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Great Plains farmers consider switching crops as aquifer runs out of water
The aquifer that makes agriculture in the Great Plains possible is running out of water, primarily from overirrigation. That has farmers considering different crops. Calen Moore of the Kansas News Service reports.
Common farm fungicide may be contributing to 'insect apocalypse'
by Fran Molloy 1/7/25 PHYS ORG
A widely-used agricultural chemical sprayed on fruits and vegetables to prevent fungal disease is also killing beneficial insects that play a critical role in pollination and wider ecosystems.
Video Shows Alternative High Speed Rail Concept for US
by Theo Burman 29/6/25 Newsweek
The pitch, outlined in HSR America's promotional video, is ambitious, but grounded in patents and research, and most importantly, its creators believe the technology could avoid the pitfalls currently facing high-speed rail development.
Santa Cruz has a fantastic food scene — if you know where to look
by Sara Desaran 29/6/25 The San Fransisco Standard
The college surf town with a hippie edge has been pigeonholed as a veggie-burrito kind of place — a land of tofu scrambles, chai with oat milk, and heart-opening cacao ceremonies. Either that or hot dog on a stick as a potential last meal before a death-defying ride on the boardwalk’s rickety, 101-year-old Giant Dipper.
The Birth-Rate Crisis Isn’t as Bad as You’ve Heard—It’s Worse
by Marc Novicoff 30/6/25 The Atlanyic
First, the bad news: Global fertility is falling fast. The aging populations of rich countries are relying on ever fewer workers to support their economy, dooming those younger generations to a future of higher taxes, higher debt, or later retirement—or all three. Birth rates in middle-income countries are also plummeting, putting their economic development at risk. Practically the only countries set to continue growing are desperately poor.
‘You open the fridge – nothing’: renewed threat of US hunger as Trump seeks to cut food aid
by Ed Pilkington 28/6/25 The Guardian
Critics warn cuts to Snap program would throw millions of Americans – such as Jade and her daughter Janai – back into food insecurity
Glass Is the Real Threat”: New Study Finds Glass Bottles Leak 50x More Microplastics Than Plastic, Alarming Scientists Globally
by Eirwen Williams 26/6/25 SUSTAINABILITY TIMES
Recent research has revealed an unexpected source of microplastic contamination: glass bottles. While traditionally seen as a cleaner alternative to plastic, glass containers have been found to shed significantly more microplastics into beverages such as beer, soda, and lemonade. This discovery challenges conventional wisdom and raises questions about the safety of our everyday drinkware.
Environment-Water and Air Quality
Climate movement strikes back with first-of-its-kind class action lawsuit against EPA
by Tracy J. Wholf 26/6/25 CBS NEWS
When Donald Trump won reelection, Jennifer Hadayia knew she'd need a good lawyer. As the executive director of Air Alliance Houston, an environmental nonprofit advocacy organization that works to reduce the risks of air pollution on public health, she had fought the first Trump administration in court already on a variety of issues.
Environment-Water and Air Quality
Scientists Just Discovered a Surprising Benefit of Turmeric
by Lauren Manaker 24/6/25 NEW STUDY
A new review of studies found that turmeric may help improve blood pressure, cholesterol and more. Older people without dementia experienced better cognitive health while taking turmeric. You can get more turmeric by using it in your cooking or by taking turmeric shots.
How huge migrating animal puppets captivate in ways that climate news can’t
by Matt Smith 26/6/25 THE CONVERSATION
A herd of puppet animals is migrating north from Africa. This 12,000 mile journey represents wildlife’s response to the climate crisis as species are forced to move north due to rising temperatures. As The Herds travels through the UK en route to the Arctic, the organisers hope this artistic project will help spectators along the route understand what is happening to the environment.
Little-known nutrient can boost your brain and fight cancer
by Jordan Joseph 26/6/25 earth.com
The work centers on queuosine, a vitamin‑like micronutrient we must borrow from food or friendly gut bacteria.
Tick Populations Are Booming Across the U.S. And Displaying ‘Alarming’ New Behavior
by Sophie Kaemmerle 23/6/25 Yahoo News
Summer is the thick of tick season. If you spend a lot of time outdoors during the warmer months, whether it’s in the backwoods or the backyard, you’ve probably taken your precautions. It turns out those precautions may be more important than ever, with tick populations not just exploding, but migrating. We’ll tell you what you need to know to protect yourself and your loved ones. Also in today’s news digest: hurricane season’s false start, the year’s first heat wave, and IKEA’s surprise closings.
Health Care-Environmental Factors
Myth-busting study shows controversial seed oils reduce inflammation
by American Society for Nutrition 21/6/25 ScienceDaily
A new study is turning heads by challenging the popular belief that seed oils are harmful to health. Researchers analyzed blood markers from nearly 1,900 people and found that higher levels of linoleic acid — an omega-6 fat commonly found in seed oils — were linked to lower inflammation and better cardiometabolic health. The study used direct biomarkers instead of diet surveys, making its findings more robust. These results support a growing body of evidence that seed oils, far from fueling disease, may actually help protect against heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
It's Time to End the Presidency
This is not, of course, a novel opinion. Political scientists have been saying for as long as I can remember, certainly since I was taking poly sci classes in college, that presidential systems are failures waiting to happen. There is a reason that the US government, when setting up new “democracies” almost never uses the presidential model — it is simply too broken to support a democracy.
Assyrian swimmers: 2,900-year-old carving of soldiers using inflatable goat skins to cross a river
by Kristina Killgrove 23/6/25 LIVESCIENCE
This carved relief from Nimrud, a major city of the ancient Assyrian Empire in present-day Iraq, regularly drifts around the internet as purported evidence for scuba diving nearly 3,000 years ago. But the wall panel actually depicts an army crossing a river, and soldiers are navigating the waves with the help of ancient flotation devices.
