh often make it hard to articulate what protections you do have right um and so advocating and for recognition and acknowledgement of those rights it seems it sounds very important and the more I've learned about waste pickers seems like the center of a lot of that advocacy I'm I'm wondering for Joe you know I I'm also originally from the United States but I now live in Uruguay which has more of a human rights tradition like what Solidad mentioned I'm wondering how human rights helps you advocate for like the human rights framework the approach is related to kind of your advocacy to address pollution and and those kind of yeah do you understand the question sorry a slight shift but for me like human rights was a surprising way to address environmental issues at first as an American and I I'm wondering how that's affected your work I think that's a really it's a good point to to talk about that as Americans or in the United States how often we don't see what's happening in our communities as human rights violation we just think that it's part of our our circumstances and it's not as bad as what's happening in other places because we don't understand we don't think that these situations could happen in our country so having that definition of human rights and having having us really is really important working in a united nation space whether it's through going before cert or participating in the treaty talks it's it's good to hear that language constantly in my head of human rights because it reminds me just how international problem is but also how local it is as a problem I can close my eyes in a lot of circumstances and hear about a community an indigenous tribe in a rainforest and then close my eyes and it sounds like exactly what I'm going through in my community in Wallace all with their world away because the same companies are the same power structures where this government or corporations are colluding to bring our economy and there's no tension is being paid to what those conditions present to the local community um I descend the name of our organization is the descendants project because it talks about because we wanted to point to the fact that we were descendants of the enslaved Africans who were brought to this country um so I'm sorry can y'all hear me um or see me I'm kind of unstable okay just wanted to make sure yeah well it points back to the enslaved Africans they were kidnapped and they were brought to this country no one cared about their conditions no one cared about their happiness or health simply because it was going to bring money to somebody else and what we see happening is a same violation that happened to my ancestors is continuing to happen to the descendants of the enslaved the human rights are not being acknowledged or um considered in the same way that communities that are not connected to the enslaved Africans are are able to express um so it's just important to highlight that just as slavery was an international um production an international make money so is what's happening in Kansas Rally this international players I can walk on the levee next to the Mississippi River and I'll see ships from all over the world export and import and dangerous chemicals I can see industry that is owned by people in Denmark or in Russia or what have you that's all along the river in my community of wildest um and they're all participating and violating human rights in that country but I know at least they're violating it in my community in cancer rally thank you Joe that it's it's so important to see uh those connections it's not just a matter of like developed or undeveloped worlds global south global north separation and these human rights problems transcend boundaries and because they're environmental issues they're global issues right um and I think this leads actually really well to the next question you know as you all heard from euphemia our communities are focused on creating space and events to document things document experiences at different parts of the world and there was a question uh for you Monica too about how mercury pollution is just like not communicated to the public there's often these you know people don't know that it's happening and I'm wondering you know when we're creating space to document when our communities are organizing to tell stories or write Wikipedia articles what kind of information is most useful for you Monica and like disseminating knowledge about the the pollution crisis uh at the international level and then we'll we'll ask Soledad and Joe to kind of describe that for their communities as well well I would say that naturally what was important when the convention was created and continues to be important is to have scientific information and evidence this is also because the the sources of mercury or how it affects people is not it's a dynamic and fluid situation and so it's about as I mentioned the sources the use globally impacts on human health who is affected and and I would say it's not only natural science but also socioeconomic science example to know what's the cost of preventing mercury pollution vis-a-vis cost of cleaning up and what's also important is the indigenous and traditional knowledge without which it would be difficult to ensure effective implementation of the convention and for example I mentioned this informal sector of artisans small-scale gold mining this is a very complex sector and here information perspective how indigenous peoples as well as local communities are affected how they use see the use of mercury in this activities is important and in our recent meeting of the parties to the convention they decided to that each of the parties who has this sector will engage indigenous peoples and local communities in addressing this issue and what's important is also public awareness very often or I would say most of the or all of the global conventions have provisions and obligations for parties to raise public awareness for minamata conventions most of all about the health and environmental effects of mercury and mercury compounds because without public knowing the risk they cannot always make right choices to protect themselves but also then it's also gaining this critical mass and an overall knowledge to to push for implementation of the convention so so but it starts with the basic obligation parties have to inform the public about the risks and so on so about that this I just for example I think what you have mentioned also about the demonstrating experiences and knowledge in the current world are very powerful also messages and stories that can help to to and to all other conventions thank you yeah and you know Soledad back to you when you think about your experience of activating communities to to address their human rights and to address these environmental issues how does access to knowledge make it improve or strengthen your efforts both you know communicating locally and internationally exist in muchas familias recolectando residu y mucha gente no sabe que exist esa gente adentro que existen esos compañeros recolectando creo que es una muy importante línea a la que