The dice have been loaded in Indiana since 2008. Mike Pence was elected 2013.

August 10, 2017
By Fatima Hussein

State and local Republicans (click here) have expanded early voting in GOP-dominated areas and restricted it in Democratic areas, an IndyStar investigation has found, prompting a significant change in Central Indiana voting patterns.

From 2008 to 2016, GOP officials expanded early voting stations in Republican dominated Hamilton County, IndyStar's analysis found, and decreased them in the state's biggest Democratic hotbed, Marion County. 

That made voting more convenient in GOP areas for people with transportation issues or busy schedules. And the results were immediate.

Most telling, Hamilton County saw a 63 percent increase in absentee voting from 2008 to 2016, while Marion County saw a 26 percent decline. Absentee ballots are used at early voting stations.

Population growth and other factors may have played a role, but Hamilton County Clerk Kathy Richardson, a Republican, told IndyStar the rise in absentee voting in Hamilton County was largely a result of the addition of two early voting stations, which brought the total to three.

"It was a great concept to open those (voting stations)," Richardson said, adding that the turnout might have increased with the addition of even more voting machines. 

Other Central Indiana Republican strongholds, including Boone, Johnson and Hendricks counties, also have added early voting sites — and enjoyed corresponding increases in absentee voter turnout.

But not Marion County, which tends to vote Democratic, and has a large African-American population....

Maybe they knew something we didn't. Nah, they're just kids tired of sitting in their seats.

North Carolina has a law that prohibits cities and towns from dismantling confederate statues.

And, oh by the way, 2020 is being planned by the Trump re-election campaign already. It provides profiting by the Trump Organization even before the nomination and less than eight months in the Executive Branch of the USA government.

Trump's 2020 campaign has already paid $395,000 for space in New York’s pricey Trump Tower, ensuring the president and his family will profit.

August 7,  2017
By Ciara Torres-Spelliscy

It seems Donald Trump’s 2020 (click here) run for the White House will look a lot like his 2016 bid – the campaign will patronize Trump-owned enterprises -- ensuring the candidate and his family will profit.

For instance, the campaign has already paid $395,000 for space in New York’s pricey Trump Tower, according to spending reports for the first six months of the year filed with the Federal Election Commission. Whatever logic may have existed in 2016 for housing the campaign in the same place where Donald Trump conducted his business, does not obtain in 2020 when the candidate is 230 miles away in the White House. Overall, the campaign has raised $15 million and spent $10.7 million.

Of course, staffers stay in Trump hotels. For instance, the campaign has dropped $12,400 alone in lodging costs at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. And to the degree one can tell which charges are for a one-night stay, the campaign usually paid more than the advertised rate for the cheapest room, which is now $319 per night. One can question why aides must stay in a five-star hotel in the first place, but if that type of luxury is required, Trump’s digs would not be the first choice. For instance, Washington’s venerable five-star The Hay-Adams not only has rooms that are $40 cheaper per night than Trump’s, it is ranked higher by consumers in Tripadvisor (no. 3 vs. no. 11), but is even closer to the White House....

An independent militia marched in the sovereign State of Virginia. This is not even remotely governed by the USA Constitution. They want to overthrow the established government of the USA. They all need to be charged with treason. 

They marched as a militia through the peaceful streets of Charlottesville, Virginia. They could have opened fire at any time or before or after the march. One of their supporters took a car through a crowd in the methodology used against innocent and magnificently innocent people in Europe. He did so intending to kill people. Unarmed people were mowed down in the street of Charlottesville, Virginia after a militia marched in its streets.

That is treason. It is a military paradigm intended to recruit and terrify people and change the way the USA defines itself.

The people of Charlottesville, Virginia were in profound danger by a highly armed right wing extremist militia. 

THIS WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN IN THIS COUNTRY! 

This is a strong statement by Mr. Kenneth Frazier. How many times is an American asked to serve on a Presidential Council.

August 14, 2017

By Michael Erman

(Reuters) - Merck & Co Inc Chief Executive Kenneth Frazier (click here) resigned from U.S. President Donald Trump's American Manufacturing Council on Monday, saying he was taking a stand against intolerance and extremism.

Trump denounced neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan as criminals and thugs on Monday, bowing to mounting political pressure after initially saying many sides were to blame after a white-nationalist rally turned deadly in Virginia.

