Appeals Court Revives Nestle Child Slavery Lawsuit

Tropospheric Warming & Alternative Facts: Dr Ben Santer (June 2017)

Understanding Climate Change
Published on Oct 31, 2018

Tropospheric Warming & Alternative Facts: Dr Ben Santer (June 2017)

State Dept. Invests $40M to Fight “Foreign Propaganda”

Published on Oct 31, 2018
RT America

RT correspondent Rachel Blevins reports the US State Department’s “war on propaganda” after it pledged $40 Million to the Global Engagement Center to combat what it calls “foreign disinformation”. Wilmer Leon, host of The Critical Hour on Sputnik Radio, joins In Question to tell us why he believes the project is a waste of taxpayer money considering GOP-led efforts to erase minorities from voter rolls nationwide has a much larger impact on election results than “disinformation” from countries like China, Russia, or Iran.

Kiribati: a drowning paradise in the South Pacific | DW Documentary

Published on Nov 8, 2017
DW Documentary

Climate change and rising sea levels mean the island nation of Kiribati in the South Pacific is at risk of disappearing into the sea. But the island’s inhabitants aren’t giving up. They are doing what they can to save their island from inundation. Can COP23 help make a difference? UN estimates indicate that Kiribati could disappear in just 30 or 40 years. That’s because the average elevation is less than two meters above sea level. And some of the knock-on effects of climate change have made the situation more difficult.

Kiribati can hardly be surpassed in terms of charm and natural beauty. There are 33 atolls and one reef island – spread out over an area of 3.5 million square kilometers. All have white, sandy beaches and blue lagoons. Kiribati is the world’s largest state that consists exclusively of atolls. A local resident named Kaboua points to the empty, barren land around him and says, “There used to be a large village here with 70 families.” But these days, this land is only accessible at low tide. At high tide, it’s all under water. Kaboua says that sea levels are rising all the time, and swallowing up the land. That’s why many people here build walls made of stone and driftwood, or sand or rubbish. But these barriers won’t stand up to the increasing number of storm surges. Others are trying to protect against coastal erosion by planting mangrove shrubs or small trees. But another local resident, Vasiti Tebamare, remains optimistic. She works for KiriCAN, an environmental organization. Vasiti says: “The industrialized countries — the United States, China, and Europe — use fossil fuels for their own ends. But what about us?” Kiribati’s government has even bought land on an island in Fiji, so it can evacuate its people in an emergency. But Vasiti and most of the other residents don’t want to leave.

MIT and Slavery reveals initial findings | MIT Libraries News

Course explores the Institute’s connections to slavery

By Brigham Fay on March 9, 2018 in All news
MIT and Slavery is an undergraduate research course on the founding and development of the Institute. Co-taught by Craig Steven Wilder, Barton L. Weller Professor of History, and Archivist for Researcher Services Nora Murphy, the class was embedded in the Institute Archives, where students researched a variety of topics using primary sources from the 19th century.

In February 2018, students and researchers presented their initial findings, including the discovery that MIT’s first president, William Barton Rogers, possessed enslaved persons in his Virginia household until the early 1850s, roughly a decade before he founded the Institute. Each student also chose a research topic, ranging from racial imagery in early MIT student publications to an early MIT class in moral philosophy that discussed slavery that was later dropped in the 1880s. These student projects, which involve working closely with archival material, will inform an evolving history of MIT and Slavery.

See also:

• MIT and the Legacy of Slavery

MIT and the Legacy of Slavery

MIT SHASS
Published on Feb 12, 2018

ABOUT — The first class of the “MIT and Slavery” research project took place in the Fall of 2017 and the initial findings will be published in detail during the Spring 2018 term. Among other discoveries, the early findings: offer insights about the role of MIT in the post-Civil War era of Reconstruction; reveal examples of racism in the culture of the early campus; and uncover the fact that MIT’s founder, William Barton Rogers, owned six enslaved people in Virginia, before he moved to Massachusetts in 1853.

The findings also suggest new lines of research about the entangled relationship between the slave economies of the Atlantic world, the fields of science and engineering, and U.S. technical institutions. MIT seeks to encourage such new historical research and to contribute to the larger national conversation about the ongoing legacies of slavery — including how history helps us better understand the roles, impact, and responsibilities of science and technology institutions in contemporary society.

The “MIT and Slavery” research project will continue into the foreseeable future and its findings will be shared apace via a website that is accessible to the MIT community, scholars, the public, and the media.