se tiene que civilizar levantar un registro de cuántos somos los que vivimos de la basura y recolectando por un lado segundo un informe científico entender el impacto que esto genera la salud y no solamente los que vivimos de la basura sino los que viven en el torno a la basura porque todos los rellenos y vertederos están ubicados en sectores rurales en sectores indígenas en sectores de comunidades pobres y no en lugares de a bc1 de gente con mucho dinero o acomodado jamás va a haber un vertedero cerca de ellos por otro lado creo que es importante hacer un estudio de salud en nuestra comunidad y ahí ver realmente la generación y el impacto que ha generado nuestra labor por tantos años cerca de los residuos de la basura yo creo que se podrían sorprender mucho de eso en chile existe una zona que se llama harica donde hay minas de cobre y también en algún minuto vieron minas de oro y irresponsablemente estas trans nacionales vertieron todo el polvo que generaban a través de estas minas haciendo los procesos químicos o científicos de estos productos para transformarlos en lo que ellos querían para poder hacer su comercio y eso terminó en un cerro ese cerro y día como decía mónica produce una polución y se ha hecho un estudio de impacto por lo menos en una gran comunidad cercana al sector y hoy día hasta tercera generación de hijos de estas familias tienen plomo en la sangre y que probablemente un par de años más tengan cálcel entonces creo que es fundamental que se haga un estudio de impacto en todas las comunidades que están cercana o aledaño a este tipo de contaminación a este tipo de contaminantes insisto nosotros creo que podemos si se hace un estudio a nuestro a nuestro cuerpo a nuestra salud se pueden impactar de la cantidad de químicos que nuestra sangre y día tiene aparte la colisión por plástico también tenemos otros tipos de químicos que pueden ser realmente importante y gating la única forma de hacer conciencia y generar un tema claro con respecto a los derechos de la vulneración de ellos es a través de los estudios y del impacto que esto genera pero también de la mano de investigar y sobre todo levantar un registro quienes son la comunidad más afectada y a través de estas desarrollos que no tienen consecuencia más que son las desacreficios donde lamentablemente somos la gente más pobre la gente más vulnerada la que se ve afectada con todo esto entonces para nosotros es importante creo visibilizar levantar un estudio científico hacer estudios de salud a nuestra comunidad y el impacto también a la tierra que ha generado la gente que se ve afectada thank you so much Salida for highlighting the need for the studies and documentation one thing I've noticed in researching this topic is that frequently there is research but it's not widely shared it's often missing it's often not in a public view oh and we just Joe's connection just broke so I might move on to the next question and then I'll ask her to talk about documentation as well um but yeah it's often that this research even if there is research it's not shared with the public it's not in a public location and actually this connects to something I was noticing when I was putting this panel together and outlining the focus on pollution you know we at Wikimedia we're building a global encyclopedia we're building other global knowledge sources and we have a ton of bias in the content we have on the platforms one of these biases is that we have a lot of information about these toxic chemicals about pollutions about waste from a science and engineering perspective but we often don't have that knowledge documented from a human impact perspective a good example of this when the east Palestine Ohio train crash happened in February we saw huge page view spikes uh on wikipedia to the vet page into information about the the vinyl chloride chemicals that were in the crash we had a lot of searching and information but when you look at the chemical pages it was very technical it was not useful information for the public for the breaking news community and I'm wondering um and it became really clear too that the human impact story was not being shared by the local governments by the companies that were responsible for for the prices and I'm wondering you know we all enjoy a right to enjoy the benefits of science um and these breaking news events often highlight what science is missing in the public uh but how do we kind of proactively we're not just responding to the news but we actually proactively like make sure the right information is being disseminated and we're avoiding misinformation or manipulation when a crisis happens when governments and companies maybe are trying to avoid responsibility for for something that the public should have known about um so maybe we'll start with you monica and then joe i'll give you a chance to catch up since you've just reconnected um yeah thank you i mean these are difficult and complex questions um i would say perhaps minamatic convention and mercury is an exception that we actually have a lot of documented information on impacts because there were decades of pollution and some really big big cases so there is a lot of science related to impact on human health but of course i would say this is just one heavy metal and there are so many other pollutants that are concerned for human health i would say overall what is needed more is the science communication the profession i mean it exists and it would be useful to have science communicators or several of them in any organization dealing with science to be able to provide a compelling storytelling but this that is underpinned by knowledge and it's also fit to the for the modern world and we need to also provide them that's something what the family was mentioning about empowering so this information has to be provided such a way that it empowers that give positive examples hope concrete suggestions what can be done in everyday life to avoid exposure to chemicals let's say and i would think also it's important this information also contextualize so how it does fit to the bigger picture about the world we live in and how it needs to change how the economy has to be transformed so nature and the services nature provides are valued polluters pay pay principle is fully applied and they change the economy that there is no that is no longer based on fuel fueling endless consumption i would say the detail the fact but in the context of the bigger truth about how the change has to happen and i would say overall also people are interested to know about how are the substances because of course it affects everyone everywhere from the domestic cleaning products food we eat every brief so just give you an example mercury thermometers the ones i think many of you have had used in the past where you can see the silver liquid inside the thermometer this has now been sent out thanks to the minamatic convention from 2020 there are no longer being produced and that's a word that was such a thermometer breaks i mean that's not a good idea to play with mercury that is contained in it so it's a it's a simple thing one can do and avoid buying them in the