Asiatic cheetahs on the brink of extinction with only 50 left alive

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/dec/16/asiatic-cheetah-brink-extinction-iran-un-funding

Robin McKie
Saturday 16 December 2017



Conservationists have warned that the Asiatic cheetah is on the threshold of extinction following a UN decision to pull funding from conservation efforts to protect it.

Fewer than 50 of the critically endangered carnivores are thought to be left in the wild – all of them in Iran – and scientists fear that without urgent intervention there is little chance of saving one of the planet’s most distinctive and graceful hunters.

“Lack of funding means extinction for the Asiatic cheetah, I’m afraid,” the Iranian conservationist Jamshid Parchizadeh said. “Iran has already suffered from the loss of the Asiatic lion and the Caspian tiger. Now we are about to see the Asiatic cheetah go extinct as well.”

•••••

Cheetahs – both African and Asian – are the fastest land animals on Earth, using their speed to bring down antelope, gazelle and other moderately large prey. Asiatic cheetahs were once widespread across the continent but were eradicated in India, where they were hunted for sport. The spread of farming also greatly reduced numbers in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Eventually the animal was wiped out in all the nations of Asia to which it was once native – with the exception of a few areas of Iran. Conservationists have battled to keep numbers stable in these areas. They have faced severe problems, however.

“There have been all sorts of threats to the Asiatic cheetah,” said the conservation biologist Sam Williams of the University of Venda, in South Africa, who is an expert on large carnivores. “For example, they are hunted and killed by local herders – of sheep and goats – because cheetahs will occasionally kill and eat one of their animals.”

•••••

This point was endorsed by Breitenmoser. “We need to give as much support as we can to Iran. Every other country in which the Asiatic cheetah once roamed allowed it to disappear. Iran managed to save it – until now. So we need to get international agencies to get help to the country’s conservationists as soon as possible.

“The alternative is straightforward. Unless something is done within the next couple of years, it will not be possible to save the Asiatic cheetah. It is now five minutes to midnight for the species. Soon it will be midnight – and extinction.”

•••••

Compared with its Asiatic cousin, the African cheetah – the most widespread subspecies of cheetah - is in relatively good health. It still faces major problems, however.

It is reckoned that there are around 7,000 in the wild and, according to the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, its status is classified as “vulnerable”.

Many scientists and conservationists believe this categorisation is in fact incorrect and that the pressures placed on the animal mean its status should be rated as endangered.

The three richest people in the US own as much wealth as the bottom half of the US population

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/nov/08/bill-gates-jeff-bezos-warren-buffett-wealthier-than-poorest-half-of-us

Rupert Neate
Wednesday 8 November 2017

The three richest people in the US – Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffett – own as much wealth as the bottom half of the US population, or 160 million people.

Analysis of the wealth of America’s richest people found that Gates, Bezos and Buffett were sitting on a combined $248.5bn (£190bn) fortune. The Institute for Policy Studies said the growing gap between rich and poor had created a “moral crisis”.

In a report, the Billionaire Bonanza, the thinktank said Donald Trump’s tax change proposals would “exacerbate existing wealth disparities” as 80% of tax benefits would end up going to the wealthiest 1% of households.

“Wealth inequality is on the rise,” said Chuck Collins, an economist and co-author of the report. “Now is the time for actions that reduce inequality, not tax cuts for the very wealthy.”

The study found that the billionaires included in Forbes magazine’s list of the 400 richest people in the US were worth a combined $2.68tn – more than the gross domestic product (GDP) of the UK.

“Our wealthiest 400 now have more wealth combined than the bottom 64% of the US population, an estimated 80m households or 204 million people,” the report says. “That’s more people than the population of Canada and Mexico combined.”

•••••

The rise at the wealthiest end of society comes as one in five US households live in what the report’s authors call the “underwater nation”, with either zero or negative wealth. Inequality is even more stark among minorities. Three in 10 black households and 27% of Latino ones have zero or negative wealth, compared with 14% of white families.

•••••

‘The Basic Grossness of Humans’

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/12/the-basic-grossness-of-humans/548330/

Alexis C. Madrigal Dec 15, 2017

Lurking inside every website or app that relies on “user-generated content”—so, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, among others—there is a hidden kind of labor, without which these sites would not be viable businesses. Content moderation was once generally a volunteer activity, something people took on because they were embedded in communities that they wanted to maintain.