Is a monster web of ocean currents headed for collapse? The race is on to find out
by Tim Kalvelage 18/6/25 nature
Although it doesn’t look like it, the Arctic waters are balmy in February, relative to the air temperatures, which can fall below −30 °C. On the screen of Stephens’s remote control, the pancake-shaped floes show up in the thermal images as dark circles, whereas open water and thin ice glow bright orange, indicating energy escaping from the ocean into the frigid polar air.
Trends in Genetics
by Rosa S. Gisladottir 18/6/25 Science Direct
The last decade has seen an explosion in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on almost any imaginable phenotype. Unfortunately, humanity’s most distinctive trait – communication, broadly construed – has been underserved. In this forum article I review recent advances and promising avenues that may help us understand the genetics and evolution of human communication.
Microbial BMAA and the Pathway for Parkinson’s Disease Neurodegeneration
by Daniela Nunes 6/2/20 frontiers
Microbial metabolism is an endless source of compounds with diverse biological activities ranging from vitamins to toxins, with a tremendous impact on human health and disease. The neurotoxin β-N-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA) is an example of a microbial compound to which humans are differently exposed but whose health impacts are still not fully understood, even though current evidence points to an association between BMAA exposure and susceptibility to neurogenerative diseases.
We Saw Medicaid Work Requirements Up Close. You Don’t Want This Chaos.
by Erik Carter 8/6/25 The New York Times
Many of the Republicans pushing for Medicaid work requirements — permanent program cuts that will strip up to 14 million people of their health care coverage — likely have no idea what it takes to comply with them.
Analysis: Ranked choice voting gave New Yorkers more choice, more voice
Last week, New Yorkers used ranked choice voting (RCV) to choose nominees for mayor, City Council, and other offices. Today, the New York City Board of Elections released preliminary ranked choice results, and SurveyUSA released an exit poll on voters’ attitudes toward RCV.
Trump's DOJ Wants To Strip Citizenship From More Americans
A staggering Justice Department memo reveals that the Trump administration intends to ramp up denaturalizations — and broaden the criteria that’s used to determine if a naturalized citizen’s citizenship could be stripped away.
Severe weather hits the US hard as key forecast offices reel from Trump cuts
by Eric Holthaus 1/6/25 The Guardian
A brutal stretch of severe weather has taxed communities on the eastern fringes of tornado alley this spring and early summer, while harsh staffing cuts and budget restrictions have forced federal meteorologists to attempt to forecast the carnage with less data.
When Wind Turbines Become Underwater Forests: America's Accidental Marine Revolution
by Chris Buxton 30/6/25 DAILY KOS
Captain Hank Hewitt moved to Block Island for the fishing, not the renewable energy. When America's first offshore wind farm was still being discussed, he wasn't sure how five 600-foot turbines would affect the fish he'd been chasing since he was five years old. Then the turbines went up in 2016, and Hewitt discovered something unexpected: paradise.
Environment-Habitat Preservation
Doubt over climate science is a product with an industry behind it
by Graham Readfearn 5/3/15 The Guardian
This product is doubt - doubt about the causes and impacts of climate change, the impartiality of climate scientists, the world’s temperature records, the height of the oceans and basic atmospheric physics. There’s doubt too about the “agenda” of policy makers and government environment agencies and a continued attempt to politicise climate science as “leftist”.
Inside a plan to use AI to amplify doubts about the dangers of pollutants
by Dharna Noor 27/6/25 The Guardian
Louis Anthony “Tony” Cox Jr, a Denver-based risk analyst and former Trump adviser who once reportedly claimed there is no proof that cleaning air saves lives, is developing an AI application to scan academic research for what he sees as the false conflation of correlation with causation.
Environment-Water and Air Quality
New Climate Study Highlights Dire Sea Level Warnings
by Bob Berwyn 13/6/25 Inside Climate News
Due to regional variations, sea level would rise twice that much in some tropical areas, causing misery for millions of people living in low-lying coastal zones, including islands like the Maldives, in the Indian Ocean, which would be completely swamped by 6 feet of sea level rise.
In California’s largest landback deal, the Yurok Tribe reclaims sacred land around Klamath River
by Anita Hofschneider 5/6/25 Grist
More than 17,000 acres around the Klamath River in Northern California, including the lower Blue Creek watershed, have returned to the Yurok Tribe, completing the largest landback deal in California history.
Environment-Habitat Preservation
Researchers find 3-million-year-old tools in Kenya, showing development of human ancestors
by Kerry Breen 4/1/25 CBS NEWS
The Homa Peninsula, in Kenya, is part of the East African Rift Valley, a part of the world often called "the cradle of humankind." So many of the oldest clues about humanity's earliest days have been preserved under the valley's fertile, human soil, including the remains of "Lucy," an ancient human relative who lived more than 3 million years ago.
Shelling Acorns
by Daniel Bieber 2024 The Nature Place
The most challenging part of processing acorns is the shelling. It can be monotonous and time consuming, so over the years I have looked for more efficient methods of removing the nutmeats.
Britain’s net zero economy is booming, CBI says
by Damian Carrington 24/2/25 The Guardian
The analysis, by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), found that 22,000 net zero businesses, from renewable energy to green finance, employ almost a million people in full-time jobs. The average annual wage in the businesses – £43,000 – was also £5,600 higher than the national average.
I was an independent observer in the Greenpeace trial. What I saw was shocking
by Steven Donziger 28/3/25 The Guardian
The North Dakota case is so deeply flawed – at its core, the trial was really about crushing dissent – that I believe there is a good chance it will be reversed on appeal and ultimately backfire against the Energy Transfer pipeline company.
