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Report: Texas Coal Power Plants Leaching Toxic Pollutants Into Groundwater

           

An Environmental Integrity Project examination of power company data made available for the first time in 2018 found that all (16 of 16) of the coal-fired power plants in Texas for which records are available are leaking unsafe levels of contaminants into groundwater.

Analyzing groundwater monitoring data that power companies are now required to report to the federal government, the Environmental Integrity Project found that groundwater under 16 Texas coal plants had unsafe levels of contaminants including arsenic. The pollution is linked to disposal pits for spent coal.

CLICK HERE - Groundwater Contamination from Texas Coal Ash Dumps

CLICK HERE - REPORT - Groundwater Contamination from Texas Coal Ash Dumps (70 page .PDF report)

texastribune.org - by Kiah Collier - January 17, 2019

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Study of Antarctic Sea Ice Collapse Warns of Potential 10-Foot Sea Rise

           

PACK ICE MELTING IN SPRING IN ANTARCTICA'S WEDDEL SEA. CREDIT: PLANET OBSERVER/UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP VIA GETTY IMAGES

The faster the ocean warms, the faster key Antarctic glaciers will disintegrate.

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Four decades of Antarctic Ice Sheet mass balance from 1979–2017

thinkprogress.org - by Joe Romm - January 15, 2019

A stunning new study on Antarctic sea ice collapse greatly raises the risk of a 10-foot sea level rise this century if President Donald Trump’s climate policies aren’t quickly reversed.

Warming ocean waters drove a 6-fold increase in annual ice mass loss from the Antarctic ice sheet between 1979 and 2017, according to a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

It’s been known for a while that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) was unstable and collapsing at an accelerating rate due to global warming. But the new study finds that parts of the vastly larger East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) are also disintegrating.

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California Utility Firm Suspected of Starting Deadly Wildfires Goes Bankrupt

           

A firefighter battling the Camp fire, which became California’s deadliest in history. Photograph: Noah Berger/AP

Pacific Gas and Electric, which supplies 16 million residents, is under investigation for its role in the Camp fire and others

theguardian.com - by Vivian Ho - January 14, 2019

The utility company that services more than a third of California announced on Monday it plans to file for bankruptcy by the end of the month. Several deadly wildfires believed to have been caused by the company left it with potential liabilities of at least $30bn.

The board of directors of Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) has determined that the move “is ultimately the only viable option to restore PG&E’s financial stability to fund ongoing operations and provide safe service to customers”, the San Francisco-based company stated in a filing at the Security and Exchange Commission.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

 

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Oceans Warming Faster than Expected, Set Heat Record in 2018 - Scientists

                   

Trends in ocean heat content match those predicted by leading climate change models. Overall ocean warming is accelerating. Credit: Michele Hogan

CLICK HERE - RESEARCH - Science - How fast are the oceans warming?

af.reuters.com - by Alister Doyle - January 10, 2019

The oceans are warming faster than previously estimated, setting a new temperature record in 2018 in a trend that is damaging marine life, scientists said on Thursday.

New measurements, aided by an international network of 3,900 floats deployed in the oceans since 2000, showed more warming since 1971 than calculated by the latest U.N. assessment of climate change in 2013, they said.

And “observational records of ocean heat content show that ocean warming is accelerating,” the authors in China and the United States wrote in the journal Science of ocean waters down to 2,000 metres (6,600 ft).

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

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Elderly, Conservatives Shared More Facebook Fakery in 2016

           

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Less than you think: Prevalence and predictors of fake news dissemination on Facebook

apnews.com - by Seth Borenstein - January 9, 2019

. . . People over 65 and ultra conservatives shared about seven times more fake information masquerading as news on the social media site than younger adults, moderates and super liberals during the 2016 election season, a new study finds.

The first major study to look at who is sharing links from debunked sites finds that not many people are doing it. On average only 8.5 percent of those studied — about 1 person out of 12 — shared false information during the 2016 campaign, according to the study in Wednesday’s journal Science Advances . But those doing it tend to be older and more conservative.