But as social media grew up, so did moderation. It became what the University of California, Los Angeles, scholar Sarah T. Roberts calls, “commercial content moderation,” a form of paid labor that requires people to review posts—pictures, videos, text—very quickly and at scale.

Roberts has been studying the labor of content moderation for most of a decade, ever since she saw a newspaper clipping about a small company in the Midwest that took on outsourced moderation work.

•••••

Roberts has traced the history of the development of moderation as a corporate practice. In particular, she’s looked at the way labor gets parceled out. There are very few full-time employees working out of corporate headquarters in Silicon Valley doing this kind of stuff. Instead, there are contractors, who may work at the company, but usually work at some sort of off-site facility. In general, most content moderation occurs several steps removed from the core business apparatus. That could be in Iowa or in India (though these days, mostly in the Philippines).

•••••

LaPlante, for example, works on Mechanical Turk, which serves as a very flexible and cheap labor pool for various social-media companies. When she receives an assignment, she will have a list of rules that she must follow, but she may or may not know the company or how the data she is creating will be used.

Most pressingly, though, LaPlante drew attention to the economic conditions under which workers are laboring. They are paid by the review, and the prices can go as low as $0.02 per image reviewed, though there are jobs that pay better, like $0.15 per piece of content. Furthermore, companies can reject judgments that Turkers make, which means they are not paid for that time, and their overall rating on the platform declines.

This work is a brutal and necessary part of the current internet economy. They’re also providing valuable training data that companies use to train machine-learning systems. And yet the people doing it are lucky to make minimum wage, have no worker protections, and must work at breakneck speed to try to earn a living.

As you might expect, reviewing violent, sexual, and disturbing content for a living takes a serious psychological toll on the people who do it.

“When I left Myspace, I didn’t shake hands for like three years because I figured out that people were disgusting. And I just could not touch people,” Bowden said. “Most normal people in the world are just fucking weirdos. I was disgusted by humanity when I left there. So many of my peers, same thing. We all left with horrible views of humanity.”

•••••

LaPlante emphasized, too, that it’s not like the people doing these content-moderation jobs can seek counseling for the disturbing things they’ve seen. They’re stuck dealing with the fallout themselves, or, with some sort of support from their peers.

“If you’re being paid two cents an image, you don’t have $100 an hour to pay to a psychiatrist,” LaPlante said.

In a hopeful sign, some tech companies are beginning to pay more attention to these issues. Facebook, for example, sent a team to the content-moderation conference. Others, like Twitter and Snap, did not.

Facebook, too, has committed to hiring 10,000 more people dedicated to these issues.

•••••

Feed and Freeze

I wrote this song after reading a few years ago that there are children in our country who routinely lose weight in the winter because their families cannot afford both enough food and heat. And of course people need more food when they are cold.

And things are worse now (May 2014), with the cutback of food and unemployment benefits while so many people are still unable to find jobs. There are still almost three people out of work for every job opening. And not all "job openings" are really job openings.

Oct. 2014, still about two people out of work for every so-called job opening.

Sept. 2016, things are much better, still too many hungry children.

Feed and Freeze
copyright 2001 Patricia M. Shannon

(chorus)
If I feed my my children, they will freeze
'cause the gas bill is so high.
When they say "Mama, mama, can I have some food",
sometimes I just break down and cry,
sometimes I just break down and cry.

(verse)
They don't understand that I don't have enough food
for them to have their fill.
I have to pay the heating bill
'cause it's cold enough to kill;
it's cold enough to kill;

We turn the thermostat way down
and wear a lot of clothes.
We hang out at the Waffle House,
but the heating bill just grows and grows,
the heating bill just grows.

(chorus)

They say you'll be a big success
if you work really hard.
But I slave all day at the fast food place
and the minimum wage is my reward,
the minimum's my reward

They say they can't pay anymore,
the economy's too slow;
Profits are down, but they gave a raise
and a bonus to the CEO;
a big bonus to the CEO.

(chorus)

1st grader asks for food, blanket in heartbreaking letter to Santa

By Morgan Winsor
Dec 16, 2017

A first grader's heartbreaking letter to Santa has spurred a flood of donations, after her teacher shared the humble wish list on social media.

