Stephan: This is what the Trumpian alt-right anti-vaccine disinformation campaign and willful ignorance has produced. It is going to be tragic, stupid, and lethal.
A woman receives the Covid-19 vaccine during a vaccination event on February 11, 2021 at the Jeff Vander Lou Senior living facility in St Louis, Missouri. Credit: Michael Thomas/Getty/North America/TNS
ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI — One-quarter of adult Missourians say they would not get a coronavirus vaccine at any point, according to results of a national survey released Friday. The findings from collaborators at four universities, including Northeastern and Harvard, place Missouri’s level of vaccine resistance above the national average of 21%, and near the middle of the pack, compared to other states. Massachusetts had the smallest share of respondents opposed to a coronavirus vaccine, at 9%, while Oklahoma and North Dakota tied for the greatest portion of residents who said they would not get the vaccinations at 33% each.
The study — based on polls of 21,459 U.S. residents from every state, including 424 Missourians — helps outline what experts say will be a critical effort to gauge vaccine hesitancy as the nation pushes to vaccinate its residents. The subject has already fueled conversation among St. Louis researchers and policy adjustments […]
Griff Witte, Abigail Hauslohner and Emily Wax-Thibodeaux, Reporters - The Washington Post
Stephan: This article is very important, because it showcases the defining profile of the United States. Compared to every other developed nation in the world, although you'll rarely hear any politician or media person admit it, our exceptionalism is defined by contrasting extremism, and this article lays it out very clearly. This must change if we are to get through climate change without catastrophic pain, suffering, and death.
A homeless camp in Austin last month, covered in a rare snow. Credit: Sergio Flores/The Washington Post
The Perseverance rover, fresh off its flawless landing, was on a mission, scouring the surface of Mars for evidence of ancient life, relaying crystal-clear images of an alien world, proving that when it comes to space exploration, no one does it better than the United States.
And 139 million miles away, back on Earth, 38-year-old Chris Prescott was still washing dishes, bathing and cooking with bottled water.
It had been two weeks since an Arctic blast swooped into Texas, knocked out the power grid and busted Prescott’s pipes just as Perseverance was touching down. For many in his impoverished Houston neighborhood — only a short drive from the Johnson Space Center — the water coming out of their taps was as dark and dingy as the Martian landscape.
“People were already struggling,” said Prescott, who gets by on the money he makes doing occasional yard work, having lost his full-time job to the pandemic. “Now this has put them at the bottom of the […]
MADELEINE STONE, Staff Writer - National Geographic
Stephan: A few days ago I ran a story about sinking cities. Here is a more detailed follow-up which also notes that as cities are sinking the sea is rising and American cities such as New Orleans are facing a double whammy. Everything I read these days is telling me that the U.S. coastline is undergoing radical change, and that internal migrations away from the coasts are inevitable.
The Jakarta Bay seawall protects shops, homes, and mosques from being inundated by the sea. Due to rising sea levels and the overextraction of groundwater, the capital is considered one of the world’s fastest sinking cities. Credit: Ian Teh, Panos Pictures/Redux
The world’s coastal residents are experiencing more extreme sea level rise than is widely appreciated because they are concentrated in places where the land is sinking rapidly, a study published Monday in Nature Climate Change has found.
Sea levels are rising globally as Earth’s ice sheets melt and as warming sea water expands. But on a local scale, subsidence, or sinking land, can dramatically aggravate the problem. Cities like New Orleans and Jakarta are experiencing very rapid sea level rise relative to their coastlines—the land itself is sinking as the water is rising.
Now, an international team of researchers has demonstrated that this one-two punch is more than a local problem. Sinking land makes coastal residents around the world disproportionately vulnerable to rising seas: The typical coastal inhabitant is experiencing a sea level rise rate three to four times higher than the […]
Stephan: When I read this I thought it had to be satire, but no it is genuine. Not only did every Republican in the Congress vote against you and your family getting help in this pandemic crisis, but Republican Senator Rick Scott, former and notably incompetent governor of Florida, is now begging Republican governors and mayors to return the money allotted to their states and cities. Yes, he is really doing that. Here's the story.
Two Republican grifters, Rick Scott and Donald Trump
Following the passage of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill, one Republican congressman finds himself with little recourse but to impotently beg his fellow Republicans to return billions in relief aid to the federal government.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., who is set to meet with Donald Trump this week at Mar-a-Lago, is beseeching states and cities across America to refuse federal aid and put politics over policy. In a missive sent to governors and mayors just after the bill was approved on Wednesday, Scott tarred the piece of legislation as “massive, wasteful and non-targeted.” He encouraged state and local leaders, by way of sending back the aid, to demand that Congress “quit recklessly spending other people’s money.”
“By rejecting and returning any unneeded funds, as well as funds unrelated to COVID-19,” his letter read, “you would be taking responsible action to avoid wasting scarce tax dollars. After all, every dollar in this package is borrowed.”
Scott wrote that refusing the money is “simple and common sense,” given that “10% of […]
Stephan: For over a decade I have been telling my readers that we are going to have three great internal migrations, in addition to the widely known migration into the U.S. from the failed nations of Central and South America. This is one of the reasons it is so important to begin developing national programs, not based on profit, to cope with what is coming. In this essay, Charles Blow takes his look at these issues.
San Antonio area residents in line at a food distribution center on Sunday. A winter storm in Texas left millions without power or running water. Credit: Christopher Lee/The New York Times
The humanitarian and infrastructure disaster that followed Texas’ winter storm illustrates that catastrophic weather events may soon become less freak occurrences and more part of an unremitting new normal.
It should also remind us of how a new era in which extreme weather is normal will push — or force — some to migrate to new locations less impacted by this weather.
As a reportresulting from a partnership between ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine, with support from the Pulitzer Center, found:
“Across the United States, some 162 million people — nearly one in two — will most likely experience a decline in the quality of their environment, namely more heat and less water. For 93 million of them, the changes could be particularly severe, and by 2070, our analysis suggests, if carbon emissions rise at extreme levels, at least four million Americans could find themselves living at the fringe, in […]
