More than 20 percent of gun owners in the U.S. admit to using drugs while also suffering from a mental health disorder, according to a study.

According to a survey of 1,098 gun owners by rehab center The Florida House Experience, one in three people self-identify as having a mental health disorder, with anxiety, mood disorders and post-traumatic stress among some of the most common conditions. (emphasis added)

Elsewhere, 33.7 percent of those taking part in the survey admit to being drug users, with nearly 17 percent of these gun owners saying they take drugs every day. According to the survey—Don’t Shoot the Messenger: A Look at Gun Ownership, Drug Use, and Mental Health in America— cocaine, marijuana and Xanax, a prescription medication used to treat anxiety that is becoming increasingly popular among young people recreationally, are the three most used drugs by gun owners.

In total, one in five gun owners self-identify as having a mental health condition—not necessarily diagnosed with one—as well as taking drugs illicitly.

The study was conducted in order to examine gun culture in the U.S., specifically in the wake of the […]

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Some of the world’s most profound melting of glaciers is happening in the Antarctic; and is invisible from above.

According to a study recently published in the journal Nature Geoscience, the underwater melting of Antarctic glaciers is now occurring at a rate that is doubling every 20 years. This means that melting in the ice continent of Antarctica could soon outpace that occurring across Greenland, which would make Antarctica the single largest source of sea level rise.

The new study was the first complete underwater mapping of Antarctica, by far the world’s largest body of ice.

The study shows that warming ocean waters have caused the base of the ice near the ocean floor around the south pole to shrink by 1,463 kilometers from 2010 to 2016. This development will likely force worst-case projections of sea level rise to be revised upwards.

The current worst-case scenario outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is just over 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) of sea […]

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Jakarta, Indonesia

• The city, home to about 10 million people, is reportedly sinking at a rate of nearly 10 inches each year.
• About 40 percent of the metropolis now lies beneath sea level.
• An overabundance of private water wells under the city, development and rising seas is proving to be disastrous for Southeast Asia’s largest city.

The Indonesian city of Jakarta, touted as the world’s fastest-sinking city, may only have a decade left before it’s too late to reverse impending disaster.

About 40 percent of the metropolis now lies beneath sea level, and several districts, including Muara Baru, have sunk as much as 14 feet in recent years, the New York Times has reported.

The city that is home to about 10 million people is reportedly sinking at a rate of nearly 10 inches per year, largely due to the overconsumption of groundwater.

Only about a third of the city’s population is served with piped water, so residents are resorting to digging illegal wells deeper and deeper into the ground to access groundwater. As the […]

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