Ruth Espiricueta, a first-grade teacher at Monte Cristo Elementary School in Edinburg, Texas, asked her students this week to write a letter to Santa Claus about something they want and something they need, after a lesson about the difference between the two. When school was dismissed for the day, Espiricueta began reading the letters and was taken aback in particular by one student's note.

The 7-year-old girl wrote to Santa, “I have [been] good this day. This Christmas I would like a ball and a food. I need a [blanket].”

•••••

The next day, Espiricueta asked the student about her letter to Santa. The girl said she wanted a ball, rather than a doll, so both she and her brother could play with the toy. She told the teacher she wanted eggs for food.

•••••

The girl was not the only student to ask for basic necessities in her letter to Santa, Espiricueta said.

"Unfortunately, there are other students that as part of their needs they included food, towels, blankets, pillows, bed, clothes, shoes and a stove," the teacher told ABC News. "Some of my students were not even excited about Christmas because they know that their parents can not afford to buy a Christmas tree or gifts for them."

More than one in five children in Texas -- about 22.4 percent -- live in poverty, according to 2016 data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Espiricueta said she couldn't bear the thought of her own child going hungry or cold. So she shared a photo of her student's letter on Facebook on Wednesday, hoping to help the students and their families in need. People immediately offered to donate to the student as well as to others at the school.

The letter inspired the principal at Monte Cristo Elementary School to start a donation drive, with a goal of collecting 724 blankets to give to each student. So far, 616 blankets have been donated.

"She is happy her friends will also be receiving a blanket to stay warm," Espiricueta said.

Banned words at the CDC

Trump's administration's efforts to make the U.S. the laughing stock of the world. If aliens are listening to our broadcast signals, we'll be the laughingstock of the universe.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/16/health/cdc-banned-words/index.html

By Jessica Ravitz, CNN
Updated 12:38 PM ET, Sat December 16, 20

Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the very agency tasked with saving and protecting the lives of the most vulnerable, are now under order by the Trump administration to stop using words including "vulnerable" in 2018 budget documents, according to The Washington Post.

In a 90-minute briefing on Thursday, policy analysts at the nation's leading public health institute were presented with the menu of seven banned words, an analyst told the paper. On the list: "diversity," "fetus," "transgender," "vulnerable," "entitlement," "science-based" and "evidence-based."

Alternative word choices reportedly were presented in some cases. For instance, in lieu of "evidence-based" or "science-based," an analyst might say, "CDC bases its recommendations on science in consideration with community standards and wishes," the source said. But those working on the Zika virus's effect on developing fetuses may be at a loss for appropriate -- or acceptable -- words.

The reaction in the room was "incredulous," the longtime CDC analyst told the Post. "It was very much, 'Are you serious? Are you kidding?'"

•••••

"You cannot fight against the Zika virus, or improve women's and fetal health, if you are unable to use the word 'fetus.' You must be able to talk about science and evidence if you are to research cures for infectious diseases such as Ebola," Singiser said. "You must be able to acknowledge the humanity of transgender people in order to address their health care needs. You cannot erase health inequities faced by people of color simply by forbidding the use of the words 'vulnerable' or 'diversity'."
"Here's a word that's still allowed," added Rush Holt, chief executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. "Ridiculous."

•••••

================================================

I also posted this on Facebook along with the comment: "You might have seen the Trump's administration's efforts to make the U.S. the laughing stock of the world. If aliens are listening to our broadcast signals, we'll be the laughingstock of the universe.".

I had changed my account recently so that only Facebook friends can post comments on my posts, after a couple of obnoxious commenters. So somebody I don't know, who is not connected to me on Facebook, sent me a message saying "Hey Patricia, something about this post bothers me and I'd rather not see it on Facebook. Would you please take it down?". Sounded like some kind of automatic response, maybe she reported me to Facebook. Supposedly someone named Jeanette Resnick, at https://www.facebook.com/jeanette.resnick .

I notice that she can see my post because my posts are public, whereas I can't see his/her posts, if there are any and not an imposter or bot.