‘People were repressed into silence’: the Spanish artist creating a visual memory of fascism’s horrors
by Sam Jones 5/6/25 The Guardian
Roca, whose comics have explored such varied themes as Francoist reprisals, the exiled Spanish republicans who helped liberate Paris from the Nazis, family histories and the depredations of Alzheimer’s, is the subject of a new show at the Instituto Cervantes called Memory: An Emotional Journey Through the Comics of Paco Roca.
Major report joins dots between world's nature challenges
Climate change, nature loss and food insecurity are all inextricably linked and dealing with them as separate issues won't work, a major report has warned.
Giganto, largest ever primate, died out due to diet change, say scientists
by Nicola Davis 10/1/24 The Guardian
Now researchers say the enormous ape was victim of an unfortunate choice of food when its preferred snacks became scarce.
The internet is in decline – it needs rewilding
by John Naughton 4/5/24 The Guardian
Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist, had come up with the idea for a “world wide web” as a way of locating and accessing documents that were scattered all over the internet. With a small group of colleagues he envisaged, designed and implemented it in the late 1980s and eventually put the whole thing – protocols, server and browser software, HTML specification, etc. – on one of Cern’s internet servers, and in doing so changed the world.
There is something wrong at the New York Times
by Lucian K> Truscott IV 5/3/24 Salon
Two things — check that, three things — appear to have gone off the rails at the paper we used to call the Gray Lady. First, whoever is in charge of the paper’s polls is not doing their job. Second, whoever is choosing what to emphasize in Times coverage of the campaign for the presidency is showing bias. Third, the Times is obsessed with Joe Biden’s age at the same time they’re leaving evidence of Donald Trump’s mental and verbal stumbles completely out of the news.
Book Review: How Oak Trees Warn Us about the Limits of Adapting to Climate Change
by Dana Dunham 19/11/24 SCI AM
In many parts of the world, if you take a walk in the woods, you are likely to encounter an oak tree. With 425 species worldwide, their collective abundance may lead one to believe these trees are somewhat unremarkable—a fixture we take for granted. But Andrew L. Hipp, a botanist and research director at the Morton Arboretum in Illinois, reveals that oaks are a dynamic and essential part of the forest.
A beautiful, broken America: what I learned on a 2,800-mile bus ride from Detroit to LA
by Joanna Pocock 26/7/23 The Guardian
Historically, chroniclers of the road have travelled by car – intrepid individuals in charge of their destinies. They also tend to be male. The only book I could find by a woman about crossing the US was America Day by Day by Simone de Beauvoir. It is also the only Great American Road Trip book that features Greyhound bus travel. Simone became my companion on the road.
Is America’s oldest Chinese restaurant in a tiny suburb of Sacramento? Historians investigate
by Clair Wang 2/5/24 The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/may/02/oldest-chinese-american-restaurant-chicago-cafe
Antioxidants in fruits and flowers seem to counteract harmful effects of microplastics, study shows
by Tom Perkins 24/2/25 The Guardian
Antioxidants that give fruits and flowers their vibrant colors seem to counteract some of the most dangerous reproductive-system effects of exposure to microplastics, such as decreased fertility, and could ultimately be used in developing treatments, new peer-reviewed research shows.
‘It was an accident’: the scientists who have turned humid air into renewable power
by Ned Carter Miles 2/7/23 The Guardian
In May, a team at the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Amherst published a paper declaring they had successfully generated a small but continuous electric current from humidity in the air. It’s a claim that will probably raise a few eyebrows, and when the team made the discovery that inspired this new research in 2018, it did.
PFAS levels in ground and air could be higher than expected, research suggests
by Tom Perkins 26/5/23 The Guardian
Background levels of toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” in the ground and air may be much higher than previously thought, federal testing of spatially random soil samples from across New Hampshire suggests.
What is a mass extinction, and why do scientists think we’re in the middle of one?
No species lasts forever — extinction is part of the evolution of life.
But at least five times, a biological catastrophe has engulfed the planet, killing off the vast majority of species from water and land over a relatively short geological interval.
Conservatives aim to restructure U.S. government and replace it with Trump’s vision
by Lisa Mascaro 29/8/23 PBS NEWS
WASHINGTON (AP) — With more than a year to go before the 2024 election, a constellation of conservative organizations is preparing for a possible second White House term for Donald Trump, recruiting thousands of Americans to come to Washington on a mission to dismantle the federal government and replace it with a vision closer to his own.
How to Frame an I-Joist Roof
by Andrew Steele 7/22 Fine Homebuilding
There are many choices for roof framing: dimensional lumber, trusses, or engineered lumber such as laminated veneer lumber (LVL) and I-joists. All have advantages and drawbacks. On a recent project, an accessory dwelling behind an in-town bungalow, I was tasked with building a 16-ft. clear-span monoslope roof with a soaring cathedral ceiling on the underside. The logical choice was to use 14-in. I-joist rafters.
Surprising Link Between Menthol And Alzheimer's Discovered in Mice
by David Nield 30/1/25 Science alert
A study found something strange in 2023: When mice with Alzheimer's disease inhale menthol, their cognitive abilities improve.
It seems the chemical compound can stop some of the damage done to the brain that's usually associated with the disease.
Republicans make wild claims about the dangers of immigration. Here’s the truth
by Robert Reich 12/1/24 The Guardian
Trumpist Republicans are using the surge of illegal immigration at the southern border of the US, as well as a surge of migrants seeking legal asylum, to threaten a government shutdown and no added funds for Ukraine.
