Daily News 09/15

Daily News 09/15

Jessika Trancik, an MIT associate professor at the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, says this interplay of different factors makes it hard to compare these two gases directly. Climate scientists often think about the issue like this: Exactly how many tons of CO2 would it take to warm the Earth as much as one ton of methane?The trouble is that the answer changes depending on how far in the future you look. Let’s say a factory releases a ton of methane and a ton of CO2 into the atmosphere today. The methane immediately begins to trap a lot of heat—at least 100 times as much as the CO2. But the methane starts to break down and leave the atmosphere relatively quickly. As more time goes by, and as more of that original ton of methane disappears, the steady warming effect of the CO2 slowly closes the gap. Over 20 years, the methane would trap about 80 times as much heat as the CO2. Over 100 years, that original ton of methane would trap about 28 times as much heat as the ton of CO2. — Why do we compare methane to carbon dioxide over a 100-year timeframe? Are we underrating the importance of methane emissions?: Rapid Rise of Methane Las 26 Years

Capitalism’s Iron Heel: ‘There’s no question that the court’s record during the war on terror has strengthened the hand of our authoritarian president and weakened our own.’ — The ‘war on terror’ weakened the first amendment. Now we desperately need itOver the past quarter-century, the US supreme court has repeatedly failed to protect first amendment rights. We are suffering the consequences

“Please raise your right hand,” the president demanded of a crowd of thousands inside a Dallas arena. “I pledge to the greatest president in the history of the United States that loves us so much he can’t even breathe that I will go out with my family, my friends, I will do it anyway — I don’t care if I’m registered or not, I’m going to try and cheat like hell, like they do. I am going to go out, and I’m going to get my friends, my family, and we are going to vote on November 3, or we are going to vote before that.” — President Trump Wants to Give This Country A New Pledge of Allegiance

Viedeo: The Chris Hedges Report: Osama Bin Trump Our imperial overreach began 25 years ago with the War on Terror. It is being brought to a grim conclusion by Donald Trump’s war on Iran. Donald Trump, whose war on Iran is the greatest strategic blunder in United States history, is not responsible for triggering the decline of the American empire, but he is responsible for its fatal denouement. This is the end. Hundreds of U.S. bases in the oil-rich Persian Gulf have been damaged or destroyed and I expect will not be rebuilt. Our allies, even those in Europe, are abandoning us. The decadence and immorality of American society, embodied in the vulgarity, stupefying ignorance and cruelty of Trump, are the defining characteristics of the Empire. The Global South, horrified at the Empire’s flagrant disregard for international humanitarian law, including the enabling of genocide in Gaza, sees us as the enemy. Abu Ghraib Prison may have receded from our consciousness, but for the rest of the world, its images of U.S. soldiers and contractors sadistically humiliating and torturing imprisoned Iraqis has replaced the Disneyfied version of America we once exported. The war on Iran, which has disrupted the world’s oil supply, is rapidly pushing the global economy over the cliff.

Video: Trump Ballroom Takes DEADLY TurnThis is wild! trump no longer calls the intended ballroom a ballroom, he now sees it as National Security Military Complex and not the ballroom. In his 1900 word (no) truth social rant he states this argument that a woman walking her dog in the vicinity of the White House is standing to sub stop such a desperately needed national security structure? This rant is more deranged than the usual.

Video: “Shut This Sh*t Down”: Abby Martin PROVES AI Data Centers Are Secret Military Weapons

Think of the parable of a frog in boiling water. That’s us dithering as the ‘unprecedented‘ weather

US environment agency reportedly set to scrap power-plant pollution limits – live The ‘Energy Protection Agency’ also plans rule repealing federal finding that greenhouse gases from power ‌plants ⁠specifically pose a threat

Airplane Turbulence May Worsen Thanks to Trump Pilots depend on climate data from the National Center for Atmospheric Research to fly. The government wants to dismantle it.

Federal Court Rules Trump Admin Can’t Keep Aging Michigan Coal Plant Open The ruling is one of the first successful legal challenges to the administration’s use of “energy emergency” powers.

Ask a Scientist: How Can We Make Sure Environmental Rules Work in the Real World? Let’s say you live next to a highway, and you also get your drinking water from a municipal source that’s contaminated by “forever” chemicals. Your body wouldn’t process the polluted air independently of the polluted water you’re drinking; these pollutants would act together. Or let’s say you’re exposed to a hazardous chemical in your workplace: the effects of that exposure don’t clock out when your shift is done and you go home. Sources of environmental pollution are not evenly spaced, they don’t operate in isolation, and regular people are not exposed to just one pollutant at a time. Unfortunately, our environmental regulatory system doesn’t consider the effects of multiple pollutants, or risks from different sources, on our health. The study of these interactions, and how they can accumulate, is known as cumulative impacts analysis. And the US government only recently began working to update its guidance about exposure to pollution based on cumulative impacts.

Nicolás Maduro Is Not GuiltyVenezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is not guilty. This is a statement of law and fact, since Maduro has not been convicted of any crime. He has pleaded not guilty to every charge brought against him, and the accusations made by the United States remain precisely that: accusations. Under the presumption of innocence – recognized in the United States Constitution and in Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights – the burden rests entirely upon the prosecution to prove guilt. It is not Maduro who must prove his innocence, but it is the United States government that must prove his guilt.

China Tests New Silk Road—in the Arctic Fraught shippig shortcut brings nation closer to Russia China’s long-talked-about Arctic ambitions just got a real-world test run. A Chinese cargo ship, the Dubai Tower, is wrapping up a roughly three-week trip from Qingdao to northern England via Russia’s Northern Sea Route—an icy shortcut that trims about two weeks off the usual Asia-to-Europe trip through the Suez Canal while avoiding West Asia conflict zones. The vessel—hauling 1,300 containers of electric vehicles, batteries, and other green tech—represents the first of eight planned Arctic voyages this season by Chinese line Sea Legend, reports the New York Times.