Links

Amber-tinted glasses may provide relief for insomnia
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-12/cumc-agm121517.php


Erectile dysfunction is red flag for silent early cardiovascular disease
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-12/s-edi121517.php


One in two persons aged 65 and above has suboptimal levels of vitamin D in the blood.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-12/hzm--vdi121517.php


Higher blood sugar in early pregnancy raises baby's heart-defect risk
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-12/sumc-hb121417.php


Children exposed to coarse particulate matter may be more likely to develop asthma and to be treated in an ER or be hospitalized for the condition
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-12/ats-cpm121217.php


Food-induced anaphylaxis common among children despite adult supervision
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-12/muhc-fac121417.php


Clients who frequent hair and nail salons exhibit more skin and fungal diseases than those who visit less often and nail salon technicians are receiving inadequate training in the use of chemicals
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-12/ru-tci121417.php


High success rate reported for diabetic Charcot foot surgery
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-12/luhs-hsr121417.php


Adolescents who are willing to exploit others for personal gain are more likely to bully and have sex than those who score higher on a measure of honesty and humility.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-12/s-dbh121417.php


High-intensity exercise delays Parkinson's progression
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-12/rumc-hed121317.php


Drinking hot tea every day linked to lower glaucoma risk
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-12/b-dht121317.php

Behavior of millions still shaped by Industrial Revolution

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-12/quot-bom121417.php

Public Release: 14-Dec-2017
Behavior of millions still shaped by Industrial Revolution
Queensland University of Technology

The Industrial Revolution of 200 years ago, powered by coal and steam engines, laid the foundations of modern society. World-first QUT-led research has found its effects are still felt and not in a good way.

Industrial Revolution casts long shadow with former coal-mining and manufacturing communities in the UK the US still struggling

Coal-based industrial hubs in the UK and the US show a "hidden" psychological legacy today - a regional personality pattern characterised by traits associated with lower happiness, well-being and health (e.g., high Neuroticism, lower Conscientiousness, lower Extraversion)

•••••

They discovered that people living in the former industrial heartlands of the UK and the US are more disposed to negative emotions such as anxiety and depressive moods, more impulsive and more likely to struggle with planning and self-motivation.

"Our findings show that, generations after the white heat of Industrial Revolution and decades on from the decline of deep coal mining, the populations of areas where coal-based industries dominated in the 19th century retain a 'psychological adversity'," said QUT's Associate Professor Martin Obschonka from the Australian Centre for Entrepreneurship Research.

•••••

It is our belief that this generational unhappiness and dysfunction is the inherited product of selective migrations during mass industrialisation compounded by the social effects of severe work and living conditions," Professor Obschonka said.

"This damaging cognitive legacy of coal is "reinforced and amplified" by the more obvious economic consequences of high unemployment and economic hardship we see today."

•••••

While the researchers said there would be many factors behind the correlation between personality traits and historic industrialisation, the two most likely ones are migration and socialisation (learned behaviour).

"The people migrating into industrial areas were often doing so to find employment in the hope of escaping poverty and distressing situations of rural depression - those experiencing high levels of 'psychological adversity'," said Professor Obschonka.

"However, people that left these areas, often later on, were likely those with higher degrees of optimism and psychological resilience.

"This "selective influx and outflow" may have concentrated so-called 'negative' personality traits in industrial areas - traits that can be passed down generations through combinations of experience and genetics."

•••••

Links

People in the FBI are in a position to know more than most of us what is going on with presidential candidates and campaigns. We want patriotic people in these jobs, which means they will be unhappy when they see danger to our country.
The republican politicians calling for an end to the Mueller investigation are showing that at best they do not care about the welfare of our country.


I notice that when news people refer to tax rates, they don't mention that these are marginal rates, the rates on the higher part of income, so the actual total rate is smaller.


Mom accused of subjecting son to 323 hospital visits, 13 surgeries
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2017/12/13/mom-accused-subjecting-son-to-323-hospital-visits-13-surgeries.html


Baby survives after being born with heart outside her body
http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/13/health/baby-heart-chest-surgery-intl/index.html


Lead Cop In Felony Trial For Trump Inaugural Protesters Sent Anti-Activist Tweets
https://www.yahoo.com/news/lead-cop-felony-trial-trump-204436412.html


Fox Business host rips GOP tax bill: ‘It’s gonna hurt the individuals’
http://thehill.com/homenews/media/364540-fox-business-host-rips-gop-tax-bill-its-gonna-hurt-the-individuals


