Knowledge and Power: Noam Chomsky Documentary

John Moore
Published on Oct 18, 2015

Documentary by Montaser Marai on Chomsky’s life; opinions; influence and philosophies. Recorded from Al-Jazeera UK; 18 October 2015.

Four Revolutions in the Earth Sciences: From Heresy to Truth: James Powell

Over the course of the twentieth century, scientists came to accept four counterintuitive yet fundamental facts about the Earth: deep time, continental drift, meteorite impact, and global warming. When first suggested, each proposition violated scientific orthodoxy and was quickly denounced as scientific―and sometimes religious―heresy. Nevertheless, after decades of rejection, scientists came to accept each theory.

The stories behind these four discoveries reflect more than the fascinating push and pull of scientific work. They reveal the provocative nature of science and how it raises profound and sometimes uncomfortable truths as it advances. For example, counter to common sense, the Earth and the solar system are older than all of human existence; the interactions among the moving plates and the continents they carry account for nearly all of the Earth’s surface features; and nearly every important feature of our solar system results from the chance collision of objects in space. Most surprising of all, we humans have altered the climate of an entire planet and now threaten the future of civilization. This absorbing scientific history is the only book to describe the evolution of these four ideas from heresy to truth, showing how science works in practice and how it inevitably corrects the mistakes of its practitioners. Scientists can be wrong, but they do not stay wrong. In the process, astonishing ideas are born, tested, and over time take root.

Federal report: High-tide flooding could happen ‘every other day’ by late this century – The Washington Post

High-tide flooding in Washington on March 27. (Angela Pan/Flickr)

High-tide flooding, which can wash water over roads and inundate homes and businesses, is an event that happens once in a great while in coastal areas. But its frequency has rapidly increased in recent years because of sea-level rise. Not just during storms but increasingly on sunny days, too.

Years ago, the late Margaret Davidson, a coastal programs director at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, warned it wouldn’t be long until such flooding became routine. “Today’s flood will become tomorrow’s high tide,” she said.

A new NOAA report has published startling new projections that affirm Davidson’s warning.

By 2100, the report says, “high tide flooding will occur ‘every other day’ (182 days/year) or more often” even under an “intermediate low scenario” in coastal areas along the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico. This scenario works under the assumption that greenhouse gas emissions — which warm the climate and speed up sea-level rise — are curbed.

For a more aggressive “intermediate” scenario, in which greenhouse gas emissions carry on at today’s pace, high-tide flooding is forecast to occur 365 days per year.
…(read more).

Journalist Ari Berman: If Trump Is Allowed to Rig the Census, Then All of U.S. Democracy Is Rigged

Democracy Now!   Published on Mar 28, 2018

A new battle is brewing over the 2020 U.S. census. At least 12 states are moving to sue the Trump administration over plans to add a question about citizenship to the upcoming census. Voting rights activists fear the question will deter immigrants from participating in the census, leading to a vast undercount in states with large immigrant communities. This could impact everything from the redrawing of congressional maps to the allocation of federal funding. On Tuesday, White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the decision to add a citizenship question was “necessary for the Department of Justice to protect voters.” At least five former directors of the Census Bureau, who served under Republican and Democratic presidents, have written a letter opposing the citizenship question.

Inside the Experiment: Abrupt Change and Ice Cores

YaleClimateConnections
Published on Oct 3, 2017

Jørgen Peder Steffensen, of Denmark’s Niels Bohr Institute, is one of the most experienced experts in ice core analysis, in both Greenland and Antarctica. Dr. Steffensen explained to videographer Peter Sinclair his concerns about possible abrupt climate changes.

Climate Change in Deep Time

Karina Adcock
Published on Apr 12, 2017

What were carbon dioxide concentrations like in Earths past? The history of atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide summarized in an extremely useful visualization. Evidence of increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide in modern times and historical concentrations of CO2 going from 800,000 years ago to January 2016. Using ice cores and modern measurements specifically focusing on the Mauna Loa and South Pole monitoring sites. The data shows a sped-up version of carbon dioxide changes over time and its natural cycles (milankovitch cycles and seasonal cycles) in addition to the upward trend. This animation is created by NOAA and is called the pumphandle. https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/tr… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH6fQ…

A Barrier For Boston Harbor: UMass Team Studies Flood-Protection Plans | WBUR News

With sea levels rising, a team at the University of Massachusetts Boston is researching harbor barriers to protect the city from flooding.

The team, led by Paul Kirshen, a professor of climate adaptation at UMass’ School for the Environment, is weighing three harbor barrier configurations:

1. The smallest would connect Logan Airport in East Boston with Castle Island in South Boston, protecting the city’s inner harbor and downtown from tidal flooding.
2. The medium-sized solution is a barrier from Deer Island, in the harbor, to Quincy, which would wall off all of Boston’s neighborhoods.
3. The largest of the proposed harbor barriers would protect not just Boston, but also Weymouth, Hingham, Quincy and Hull.

The UMass team has a big question to answer: Should the city start taking steps to build a barrier around the heart of the Massachusetts economy?

Or is the idea dead in the water?

If the city decides it wants to go forward, it could take decades — and untold billions of dollars — before a harbor barrier is built.

The barrier study was recommended in the city’s Climate Ready Boston report last year. The report says a barrier could work well in Boston Harbor, with its relatively shallow waters, and publicly owned land along the course of the imagined barrier.

But it would have to be done in a way that minimizes its impact on navigation and the environment.

“What I would like to learn from this project is, what are the ecological costs of such a barrier, and what would be the ecological opportunities that we could create in building such a barrier?” said UMass Boston marine biologist Lucy Lockwood.

It’s too early to say whether a barrier can be done to the satisfaction of the harbor’s advocates. But Lockwood says there’s a possibility the structures could actually encourage the ecosystem.

“How can we learn to create them such that they are a healthy, robust, resilient, functioning ecosystem,” she said, “just as if to say they were, say, a natural rocky shoreline.”

At Long Wharf downtown — one spot that already sees regular flooding during high tides — Kathy Abbott, head of the group Boston Harbor Now, says doing nothing is not an option.

“I think what we don’t want to see, now that we’ve spent $4.5 billion cleaning up the harbor and another $14.5 [billion] connecting our city back to the harbor with the Greenway, we don’t want to go backwards in terms of the water quality and the ecological health and well-being,” she said.

Abbott says that’s because the ecological improvements are the basis for the rebirth happening on the shore today.

…(read more)

How National Geographic is facing its racist history

PBS NewsHour

Published on Mar 27, 2018

National Geographic has long provided a unique lens to view the world — one that has sometimes distorted the lives of people of color. Now the 130-year-old magazine turns the lens on itself, with an issue devoted to the topic of race and an apology for past portrayals by editor-in-chief Susan Goldberg. Special correspondent Charlayne Hunter-Gault sits down with Goldberg to discuss that reckoning.

(434) What Foods Have GMO’s In It?

The Real Truth About Health
Published on Mar 27, 2018

The biotech industry’s claim that genetically modified (GM) foods are safe is shattered in this groundbreaking lecture. Safety assessments on GM crops are not competent to identify the health problems and industry research is rigged to avoid finding problems. Panel Participants: Brett Wilcox, Brian Clement, Ph.D., L.N., Deborah Koons Garcia, Jeff Lowenfels

Food-matters

Climate Change in Mass.

Complete Series: Climate Change in Mass.

 

A Barrier For Boston Harbor: UMass Team Studies Flood-Protection Plans

If the city decides it wants to go forward, it could take decades — and untold billions of dollars — before a harbor barrier is built.

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WBUR News

06:42Sep 6, 2017

 

As Construction And Tides Rise, Group Aims To Make Eastie ‘More Resilient’ Against Climate Change

Harborkeepers, an East Boston group dedicated to community-based climate work, pushes for residents to play a greater role in the city’s climate preparedness.

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WBUR News

05:07Sep 6, 2017

 

Bacteria That Thrive In Warmer Waters Keep Mass. Oyster Fisheries On High Alert

The ways oysters are harvested have become more challenging since 2013. That’s when bacteria linked to warming waters appeared in our marshes for the first time.

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WBUR News

07:16Aug 30, 2017

 

How Wynn Is Building Its Casino To Protect Against Climate Change

The Everett casino project is the largest single-phase development in state history, and with an eye toward flooding, Wynn is elevating the building.

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Bostonomix

06:46Aug 30, 2017

 

The North Shore’s Salt Marshes Play A Key Environmental Role

“[I]f we care about flood protection, storm protection, we care about salt marshes,” says Liz Duff, with the conservation group Mass Audubon.

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WBUR News

05:49Aug 30, 2017

 

Here’s What You Can Do About Climate Change

While governments and industry can effect greater change, individual actions also have the power to mitigate some of the catastrophic potential effects of climate change.

 

WBUR News

Aug 29, 2017

 

Concerned Citizens And Fishermen Help Scientists Track Ocean Changes In Effort To Fight Climate Change

The Buzzards Bay Coalition has been collecting water quality data for decades. Now it is teaming up with with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to use the data to help…

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WBUR News

07:33Aug 23, 2017

 

Environmentalists Tend To Have Bad Voting Records — And Lie About It

Only 50 percent of environmentalists turned out to vote in the 2016 presidential election, says Nathaniel Stinnett.

