Peng Shual is a global citizen with a global reputation. People will not lose interest in her simply because China is being oppressive.

November 21, 2021
By Matthew Futterman and Christopher Clarey

Nearly two weeks after people across the world (click here) began asking “Where is Peng Shuai?,” two questionable videos surfaced Saturday on social media of a person who appears to be the Chinese tennis star at a restaurant.

The videos were shared on Twitter by the editor of a state-run newspaper, but the seemingly unnatural conversation in one video and the unclear location and dates of both raised questions about Peng’s safety and whether she was appearing in the videos of her own free will. A third video, said to be of Peng at a tennis match in Beijing, was posted about 10 hours later, on Sunday.

Peng, in a social media post this month, accused a former top government official of sexually assaulting her. After the allegation, the Chinese government removed almost all references of Peng on social media within the country, and Peng disappeared from public life. Her absence prompted outrage across the world, especially from top officials and stars in tennis....

Deforestation is loss of chlorophyll sinks for CO2 and profound habitat loss throwing nature's balance into a downward spiral.

November 12, 2021
By Charles Maynes and Grace Widyatmadja

Jack Pombo, 41, from Trin village, holds a dead bird of paradise. He finds many dead birds when he goes to logging areas. "Before our forest was full of birds. We had parrots, birds of paradise. Now many of them gone, because we don't have a forest anymore. Some birds died, some moved to different areas. Some come to our gardens and destroy our crops," he says.

Vlad Sokhin's interest in climate change came from his own global upbringing. (click here)

Born in Russia, and having spent formative years in Portugal, Sokhin made a career as a documentary photographer capturing health and human rights issues in Europe, Africa and Asia.

Yet it was a 2013 assignment to cover deforestation in Papua New Guinea that convinced him to train his lens on humanity's impact on the planet.

"I saw how the environment was changing because of illegal logging," Sokhin tells NPR. "But the big picture wasn't there. I thought, 'What if I extend a little bit?'"

Eight years and thousands of miles later, the result is Warm Waters, (Schilt Publishing, 2021) an exploration of climate change traveling across 18 countries and off-the-map territories seen by seldom few....

Her name is Elizabeth Ann.

November 19, 2021
By Michael Booth

Lamar - Somewhere between the comforts of a plastic tote (click here) outfitted with clean, shredded paper and a bloody quarter of a prairie dog for snacks, and the yawning dark hole he was being tipped into as hawks circled above, North America’s rarest mammal had the genetic weight of the world on its furry shoulders.

Black-footed ferret No. 10,166 clung desperately to the inside of a black PVC tube. The tawny kit appeared reluctant to dive into a lonely prairie dog hole five hours’ drive from the breeding center near the Wyoming border and take on the responsibility of restoring a species thought extinct until 1981.

It chattered like a psychotic dolphin, alternately retreating and lunging at the heavy leather gloves of the handler. Elsewhere on the unplowed shortgrass prairies of sprawling May Ranch, 14 other kits were about to go down other holes....

February 22, 2021

By Alex Fox

Her name is Elizabeth Ann and she gives hope to the return of critically endangered species.

Scientists (click here) have successfully cloned a wild black-footed ferret that died more than 30 years ago, according to a statement from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). The young clone, born December 10, 2020 and named Elizabeth Ann, is the first ever native endangered species to be cloned in the United States, reports Douglas Main for National Geographic.

Once thought to be globally extinct, black-footed ferrets are one of North America’s rarest land animals, clinging to the hem of existence through painstaking captive breeding and reintroduction programs. With her unique DNA, Elizabeth Ann has the potential to be a source of much-needed genetic diversity to the inbred reintroduced population, which currently hovers between 400 and 500 individuals and remains severely threatened by disease....

Anything at all to make a buck. A decade ago Antarctica tourism was unheard of and it should have remained that way.

November 19, 2021
By Dana Bergstrom

We tend to think Antarctica (click here) is isolated and far away – biologically speaking, this is true. But the continent is busier than you probably imagine, with many national programs and tourist operators crisscrossing the globe to get there.

And each vessel, each cargo item, and each person could be harbouring non-native species, hitchhiking their way south. This threat to Antarctica’s fragile ecosystem is what our new evaluation, released today, grapples with.

We mapped the last five years of planes and ships visiting the continent, illuminating for the first time the extent of travel across the hemispheres and the potential source locations for non-native species, as the map below shows. We found that, luckily, while some have breached Antarctica, they generally have yet to get a stranglehold, leaving the continent still relatively pristine.

