Florida health officials received testing kits for novel coronavirus earlier this week but can’t use them yet because it’s unclear whether the tests are working. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday morning said issues with the tests the agency has developed for the respiratory illness spreading rapidly through China surfaced after they were sent out to …
Study: One-third of plant and animal species could be gone in 50 years by Daniel Stolte
Accurately predicting biodiversity loss from climate change requires a detailed understanding of what aspects of climate change cause extinctions, and what mechanisms may allow species to survive. A new study by University of Arizona researchers presents detailed estimates of global extinction from climate change by 2070. By combining information on recent extinctions from climate change, rates of species movement and …
HELL AND HIGH WATER IN AUSTRALIA
Australia has endured intense heat, severe drought, dust storms, and catastrophic fires burning their way through everything in their path, destroying wildlife and vegetation that could take decades to regrow. And in some places, the soil is so scorched it may not be able to support plant life in the future. While the fires are still going strong in some areas, …
The Antarctica Factor: model uncertainties reveal upcoming sea level risk
“The ‘Antarctica Factor’ turns out to be the greatest risk, and also the greatest uncertainty, for sea-levels around the globe,” says lead-author Anders Levermann from the Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research (PIK) and Columbia University’s LDEO in New York. “While we saw about 19 centimeters of sea-level rise in the past 100 years, Antarctic ice-loss could lead to up to 58 …
Temperature in Antarctica Soars Past 69°F as NOAA Reports Last Month Was World’s Hottest January on Record by Jessica Corbett
As the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Thursday announced that last month was the hottest January ever recorded, the Guardian reported that Brazilian scientists logged a new record-breaking temperature of 20.75°C, or 69.35°F, at Seymour Island in Antarctica on Feb. 9. The newspaper noted that the new record, along with one logged on Feb. 6 by Argentina’s Esperanza research station at the northern tip of the …
The Red-Baiting of Bernie Sanders Has Begun and is Already Becoming Laughable by DAVE LINDORFF
With Bernie Sanders now having won New Hampshire (and probably Iowa, where he won the popular vote) and confirmed his position as the frontrunner for president in the Democratic Party primaries (the New York Times’ poll guru Nate Silver is giving him a better than 40% chance of gaining enough delegates by the end of the primary season to win …
The Trump era is a golden age of conspiracy theories – on the right and left
In his novel Foucault’s Pendulum, the late Umberto Eco dreamed up a plot for our time. The book portrays a collection of enlightened skeptics who get swept into conspiracy. First to amuse themselves, and then because the crackpots they ridicule participate in the madness, Eco’s characters seal their own doom. They connect dots that are unrelated. They see cabals that …
Biden’s World Experience Proves a Lead Balloon BY MICHAEL HIRSH
Joe Biden has been around Washington so long that he cast one of his first big votes as a U.S. senator during the Vietnam War—at a time when Bernie Sanders was a shaggy-haired radical in rural Vermont, Amy Klobuchar was in middle school, and Pete Buttigieg wasn’t even a glint in the eyes of his parents, who weren’t yet married. …
Nearly 1 in 3 American workers run out of money before payday—even those earning over $100,000
Going extra light at the grocery store. Cutting down on medical supplies. Buying clothing and household supplies secondhand. These are just some of the many ways many Americans are making it work when money is tight. For about a third of Americans, this is a regular financial stress, with 32% running out of money before their next paycheck hits, according …
Of course there’s a globalisation backlash. It has failed billions of people
Over the past 30 years China has become the world’s factory. For the past few weeks, the production line has been shut down by plant closures deemed necessary to halt the spread of coronavirus. Beijing fears there will be both short- and long-term damage from the outbreak. The country is on course for its first quarter of negative growth in decades, while earlier …