Here we have further proof of Schwartz' law of global change that I have been warning people about since 1991, when I published my first piece on climate change. What is the law? Whatever is initially predicted will happen sooner than predicted, and whatever is predicted will actually be notably worse in its impact than predicted. The governments of the world simply are not taking what is coming seriously enough, and the effects of these changes are going to be cataclysmic.
Mass loss in 2100 under 1.5C-4C (shown in discs) and contribution to sea level rise under 2C (in numbers) for glacier regions across the world. Credit: Rounce et al. (2022)
Half of the world’s glaciers—frozen reservoirs holding three-quarters of the global water supply—could “disappear” by the end of the century under 1.5C of warming, a study concludes.
Even if the world is successful in meeting its most ambitious climate goal of 1.5C, glaciers could lose a quarter of their total mass by 2100—raising global sea levels by 90mm.
The world is not currently on track for 1.5C. The research finds that country promises made at the COP26 climate summit in 2021, which could lead to 2.7C of warming, would cause “the near-complete deglaciation of entire regions” including central Europe, western North America and New Zealand.
If global warming reaches 4C, 83% of the world’s glaciers could disappear, the study adds.
As well as providing most of the world’s freshwater, glaciers support unique ecosystems and are considered sacred in […]
In my comment on the previous article, I said that the world's governments are not doing enough to prepare for climate change, and that is true. Happily, and it is good news for all Americans, the Biden-Harris administration, in spite of the determined opposition of the Republicans in Congress and the fascist cabal controlling the Supreme Court have through Executive Order, and Departmental regulation been able to do many good things to prepare the country for what is coming. Here is the latest good news.
American oceanic wind generation Credit: CleanTechnica
The Department of the Interior today announced that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will publish a proposed rule to update regulations for clean energy development on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). The proposed regulations would modernize regulations, streamline overly complex and burdensome processes, clarify ambiguous provisions and enhance compliance provisions in order to decrease costs and uncertainty associated with the deployment of offshore wind facilities. The proposed reforms are estimated to save developers approximately $1 billion over a 20 year period.
“America’s clean energy transition is happening right here and now. Offshore wind will power our communities, advance our environmental justice goals and stimulate our economy by creating thousands of good-paying union jobs across the nation,” said Secretary Deb Haaland. “Updating these regulations will facilitate the safe and efficient development of offshore wind energy resources, provide certainty to developers and help ensure a fair return to the U.S. taxpayers.”
The Department’s offshore clean energy program has matured over the past 13 years since regulations were first promulgated. BOEM has […]
FRED WERTHEIMER, Founder and President of the non-profit, non-partisan Democracy 21 organization - Common Dreams
Stephan:
While the Democrats are trying to govern, the Republicans are doing something quite different. And they wanted to be very sure they could not be caught or charged for their criminality and corruption so the first thing they did was gut the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), which oversees honorable ethical behavior.
Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (CA) talks to his christofascist Republican colleagues Representative Chip Roy (TX) and Representative Jim Jordan (OH) in the House Chamber during the second day of elections for Speaker of the House at the U.S. Capitol Building on January 04, 2023 in Washington, DC. Credit: Anna Moneymaker / Getty
They came to Washington last week ready to represent the constituents who had given them the honor of serving in Congress. They were 39 freshman Republican House Members.
Harsh reality quickly set in.
Last week, they sat around as a Greek chorus while 20 extremist Republicans forced 15 ballots – the most since 1859 – before permitting Kevin McCarthy to be elected House Speaker. In the process the extremists drained away much of the Speaker’s powers.
Following this debacle, as a first order of business on Monday, the newbies were presented with the opportunity to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), an effective House Office that has been key for more than a decade to House ethics […]
While the Democrats are working on climate change, civil rights, education debt relief, and improved support programs, this is what and who the Republicans are and where they are putting their emphasis. It tells you a lot about America as a country that these people are in office.
Republican Representative and an open White supremacist christofascist, Glenn Grothman (WI) Credit: Screenshot
U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman has a Christian nationalist flag connected to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol displayed outside his congressional office.
On Friday morning, Grothman posted a picture of the flag — which shows an image of a pine tree and the phrase “An Appeal to Heaven” on a white background — to his Twitter account with a message inviting people to visit him in the Longworth House Office Building.
“With the 118th Congress underway, the People’s House has finally reopened to visitors,” Grothman wrote. “If you’re in Washington DC, I encourage you to stop by my office and say hello!” A white flag with a pine tree and the phrase “Appeal to Heaven” is visible in the photo, placed closer to the door than the U.S. and Wisconsin state flags.
Grothman’s office did not respond to a request for comment about the decision to display the flag, but experts say it has ties to a sect of Christian nationalism that was […]
The story of the dramatic decline in local newspapers has gotten virtually no major media coverage but, in my opinion, this is a very big deal, because most people get local news from local papers, because they are the only publications who cover such news. Without local papers there is a major dropoff in what people know about what is going on in their immediate community, and it affects democracy. This article lays out the issues.
Local reporter interviews local resident Credit: Shutterstock
Thanks to the internet, many newspapers in major U.S. cities — the New York Times, the Washington Post — have become much easier for out-of-towners to access than they were in the past. The Times has plenty of online subscribers who don’t live in the Big Apple; the Post has many readers outside of Washington, D.C. The internet has, in effect, made it easier for urban newspapers to become national publications.
But at the same time, many journalism professors and media analysts have been sounding the alarm about the shortage of local news in the United States — especially outside of major urban centers. Nancy Gibbs, who serves as director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, addresses that topic in an op-ed published by the Post on December 27.
“Every couple of weeks,” Gibbs explains, “you can read about another newspaper shutting its doors, or moving from daily to weekly, or hollowing out its newsroom until it’s little […]
