Earth has acquired a brand new moon that’s about the size of a car | New Scientist
wild!
Category: Science and Stuff,
Doctors Have a Name for Separating Kids from Their Parents at the Border: It’s Torture. – VICE
A 39-year-old Honduran mother had her 9-year-old child taken from her when she fled to the U.S. to seek asylum. It was three weeks before she was even able to speak to him, and though they were reunited two months later, she experienced depression and post-traumatic stress. She sometimes wondered whether she’d be better off dead.
Physicians for Human Rights has a name for what she endured. They say it’s torture.
…It was common for separated children to show regressive behaviors like bed-wetting or loss of language, according to the report.
…Some said their children disappeared when the parents were in court or at a doctor’s appointment or had their kids ripped from their arms. Others said they weren’t given clear answers when asked where their kids had gone, and that they were mocked by immigration authorities. They reported poor conditions at the detention centers where they were held, without any idea of how their kids were doing.
“What was a gut-punch for me — as I was reading one report, and another, and another — was the depth of the trauma, the depth of the cruelty of the agents; how they talked to some of the clients, how they misled them, how they lied to them and told them they would never see their children again,” said Dr. Ranit Mishori, co-author of the report and senior medical advisor for Physicians for Human Rights.
…All of the parents interviewed by the medical-advocacy group reported that they came to the U.S. from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras shouldering a good deal of trauma already, only to see that agony and guilt compounded by separation from their children. Fifteen of the 17 adults interviewed had received death threats, for example; 14 reported that they were targeted by gang or cartels. Many had already taken other measures to protect their families before coming to the U.S., like going to local authorities or moving internally within their own country.
Doctors Have a Name for Separating Kids from Their Parents at the Border: It’s Torture. – VICE
Aggggggggggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Mike Bloomberg Once Said He Could ‘Teach Anyone to Be a Farmer’ Because Farming Needs Less ‘Gray Matter’ Than Modern Work
In a clip from his November 2016 talk at the Saïd Business School of the University of Oxford in England, Bloomberg said: “I could teach anybody, even people in this room, to be a farmer. It’s a process. You dig a hole, you put a seed in, you put dirt on top, add water, up comes the corn.”
“Now comes the information economy, and the information economy is fundamentally different, because it’s built around replacing people with technology,” Bloomberg added. “And the skillsets that you have to learn are how to think and analyze.
“That is a whole degree level different. You have to have a different skillset, you have to have a lot more grey matter.”
Maybe the idea that farming is more complicated than that requires more grey matter to wrap one’s mind around than Mike has access to?
‘Mad’ Mike Hughes, flat-Earth theorist and daredevil, dies in rocket mishap
‘Mad’ Mike Hughes, flat-Earth theorist and daredevil, dies in rocket mishap – The Washington Post
If only there was sort of organization theoretical discipline that studies the physical world around us and brings to light the forces and patterns involved in matter interacts that could have helped him anticipate how this would play out…
Doctors discover food can be good medicine
Doctors discover food can be good medicine – The Washington Post
Isn’t adorable when “experts” decide that something everyone already knows is news? Doctors decide that nutrition affects health. Amazing! What new “discovery” will they tout next? The mind reels….
The ‘Ghost’ of an Unknown Human Species Has Been Found in West Africans Living Today
It is well-known that people from Europe and Asia have traces of Neanderthals and Denisovans in their DNA. These are markers from where early modern humans interbred with other hominin species, producing children that inherited genes from both.
…Neanderthals and Denisovans bred with modern humans that had already left Africa, the birthplace of modern man. As a result, people in Africa have less genetic input from Denisovans and Neanderthals.
“Results strongly support that an African archaic (ghost) lineage that diverged from modern humans slightly before Neanderthals and Denisovans, perhaps 600,000 years ago, met and interbred with the ancestors of West African populations,” he told Newsweek. “Interestingly, this might have happened even before the split between African and non-African populations, whereby global human groups might carry ancestry from this ghost lineage.
“This work sheds light on the complex patterns of human evolution, where a simple narrative does not conform to the data. The picture will only get more complex, especially when more work is done in Africa, the birthplace of humanity.”
The ‘Ghost’ of an Unknown Human Species Has Been Found in West Africans Living Today
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The lost continent of Zealandia hides clues to the Ring of Fire’s birth | Live Science
But despite its undersea status, Zealandia is not made of magnesium- and iron-rich oceanic crust. Instead, it is composed of less-dense continental crust.
…Sutherland and his colleagues now suspect that the changes in Zealandia at this time were part of a larger disturbance that quickly led to the formation of Ring of Fire subduction zones around the western Pacific.
