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Month: April 2019

While the rich world braces for future climate change, the poor world is already being devastated by it

While the rich world braces for future climate change, the poor world is already being devastated by it

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CNN reports: “Upside down” are the only words Manush Albert Alben has to describe life after the powerful Cyclone Idai. Nearly two weeks since the powerful cyclone destroyed most of the city of Beira, Mozambique, it is a long way from normal. “There’s no money, no groceries,” Alben, a fisherman, said while sitting in his wooden pirogue on a local beach. “We are suffering but trying to hold on.” Known for its busy port and views of the Indian Ocean,…

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Insects have ‘no place to hide’ from climate change, study warns

Insects have ‘no place to hide’ from climate change, study warns

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The Guardian reports: Insects have “no place to hide” from climate change, scientists have warned, following an analysis of 50 years of UK data. The study showed that woodlands, whose shade was expected to protect species from warming temperatures, are being just as affected by climate change as open grasslands. The research examined the first springtime flights of butterflies, moths and aphids and the first eggs of birds between 1965 and 2012. As average temperatures have risen, aphids are now…

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Whistle-blower in White House informs Congress about serious breaches of national security at highest levels of Trump administration

Whistle-blower in White House informs Congress about serious breaches of national security at highest levels of Trump administration

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The New York Times reports: A whistle-blower working inside the White House has told a House committee that senior Trump administration officials granted security clearances to at least 25 individuals whose applications had been denied by career employees, the committee’s Democratic staff said Monday. The whistle-blower, Tricia Newbold, a manager in the White House’s Personnel Security Office, told the House Oversight and Reform Committee in a private interview last month that the 25 individuals included two current senior White House…

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Trump’s threat to cut off much of America’s food supply

Trump’s threat to cut off much of America’s food supply

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Reuters reports: President Donald Trump’s threat to shut down the U.S.-Mexico border would hit American consumers — in the gut. From avocado toast to margaritas, the United States is heavily reliant on Mexican imports of fruit, vegetables and alcohol to meet consumer demand. Nearly half of all imported U.S. vegetables and 40 percent of imported fruit are grown in Mexico, according to the latest data from the United States Department of Agriculture. Americans would run out of avocados in three…

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Trump laid a trap on immigration — and only Beto is avoiding it

Trump laid a trap on immigration — and only Beto is avoiding it

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Peter Beinart writes: Beto O’Rourke isn’t known for his wonkish heft. But in his formal announcement for president on Sunday, the former Texas congressman offered one of the most important policy proposals of the nascent presidential campaign: He argued that to solve America’s problems at the border, America’s leaders must “help people in Central America where they are.” In so doing, he began laying a foundation to effectively rebut Donald Trump on his signature issue: immigration. Every major Democratic presidential…

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Judge the attorney general by what he ultimately sends to Congress

Judge the attorney general by what he ultimately sends to Congress

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Benjamin Wittes writes: Here’s a radical idea: For the next two weeks, let’s give Attorney General William Barr the benefit of the doubt. I understand why so many people are suspicious of Barr and are lining up to denounce him—and there may well come a day, and it might come soon, when I will get in line and join them. Barr’s initial letter summarizing the top-line conclusions of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation allowed President Donald Trump to claim exoneration…

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Is methane in Mars’ atmosphere evidence of life?

Is methane in Mars’ atmosphere evidence of life?

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The New York Times reports: Methane gas periodically wafts into the atmosphere of Mars; that notion, once considered implausible and perplexing, is now widely accepted by planetary scientists. Why the methane is there is still a bewildering mystery. It may even point to present-day Martian microbes living in the rocks below the surface. In Nature Geoscience on Monday, scientists working with the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter reported that in the summer of 2013, the spacecraft detected methane within…

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