first place but as an example something that that is useful for everyone to and they know how to use that information they everyday life thanks thanks monica yeah i like in researching this topic i feel like lead and mercury have more consensus on like yes the science is easy to communicate and the public is aware of it i'm wondering um for you joe like this this question of manipulation of information or making sure the right information arrives in your community and is understood um how do you think about like what what is needed how do we make sure that the right knowledge is there all the time not just when like a crisis happens in your community well for me for our organization what we we i think there's an education that needs to happen and what and how information what what parts of the information are being communicated because sometimes just when we have facts and we have research what's happening from the data that's only certain data sets are being presented or the limitations of a measurement for example air monitor is not um explained because just because you're not finding a particular element or chemical in your air doesn't mean it doesn't exist it just means that the instrumentation may not be able to pick it up so that's a difference between saying yeah we didn't find it in the fact that are the fact that you don't have the instrumentation to find it so like it's just being able to explain all those different layers of information and also pointing to what we're seeing happen um by companies is that there's a lot of greenwashing um so they're taking particular elements are our positions based on one one fact or one part of the fact they're not really going deep into that fact because when you start to drill down you'll start to see that is not really what it's purported to be or the the business or the industry that they're trying to bring in um so it helps we tell our community is don't just take the surface level of the information even for us even we want our information needs to be validated that's why we use peer review research we use really credible sources we make sure that if we are checked and we want our community to check our information that they are getting the appropriate information really trust no one you have to you have to be the researcher and you have to find the information and you have to get that validation um based on a certain set of standards that stays the same no matter what no matter who's presenting it to you that's the only way to really I feel give accurate information um but also making sure the information is accessible because we have to use a lot of terms sometimes that are more complicated where um for example like the green the the green terminal double fighting or the petkin companies they can just go on we bring jobs and because it's a a positive thought it doesn't need sometimes as much explanation or it makes people happy just on that level that oh wow I get an opportunity to work or to get this job but we know based on that information that's just it's not true because when we ask okay well where are the jobs what's the training for the jobs um what's the like the the amount of jobs what's the average salary that brings in a lot more measurables or a lot more elements to consider it makes the the answer though a little more complicated so I think they get to deal in simplicity well we have to deal and more complicated because it's just a more complicated answer that needs to be um given um what I think would help our communities is something that when we go through storms after like Hurricane Ida which was the late the last hurricane we went through in 2021 there's a mobilization that happens so we get these vans that come um where there's FEMA where there's other different agencies and they mobilize in our communities they have laptops and they have computers set up but they also have the experts there on hand to help walk the community through the information through the process I think having information available um more often like that about environment to justice about human rights whether it's a collaboration with Wikimedia something that we can do together to have these resources available um to communities would be helpful also not forgetting the fact that a lot of people um still use printed material especially in areas like mine where you may have older um citizens so having some uh through line with printed material and virtual so you know it makes it easier for communities like me to communicate that information um to everybody so everyone has the fair access to it thank you joe I think it's so important to focus on these different formats for access as you FEMA highlighted to like having it in your own language matters a lot having it in simple language matters a lot having it and like the variety of formats both video and written matters a lot and it's really powerful to have like disseminate in as many formats as possible I'm wondering Solidad for your community how how do we prevent disinformation misinformation from being the dominant story uh for for these environmental issues that you're facing in the human rights issue sorry there might been a delay in the translation for Solidad how how do we make sure that disinformation or misinformation about your issues in context isn't the main thing being shared los técnicos o los expertos de los que mucho hablan que tienen que acercar mucho más el diálogo a la comunidad a la comunidad debe ser un diálogo claro e preciso concreto es la única forma de que la información que se está entregando está en información correcta y no se targiverse o no se malutilice esta información de parte de actores que están interesados y que no sepamos lo que realmente está ocurriendo en que no sepamos realmente la verdad se necesita empoderar y apropiar lo que está ocurriendo no solamente en en espacios reducidos sino que en todos los espacios el informe no debe ser un informe violento no debe ser un informe como como estamos acostumbrados a aprender la tele ver la noticia y lo primero que salen las noticias son crímenes atrocidades guerras y un montón de cosas tiene que ser una información mucho más alentadora tiene que ser una información también con esperanza con con mucha esperanza con una oportunidad de realmente asumir y hacernos cargo de esta transformación o este cando que queremos hacer la noticia tiene que ser una noticia muy directa muy concisa en la única forma de que los actores que hoy día están tratando de informar a través de sus mecanismos comunicacionales no nos arrebaten la verdadera noticia pero para eso se requiere ese acercamiento con la comunidad se requiere tener un diálogo mucho más al nivel de la comunidad no tan elevado no tú mismo lo dijiste que en el fondo yo también he visto informes que para mí es chino mandarín no lo entiendo no lo logro y necesito saber que realmente lo que está pasando por eso el diálogo tiene que ser muy cercano y por último creo que educar educar educar creo que teníamos esa gran tarea de entregar herramientas para educar a la comunidad y darle todo el conocimiento o todas las claridad posible que tengamos