TASK DEFINITION: Generate an explanation for the given claim using the provided supporting material from the paragraph. Please consider the following points while generating an output. 1) The claim will always have supporting proof in the paragraph, and the paragraph will have a clear point of view supporting the claim. 2) There can be instances where direct correlation to the claim is not available. Make use of the sentences in the paragraph to provide a corresponding output supporting the claim. 3) The explanation should be at least one and at most twelve sentences long.
PROBLEM: Paragraph: A day after Australia recorded its hottest day on record, thick smoke blanketed the harbor city, shrouded the Opera House and brought many outdoor activities to a halt. The state of emergency declaration gave firefighters broad powers to control government resources, force evacuations, close roads and shut down utilities across New South Wales, which is home to more than 7 million people. Authorities said nearly 120 fires remained ablaze by late afternoon, more than half of which are uncontrolled, and with temperatures forecast to top 45 degrees Celsius (113°F) in some areas, officials warned residents to be on high alert. “The firefront has been spreading very quickly and intensely,” NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told reporters in Sydney, adding that two firefighters had been airlifted to hospital with burns to their faces and airways. “It’s still a very difficult and dangerous set of circumstances.”  Days out from Christmas, a time when many Australians head to the coast for the holidays, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian advised people to make sure “you are prepared to change your plans should circumstances change.”  In Shoalhaven, a popular coastal destination some 190 km (120 miles) south of Sydney, local mayor Amanda Findley said people were poised to evacuate. “There is a large amount of smoke looming over the city, which shows how close the fire is,” Findley told Reuters by telephone. “It is extremely hot and windy now so we are all worried the fire could spread. People are really worried that they may lose everything.”  The RFS posted footage on its official Twitter account showing firefighters tackling one of the three blazes ringing Sydney. A waterbomber aircraft was dwarfed by thick grey and black billowing cloud as it attempted to douse flames in bushland just meters away from homes. Australia has been battling wildfires across much of its east coast for weeks, leaving six people dead, more than 680 homes destroyed and nearly 3 million acres (1.2 million hectares) of bushland burnt. Berejiklian said as many as 40 homes had been destroyed on Thursday. Australia on Wednesday broke all-time heat records for the second day running, with maximum temperatures reaching an average of 41.9 degree Celsius, the Bureau of Meteorology said. Some 1,700 firefighters have been deployed across NSW, but officials warned that was still not enough to cover every potential danger and urged people in high risk areas to evacuate while it was still safe to do so. The current state of emergency will last for seven days, while a total fire ban that has been in place since Tuesday will remain until midnight on Saturday. The major fires around Sydney, which is home to more than 5 million people, have resulted in days of heavy pollution in the city usually known for its sparkling harbor and blue skies. One megafire in the Kanangra Boyd National Park to the city’s southwest had crept to the very outskirts of Campbelltown, a suburb of 157,000 people. By late afternoon, Sydney was sitting at No.4 on the IQAir AirVisual live rankings of pollution in global cities, above Dhaka, Mumbai, Shanghai and Jakarta. Many commuters have donned breathing masks in recent weeks as air quality has plunged to hazardous levels not previously seen in the city. NSW Ambulance Commissioner Dominic Morgan said the service had experienced a 10% surge in call-outs for patients suffering respiratory conditions over the past week and urged susceptible people to remain indoors and keep their medication close. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has weathered a storm of criticism on social media in recent days for going on an overseas holiday during the emergency, adding to criticism that his government is failing to deliver adequate climate change policies. As local media reported Morrison was in Hawaii on a family holiday, about 500 protesters gathered outside his official Sydney residence to demand urgent action on climate change. Morrison’s office refused to confirm his whereabouts. One protestor, wearing an Hawaiian shirt, carried a sign reading, “ScoMo, where the bloody hell are you?” referencing the leader’s nickname and a decade-old international advertisement for Tourism Australia that was banned in several countries because the language was deemed offensive. Australia’s low-lying Pacific neighbors have been particularly critical of the coal-rich nation’s climate policies following modest progress at the U.N. climate talks in Madrid. “It was particularly disappointing to see our Pacific cousins in Australia actively standing in the way of progress at a time when we have been watching in horror as their own country is ablaze,” Marshall Islands president Hilda Heine said in a statement on Wednesday. Claim: Ring of fire: Australian state declares emergency as wildfires approach Sydney.

SOLUTION: Australia’s most populous state declared its second emergency in as many months on Thursday as extreme heat and strong winds stoked more than 100 bushfires, including three major blazes on Sydney’s doorstep.

