MICHAEL OPPENHEIMER and KEVIN TRENBERTH, - The Washington Post
Stephan: There is not much here that will be unfamiliar to SR readers, but this is an excellent assessment, by two very knowledgeable scientists, of the state of climate change. And it deals very straightforwardly with the climate denier nonsense that continues to clog the media.
Michael Oppenheimer is a professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton University. Kevin Trenberth is a distinguished senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
In a recent op-ed for The Post, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) offered up a reheated stew of isolated factoids and sweeping generalizations about climate science to defend the destructive status quo. We agree with the chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology that policy should be based on sound science. But Smith presented political talking points, and none of his implied conclusions is accurate.
The two of us have spent, in total, more than seven decades studying Earth’s climate, and we have joined hundreds of top climate scientists to summarize the state of knowledge for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the World Climate Research Program and other science-based bodies. We believe that our views are representative of the 97
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, - A Garden for the House
Stephan: Gardening is one of the most popular activities in America, and increasingly people are growing their own food. Plants usually start with seeds. A reader sent me this list of the seed companies and labels owned by Monsanto. I wanted to share it with you, along with my recommendation not to buy these seeds.
Note how many apparently different companies are actually one corporation -- Monsanto.
IF YOU ARE THE KIND OF GARDENER who buys vegetable seeds or seedlings (including tomato plants) from a local garden center, as I sometimes do, beware the varieties you select. Otherwise, you could very well be putting money into the hands of the wretched Monsanto Corporation. Forewarned is forearmed, right? Here is the list of Seminis/Monsanto home-garden vegetable varieties, and yes, it even includes zucchini:
I’m going to print out this list, and keep a copy in my wallet. This way I won’t be caught off-guard the next time I decide to impulse-shop at a big-box garden center:
Beans: Aliconte, Brio, Bronco, Cadillac, Ebro, Etna, Eureka, Festina, Gina, Goldmine, Goldenchild, Labrador, Lynx, Magnum, Matador, Spartacus, Storm, Strike, Stringless Blue Lake 7, Tapia, Tema
Broccoli: Coronado Crown, Major, Packman
Cabbage: Atlantis, Golden Acre, Headstart, Platinum Dynasty, Red Dynasty
Carrot: Bilbo, Envy, Forto, Juliana, Karina, Koroda PS, Royal Chantenay, Sweetness III
Cauliflower: Cheddar, Minuteman
Cucumber: Babylon, Cool Breeze Imp., Dasher II, Emporator, Eureka, Fanfare HG, Marketmore 76, Mathilde, Moctezuma, Orient Express II, Peal, Poinsett 76, Salad Bush, Sweet Slice, Sweet Success PS, Talladega
[…]
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SHARON BERNSTEIN, - Reuters
Stephan: Jerry Brown is that rarest of rare beings, a competent politician, with long experience, actual ethics, and a commitment to the wellness of his state. Even when you don't agree with him you must admire his intent, and his skill at politics. With this high speed railroad he is trying to both save his state, and set in motion a national trend. High speed rail between San Diego and San Francisco, will soon extend to Portland and Seattle, and Vancouver. There are a dozen reasons why it will be successful.
LOS ANGELES — California moved a step closer to building a high-speed train line on Thursday, when a state commission chose a contractor to handle construction of the route’s first leg from Merced to Fresno in the state’s breadbasket.
The rail line, a major priority of California Governor Jerry Brown, would send passengers hurtling through the state’s fertile San Joaquin Valley as they zipped from San Diego to points north, eventually including Sacramento and San Francisco.
The contract set in motion on Thursday would be for designing and building the first portion of the line.
The state received bids from several contractors who wanted to build the project, but settled on a coalition of builders led by Los Angeles-based Tutor Perini Corp.
The company, in partnership with firms including Texas-based Zachry Corp and California-based Parsons Corp, bid just under $1 billion for the project, coming in below rivals who bid up to $500,000 more.
The board’s action on Thursday was to authorize the California High-Speed Rail Authority’s CEO, Jeff Morales, to begin negotiations with the Tutor Perini partnership.
Morales said in a statement he expected to finalize a contract with the consortium ‘in the coming weeks.’
Critics, however, have said the overall project – estimated to cost […]
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MICHELLE GOLDBERG, - The Daily Beast
Stephan: This is part of the the Great Schism Trend. States like Mississippi, ruled by the Theocratic Right, are in a kind of death spiral. Because the policies of the Right are based on prejudice and emotion, and not facts, the social outcomes that arise are those described in this story. You can see the sexual dysfunction of these societies and what it leads to, just as it results in substandard schools, lack of social services, as well as high poverty and prison rates.
By several objective measures, Mississippi is one of our worst states. It has the nation’s highest poverty rate, its second-highest teen pregnancy rate, and its highest teen birth rate. An Education Week report ranks its schools 48 out of 50. Only Louisiana locks up a higher percentage of its people. Its infant mortality rate-9.67 deaths per 1,000 live births, the highest in the nation-is close to Botswana’s. Its life expectancy is the lowest in America and lower than those of Guatemala or Pakistan. Few states invest less in public education or public health. If it were an independent country, we’d consider it part of the Third World.
Not coincidentally, Mississippi is also one of our most conservative states, though in a recent Gallup poll, it slipped from first place to fourth. As iVillage reported last year in a piece on the country’s worst states for women-Mississippi came in first, or rather last-it’s one of only four states that has never sent a woman to Congress.
So we really shouldn’t be shocked that Mississippi’s governor, Phil Bryant, thinks America’s educational woes can be laid at the feet of working mothers. Speaking on a panel this week about how the country became so ‘mediocre
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ARTHUR DELANEY, - The Huffington Post
Stephan: If you had any doubt that the Congress is not interested in your wellbeing, or the wellbeing of your granny, or disabled cousin, perhaps this will help settle the matter for you. Of course, once again, this is primarily a Republican effort.
I don't know how these people live with themselves, and sleep at night.
WASHINGTON — Budget cuts are stealing meals from elderly Americans all across the country, according to a new survey by the Meals On Wheels Association of America.
The association represents about 5,000 local senior nutrition groups in every state, coordinating volunteers who deliver a million meals a day to poor senior citizens. Since 1972, the federal government has helped pay for the meals through the Administration on Aging, which did not escape the 5.1 percent cut to non-defense discretionary spending this year, also called sequestration.
Meals On Wheels surveyed 640 of its local member organizations on how they’ve coped since the cuts took effect in March. Forty percent of programs have eliminated staff positions. Seventy percent are putting more people on waiting lists, increasing the number of those on waiting lists by an average of 58 seniors per list. And programs have cut an average of 364 meals per week.
‘Every day, Meals on Wheels programs provide a lifeline by serving meals to our nation’s most vulnerable, frail, and isolated seniors,’ association president Ellie Hollander said in a statement. ‘The real impact of sequester is that our programs don’t have the ability to expand to meet the growing need. We should be investing […]
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