nosotros para ellos entiendan lo que realmente está ocurriendo y se hagan parte de esto y que la desinformación no sea la que gane en este escenario tan complejo que tenemos hoy día sabemos que una de los herramientas más grande que ocupa el sistema político o el sistema económico es la desinformación las comunicaciones a veces dicen que la comunicación es el cuarto poder yo pienso que es el primer poder porque el que entra a tu casa el que se comunica directamente contigo a través de la televisión a través de la radio hoy día a través de las redes sociales entonces la comunicación tiene que ser muy clara pero muy muy cercana por cosas muy concretas para poder ganarle a la desinformación por lo menos esa nuestra visión y esa nuestra mirada desde acá de donde nosotros entendemos la vulneración de los derechos que el día el mundo político y empresarial no quiere que la comunidad lo sepa que la comunidad este abierto despierta a esto eh los celulares son una herramienta de dominación todos los habiles pero tenemos que ocupar esta herramienta de dominación a favor nuestro que nos permita llegar al resto de la comunidad que está conectado y uno de los eh aliados más importante en esta eh comunicación eh que sea real y clara y que le ganemos a la desinformación es la juventud la juventud que se está manejando con las redes sociales de una forma realmente con una rapidez importante y creo que ahí tenemos un un un instrumento muy importante yo lo veía en la exposición y en el video que presentaste como la comunidad juvenil se hace parte de algo ellos son los que van a ser que esto pueda cambiar por eso la comunicación tiene que ser bajo esa línea bajo eso tenemos que adaptarnos a lo que se está moviendo esto se está moviendo rápido a favor o en contra pero tenemos que ocuparlo a favor y para eso se requiere también que los científicos los técnicos los expertos viajen bajen su diálogo sea mucho más claro más completo es thank you so much for that perspective I think simplifying and bringing things down to the local context is so important especially when we want to think about the next generation of defenders of our human rights and activities um I want to give each of my panelists an opportunity because we're approaching the end of time to just briefly you know is there anything you want to highlight or we didn't discuss uh that you want to say in conclusion um I'll I'll start with Monica I would perhaps refer to something that was discussed and what Joe said that this is nowadays a responsibility of everyone really to seek information to understand and build your own knowledge and unfortunately or fortunately this is how it is and I would say for anyone to lead a healthy and sustainable life really it's a skill to build to know where to look for information and what kind of information to be able to distill it and find the right one so in the past this was just something useful to have nowadays it's necessary basically to to survive so that the responsibility definitely shifted to the reader and to the person that's how I feel and I think that's how the nowadays will be I would encourage everyone really to to make use of that for their own benefit thank you so much thanks and and Joe yes and thank you um I think of this um just to use the analogy of of a chess game and um you think when you're playing chess we know one thing that the chess pieces can move but the board those squares never change they're always stable with no matter what how the chess player whatever strategy he has he has to contend with the way that the board is laid out I think our human rights are the board of clean air clean water land no pollution that's the board that the game of chess should be played on instead of being the chess pieces that we have it now we should not have those elements in the field of play to be checkmated by money or by someone else's happiness over hours so I think really making sure that those elements never are a part of the game or instead the foundation of the game and everything else those pieces have to move around that because the our human rights are immovable but knowing where the boundaries are the information can help us really strengthen those boundaries of the board of that that foundation so that we know when someone is trying to invade and making sure we keep those pieces in check so having that free flow of information knowing how to um challenge permits knowing where permits are needed and a plethora of all the other information that exists um on this planet and having a resource like um you know like our websites like the internet are very important to make sure that we keep ourselves protected and and making sure that um yeah we just know we know the strategy that's also being used against us so yeah just really thank you for allowing me the opportunity to be that's so wonderful I always think of wikipedia as kind of the floor uh which we like launch all conversations on it's like it's the public knowledge that's out there that people can access and it's our job to raise that floor make it make it clear where the where the the baseline is uh solida do you have any closing thoughts no solamente para nosotros como seres humanos sino también para nuestro planeta también creo que es importante que hoy bien entendamos que tenemos una gran oportunidad una gran oportunidad para ser actores importante en este cambio de esta historia pero para eso también tenemos que sentir nuestro protagonista de este cambio de historia podemos realmente marcar la diferencia estamos llamado a marcar la diferencia sólo pregúntense porque hoy día a esta hora estamos reunido acá un grupo de hombres y mujeres hablando de estos temas donde hay muchos de millones de hombres y mujeres en este momento trabajan moviendo el planeta moviendo sus países hoy tenemos la oportunidad pero para eso debemos reaccionar y ser parte de esta historia pero de buena forma es que the thank you solida and i where you finished bueno gracias para gracias para todo um thank you all for this wonderful panel i feel so inspired uh as as we we said this campaign is about creating knowledge and information and highlighting the most marginalized the most missing forms of knowledge around different environmental crises and this year our focus on pollution is to handle this just that i realized we're a couple minutes over the end of the panel and i want to acknowledge that and just with a lot of love and grace i appreciate all that you have brought to this panel and i hope we're doing justice and capturing your voice and that work and i hope we can continue to do that as we create documentation on wikimedia projects about the knowledge gaps here i'm briefly going to show everyone how you too can get involved in the campaign this panel is just the beginning of their conversation and in order to participate on wikipedia i realize most people in this audience are existing wikimedia contributors and so if you're already a wikimedia contributor the best thing you can do is you can join us on this um meta dot wikimedia dot org slash wiki slash wiki for human rights and click on the join the challenge page you can write