“We don’t know where or why,” Sutherland said in the statement, “but something happened that locally induced movement, and when the fault started to slip, like in an earthquake, the motion rapidly spread sideways onto adjacent parts of the fault system and then around the western Pacific.”
This process would have taken over a million years, but would have represented a dramatic rearrangement of the geology of the western Pacific.
The lost continent of Zealandia hides clues to the Ring of Fire’s birth | Live Science
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Earth Is About To Enter A 30-Year ‘Mini Ice Age’ As A ‘Solar Minimum’ Grips The Planet
According to NASA, the Sun will reach its lowest activity in over 200 years in 2020. As it further goes into its natural hibernation phase, Earth will experience extremely cold spells which will trigger food shortages across the planet. The average temperatures could drop as much as one degree Celsius in a period lasting about 12 months.
Earth Is About To Enter A 30-Year ‘Mini Ice Age’ As A ‘Solar Minimum’ Grips The Planet – Science
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The toxic reach of Deepwater Horizon’s oil spill was much larger — and deadlier — than previously published estimates
Current estimates show the 210 million gallons of oil released by the damaged BP Deepwater Horizon Macondo well spread out over the equivalent of 92,500 miles.
…Spreading with squid-like tentacles, the oil reached Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
In a massive spill response, federal workers, contractors and volunteers sought to detect it, contain it and use chemicals to disperse it. Yet large amounts of oil reached beyond the containment effort and were never fully accounted for until now, the study says.
…The the oil’s reach was 30 percent larger than that estimate, the new study says.
…A significant amount of oil and its toxic footprint moved beyond fishery closures where it was thought to be contained and escaped detection by satellites as it flowed near the Texas shore, west Florida shore and within a loop current that carries Gulf water around Florida’s southern tip up toward Miami.
…“Oil in these concentrations for surface water extended beyond the satellite footprint and fishery closures, potentially exterminating a vast amount of planktonic marine organisms across the domain,” the researchers wrote. The findings show that the government’s understanding of how oil flowed from Deepwater Horizon was limited and that it underestimated the extent to which marine life was killed or poisoned by toxic crude.
…“If you want to respond to this kind of spill, you have to know where the entire mass is, the amount of oil that came out of the well, and know that the footprint is not only on the surface, but in three dimensions,” she said.
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‘Invisible and Toxic’ Oil From Deepwater Horizon Spill Probably Made Disaster Much Worse Than Previously Thought
The Deepwater spill was caused by an explosion on the BP-operated Deepwater Horizon oil drilling rig—located around 41 miles off the Louisiana coast—on April 20, 2010, which resulted in the deaths of 11 workers.
The rig subsequently sank and more than four million barrels of oil gushed out of the damaged Macondo well over the course of 87 days until the leak was finally capped, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
…The spill was the largest in marine history, releasing around 795 million liters (210 million gallons) of oil into the Gulf of Mexico with slicks covering an estimated area of 57,500 square miles. The disaster caused extensive environmental damage and forced the closure of vast stretches of the Gulf to fishing operations.
…The “toxic extent” of the spill could [be] up to 30 percent greater than what previous satellite data has suggested, leaving a footprint which stretched from Florida’s Gulf Coast, to the shores of Texas and the Florida Keys.
…”We found that the oil spill extended beyond the satellite footprint, reaching areas which were considered non-contaminated such as the West Florida shelf and Texas shores. A part of the invisible portion that extended beyond the satellite footprint was toxic to marine life,” the authors said.
According to the study, toxic chemicals known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons may still be present in water for days or even weeks after satellites can no longer detect an oil slick.
sighhh….
Can charcoal make beef better for the environment?
Biochar
This crumbly black substance is often made as a by-product of forestry and other industries. It is created when biomass is left in high-temperature, low-oxygen conditions, where it undergoes a process called pyrolysis. Long before its recent uptake in modern farming, biochar was created and added to soil by indigenous farmers in Amazonia from around the 5th Century BC, to form the rich black earth of the Amazon Basin known as “terra preta.”
…In 2012, a research group in Vietnam found that adding 0.5-1% biochar to cattle’s feed could reduce methane emissions by more than 10%, while other studies have found reductions of up to 17%. Studies on beef cows in the Great Plains of the US found that adding biochar to feed reduces cows’ methane emissions by between 9.5% and 18.4%. Given that methane makes up 90% of greenhouse gas emissions from cattle farming, this could considerably cut cattle’s environmental footprint.
…He was originally drawn to it not for its potential to reduce his herd’s methane emissions, but as a way to sequester more carbon into the soil. This had the dual prospect of sinking carbon and improving soil health.
