Category Archives: News to use

Useful news for all to advance knowledge of the world and how it works

No Time or Forest to Lose — HUMAN WRONGS WATCH

Barbara Crane Navarro

Human Wrongs Watch By Gaby Flores |Greenpeace International* Illegal deforestation in the Gran Chaco forest region continues. A Greenpeace Argentina team conducted an overflight last week and discovered unlawful deforestation in the Chaco province ofArgentina. Flyover deforested land in Chaco region of Argentina. © Alejandro Espeche / Greenpeace The deforestation of 10,329 hectares was detected[…]

No Time or Forest to Lose — HUMAN WRONGS WATCH

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The Vaccine Divide

CRAIN'S COMMENTS

I had interesting conversations with two people on Friday, among several with whom I spoke. The two represented polar opposites on vaccines:

  • Person one is a vaccine skeptic. Has never been vaccinated, will never be, and is sending a son off to college totally unprotected. You can do that in the South. Maybe she’ll get lucky, maybe not. Will she accept responsibility if she loses this game of Russian roulette?
  • Person two had a husband who caught Covid before the vaccines were available. He had to be intubated and suffered permanent brain damage and disability. I’m sure she wishes the vaccine had been available before her husband became ill.

Real stories, real people. The first explains why we can’t stop the virus in the US. The second explains the harm that it does and why so much of my time involves damage control.

And no, you’ll never see either story…

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Scientists make shocking discovery of ‘dead zones’ where nothing can live on two US coasts | TheHill

Scientists surveying the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico discovered a “dead-zone” – where low oxygen levels make the area inhospitable to fish –  “equivalent to more than four million acres of habitat.”

The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released the survey’s findings this week, which were uncovered by scientists aboard a research cruise. Typically, dead zones cover around 5,400 square miles. But the hypoxic zone near the Gulf this year measured around 6,334 square miles.

“This year, we have seen again and again the profound effect that climate change has on our communities – from historic drought in the west to flooding events. Climate is directly linked to water, including the flow of nutrient pollution into the Gulf of Mexico,” Environmental Protection Agency Assistant Administrator for Water Radhika Fox said in the release.

“As we work to address the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone, we must consider climate change and we must strengthen our collaboration and partnerships to make needed progress,” Fox added.

Source: Scientists make shocking discovery of ‘dead zones’ where nothing can live on two US coasts | TheHill

Gulf Stream system threatens collapse, study finds | News | DW | 06.08.2021 (Me: The Day After Tomorrow film crossing over from fiction to near future fact?)

“Significant early-warning signals are found in eight independent AMOC indices, based on observational sea-surface temperature and salinity data from across the Atlantic Ocean basin,” researchers wrote in the study’s abstract. “The AMOC may have evolved from relatively stable conditions to a point close to a critical transition,” they concluded. A collapse of the system would substantially cool Europe and have a strong impact on the tropical monsoon systems.

Source: Gulf Stream system threatens collapse, study finds | News | DW | 06.08.2021

♫ Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology)♫

Filosofa's Word

I can’t believe I haven’t already played this one, but I’m thankful that I haven’t.  It came to me this morning while performing morning chores like brushing teeth, taking meds, making the bed … and before it could scramble away as my ideas for music posts often do, I made a note in my phone so I could remember it 12 hours later when sitting down to find just that right song!

Many years before global warming became a hot topic, Marvin Gaye wrote this song about the environment and how we have an obligation to care for the Earth. For his What’s Going On album (1971), Gaye got away from love ballads and explored deeper social themes, which at first didn’t sit well with Motown boss Berry Gordy (to whose daughter Gaye was married at the time!), who thought these songs wouldn’t be marketable. The success of the…

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The Games People Play

Filosofa's Word

I titled this post as I did for a very good reason … our lawmakers at every level are playing games … with our lives.  They are playing with our right to vote, with the bridges that just waiting for a heavier-than-average rush hour to collapse and kill thousands, they are playing with the rights of Blacks, Hispanics and those of Asian descent to … well, to live, actually.  And they are playing with numbers … how they can profit the most from the 98% of us who live from paycheck to paycheck.  Oh yes, folks, our lawmakers are great games players, just not very good representatives of We the People.


For the People …

Over the past 2 weeks, I have spent hours pouring over the For the People Act, the legislation that is currently collecting dust in the United States Senate.  This is legislation that, in addition to…

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