The Sting of Climate Change | Ecce Homo Destroys | Trump vs. Women

“Human beings are so destructive. I sometimes think we’re a kind of plague, that will scrub the earth clean. We destroy things so well that I sometimes think, maybe that’s our function. Maybe every few eons, some animal comes along that kills off the rest of the world, clears the decks, and lets evolution proceed to its next phase.” – Michael Crichton

“Perhaps our greatest distinction as a species is our capacity, unique among animals, to make counter-evolutionary choices.” – Jared Diamond

The Sting of Climate Change: It’s the middle of summer right now in Australia. The weather’s perfect for a trip to the beach—unless it’s too dangerous to get in the water. Authorities in Queensland had to shut down beaches in the region last weekend for exactly that reason. The waters around the Australian coastline are swarming with what’s been described as a jellyfish “epidemic”. Thousands of stings were reported last week, and while the vast majority of those stings were from common “bluebottle” colonies, researchers say the number of more serious injuries from less common jellyfish is also at above-average levels. Encounters with the very dangerous box jellyfish have resulted in more than 70 deaths across the continent.

Due to a lack of long-term data some scientists have been careful to link climate change and jellyfish blooms, but most researchers agree that jellyfish populations respond positively to a number of human-induced changes, including pollution, overfishing and warmer water. Australian environmentalists argue their own government shares some of the blame for the problem. There has not been a coordinated effort to tackle plastic pollution in the waters around the coastline, and last October the conservative governing party rejected calls to abandon coal power by 2050. The Australian government’s ennui, combined with that of nations like China that leave a much bigger carbon and plastic waste footprint, is indicative of some fairly pessimistic predictions for the future.

Additional reads: “A Terrifying Sea-Level Prediction Now Looks Far Less Likely: But experts warn that our overall picture of sea-level rise looks far scarier today than it did even five years ago.” (Atlantic) and “Incredible ‘sea monster’ skull revealed in 3D: Some 200 million years ago in what is now Warwickshire, a dolphin-like reptile died and sank to the bottom of the sea.” (BBC)

Tuna Singing The Blues-fin: Sushi chain owner Kiyoshi Kimura purchased a 612 Pacific Bluefin Tuna Saturday at a Tokyo fish market auction for the record price of $3.1 million. The giant tuna will translate to more than 12,000 pieces of sushi for the company’s restaurants — good news for diners, and bad news for the Pacific Bluefin, which is considered “threatened” due to overfishing. Japan consumes 80 percent of the world’s bluefin tuna and typically exceeds its fishing quotas, as do Mexico, Korea and the US. Close relatives of the Pacific Bluefin are in even worse shape: the Atlantic Bluefin is listed as endangered, and the Southern Bluefin, is critically endangered. (NPR) Additional read: “Protein mania: the rich world’s new diet obsession: Why we can’t get enough when we already eat too much.” (Guardian)

Fake Plastic Trees: “An Engineering Wunderkind’s Ocean Plastics Cleanup Device Hits A Setback” (NPR) “‘Ditch cling film and switch to soap’: 10 easy ways to reduce your plastics use in 2019: Guardian environment correspondent Sandra Laville explains why we can’t recycle our way out of the plastics problem, and suggests ways to reduce your footprint” (Guardian) “Time-bombing the future: Synthetics created in the 20th century have become an evolutionary force, altering human biology and the web of life” (Aeon) Additional video: “The Graduate “One Word: Plastics.”

Coup D’eNOT: A government spokesman for Gabon, a country along the Atlantic coast in Central Africa, said Monday a coup attempt had been thwarted and “The situation is under control.” Early that same morning armed soldiers had seized a state radio station and begun broadcasting that the nation was under their control and that a new leader would be chosen. Within a few hours the government had regained command and arrested several leaders of the attempted coup. (NPR) Additional read: “Who is Ali Bongo, president of Gabon? ” (BBC)