First, Murdoch papers targeted me. Now there is evidence they falsely implicated me in a cover-up
by Gordon Brown 31/7/24 The Guardian
Lewis and Robert Winnett, who was appointed by Lewis as editor of the Washington Post before quickly deciding not to take the job, are accused of benefiting from private investigators who broke the law.
Trump funding cuts ripple through rural America
by P.J. Huffstutter 29/3/25 Reuters
RAINELLE, W.V., March 29 (Reuters) - The phone rang over the whine of Trey Yates' butter churn. The person calling was polite, but the message was devastating: Mountaineer Food Bank was ending Yates' butter contract, due to the federal government's funding cuts.
Health Care-Environmental Factors Solutions
Perfect solar system' found in search for alien life
Researchers have located "the perfect solar system", forged without the violent collisions that made our own a hotchpotch of different-sized planets.
Buoyancy-driven hybrid energy platform moves to full-scale pilot
by Loz Blain 8/10/24 NEW ATLAS
Swedish company NoviOcean has tested a third-gen prototype of its combination wind/solar/wave energy platform, a floating platform rated for up to 1 megawatt of consistent clean energy around the clock thanks to a fascinating buoyancy-driven mechanism. Next step: a full-scale pilot.
While U.S. church attendance has dropped, prosperity gospel has risen—with a brutal take on poverty===== by Charles Jay 28/9/23 DAILY KOS
In the New Testament, Jesus Christ threw the moneychangers out of the Temple in Jerusalem, accusing them of turning it into “a den of robbers.” And he made his views about the rich and poor very clear in numerous passages
The bacteria that can capture carbon
by Isabelle Gerretsen 29/8/23 BBC
Scientists have recently discovered a microbe, a type of cyanobacteria, off the coast of a volcanic island near Sicily that eats carbon dioxide (CO2) "astonishingly quickly".
New maps show where snowfall is disappearing
Climate scientists say the future of snowfall is pretty clear: A warmer world driven by human pollution means precipitation is more likely to fall as rain than snow, all else being equal.
We are damned fools’: scientist who sounded climate alarm in 80s warns of worse to come
by Oliver Milman 19/7/23 The Guardian
The world is shifting towards a superheated climate not seen in the past 1m years, prior to human existence, because “we are damned fools” for not acting upon warnings over the climate crisis, according to James Hansen, the US scientist who alerted the world to the greenhouse effect in the 1980s.
The Trump administration has shut down more than 100 climate studies
by James Temple 2/6/25 MIT Technology Review
The Trump administration has terminated National Science Foundation grants for more than 100 research projects related to climate change amid a widening campaign to slash federal funding for scientists and institutions studying the rising risks of a warming world.
Glaciers will keep melting for centuries even if warming stops, study warns
by Stuti Mishra 3/6/25 INDEPENDENT
About 40 per cent of the world's glacier mass is already set to disappear due to past greenhouse gas emissions. The ongoing loss not only contributes to sea-level rise but also threatens freshwater supplies and increases the risk of natural hazards in mountainous regions.
The internet is in decline – it needs rewilding
by John Naughton 4/5/24 The Guardian
Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist, had come up with the idea for a “world wide web” as a way of locating and accessing documents that were scattered all over the internet. With a small group of colleagues he envisaged, designed and implemented it in the late 1980s and eventually put the whole thing – protocols, server and browser software, HTML specification, etc. – on one of Cern’s internet servers, and in doing so changed the world.
Can multivitamins improve memory? A new study shows 'intriguing' results
A team of researchers wanted to assess how a daily multivitamin may influence cognitive aging and memory. They tracked about 3,500 older adults who were enrolled in a randomized controlled trial. One group of participants took a placebo, and another group took a Silver Centrum multivitamin, for three years. The participants also took tests, administered online, to evaluate memory.
‘It was an accident’: the scientists who have turned humid air into renewable power
In the early 20th century, Serbian inventor Nikola Tesla dreamed of pulling limitless free electricity from the air around us. Ever ambitious, Tesla was thinking on a vast scale, effectively looking at the Earth and upper atmosphere as two ends of an enormous battery. Needless to say, his dreams were never realised, but the promise of air-derived electricity – hygroelectricity – is now capturing researchers’ imaginations again. The difference: they’re not thinking big, but very, very small.
The 'Game-Changing' Technology The Nuclear Industry Is Betting On For A Revival
by Alexander C.Kaufman 31/7/23 HUFFPOST
CAMDEN, N.J. ― On a bright, humid afternoon last September, Allen Hickman made the rounds on the floor of a factory that embodies the past, present and future of the nation’s atomic energy industry perhaps more than any other site in the United States.
Some ultra-processed foods are good for your health, WHO-backed study finds
Some ultra-processed foods increase the risk of developing cancer, heart disease and diabetes – but others are good for you, new research into the demonised foodstuffs suggests.
Mercury exposure linked to high youth suicides in Canada First Nation
by Leyland Gecco 20/7/23 The Guardian
Researchers who studied three generations of mothers and their children from the community of Grassy Narrows, Ontario, have concluded that sustained exposure to the toxic metal helped cause a suicide rate three times higher than any other First Nations community – which are already far higher than among the country’s general population.
Could kinder, gentler fracking create a breakthrough in geothermal power?
by Mark Sumner 23/7/23 DAILY KOS
Hydro power is often mentioned, but only in the sense that while it plays a significant role in the current energy portfolio, there are few options for expansion. While wind and solar have been racing up, hydroelectric production has declined.
The Mekong is slowly dying
A warming world and hydropower dams are destroying one of the world’s richest ecosystems - and threatening the millions of people who rely on it.
The circus that bought a tiny California town: ‘We’re creating our own Disneyland’
by Amanda Ulrich 11/24/24 The Guardian
rom 10 miles out, the tiny town of Nipton suddenly appears in the middle distance like a mirage: a huddle of lush eucalyptus trees in an otherwise impossibly vast, barren expanse of the California desert.
