Introducing a global planetary ecosystem accounting in the wake of the Amazon Forest fires

Since the 19th century, rapid urbanisation coupled with a demographic boom has increased pressures on the global exploitation of natural resources leading to an array of issues at planetary scale. Even though there have been significant ecologically driven human policy efforts, with frameworks addressing ecosystem accounting and management, such are principally constricted at sub-global levels; being regionally focussed, and hence lacking both cohesivity and accountability. Resource management viewed through this lens leads to a number of geopolitical factors as demonstrated recently with the Amazon Forest fires. This incident witnessed calls from numerous countries calling for rapid remediation even though their own policies are harbingers of equally damaging the environments through other means. This disparity in resource accounting and management on a planetary scale is apparent from diverse local and regional groups and needs to be addressed in order to sustain a truly sustainable and liveable ecosystem and their failures in realising a viable ecosystem accounting system. This perspective paper explores this theme and proposes a ‘Global Planetary Ecosystem Accounting’ system based on the principle that ecologically sensitive areas benefiting the global ecosystem need to be economically weighted and its preservation equated to a revenue-generating activity

Clinical Characteristics, Mutation Spectrum, and Prevalence of Åland Eye Disease/Incomplete Congenital Stationary Night Blindness in Denmark

PURPOSE: To assess clinical characteristics, foveal structure, mutation spectrum, and prevalence rate of Åland eye disease (AED)/incomplete congenital stationary night blindness (iCSNB). METHODS: A retrospective survey included individuals diagnosed with AED at a national low-vision center from 1980 to 2014. A subset of affected males underwent ophthalmologic examinations including psychophysical tests, full-field electroretinography, and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography. RESULTS: Over the 34-year period, 74 individuals from 35 families were diagnosed with AED. Sixty individuals from 29 families participated in a follow-up study of whom 59 harbored a CACNA1F mutation and 1 harbored a CABP4 mutation. Among the subjects with a CACNA1F mutation, subnormal visual acuity was present in all, nystagmus was present in 63%, and foveal hypoplasia was observed in 25/43 subjects. Foveal pit volume was significantly reduced as compared to normal (P < 0.0001). Additionally, outer segment length at the fovea was measured in 46 subjects and found to be significantly reduced as compared to normal (P < 0.001). Twenty-nine CACNA1F variations were detected among 34 families in the total cohort, and a novel CABP4 variation was identified in one family. The estimated mean birth prevalence rate was 1 per 22,000 live-born males. CONCLUSIONS: Our data support the viewpoint that AED, iCSNB, and X-linked cone–rod dystrophy 3 are designations that refer to a broad, continuous spectrum of clinical appearances caused in the majority by a variety of mutations in CACNA1F. We argue that the original designation AED should be used for this entity

Rewriting city narratives and spirit: Post-pandemic urban recovery mechanisms in the shadow of the global ‘black lives matter’ movement

The social media live-broadcasted murder of George Floyd by Minnesota police officers in the United States ignited a national uprising as it highlighted continued discrimination of the African-American community. Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, this fuelled the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement and gave way to protests of an unprecedented scale causing havoc in major cities in the United States, with losses tabled in both the public and private sectors. Interestingly, this momentum kindled similar protests in numerous cities in other parts of the world calling for racial equality for minority and Indigenous groups and a more equitable presentation of their culturally colonised stories. This paper surveys this global uprising exploring its precipitous momentum at a time where most of the world was in lockdown or in forced confinement. Included is how the protests, highlighting deep-rooted underlying social and cultural angst, may have far-reaching impacts in influencing post-pandemic recovery mechanisms in favour of more inclusive communities - a goal ironically embedded in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 that seeks to ‘Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable’