As the first wave of baby boomers edges toward retirement, a growing body of evidence suggests that they may be the first generation to enter their golden years in worse health than their parents. While not definitive, the data sketch a startlingly different picture than the popular image of health-obsessed workout fanatics who know their antioxidants from their trans fats and look 10 years younger than their age. Boomers are healthier in some important ways — they are much less likely to smoke, for example — but large surveys are consistently finding that they tend to describe themselves as less hale and hearty than their forebears did at the same age. They are more likely to report difficulty climbing stairs, getting up from a chair and doing other routine activities, as well as more chronic problems such as high cholesterol, blood pressure and diabetes. ‘We’re seeing some very powerful evidence all pointing to parallel findings,’ said Mark D. Hayward, a sociologist at the University of Texas at Austin. ‘The trend seems to be that people are not as healthy as they approach retirement as they were in older generations. It’s very disturbing.’ While cautioning that the data […]
Our planet’s prospects for environmental stability are bleaker than ever with the approach of this year’s Earth Day, April 22. Global warming is widely accepted as a reality by scientists and even by previously doubtful government and industrial leaders. And according to a recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), there is a 90 percent likelihood that humans are contributing to the change. The international panel of scientists predicts the global average temperature could increase by 2 to 11 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100 and that sea levels could rise by up to 2 feet. Scientists have even speculated that a slight increase in Earth’s rotation rate could result, along with other changes. Glaciers, already receding, will disappear. Epic floods will hit some areas while intense drought will strike others. Humans will face widespread water shortages. Famine and disease will increase. Earth’s landscape will transform radically, with a quarter of plants and animals at risk of extinction. While putting specific dates on these traumatic potential events is challenging, this timeline paints the big picture and details Earth’s future based on several recent studies and the longer scientific version of the IPCC report, which was made […]
Climate change is hitting Australia hard. Record-breaking heatwaves, droughts and wildfires have scorched much of the south, while northern regions have faced severe cyclones and torrential downpours. The big concern is how much warmer Australia’s weather is getting: 2005 was the hottest year on record, and last year was not far behind. Temperatures have risen by about 1C (1.8F) since the 1950s, faster than the global average. Many regions are withering under an unprecedented drought that has lasted up to ten years. The outlook looks grim, with Victoria heading for its driest April yet and little sign of rain for the rest of this month and possibly even up to June. Even an average winter’s rainfall would not restore water reserves. But Australia’s climate has long teetered on a knife-edge. Its huge expanse of desert and scrubland, erratic rains, and population squeezed into relatively narrow coastal strips make it highly vulnerable to changes in climate. Being a huge island also makes it very sensitive to the surrounding oceans, and especially to bouts of the El Niño pattern in the Pacific that usually deliver punishing droughts to the east. Related Links * Australia’s […]
NEW YORK — The most powerful indictment of the news media for falling down in its duties in the run-up to the war in Iraq will appear next Wednesday, a 90-minute PBS broadcast called ‘Buying the War,’ which marks the return of ‘Bill Moyers Journal.’ E&P was sent a preview DVD and a draft transcript for the program this week. While much of the evidence of the media’s role as cheerleaders for the war presented here is not new, it is skillfully assembled, with many fresh quotes from interviews (with the likes of Tim Russert and Walter Pincus) along with numerous embarrassing examples of past statements by journalists and pundits that proved grossly misleading or wrong. Several prominent media figures, prodded by Moyers, admit the media failed miserably, though few take personal responsibility. The war continues today, now in its fifth year, with the death toll for Americans and Iraqis rising again — yet Moyers points out, ‘the press has yet to come to terms with its role in enabling the Bush Administration to go to war on false pretenses.’ Among the few heroes of this devastating film are reporters with the Knight Ridder/McClatchy bureau in […]
Is it the soaring price of gas? Is it disgust at American dependence on foreign oil? Or is it our society’s realization that we are individually responsible to do less harm to our shared environment? Whatever the question that confronts them, Mississippians are turning more and more to alternatively fueled vehicles as part of the solution. Mississippi now has 82,000 alternatively fueled automobiles zipping around its streets and highways, a recent automotive market report showed. The report, produced by R.L. Polk and Co., said hybrid electric, ethanol-capable E-85 and clean diesel autos increased by 35 percent on the state’s roads since 2005. Tony White, sales manager at Gulfport’s Butch Oustalet Ford, said his lot sells Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner electric hybrids, which work solely on batteries at slower speeds and gas at higher speeds. ‘We can’t keep them on the lot,’ White said. ‘One or two come in and they are already sold. The way the price of gas is, it looks like the demand will continue.’ Nationwide increases were applauded by industry group Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which represents nine alternative fuel vehicle manufacturers: BMW Group, DaimlerChrysler, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
