On 13 September, the expanse of frozen water in the Arctic fell to 5.10 million square kilometres (1.97 million square miles), the sixth-lowest such measurement on record, the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) said in a statement. The annual minimum was not as extreme as the collapse of sea ice last year, which smashed through all records. But it was still well below the average of the last three decades. "The overall trend is still decidedly downwards," the NSIDC director, Mark Serreze, said in a statement. "The pattern we've seen so far is an overall downward trend in summer ice extent, punctuated by ups and downs due to natural variability in weather patterns and ocean conditions." He went on: "We could be looking at summers with essentially no sea ice on the Arctic Ocean only a few decades from now."
"The overall trend is still decidedly downwards," the NSIDC director, Mark Serreze, said in a statement. "The pattern we've seen so far is an overall downward trend in summer ice extent, punctuated by ups and downs due to natural variability in weather patterns and ocean conditions."
He went on: "We could be looking at summers with essentially no sea ice on the Arctic Ocean only a few decades from now."
Steve Benen notes that Republicans have been completely wrong about the U.S. economy three times in the past two decades — about Clinton, Bush, and Obama — but haven’t changed their doctrine a bit.
The thing is, there’s no accountability — and not just in the minds of the general public. The other day I found myself talking to a currency trader, who lamented the fact that all the experts had been wrong — they’d all predicted runaway inflation and a collapse of the dollar. The point was that even this guy believed that the people who have been consistently wrong about everything for decades are the “experts”; somehow they retain that reputation despite their record.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has just published a first-of-its-kind assessment of the threat the country faces from antibiotic-resistant organisms, ranking them by the number of illnesses and deaths they cause each year and outlining urgent steps that need to be taken to roll back the trend. The agency’s overall — and, it stressed, conservative — assessment of the problem: Each year, in the U.S., 2,049,442 illnesses caused by bacteria and fungi that are resistant to at least some classes of antibiotics; Each year, out of those illnesses, 23,000 deaths; Because of those illnesses and deaths, $20 billion each year in additional healthcare spending; And beyond the direct healthcare costs, an additional $35 billion lost to society in foregone productivity. “If we are not careful, we will soon be in a post-antibiotic era,” Dr. Tom Frieden, the CDC’s director, said in a media briefing. “And for some patients and for some microbes, we are already there.”
The agency’s overall — and, it stressed, conservative — assessment of the problem:
“If we are not careful, we will soon be in a post-antibiotic era,” Dr. Tom Frieden, the CDC’s director, said in a media briefing. “And for some patients and for some microbes, we are already there.”
Ocean acidification, the lesser-known twin of climate change, threatens to scramble marine life on a scale almost too big to fathom.
After Hurricane Katrina, everyone who’d ever sucked down a drink on Bourbon Street claimed the Big Easy as their home. When 12 people are shot dead in This Town, our nation shrugs collectively and offers justifications for its apathy. There were no children involved. It wasn’t in a part of the city familiar to outsiders. It wasn’t at a nationally known and revered event, like the Boston Marathon. It was in a military building, not a commercial workplace. It didn’t affect thousands like a natural disaster. More people die in tragic circumstances around the globe every day. It all translates to: “There are viable reasons we don’t care too much.” Beyond the Beltway, Americans can be forgiven for not knowing the geography of the city. For not knowing that everything here happens within a few miles. That the site of the massacre is about a block from a park where kids splash in a fountain. What cannot be forgiven is the dehumanization of a town and the uninterest when 12 people who work there do not make it home.
Beyond the Beltway, Americans can be forgiven for not knowing the geography of the city. For not knowing that everything here happens within a few miles. That the site of the massacre is about a block from a park where kids splash in a fountain.
What cannot be forgiven is the dehumanization of a town and the uninterest when 12 people who work there do not make it home.
Let's be clear about something: the federal government is cutting basic social services while funding SWAT gear for local police departments and building up a massive surveillance state ostensibly in order to prevent random acts of terror. But the secure arsenal of a major Navy base in the nation's capital is so poorly guarded that someone without proper clearance can simply walk in with a bunch of high-powered guns, or pick them once he's there? It's not like this guy was a Hans Gruber level criminal mastermind. Most terrorists aren't very sophisticated. But what if, heaven forbid, there ever were a villain out there worthy of an action film or Robert Ludlum novel? You know, the sort of villain without whose existence it doesn't make much sense to be spending untold billions on "Homeland Security?" The ease with which some random guy was able to accomplish this is disturbing.
But the secure arsenal of a major Navy base in the nation's capital is so poorly guarded that someone without proper clearance can simply walk in with a bunch of high-powered guns, or pick them once he's there? It's not like this guy was a Hans Gruber level criminal mastermind.
Most terrorists aren't very sophisticated. But what if, heaven forbid, there ever were a villain out there worthy of an action film or Robert Ludlum novel? You know, the sort of villain without whose existence it doesn't make much sense to be spending untold billions on "Homeland Security?" The ease with which some random guy was able to accomplish this is disturbing.
So what's the bottom line? With every extreme weather event nowadays, from Superstorm Sandy to the Colorado floods, there's a strong inclination to link it to climate change. But once you get into the details, the word "link" becomes far too vague: Each event is different, and the ways in which it may or may not relate to a changing climate are also varied. Partial contributions may be present—global warming exacerbated Sandy's storm surge through sea level rise, and probably contributed to some percentage of the rainfall over Colorado—and individual events may be consistent with larger trends. But ultimate "causal" connections remain difficult to establish and, according to Trenberth, the very attempt itself may be missing the point. The real question is: Why would we expect it to be otherwise? When you conduct a massive experiment with only one planet as your test subject—or as scientists would put it, an experiment with an N of 1—this is the situation you create. And the proper way of thinking about that situation is clear: Even when you can't be definitive, you can definitely be worried.
The real question is: Why would we expect it to be otherwise? When you conduct a massive experiment with only one planet as your test subject—or as scientists would put it, an experiment with an N of 1—this is the situation you create. And the proper way of thinking about that situation is clear: Even when you can't be definitive, you can definitely be worried.
If the assertion that ineptitude and not malice was the cause of these ongoing violations is taken at face value, it is perfectly reasonable for Congress and the American people to question whether a program that no one fully understood was an effective defense of American security at all. The fact that this program was allowed to operate this way raises serious concerns about the potential for blind spots in the NSA’s surveillance programs. It also supports our position that bulk collection ought to be ended.
New Jersey’s unemployment rate is the highest in the region, and yet he left $3 billion in federal money on the table when he canceled plans to build a tunnel under the Hudson River. The state’s credit rating has dropped on his watch, thanks to his habit of pushing costs to the future. New Jersey’s foreclosure rate is also among the highest in the nation, and the state’s response among the most inept...Christie opposes abortion rights and closed six Planned Parenthood clinics. He vetoed marriage equality. He vetoed a surtax on millionaires. He has retreated on climate change. And he removed the only black justice from the state Supreme Court.
Five Reasons Why Sea Ice Decline Should be Front Page News
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has called off a state visit to Washington next month over allegations of US espionage.