How to harvest water from clouds of fog
by Kat Lonsdorf Claire Harbage 10/06/23 NPR
This September morning, the air is cool. Murungi's wearing a wool hat and a maroon fleece, long pants and tall rubber boots. But the sun — strong at the equator — will soon warm the area. When the ground heats up during the day, its moisture evaporates into the air. Then when the night brings cooler temperatures, that moisture condenses, forming a fog of water droplets that Murungi and his wife collect.
Three independent studies say that blood platelet factor PF4 prevents and reverses cognitive decline
Although the percentage of older people with dementia is thankfully decreasing, from 13% to 10% in those over 70 from 2011-2019, the absolute number of people with dementia is actually increasing. That’s because the share of the U.S. population that is 65 and over ballooned by 38.6% from 2010-2020, in large part due to baby boomers (shown in dark blue below) crossing the 65-year mark. They’ll keep on doing that until 2031, so the 65+ population will continue to grow quickly until then.
It’s absolutely guaranteed’: the best and worst case scenarios for sea level rise
by Karen McVeigh 6/26/23 the Guardian
It is accelerating, too: the ocean rose more than twice as fast (4.62mm a year) in the most recent decade (2013-22) than it did in 1993-2002, the first decade of satellite measurements, when the rate was 2.77mm a year. Last year was a new high, according to the World Meteorological Organization. It is no coincidence that the past eight years were the warmest on record.
What Happens When You Tax Billionaires at 90 Percent?
by Thomhartmann 3/6/23 Daily KOS
“Succession” is over, but spoiled, entitled billionaire man-children are still very much with us, running social media companies, owning newspapers and television networks, and funding politicians and judges who then keep their taxes low and regulations minimal.
How the far right tore apart one of the best tools to fight voter fraud
On a night in January 2022, Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin stepped on stage in a former airbase in Houma, La.
With American flags draped from the stage, the topic of the night was democracy.
Defense arguments are set to open in a landmark climate case brought by Montana youth
Sixteen young Montana plaintiffs are suing state leaders in Helena, saying they've ignored scientific evidence and continue to promote fossil fuels, worsening climate change. They say that violates their right to a "clean and healthful environment," which Montana's constitution guarantees.
A Major Polling Company Is Throwing Its Weight Behind Huge Conspiracy Theories
by Matt Shuham 14/7/23 HUFFPOST
Kari Lake had lost Arizona’s 2022 governor’s race by thousands of votes, falsely declared that she’d been robbed, and was trying to overturn the election results in court when, finally, she was declared the winner of the race in March.
A beautiful, broken America: what I learned on a 2,800-mile bus ride from Detroit to LA
by Joanna Pocock 26/7/23 The Guardian
Historically, chroniclers of the road have travelled by car – intrepid individuals in charge of their destinies. They also tend to be male. The only book I could find by a woman about crossing the US was America Day by Day by Simone de Beauvoir. It is also the only Great American Road Trip book that features Greyhound bus travel. Simone became my companion on the road.
‘This way of farming is really sexy’: the rise of regenerative agriculture
by Alexandra Topping 14/8/23 The Guardian
Hollie Fallick looks over Brading on the Isle of Wight, at a patchwork of fields bordered by ancient oaks, which stretches to the Solent. “We still have to pinch ourselves every day,” says the 30-year-old, as she surveys the 50 hectares (125 acres) she farms with her best friend, Francesca Cooper, 34.
Five geoengineering trials the UK is funding to combat global warming
by Robert Chris 3/6/25 The Conversation
The UK government recently announced plans to fund five small-scale trials related to geoengineering. It’s the first time a state research funding body has put serious money into what’s known as solar radiation management, or SRM, which seeks to cool the planet by reflecting more of the Sun’s energy back into space.
Profound Paradigm Shift in Cellular Biology – DNA Damage Repaired by Antioxidant Enzymes
by CENTER FOR GENOMIC REGULATION 6/7/23 sciTechDaily
The human nucleus is metabolically active, according to the findings of a new study in Molecular Systems Biology by researchers at the CRG in Barcelona and CeMM/Medical University of Vienna.
A popular, but noxious, piping fix is sickening people. And it's throughout America's sewers.
by Emily Le Coz & Monique O.Madan 30/3/23 USA TODAY
A strong, epoxy-like odor that nauseated her and dozens of classmates and teachers at Spooner Middle School in Wisconsin. By the time they evacuated, Kaylie was feeling lightheaded. She passed out and was rushed to the hospital by ambulance.
How to improve US cities and tackle the climate crisis? Get rid of parking spaces
by Danielle Renwick 26/5/23 The Guardian
What could New York achieve if it repurposed some of its 3m curbside parking spots?
It could get rid of rats by moving trash off the sidewalks and into containers. It could create safe, cool play spaces for the more than 1m New Yorkers without easy park access. It could build bioswales to collect rainwater and prevent flooding during heavy storms.
Calculating the amount companies owe for causing global warming
Prior research has found that it is possible to tie certain environmental events to climate change—the current heat wave in parts of South Asia, for example, or excessive flooding in Myanmar and Bangladesh. As it stands now, governments wind up paying to restore order in such areas, or in some cases, insurance companies pay for those who have coverage.
Earth Matters: James Hansen warned us about climate change 35 years ago this month
by Staff Emeritus 1/6/23 DAILY KOS
“The present observed global warming is close to 0.4 degrees C [0.72 F], relative to ‘climatology,’ which is defined as the thirty-year (1951–1980) mean. A warming of 0.4 degrees C is three times larger than the standard deviation of annual mean temperatures in the 30-year climatology. The standard deviation of 0.13 degrees C i[0.23 F] is a typical amount by which the global temperature fluctuates annually about its 30-year mean; the probability of a chance warming of three standard deviations is about 1 percent. Thus, we can state with about 99 percent confidence that current temperatures represent a real warming trend rather than a chance fluctuation over the 30-year period.”—James Hansen testifying to the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on June 23, 1988.