Frazier, who is African-American, is the only CEO so far to leave one of Trump's advisory councils because of his reaction to the violence in Virginia, although the AFL-CIO said it was considering pulling its representative on the committee. Prominent Democrats and Republicans criticized Trump's response to the violence over the weekend....

I hope Mr. Frazier will serve again sometime in the future. It is a real loss to the USA to lose such qualified African Americans from contributing to our policies. I understand Mr. Frazier completely and he has to be true to his morality.

President Obama tried at every turn to bring minority citizens to opportunity during his eight years. Mr. Frazier is one of those important people that brings valuable insight the USA never had before. I look forward to his return sometime in the future.

And on top of the loss of Mr. Frazier, President Trump states he will not give Merck any more time to lower "rip off drug prices." Revenge. Trump uses intimidation and coercion. Amazing. I don't recall Merck being a company with problem drug prices. 

Merk's prices don't look like rip offs to me. Merck supplied vaccines to our Veterans Administration at a cost of $72,900. NOT MILLIONS. (click here) That is only one of the contracts Merck has with the VA (click here).

Our veterans better not suffer because of inferior providers because of Trump's revenge agenda.

President Trump's statements today.

He seems to like to open with a statement of the economy. I thought he wasn't going to address Charlottesville at all. But, after those opening statements, he did address the issue.

President Trump did call out the name of the hate groups at that rally that was also involved in violence. The New York Times has brought us the profile to James Alex Fields, Jr.

James Alex Fields Jr. (click here) of Ohio was charged with second-degree murder in Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday after the authorities said he smashed a car into a line of cars in an episode that left a 32-year-old woman dead and injured at least 19 other people who were protesting a rally staged by white nationalists....

I find it interesting Mr. Field's family is mentioned in his description. They have come out to talk to the media very soon after the violence. I have no sympathy for James Fields, Jr. I don't care if he lost his father early in his life. Was his father a White Supremacist? There are many children that lose their father, mother or both parents at a tender age, do they all become killers?

Considering the degree the White Supremacists/Nationalists were ready to participate in violence wearing military uniforms and carrying very deadly weapons; President Trump could have been more condemning of the demonstration itself. This was never supposed to be intended to be peaceful. I think that is obvious. That is a huge problem. The uniforms and weapons are a clear message to the country these men intend to exert violence in the country and others should join them. In my opinion, President Trump did not even begin to address these people that promote hate and violence. I mean no one expected a march through the streets of a peaceful city to include military uniforms and highly deadly weapons. What else were they carrying, hand grenades?

What is the relationship of James Fields, Jr. have with the organizations involved in the march and in particular David Duke.

Those uniforms were not a benign part of this march. It very well could have triggered the violent attack on the crowd by Alex Fields in a way we have witnessed in Europe. Every group in the march carries responsibility for the violence, including the murder and maiming of innocent people by one of their supporters.

If I was a spectator along the route of the march I would have been terrified and my first reaction was to understand why the National Guard was in the city.

Israel noticed. This is from Haaretz. 

March 14, 2017
by Nancy Goldstein

Had ISIS (click here) conducted the same kind of recruitment efforts in the United States as the armed militias that descended on Charlottesville this weekend, the Department of Justice would already be investigating and prosecuting them. So will it?...

I demand any other marches planned by these groups anywhere in the USA be canceled. Immediately.

President Trump has a great deal of reflection to carry out. He needs to realize his administration is viewed as a White Supremacist administration. The bigotry and racism have been a very big driver to his election and an identity by his own words.

Steve Bannon is a radical, White Supremacist and agitator. He acts out and makes the news nearly daily if not more often. He obviously keeps White Supremacy at the very front of the Republican Party. He would not mind if the country did have a civil war or worse. Bannon has to go. He is not a benefit to the American people in the Oval Office. He is highly detrimental to the political dialogue and this hostile and violent march is a direct result of his political influence. The phones available and his data lines, as well as websites, should be examined for any connectedness with violent extremist groups. He may very well be involved in the promotion of violence.

I want Sessions to recuse himself from the investigation of this case. He gave a speech at a White Supremacist meeting in California, not long ago.

Having s White Supremacist/Nationalist within political funding and/or on the staff of the Oval Office is NOT diversity.

Next bating opinion question:

"Is the COLA of SSI ...

1. ...too generous?

2. ...just about right?

3. ...or not enough?

Answer: COLA? What does cola have to do with SSI?