content now you can translate content you can document these stories now that are really impactful for for uh different audiences marginalized communities communities that their their the impact on their human rights are not being acknowledged yet um or other environmental issues that affect all of us you know as monica mentioned there are many many excess deaths all around the world because of the various environmental crises we're facing this is not just something that affects marginalized communities but it's about all of us and future generations so documenting those stories on the wiki for human rights challenge and if uh you're you're newer to the movement and you want to learn more about how you can contribute we do have community events around the world but often have newcomer trainings and uh kind of opportunities and instructions and you can join one of those community events uh we we have uh this year a lot of coordinated events in central and eastern europe africa the middle east the migreb uh latin america and the portuguese speaking context and so uh if you want to join us uh you can go there you can also reach out to myself or uh euphemia to ask questions and clarify and again uh you know i hope everyone goes off into the world feeling empowered that we can document and share information and stories to address these environmental crises um i am often overwhelmed by the climate crisis and the pollution crisis and the biodiversity crisis and i know one step one thing i can do to address them is to work on to contribute to wiki media projects to share information that's needed with just a few more people and so i hope you too feel empowered to do that um and thank you for attending the the session uh i hope you have a wonderful day thank you thank you so much thank you


From DailyDoseOfWeirdNews.com, I'm Darren Marlar and this is your Daily Dose of Weird News. ***The study says that half of all Americans spend their entire paycheck or more every month. ***Well, yeah, isn't that the American dream? ***They say scammers are out in force after that Equifax hack last week, but the full list just sent $50 cash to me. Unmarked bills, please. No return address necessary. Laughter may be the best medicine to get you pregnant, says two professional accredited medical clowns. Red-nosed jokesters are commonly used in Israeli hospitals to help relieve stress. A study at the Asaf Harofen Medical Center and published in Fertility and Sterility Journal proves that 36% of the women undergoing in vitro fertilization treatments who were entertained by clowns became pregnant compared to 20% of those who did not see the bozos. ***Actually, I don't think this is about laughter. We're talking about using clowns here. How do we know it's not just sheer terror that helps get you pregnant? A group of professional clowns are planning a protest outside of a movie theater showing the new movie It, saying the film is bad for their business. ***Hey guys, that ship sailed with John Wayne Gacy. People who work as clowns are not happy with the hit horror movie It, saying it's scaring kids and making it that much harder for them to find work. Fewer clowns around kids... I'm not seeing that as a bad thing. In Milford, Connecticut, 48-year-old Leslie Lang was arrested after police say she put her own poop on her estranged husband's toothbrush and thus violated a protection order. The arrest was the result of an investigation into a complaint filed by her estranged husband that she had tampered with his personal property. Police sent a DNA sample taken from Lang to the state lab for testing along with the toothbrush. The lab confirmed that Lang's DNA matched the feces on the toothbrush. Talk about a pottymouth. Finding that old flame on Facebook could lead to more than you bargained for. The renewal of that not-so-innocent friendship might end in marital disaster. Facebook is cited as evidence in 66% of divorces in the U.S. according to a survey by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. In addition, more than 80% of divorce lawyers reported that they have seen an increase in the number of cases using social networking evidence during the past few years. In other words, don't poke the X. Wait, that came out wrong. 61% of Americans say it's time for Hillary Clinton to retire. That's up from 46% that said so last November. Today's Daily Dose of Weird News is dedicated to my friends at Cross International. With the devastating hurricanes that hit Texas and Florida, it's easy to forget others in need around the world, such as South Sudan, where children are literally starving to death. So I've teamed up with Cross International and I'm asking you, my official weirdos, to save a life today. A single gift of $60 will feed a child for a full five months. You can also ask that part of your gift go to hurricane relief, so you're helping both causes at the same time. Call<PHONE_NUMBER> to donate now. That's<PHONE_NUMBER>. Or give online by clicking the Cross International banner at DailyDoseOfWeirdNews.com. Only seven out of every 1,000 people will live to be 100. The question is, with the state of the world as it is, do you want to live to 100? Study says people can cut the risk of early death by getting up from sitting down every 30 minutes. Unless you're getting up to get another beer, then it's kind of a wash. Picking your nose could be fatal. Close to 20% of people in a recent survey said picking their nose while driving nearly caused them to get into an accident. It's hard to keep your hands at 10 and 2 with one of them has a finger up your nostril. The unmanned spacecraft Cassini made its final orbit around Saturn Thursday and then deliberately turned and made a suicide plunge, burning up early Friday morning in Saturn's atmosphere. They're making a movie about it, Thelma and Louise and Cassini. So you lose the presidency to the biggest long shot in the history of America. How do you deal with the stress? Hillary Clinton told CNN's Anderson Cooper that she's been doing a lot of yoga and alternate nostril breathing. When asked to demonstrate, Clinton said, �You're supposed to shut your eyes. I don't want to shut my eyes on national television, but you do hold your nostril and breathe through one and you hold it and then you exhale to the other and you keep going.