Experience exceeds awareness of anthropogenic climate change in Greenland
Although Greenland is a hub for climate science, the climate perceptions of Greenland’s predominantly Indigenous population have remained largely unstudied. Here we present two nationally representative surveys and show that Greenlanders are more likely than residents of top oil-producing Arctic countries to perceive that climate change is happening and about twice as likely to have personally experienced its effects. However, half are unaware that climate change is human-caused and those who are most affected appear to be least aware.
Hygroelectricity -- Nikola Tesla's Dream Reimagined?
by Irontortoise 6/7/23 DAILY KOS
In May, a team at the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Amherst published a paper declaring they had successfully generated a small but continuous electric current from humidity in the air…
‘Double agents’: fossil-fuel lobbyists work for US groups trying to fight climate crisis
by Oliver Milman 5/7/23 The Guardian
More than 1,500 lobbyists in the US are working on behalf of fossil-fuel companies while at the same time representing hundreds of liberal-run cities, universities, technology companies and environmental groups that say they are tackling the climate crisis, the Guardian can reveal.
Understanding the role of the sun in climate change
by Nicola Scafetta 6/7/23 PHYS ORG
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) supports the latter view and estimates that almost 100% of the observed warming of the Earth's surface from 1850–1900 to 2020 was caused by man-made emissions. This is known as the anthropogenic global warming (AGWT) theory.
Should I worry about ticks?
by Joel Snape 16/7/23 The Guardian
As arachnid superorders go, ticks are pretty evolutionarily successful. They’ve been around for at least 100 million years in one variety or another, with their main party trick – hanging around until they can latch a host to feed on – working on thousands of different animals across almost endless environments. But how concerned should you be about them in the UK? You won’t miss the blood they take, but they can cause a variety of unpleasant conditions in their hosts – and there’s some evidence that their population is growing.
As darkness descends on Gaza, I yearn for the world to see us, too
In Gaza, we have all been glued to the news for the last five days, watching in disbelief as strikes and counterstrikes have been exchanged and the death counts on both sides of the border mount. While every round of violence starts differently, they all end the same way here: with Palestinians paying a heavy price. We live in perpetual anticipation of a tragic ending.
Racism at heart of US failure to tackle deadly heatwaves, expert warns
by Nina Lakhani 6/8/23 The Guardian
Racism is at the heart of the American government’s failure to tackle the growing threat of deadly heatwaves, according to the author of an authoritative new book on the heating planet.
The Bruen Decision Is Not an "Originalist" Interpretation of the 2nd Amendment
by Old Rotohead 31/8/23 DAILY KOS
Self-proclaimed “originalists” tend to use their alleged doctrine as a fig leaf for enacting their prejudices. In addition to the subject of reproductive autonomy, that’s especially in evidence, it seems, with regard to the Second Amendment. The Supreme Court actually has a set of rules for legal interpretation which enshrines aversion of “originalism”:
Biden creates a new national monument near the Grand Canyon
President Biden designated a new national monument near the Grand Canyon on Tuesday. The move protects lands that are sacred to indigenous peoples and permanently bans new uranium mining claims in the area. It covers nearly 1 million acres.
Why Billionaires Fund Anti-Trans & Anti-Black-History Political Movements
by Thomnhartmann 16/8/23 DAILY KOS
Almost 12 percent of Americans, over 37 million of us, live in dire poverty. According to OECD numbers, while only 5 percent of Italians and 11 percent of Japanese workers toil in low-wage jobs, almost a quarter of Americans — 23 percent — work for wages that can’t support a normal lifestyle. (And low-income Japanese and Italians have free healthcare and college.)
Phoenix Roasts in Record-Breaking 110-Plus-Degree Heat, with No End in Sight
by Daniel Cusick 17/7/23 E&E News
Several million heat-tolerant Arizonans spent the weekend in air-conditioned semi-darkness, drawing their curtains shut as temperatures soared to nearly 120 degrees in one of America's largest metro areas.
Ready to cold plunge? We dive into the science to see if it's worth it
Your body's first reaction to a plunge in chilly water is the "cold shock" response. Your heart rate jumps. Stress hormones spike. You gasp suddenly, and may hyperventilate.
The 19th century sexual purity law that some want to revive
There has been a surprising and consistent theme in several of Kacsymaryk’s rulings: the Comstock Act, a 19th-century sexual purity law that has lain dormant for more than a century. Last spring, when Kacsmaryk ruled that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) never had the authority to approve mifepristone, a pill used in the standard protocol for medication abortion, which now accounts for more than half of abortions performed in the United States, he argued that the Comstock Act made it a federal crime to mail abortion pills.
Climate Change Breeds War in Africa
by Alan Singer 30/7/23 Daily KOS
Filippo Grandi, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, warns European nations that refugees from Sahel region will be moving north to escape violence, climate crises like droughts and floods, and food shortages.
Giganto, largest ever primate, died out due to diet change, say scientists
by Nicola Davis 10/01/24 The Guardian
Previous studies have shown giganto’s range decreased considerably by about 330,000 years ago, but unpicking the cause of its extinction has been a challenge as it was unclear when exactly it was wiped out.
Despite backlash, Masha Gessen says comparing Gaza to a Nazi-era ghetto is necessary
by Rachel Treisman, Leila Fadel 22/12/23 nrp
Israel's air-and-ground assault on Gaza has killed more than 20,000 people in the 10 weeks since the Hamas-led attack on Israel killed some 1,200 people and took more than 240 others hostage.
