Stephan: This story is important not only for what it tells us is happening with the Great Lakes as a result of climate change but it also shows the utter inadequacy of our legal system to address issues and trends such as this one. This is another failure of the Congress to deal responsibly with climate change and what it is going to do to our civilization.
Climate action has been something of a tug of war between the last several presidential administrations. That’s partly because there isn’t much existing federal law designed to address climate change, said Cinnamon Carlarne, professor in the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.
“Climate law in the U.S. is, at best, a patchwork of things,” Carlarne said.
In its first year, the Biden administration has started to lay out its own framework for addressing climate change. But the details of how the U.S. will achieve its climate goals aren’t clear yet, she said.
Carlarne and other experts in climate, law and policy discussed impacts climate change has on the Great Lakes and recent developments in climate law and policy in the University of Toledo College of Law’s recent “Climate Change and the Great Lakes” conference.
“Climate change just brings a lot more uncertainty and issues to the table,” said Kim Channell, climatologist with University of Michigan Great Lakes Integrated Sciences & Assessments, in the virtual conference.
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In general, in the Great Lakes region, climate change has driven warmer temperatures, longer […]
Stephan: The appalling decision by the jury at the Rittenhouse trial, in my opinion, is going to be seen by violence prone White terrorists as a get out of jail pass and that, combined with America's obsessive gun psychosis, means we are going to see even more White racist violence than is already happening. There are now numerous states in the U.S. where I would not go to any large gathering. I certainly wouldn't come here as a tourist.
In the minutes after a jury acquitted 18-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse on all counts, jubilation lit up on social media spaces where far-right extremists gather.
Armed participants walk at a Proud Boys rally with other right-wing demonstrators in September 2020 in Portland, Ore. Far-right groups celebrated the verdict in the Rittenhouse trial. Credit: John Locher/AP
In one Telegram channel for the far-right Proud Boys, some noted they had taken the day off work to await the verdict. “There’s still a chance for this country,” wrote one. In another channel, a member stated that political violence must continue. “The left wont stop until their bodied get stacked up like cord wood,” he wrote.
Rittenhouse himself is not known to be a member of an extremist group. But the trial, which from its beginning became a cause and rallying cry among conservatives who champion gun rights, has been particularly alarming to extremism researchers.
As it played out against the backdrop of an increasingly polarized nation, experts of far-right movements say opportunists found a growing audience for their violence-fueled messaging that targets the […]
Michelle Cottle, New York Times Editorial Board - The New York Times
Stephan: The Republican Party has become notable for the incompetents, morons, and racists that fill its ranks, and this essay makes this point clearly.
Notable Republican White racist, Representative Paul Gosar, rides the subway to the Capitol before a House vote to censure him. Credit: Al Drago for The New York Times
How upbeat is the Republican Party about its prospects for taking control of the House and Senate next year? So upbeat that it apparently is cool with the fact that in three Senate races — Georgia, Missouri and Pennsylvania — it has leading candidates who have been accused of harassing, abusing, threatening or otherwise mistreating women.
Once upon a time, this situation likely would have provoked a major display of concern, or at least an attempt at damage control, by the Republican establishment. Instead many party officials are brushing off related questions like pesky bits of dryer fluff.
While the particulars of these cases vary — the allegations, the candidates’ responses, the warmth of the party’s embrace — the creeping not-so-casual misogyny is indicative of the dark path down which former President Donald Trump continues to lead the G.O.P.
It is not simply that Mr. Trump has long worn his […]
Ellen Francis and Gabriela Sá Pessoa , - The Washington Post
Stephan: This is a trend I have been reporting on in SR for several years. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a kind of Latin low rent Trump, has permitted the destruction of the Amazonian Rain Forest to a unprecedented degree. This has very negative planetary implications because the Amazon forest is an essential part of earth's ecosystem. Hopefully, this year we will see some positive remediation action.
A deforested area close to Sinop, in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, in August 2020. Credit: Florian Plaucheur/AFP/Getty
Brazil’s Amazon rainforest lost more trees over the past year than in any year since 2006.
Satellite data revealed that deforestation rose by nearly 22 percent from the last period to reach its highest level in 15 years, the National Institute for Space Research found, in a country that is home to most of the world’s largest rainforest.Complete coverage from the COP26 U.N. climate summit
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who had made campaign promises to open the Amazon to business development, missed the climate summit in Glasgow, though his country joined the global pledge to save the world’s trees.
With the rate of destruction not slowing, critics questioned whether Brazil can meet its target, and some accused Bolsonaro’s administration of delaying the release of the latest deforestation […]
Stephan: Because Americans are so poorly educated their ability to think through an issue, and to detect mis or dis-information is very limited. As a result, in my opinion, false information is one of the culture's biggest problems. You would think that something like Bill Gates is putting microchips in the Covid vaccines so he can track and monitor you, would be seen, for many reasons, as not only false but improbable. But millions of Americans believe it. And I could go on and on. If you are an average American, how can you deal with this? This essay lays out some suggestions.
Credit: Pavlo Plakhotia/Getty
The spread of false and misleading information, whether intentional or not, is one of the most consequential issues in America and around the world. And this “information disorder” crisis exacerbates all other issues, from democracy to climate change, from health care to racial justice.
To explore this multipronged issue, the Aspen Institute brought together a group of experts from government, academia, philanthropy and civil society. Following six months of collaboration and research, the 16-person Commission on Information Disorder detailed its findings and recommendations in an 80-page report released Monday.
The report aims to call attention to an urgent issue and provide guidelines for how decision-makers can take immediate action to reduce the impacts of mis- and disinformation.
Because information disorder affects so many other issues, the Aspen Institute sought to have its commission be as diverse and wide-ranging as possible. The commission was led by journalist Katie Couric, Color of Change President Rashad Robinson and Chris Krebs, former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Recognizing that the eradication of misinformation […]
