Pakistan has experienced an exceptionally wet monsoon with unusually heavy rains this year, probably due to climate change, but its 7,200 glaciers are also melting, contributing to the catastrophic flooding engulfing the country. The floods have caused over $1 billion of damage, destroyed over a mil[...]
Archive for the ‘Environment’ Category
August 29th, 2022 - 7:18 pm § in Environment
It’s too late to stop sea level rise
Scientists using a new satellite-based methodology predicted Greenland ice melt will raise sea level nearly a foot by 2100 in a study published on Monday, August 29, 2022 (read story here). “A one-foot rise in global sea levels would have major consequences for coastal communities,” CN[...]
August 28th, 2022 - 8:13 pm § in Environment
Water? Who needs it? You do
Americans are moving in droves to the hottest and driest parts of the country. A Vox article (here) says, “Leading the way in growth was Maricopa County in Arizona, home to Phoenix, a desert metropolis that receives more sunshine than any other major city on Earth — and averages more than 11[...]
Technically, nobody is too stupid to be a U.S. senator
Seriously, the only qualifications to be a U.S. senator are you must “have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and … when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State …” (U.S. Const., Art. I, §3). The Framers intentionally gave[...]
August 21st, 2022 - 11:07 pm § in China, Environment
China’s rivers are drying up, too
In China, the Yangtze River’s water levels “have been falling rapidly due to a drought and a heatwave in China’s southwestern region,” CNN says (read story here). “Rainfall in the Yangtze basin has been around 45% lower than normal,” CNN said. “As many as 66[...]
August 12th, 2022 - 4:51 pm § in Environment
How squirrels keep cool
I learned a new word today: “Splooting.” Read story here. Return to The-Ave.US Home Page[...]
July 27th, 2022 - 3:42 pm § in Environment, Law and Courts
Eco-vigilantes flatten SUV tires
A criminal gang of planet-savers is roaming New York City, looking for high-end SUVs, and flattening their tires. These acts of eco-vigilantism have negligible, unmeasurable, effect on auto emissions; so it must be for revenge against car owners. It’s also highly counterproductive, because act[...]
July 21st, 2022 - 2:24 pm § in Environment, Law and Courts
Using courts for social change has limits
Legislatures legislate, and courts adjudicate. Washington law requires DNR to manage state-owned trust lands for the financial benefit of schools, other state institutions, and counties in some cases (if they gave land to the state). Think logging. That policy goes back to statehood, when the federa[...]
July 21st, 2022 - 1:46 pm § in Environment
Monarch butterfly is “red listed”
“The iconic black and orange monarch butterfly is threatened with extinction because of habitat destruction and climate change,” conservationists warned on Thursday, on July 21, 2022. “The monarch population has declined between 22% and 72% over the past decade, scientists said. T[...]
July 20th, 2022 - 9:31 pm § in Environment
Will global warming kill you?
Forget hot, muggy summers. Start thinking survival. Scientists are “alarmed about the increasing frequency of extreme heat paired with high humidity,” says a Scientific American article of July 19, 2022 (read it here). That’s because current heat waves are approaching “the th[...]