But Antarctica is getting busier, with new research stations, rebuilding and more tourism activities planned. Our challenge is to keep it pristine under this growing human activity and climate change threat....

November 18, 2021
By Morgan Greene

Microcystins is the toxin produced by Blue-Green algae.

Straved Rock State Park - Barges carrying mounds of coal (click here) toward St. Louis passed by Starved Rock at a snail’s pace, inching past yellow-orange trees and sandstone canyons. A bald eagle hovered above a path leading hikers toward Lover’s Leap. Near the Starved Rock Lock and Dam, a pinch point along the Illinois River, the water was dull and unremarkable.

But the area is home to a problem that taints waters throughout the state: toxic algae blooms.

In June, its surface was streaked with neon green. The bloom, one of dozens sampled this year throughout Illinois, contained levels of a potent toxin more than 30 times above the advised state recreational standard.

Blooms of cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, happen when, given the right mix of conditions including temperature, sunlight and excess nutrients, the microscopic organisms proliferate to the extent that it sometimes looks like someone dumped paint in the water.

The rise of blooms appears to be connected to human-caused climate change. Along with nutrient overload from intense storms, warming air temperatures — and in turn warming water temperatures — can feed blooms....

It is so strange to think about toxic algal blooms caused by the climate crisis and coal is one of the biggest greenhouse gas polluters. So, here are barges full of coal floating past the algal bloom which it causes.

Europe is moving on greenhouse gas emissions, but, as is the case globally, not enough yet.

Graph above (click here)

November 10, 2021

By Tereza Pultarova 

Europe's climate (click here) is warming much faster than the rest of the world and scientists are trying to understand why. 

The world is nowhere near on track to limiting the global temperature rise to the 1.5 degrees Celsius required by the Paris Agreement, the international treaty negotiated at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris in 2015. In fact, latest predictions show that globally, the climate is set to get on average 2.4 degrees C warmer compared to the pre-industrial era, unless emissions of greenhouse gases are drastically cut. 

But not all parts of the world are set to be hit equally. Europe, in fact, has already passed the 1.5-degree C threshold and is currently 2.2 degrees C warmer than it was before the industrial revolution, Samantha Burgess, deputy director for climate change services at the European Earth observation program Copernicus, said Tuesday (Nov. 2) in a briefing at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) that is concluding this week in Glasgow, Scotland. 

Climate denial is waning, but it is being replaced with anti-immigration rhetoric.

21 November 2021
By Oliver Milman

...“When the Roman empire fell, (click here) it was largely as a result of uncontrolled immigration – the empire could no longer control its borders, people came in from the east and all over the place,” the British prime minister said in an interview on the eve of crucial UN climate talks in Scotland. Civilization can go into reverse as well as forwards, as Johnson told it, with Rome’s fate offering grave warning as to what could happen if global heating is not restrained.

The forgotten oil ads that told us climate change was nothing

Read more

This wrapping of ecological disaster with fears of rampant immigration is a narrative that has flourished in far-right fringe movements in Europe and the US and is now spilling into the discourse of mainstream politics. Whatever his intent, Johnson was following a current of rightwing thought that has shifted from outright dismissal of climate change to using its impacts to fortify ideological, and often racist, battle lines. Representatives of this line of thought around the world are, in many cases, echoing eco-fascist ideas that themselves are rooted in an earlier age of blood-and-soil nationalism.

In the US, a lawsuit by the Republican attorney general of Arizona has demanded the building of a border wall to prevent migrants coming from Mexico as these people “directly result in the release of pollutants, carbon dioxide, and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere”. In Spain, Santiago Abascal, leader of the populist Vox party, has called for a “patriotic” restoration of a “green Spain, clean and prosperous”....

October 25, 2021

On Thursday, (click here) the National Security Council released a long-anticipated report on what environmental advocates are calling one the most pressing issues of our time: climate change-induced migration. The report is the first U.S. government report on the effects of climate on migration and arrives right as President Biden is slated to attend a major United Nations climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland known as COP26.

The 37-page report, which was commissioned by President Joe Biden in February with an August deadline, notes that climate migration, both within countries and between them, is already here, but is set to get a lot worse. Climate change is expected to displace as many as 143 million people, nearly three percent of the populations of Latin America, South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa, by 2050. Roughly a quarter of those are expected to migrate internationally as a result of their displacement. The sheer mass of migrants will have “significant implications for international security, instability, conflict, and geopolitics,” the report says. This includes climate change-induced wars and conflicts over natural resources, namely water....

