What goes through my my mind when I read the news with my morning coffee. …Or for the Simon's Rockers in the group, this is my response journal.
During the confirmation hearing, Hartnett White struggled to answer basic questions about science and was accused of plagiarizing some of her written responses. She faced a backlash from lawmakers who called her testimony “embarrassing,” while hundreds of scientists also came out firmly against her nomination, warning the Senate her views on climate change were “dangerous.”
Report: White House Withdraws Trump’s Pick for Environmental Council – The Daily Beast
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A major SpaceX customer spoke up for Elon Musk’s rocket company, pinning the blame for a secret military satellite’s disappearance on defense company Northrop Grumman Corp.
Matt Desch, chief executive officer of satellite operator Iridium Communications Inc., said that as the launch contractor, Northrop Grumman deserves the blame for the loss last weekend of the satellite, which is presumed to have crashed into the ocean in the secretive mission code-named Zuma.
SpaceX Customer Blames Northrop Grumman for Missing Satellite – Bloomberg
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The Trump administration said Tuesday it had ruled out drilling for oil and gas off the coast of Florida after strong opposition from the state’s Republican governor, Rick Scott.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke moved last week to allow new offshore oil and gas drilling in nearly all United States coastal waters, opening more than a billion acres in the Arctic, Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico to potential leases. The decision prompted an outcry from Republican and Democratic governors alike on both coasts.
Trump Administration Drops Florida From Offshore Drilling Plan – The New York Times
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The council, which still had 16 members, was completely dismissed with a letter sent through FedEx on Wednesday, the Washington Blade first reported.
“Current members of Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) received a letter informing them that the Administration was terminating their appointments” on Dec. 27, 2017, Hayes told HuffPost in a statement sent via email.
“Many of us, our terms were over earlier this year and we were sworn back in, and three were stayed on nearly four months after an executive order was signed continuing the council,” [a former council member] said.
…Six members of the council had earlier resigned in June due to “a president who simply does not care,” according to one member in a Newsweek op-ed entitled “Trump doesn’t care about HIV. We’re outta here.”
Trump Terminated All Members Of HIV/AIDS Council Without Explanation | HuffPost
More erratic incompetence from the Cheeto.
Every cycle is different, and it’s not possible to entirely predict what’s coming, but by looking at certain signs in the sun’s solar activity, Zharkova has made some educated guesses about the upcoming cycle.
If Zharkova’s predictions are correct, starting in 2021, the sun will quiet down a lot, letting off a lot less energy and heat. This, then, will affect our planet, as global temperatures drop as a result of less light and heat making it to the Earth.
…Miniature ice ages (known scientifically as “Maunder minimum” periods) have come many times in the past – a similar one, for example, was reponsible for low temperatures that froze the River Thames in London back in the seventeenth century.
…Of course, the danger of news like this is that certain people can willfully ignore its full implications. It’s nice to hear that the world will be cooling slightly and that some of the terrible weather effects we’ve been seeing recently will likely slow, but this doesn’t mean that major polluters are off the hook. This is a grace period, providing us with enough time to sort out our crap (sometimes literally), but eventually the bubble will burst, the sun will heat up, and we’ll all be in danger if we don’t clean up our act.
Bundle Up: Scientists Predict ‘Mini Ice Age’ Will Hit Earth in Five Years
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The town of LaPlace, Louisiana, lies along the Mississippi River, a stone’s throw from Lake Pontchartrain and the Maurepas Swamp. It sits in the heart of an area that’s become known by locals as “Cancer Alley,” a vast industrial stretch between New Orleans and Baton Rouge where dozens of petrochemical plants dot the landscape.
One sign posted by a local advocacy group warns the town’s 29,000 residents that they are “more likely to get cancer due to chloroprene air emissions.” The warning refers to the Denka Performance Elastomer plant at the edge of town, where a vast network of pipes and valves stand testament to industry.
The facility looms over Fifth Ward Elementary School, where children run around the playground oblivious to the toxic emissions in the air.
Toxic tensions in the heart of ‘Cancer Alley’ – CNN
Sigh….
“vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.”
Trump administration forbids CDC officials from using 7 words and phrases – Chicago Tribune
Good lord!
Screw the haters, if the US government and NASA want the private sector to do their bidding… Well, first they can move to Russia. And after that? Well, get their own shit together!
KAB needed to propagandize without seeming propagandistic and [counter] the claims of a political movement without seeming political. At the moment the tear appears, the narrator, in a baritone voice, intones: “People start pollution. People can stop it.” By making individual viewers feel guilty and responsible for the polluted environment, the ad deflected the question of responsibility away from corporations and placed it entirely in the realm of individual action, concealing the role of industry in polluting the landscape.
…The shift to the throwaway was responsible, in part, for the rising levels of litter that KAB publicized, but also, as environmentalists emphasized, for the mining of vast quantities of natural resources, the production of various kinds of pollution, and the generation of tremendous amounts of solid waste.
The “Crying Indian” Ad That Fooled the Environmental Movement | Essay | Zócalo Public Square
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