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"Mark Is Not Going To Die In Vain": New Yorkers Rally After Murder of Gay Man

by u60uurf Posted on May 21, 2013

Mother Jones

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The site where Mark Carson was shot on West 8th Street, New York. Police say the killing was a hate crime. James West

Blinding afternoon sun lit the biggest gay rights demonstration in years in New York’s West Village Monday. The LGBT community and its supporters, including a couple of mayoral candidates, marched in the wake of a murder that has capped a month-long spate of homophobic violence.

Demonstrators—police say 1,500, organizers say many hundreds more—marched through the leafy streets that gave birth to the gay rights movement to the corner where Mark Carson, 32, was shot in the face and killed Friday night as he walked with a friend. Police have charged Elliot Morales, 33, with second-degree murder and a hate crime, accusing him of hurling homophobic slurs at Carson.

Flourine Bompars, Carson’s aunt, addressed the crowd, calling Carson “a loving and caring person” who will not be forgotten.

The audience applauded and cheered loudly after Bishop Zachary Jones of Unity Fellowship Church of Christ, East New York, shouted, “There is room for everyone at the table of love… and we will march and we will come closer together to make sure everyone has the right to be who they are.”

Protestors march through New York’s west village. Police and community groups say there has been an upwing in “bias” crimes. James West

The randomness of Carson’s death has sent a jolt through the gay community. “It’s clear that the victim here was killed only because and just because he was thought to be gay,” the police commissioner, Ray Kelly, said on Sunday.

Community leaders say Carson’s death is part of a worrying citywide trend: an uptick in violence against gay people, with five incidents this month alone. Police say “bias crimes” have risen this year compared to the same period last year, from 13 to 22, and advocates say that was on top of rising reports of violence from the previous year.

“The most pain is emotional,” said Nick Porto, a 27-year-old fashion designer from Brooklyn, who was assaulted this month with his boyfriend Kevin Atkins, 22, as they walked near Madison Square after a Knicks game. (Police have released a video of the suspects).

“Mark is not going to die in vain. We are not going to get beat up in vain,” Porto said after the rally. “Gay rights, we’re still fighting for them, and the fight is not over. We need to protect each other.”

Nick Porto (L) and Kevin Atkins, a couple, were assaulted after a Knicks game on May 5th. James West

But the source of the increase in violence is hard to pin down, say community leaders. Some who spoke at the rally blamed the increased visibility of gay rights: With a greater presence comes greater pushback, the reasoning goes. Sharon Stapel, executive director of the New York Anti-Violence Project, says victims are also feeling more comfortable reporting such crimes.

“But I also think we’re still living in a country where it’s lawful to discriminate against LGBT people, and that sends a message that it’s OK to be hateful towards LGBT people,” she said.

The protest also formed the backdrop to the race for New York City mayor. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, herself a lesbian, marched alongside relatives of Mark Carson at the head of the rally, but did not speak to the crowd. John Liu, the hyperactive city comptroller who is also a candidate, was at the rally shaking hands and introducing himself.

Nick Porto, the assault victim, admitted he was moved when he looked out across the crowd that filled 8th Street, “My knees got weak, I almost fell, I was just a mess,” he said. “It’s proof, it’s absolute hope in our community, that we will survive this.”

“Gay rights isn’t just about gay marriage,” he told the cheering crowd. “We need to live long enough to share in that opportunity.”

John Liu (L), and Christine Quinn with members of the Carson family. Both are running for New York City mayor. James West

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"Mark Is Not Going To Die In Vain": New Yorkers Rally After Murder of Gay Man

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Atlantic coastal waters are the hottest since measurements began

by u60uurf Posted on May 2, 2013

Atlantic coastal waters are the hottest since measurements began

By John Upton

Shutterstock

A view of warming waters, from Cape Cod.

Would you like some broiled flounder with your serving of climate apocalypse?

Well, you’re going to have to broil it yourself, because record-breaking temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean are driving the fish away from fast-heating waters toward more hospitable depths and latitudes.

The Atlantic Ocean’s surface temperatures from Maine to North Carolina broke records last year, reaching an average of 57.2°F, nearly three degrees warmer than the average of the past 30 years.

That’s according to new data published by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which says the jump in average temperature from 2011 to 2012 was the largest recorded one-year spike in the marine region, which is known as the Northeast Shelf Ecosystem. Last year’s average temperature was also the highest recorded there since measurements began 150 years ago.

Here’s a graph that shows the spike:

NOAA

Click to embiggen.

And here’s another, showing last year’s water temperatures in red. The gray line represents average temperatures and the gray shading shows standard deviations from that average:

NOAA

Click to embiggen.

That’s not too shabby if you fancy a balmy dip in the brine. But the implications for the ecosystem’s wildlife and fisheries could be profound.

The production of plankton, which forms the basis of oceanic food webs, appears to have been affected. NOAA scientists discovered that fall plankton blooms were smaller than normal in the area last year, which would be making it harder for fish and other species to find food right now. And they found that the shelf’s fish and shellfish were fleeing from their normal habitats, chased north or into deeper waters by the extraordinary heat.

From Oceana:

These abnormally high temperatures are fundamentally altering marine ecosystems, from the abundance of plankton to the movement of fish and whales. Many marine species have specific time periods for spawning, migration, and birthing based on temperature signals and availability of prey. Kevin Friedland, a scientist in NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s Ecosystem Assessment Program, said “Changes in ocean temperatures and the timing and strength of spring and fall plankton blooms could affect the biological clocks of many marine species, which spawn at specific times of the year based on environmental cues like water temperature.”

Black sea bass, summer flounder, longfin squid, and butterfish were among the commonly fished species that moved northeast as the temperatures rose, NOAA says.

