Stephan: This Oxford University study is, as climate change research usually is, very alarming. What I find so depressing is that we as a species seem incapable of realizing what is happening, what we are doing to make it happen, and how much harm the cultures and nations of the world are going to experience as a result of our failures.
Credit: the United States Forest Service
As interlinked extreme heat and drought events grow in intensity and frequency amid the ruling class’ ongoing failure to adequately slash planet-heating fossil fuel pollution, over 90% of the global population is projected to suffer the consequences in the coming decades, according to peer-reviewed research published Thursday in Nature Sustainability.
Compound drought-heatwave (CDHW) events are “one of the worst climatic stressors for global sustainable development,” states the paper, but their “physical mechanisms” and “impacts on socio-ecosystem productivity remain poorly understood.”
“Using simulations from a large climate-hydrology model,” nine scholars—working at universities in China, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan—found that “the frequency of extreme CDHWs is projected to increase by tenfold globally under the highest emissions scenario, along with a disproportionate negative impact on vegetation and socio-economic productivity by the late 21st century.”
According to the study: “Terrestrial water storage and temperature are negatively coupled, probably driven by similar atmospheric conditions (for example, water vapor deficit and energy demand). Limits on water availability are likely to play a […]
Stephan: This is a very sad story about the effect of the Dobbs decision overturning Roe. But I also think it is a data point on The Great Schism Trend. We are already seeing women changing their choice of colleges from Red to Blue states. There is also evidence that fertile women are choosing to leave Red states to live in Blue states. Also that physicians, particularly OB/GYN specialists, are leaving Red states making healthcare for women more problematic. The reality is that states governed by Republicans are seeing their social outcome data deteriorate, and this is becoming an increasing issue for the quality of life in Red and Blue states.
The waiting room at Alamo Womens Reproductive Services is empty as just an hour prior the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade shutting down abortion services at Alamo Womens Reproductive Services on June 24, 2022 in San Antonio, Texas. Credit: Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times / Getty
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a landmark ruling on abortion rights, Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide in 1973. While the original Roe v. Wade case was a pivotal moment in widening women’s rights to abortion care, that original ruling also led to a significant backlash — meaning attempts to restrict abortion access – that took place for many years long before last year’s overturning of Roe.
As reported by the The Guttmacher Institute, specifically the years between 2011 and 2017 ushered in an unprecedented wave of new abortion restrictions in the United States; 32 states enacted a total of 394 new restrictions. Sadly, according to a new study published in JAMA Psychiatry, a likely repercussion of these accumulating restrictions was an […]
Stephan: This is all the result of the wealth inequality that pervades this country because our tax code has been rigged to grotesquely favor the uber-rich. We have a cadre of them, who want to end our democracy, and because our Congress both Democrats and Republicans, but particularly Republicans, have lacked the spine to recognize this and deal with this inequality now we have Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Charles Koch, and a small group of other uber-rich, who want a country like Russia ruled by oligarchs. And no one is held accountable for what they are doing. We need a Congress with the integrity to do what needs to be done, not the clown show the Republicans are putting on in the House this week. The question is: do the American voters finally get this? Do you?
Aspirational Oligarch Peter Thiel
Liberal economist Robert Reich examines a disturbing trend in an op-ed published by The Guardian on May 23: millionaires and billionaires funding Republican candidates who are overtly anti-democracy.
“Decades ago,” Reich writes, “America’s monied interests bankrolled a Republican establishment that believed in fiscal conservatism, anti-communism and constitutional democracy. Today’s billionaire class is pushing a radically anti-democratic agenda for America — backing Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen, calling for restrictions on voting and even questioning the value of democracy.”
In an op-ed for the Cato Institute’s website back in 2009, Peter Thiel wrote, “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.” Thiel has also written that the term “capitalist democracy” is an oxymoron. And such statements, according to Reich, speak volumes about his outlook.
“Thiel has donated at least $10m to the Arizona Republican primary race of Blake Masters, who also claims Trump won the 2020 election and admires Lee Kuan Yew, the authoritarian founder of modern Singapore,” Reich notes. “The former generation of wealthy […]
Stephan: Here is an interesting development. The petroleum industry is spending millions to stop any legislation or regulation that would limit their profits, now someone is pushing back. We'll watch and see how this goes.
An oil dock in San Juan, Puerto Rico, after Hurricane Maria. Credit: Joe Raedle / Getty
The same racketeering legislation used to bring down mob bosses, motorcycle gangs, football executives, and international fraudsters is to be tested against oil and coal companies accused of conspiring to deceive the public over the climate crisis.
In an ambitious move, an attempt will be made to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for “decades of deception” in a lawsuit being brought by communities in Puerto Rico that were devastated by Hurricane Maria in 2017. “Puerto Rico is one of the most affected places by climate change in the world. It is so precariously positioned—they get hit on all fronts with hurricanes, storm surge, heat, coral bleaching—it’s the perfect place for this climate litigation,” said Melissa Sims, senior counsel for the plaintiffs’ law firm Milberg.
The 1970 Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, RICO, was originally intended to combat criminal enterprises like the mafia, but has since been used in civil courts to litigate harms caused by opioids, vehicle […]
Stephan: If you thought the carbon energy industry would just peacefully go out of business here, in fact, is what is really happening, and why I find the previous article about the RICO suits against the industry so significant.
A Los Angeles neighborhood oil well. Credit: Citizen of the Planet/Education / Universal Images Group / Getty
Environmental justice communities and advocates across California celebrated a major victory in August when state legislators passed a bill to ban new oil wells and phase out old ones within 3,200 feet of sensitive sites like homes, schools, and hospitals.
It was a win decades in the making. Activists had spent years fighting to protect communities from the toxic impacts of neighborhood oil drilling, which include higher risks of cancer, asthma, heart disease, preterm birth, and other reproductive issues. Democratic state Senator Monique Limón, who introduced the setbacks bill, known as SB 1137, called its passing, “a historic moment in California history.”
But last week, Big Oil struck back. The California Independent Petroleum Association, or CIPA, the trade group representing drillers in the state, announced it has gathered enough signatures to force a referendum onto the 2024 state ballot. If approved by voters, it would overturn the state legislature’s decision and dismantle the new setbacks law, leaving it to CalGEM, […]