President Obama has advocated for help to poorer countries partly to stem migration.

November 10, 2021

By Somini Sengupta

Former President Barack Obama, (click here) who helped to seal the Paris climate agreement six years ago, returned to an international climate summit here to rally nations to heal the planet, acknowledging the enormous complexity of the crisis but arguing that humanity has the capacity to create a safer, healthier world.

“To be honest with ourselves, yes, this is going to be really hard,” said Mr. Obama, who was welcomed with sustained applause by delegates from nearly 200 nations. “The thing we have going for us, is that humanity has done hard things before. I believe we can do hard things again.”

Mr. Obama noted that the Paris agreement, signed by 197 countries in 2015, created a framework for climate action, but nations, including the United States, failed to follow through on their commitments to keep global warming within relatively safe margins.

“Important work was done there, and important work is being done here,” he said. “That is the good news. Now, for the bad news. We are nowhere near where we need to be.”...

We are witnessing the destruction of the land based Greenland Ice Sheet. Is Antarctica far behind?

20 November 2021

This 2016 photo (click here) shows a rift that, within a few months, widened even farther and and released a Delaware-size iceberg from Antarctica’s Larsen C ice shelf. The rough surface of ice mélange is visible on one side of the rift.

Here's another reminder of the precarious position (click here) that the world's climate and ecosystems are in: a new study estimates that global warming could push the Antarctic ice sheet past a tipping point in as little as 10 years....

...As icebergs break off Antarctica, they float down a major channel known as Iceberg Alley. Debris released from these icebergs accumulates on the seafloor, giving researchers a record of history some 3.5 kilometers (2.2 miles) under the water.

By combining this natural logbook of iceberg drift with computer models of ice sheet behavior, the team was able to identify eight phases of ice sheet retreat across recent millennia. In each case, the ice sheet destabilization and subsequent restabilization happened within a decade or so.

The results published by the researchers augment modern satellite imagery, which only goes back around 40 years: they show increasing losses of ice from the interior of the Antarctic ice sheet, not just changes in ice shelves already freely floating on the water. 

"We found that iceberg calving events on multi-year time scales were synchronous with discharge of grounded ice from the Antarctic ice sheet," says glaciologist Nick Golledge, from the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand.

The study showed the same sea rise pattern happening in each of the eight phases too, with global sea levels affected for several centuries and up to a millennium in some cases. Further statistical analysis identified the tipping points for these changes.

If the current shift in ice in Antarctica can be interpreted in the same way as the past events identified by the researchers, we might already be in the midst of a new tipping point – something we've seen in other parts of the world and the Arctic in recent years....

On the Fiest of Christ the King, Pope Francis directs young people to be Earth's stewards.

People cannot declare science dead in order to facilitate "creationism" while at the same time denouncing the climate crisis. If one believes in creationism then they have to believe God's creation is being destroyed by the hands of greedy stockholders and the fossil fuel industry. It can't be both.

The Vatican (click here)

November 21, 2021

Vatican - Pope Francis (click here) on Sunday praised young people for their efforts to protect the Earth’s environment and told them to “be the critical conscience of society.”

Francis celebrated Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, filled with hundreds of young faithful, to mark a church day focused on youth in dioceses worldwide.

“You have been entrusted with an exciting but also challenging task,'' the pontiff said, ”to stand tall while everything around us seems to be collapsing."

Francis expressed thanks “for all those times when you cultivate the dream of fraternity, work to heal the wounds of God's creation, fight to ensure respect for the dignity of the vulnerable and spread the spirit of solidarity and sharing.”...

At COP26 mayors are viewed in a pivotal role in energy production.

Alternative energies are absolutely carbon zero without dangers of any kind.

Nuclear power is a form of energy with high costs to safety. For cities and counties in the USA looking for answers should put nuclear at the bottom of the choices, but, above any use of fossil fuels, includig methane. Nuclear is not as expeditious as alternative energies. Nuclear has many years of planning and it not quickly built. So, the idea nuclear is better because it can be a quick answer is not the case.

I am glad the IAEA was at COP26 as it shows a sincere concern for the climate and the role nuclear energy could have to end the fossil fuel emissions. The IAEA needs to develop a protocol for establishing nuclear energy across the globe that will also provide for high levels of safety. Russia is a prime example of the gross mismanagement of nuclear energy and other forms of nuclear radiation. The folks in Russia don't have good science or practices surrounding this dangerous form of fuel.