First, Murdoch papers targeted me. Now there is evidence they falsely implicated me in a cover-up
by Gordon Brown 31/7/24 The Guardian
Lewis and Robert Winnett, who was appointed by Lewis as editor of the Washington Post before quickly deciding not to take the job, are accused of benefiting from private investigators who broke the law. As these allegations surface, an “alternative truth” is being briefed that the Lewis team represents a nimble “no-holds-barred” British journalism, in contrast to what is alleged to have been the plodding, loss-making reporting of newspapers such as the recent Washington Post. It is Lewis’s claim that he can turn round the fortunes of the publication, which lost $77m last year, that appears to have endeared him to the Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, who is the paper’s owner. But as recent revelations demonstrate, the real dividing line is not between the disrupter and an entrenched resistance to change, but between ethics and the lack of them.
US businessman is wannabe ‘warlord’ of secretive far-right men’s network
by Jason Wilson 22/8/23 The Guardian
The founder and sponsor of a far-right network of secretive, men-only, invitation-only fraternal lodges in the US is a former industrialist who has frequently speculated about his future as a warlord after the collapse of America, a Guardian investigation has found.
California shores up beaver protection in nod to their ‘ecological benefit’
by Guardian staff and agencies 26/7/23 The Guardian
California is embracing beavers and the role they play in the ecosystem after years of viewing the animals as a nuisance for chewing down trees and blocking up streams.
Microplastic-eating plankton may be worsening crisis in oceans, say scientists
by Karen McVeigh 9/11/23 The Guardian
A type of zooplankton found in marine and fresh water can ingest and break down microplastics, scientists have discovered. But rather than providing a solution to the threat plastics pose to aquatic life, the tiny creatures known as rotifers could be accelerating the risk by splitting the particles into thousands of smaller and potentially more dangerous nanoplastics.
Trump’s EPA aims to cut pollution rules projected to save nearly 200,000 lives: ‘People will be hurt’
by Oliver Milman and Dharna Noor 19/3/25 The Guardian
A push by Donald Trump’s administration to repeal a barrage of clean air and water regulations may deal a severe blow to US public health, with a Guardian analysis finding that the targeted rules were set to save the lives of nearly 200,000 people in the years ahead.
New maps show where snowfall is disappearing
Snowfall is declining globally as temperatures warm because of human-caused climate change, a new analysis and maps from a NOAA climate scientist show.
Just add sugar: Research shows common antioxidant can be more beneficial through glycosylation
by Sydney Dahle 14/5/23 PHYS ORG
Polyphenols are a class of compounds found in many plant-based foods. Polyphenols help prevent cellular damage in the body and can help to prevent diseases such as cancer or heart disease. However, many of them do not dissolve in water, making it difficult to fully take advantage of their health benefits.
Vegan diet massively cuts environmental damage, study shows
by Damian Garrington 20/7/23 The Guardian
Eating a vegan diet massively reduces the damage to the environment caused by food production, the most comprehensive analysis to date has concluded.
The most famous extinction event in the planet’s history is happening again — in Santa Cruz
by Corinne Purtill 31/5/23 Los Angeles Times
The heat of impact generated massive fires that annihilated everything around them and sent colossal plumes of pollutants soaring into the atmosphere. Within a day or two, toxic clouds of pulverized rock, sulfate aerosols and wildfire soot had blanketed the planet, blocking all but a tiny fraction of the sun’s energy and bringing photosynthesis to a virtual halt for the only known time in history.
‘Wings’ on poles: Bill Gates-backed wind power tech promises 75% cheaper energy
by Jijo Malayil 30/5/25 Interesting Engineering
US-based firm Airloom Energy’s innovative renewable energy technology to maximize wind power’s potential has now gained significant backing from investors. The list also includes Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the innovation platform led by Microsoft founder Gates, and the state of Wyoming.
Trump funding cuts ripple through rural America
by P.J Huffstutter 29/03/25 Reuters
Trump's administration also rolled out cuts to other federal funding that has kept small agriculture businesses like Yates' Greenbrier Dairy churning.
‘Even a freeway is redeemable’: world’s largest wildlife crossing takes shape in Los Angeles
by Katharine Gammon 6/4/25 The Guardian
Above the whirring of 300,000 cars each day on Los Angeles’s 101 freeway, an ambitious project is taking shape. The Wallis Annenberg wildlife crossing is the largest wildlife bridge in the world at 210ft long and 174ft wide, and this week it’s had help taking shape: soil.
The doomsday vaults storing seeds, data and DNA to protect our future
by Ella Braidwood 19/11/23 The Guardian
Built in 2000, this seed bank is one of as many as 1,700 worldwide, otherwise known as ‘“doomsday vaults”: facilities intended to safeguard humanity in the event of civilisation’s collapse. It isn’t just about seeds – researchers are preserving everything from DNA to data, and even faeces. Should it all go wrong, these Noah’s Arks could provide the blueprints for our recovery.
Kitepower displays the ‘miracle of airborne energy’
On a farm field on the outskirts of Dirksland, a village in the western part of the Netherlands, there is a kite like no other. It spins in figures of eight, generating power out of the wind.
The king of dark money effectively controls the US supreme court now
by Joel Warner 1/06/23 The Guardian
Once again, the US supreme court has issued rulings triggering national uproar. This time, the court has ruled that universities’ race-conscious admission policies are unconstitutional, that businesses can deny services to LGBTQ+ customers, and that Joe Biden can’t move forward with his student loan forgiveness plan. And just like the justices’ decision last year to end federal abortion protections and other troubling Scotus developments this term, the court’s new decisions are all examples of how dark money reigns supreme.