Help given: "COLA is the cost of living raise SSI recipients every year."

Answer: "OMG, they are just looking for money. They are looking for donations. Look at this, it isn't about my opinion at all."

I would expect a federal investigation into this as well.

August 13, 2017
By Rachel Weiner

Two Virginia state troopers killed (click here) doing surveillance work during Saturday’s white nationalist rally in Charlottesville were well-known to Gov. Terry McAuliffe.

H. Jay Cullen, 48, was a veteran pilot who spent several years shepherding the governor around Virginia. Berke Bates, who would have turned 41 on Sunday, was just beginning to realize a lifelong dream of becoming a helicopter pilot.

“I was close to both of those state troopers,” McAuliffe (D) said at a memorial service in Charlottesville on Sunday morning. “Jay Cullen had been flying me around for three-and-a-half years. Berke was part of my executive protection unit. He was part of my family. The man lived with me 24-7.”

Cullen was the commander of the State Police Aviation Unit.

“They’re still coming to terms with it,” Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said of the troopers under Cullen’s supervision. “It’s very raw.”...                

"Morning Papers"

The Rooster

"Okeydoke"

Opinion polls: "Who do you think should be running the states, the federal government, the states or no opinion?"

Huh?

The states and the federal government work together to fund the states. The question is one that divides and conquers. It also sets folks up for the elections next year. The federal government will be the enemy in all the right extremist commercials and it will be hurting the states in someway or another. Probably god will be under attack. 

The recipient of the opinion poll said after getting off the phone, "I don't think there should be a federal government. There should be one pot of gold (Irish - seriously) and all the states take from it as needed. Why are we paying for so many bureaucrats in Washington anyway?" That was the answer. Amazing how people know NOTHING about their government and how it works. There are Donor States and Taker States and the Takers are primarily the southern states where lack of education and faux beliefs live.

These folks never stop to assess their own education or lack thereof. They are an authority because the country is one person-one vote. They never stop to ask if anyone else has answers based in facts and policy; god is the authority and has control, no one else needs to. Amazing. They don't value education or the knowledge of others, they value their own lack of it, powerlessness to god and life circumstances of sacrifice/impoverishment to prove their worth in heaven. It is a darn shame they don't participate in thinking about policy so much as react to power.

Their disdain for Washington, DC is due to the fact Trump is not a king and there is a Congress to decide policy. It is why Congress is always receiving bad ratings, it doesn't capitulate to the king.

The elections of 2018 is about States Rights and runaway government in Washington; dissolving DC and placing power in the states will allow the people to finally have what they want. BUT, they don't want to give up the 'collective' pot of gold, now do they?

That opinion is from a woman in a Taker State.

There is no appreciation of the arts either. Remember "W?" What is opera?

When conceived in 1880 (click here) in its original size (approx. 70 cm) as the crowning element of The Gates of Hell , seated on the tympanum, The Thinker was entitled The Poet. He represented Dante, author of the Divine Comedy which had inspired The Gates, leaning forward to observe the circles of Hell, while meditating on his work. The Thinker was therefore initially both a being with a tortured body, almost a damned soul, and a free-thinking man, determined to transcend his suffering through poetry. The pose of this figure owes much to Carpeaux’s Ugolino (1861) and to the seated portrait of Lorenzo de’ Medici carved by Michelangelo (1526-31).

The Democrats need a new icon rather than a donkey. "The Thinker" is about perfect to reflect the American mind and it can't think beyond the next message from the preacher and the commercial media. At least "The Thinker" WANTS to move out of suffering and not wallow in it.

"Good Night, Moon"

The waning gibbous

21.2 days old

60.5 percent lit


The picture below right (click here) is of a burned spot on a young man's eye after observing a solar eclipse without proper protective lens/eyeglasses.

There is currently no treatment for Solar Retinopathy. (click here) 

It is all very real. There is permanent damage to the eye when observing a solar eclipse without protective eyeglasses. Every person of every age, be it man, woman or child MUST where protective glasses to observe the solar eclipse.

CLINICAL PRESENTATION (click here)

Solar retinopathy more commonly occurs in younger patients.H ypotheses suggest this demographic is most at risk because the clearer crystalline lens at younger ages transmits more light to the retina, including some of the higher-energy UV-B light. Men have an increased incidence of solar retinopathy than women....

The effort around the country to protect eyes while bringing people together to observe, learn and talk about the solar eclipse is impressive. NO excuse, take care of the eyes.