USA Today Calls Trump Unfit To Clean Obama's Toilets In Scathing Editorial
https://www.yahoo.com/news/usa-today-calls-trump-unfit-071714736.html?utm_content=bufferf014d&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer


Thomas fire rages amid longest red flag warning on record
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-ln-thomas-fire-grows-20171215-story.html


Facebook adds a Snooze button for muting people, groups and Pages for 30 days
[I think by far this post is getting the most likes and shares on Facebook of anything I've posted!
https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/15/facebook-adds-a-snooze-button-for-muting-people-groups-and-pages-for-30-days/


California Public Health Officials Issue Cellphone Radiation Warning
http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2017/12/13/california-cellphone-radiation-warning/


The USDA Rolled Back Protections For Small Farmers. Now The Farmers Are Suing
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/12/14/570889309/the-usda-rolled-back-protections-for-small-farmers-now-theyre-suing?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=2043


Rule Change Could Give Restaurants More Control Over Workers' Tips
[NPR must have big donors who have tipped employees.
No mention of the $2.13/hour minimum wage for tipped employees.]
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/12/14/570927260/trump-administration-proposes-rule-that-could-change-distribution-of-tips?utm_source=facebook.com


Minimum Wages for Tipped Employees
https://www.dol.gov/whd/state/tipped.htm

November 2017 was the second warmest November in the 39-year satellite temperature record for both the globe and the southern hemisphere

So this is the 395th consecutive month (one month less than 33 years) with temperatures at least above the 20th century average, which was already above the pre-industrial average.

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/12/04/global-temperature-report-november-2017/

Anthony Watts / December 4, 2017

Global temperatures drop; November still warm
Global climate trend since Nov. 16, 1978: +0.13 C per decade

The average global temperature drop between October and November, 2017, tied for the fifth largest one-month-to-the-next drop in the 39-year satellite temperature record, according to Dr. John Christy, director of the Earth System Science Center (ESSC) at The University of Alabama in Huntsville.

•••••

Despite that temperature drop, however, November 2017 was still the second warmest November in the 39-year satellite temperature record for both the globe and the southern hemisphere. In both cases, the warmest November on record was in 2016.

•••••

https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/201710

•••••

October 2017 also marks the 41st consecutive October and the 394th consecutive month with temperatures at least nominally above the 20th century average.

•••••

Babies born to moms who lived near fracking wells faced host of health risks, study suggests

http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-fracking-infant-health-20171213-story.html

Melissa Healy
Dec. 13, 2017

After combing through a decade’s worth of Pennsylvania birth records, researchers have found that pregnant women living within two-thirds of a mile of a hydraulic fracturing well were 25% more likely to give birth to a worryingly small infant than were women who lived at least 10 miles outside that zone during pregnancy.

Over these babies’ lifetimes, their low birth weights raise the likelihood they will suffer poorer health and lower achievement, including reduced earnings and educational attainment.

The authors of the new research estimated that, in 2012, about 29,000 of the close to 4 million annual births in the United States — roughly 0.7% of babies born each year — were to women who lived within about two-thirds of a mile of a hydraulic fracturing operation during their pregnancies.

The study was published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances.

•••••

Many of the toxic chemicals used in the hydraulic fracturing process are known carcinogens. Toxic gases, including benzene, are released from the rock by fracking. And the high-pressure pumping of a slurry of chemicals into the ground is widely thought to release toxins and irritants into nearby air and water. The noise and pollution emitted by trucks and heavy machinery also may affect the health of people living nearby.

•••••

Based on an analysis of more than 1.1 million births in Pennsylvania between 2004 and 2013, the new research found that babies born to mothers who lived within 1 kilometer (0.64 miles) of a fracking well weighed, on average, 1.38 ounces less than babies whose gestation occurred 3 kilometers or more from a fracking site.

•••••

The largest health impacts were found in infants born to mothers living the closest to active wells. Compared to those whose pregnant mothers lived about 10 miles or more away, these infants were 25% more likely to weigh less than 5 1/2 pounds and be classified as low birth weight, the authors found.

For babies whose mothers lived between 1 and 3 kilometers from a well, researchers found birth-weight effects, but they were greatly diminished — less than half those found among babies born to women living within 1 kilometer of a well.

The findings suggest that fracking’s impacts on newborns’ health “are highly local,” the authors wrote.