� Clinton added that the technique is very relaxing if you try it while sitting cross-legged on the yoga mat, and you're really trying to inhale and hold it and then have a long exhale. To sum this up, alternate nostril breathing is for political losers. The California city is going to ban pedestrians from using cell phones in crosswalks. Yeah, good luck with that. Selena Gomez has a new kidney because of lupus. Her best friend, dancer and actress Francia Riza offered up one of her own kidneys. But then Selena said she hopes she can do the same for her best friend someday and completely ruined the mood. Los Angeles has been given the official go for hosting the Summer Olympic Games in 2028. They had better leave now with that Olympic torch if they plan to arrive on time after that LA traffic. A family in England called up their local animal protection agency to deal with a rare lizard that was under their bed. The family had no idea how the lizard got there. An officer went to the home to visit the family and look at the lizard. The officer approached the unmoving reptile cautiously and was unable to identify its breed. On closer inspection it was not a lizard, but a dirty sock. When your laundry is so dirty that it's being mistaken as wildlife, it might be time to call in a cleaning service. Texas has called in the U.S. Air Force to fight the surge of mosquitoes following Hurricane Harvey. They're calling in the Air Force for that. How big are Texas mosquitoes? The California man arrived home one recent day to find a woman naked and asleep in his bedroom. The homeowner told police that when he arrived home it appeared the woman had helped herself to his fridge and shower. The man said he found a sandwich with a bite missing from it on the kitchen counter. Also an open drink had been taken from his fridge and left next to the sandwich. The victim also told cops that female garments were found on the floor in the bathroom. She tried two other beds at houses in the neighborhood, but one was too hard, the other was too soft. Doctors are now warning that you should wear sunscreen while using your cell phone or computer. Well, wouldn't that get the keyboard and screen all greasy? Why have your senior portraits taken in random meadows or in the middle of an abandoned train tracks when you can shoot them at a place you really love? According to People.com, Michaela Kleckler had this thought when it came to deciding her own photos prior to graduating from Northeast Jones High School in Mississippi and headed to her local McDonald's. The 17-year-old who clearly has an amazing sense of humor was shot in several different poses and setups, all involving the best that McDonald's has to offer. French fries, large sodas and buttermilk chicken sandwiches. You gotta love a girl with a super-sized sense of humor. A man in Ozark, Missouri, pointed a gun at another driver recently after the two got into a verbal squabble over her liberal and anti-Trump bumper stickers. The man was charged with unlawful use of a weapon and for wielding the firearm which forced the woman to smash into a guardrail. I'm guessing it was the left guardrail. Astronomers have discovered a pitch-black planet that reflects almost zero sunlight and a research effort to study the exoplanet known as WASP-12B hasn't exactly revealed what it's made of, but it has discovered that the planet is the blackest of blacks and reflects so little sunlight that not even freshly laid asphalt can compare. Scientists best guess as to what the blacker-than-black planet is made of is the hearts of antifa activists. Toys R Us is preparing for possible bankruptcy. They're planning to sell all their property, including Barbie's Malibu Dreamhouse. It has been one year since a solar-paneled bike path was put down in the Netherlands and the results have even surprised the designers. Over the past year, the path has generated 70 kWh per square meter. That's enough to power about three houses. The people behind Solar Road are hopeful that the path's success will spur more cities to adopt the idea and use existing roadways to gather cheap and sustainable energy. So how can I get my driveway paved with this stuff? Researchers say a messy desk could be a sign of genius. I say we stop the research right there and just accept that as fact. The Baltimore Ravens have rescheduled DNA Day. They made that decision just over two hours before the kickoff of their home opener on Sunday. The Ravens had planned to give out free DNA test kits to fans as they entered the stadium but decided against it at the last minute. So I guess now we'll never know who the father is of the 3,000 pregnant women at the game. The next time someone at your office lets out a silent but deadly emission, maybe you should thank them. A new study at the University of Exeter in England suggests that exposure to hydrogen sulfide – and that's what your body produces as bacteria that breaks down food causing gas – well, it could prevent mitochondria damage. Yep, the implication is what you're thinking. People are taking the research to mean that smelling farts could prevent disease and even cancer. While hydrogen sulfide gas is harmful in large doses, the study suggests that a whiff here and there has the power to reduce risks of cancer, strokes, heart attacks, arthritis and dementia by preserving mitochondria. So when dad asks you to pull his finger, you can thank him for looking out for your health. Donald Trump has taken up the offer of an 11-year-old named Frank to mow the Rose Garden lawn. Knowing how DC works, the kid will mysteriously disappear after the lawnmower's union finds out about this. A plane clipped a catering truck at Manchester Airport in England while preparing to take off, causing significant delays and sparking an investigation into the crash. Passengers had to wait about three hours before taking off on another plane. Well, at least the passengers didn't have to starve during the wait, though. After all, they crashed into a catering truck. We love them. We hate them. We can't live without them. But sometimes we just have to yell blankety blank blank blank at our computer. Almost 40% of computer users admit they have cursed at that infernal machine at one time or another, according to a worldwide survey conducted by IT security experts Avira. But not all PC users have potty mouths. 38% brag that they have never once yelled at their computer in moments of frustration. 11% have wished a catastrophe would strike the company that makes the operating system software or the computer hardware crash. 9% have actually hit their computer with an object, including a baseball bat or a fist, and 3% have picked up the computer and smashed it into the ground or against another object. Well, gee, no wonder the machines rise up against us. I don't blame them. Now they're talking about self-piloting ships and that they could be ready in three years. I am not a fan of this idea. I didn't like speed 2 cruise control the first time I saw it. Jared Fogel's ex-wife is suing Sabre, saying they were negligent in how they handled the whole fiasco. Wait, wait, what?   