...More than 6,800 libraries (click here) across the U.S. are distributing safety-certified glasses. Many are working with scientists to hold viewing events and activities before and during the eclipse. For a listing of participating libraries, visit: 

Link: https://www.starnetlibraries.org/2017eclipse/

Kyoto Protocol and the IPCC has addressed every aspect of the anthropogenic warming of Earth. Every Greenhouse Gas is dangerous. Every GHG has to be addressed and brought to zero. It has to be done and the longer it is left to the spin of the roulette wheel the greater the odds our children will be effected by this episode of warming. 

Human beings are responsible for this warming and it is human beings that have to exert their power to end it. 

   

Loss of Arctic sea ice impacting Atlantic Ocean water circulation system (click here)

Date: July 31, 2017

Source: Yale University

Summary: Arctic sea ice is not merely a passive responder to the climate changes occurring around the world, according to new research. Scientists say the ongoing Arctic ice loss can play an active role in altering one of the planet's largest water circulation systems: the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC).

The surface currents is where all those wonderful single celled photosynthetic organisms live that produce 60 percent of Earth's atmospheric oxygen.

The deep ocean currents is where there are high pressures and water movement. The water movement is facilitated by heavy colder waters from the Arctic Circle. When those waters are no longer cold enough to drive those deep ocean currents they will stop. The result of stopped currents effects the very physics of the planet. Earth has already been measured to have marginally slowed. The lack of movement of the oceans add drag to the planet and will drastically change the climate of every continent.

This is no joke. Earth is first a planet and there are no deals to be made even though the First World countries continue to bargain against Earth's consent to their methods of obtaining wealth.

Here is the loop hole the Republicans enforce through refusal to recognize the climate crisis.

The Republicans deny the reality of the climate crisis or simply say it has nothing to do with anthropogenic emissions to keep their cronies and their political treasuries full of money. It is corruption, deception of the public and half truths leading to half measures that maintain danger to people. 

There you have it. Republicans don't care about the truth, hence, they care less for the American people. As long as they can slide half truths before the people they'll do it. 

The methane regulations are important, need to remain in practice and the courts will have to end the lies and deceptions of the Republican party. Imagine being concerned about ESTABLISHED AND KNOWN methane leaks and the state and federal government laughs and walks away because the wind hasn't carried into the lungs of people nearby.

August 10, 2017

By Amy Sisk

...Methane is a greenhouse gas (click here) far more potent than carbon dioxide. Some residents of the Bakken oil patch, like Lisa DeVille, are concerned it’s harming the quality of the air. DeVille is a board member of local watchdog Dakota Resource Council and president of affiliate Fort Berthold Protectors of Water and Earth Rights.

Last year, she stood at a well site near her home in Mandaree with an infrared camera, which can detect gas leaks. She saw a plume on screen coming from one of the tank batteries next to the well.

“I knew how toxic they were,” she said. “But just to witness it on this camera, it’s like, this is what we’re breathing?”

The Dakota Resource Council has released a new report highlighting its concerns about these leaks. The group wants federal methane rules to go into effect to limit pollution they say is “endangering the health of communities across North Dakota.”

But state health officials point to their own air monitors, which show the leaks have not harmed air quality across the oil patch.

The air is healthy to breathe, even for people living close to oil well sites, said Jim Semerad, manager of permitting and compliance for the North Dakota Department of Health’s Division of Air Quality.

“Our monitors that are portable haven’t shown dramatic rises off site,” he said. “I haven’t seen anything that would cause me concern for those folks.”...

Delhi children breath toxic air, (click here) reveals Greenpeace air-monitoring survey in schools

Press release - February 16, 2015

Publicising reliable air quality data along with a set of Precautionary Measures are the first steps needed to tackle the issue of air pollution in Delhi

New Delhi, February 16, 2015: The air-quality monitoring survey carried out by Greenpeace inside five prominent schools across Delhi found the PM2.5 levels to be 4 times the Indian safety limits and 10 times that of the World Health Organisation’s. The real-time monitoring data from all the five schools revealed particulate matter 2.5 to be at very unhealthy levels...

There are parents that can afford face masks and then there are the impoverished that do their best to protect their lungs.