•••••

A study of Pennsylvania published in August 2016 found higher rates of migraine headaches, fatigue, and nasal and sinus symptoms in people who were at greater proximity to fracking operations. Another study, conducted in southwest Pennsylvania, where fracking wells are heavily concentrated, found an increase in cases of bladder cancer, but not of thyroid cancer or leukemia, that was steeper in counties where well density was highest.

In research that examined a Colorado registry of cancer cases, another study found that people aged 5 to 24 who were diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia were more likely to live in areas with a high concentration of oil and gas activity.

Other studies have focused on pregnancy outcomes and infant health. In one conducted in North Texas — where fracking wells abut diverse populations of urbanites — researchers found an increased risk of preterm birth, and a slight increase in fetal death, among pregnant women living close to greater concentrations of fracking wells. But it failed to find an association between a pregnant woman’s proximity to fracking wells and her likelihood of giving birth to a child who was either small for its gestational age or who was born at term at less than 5½ pounds.

•••••

“Birth weight is a proxy: it gives us an insight into what’s going on in gestation, and we worry a lot when we see changes like this,” said Simmons, who is deputy director of the Penn’s Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology. “We know that babies born at low birth weight have a much, much higher risk of diseases such as coronary artery disease, hypertension, diabetes and obesity.”

Simmons, who was not involved in the Science Advances study, acknowledged that many factors contribute to low birth weight, including poverty and poor nutrition. Increasingly, however, environmental factors are gaining their share of attention and research.

•••••

Facebook questionnaire scam alert

https://www.facebook.com/775910465808073/photos/a.787517974647322.1073741827.775910465808073/1511201542278958/?type=3&theater

Williamston Police Department

Please be aware of some of the posts you comment on. The posts that ask what was your favorite teachers name, who was your first grade teacher, who was your childhood best friend, your first car, the place you born, your favorite place, your first pet, where did you go on your first flight, Etc...Those are the same questions asked when setting up accounts as security questions. You are giving out the answers to your security questions without realizing it. Hackers are setting these up as a get to know each other better game. They then build a profile of you from several different data sources. They use this data to hack your accounts or open lines of credit in your name.

Three Things That Wouldn't Have Happened in 2016 without Climate Change

https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/three-things-wouldnt-have-happened-climate-change

Bob Henson · December 13, 2017

“Impossible” is a fraught word, but a new set of studies concludes that at least three atmospheric and oceanic phenomena from 2016 wouldn’t have occurred had we not been adding greenhouse gases to the air for more than a century.

Record heat in Asia, record-high global temperature, and a marine “heat wave” in the far North Pacific are among 27 events analyzed in “Explaining Extreme Events in 2016 from a Climate Perspective.” This report, free to download in its entirety, is the sixth annual compilation of climate attribution studies published as a supplement to the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS). The 2016 report was released on Wednesday.

•••••

Record-high global temperature

Globally averaged surface temperatures hit a new high for the third consecutive year in 2016, leaving the much-disputed warming slowdown of the 2000s in the dust. A team led by Thomas Knutson (NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory) compared the 2016 value to all of the annual global temperatures calculated in an ensemble of more than 24,000 years of simulations from the Climate Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5). All of these runs were for a “control” atmosphere—i.e., one in which greenhouse gases are kept at preindustrial levels.

The warmest peaks and valleys in the CMIP5 control runs were around 0.5°C above and below the midpoint. In contrast, the 2016 global temperature was roughly 1.3°C beyond the 1881-1920 average—thus more than twice as high as anything one would expect had we not been burning fossil fuels. Even if you add about 0.2°C to account for the volcano-induced cooling in 1881-1920, the 2016 warmth can’t be explained without climate change.

•••••

Numerous records were smashed in 2016 during prolonged heat waves across Asia. At least 580 people were killed by record-setting heat across India, and Thailand experienced its most prolonged heat wave in at least 65 years. A research team led by Yukiko Imada (Japan’s Meteorological Research Institute) found that extreme heat was more than twice as widespread across Asia in 2016 as it was during the runner-up year, 2010. The drying and warming effects of El Niño are partly to blame, but when calculating probabilities, the researchers found: “All of the risk of the extremely high temperatures over Asia in 2016 can be attributed to anthropogenic [human-caused] warming. In addition, the ENSO condition [El Niño] made the extreme warmth two times more likely to occur.”