China population decline accelerates as birthrate hits record low
by Helen Davidson 01/17/24 The Guardian
China’s population decline has accelerated, with a second year of record-low birthrates.
Antioxidants in fruits and flowers seem to counteract harmful effects of microplastics, study shows
By Tom Perkins 2/24/25 The Guardian
The paper focuses on microplastics’ reproductive toxicity and plant compounds called anthocyanins, which are widely found in nuts, fruits and vegetables. The new review of scientific literature on anthocyanins finds that the compounds are probably protective against a range of plastic-induced effects on hormones, reductions in testosterone and estrogen, decreased sperm counts, lower sperm quality, erectile dysfunction and ovarian damage.
The government will give homeowners $2,000 to buy kitchen-transforming stoves: 'Tons of power without … major home electrical upgrades'
Induction units, on the other hand, are totally gas-free. All they need is a plug on your wall since they run entirely on electricity and energy-efficient battery storage. This means they cook food faster and cheaper and keep your lungs healthier at the same time — a true win-win.
High rises made out of wood? What matters in whether ‘mass timber’ buildings are sustainable
by Brent Sohngen 12/11/24 The Conversation
Companies behind these “mass timber” projects say that wood is a lower-carbon alternative to steel or concrete and brings other benefits, such as faster construction time and lower cost than concrete and steel. Advocates say the wood materials, made of compressed layers of wood with glue, offer good fire safety as well.
Scientists say they’ve confirmed evidence that humans arrived in the Americas far earlier than previously thought
When the discovery of fossilized footprints made in what’s now New Mexico was made public in 2021, it was a bombshell moment for archaeology, seemingly rewriting a chapter of the human story. Now new research is offering further evidence of their significance.
Wind-powered cargo ship sets sail in a move to make shipping greener
The shipping industry produces more than one billion tons of carbon dioxide each year, accounting for nearly 3% of human-caused global emissions. In July, the sector pledged to reduce its planet-heating pollution to net zero “by or around 2050.” The use of wind is one way towards this. While it’s not a new concept (sailing ships date back more than 5,000 years) new wind assisted propulsion technologies have been making an appearance in recent years.
50 years ago on 9/11, Nixon and Kissinger killed Allende and Chile's Socialist Democracy
It’s hard to believe that Henry Kissinger is still alive. He is 100 years old now. For some reason, war criminals live to ripe old ages. Augusto Pinochet, the dictator who ruled Chile with a tyrannical iron fist for decades after the coup, lived to be 91. Kissinger and Nixon orchestrated the coup that killed Salvador Allende, the democratically elected President of Chile and replaced him with Pinochet, as declassified documents show, “Because Kissinger thought that Allende’s 'model' effect can be insidious."
For 50 years I’ve let friends and strangers share my house – this kind of communal living can make for better lives for all
by Lynne Segal 11/11/23 The Guardian
It’s more than half a century since I first set foot in Heathrow from Sydney, in my mid-20s, clutching my 14-month-old baby in one hand and what little remained of my luggage in the other. My large suitcase, stuffed with books and clothes, had vanished at a stopover at Colombo airport in Sri Lanka, where I narrowly avoided arrest as my infant son had startlingly managed to push an empty trolley into the glass duty-free shop, smashing part of it. I was surrounded by a hubbub of people and noise, and one man in khaki uniform who kept sidling up to me saying quietly, “Get on to the plane.” Slowly, I separated myself from those surrounding me and did just that. Twelve hours later, I landed in London, exhausted and bewildered.
PFAS levels in ground and air could be higher than expected, research suggests
by Tom Perkins 6/26/23 The Guardian
Background levels of toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” in the ground and air may be much higher than previously thought, federal testing of spatially random soil samples from across New Hampshire suggests.
Could Vienna’s approach to affordable housing work in California?
by Kristy Lang 4/30/24 The Guardian
In the past two years, at least four delegations of housing experts and political leaders from California have visited the Austrian capital, hoping to unlock the secrets of why Vienna regularly comes top in surveys of the world’s most livable cities.
Neuroscientists link low self-awareness to stronger brain reactions to moralized issues
by Eric W. Dolan PsyPost 4/01/25
A new study published in the journal Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience reveals that people who hold strong moral convictions about political issues make decisions more quickly—but that these choices are shaped by both emotional brain responses and metacognitive ability. The research shows that moral conviction activates specific brain regions involved in emotion and cognitive control, and that people with lower self-awareness about their own decision accuracy show stronger brain responses to morally charged political issues.
Financial models on climate risk ‘implausible’, say actuaries
by Camilla Hodgson Financial Times 7/03/23
Financial institutions often did not understand the models they were using to predict the economic cost of climate change and were underestimating the risks of temperature rises, research led by a professional body of actuaries shows.
How tariffs supercharge home construction costs.
by Greg from Vermont 12/25/24 DailyKos
Canadian softwood lumber and plywood products are used widely across the country and dominate the New England market. The framing materials can be 30 to 50 percent of the cost of the house. The proposed tariff of 25 percent will be added directly to the cost of those elements. 1
Watch Out: Tornado Alley Is Migrating Eastward
by By Mark Fischetti, Matthew Twombly & Daniel P. Huffman 5/11/23 Scientific American
Although tornadoes touch down in many places across the eastern half of the country, from the 1950s through the 1990s they struck most often in Tornado Alley, an oval area centered on northeastern Texas and south-central Oklahoma. More recently, that focus has shifted eastward by 400 to 500 miles. In the past decade or so tornadoes have become prevalent in eastern Missouri and Arkansas, western Tennessee and Kentucky, and northern Mississippi and Alabama—a new region of concentrated storms.1