"Respiratory Health: Measuring the Health Effects of Crop Burning"

Tina Adler, Environ Health Perspect. 2010 Nov; 118(11)

...Ravinder Agarwal, (click here) head of the University Science Instrumentation Centre at Thapar University in Patiala, India, and colleagues used portable spirometers to regularly test the lung function of children aged 10–13 and adults aged 20–35 over the course of a year. The 40 participants were healthy nonsmokers living in a village surrounded by farmland, with little traffic and no industry within 10 km.

Children’s force vital capacity (FVC) dropped from a mean 98% in August 2008 to 92% in July 2009. Mean FVC dipped as low as 88% in October and November, when farmers burned their rice crop residue, and in April and May, when they burned wheat stubble. The children’s mean lung function remained significantly lower throughout the test period. The mean lung function of the adult study participants declined during the burn seasons as well, but largely returned to original levels by the end of the study.

Decreases in lung function correlated with increases in the concentration of particulate matter, which exceeded India’s national air quality standards during the burn season. Small particles (PM2.5 and PM10)—which make up the majority of the smoke produced by crop burning—were more closely associated with decreases in lung function than suspended particulate matter (SPM), which can contain particles 100 μm or larger....               

It just feels good, ya know? Generations of Canadians will be able to realize the beauty of a protected area.

August 11, 2017
By Gloria Galloway

The federal government (click here) has reached an agreement with local Inuit that will lead to the protection and management of a massive swath of northern sea in one of the most ecologically sensitive regions of the Canadian Arctic.

The new proposed boundaries of a national marine conservation area in Lancaster Sound, which has sometimes been called the Serengeti of the Arctic because of the breadth of its biodiversity, would encompass more than 131,000 square kilometres of ocean.

That is 10 times larger than the biggest of the four existing national marine conservation areas, more than twice as large as any other protected area on land or sea, and would more than double the area of Canada’s marine protected waters.

It also represents about 1.9 per cent of the country’s expanse of ocean and would mark a significant step toward meeting its commitment, under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, to conserve 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas by 2020....

...While all environmental groups contacted for this story praised the expansion of the protected area, some said they hoped the government would not wait long to actually put the permanent protections in place.

“We’d be pleased with any announcement that includes meaningful protections for Lancaster Sound,” said David Miller, president and CEO of World Wildlife Fund Canada. “Since Shell relinquished 30 oil and gas exploration leases last summer after a WWF-Canada lawsuit, there is nothing standing in the way of creating the largest marine protected area in Canada, with a boundary that is informed by traditional knowledge that will fully protect the integrity of this unique ecosystem.”

Right now, a large portion of the world’s narwhal are feeding within the area to be protected, with their newborn calves at their side, Mr. Miller said. “ Bowhead whales, beluga, walrus, polar bears and countless migratory birds are stocking up on Lancaster Sound’s bounty in the 24-hour daylight to get themselves through next winter.”

The report below was written in 2015.

Short and Long Term Impacts of Burning Crop Residue (click here)

This has been an extraordinary season for raising wheat, barley and oats in Cache County (Utah - click here). On most farms yields have been exceptional on both irrigated and drylands. In most cases, bushel weights have been respectable too. Growers were able to plant weeks earlier than normal, and the copious spring rains in May really got small grains off to a good start. About the only down-side some growers experienced was lodging. Heavy grain heads were more than stiff straws could hold up. As such some grain tipped over making it difficult to combine.

Not only did we enjoy heavy grain yields, but we now have an abundance of straw, more straw than we know what to do with. Some straw is used for bedding and some for feed, but we have more straw than we can sell and adequate storage is difficult to find....

...More than 30 years of research has shown that, although there may be some short-term benefits to burning crop residue, there is a slow and steady reduction in soil health that will eventually result in reduced productivity that cannot be overcome with increased additions of mineral fertilizers. Long-term soil, chemical and nutrient effects include a significant reduction in total Carbon and Nitrogen pools. An improved C:N ratio under residue retention increases and maintains higher microbial activity, ensuring more rapid organic matter decomposition and nutrient release to the soil. Burning decreases readily assimilated carbon sources for microbes, decreases soil ammonium levels and available soil phosphorus. That’s to say nothing of increased erodibility, lower organic matter levels and reduced water intake and retention.

A general review of the literature indicates that no measurable negative effects are associated with occasional and short-term burning, but that prolonged burning (>15 years) results in a significant loss of soil health and function. What may, at first, be attractive as short-term benefits, eventually become long-term cost increases in soil nutrient and crop production management. The costs associated with the loss of organic matter and nutrients from burning crop residue exceed its benefits....