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WBUR News

04:25Aug 23, 2017

 

Chart: How Temperatures Have Increased In Mass. Since 1900

1992 was the last year in which Massachusetts had an annual temperature average below the 20th century mean.

 

WBUR News

Aug 23, 2017

 

Boston Startup Hopes Its Seeds Will Help Farmers Cope With Climate Change

Indigo Agriculture’s goal is simple, albeit lofty: to help farmers sustainably feed the planet. To do that, it’s working on creating drought-resistant seeds coated with tiny microbes.

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Bostonomix

04:28Aug 16, 2017

 

How A Bad Storm Could Endanger New England’s Food Supply

The facility responsible for getting produce out to almost 8 million people sits in a flood zone in Chelsea.

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WBUR News

05:05Aug 16, 2017

 

On North Carolina’s Outer Banks, A Preview Of What Might Be In Store For Mass. Barrier Beaches

We look to the Outer Banks, where beaches and seaside homes are succumbing to the encroaching ocean, as a possible harbinger of what’s to come for barrier beaches here in…

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WBUR News

08:08Aug 9, 2017

 

City Plots A Series Of Defenses For East Boston’s Coast

The city estimates that in 50 years, nearly half of East Boston’s territory will be at risk during a major storm.

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WBUR News

06:56Aug 2, 2017

 

Cape Cod’s Kettle Ponds Are Showing Signs Of Climate Change

Of the Cape’s waterways, kettle ponds may be showing the most visible signs of climate change.

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WBUR News

05:36Aug 2, 2017

 

New Bedford Hurricane Barrier: Not An ‘Impermeable Line Of Defense’ Against Climate Change

New Bedford is home to the longest hurricane barrier on the East Coast, but city leaders know the wall can only hold back the sea for so long. The sea…

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WBUR News

06:30Jul 26, 2017

 

Analysis: Non-White Mass. Voters More Troubled By Climate Change Than White Voters

A recent WBUR poll shows non-white Mass. voters are even more concerned about the consequences of climate change than the state population as a whole — and voters are already…

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WBUR News

02:49Jul 26, 2017

 

‘Hit First And Worst’: Region’s Communities Of Color Brace For Climate Change Impacts

The consequences of climate change, experts say, will disproportionately affect low-income communities and communities of color.

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WBUR News

06:25Jul 26, 2017

 

‘Bionic Leaf’ Could One Day Help Reduce CO2 In The Atmosphere

A project at Harvard Medical School could one day help reduce a cause of global warming.

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WBUR News

04:36Jul 19, 2017

 

Signs Of Climate Change — Past, Present And Future — On Plum Island

The Plum Island shoreline is a case study in the complexities of human-caused climate change interacting locally with man-made structures and coastal development.

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WBUR News

07:24Jul 19, 2017

 

How Thoreau Helped Make Walden Pond One Of The Best Places To Study Climate Change In The U.S.

We take a walk around Walden Pond with biologist Richard Primack, who uses Thoreau’s records to look for effects of climate change on area wildlife.

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WBUR News

06:35Jul 12, 2017

 

Youth Brigade Aims To Close Tree Canopy Gap In East Boston

The students mapped tree cover in their neighborhood. They calculated that Eastie sidewalks have just 15 percent of the ideal number of trees. Their goal is to double that.

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WBUR News

07:23Jul 5, 2017

 

No Tropical Paradise: Urban ‘Heat Islands’ Are Hotbeds For Health Problems

Most of the city of Chelsea is a heat island, meaning temperatures are consistently hotter than average. For residents of these islands, health risks rise with the heat.

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CommonHealth

06:41Jul 5, 2017

 

WBUR Poll Shows Big Jump In Concern About Climate Change And Its Effects

A new WBUR poll finds a dramatic progression in Massachusetts residents’ worries about global warming and its effects.

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WBUR News

05:37Jun 28, 2017

 

Mount Auburn Cemetery Tree Trackers Gather Climate Data Amid Changing Beauty

Long known for its natural beauty and the Boston luminaries buried there, Mount Auburn Cemetery is now becoming a hot spot for “citizen scientists” who want to help track climate…

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WBUR News

04:59Jun 28, 2017

 

WBUR Poll Finds A Sharp Increase In Concern About Climate Change Among Mass. Voters

In 2015, 78 percent of Massachusetts voters said they believed the world was getting warmer. Today it’s 88 percent — and the public is coalescing around a cause.

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WBUR News

05:20Jun 28, 2017