Scientists deliver ‘final warning’ on climate crisis: act now or it’s too late

Stephan: 

While the Republican Party tries to protect criminal Trump, and persecutes women and the LGBTQ communities, and the Biden administration approves the Willow Project in Alaska, the Intergovernmental  Panel on Climate Change is giving us their final warning about climate change. Get with the program or millions will face the destruction of their lives and untold millions will die. 

To read the actual IPCC report go to: https://www.ipcc.ch/assessment-report/ar6/

5C above pre-industrial levels is the threshold beyond which our damage to the climate will rapidly become irreversible. Credit: Janez Volmajer / Alamy

Scientists have delivered a “final warning” on the climate crisis, as rising greenhouse gas emissions push the world to the brink of irrevocable damage that only swift and drastic action can avert.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), made up of the world’s leading climate scientists, set out the final part of its mammoth sixth assessment report on Monday.

The comprehensive review of human knowledge of the climate crisis took hundreds of scientists eight years to compile and runs to thousands of pages, but boiled down to one message: act now, or it will be too late.

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, said: “This report is a clarion call to massively fast-track climate efforts by every country and every sector and on every timeframe. Our world needs climate action on all fronts: everything, everywhere, all at once.”

In sober language, the IPCC set out the devastation that has already been inflicted on swathes of the world. Extreme […]

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Reconstructive Justice — Public Health Policy to End Mass Incarceration

Stephan: 

The United States has the largest and most racist incarcerated population in the world. The American Gulag is a disaster and, in my opinion, a matter of national shame for which both Republicans and Democrats are to blame. Here is the best thing I have read about this abomination and what it does to the men and women embroiled in the gulag.

In 1994, at 26 years of age, Dennis Wayne Hope was placed in solitary confinement in a Texas prison after he had escaped and remained free for 2 months. Until he was recently hospitalized, he had been confined to a dark cell not much bigger than a king-size mattress for the past 27 years. In that time, he had been permitted one personal phone call — in 2013, after his mother died — and had seen virtually no one other than the guards who strip-searched him whenever he was taken, handcuffed, to another room to exercise by himself. According to court documents, he now faces severe depression, paranoid auditory and visual hallucinations, and suicidality. He has written to his lawyers that he fears he may be losing his mind.1

After an appeals court ruled against Hope’s petition to impose limits on solitary confinement as a violation of the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, the U.S. Supreme Court may soon decide whether the quarter-century he has spent subjected to what the United Nations […]

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Homelessness can be eradicated by 2027 with close cooperation: Report

Stephan: 

Based on objectively verifiable research Finland is considered to be the happiest country in the world. Why? Because the Finnish government, and the culture itself, make fostering wellbeing the first priority. It is a measure of how powerful greed and power are that people choose that path  and not the path of wellbeing. Look at the difference between the homelessness that now defines so many American cities, with this report on Finland. 

Homeless in Helsinki Credit: Suvi Korhonen

The report commissioned by the Ministry of the Environment explores the trends in homelessness and means by which homelessness can be eradicated. Rapporteur Juha Kaakinen urges to continue the work in line with the Housing First principle and to further develop this so that support is readily available and serves homelessness that may be due to varying reasons in diverse ways. A key focus should be on groups that need services and support the most.

“Today, there is a broad consensus on the need to eradicate homelessness in Finland, but some time ago this was considered a utopian target. Now we just have to take concrete steps to achieve it. We need a national programme to eradicate homelessness by 2027. It is important that all political parties will commit to this programme and to ensuring adequate resources for it,” Minister of the Environment and Climate Change Maria Ohisalo says.

Finland has managed to reverse the trend in homelessness

Finland is the only country in Europe where homelessness is decreasing. Besides Finland, there have been positive developments in Norway […]

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Iowa Is Set to Become Eighth State to Ban Gender-Affirming Care for Trans Youth

Stephan: 

This is such a sad story of a trend that is completely in contrast to fostering wellbeing. If I had a child with these issues, I would move, and I think that is what a lot of families are going to do. The Red states are ruining their already sadly compromised healthcare. It is becoming very revealing to watch the developing contrast between the Red and Blue states. 

Credit: NITO100 / Istock / Getty

On March 8, Iowa became the eighth state in the U.S. to pass a ban on gender-affirming health care for transgender youth. The bill is currently awaiting signature by Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds (R), who signed a restrictive transgender sports bill into law in 2022.

The health care ban is similar to bans that have been introduced across the country, and would prohibit trans youth from accessing medical care such as hormone replacement therapy, gender-affirming surgeries and puberty blockers.

Once the bill is signed, trans children currently taking hormone therapy would have 180 days to end treatment in the state. Studies have shown that being denied access to gender-affirming care puts trans youth at risk, and many advocates are concerned about the consequences that forced detransition will have on children’s mental health.

Over 2,000 Iowans packed the state Capitol earlier this month in protest of anti- trans bills, and hundreds of K-12 students from more than 26 schools coordinated walkouts to voice their dissent.

Jemma Bullock, co-founder of IowaWTF and a member of the Iowa Queer Student Alliance, told NBC […]

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What’s on your plate? 60% of foods in America contain unhealthy additives

Stephan: 

It becomes clearer with every research study I read that much of the health problems Americans face arise from the food they eat, which is filled with toxic food additives. Please always buy organic food when you can, and never buy processed baby foods. I want my readers to have long healthy lives. 

To read the research paper upon which this article is based see: Food Additives in Ultra-Processed Packaged Foods: An Examination of US Household Grocery Store Purchases 

 

Credit: Study Finds

PHILADELPHIA — Troubling new research finds the majority of foods purchased by Americans (60%) contain any number of artificial additives such as preservatives, sweeteners, and coloring or flavoring agents. Even worse, these levels represent a 10-percent increase since 2001. The study makes a strong case that the prevalence of food additives is on the rise in a major way. For instance, the average amount of additives in food and beverage products added by manufacturers has increased significantly between 2001 (3.7) and 2019 (4.5).

Food additives are so ubiquitous in the first place thanks to their ability to extend various foods’ shelf lives and improve palatability. Despite this, the health consequences of consuming these substances are still woefully understudied and not clear. So, analyzing and better grasping the impact of food-additive exposure over time is a vital step in understanding its role in numerous negative health developments linked to their consumption, including increased bodyweight and negative changes to the gut microbiome.

“Our research clearly shows that the proportion of ultra-processed foods […]

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