 |
|
|
|||||
Scientists say 4 billion people, about half the world’s population, experienced at least one extra month of extreme heat because of human-caused climate change from May 2024 to May 2025.The extreme heat caused illness, death, crop losses, and strained energy and health care systems, according to the analysis from World Weather Attribution, Climate Central and the Red Cross.“Although floods and cyclones often dominate headlines, heat is arguably the deadliest extreme event,” the report said. Many heat-related deaths are unreported or are mislabeled by other conditions like heart disease or kidney failure.The scientists used peer-reviewed methods to study how much climate change boosted temperatures in an extreme heat event and calculated how much more likely its occurrence was because of climate change. In almost all countries in the world, the number of extreme heat days has at least doubled compared with a world without climate change.Caribbean islands were among the hardest hit by additional extreme heat days. Puerto Rico, a territory of the United States, endured 161 days of extreme heat. Without climate change, only 48 would have occurred.“It makes it feel impossible to be outside,” said Charlotte Gossett Navarro, chief director for Puerto Rico at Hispanic Federation, a nonprofit focused on social and environmental issues in Latino communities, who lives in the San Juan area and was not involved in the report.“Even something as simple as trying to have a day outdoors with family, we weren’t able to do it because the heat was too high,” she said, reporting feeling dizzy and sick last summer.When the power goes out, which happens frequently in Puerto Rico in part because of decades of neglected grid maintenance and damage from Hurricane Maria in 2017, Navarro said it is difficult to sleep. “If you are someone relatively healthy, that is uncomfortable, it’s hard to sleep . . . but if you are someone who has a health condition, now your life is at risk,” Gossett Navarro said.Heat waves are silent killers, said Friederike Otto, associate professor of climate science at Imperial College London, one of the report’s authors. “People don’t fall dead on the street in a heat wave . . . people either die in hospitals or in poorly insulated homes and therefore are just not seen,” he said.Low-income communities and vulnerable populations, such as older adults and people with medical conditions, suffer the most from extreme heat.The high temperatures recorded in the extreme heat events that occurred in Central Asia in March, South Sudan in February and in the Mediterranean last July would have not been possible without climate change, according to the report. At least 21 people died in Morocco after temperatures hit 118 degrees Fahrenheit (48 degrees Celsius) last July. People are noticing temperatures are getting hotter but don’t always know it is being driven by climate change, said Roop Singh, head of urban and attribution at the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, in a World Weather Attribution statement.“We need to quickly scale our responses to heat through better early warning systems, heat action plans, and long-term planning for heat in urban areas to meet the rising challenge,” Singh said.City-led initiatives to tackle extreme heat are becoming popular in parts of South Asia, North America, Europe and Australia to coordinate resources across governments and other agencies. One example is a tree-planting initiative launched in Marseille, France, to create more shaded areas.The report says strategies to prepare for heat waves include monitoring and reporting systems for extreme temperatures, providing emergency health services, cooling shelters, updated building codes, enforcing heat safety rules at work, and designing cities to be more heat-resilient.But without phasing out fossil fuels, heat waves will continue becoming more severe and frequent and protective measures against the heat will lose their effectiveness, the scientists said. The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. Isabella O’Malley, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
If youre an ice cream fan, theres some bad news: One of Americas most beloved ice cream brands may soon see hundreds of its in-store retail locations vanish just as summer is beginning. Thrifty Ice Cream counters, which are found in hundreds of Rite Aid locations in California and other states, are facing an uncertain future thanks to the pharmacy chains most recent bankruptcy proceedings. Heres what you need to know. What is Thrifty Ice Cream? Thrifty Ice Cream is an ice cream brand that is owned by the Rite Aid pharmacy chain. The brand was originally founded in 1940 in Los Angeles, where it was sold from soda fountain counters inside the Thrifty Drug Store chain. The brand is iconic in Los Angeles and throughout California, where its cylindrical ice cream scoops are a summer staple for people who want to cool down with a sweet treat. As the Los Angeles Times reported in 2018, until 1975, a scoop of Thriftys ice cream cost as little as five cents, and today scoops cost just a few dollars. In 1996, the Rite Aid pharmacy chain bought Thrifty PayLess, the then-owner of the Thrifty pharmacy store and Thrifty ice cream, for $2.3 billion. After the acquisition, Rite Aid operated over 500 Thrifty Ice Cream counters inside its pharmacies, mainly in California. But now it is likely these Thrifty Ice Cream counter stores-within-a-store are closing. What will happen to Thrifty Ice Cream? Over the past several days, reports have emerged indicating that up to 500 Thrifty Ice Cream stores may close. When these reports mention stores closing, they are referring to the Thrifty Ice Cream counters found in Rite Aid pharmacy locations. Rite Aid is currently undergoing its second bankruptcy in as many years, and the pharmacy chain has already announced plans to close hundreds of locations. It’s important to note that this bankruptcy will mark the end of Rite Aid. All of its stores will either close or be sold to other owners. Locations that that ultimately remain open will no longer be Rite Aid stores. (For example, pharmacy giant CVS has said it will take over 64 physical Rite Aid stores in Washington, Idaho, and Oregon.) In 2018, the Los Angeles Times reported that Rite Aid operated more than 500 Thrifty Ice Cream stations; however, the pharmacy chain has significantly reduced its footprint since then, having gone through its first bankruptcy in 2023. Meanwhile, Thrifty Ice Creams online store locator tool appears to be only partially functional as of the time of this writing, so the exact number of locations the brand has is unknown. Fast Company has reached out to Rite Aid for clarity on how many Thrifty Ice Cream counters are still in operation and what their fate will be amid the bankruptcy process. But just because Rite Aid is closing locations and filing for bankruptcy, that doesnt mean Thrifty Ice Cream is necessarily done for good. After selling off most of its pharmacy assets this month, Rite Aid is expected to hold an auction in June to sell its remaining assets, including the Thrifty brand and the Thrifty Ice Cream factory in El Monte, California. It’s possible that a buyer could swoop in to scoop up the Thrifty Ice Cream brand. If so, any buyer may continue to operate Thrifty Ice Cream stores. The counters in the closing Rite Aid stores would no longer be an option, but a new buyer would be free to open Thrifty Ice Cream individual stores, or form partnerships with other pharmacies or retailers to run Thrifty Ice Cream counters in their stores. Thrifty Ice Cream also currently sells its ice cream at retailers including Vons and Albertsons. A buyer may choose to keep the brand alive through retail outlet sales alone. But for now, all this is just conjecture. We likely wont know the future of Thrifty Ice Cream until Rite Aids bankruptcy is completed, or until next month’s auction.
