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Puffins are starving to death because of climate change

Puffins are starving to death because of climate change

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New Scientist reports: Hundreds of “severely emaciated” puffin carcasses have washed ashore on an Alaskan island, and researchers believe thousands more have died at sea as warming waters continue to shrink their food supply. Between October 2016 and January 2017, inhabitants of St Paul Island in the Bering sea found the starved bodies of more than 350 seabirds, primarily tufted puffins. Analysing the location of bird carcasses and wind data, Timothy Jones at the University of Washington in Seattle and…

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Fears grow that ‘nuclear coffin’ is leaking radioactive waste into the Pacific

Fears grow that ‘nuclear coffin’ is leaking radioactive waste into the Pacific

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Trevor Nace writes: The tropical blue skies over the southern Pacific Ocean were enveloped by towering mushroom clouds lingering over the Marshall Islands in 1954 as the United States continued its testing of nuclear weapons. The United States conducted 67 nuclear weapon tests from 1946 to 1958 on the pristine Marshall Islands. The most powerful test was the “Bravo” hydrogen bomb in 1954, which was about 1,000 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. The extensive nuclear…

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Influential panel votes to recognize Earth’s new epoch: The Anthropocene

Influential panel votes to recognize Earth’s new epoch: The Anthropocene

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Nature reports: A panel of scientists voted this week to designate a new geologic epoch — the Anthropocene — to mark the profound ways in which humans have altered the planet. That decision, by the 34-member Anthropocene Working Group (AWG), marks an important step towards formally defining a new slice of the geologic record — an idea that has generated intense debate within the scientific community over the past few years. The panel plans to submit a formal proposal for…

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‘Immigrants make Britain great’: Magid Magid’s unlikely journey to Green MEP

‘Immigrants make Britain great’: Magid Magid’s unlikely journey to Green MEP

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Magid Magid writes: I am honoured to have been elected as a Green party MEP. I can’t wait to get to work on behalf of all those who put their faith in me and in our movement’s vision of hope. We are truly building a common world, rooted in the aspirations of the young and set to deliver lasting change for all. On a personal level, I feel humbled by and grateful for the immense support I have received. Ten…

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John Bercow defies Eurosceptics with vow to stay on as Speaker in UK parliament

John Bercow defies Eurosceptics with vow to stay on as Speaker in UK parliament

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The Guardian reports: John Bercow has said he plans to stay in his post as Speaker of the House of Commons despite previous expectations he was about to leave, risking the fury of hardline Eurosceptics who believe he wants to thwart a no-deal Brexit. The Speaker told the Guardian it was not “sensible to vacate the chair” while there were major issues before parliament. And, amid growing indications that frontrunners for the Conservative leadership are willing to depart the EU…

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Romania’s most powerful politician is sent to prison for corruption

Romania’s most powerful politician is sent to prison for corruption

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The New York Times reports: Romania’s most powerful politician, Liviu Dragnea, was ordered on Monday to begin serving a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence for abuse of power, upending the political order in the East European country and handing a victory to those who view corruption as the chief threat to the health of the nation. The ruling by the Romanian Supreme Court, which declined to revisit a sentence handed down by a lower court in June 2018, is not subject to…

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The U.S. military is locked in a power struggle with wind farms

The U.S. military is locked in a power struggle with wind farms

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Wired reports: When Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Goana takes off in his T-38 Talon training jet, he flies a loop north toward the Red River, which forms a meandering border between north Texas and southern Oklahoma. For decades, the remote farming area has been an ideal training ground for Air Force pilots like Goana. But in recent years, he says, there’s been a new obstacle: wind turbines that now generate a third of Oklahoma’s electricity and 17 percent of the power…

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Elizabeth Warren gains ground in 2020 field, one plan at a time

Elizabeth Warren gains ground in 2020 field, one plan at a time

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The New York Times reports: To the crowd of Iowans gathered in a school gym on Saturday night, Senator Elizabeth Warren made a request: They should pose a question to the other presidential candidates who come to Iowa seeking their vote. “Ask them: Where do you get your money?” she said. “Are you getting it from a bunch of millionaires?” For Ms. Warren, the question highlighted one of the sharpest contrasts she has drawn with most of her top rivals…

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Trump’s convinced he knows the best way to design aircraft carriers

Trump’s convinced he knows the best way to design aircraft carriers

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Gizmodo reports: Donald Trump did a bizarre thing aboard the USS Wasp on Tuesday. After wishing the sailors “a very Happy Memorial Day,” the President conducted an impromptu poll, asking the crowd who preferred steam-powered catapult systems and who preferred electric. Steam won out in the poll, and now, Trump says he’s going to order old-fashioned steam catapults be installed on new American aircraft carriers. Trump evidently thinks the Navy is trying to innovate too much. The question of which…

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Trump administration hardens its assault on climate science

Trump administration hardens its assault on climate science

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The New York Times reports: President Trump has rolled back environmental regulations, pulled the United States out of the Paris climate accord, brushed aside dire predictions about the effects of climate change, and turned the term “global warming” into a punch line rather than a prognosis. Now, after two years spent unraveling the policies of his predecessors, Mr. Trump and his political appointees are launching a new assault. In the next few months, the White House will complete the rollback…

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Top GOP pollster finds overwhelming support for carbon tax by millennial Republicans

Top GOP pollster finds overwhelming support for carbon tax by millennial Republicans

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Joe Romm reports: A new survey finds Republicans under 40 support a carbon tax 7-to-1. And a remarkable 85% of Republican millennials are concerned that “the current Republican position on climate change is hurting the party with younger voters.” But what makes this result so striking is that the survey was conducted by Frank Luntz, a top GOP strategist and pollster. Luntz wrote an infamous memo in 2002 detailing the exact words conservatives should use if they want to sound…

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European trade policy seen going greener after EU parliament vote

European trade policy seen going greener after EU parliament vote

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Reuters reports: The rise of the Greens, the “Greta effect” of a young Swedish climate activist and the entry of French President Emmanuel Macron’s party into the European Parliament are likely to result in a more defensive and climate-oriented EU trade policy. Sunday’s European election saw the traditional conservative and socialist parties that have long run the European Union lose dozens of seats each. Between them, they can no longer form a majority, making them more reliant to pass European…

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The officials around Jeremy Corbyn who designed this electoral fiasco need to go

The officials around Jeremy Corbyn who designed this electoral fiasco need to go

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Paul Mason writes: [T]he officials who designed this fiasco, and ignored all evidence that it would lead to disaster, must be removed from positions of influence. They include Seumas Milne, director of strategy, and Karie Murphy, who is currently juggling the roles of Corbyn’s chief of staff and acting general secretary. With an electoral fiasco like this, the buck has to stop somewhere, and it must stop with them – together with Ian Lavery MP, the party chair, who twice…

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‘This is bigger’: Palestinian and Israeli teens strike together for the climate

‘This is bigger’: Palestinian and Israeli teens strike together for the climate

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Michael Bäcklund writes: The Israeli school strike branch had a very successful strike on Tuesday, which was three times bigger than the last one in March. It was the first sitting day of the new parliament. We had over 500 students marching and shouting slogans in front of the prestigious Knesset in Jerusalem. We had Arab Palestinians and Jewish Israelis participating together. We have multiplied our following on social media and we have started to plan social media campaign with…

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