“Due to the highly porous nature and high surface area of biochar, it improves soil’s ability to hold more water,” says Bhawana Bhatta, a soil science lecturer of the University of Melbourne. “The fine network of pores within biochar gives room for soil microorganisms to live. This increases the microbial diversity in the soil.”
…Enticed by the addition of molasses along with the biochar, Pow’s cattle dutifully chowed down their enriched feed, produced their cowpats, and then the beetles got to work. The bovine beetles then got started on the cows’ dung, working in pairs. The male brings the dung to the female beetles who dig a tunnel into the soil. Every time a beetle burrows into the soil, it also brings to the surface new soil with high levels of phosphorus, which acts as a natural [fertilizer.]
Studies over a three-year period on Doug’s farm showed an increase in total organic carbon, and enhancing soil fertility from when he first started. The research showed that he was also improving soil water retention and increasing the amount of carbon that was being retained in the soil.
Can charcoal make beef better for the environment? – BBC Future
hmm
Vaping: not a safe alternative to smoking, new study suggests, and it may be more harmful to health than tobacco in normal cigarettes
Smoking e-cigarettes can be more harmful to the lungs than smoking tobacco, according to researchers from Queen’s University Belfast in Britain. They discovered that bacteria found in the lungs becomes more harmful and causes increased inflammation when exposed to e-cigarette vapour.
The three-year study supports growing evidence that vaping is not a safe alternative to smoking.
…Dr Gilpin said: “Bacteria have long been associated with the development of lung diseases, such as bronchitis and pneumonia, where smoking plays a role. Our study is the first of its kind which aimed to compare the effect of cigarette smoke and e-cigarette vapour on key lung bacteria.
…The team tested the impact of vape smoke, cigarette smoke and no smoke on bacteria found in the lungs. They chose the most popular unflavoured, nicotine-containing e-cigarette for the test, to eliminate the potential additional damage flavourings could cause.
The team found that exposure to both cigarette smoke and e-cigarette vapour caused an increase in the potential of bacteria to cause harm in the lungs, in a way that could lead to lung diseases.
The researchers also found that changes in bacteria exposed to e-cigarette vapour were similar, and in some cases exceeded, those brought about by exposure to cigarette smoke.
hmmmm
Orphan wells: Canada’s struggling oil industry leaves thousands abandoned
Greg Latimer’s ranch near Sounding Lake, Alberta, has 4,000 acres, 350 cattle — and more than a dozen idle or abandoned oil and gas wells.
Latimer, who took over the family ranch in the southeastern part of the oil-rich province in 2011, worries about leaks contaminating the groundwater and soil. He believes his cows have fallen ill after drinking from puddles near the wells. He and his partner, Marva Coltman, get headaches from the odors that some of them emit.
Neither Latimer, his father nor his grandfather were given a choice about whether to let oil and gas companies onto their property.
…“My grandfather came here in 1911 in the middle of the country to make a homestead,” Latimer said. “These guys came here and destroyed it. It isn’t fair.”
…[The] government slashed municipal property taxes on shallow gas wells last year by 35 percent. Some operators have stopped paying municipal property taxes to the tune of $129.8 million.
…Under provincial law, oil and gas companies are responsible for plugging defunct wells and restoring the environment to its pre-drilling state. When the operators are bankrupt or insolvent, the wells are transferred to the industry-funded Orphan Well Association, which is tasked with decommissioning them.
As the energy sector has struggled, the association’s inventory has ballooned, from 162 wells in 2014 to 3,406 today.
…And the number could skyrocket, soon. Last year, both Trident Exploration and Houston Oil & Gas bit the dust, leaving behind a combined 6,100 wells and a $307.9 million cleanup bill.
…As of December 2019, the energy regulator had $170.3 million to clean up potential oil and gas liabilities estimated at more than $22.5 billion, the figures show.
Orphan wells: Canada’s struggling oil industry leaves thousands abandoned – The Washington Post
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The sustainable fashion conversation is based on bad statistics and misinformation
Because only one out of the dozen or so most commonly cited facts about the fashion industry’s huge footprint is based on any sort of science, data collection, or peer-reviewed research. The rest are based on gut feelings, broken links, marketing, and something someone said in 2003.
If we’re serious about recruiting the fashion industry into the fight to save our world from burning, these bad facts do us all a disservice. They make fashion activists look silly. They allow brands to wave vaguely at reducing their impact without taking meaningful action. And they stymie the ability to implement meaningful regulation, which needs to be undergirded by solid data.
There are unmissable clues everywhere that something is wrong, from poisonous rivers in Bangladesh and Indonesia to old clothing littering the shores of East Africa to microplastics in our drinking water. But as long as we have only garbage information, we’ll only get garbage action from brands and governments to fix the problem.