Drinking coffee every day may just keep your brain healthy as you age, but if you drink too much, it could just do the opposite and increase your odds of developing dementia according to Italian researchers. Those who drank one or two cups of coffee every day had a lower rate of mild cognitive impairment, which is a decline in memory and thinking that's often the precursor to dementia compared with those who never or rarely consumed coffee. However, drinking more than two cups of coffee then offered no cognitive benefit. In addition, when people increased how much coffee they typically drank by even one or two cups, the rate of mild cognitive impairment also increased. So coffee is good for you, until it's not good for you, at which point you should stop drinking it. Until it's good for you again. Honestly, I don't think these people have a clue as to what their studies actually indicate. They're just making this up as they go. Jamie Lee Curtis is returning to the newest Halloween movie at the age of 58. I would call Fowl on this because she was killed in her previous appearance in the series, but then she is related to Michael Myers, which seems to be immortal, so who knows what could happen? Well, this is disgusting. If you share a bathroom with others, there is most likely traces of poop on your toothbrush according to research. Led by Lauren Aber, the research team analyzed toothbrushes from the students who used communal bathrooms with an average of more than nine uses per bathroom. Nearly 60% of the toothbrushes were contaminated with fecal matter, no matter how the toothbrush was stored. In addition, there was an 80% chance that the fecal matter found on the toothbrushes came from someone other than the toothbrush's owner. I may have to start brushing my teeth in the kitchen. Either that or start pooping in the garage. Toys R Us is declaring bankruptcy to help them recover before the holidays. So now could be the most affordable time ever to buy an Etch-a-Sketch. A report says robots will eventually take over the job of real estate appraisals. You can still bribe the property inspector, though. You just need to switch out the cash for WD-40 and electrical tape. It's come to this, but just doing your job and sitting at your desk all day, you could be raising your risk of death. A lot. How? It's your chair. It's a killer. People who sit 11 or more hours a day are 40% more likely to die over the next three years, no matter how physically active they are the rest of the time, reports a study from the University of Sydney in Australia. What can you do?  Meaning I should be dead by now. A study says being generous makes people happier. I gotta admit, when somebody is generous to me, that makes me happier. A study has found that people who drink regularly have less risk of depression than people who never drink at all. Boy, am I feeling depressed today. Poor me. Poor poor me. Poor me another drink. New Jersey Pizza Chain Villa Italian Kitchen has created pumpkin spice pizza. They landed on the perfect pumpkin spice pizza balance. It's a magical place where all the deliciousness of pizza meets the flavors of pumpkin spice. We have gone too far with the pumpkin spice stuff. Pumpkin spice does not belong in pizza. In fact, there are a few other things I think we need to avoid as well. Here are five pumpkin spice things I hope they never make. Pumpkin spice flu shots. Pumpkin spice racks. Pumpkin spice old spice. Pumpkin spice pumpkin pie because come on, let's face it, that would be redundant. And finally, pumpkin spice preparation H. According to a survey, about 60% of Americans say they don't exercise at all. The other 40% were too exhausted to fill out the survey. Think your pets can really understand you, wish you could understand them? You just might in about 10 years. A report from Amazon suggests that the technology for a pet translator could exist within the next decade. Futurologists at Next Big Thing that carried out the study say there is a growing demand for such a product, and that existing research suggests it's possible. The report refers to scientific research by North Arizona University professor Kahn Slabochikov who claims prairie dogs' sounds are distinct and decipherable, and he believes the sound of other animals will too. Slabochikov says that prairie dogs communicate in a sophisticated language and have words for different species of predator and can describe the color of human clothes or the coat of coyotes or dogs. He's convinced that his findings on prairie dogs will apply to other animals too, including cats and dogs, and he's fundraising money right now to work on a pet translation device. Meanwhile, parents just want a translator so they can understand their teenager's slang. Speaking at the UN on Tuesday, President Trump delivered a speech in which he referred to Kim Jong-un as the rocket man and indicated that if things go a certain way, we may have to totally destroy North Korea. But other than that, it was a peaceful and happy speech. Now they're saying the reason Nicole Kidman didn't mention her two kids with Tom Cruz on Sunday night is that because of Scientology, they're not allowed to communicate. Gee, now there's a religion you want to be a part of! A study says eating a big breakfast is the key to a healthier weight, which is exactly why I start each morning with two sausage muffins and a large Coke. Hillary Clinton says in her new book that white women voted against her because their white husbands told them to. I'm told she came to that conclusion after getting dizzy from all that alternate nostril breathing. You may not think of toothpicks as luxurious, but that has not always been the case. Centuries ago, royalty-used gold and silver toothpicks and Canadian entrepreneur Peter Smith thinks there's a business opportunity there. Smith's company, Danison, is now selling luxury toothpicks made from American milled northern white birch that come in six flavors, bourbon, single malt, ginger honey, lemon, mint and cinnamon. The four-bottle pack starts at $25, with just 12 toothpicks per bottle that comes to $0.50 per toothpick. But Smith is finding that people are willing to pay a premium price for his superior product. He says people are innately hardwired to want them. Have a great meal and finish with a great toothpick. Because people will spend money on anything. A new study finds that today's teens mature slower than past generations because they are pampered by their parents. For example, colleges complain about late-night parking problems when parents show up to tuck their kids into bed. David Hasselhoff has asked a judge if he can stop making alimony payments to his ex-wife who he divorced in 2006. So far, he has given her $2.6 million. Looking between the lines of his request, it appears Hasselhoff was saying, nobody is hiring me anymore and I need the money for alcohol and pizza. Choose your friends carefully. They can make you fat. A recent study from Harvard Medical School in Boston concludes that obesity is contagious. Well, contagious in the sense that your immediate social network can influence your own weight gain. That is, if your friends are fat, you are more likely to be fat. The opposite is also true, being around thin people inspires us to also be thin. Wait a minute, if that's true, though, that if I hang out with thin people, I might get thinner? But they're hanging out with me, so won't they get fatter? Apple's new operating system iOS 11 is now available, not to be confused with the terrifying I owe the IRS 11K. A woman in Ireland apparently high on something was found standing in the middle of a road shouting at passers-by and paramedics trying to help her. When a female officer showed up to take control of the situation, the woman bit her, then yelled, if you can't beat them, eat them. She was taken to jail, where, ironically, she complained about the quality of the food. McDonald's is getting a new brand of apple juice for