Interested participants (click here) have until 30 November 2021 to submit synopses for a presentation at the fifth International Conference on Nuclear Power Plant Life Management, to be held in Osaka, Japan from 16-19 May 2022....

This is self--righteous racism. It is another Zimmerman case whereby law is taken into the hands of others.

"Property" seems to be a theme. With Trayvon Martin, Vigilante Zimmerman takes up arms to end robberies in the area and acting as judge and jury in deciding Trayvon was the guilty party and carrying out a death sentence. Zimmerman stated in calling the police the crime would still be committed because the police wouldn't stop it. Self-righteousness.

Kenosha was about "property" and self-righteous vigilantism and the idea police are inadequate to do what Rittenhouse did. Self-righteousness.

The death of Ahmaud Arbery is about "property" and the idea no police were doing their jobs to end the people walking through the property. Self-righteous vigilantism.

The theme of police incompetancy and property protection seems to be a common thread. It used to be the only way a citizen could be justified in using their weapons against another human being and killing them was if the stranger was inside the four walls of the residence. Now. Anything goes. This is a result of very loose laws regarding guns. Police are viewed as inept, not by the left that are concerned about racism, but, by the political right that use police response as an excuse to kill.

November 21, 2021 

Bruswick, Geogia - Carrying signs that read "Justice for Ahmaud," (click here) the demonstrators marched past majestic live oaks draped with Spanish moss. They chanted Ahmaud Arbery's name as they wound through the streets, past a hardware store, several homes, a convenience store. They rounded the corner by the floral shop, calling for those watching from the sidewalk to join them. 

They soon stopped on a lawn of the Brunswick African American Cultural Center, 10 miles from the residential block where Arbery was shot to death. It was the fifth day of testimony in the trial of the White men accused of killing the Black jogger, and dozens of people had gathered for a march that started outside the Glynn County courthouse. 

At the cultural center, where a mural of Arbery's smiling face sits against a blue and yellow backdrop, Annie Polite took a break, sitting down in her walker.

"The system has got to change," the 87-year-old Black woman said. "It's not fair. There's no justice in what goes on behind close doors. We all deserve equal justice."...

 

Maiming is the new normal? This was not an accident. Barriers were destroyed. The car kept going.

November 21, 2021

Waukesha, Wis. - More than 20 people (click here) were injured when an SUV plowed into a Christmas parade in the Milwaukee suburb of Waukesha on Sunday, the city’s police chief said.

Chief Dan Thompson said the investigation is ongoing, but that a “suspect vehicle” was recovered. Some of those injured were taken by police to hospitals, and others were taken by family members, Thompson said.

Police in Waukesha, located about 20 miles west of Milwaukee, were urging people to avoid the downtown area.

A live video feed of the parade from the city of Waukesha, as well as videos taken by parade attendees, showed a red SUV breaking through barriers and speeding into the roadway where the parade was taking place.

Angelito Tenorio, a West Allis alderman who is running for Wisconsin state treasurer, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he was watching the parade with his family when they saw the SUV come speeding into the area.

“Then we heard a loud bang, and just deafening cries and screams from people who are who are struck by the vehicle,” Tenorio said. “And then, and then we saw people running away or stopping crying, and there, there are people on the ground who looked like they’d been hit by the vehicle.”...

What the heck? Meet-ups to stage a robbery event?

November 21, 2021
By Don Sweeney

Dozens of robbers swarmed a Nordstrom (click here) store Saturday night, Nov. 21, at an outdoor mall in Walnut Creek, streaming out with boxes and bags to flee in waiting cars, police said.

“I probably saw 50-80 people in, like, ski masks with crowbars, a bunch of weapons,” Brett Barrett, who manages a nearby restaurant, told KPIX. “They were looting the Nordstrom.”

“There was a mob of people,” Barrett told the station. “The police were flying in. It was like a scene out of a movie. It was insane."

The robbery spree broke out at 9 p.m. when as many as 25 vehicles pulled up in front of the store and 80 people in masks dashed inside, KNTV reported.

Police responding to 911 calls arrested three people in the chaos, two fleeing in a vehicle and one fleeing on foot, KGO reported.

A similar incident took place Friday night at Union Square in San Francisco, where a swarm of people ransacked stores, San Francisco police reported on Twitter.

Six were arrested after people shattered windows and ran off with merchandise from Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Burberry, Dolce & Gabbana and other high-end stores, KTVU reported....