Below is a clear demonstration of NO TILL farming. (click here) The residual from previous crops are left in place. It prevents erosion and loss of nutrients while preserving the moisture in the soil. This practice has been in use in the USA for at least the past 20 to 30 years. The crops sown into the ground in this method grow a normal course. The sunlight is available through the stubble. The plants do not have competition for sunlight as the stubble no longer grows. The crop yields are sometimes exceptional.

...The USDA- NRCS office promotes sound conservation practices to help make those transitions from burning residue to leaving residue. Practices such as residue management no till, mulching, cover crops, conservation crop rotation, and many other practices are all alternative to burning....

9 August 2017

The dogs (click here) that made Australia’s era of Antarctic exploration possible have been immortalised this week as 26 landmarks were named after the most important four-legged team members. The huskies served alongside Sir Douglas Mawson and his men throughout Mawson’s Australasian Antarctic Expedition in the early 20th century. The loyal dogs played a critical role in the mission as they pulled sleds with important supplies, provided expedition transport and offered much needed companionship for the men.

The landmarks named after the dogs include islands, rocks and reefs with the most prominent sites named after the most important dogs. You can now pinpoint sites such as Pavlova Island, Ginger Reef and Devil Rock scattered across the Antarctic, all named in honour of Mawson’s beloved huskies.

The naming and accurate positioning of prominent landmarks is crucial for Antarctic research and operations, with satellite imagery allowing better identification of islands and other features in the landscape. So, the dogs will live on and continue to help man explore this wild, wonderful and mysterious corner of the world.

"Multicriteria Analysis of the Effects of Field Burning Crop Residues"

Vasilica Stan, Gina Fintineru, Mircea Mihalache

University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, 59 Mărăşti Bd., Sector 1, 011464,Bucharest, Romania

Abstract Burning crop residues (click here) is frequently used by Romanian land users to clean agricultural fields after crop harvest for ease in postharvest soil tillage. Huge amounts of crop residues biomass, on very large areas, were burned in Romania in the last twenty years, as compared to other countries. There are several reasons (e.g. the lack of equipment to gather the crop residues and to transport and store them, the diminishing of the livestock after 1990, the absence of other alternatives, especially in the 1990s, but also the lack of information regarding the good practices) that are evocated to support the use of this method. However, this method is not a sustainable one since it can cause many environmental damages, especially related to soil properties (physical, chemical and biological), greenhouse gas emission and crop yields. Contrary to the above stated, crop residues’ addition to the soil may restore damaged soil structure, improve aggregate stability, soil water retention, soil fertility, increase total organic carbon (TOC) and total nitrogen (TN) etc. The purpose of this paper is to make a multicriteria analyze of the effects of crop residue management on the soil, agricultural productivity and environment. At the same time, the use of crop residues biomass as a source of energy is presented as an alternative, given its potential ability to offset fossil fuels and reduce CO2 emissions. 

In the USA farmers bail straw or bring it in from the fields on large wagons to use for animal bedding. I keeps more sanitary conditions.

2014-03-13

Japanese electronics (click here) maker Panasonic has decided to pay smuggle money to Chinese dispatch workers, the Financial Times reported on Friday. This is partly due to the growing concern about the Chinese air pollution problem.


PM2.5 refers to atmospheric particulate matter (PM) that have a diameter less than 2.5 micrometers, which is about 3% the diameter of a human hair. Commonly written as PM_2.5, particles in this category are so small that they can only be detected with an electron microscope.

"Contributions of open crop straw burning emissions to PM 2.5 concentrations in China" (click here)

Libo Zhang, Yongqiang Liu and Lu Hao

Published 27 January 2016
Environmental Research Letters, Volume 11, Number 1

PM2.5 inventories have been developed in major Chinese cities to quantify the contributions from various sources based on annual emissions. This approach, however, could substantially underestimate the contribution from open straw burning during the harvest or other active burning periods. This study examines this issue by estimating monthly and annual straw-burning PM2.5 emissions in China and comparing with them with the corresponding emissions from other anthropogenic sources. Annually burned straw PM2.5 emissions during 1997 ~ 2013 for 31 China provinces were calculated based on crop and related burning information for 12 months based on satellite detection of agricultural burning. Annual emissions from other anthropogenic sources were collected from the literature and allocated to monthly values using air pollution index measurements. The results indicate that the annual PM2.5 emissions from open straw burning in China were 1.036 m tons. The monthly PM2.5 emission ratios of straw burning to other anthropogenic sources during June, the harvest period for many regions, were several times larger than the annual ratios at national, regional, and province levels, suggesting that, in contrast to annual emissions that were used in the PM2.5 inventories in Chinese cities to assess the contributions from other sources, monthly emissions should be used to assess the contributions from straw burning during the harvest or other active burning periods. The larger contributions from straw burning shown in this study also suggest that substantial reduction of open field straw burning would dramatically improve air quality in many Chinese regions during the harvest or other active burning periods.