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The Lower Your Social Class, the ‘Wiser’ You Are, Suggests New Study

submitted by Carrie La Jeunesse

           

Growing up working class gives people social skills that help broaden their perspective during conflicts. NICOLAS HOIZEY/UNSPLASH

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Social class and wise reasoning about interpersonal conflicts across regions, persons and situations

sciencemag.org - by Michael Price - December 20, 2017

There’s an apparent paradox in modern life: Society as a whole is getting smarter, yet we aren’t any closer to figuring out how to all get along. “How is it possible that we have just as many, if not more, conflicts as before?” asks social psychologist Igor Grossmann.

The answer is that raw intelligence doesn’t reduce conflict, Grossmann asserts. Wisdom does. Such wisdom—in effect, the ability to take the perspectives of others into account and aim for compromise—comes much more naturally to those who grow up poor or working class, he says.

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As Climate Change Bites in America’s Midwest, Farmers are Desperate to Ring the Alarm

           

Richard Oswald stands in a frozen puddle surrounded by unharvested corn. Wet conditions have made harvesting difficult for Oswald and other farmers.  Photograph: Amy Kontras for the Guardian

The changes have become more radical’: farmers are spending more time and money trying to grow crops in new climates

theguardian.com - by Chris McGreal - December 12, 2018

. . . Climate change is likely to make it harder to grow crops, and to make those that do grow more vulnerable to diseases and pests because of rising humidity. The report said heat and diminishing air quality will take its toll on livestock. Farmers will collectively have to spend billions of dollars to adapt. The effects are already seen from prolonged drought in Kansas and torrential rains in Iowa.

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Rioting Engulfs Paris as Anger Grows Over High Taxes

           

Protesters demonstrate against rising costs of living they blame on high taxes near the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris on Dec. 8, 2018.  Sameer Al-Doumy/ AFP/Getty Images

chicagotribune.com - apnews.com - by ELAINE GANLEY and JOHN LEICESTER - December 8, 2018

The rumble of armored police trucks and the hiss of tear gas filled central Paris on Saturday, as French riot police fought to contain thousands of yellow-vested protesters venting their anger against the government in a movement that has grown more violent by the week . . . 

. . . Amid the melee, President Emmanuel Macron remained invisible and silent, as he has for the four weeks of a movement that started as a protest against a gas tax hike and metamorphosed into a rebellion against high taxes and eroding living standards . . .

. . . Macron on Wednesday agreed to abandon the fuel tax hike, which aimed to wean France off fossil fuels and uphold the Paris climate agreement. Many economists and scientists say higher fuel taxes are essential to save the planet from worsening climate change, but that stance hasn't defused the anger among France's working class.

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The Humanitarian Impacts of Climate Change

           

Recent reporting on how global warming is disrupting lives and livelihoods

irinnews.org

Warnings on the dire consequences of climate change in the coming years have been ramping up recently.

Hundreds of millions of people may be at risk of climate-related poverty, especially in developing countries, if the global economy does not cut greenhouse gas emissions, a UN report warned in October. It also noted that food shortages, fires, floods, and droughts would put ever larger numbers of lives and livelihoods at risk within the next 12 years. And in November scientists noted that the oceans have been warming at faster rates than previously thought – which could mean that coastal and island communities will experience greater flooding and storms will become fiercer, among other things.

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Portrait of a Planet on the Verge of Climate Catastrophe

           

How South Beach, Miami, could look if temperatures rise by 2C. Photograph: Nickolay Lamm/Courtesy of Climate Central/sealevel.climatecentral.org

As the UN sits down for its annual climate conference this week, many experts believe we have passed the point of no return

theguardian.com - by Robin McKie - December 2, 2018

On Sunday morning hundreds of politicians, government officials and scientists will gather in the grandeur of the International Congress Centre in Katowice, Poland . . . For 24 years the annual UN climate conference has served up a reliable diet of rhetoric, backroom talks and dramatic last-minute deals aimed at halting global warming . . .

. . . As recent reports have made clear, the world may no longer be hovering at the edge of destruction but has probably staggered beyond a crucial point of no return. Climate catastrophe is now looking inevitable.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

 

 

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