LEARN MORE Letter from MIT President L. Rafael Reif: http://bit.ly/2BU32kF MIT

News story by Peter Dizikes: http://bit.ly/2Bl0xH9
MIT News story by SHASS Communications: http://bit.ly/2CEnF09
MIT and Slavery website: http://bit.ly/2BGQdal
Ebony and Ivy, by Craig Steven Wilder: http://nyti.ms/2BnUmCb MIT
News story: about Ebony and Ivy: http://bit.ly/2bWboHA

THE VIDEO PRODUCERS WISH TO THANK: The 2017 MIT and Slavery class: Craig Steven Wilder, Barton L. Weller Professor of History Nora Murphy, MIT Archivist for Researcher Services Clare Kim, PhD candidate, Teaching Assistant Alaisha Alexander ’18 Mahi Elango ’20 Kelvin Green II ’21 Charlotte Minsky ’20 L. Rafael Reif, President of MIT Melissa Nobles, Kenan Sahin Dean, MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences Kirk D. Kolenbrander, MIT Vice President MIT President’s Office MIT News Office Kimberly Allen, Director of Media Relations Martha Eddison, Special Assistant to the President All members of the Communications Planning Team PRODUCTION CREDITS Producers: Joe McMaster and Emily Hiestand Editor: Jean Dunoyer Camera: Wesley Richardson, Tom White, Charles Butler Graphics: Jon Mello Archival Imagery: MIT Museum Additional classroom footage: Jia Spiggle Music: “All Night Long,” “Blues Angeline,” written and performed by Lobo Loco, www.musikbrause.de / Creative Commons license Video by MIT Video Productions and MIT SHASS Communications ©2018 MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

See:
“MIT and Slavery reveals initial findings – Course explores the Institute’s connections to slavery,” By Brigham Fay, March 9, 2018

Boston named winner in Bloomberg American Cities Climate Change Challenge | Boston.gov

Challenge awards winning cities with resources and technical support to help achieve their ambitious climate goals

Further strengthening Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s commitment to protect Boston against rising sea levels and climate change, the City of Boston was today named a winner of the Bloomberg American Cities Climate Challenge as Boston works to strengthen and accelerate its progress toward reducing carbon emissions. The City will receive a support package, valued at up to $2.5 million, to increase low-carbon mobility choices and improve energy performance of Boston’s building sector.

“We’re serious about building a more climate-ready Boston. If we’re to be effective in preparing for rising sea levels and more intense storms, we have to accelerate our actions to reduce carbon emissions. Addressing climate change now is critical to ensuring a greener, healthy Boston for future generations,” said Mayor Walsh. “I’m grateful to Bloomberg for recognizing the power of cities to address climate change as we continue to move forward with our ambitious climate goals.”

Earlier this week Mayor Walsh laid out a comprehensive and transformative vision that will invest in Boston’s waterfront to protect the City’s residents, homes, jobs, and infrastructure against the impacts of rising sea level and climate change. Announced in his annual speech to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, the Mayor’s plan, “Resilient Boston Harbor,” lays out strategies along Boston’s 47-mile shoreline that will increase access and open space along the waterfront while better protecting the city during a major flooding event. This week’s announcements demonstrate Boston’s commitment to building a more resilient Boston through both adaptation and mitigation.

Resilient Boston Harbor builds off of Imagine Boston 2030 and uses the City’s Climate Ready Boston 2070 flood maps and coastal resilience neighborhood studies to focus on Boston’s most vulnerable flood pathways. The strategies laid out in the plan include elevated landscapes, enhanced waterfront parks, flood resilient buildings, and revitalized and increased connections and access to the waterfront. The strategies will require collaboration and funding between federal, state, private, philanthropic and nonprofit partners.

…(read more).

The Department of the Interior is asking for permission to destroy records

[An alert, conscientious and very concerned professional librarian at
Stanford University has written his colleagues about a very
distressing request put forward by the current administration effectivelyto
destroy important records concerning climate change. His letter
of concern was written to fellow librarians around the country and
read in part: ]

Hi all,
I wanted to alert you to a very disturbing thing happening in the National Archives world that may severely impact research, especially historical and scientific research. The Dept of interior is asking for permission to destroy records about oil and gas leases, mining, dams, wells, timber sales, marine conservation, fishing, endangered species, non-endangered species, critical habitats, land acquisition, and lots more. Basically records from every agency within the Interior Department, including the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, US Fish & Wildlife Service, US Geological Survey, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and others. This is all content that would normally go to NARA for collection and preservation. This is disturbing; this administration is basically just destroying records so they’ll never be accessible.

There’s an October 29 deadline for comment to NARA:
request.schedule
/// fax: 301-837-3698
/// NARA (ACRA), 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park MD, 20740-6001.

(Be sure to say that you’re referring to DAA-0048-2015-0003.)

Please forward to your networks and researchers who may be effected.

More information: https://altgov2.org/doi-records-destruction/

NARA’s appraisal memo https://altgov2.org/…/uploads/DAA-0048-2015-0003_Appraisal_…

This is tragic and terrible.

james
– —
James R. Jacobs
US Government Information Librarian
123D Green Library
Stanford University

[It is now crucial for all citizens concerned about the future and the survival of those they care for to establish close scrutiny over what the current administration is doing to alter our collective freedom of access to past information, thought and planning about climate change.]

Climate change will push millions out. Where will they go? | Hot Mess | PBS

Hot Mess

08/10/2018 | 4m 33s

In 2017, storms, floods, and droughts displaced 18 million people from their homes worldwide. And by some estimates, over the next three decades, 200 million people may need to leave their homes to escape the same kind of disasters, made worse by climate change. Where in the world will all these people go?

Aired: 08/10/18

See related:

• Can we act fast enough to meet the climate challenge?