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Can physicists rewrite the origin story of the universe?

Can physicists rewrite the origin story of the universe?

Jess Romeo writes: During a 2015 conference on theoretical cosmology at Princeton University, Roger Penrose, a pioneer in the field of mathematical physics, was asked to speak on a panel about the origin of the universe. For decades, the leading theory had been that, during roughly the first trillionth of a trillionth of a nanosecond following the Big Bang, there was a single period of extremely rapid expansion, known as inflation, that formed the universe we observe today. When it…

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Hello from the year 2050. We avoided a climate catastrophe — but everything is different

Hello from the year 2050. We avoided a climate catastrophe — but everything is different

Bill McKibben writes: Let’s imagine for a moment that we’ve reached the middle of the century. It’s 2050, and we have a moment to reflect—the climate fight remains the consuming battle of our age, but its most intense phase may be in our rearview mirror. And so we can look back to see how we might have managed to dramatically change our society and economy. We had no other choice. There was a point after 2020 when we began to…

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Americans increasingly see climate change as a crisis, poll shows

Americans increasingly see climate change as a crisis, poll shows

The Washington Post reports: A growing number of Americans describe climate change as a crisis, and two-thirds say President Trump is doing too little to tackle the problem. The results, from a poll conducted by The Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), point to a growing disconnect between Americans worried about the warming planet and Trump administration officials, who have aggressively scaled back Obama-era environmental regulations and relinquished the nation’s role as a global leader in pushing for…

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China is positioned to lead on climate change as the U.S. rolls back its policies

China is positioned to lead on climate change as the U.S. rolls back its policies

Smoke from a coal-fired Beijing power plant that closed in 2017 as part of China’s transition to cleaner energy. AP Photo/Andy Wong By Kelly Sims Gallagher, Tufts University and Fang Zhang, Tufts University As the effects of climate change become more widespread and alarming, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has called on nations to step up their plans for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Every country has a part to play, but if the world’s largest emitters fail to meet their commitments,…

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Deforestation gets worse, five years after countries and companies pledged to stop it

Deforestation gets worse, five years after countries and companies pledged to stop it

Georgina Gustin writes: Five years after joining in a historic commitment to stop cutting the world’s forests, governments and companies are not only failing to slow deforestation, they are rapidly driving the disappearance of more trees. As fires consume Amazonian forests, stoking global concern about the loss of a vital ecosystem and climate regulator, a new report published Thursday finds that forests continue to be cleared at an alarming rate, driven mostly by agricultural expansion and demand for beef, palm…

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With Trump in office, major newspapers increasingly quoted anti-immigrant groups without explaining who they were

With Trump in office, major newspapers increasingly quoted anti-immigrant groups without explaining who they were

The Intercept reports: The Center for Immigration Studies, a far-right, anti-immigrant group, was frequently cited by major U.S. newspapers in the first two years of Donald Trump’s presidency — without mention of the group’s deep ties to the Trump administration, according to a report released Thursday. Ninety percent of news articles in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and USA Today that cited the Center for Immigration Studies from 2014 to 2017 did not mention “the extremist…

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Wendell Berry’s lifelong dissent

Wendell Berry’s lifelong dissent

Jedediah Britton-Purdy writes: At a time when political conflict runs deep and erects high walls, the Kentucky essayist, novelist, and poet Wendell Berry maintains an arresting mix of admirers. Barack Obama awarded him the National Humanities Medal in 2011. The following year, the socialist-feminist writer and editor Sarah Leonard published a friendly interview with him in Dissent. Yet he also gets respectful attention in the pages of The American Conservative and First Things, a right-leaning, traditionalist Christian journal. More recently,…

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Why Netanyahu fears Arab voters

Why Netanyahu fears Arab voters

Yardena Schwartz writes: The giant yellow billboard near the Arab town of Nahef in northern Israel declares in Arabic, “This time, we are the decision-makers.” It is a reminder to the nearly 2 million Arab citizens of Israel that in this election, which will be held on September 17, they could decide Israel’s future as a democratic state. Their votes, should they choose to wield them, have the power to end the reign of Benjamin Netanyahu, now Israel’s longest-serving prime…

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How Greenland’s massive ice melt will totally transform the world

How Greenland’s massive ice melt will totally transform the world

  Channel 4 News: Remember that heatwave back in August? Well, the Arctic remembers it too. Record rates of ice melt have been recorded on the great ice-shelf of Greenland. It’s critical for all of us because of its potential effect on global sea levels. In the first of a series of special reports from Greenland, we examine the threat to the giant glaciers and to those whose lives depend upon the sea ice.

Trump administration rolls back clean water protections

Trump administration rolls back clean water protections

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration on Thursday announced the repeal of a major Obama-era clean water regulation that had placed limits on polluting chemicals that could be used near streams, wetlands and other bodies of water. The rollback of the 2015 measure, known as the Waters of the United States rule, adds to a lengthy list of environmental rules that the administration has worked to weaken or undo over the past two and a half years. Those…

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How giving legal rights to nature could help reduce toxic algae blooms in Lake Erie

How giving legal rights to nature could help reduce toxic algae blooms in Lake Erie

A severe blue-green algae bloom spreads across western Lake Erie on July 30, 2019. NASA Earth Observatory By Dana Zartner, University of San Francisco August and September are peak months for harmful blooms of algae in western Lake Erie. This year’s outbreak covered more than 620 square miles by mid-August. These blooms, which can kill fish and pets and threaten public health, are driven mainly by agricultural pollution and increasingly warm waters due to climate change. Advocates are looking for…

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Israel accused of planting surveillance devices near the White House to spy on Trump

Israel accused of planting surveillance devices near the White House to spy on Trump

Politico reports: The U.S. government concluded within the past two years that Israel was most likely behind the placement of cellphone surveillance devices that were found near the White House and other sensitive locations around Washington, according to three former senior U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter. But unlike most other occasions when flagrant incidents of foreign spying have been discovered on American soil, the Trump administration did not rebuke the Israeli government, and there were no consequences for…

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Trump skeptical of using foreign spies to collect intel on hostile countries, sources say

Trump skeptical of using foreign spies to collect intel on hostile countries, sources say

CNN reports: President Donald Trump has privately and repeatedly expressed opposition to the use of foreign intelligence from covert sources, including overseas spies who provide the US government with crucial information about hostile countries, according to multiple senior officials who served under Trump. Trump has privately said that foreign spies can damage relations with their host countries and undermine his personal relationships with their leaders, the sources said. The President “believes we shouldn’t be doing that to each other,” one…

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The Republican Party is doomed

The Republican Party is doomed

Stanley B. Greenberg writes: The 2020 election will be transformative like few in our history. It will end with the death of the Republican Party as we know it, leaving the survivors to begin the struggle to renew the party of Lincoln and make it relevant for our times. It will liberate the Democratic Party from the country’s suffocating polarization and allow it to use government to address the vast array of problems facing the nation. From listening to the…

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