Stephan: Here is some exciting news about depression, and a new approach to dealing with it.
New research is revealing that many cases of depression are caused by an allergic reaction to inflammation. Tim de Chant of NOVA writes: “Inflammation is our immune system’s natural response to injuries, infections, or foreign compounds. When triggered, the body pumps various cells and proteins to the site through the blood stream, including cytokines, a class of proteins that facilitate intercellular communication. It also happens that people suffering from depression are loaded with cytokines.” Inflammation is caused by obesity, high sugar diets, high quantities of trans fats, unhealthy diets in general, and other causes.
By treating the inflammatory symptoms of depression — rather than the neurological ones — researchers and doctors are opening up an exciting new dimension in the fight against what has become a global epidemic. Caroline Williams of The Guardian writes: “The good news is that the few clinical trials done so far have found that adding anti-inflammatory medicines to antidepressants not only improves symptoms, it also increases the proportion of people who respond to treatment, although more trials will be needed to confirm this. There […]
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Raya Salter, - Natural Resources Defense Council
Stephan: Here is some very exciting news about Hawaii and energy. This would make that state the leader in the U.S. in the conversion away from carbon energy, and the monopolistic centralized power model that has dominated the American market for decades.
Hawaiian solar
Credit: pv-magazine
The state of Hawaii is seeking to lead the way toward a clean energy future in America. A bill (HB 623) passed by the Hawaii Legislature last week sets the goal of completely removing fossil fuels from the state’s energy portfolio by the end of 2045. Yes, that’s right — 100 percent renewables by 2045! No other state has embraced such an ambitious goal.
Hawaii has several reasons to pursue this target, chief among them being high energy prices. According to the U.S .Energy Information Administration, the people of Hawaii don’t use a lot of energy. In fact, Hawaii has the fourth-lowest per capita energy use in the country. However, it also has the highest electricity and natural gas prices in America.
Why? Because Hawaii imports 93 percent of the energy it consumes, with the bulk of it being petroleum to burn for electricity.
High electricity prices result in a difficult burden for the residents of Hawaii, especially the very poor. A recent study found that Hawaii households […]
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Betsy Z. Russell, - The Spokesman-Review
Stephan: In contrast to what Hawaii is doing Idaho, which is a red value state, has decided to cling to the 20th century. Do you think there might be a connection between the big donation to Senator Risch's campaign, he is a Republican of course, and his action introducing a bill designed to hamstring the Idaho solar movement? I am sure Senator Risch would loudly proclaim there was not. You can draw your own conclusion. The net-net is that Idaho will fall behind more socially progressive states, and Idaho residents will pay the price for this greed and stupidity.
Republican Idaho Senator James E. Risch.
Credit: www.congress.gov
Idaho Sen. Jim Risch has introduced a bill that would allow public utilities like Idaho Power to deny contracts to independent power producers if they can show they don’t need the electricity, Idaho Statesman reporter Rocky Barker reports today, making a big modification to the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978, or PURPA. It’s a change Idaho Power really wants; the company says it doesn’t need any new generation until 2021, but could be forced to buy power from new solar energy projects in Idaho under current PURPA requirements. Barker’s full report is online here.
Out of curiosity, I took a look back at the campaign finance reports from IDA-PAC Political Action Committee, Idaho Power’s PAC, and the PAC has donated $20,000 to Risch’s Senate campaigns since 2006, including $5,000 in September of 2014. Barker reports that on Thursday, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will look at more than 20 separate bills including Risch’s, as part […]
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Joe Romm, - Think Progress
Stephan: This is an excellent report on the effects of carbon intrusion into the Earth's world ocean. I have been covering this in SR for years, see the archive, and like every other aspect of climate change the one constant in the trend is the collapse of the timeline. We cannot muster the political will to deal rationally and substantively with what we have created and, as a result, there is going to be mass starvation as the world ocean's ecosystems collapse.
The oceans are now acidifying faster than they have been over the last 300 million years, a time period in which there were four major extinctions driven by natural bursts of carbon. (emphasis added) In fact, humans are acidifying the oceans 10 times faster today than 55 million years ago when a mass extinction of marine species occurred.
Recent research finds that the threat to marine life posed by human-caused carbon pollution is coming faster than expected. And that’s a problem because as 70 Academies of Science warned in a 2009 joint statement on acidification: “Marine food supplies are likely to be reduced with significant implications for food production and security in regions dependent on fish protein, and human health and wellbeing.”
Why does carbon pollution threaten marine life? Significantly, as carbon dioxide is absorbed in water it causes chemical reactions that reduce “saturation states of biologically important calcium carbonate [CaCO3] minerals,” which “are the building blocks for the skeletons and shells of many marine organisms,” as NOAA explains. In the parts of the ocean teeming with […]
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Stephan: Here is a second story making the same point. The timeline is collapsing. This report is about sea rise. The stable world we have known all our lives is de-cohering into something much less hospitable.
Remains of trees in a coastal ghost forest display rising sea levels on Assateague Island in Virginia. A new study suggests that sea levels have risen faster since 1993 than in previous decades.
Credit: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
Sea levels over the past two decades have risen faster than previously thought, suggests a new study that reassesses the accuracy of satellite data.
The study by an international team of scientists, published Monday in Nature Climate Change , compares satellite records of sea levels made from 1993 to mid-2014 to tide gauge records.
Lead author and geophysicist Christopher Watson says the study results address an ongoing puzzle about sea level rise.
Previous studies based on tide gauge or satellite data alone have suggested a slowing in the rate of sea level rise over the past decade relative to the one before it.
“That was a puzzle because it coincides […]
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New research is revealing that many cases of depression are caused by an allergic reaction to inflammation. Tim de Chant of NOVA writes: “Inflammation is our immune system’s natural response to injuries, infections, or foreign compounds. When triggered, the body pumps various cells and proteins to the site through the blood stream, including cytokines, a class of proteins that facilitate intercellular communication. It also happens that people suffering from depression are loaded with cytokines.” Inflammation is caused by obesity, high sugar diets, high quantities of trans fats, unhealthy diets in general, and other causes.