Category:
E-Commerce
What does it mean to be a manager? In todays world, managers need to wear many hats. They have to be a mentor, mediator, communicator, coach, and numerous other roles simultaneously. But at its core, management is about matchmaking. You need to map the talents of your team to the needs of your business. That means making the most of your teams combined talents and unlocking the diversity in your team. Unfortunately, as managers struggle with limited time and resources, they overlook this critical component. All too often, managers end up assigning tasks on autopilot, matching business challenges to job titles rather than thinking creatively about how to leverage peoples hidden talents or offer growth opportunities. The shift to hybrid and remote work has also reduced opportunities for the spontaneous discovery of peoples hidden talents. This can end up shrouding peoples true strengths. Collaboration and engagement can also suffer. Fortunately, unlocking your teams strengths doesnt need to be time-consuming. Over the past three years, Ive helped dozens of teams unlock talents they didnt even know they hadand match those talents to the most pressing challenges they facedthrough this simple, three-step exercise: Step 1: Self-reflection Gather your team togetherideally in personand ask everyone to write down their talents and strengths on a flip chart. Emphasize that this isnt a competition to see who can list the most strengths, but rather about identifying the talents that people might take for granted or struggle to recognize in themselves. Sometimes, were so used to our strengths that we dont even notice them. Encourage them to think about what they find easy to do, or what people come to them for. This short 15-minute period of self-reflection lays the foundation for using the hidden talents for the benefit of the team. Step 2: Team input Next, go around the room and ask each person to read their strengths aloud. Resist the urge to discuss or critique the strengths each team member identifies. Simply ask the rest of the team, What talent or strength do you see in this person that they didnt mention themselves?, and have the person write each additional talent on their list. And before moving over to your next team member, ask the team, whats the number-one strength of this colleague that at this moment we should use much more as a team? As you go around the room, each person will be surprised by the strengths their team sees in them. As their manager, youre likely to be surprised as well at the number of hidden, untapped talents that may surface. This step is often particularly powerful for more introverted or less confident employees, who might generally be more hesitant to talk about their strengths. Ive found that while teams always have something to add for everyone, its often the quieter members who receive the most additions from their colleagues. The step uncovers underutilized talents and lays the groundwork for deeper appreciation and trust within the team. Step 3: Match strengths to challenges The final step is to connect the strengths theyve revealed to the challenges your team currently faces. For example, I worked with a biotech company that struggled to collaborate with another department. The team had identified that Georgina was highly collaborative, and so she became the natural choice to lead cross-functional projects. Pauls talent, on the other hand, was structuring information that could be used to address the challenge of distilling insights from complex data. And Tims talent for visual storytelling could help address challenges in communicating with investors and other stakeholders. In this way, teams can collaboratively move beyond asking, Whose job is this? Instead, they can ask, What talent could help us address this challenge? It dynamically redefines roles, making full use of often overlooked talents such as: Spotting talent: The ability to recognize potential in oneself and others. Offloading: Knowing which initiatives or activities they need to stop (or simplify). Finishing: The drive to see projects through to completion. These are not always the talents you see on a résumé. But when you face a challenge, knowing the specific strengths that each team member possesses can be extremely helpful. Make your matches stick By design, this 90120 minute exercise is short and simple. However, to drive lasting impact, its important to ensure that your team members continue to have opportunities to flex their talents. For example, Michael often clashed with senior leader Frank over project approaches, stalling progress. The team recognized that Anna, who excelled in stakeholder management, could bridge the gap. Anna began mentoring Michael, helping him engage Franks input early in the process instead of letting conflicts fester. Michaels projects then moved faster. Both Michael and Frank came to appreciate Annas mentorship, and she continued to assist the team with similar stakeholder challenges. Embedding this practice into your management style can be as simple as revisiting the exercise during weekly stand-ups, monthly team meetings, or even as part of onboarding new employees. The key is to commit to ongoing self-reflection and feedback. Regularly measure progress, share successful matches, and be willing to adjust the approach as your team evolves. Being an effective manager today means stepping back from the daily firefight to invest in your people. When you act as a talent matchmaker, connecting individual strengths and organizational challenges, you unlock a powerful resource that drives both team performance and engagement.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||