The Obama administration has been urging Congress to come up with nearly $2 billion dollars in emergency funding to combat the Zika virus. Wednesday, it announced that it’s transferring leftover money from the recent fight against Ebola. (April 6)
Methane doesn’t get top billing in the global climate debate, but it’s a more potent greenhouse gas than headline-grabbing carbon dioxide and the major component of natural gas that heats our homes and generates our electricity. Harvard scientist Steven Wofsy is heading a project to both track escaped methane from our natural gas infrastructure and better understand carbon dioxide exhaust in the Boston area, neighborhood by neighborhood.
The numbers are in. The 2015 Gulf of Mexico Hypoxic Zone or Dead Zone measures 6,474 square miles – about the size of Rhode Island and Connecticut combined. This is a huge blow to the already fragile Gulf ecosystem and economy.
Ocean Today is an interactive exhibit that plays short videos on ocean related themes.
Visitors can select from 200+ videos on topics ranging from deep-‐sea exploration, marine species, and restoration projects to hurricanes, oceans and human health, and
climate science and research. These videos are a free resource and are available on our website at oceantoday.noaa.gov.
For the last five years, NOAA has teamed up with NASA to fly NASA’s Global Hawk unmanned aircraft to get an inside look at how hurricanes form and intensify over the Atlantic.
After years of violent conflict in the Horn of Africa, Somalia has emerged as the leading livestock Exporter in East Africa. Data from the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization found that Somalia exported a record 5 million animals in 2014, worth around $ 360 M, or roughly 40% of Somalia’s GDP. The organization says this is more than double that of her politically stable neighbors, Ethiopia and Kenya, combined. It’s estimated that over 1,500 animals are exported through ports in Somalia, each week. These impressive statistics are the highest to be recorded in the Horn of Africa Nation in 20 years. That’s mostly thanks to improved security and investments in animal disease prevention. The FAO has now began training 150 Somalis nationals in curing leather, which is a potentially lucrative opportunity for the entire livestock sector.
This year’s election is going to be decided by voter turnout. The GOP knows this, so they’re using every dirty trick in the book to keep minority voters away from the polls. And a new law in Georgia is designed to do just that. America’s Lawyer, Mike Papantonio, and Alice Speri from The Intercept discuss this. Tell us your thoughts in the comment section below.
A GEORGIA LAW aimed at keeping unlicensed drivers off the streets is having a disproportionate impact on black and Latino communities in the state, sweeping them into a cycle of debt and criminalization that feeds local counties’ budgets while putting otherwise law-abiding undocumented immigrants at risk of deportation.
Under the law, drivers face felony charges if they are caught driving without a license four times within five years. Violators face up to five years in prison and fines between $2,500 and $5,000. Ostensibly passed to promote public safety, the “felony driving law” has been discriminatively applied to communities of color, leading to remarkably disproportionate arrests of blacks and Latinos in at least three majority white counties in the state, according to a report published today by the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR) and Advancement Project, a D.C.-based civil rights organization.
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Climate change is real, so why the controversy and debate? Learn to make sense of the science and to respond to climate change denial in Denial101x, a MOOC from UQx and edX.
Zakeeyah Harris, 18, climate and environmental activist from Newark, N.J., discusses the industrial waste that is transported to her home district of Ironbound is the result of corporate negligence and lack of regard for communities of color.
Equity for Children, a nonprofit organization based at The New School in New York City, hosts Children, Cities and Climate Change (https://youtu.be/gkCkkKaRH7U),
an event highlighting the power and potential of young people to make a difference on climate change. Co-sponsored by the Tishman Environment and Design Center (http://www.newschool.edu/tedc),
the event features a panel of young climate change activists who will consider children and adolescents’ special voice as the ‘moral authority’ on climate actions, as well as the challenges they face as activists.
http://democracynow.org – Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is facing new criticism over his possibly illegal proposal to attempt to force Mexico to pay for a border wall by blocking Mexicans living in the United States from sending money back to their families. It’s the latest in a series of controversial racist or xenophobic statements by Donald Trump, who has called Mexicans rapists, proposed banning Muslims from entering the United States and refused to disavow former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke. For more on the campaign, we speak with CNN political commentator Van Jones, who calls Trump’s campaign “the most dangerous development I have seen in my lifetime.”
Welcome to Transition Studies. To prosper for very much longer on the changing Earth humankind will need to move beyond its current fossil-fueled civilization toward one that is sustained on recycled materials and renewable energy. This is not a trivial shift. It will require a major transition in all aspects of our lives.
This weblog explores the transition to a sustainable future on our finite planet. It provides links to current news, key documents from government sources and non-governmental organizations, as well as video documentaries about climate change, environmental ethics and environmental justice concerns.
The links are listed here to be used in whatever manner they may be helpful in public information campaigns, course preparation, teaching, letter-writing, lectures, class presentations, policy discussions, article writing, civic or Congressional hearings and citizen action campaigns, etc. For further information on this blog see: About this weblog. and How to use this weblog.
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