Tuesday, April 24th, 2018
Dana Nuccitelli, - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: I just don't know how it can be made any clearer that American society is structured with only one social priority: profit. It is much more important that human wellbeing in spite of the myths we tell ourselves.
President Trump listens to EPA Administrator Pruitt after announcing decision to withdraw from Paris Climate Agreement in the White House Rose Garden in Washington.
Credit: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
TIME magazine announced last week that Trump’s EPA administrator Scott Pruitt is among their 100 most influential people of 2018. George W. Bush’s former EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman delivered the scathing explanation:
If his actions continue in the same direction, during Pruitt’s term at the EPA the environment will be threatened instead of protected, and human health endangered instead of preserved, all with no long-term benefit to the economy.
As a perfect example of those actions, the Daily Caller recently reported that at a gathering at the fossil fuel-funded Heritage Institute, Pruitt announced that the EPA and federal government will soon end two important science-based practices in evaluating the costs and benefits of regulations.
When the EPA regulates pollutants, the practice often yields what are called “co-benefits.” For […]
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Tuesday, April 24th, 2018
Alice G. Walton , - Forbes
Stephan: Here are two interesting studies comparing meditation and marijuana. I don't consider either definitive, but am glad to see that this line of research is being pursued by responsible researchers, and hope there will be more such research.
A huge number of people deal with chronic anxiety, either in the form of generalized anxiety or social anxiety disorder, or both. There are certainly effective treatments out there, but this week, a couple of studies have been in the news. One study, from Washington State University, looks at the role pot may play: More specifically, it tries to quantify the ratio of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) that’s most effective for stress, anxiety, and depression. The other, from Michigan Technological University, finds that a single session of mindfulness meditation has a significant effect on the anxiety of people with mild-moderate anxiety. But there’s an important caveat that’s worth pointing out.
Let’s look quickly at the new studies. The first, published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, had participants smoke medical marijuana at home, and rate their symptoms of anxiety, stress, and depression using an app that’s designed to help people track how different doses affect their symptoms. The team found that high CBD/low THC was best for reducing short-term depression. Low […]
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Tuesday, April 24th, 2018
David Badash, - Raw Story
Stephan: One of the hallmarks of extreme religiosity, whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Mormon, or Buddhist, is severely dysfunctional and disturbed sexuality. In the U.S. this is what drives abstinence only sex ed, and the subordination of women.
In spite of the fact that study after study shows that abstinence only sex ed produces increased teen pregnancies, greater incidence of sexually transmitted diseases, more abortions, and greater divorce rates, the christian-cult demographic never gives up on pushing this benighted policy; it is a very negative trend. Here is the latest.
Activist Mommy’ Elizabeth Johnston (Screenshot)
Motivated by a right wing Christian “mommy” blogger, anti-gay hate groups, Franklin Graham, the Benham Brothers, Breitbart, and Fox News, conservative parents are keeping kids home from school today in a boycott protesting comprehensive sex-ed they are calling “pornographic.” Some, like the Family Research Council, are likening sex-ed to child molestation, using the hashtag, .
“Pornographic sex ed is being implemented across our globe in an attempt to indoctrinate our children with ‘sexual rights,’ ” a letter parents are being urged to send to their children’s schools reads, the right wing Washington Times reported earlier this month “This is unacceptable and [I am] joining others both nationally and globally in taking a stand to say ‘enough!’ “
“Elizabeth Johnston, a social conservative activist who blogs under the name Activist Mommy, is one of the protest’s organizers,” the Times added. “She said most parents wouldn’t ‘stand for the kind of graphic, gender-bending sex ed’ that schools are teaching.”
Here’s a video Johnson posted to Facebook […]
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J. Weston Phippen , - The Atlantic
Stephan: Here is some excellent news about a once endemic disease that no longer holds that status. Note the distinction that measles has not entirely disappeared but it is no longer endemic.
Credit: John Moore
Measles, one of the world’s most infectious diseases, was once everywhere. Two decades ago, North, Central, and South America committed themselves to rid the region of the disease. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) on Tuesday said the Americas had accomplished this goal, making it the world’s first region without endemic cases of measles.
The news came during a meeting of World Health Organization ministers from throughout the Americas. It makes the fifth vaccine-preventable disease the region has eliminated, including smallpox and rubella. Measles, a particularly deadly disease, can cause brain swelling, blindness, and pneumonia.
It’s important to note, however, that measles has not disappeared from the Americas. It’s just not considered endemic. Here’s how PAHO explains what this means for the Americas:
Measles transmission had been considered interrupted in the Region since 2002, when the last endemic case was reported in the Americas. However, as the disease had continued to circulate in other parts the world, some countries in the Americas experienced imported cases. The International Expert Committee reviewed evidence on […]
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Stephan: I have done a series of stories on the plastic crisis and the pollution of the world ocean, particularly in the five gyres where it is densest. Finally a serious effort is being made to clean it up.
The five ocean gyres
Ocean garbage patches are vast and dispersed
Ocean currents concentrate plastic in five areas in the world: the subtropical gyres, also known as the world’s “ocean garbage patches”. Once in these patches, the plastic will not go away by itself. The challenge of cleaning up the gyres is the plastic pollution spreads across millions of square kilometers and travels in all directions. Covering this area using vessels and nets would take thousands of years and cost billions of dollars to complete. How can we use these ocean currents to our advantage?
Our models indicate that a full-scale system roll-out could clean up 50% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in 5 years.
Research shows the majority of plastic by mass is currently in the larger debris. By removing the plastic while most of it is still large, we prevent it from breaking down into dangerous microplastics.
Combining the cleanup with source reduction on land paves the road towards a plastic free ocean by 2050.
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