Airstrike Rates Are Sky High: Within the first few months of President Trump’s term in office, the White House gave the Pentagon approval to expand its fight against militants in Somalia. Ground commanders were then able to approve strikes on al-Shabab in “areas of active hostilities” without high-level vetting. In a speech in December outlining US Africa policy, Trump’s National Security Adviser John Bolton said: “terrorists operating in Africa have… repeatedly targeted US citizens and interests”, which would explain the sharp rise in US-led airstrikes in Somalia. This significant increase in US action against al-Shabab, begun in 2017, is likely to continue in 2019. (BBC)

Duterte Opens Up A Can Of Sardines: Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte’s antidrug campaign has snared so many people the country’s prison system is now #1 on the World Prison Brief’s official list of the most overcrowded incarceration systems in the world. An example is Dorm Five in the Manila City Jail, which has a capacity of 170 inmates. At present 518 men are stuffed into Dorm Five. Many of these men will spend months or years here because the court system is so jammed. And because detainees so outnumber guards, officials are quietly letting jailhouse gangs “direct traffic”. (NYT)

Newsom Brings Something New: California’s new governor, Gavin Newsom, was sworn in Monday. He follows in the footsteps of Jerry Brown, whose “bring ’em together” cooperative approach to governing led journalists to call him “the adult in the room.” Newsom has a much different style. As the former mayor of San Francisco, Newsom was a risk-taker and light years ahead when he made the decision in 2004 to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The US Supreme Court didn’t legalize that nationwide until 2015. And it was either out of the box thinking, political courage, or just trying to keep his name in the headlines when then Lieutenant Governor Newsom laid the groundwork for voters to legalize the recreational use of marijuana.

Now governor, Newsom has an ambitious agenda, from climate change to criminal justice reform, and a Democratic legislative majority to assist. Jerry Brown’s last piece of advice to Newsom was to “don’t screw it up.” (NPR) Additional read: A New Yorker profile: “Gavin Newsom, the Next Head of the California Resistance: Like many Democrats in the Trump era, Newsom aims to harness the alarm of moderates, the rage of progressives, and the widespread yearning for a new politics.”

Trump Vs Democratic Women: “We have 102 women in Congress. It’s not Trump’s Washington any more: Thursday felt like the start of something truly new and important and it was clear that it rattled the president” (Guardian) and “Will it be a black woman who turfs Trump out of the White House?: Democrat Kamala Harris embodies the driving force behind the party’s electoral surge. She may be their best bet for 2020 “ (Guardian) and “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s very bad defense of her falsehoods” (WaPo) and “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says ‘no question’ Trump is racist: New Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has said there is “no question” that President Donald Trump is racist.” (BBC)

– “After Falling Short, U.S. Army Gets Creative With New Recruiting Strategy: Uncle Sam may want Generation Z, but the feeling doesn’t seem to be mutual.” (NPR)

– “American ISIS Member Caught on Syrian Battlefield, Militia Says” (NYT)

– “Politicians cannot block social media foes: U.S. appeals court” (Reuters)

Data Visualization Helps Make Sense of our Complex World: “The 20 Internet Giants That Rule the Web” (Visual Capitalist) and  “A Visual Summary: 32 Learning Theories Every Teacher Should Know” (Teachthought) and “2018: The Reuters graphics department takes a lookback at a year’s worth of work” (Reuters) and “The best data visualization in 2018, according to data visualization experts” (Quartz)

“Stop Using Third-Party Weather Apps: Time and time again, weather apps—including The Weather Channel, Accuweather, and WeatherBug—have shown that they share your location data.” (Motherboard)

– “I lost 13 stone – now I know the truth about obesity: For years, I swallowed all the theories about fat, believing I could be obese and fit. Here are five dangerous myths, debunked” (Guardian)

– “The money, job, marriage myth: are you happy yet?: The ‘success’ narrative is at the heart of our idea of wellbeing, but the evidence tells a different tale, argues behavioural scientist Paul Dolan in this extract from his new book” (Guardian)

– “The scientist who tried to be as selfless as possible, until it killed him:What the late biologist George Price can teach us about the price of altruism.” (Vox)

– “Raising Kids Isn’t Easy. Parenting Advice Often Makes It Harder.” (NYT) And “Six ways to raise a resilient child: Want to help your children deal with stress and adversity? It’s easier than you think” (Guardian)

“The chicken is only an egg’s way for making another egg.” – Richard Dawkins

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