[An El Niño occurs every two to seven years, so it does no make sense to claim it is the cause of record weather. It could make it more extreme than it would have been in another year.]

•••••

Among the other papers in this year’s BAMS report that found a climate-change link was a study led by Xing Yuan (Chinese Academy of Sciences). It examined the Yangtze River flooding in China, the year’s most expensive weather-related disaster. The floods cost $28 billion and claimed 475 lives. Yuan and colleagues found that human-caused climate change has increased the risk of the rains that led to the flooding by 17 – 59%. This risk increases further, to 37 – 91%, when El Niño is a factor, since the after-effects of an El Niño event in winter (as we saw in 2015-16) raises the odds of heavy rain in China in the subsequent summer.

•••••

America's healthiest and least healthy states

By Elizabeth Cohen, Senior Medical Correspondent
Updated 3:02 PM ET, Tue December 12, 2017

Despite years of efforts to even out health disparities across the United States, some states are dramatically healthier than others, according to a new report.
Massachusetts, Hawaii, Vermont, Utah and Connecticut rank as the five healthiest states, while West Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi rank the least healthy in America's Health Rankings, according to the report by the United Health Foundation.

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Mississippi and Louisiana, ranked 49th and 50th, have major health challenges, according to the report, including a high prevalence of smoking, obesity and children in poverty.

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This latest report shows that the nation's health overall is getting worse.

The nation's premature death rate -- the number of years of potential life lost before age 75 -- increased 3% since 2015.
That increase is driven in part by drug deaths, which increased 7% during that time, and cardiovascular deaths, which went up 2%.

That leaves the United States ranking 27th in terms of life expectancy in a comparison of 35 countries, according to the report.

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"We're spending more on health care and we die sooner," he said. "We need to do a time out and figure out how to do this better."

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Links

Dying polar bear roams iceless land for food in 'soul-crushing' video
https://www.yahoo.com/news/dying-polar-bear-roams-iceless-184753367.html


U.S. not granting loan relief to defrauded students: inspector general
https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-not-granting-loan-relief-142240916.html


A new paper finds that America is full of “lost Einsteins” among women, minorities, and low-income groups: high performers who never become inventors because they’re not exposed to innovation as children. Fully capitalizing on such children’s innovation potential could quadruple the rate of innovation in America.
https://promarket.org/americas-lost-einsteins-dealing-blow-innovation/


Republican House Members Think a $450,000 Salary Is Middle Class
http://www.newsweek.com/tax-cuts-republicans-middle-class-trump-701094

Links

‘Tsunami of data’ could consume one fifth of global electricity by 2025
Billions of internet-connected devices could produce 3.5% of global emissions within 10 years and 14% by 2040, according to new research
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/dec/11/tsunami-of-data-could-consume-fifth-global-electricity-by-2025


A Roy Moore spokesperson just said Moore “probably” thinks homosexual conduct should be illegal
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/12/12/16769854/roy-moore-homosexuality-illegal


Fire at a homeless encampment sparked Bel-Air blaze that destroyed homes, officials say
[Ironic. The weatlthy have zoned land so that many people can't afford a place to live.]
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-skirball-fire-cause-20171212-story.html


Homeless Explosion on West Coast Pushing Cities to Brink
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Homeless-Explosion-on-West-Coast-Pushing-Cities-to-Brink-455493753.html


Social media "ripping apart" society, former Facebook executive says
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/chamath-palihapitiya-former-facebook-executive-social-media-ripping-apart-society/


The biggest meteor shower of the year peaks this week. Here’s how to watch.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2017/12/12/the-biggest-meteor-shower-of-the-year-peaks-this-week-heres-how-to-watch/?utm_term=.9ce2a476b83d


Having older brothers increases men's likelihood of being gay
http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/11/health/men-older-brothers-gay-study/index.html

Expel Moore If He Wins, Voters Say Almost 2-1

https://poll.qu.edu/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=2507

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If Roy Moore wins the U.S. Senate election in Alabama and becomes a Senator, the Senate should vote to expel him, American voters say 60 - 31 percent. Republicans oppose expelling Moore 65 - 25 percent and white men are split 46 - 45 percent. Every other party, gender, education, age and racial group says expel him.