…“Let’s talk for a moment about the Quantis report,” says Greer. “They refused to provide anybody — me, ClimateWorks Foundation that funded them, or the general public — any of the data that went into their conclusions. If you were to try to publish that in a peer-reviewed journal, you would be rejected in 30 minutes. It should have died a quick death.”
…Even without good data, brands and countries are attempting to lessen the fashion industry’s impact. Last year, 150 companies joined a pact where they agreed to “science-based” targets around emissions, biodiversity, and single-use plastics by 2050. It’s the latest in a long line of industry groups, agreements, conferences, promises, and “sustainable” product lines. But companies still don’t know what is happening in their supply chains and so have no baseline for what they will cut their emissions from.
…It’s clear that before we do anything else — demand legislation, invent new textiles, set targets — we need to figure out what research we need, then ask the government and big brands to fund it.
The sustainable fashion conversation is based on bad statistics and misinformation – Vox
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Arizona Quietly Sells Land to Freeport-McMoRan for Mining Waste
The Arizona State Land Department this month sold nearly 17,000 acres of pristine desert land to Freeport-McMoRan, a Phoenix-based international mining company, which plans to use the property to store waste from its Bagdad copper mine.
…It is nearly seven times the size of a pending land acquisition by a British-Australian company for a mining operation near Superior. That project, Resolution Copper, would involve extracting copper from beneath Oak Flat, an area that Native American opponents consider sacred, and until a land swap, was protected from mining.
…”That is habitat that will be lost for the rest of our lives and probably hundreds of years into the future, if not forever,” Trudeau said. “This is a tremendous impact of almost unprecedented scale in Arizona.”
As with most large mining operations, Freeport-McMoRan’s waste storage proposal also raises concerns of water contamination. The Bagdad area, which is about 65 miles west of Prescott, sits close to several watersheds, including for the Santa Maria River, the Big Sandy River, and the Bill Williams River.
Freeport-McMoRan has a track record of water contamination.
…And a recent rollback of Clean Water Act regulations by President Trump’s administration removed protections for smaller bodies of water, including those found in the Bagdad-area property, like seasonal rivers, groundwater, and “ephemeral streams” that only flow after rain. According to Trudeau, the Trump decision took away environmentalists’ sole avenue for challenging Freeport-McMoRan’s proposed tailings site.
Arizona Quietly Sells Land to Freeport-McMoRan for Mining Waste | Phoenix New Times
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Want to double world food production? Return the land to small farmers
A recent comprehensive survey by GRAIN, examining data from around the world, finds that while small farmers feed the world, they are doing so with just 24% of the world’s farmland – or 17% if you leave out China and India.
…Only 1% of all farms in the world are larger than 50 hectares, and that these few farms control 65% of the world’s farmland.
…The confusion stems from the way FAO deal with the concept of family farming, which they roughly define as any farm managed by an individual or a household. (They admit there is no precise definition. Various countries, like Mali, have their own.)
Thus, a huge industrial soya bean farm in rural Argentina, whose family owners live in Buenos Aires, is included in FAO’s count of ‘family farms’.
What about sprawling Hacienda Luisita, owned by the powerful Cojuanco family in the Philippines and epicentre of the country’s battle for agrarian reform since decades. Is that a family farm?
Looking at ownership to determine what is and is not a family farm masks all the inequities, injustices and struggles that peasants and other small scale food producers across the world are mired in.
It allows FAO to paint a rosy picture and conveniently ignore perhaps the most crucial factor affecting the capacity of small farmers to produce food: lack of access to land.
…Small food producers’ access to land is shrinking due a range of forces. One is that because of population pressure, farms are getting divided up amongst family members. Another is the vertiginous expansion of monoculture plantations.
In the last 50 years, a staggering 140 million hectares – the size of almost all the farmland in India – has been taken over by four industrial crops: soya bean, oil palm, rapeseed and sugar cane.
…Other pressures pushing small food producers off their land include the runaway plague of large-scale land grabs by corporate interests. In the last few years alone, according to the World Bank, some 60 million hectares of fertile farmland have been leased, on a long-term basis, to foreign investors and local elites, mostly in the global South.
While some of this is for energy production, a big part of it is to produce food commodities for the global market, instead of family farming.
…The data show that the concentration of farmland in fewer and fewer hands is directly related to the increasing number of people going hungry every day.
According to one UN study, active policies supporting small producers and agro-ecological farming methods could double global food production in a decade and enable small farmers to continue to produce and utilise biodiversity, maintain ecosystems and local economies, while multiplying and strengthening meaningful work opportunities and social cohesion in rural areas.
Want to double world food production? Return the land to small farmers!
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