its Happy Meals, which has half the sugar and calories, which has skeptics asking, is it because it's half the juice or twice the water? If you want to keep your teeth sparkling white and cavity-free, don't indulge in after-dinner or midnight snacks. The BBC News reports that eating food at night can seriously damage your teeth, according to a study from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. Here's the kicker, it doesn't matter what you eat, a piece of fruit will do as much damage as a bowl of ice cream. Well then, I guess I'll be reaching for the hog-and-dice. And the study finds that low-level nonviolent crime for dropouts pays an average of $900 per week. I don't remember them ever mentioning that at our high school on career day. A group of 45 men dressed up as Thomas Magnum from the 80s series Magnum PI were thrown out of the Tigers White Sox game in Detroit this week. The group were there for a bachelor party, and they were tossed from Comerica Park because they were told that one of them was smoking while another was cat-calling. Each Magnum was decked out in a Hawaiian shirt, a fake or real mustache, and a tiger sat. The cardboard cutout of Tom Selleck was also carried around, and it was also asked to leave. Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield is blaming the team's 2014 collapse on Katy Perry, saying that she jinxed the team by making eyes at then-quarterback Trevor Knight. Then again, if you're so easily rattled that you can no longer play well because a girl likes you, let's face it, you don't have a future in professional football anyway. The study says playing tackle football before age 12 could lead to brain issues. I don't know about that. I played before I was 12, and I had no problem, cheesy poofs. If you must gain weight, the best place for that fat to land is on your hips, butt and thighs. That stored there is actually good for you, since it protects against heart and metabolic problems according to a team of experts from Oxford University in Great Britain. Hip fat actually absorbs harmful fatty acids and contains an anti-inflammatory agent that helps prevent arteries from clogging, so while a big rear may not look flattering and tight jeans, it can help you live longer. Okay, well, what I want to know is, how do I force the fat to leave my man boobs and head south? What's the most uncivilized thing we do in public? Well, if you guessed where pajama pants, you're right.  You don't have big plans as we can, do you? Well, sorry to break it to you, but the world is ending. Well, that is, if you believe David Mead, a Christian numerologist and self-described researcher, Dave says September 23 is foretold in the Bible's book of Revelation as the day a series of catastrophic events will begin, and as a result, a major part of the world will not be the same. He claims the Bible prophesies a woman clothed with the sun and a crown of 12 stars giving birth to a boy who will rule all the nations while she fights off a seven-headed dragon. The woman, Mead says, is the constellation Virgo, which on Saturday will be positioned under nine stars and three planets. According to him, the baby boy will be the planet Jupiter, which will be moving out of Virgo on that night. Mr. Mead says he studied astronomy at a university in Kentucky, but he won't say which one. He will say that the great change in our world will be the result of the arrival of Nibiru, a planet famous in conspiracy circles, but which actual astronomers, the ones who don't mind showing you their diplomas, say doesn't exist. David Morrison, a senior space scientist at NASA, says that if Nibiru were really on a collision course with Earth, we would have easily seen it by now. But that's not dissuading Mead, who points to the fact that September 23rd falls 33 days after last month's total solar eclipse as proof of his prophecy. Hey, Dave, there's one way to easily find out if you really believe all this. Just sign this little piece of paper that says all your earthly possessions and financial assets will transfer to me as of Sunday, September 24th. You won't need them, right? All the major TV networks have turned down Sean Spicer's offer to work for them. None of them wanted to meet his contract demand for his own customized podium on wheels. Sunday's Emmy Awards had one of the lowest viewerships in the show's history, probably because people were already tired of hearing about politics and they knew that's all they would get during the Emmys. And it turns out, they were right. One new study says that being neurotic can help people live longer, which is great news if you are neurotic about not living very long. John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, heard about a Polish beverage company's new drink called John Lemon. She threatened legal action, alleging that it infringed on a trademark of her late husband. The company has now agreed to change its drink's name to On Lemon. Ironic that the sourpuss in this story is Yoko.  Just find a way to play her a sappy love song.  Then ask for her phone number. In a recent experiment, single women aged 18-20 spent five minutes listening to either a neutral pop song or a romantic ballad. Afterward, the women who heard the ballad were twice as likely to give an average-looking interviewer their phone number and agree to go for drinks.  The World Health Organization is now warning that the world is running out of antibiotics. So if you're planning on being sick in the near future, you might want to relocate to another planet first. I hear Nibiru is pretty close. Now they're saying that Roomba Vacuums could be collecting data about the layout of your home and then sold.  The California man went on a rampage that ended with him beating up a grocery employee with a bag of bread. A 39-year-old man allegedly entered the safeway yelling and screaming. One employee attempted to calm the man, but he responded by pushing him several times, then grabbing a loaf of French bread and hitting him in the face. The employee did not sustain major injuries, but he is pressing charges for gluten assault. Music not only lowers blood pressure, but also it does so nearly as effectively as cutting salt from your diet or exercising. According to researchers from Rohr University in Germany, but there is one big gotcha. It has to be classical music. The study, led by Hans Trapp, played Mozart's Symphony No. 4 in G Minor, various dances by Johann Strauss and Abba songs to 60 volunteers. Each person's blood pressure was taken before and after listening to the music. Mozart lowered systolic blood pressure, Strauss did as well, meanwhile the Swedish pop group Abba had no effect whatsoever, and dubstep immediately put people in the ICU. Today's Daily Dose of Weird News is dedicated to my friends at Cross International. A single gift of $60 will feed a child for a full five months in Kenya and South Sudan. I made my gift and sponsored three children, but I'm also asking you to sponsor just one, a single one-time gift of just $60. Call<PHONE_NUMBER> to donate now, that's<PHONE_NUMBER>. 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