Today's Climate #235
By Hank Silverberg
Today's climate? That title can be taken in several different ways. There's the political climate, which I write a lot about here, and we can only hope will improve somewhat. And then there's the actual climate of the planet, which is getting worse.
This week I noted a story about our water supply which could soon be a bigger, worldwide crises that far outweighs all the concern about fossil fuel.
A study published in The American Association for the Advancement of Science https://www.aaas.org/journals shows that half the largest lakes in the world are in decline because of climate change. About 53% of the lakes studied have experienced significant water loss over the past 28 years, amounting to one billion metric tons per year.
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| (The Aral Sea, courtesy of The Shipard) |
Lakes, both natural and manmade, make up only 3% of the world's surface but supply 57% of the drinking water.
The on-going battle over fossil fuels which has sparked wars and turmoil worldwide, may soon be replaced with a battle for water.
And things could get worse. The demand for water will go up with rising temperatures, and this past week the World Meteorological Organization released some data indicating we could soon surpass a major climate change threshold. There is a 66% chance in the next five years that world surface temperatures will exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels for the first time ever. That creates a 98% likely hood that one of the next five years will be the warmest on record.
This year the WMO says we can expect much more rain in Europe, Alaska and northern Siberia that could lead to flooding, while the Amazon and Central America will likely see less rainfall.
All this comes while the Arctic has already seen more than double the temperature rise compared to the rest of the planet, leading to record ice melts and some rise in the sea level.
The reason for this--greenhouse gases--the major cause of climate change. And NOAA reported that levels of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, all greenhouse gases, were pushed into "historically high rates of growth" in 2022, pushing them to "uncharted levels."
All this is not easy to brush aside. And it may partially explain the results of a poll detailed below.
Pandemic Aftermath Brings Reality?
Through much of the Covid-19 pandemic, right- wing politicians and the fanatics they spawned talked about conspiracies and fraud and attacked the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control. But now people may be partially coming back to their senses.
A new poll conducted by the BioTechnology
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| (Covid-19 virus) |
Other findings:
*92% agree that "the lessons learned from the last pandemic should be incorporated into our national preparedness efforts for the next public health emergency."
*90% agree that "the federal government should expand long-term preventive measures to help avoid any future pandemics (that means vaccines).
It's hard these days to get 90% of the public to agree on anything.
Two other findings in the poll:
More than two-thirds (71%) of the voters want federal funding increased for public health preparedness.
And 8-10 voters (77%) say they would more likely vote for a candidate who supports funding for such preparedness.
You may or may not remember that one of the first things Donald Trump did when he became president was to abolish a commission President Obama had working on just this kind of preparedness.
https://bio.news/federal-policy/voters-want-better-pandemic-preparedness/
Changing the Rules on Abortion?
After the U.S. Supreme Court stripped Roe v Wade from the books putting legal abortion up for questions again, the debate once again went back to each individual state to deal with. Some states tried to implement decades-old laws. Other state legislatures immediately put abortion on the ballot to allow the voters to decide either for some kind of restriction, making abortion totally illegal, or passing a State Constitutional Amendment making the right to choose permanent in their state.
Voters in six states sent clear messages last November. Voters in California, Michigan and Vermont added constitutional amendments, voters in Kansas, Kentucky and Montana rejected restrictions on abortions.
This year the anti-abortion groups are trying something new.
"supermajority" of 60%. In Missouri they are pushing a supermajority of 57% to pass any amendment. That's a highly unlikely scenario in today's political climate.
There are also efforts in several states (Ohio, Arkansas and South Dakota) to make it harder to get initiatives and referenda on any state ballot shutting out an abortion amendment and many other voter-initiated ideas.
It's clear that lawmakers, mostly Republicans in the current climate, are forgetting what their job is--representing the will of the majority of the people they represent--and not some reactionary ideology.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/abortion-rights-ballot-measures-gop-legislatures-try-to-change-rules/
Dumbest Quote of The Week!
For months, the GOP has been complaining about the politicization of the FBI and the Justice Department. And this past week Republican Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio used the Select Subcommittee he chairs to take a look at that. The committee heard from two suspended FBI agents and one former agent who claimed that their employer retaliated against them for speaking out about the Bureau. Jordan called them "whistleblowers," though they have never been given the official status of whistleblower as defined by law. During the hearing a question from New York Democrat Dan Goldman revealed that the witnesses were all being paid by Trump ally and adviser, Kash Patel.
That, of course, makes any of their testimony suspect. When reporters asked Jordan about this financial tie of his sources he said:
"They've got a family. How are they supposed to feed their family?"
One of the witnesses was suspended from the FBI for refusing to participate in the January 6th related case. All three have had their security clearances revoked. And now they are being paid by a Republican operative to tattle on the FBI.
You be the judge. Who is politicizing the Justice Department?
Jim Jordan's FBI Whistleblower Hearing Descends Into Chaos (newsweek.com)
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