Women say 67 - 24 percent that Moore should be expelled, and men agree 52 - 40 percent.

Voters disapprove 63 - 21 percent of President Trump's endorsement of Moore. Republicans are the only listed group to approve, by an anemic 50 - 25 percent.

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The Quinnipiac University Poll, directed by Douglas Schwartz, Ph.D., conducts nationwide public opinion surveys, and statewide polls in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Iowa and Colorado as a public service and for research.

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American Voters Have Few Kind Words For Trump, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds

https://poll.qu.edu/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=2507

In trying to find the right word for President Donald Trump, American voters are overwhelmingly negative, as 53 voters (not percent) say "idiot" is the first word that comes to mind when they think of the president, followed by 44 voters who say "liar" and 36 voters who say "incompetent," according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today.

In the same open-ended question, allowing for any answer, 35 voters say "leader," with 35 voters saying "strong," 26 voters saying "a**hole," 21 voters saying "great," 19 voters saying "moron," 18 voters saying "arrogant" and 17 voters saying "disgusting," the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University Poll finds. Of the 48 words used by five or more voters, 30 words are negative.

Voters disapprove 57 - 37 percent of the job President Trump is doing, consistent with findings for the last four months. Trump has hit or topped the 40 percent approval mark four times since he was inaugurated. His highest approval, 42 percent, was in February.

The Russian government tried to influence the 2016 presidential election, voters say 73 - 22 percent, including Republicans by a narrow 50 - 45 percent.

Voters say 41 - 28 percent this interference changed the outcome of the election.

And American voters say 57 - 38 percent Trump has attempted to "derail or obstruct the investigation into the Russian interference in the 2016 election." By a narrow 48 - 44 percent, American voters say Trump did not collude with the Russian government to influence the election, but voters say 52 - 40 percent that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government.

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From December 6 - 11, Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,211 voters nationwide with a margin of error of +/- 3.5 percentage points, including the design effect. Live interviewers call landlines and cell phones.

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The United States experienced its 7th warmest November and 10th warmest autumn in 2017

https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/national-climate-201711

The November [2017] nationally averaged temperature was 45.1°F, 3.4°F above the 20th century average, and ranked as the seventh warmest on record.

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The autumn (September–November) temperature was 55.7°F, 2.1°F above the 20th century average, and the 10th warmest on record.

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The year-to-date U.S. average temperature was the third warmest on record at 56.4°F, 2.6°F above average. Only January–November of 2012 and 2016 were warmer.

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In Kids’ Climate Lawsuit, Judges Question Government Effort to Get Case Dismissed

There is no doubt that Trump expects the people he is appointing to the lifetime appeals court positions would rule against such suits.

Nicholas Kusnetz
By Nicholas Kusnetz
Dec. 11, 2017

The Trump administration's efforts to block a major climate change lawsuit that was brought on novel grounds by a group of young people appeared to suffer a setback Monday at a hearing before a federal appeals court.

The lawsuit, Juliana v. United States, was filed in 2015 on behalf of 21 youths who are accusing the government of violating their constitutional rights by failing to address climate change and continuing to subsidize fossil fuels.

A federal district judge earlier this year set a trial date for February. But in July, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals paused the case after the Justice Department invoked an unusual legal maneuver to try to block the lawsuit.

On Monday, two of the three judges on the panel seemed dubious of the move.

Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, has been following the case and said the judges' questions and comments on Monday suggested they would send the case back to the district court and allow it to proceed. "They said it's too early to be here," Gerrard said.

Last year, the district judge denied the government's motion to dismiss the case. After President Donald Trump took office, however, the Justice Department asked for a writ of mandamus—essentially an order from an appeals court to a lower one, generally to correct an abuse. The Department of Justice contended in its petition that the district court had "rendered unprecedented and clearly erroneous rulings" by failing to dismiss the case and had demonstrated "a remarkable disregard for essential separation-of-powers limitations."

At the hearing on Monday in San Francisco, Chief Judge Sidney R. Thomas, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, said there was no precedent for issuing such a writ under these conditions and that if the judges did issue it, there would be "no logical boundary to it."

The plaintiffs are seeking to establish a constitutional right to a stable climate, and they're asking the courts to order the federal government to rapidly cut the nation's greenhouse gas emissions.

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