Friday, August 24th, 2018
MATT K. SMITH, - The Daily Beast
Stephan: Here is some good news for the planet. China which has recognized what climate change means for human societies -- in contrast to the Trump administration and the Republican Congress -- is making so much progress that more than a decade before it was planned it is reaching an important goal. Since China also is committed to getting all carbon energy powered vehicles off its roads by 2040, these developments are definitely to be applauded, not least because we will all benefit from their good planning.
Credit: Daily Beast
In a year when climate change is moving from abstract theory to grimly tangible reality, a faint dot of hope may be on the horizon.
China, the world’s largest source of planet-warming carbon emissions, may have hit the peak it promised in the Paris climate accord well before its 2030 timetable. That’s the conclusion reached by scientists who looked at the country’s estimated carbon output between 2007 and 2016, as the country’s rapid industrialization slowed and its consumption of coal declined. The research is published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
“They are able to manage quite significant economic growth, but have been able to stabilize their emissions over the past few years,” said Dabo Guan, a professor of climate change economics at the University of East Anglia in Britain.
Guan and his colleagues estimate Chinese emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases topped out in 2013 at about 9.5 billion tons. The numbers declined to about 9.2 billion tons in 2016, the last […]
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Friday, August 24th, 2018
Celia Bottger, - truthout
Stephan: Here is some more good climate news. Ireland, on a smaller scale, but like China, is also moving quickly out of the carbon energy era. As this report lays out an important part of the transition is Ireland divesting itself of any investment in carbon energy. If Ireland can do it, so can your town or city. Get to work.
Irish Wind turbines
Credit: Peter Zelei/Getty
On Thursday, July 12th, a small, rainy island in the North Atlantic proved it was on the right side of history.
The Republic of Ireland passed a bill to divest its $370 million worth of investments in around 150 fossil fuel companies within five years. Should the bill pass the Irish Senate in September, which it is expected to do, Ireland will become the first country to fully divest from fossil fuels.
This action marks a huge step forward.
For years now, neighborhood climate activists have pressured cities, universities, and governments to divest their holdings in fossil fuel companies. The idea is to defund and denounce the industry that contributes the most to climate change, funds climate denial, and prevents climate action.
With its divestment bill, Ireland will join a group of almost 900 cities, universities, and governments that have collectively divested over $6 trillion from the extractive fossil fuel economy.
As a leader of a fossil fuel divestment campaign on my college campus in Massachusetts, Ireland’s leadership offers a fun bit […]
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Friday, August 24th, 2018
Lidia Mínguez-Alarcón Audrey J Gaskins Yu-Han Chiu Carmen Messerlian Paige L Williams Jennifer B Ford Irene Souter Russ Hauser Jorge E Chavarro, - Human Reproduction/Oxford Academic
Stephan: This is an academic paper, sorry for it being so technical, but the information it contains is very important if you are trying to be a father. Here's the headline: wear boxers. This is an important development because the sperm count of American men is very low.
Introduction
Three meta-analyses (Carlsen et al., 1992; Swan et al., 2000; Levine et al., 2017) and several single-center studies (Auger et al., 1995; Jorgensen et al., 2001, 2011; Rolland et al., 2012; Mendiola et al., 2013) have reported a decrease in sperm counts in Western countries during both the 20th and 21st centuries. Some have also reported a concomitant downward trend in testosterone levels among men (Andersson et al., 2007; Travison et al., 2009; Nyante et al., 2012). These negative trends may be the consequence of environmental and lifestyle factors that may directly contribute to diminished testicular function, such as increased exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (Bergman et al., 2013; Hauser et al., 2015), higher prevalence of obesity (Finucane et al., 2011; Sermondade et al., […]
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Thursday, August 23rd, 2018
BURGESS EVERETT and NOLAN D. MCCASKILL, - Politico
Stephan: By any historical standard, the Republican Party of 2018 is a party of corruption, made up or men and women, who simply lack an ethical compass. Their greed and self-interest trumps any concern they have for the country. Why do I say this? The Republican Congress' reaction to the political bombs of yesterday was a yawn. I'm sorry, I don't think it is possible to be an ethical person and a Republican.
GOP Sen. Richard Burr said the Cohen and Manafort convictions haven’t changed his mind on President Donald Trump. “He was elected by the American people,” he said. “Short of impeachment or death, he’s the president.”
Credit: M. Scott Mahaskey/Politico
Twenty-four hours after one of the most damaging days for Donald Trump’s presidency, the Republican wall of support around him shows no signs of crumbling.
Though some GOP senators expressed discomfort with the the plea deal reached by Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and the guilty verdict rendered on former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, there has been no seismic shift in the GOP after a bombshell Tuesday. Some Republicans attacked Cohen as not credible, some said Manafort’s conviction has nothing to do with Trump and others still said the matter doesn’t fall in their purview as senators.
Moreover, the president still enjoys strong support among most Republican elected officials, a significant achievement given the rising prospects that Senate Republicans could be the backstop against an impeachment trial in the Senate if Democrats […]
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Thursday, August 23rd, 2018
Jonathan Chait, - Daily Intelligencer
Stephan: As I am writing this, I am listening to Rachel Maddow talk about yet another just announced lawsuit in New York state concerning the basic mafia behavior of Trump, his family, his businesses, and his foundation. Earlier, I was listening to FOX who were telling their viewers that basically there is nothing to see here, move on. The coverage of Trump state TV, and MSNBC presents a sharp dichotomy between the norms and laws of the United States and the behavior of the Republican Party, its publicly elected officials, and its base.
I am afraid people who care about facts must conclude that we have reached a place where about a third of Americans and the people they have elected no longer care about the primacy of law and the wellbeing of the institutions of the nation. Power. Greed. Racism. Those are the hallmarks of the Republican Party, and that is a factual statement, not a partisan one.
Paul Ryan, Donald Trump.
Credit: The Washington Post
Republicans stand a strong chance of losing control of at least one chamber of Congress in the midterm elections, because many voters want to create a check on the Trump administration. A Republican aide working to maintain GOP control of government tells Playbook that checking Trump’s power is exactly why you should vote Republican. “I think there’s a credible case to be made that if you actually want to hold Trump accountable it’ll take both parties to do it. Hence giving it all over to the Dems will just reinforce gridlock.”
This might be the single most disingenuous argument for voting Republican
yet devised.
The news that congressional Republicans plan to hold Trump accountable might come as a surprise to congressional Republicans themselves, who have just been issued fresh official talking points from their party for handling the latest misconduct they have been trying to cover up.
The official party line stresses that “the fact that […]
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