Stephan: The anti-LGBT law passed and signed into law by Indiana Governor Mike Pence, one of a series of such laws is generating a considerable backlash, and should. I see these laws as part of the Great Schism Trend that is splitting us into two countries. The response, to boycott these states I support, but I do so recognizing that this too will further exacerbate the schism trend.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence holds a news conference at the Statehouse in Indianapolis, Thursday, March 26, 2015. Pence has signed into law a religious objections bill that some convention organizers and business leaders have opposed amid concern it could allow discrimination against gay people.
Credit: AP Michael Conroy
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) was pressed by conservative radio host if something happened in Indiana to justify signing an anti-gay religious freedom bill into law. Pence said he wasn’t aware of any recent examples.
“I’m not aware of cases and controversies. I mean as I travel around the state one thing I know for sure —Hoosier hospitality is the greatest in the nation. Hoosiers are loving, caring, generous to a fault,” Pence said in an interview […]
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Saturday, March 28th, 2015
Becky Oskin, Senior Writer - Live Science
Stephan: More bad news about antarctic ice, and the sea rise that will result, a growing trend that will affect the coastal cities of the world.
The findings discussed in this report were published March 24 in the journal Nature Communications.
Antarctic ice melt
Colossal icebergs careening along the Antarctic coastline can shut down the deep, cold currents that help drive ocean circulation, a new study reports.
These aren’t everyday icebergs, even by Antarctica’s mighty standards — these huge icebergs are the size of small European countries. Unleashed by fracturing glaciers, they interfere with the Antarctic Ocean’s sea-ice factories, called polynyas, according to the study.
The open-water polynyas persist year-round, allowing bitter winter winds to freeze seawater into freshwater ice, leaving behind dense, salty seawater that sinks to the ocean depths. These sinking currents, called the Antarctic Bottom Water, are a major driver of oceanic circulation, said study co-author Guillaume Massé, a paleoclimatologist at the University of Laval in Quebec, Canada.
The scientists studied the recent history of one of the Antarctic Bottom Current’s most important polynyas, near East Antarctica’s Mertz Glacier. About one-quarter of the cold current comes from this polynya, according to earlier studies. By analyzing microscopic plankton fossils and geochemical tracers in seafloor sediments, the researchers could determine whether the polynya was covered or […]
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Saturday, March 28th, 2015
Ellen Brown, Attorney, Founder of the Public Banking Institute - Truthdig/Web of Debt
Stephan: California, as is to often the case, is leading the rest of the U.S. in its struggles over water. The privatization of water is a grave error that will increase the water crisis. Water should be seen as a public asset, not something to make a few people and corporations rich while leaving the majority at risk and scared.
Wars over California’s limited water supply have been going on for at least a century. Water wars have been the subject of some vintage movies, including the 1958 hit The Big Country starring Gregory Peck, Clint Eastwood’s 1985 Pale Rider, 1995’s Waterworld with Kevin Costner, and the 2005 film Batman Begins. Most acclaimed was the 1975 Academy Award winner Chinatown with Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway, involving a plot between a corrupt Los Angeles politician and land speculators to fabricate the 1937 drought in order to force farmers to sell their land at low prices. The plot was rooted in historical fact, reflecting battles between Owens Valley farmers and Los Angeles urbanites over water rights.
Today the water wars continue on a larger scale with new players. It’s no longer just the farmers against the ranchers or the urbanites. It’s the people against the new “water barons” – Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Monsanto, the Bush family, and their ilk – who are buying up water all over the world at an unprecedented pace.
A Drought of Epic Proportions
At a news conference on March 19, 2015, California […]
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