In Bozeman, Montana (click here) children play in a maze constructed of bailed straw.

This is the problem when East meets West. The interpretation of values are different and sophistication is lost.

The football The mayor in a long-ago all-star in 1983 (click here)

August 13, 2017
By Amelia Urry

Bernard Carvalho (click here)  might be the least jaded politician in the United States of America right now.

True, it might not seem too hard to keep a sunny disposition when you’re the mayor of a laid-back Hawaiian island that runs on tourism and surfing—especially one that’s making the transition to clean energy faster than just about anywhere else in the country.

But when President Trump made the announcement that he would pull the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord—an international agreement backed by 194 countries, with the goal of forestalling disastrous levels of global warming—Carvalho knew he had to do something.

A 6-foot-5-inch former NFL guard, Carvalho threw his weight behind the international agreement. In early June, Kauai’s mayor joined Hawaii Governor David Y. Ige and other Hawaiian state and county officials to independently sign support for the agreement, making Hawaii the first state to enact laws enforcing the treaty’s commitments in their own communities....

November 24, 2015
By M Rajshekhar

The fog underscored just how poorly India's pollution problem is understood. (click here)

Why do farmers burn their fields in Punjab despite knowing that it worsens the fog over North India? Profitability of Punjab agriculture has fallen. The farmers know about the pollution caused, but do they have an option? Read more on Scroll.in. Photo by M Rajshekhar

On the evening of 7 November, a deep fog settled along the stretch of 250 kilometres between Sirsa and Gurgaon in Haryana. By ten in the night, it was thick enough to make travel almost impossible. In places, visibility shrank to not more than five metres. State transport buses cut their trips short. Cars, trucks and buses which kept moving towards Delhi did so cautiously, taking as long as six hours to cover a distance of 150 kilometres.

That night, the consensus among drivers and locals was that the fog was not natural but man-made. Not only does this part of India have several industrial units and power plants, in the months of October and November, farmers in Punjab burn fields to clear the crop stubble left after their kharif harvest. A sudden nip in the air that evening appeared to have trapped the emissions from both industry and burning fields close to the earth.

The fog underscored just how poorly India's pollution problem is understood. While the worsening of Delhi's air during the winter gets some attention, there is barely any acknowledgement that the blanket of chemical soup extends all the way till Punjab, and perhaps to the south of Delhi too.

There is also little understanding of what's needed to tackle the problem.

In the run up to the winter, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal asked Punjab government to ensure farmers did not burn their fields. A better alternative, he said, would be to plough the stalks back into the earth where they can decompose into humus.

But on the ground, things aren't as simple....

"Here and Now" was never the promise to generations growing into leadership.

13 August 2017
By Geoff Dembicki

‘The window for hope is closing rapidly.’

If progressives (click here) can’t take back control of the White House and Congress from climate change deniers in the next three years, it’s conceivable that humankind could be screwed. But evidence is mounting that a new political force is up to the task. It has millions of potential supporters across the US, the UK and Canada. It’s openly critical of capitalism. And it’s led by millennials such as Moumita Ahmed.

The 25-year-old activist is intimately aware of what’s at stake. She grew up in Queens, New York, and rose to prominence during the 2016 Democratic primaries as co-founder of a group now known as Millennials for Revolution.

She has since rallied thousands of people her age against Donald Trump’s travel ban and the Republican healthcare bill. Yet climate change is never far from Ahmed’s mind. Rising oceans directly threaten her family members back in Bangladesh. “It makes me so angry and upset,” Ahmed said. “But at the end of the day, I still believe there is hope.”...

There is a reason 'old white men' are elected as Republicans in government. They are the only ones invested in the petroleum industry. They have no desire to hand any responsibility to younger generations, it would ruin their 'comfort zone' of power and money.