PROBLEM: Paragraph: Plastic mulch, basically thin sheeting placed over individual crops, is used throughout China’s arid and dusty north to improve growing conditions and boost yields by retaining moisture for crops and suppressing weeds. The country deploys about 200,000 square km (77,220 square miles) of plastic mulch, an area the size of Belarus. A notice published by several ministries on Wednesday said China would work to improve the recovery rate of plastic mulch to 80% next year and ensure there is “zero growth” in the amount of plastic mulch used. It will aim to bring recovery rates to 100% and start reducing total land coverage by 2025. The notice said China would also work to improve its monitoring capability and include mulch pollution in the performance indicators of local government officials. Manufacturers will also be put under pressure to improve product standards. China uses about 2 million to 3 million tonnes of plastic mulch every year, but waste treatment capacity amounts to just 180,000 tonnes, Yan Changrong, a researcher with the China Rural Science Institute, said at a recent forum. While the use of plastic film can boost yields significantly in the short term, unrecovered remnants eventually degrade the soil and can also contaminate crops, with Chinese exports of spinach and ginger found to contain traces of plastic, said Xu Jingeng, a parliamentary delegate for Shandong province, in a proposal submitted to the National People’s Congress in March. Handling large volumes of plastic waste has become one of China’s pressing challenges. The country’s recycling capacity stands at around 23 million to 25 million tonnes, only half of total annual plastic waste produced, according to data from the Beijing Chemistry University. The city of Shanghai is gradually restricting the use of single-use plastics in catering, and the island province of Hainan has already vowed to completely eliminate single-use plastic by 2025. [nL4N23Y1YE][nL3N20G7K1] Claim: China vows to raise recycling rates of rural plastic mulch.

SOLUTION: China vowed to improve the recycling rates of plastic mulch used in farming, the government said on Wednesday, amid mounting concerns about soil contamination as unrecovered bits of the thin film get left behind, leaving traces in crops.

PROBLEM: Paragraph: At no point in the release was cost mentioned. Psychotherapy and counseling can be costly, especially for the elderly on fixed incomes. Readers would be well-served with some estimate of the costs of the services provided through this trial. Also, a mention of a comparison between the costs of office visits for such therapy versus that delivered via telephone would be useful to give readers a fuller picture of the practical potential for this approach. Medicare requires in person contact for payment. That’s why the cost issue is important in this case. We think news releases can and should address these matters. The release fails to give readers any indication of the degree of differences between the two approaches tested, and falls back on simply saying that X “was superior to” Y and “resulted in a greater reduction of symptoms.”  Without any numerical values being offered, readers can’t gauge for themselves the value of one approach over the other. It’s difficult to gauge the clinical effectiveness versus the statistical differences. It would have been helpful to compare the degree of reduction of symptoms with office-based therapy, and drug treatment. Journal news releases can help educate journalists and all readers by quantifying potential benefits – and by reinforcing the expectation in readers that such information should be provided The release mentioned no possible harms from this approach, although in fairness, supportive telephone conversations are unlikely to carry much risk. However, we wonder about situations where the telephone therapy sessions may not detect some problems that might surface during a face-to-face consultation. The study itself used accepted psychological assays to gauge participants’ degree of GAD, and relied on self-reports by participants to determine any improvements following therapies. All of these are subjective by nature, rather than empirical and some reference to that would have been useful. Rather than saying, “there was greater decline in worry severity,” the release more accurately could have said “participants reported” a greater decline to remind reads of the caveats to the findings. The authors of the journal article also made the point that their results could be regression to the mean. Nonetheless, we’ll rate this satisfactory because of the details that were provided. The release does not demonstrate disease mongering. An end note points out that this study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. There was no indication of any conflicts of interest. The release points out that the study focuses on older adults living in rural settings where psychotherapy may be unavailable. It also points out that older adults may prefer psychotherapy over medications. We wonder about other approaches to address loneliness in the elderly, especially in rural areas, that could improve a person’s quality of life. Since the telephone is ubiquitous in modern life, one assumes that such a program as explained in this clinical trial could be available in short notice, assuming financial support for the project. Telephone-based support programs are not new and the release makes no claims that the approach is necessarily novel. It specifically says that it “is one way to overcome some barriers to mental health treatment.” The release does not appear to use any unjustifiable language. But, on a side note about language, the release never defined “non directive supportive therapy,” which is what the comparison group received. Many journalists – and general public readers – might not know what that means and would benefit from a one line definition. Claim: Telephone-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety in Rural Older Adults

SOLUTION:
The news release reports on the outcome of a randomized clinical trial testing how well telephone-based therapy can be used for older rural patients experiencing general anxiety disorder. It’s an interesting and important topic. The release would have been improved significantly with just a few more details. The research paper points out that generalized anxiety disorder “is one of the most common anxiety disorders in older adults” and is “associated with poor quality of life, increased health care utilization, impaired memory, and potentially increased morbidity and mortality.”  Those issues can be amplified by life in rural communities where psychological care can be scarce. Older adults can be more prone to these issues based on their physical isolation. So if therapy could be effectively delivered via telephone, adults facing these challenges might be more readily helped.