Jury Orders Monsanto to Pay Cancer Survivor $80 Million over Roundup

Image Credit: Mike Mozart
Mar 28, 2019

In California, a federal jury ordered Monsanto to pay over $80 million to a cancer survivor whose illness was found to have been partly caused by the herbicide Roundup. Seventy-year-old Edwin Hardeman says he sprayed the widely used herbicide on his property for almost three decades and once got the product directly on his skin. He has been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The jury’s award could have implications for hundreds of others accusing the company of making them sick.

Trump Says Puerto Rico Received Too Much Aid After Hurricane Maria

Mar 28, 2019

President Trump told a meeting of Republican lawmakers Tuesday that Puerto Rico has received too much aid since Hurricane Maria devastated the island. Senator Marco Rubio told reporters Trump said the aid is “way out of proportion to what Texas and Florida and others have gotten.” His comments come as Democratic lawmakers say more aid for Puerto Rico must be included in a $13 to $14 billion disaster aid package being pushed by Republicans. A study by the Universities of Michigan and Utah found that federal aid to Puerto Rico was slower and less “generous” after Hurricane Maria than federal aid received by Texas and Florida after Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. President Trump has still not acknowledged that more than 3,000 people died in Puerto Rico after the hurricane.

Why you still don’t understand the Green New Deal

Vox

Published on Mar 11, 2019

Political news coverage tends to focus on strategy over substance, and that’s making it less likely that the public will agree on big policy ideas when we need them the most.

The Green New Deal is an ambitious proposal that outlines how the U.S. might begin transitioning towards a green economy over the next ten years. It includes steps like upgrading our power grid and renovating our transportation infrastructure. But most people watching news coverage likely don’t know what’s in the Green New Deal. And that’s because political news coverage tends to focus on strategy over substance, fixating on a bill’s political ramifications rather than its ability to solve a problem. That approach to news coverage is known as “tactical framing,” and research shows it makes audiences at home more cynical and less informed about big policy debates. The result is a cycle of partisanship, where solutions to big problems like climate change are judged on their political popularity rather than their merit.

Green New Deal Policy Writer: Senate Vote Against Climate Plan Was Attempt to Stifle Momentum

Democracy Now!
Published on Mar 28, 2019

In a move Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called a “bluff vote,” the Senate rejected the Green New Deal on Tuesday, after 43 Democrats voted “present” on the measure introduced by Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Four other Democrats joined all 53 Republican senators in voting against the Green New Deal. As Democrats blast McConnell’s move to push the procedural vote, we speak to one of the lead policy writers for the Green New Deal, a proposal to transform the U.S. economy by funding renewable energy while ending U.S. carbon dioxide emissions by 2030. Rhiana Gunn-Wright is the policy director for the nonprofit New Consensus.

Why China Doesn’t Want Your Trash Anymore

PolyMatter

Published on Mar 29, 2019

How humans disrupted a cycle essential to all life

Vox

Published on Jan 11, 2019

How one animal dug up carbon and put it back into the atmosphere at an astounding pace.

Carbon cycles through earth at a steady pace. Plants and microorganisms absorb carbon, which helps them grow. Animals and bacteria eat the plants, breathe out carbon into the atmosphere, and take some carbon underground when they die. And a similar process happens in the ocean. It’s nearly a closed loop, although some plants and animals don’t decay fast enough so they turn into fossil fuel, which traps the carbon underground. But one animal started to dig up that carbon — and burn it.

What Mueller has already revealed about Trump and Russia

Vox

Published on Mar 19, 2019

The FBI investigation found three connections between the Trump campaign and Russia.
The FBI investigation into whether the Trump campaign’s “colluded” with Russia has taken several twists and turns. But we have to remember that FBI special counsel Robert Mueller has already revealed connections between Trump and Russia, through an array of court documents. We can understand the Trump-Russia ties through three categories, and see the many lines that connect the people who work for Trump and Russia.

“People Are Going to Die”: The Cost of Industry Deregulation by Lobbyists Under Trump

Democracy Now!

Published on Mar 28, 2019

After two deadly crashes, the Senate holds its first hearing on how the Federal Aviation Administration lets the airline industry regulate itself. This comes as the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources will hold confirmation hearings today on Trump’s nominee to head the Interior Department, David Bernhardt, a former oil lobbyist. Meanwhile, a federal jury in California has just ordered Monsanto to pay over $80 million to a cancer survivor whose illness was found to have been partly caused by the herbicide Roundup. “When we see these regulatory issues, they’re often abstract, and people maybe don’t pay attention to them,” says Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen. “What they fail to realize is that, actually, failed regulation means people are going to die.”

Suit against Harvard shines a light on school’s racist past

Democracy Now!

Published on Mar 29, 2019

“Harvard University’s professor Louis Agassiz was a racist,” says attorney Benjamin Crump, who is representing the Lanier family as they sue the school for the rights to photographs of their distant relatives. The photos were of slaves and commissioned by Agassiz as part of his work in race science. “He wrote all these horrible things about black people to justify the continued enslavement of black people.”

WMO Statement on the State of the Global Climate | World Meteorological Organization

Every year, WMO issues a Statement on the State of the Global Climate based on data provided by National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) and other national and international organizations.

For more than 20 years, these reports have been published in the six official languages of the United Nations to inform governments, international agencies, other WMO partners and the general public about the global climate and significant weather and climate trends and events at the global and regional levels.

The Provisional Statement on the State of the Global Climate in 2018 was completed and communicated at a press conference held at the United Nations Palais des Nations on 29 November in Geneva. Key findings were also presented at several high level and side events at the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24).

Statement on the State of the Global Climate in 2018

Highlights: State of the Global Climate in 2018

Key Climate Indicators

Weather and Climate Events Map 2018

See:

• U.N. Issues Climate Warning, Tells Leaders to Have Concrete Plans