The record-breaking heat off the Atlantic coastline is typical of a worrisome worldwide trend. The world’s oceans are absorbing a lot of the globe’s excess heat. That’s helping keep down land temperatures in a warming world, but it threatens to throw marine ecosystems into turmoil. And scientists warn that the oceans won’t absorb so much of the extra heat forever. Eventually we’re going to broil not only the seas, but also the land.

John Upton is a science aficionado and green news junkie who

tweets

, posts articles to

Facebook

, and

blogs about ecology

. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants:

johnupton@gmail.com

.

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Atlantic coastal waters are the hottest since measurements began

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"Go to Sleep or I Will Call the Planes"

by u60uurf Posted on April 24, 2013

Mother Jones

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A week ago, activist Farea al-Muslimi was live-tweeting the aftermath of a drone attack on his childhood village of Wessab in Yemen. Monday, he was testifying before a Senate subcommittee on the legality and impact of the Obama administration’s targeted killing program. It was the first time Congress has heard from a witness with anything close to first-hand experience with being on the receiving end of a drone strike.

“Women used to say to kids go to sleep or I will call your father,” Muslimi said. “Now they say go to sleep, or I will call the planes.”

Last week’s strike killed Hameed al-Radmi, described by the US government as an Al Qaeda leader, and four suspected militants. But Muslimi told the Senate that Radmi had recently met with Yemeni government officials, and could easily have been captured, rather than killed in a strike that alienated everyone in the village.

“All they have is the psychological fear and terror that now occupies their souls,” Muslimi said of the residents of Wessab. “They fear that their home or a neighbor’s home could be bombed at any time by a U.S. drone.” President Obama received some backup from an unlikely source—Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has spent the last week criticizing the Obama administration for handling the suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings in civilian court. Graham said although he would prefer to capture terror suspects, Yemeni officials couldn’t be trusted to apprehend them. “The world we live in is where if you share this closely held information you’re going to end up tipping off somebody,” Graham told Muslimi.

The United States has carried out 64 drone strikes in Yemen since Obama took office, according to the New America Foundation. The Obama administration did not send a witness to the hearing to defend its targeted killing policy despite promising greater transparency, but Obama has previously defended the targeted killing policy by stating that lethal force is only used in “a situation in which we can’t capture the individual before they move forward on some sort of operational plot against the United States.” Critics of the policy, which include former members of the Obama administration, have said that the policy creates more enemies than it eliminates.

That was Muslimi’s take. “The drones have simply made more mistakes than Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has ever done with civilians,” he told the Senate panel. “The drones have been the tool they have used to prove ordinary Yemenis are at war with the US.”

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"Go to Sleep or I Will Call the Planes"

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Obama’s ‘All of the Above’ Energy and Environment Nominees

by u60uurf Posted on March 4, 2013

green4us

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Obama’s ‘All of the Above’ Energy and Environment Nominees

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100% of electric capacity added in U.S. last month was renewable

by u60uurf Posted on February 19, 2013

100% of electric capacity added in U.S. last month was renewable

By Philip Bump

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the agency which informed us that almost half of all new electricity generating capacity added in the U.S. in 2012 was renewable, has released its data for the month of January. You ready for this?

Here’s how January 2013 compares to January 2012 in terms of new capacity:

Notice anything? Let’s spell it out directly. Here’s how new capacity broke down last January. Brownish sources are fossil fuels. Green are renewable.

And here’s this January.

That’s right: Every single megawatt of new generating capacity added in the U.S. last month was renewable. Every single one.

The full dataset from FERC is here [PDF], outlining the constituent additions: 958 megawatts of wind, 267 of solar, and 6 little megawatts of biomass. In total, 1,231 megawatts of capacity were added in January of this year compared to 1,693 in January 2012. The amount of wind and solar added last month was greater than the amount of coal and natural gas added a year ago.

Experts (aka me) do not expect this no-new-fossil-fuel-generation trend to continue. Sorry.

Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.

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100% of electric capacity added in U.S. last month was renewable

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In the Context of "1,000 Years" of Warfare, Drones Are "More Humane"

by u60uurf Posted on February 11, 2013

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Last week, Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) gave a sort of backhanded defense of the Obama administration’s controversial targeted killing program.

“To be honest, I believe that drones are a lot more civilized than what we used to do, you know, when Sherman shelled Atlanta or when the Allies firebombed Dresden in World War II, it was all collateral damage. It was virtually all civilians. And that was the way of war until very recently,” King said on Friday’s episode of MSNBC’s Morning Joe. “The drones, although there is some collateral damage, basically is a very smart artillery shell…If you put it in a context of 1,000 years of war, I think it’s actually a more humane weapon because it can be targeted to specific enemies and specific people.”

Of course, that doesn’t have much to do with drone critics’ actual arguments, and Sen. King was wise enough to point that out during his interview: “Now, I do think there’s a problem…about targeting Americans. There is this little item of the Fifth Amendment that says no person shall be denied life, liberty or property without due process of law.”

But King’s initial point is unimpeachably true: When you look at the history of warfare between 1013 A.D. and now, it’s hard to come to the conclusion that drone warfare is any more barbaric or indiscriminate than what humanity has become used to over the past ten centuries. For instance:

when the normans invaded ireland in 1169

Land was taken, the regime was changed, and much brutality was exacted with swords. Via the University of Alabama at Birmingham

When Pope Innocent III launched the tw0-decade Albigensian Crusade

It’s this particularly horrific crusade that gave birth to the phrase, “Kill them all; let God sort them out.” Via Wikimedia Commons

that time the Qing Dynasty put down the Taiping Rebellion between 1850 and 1864

20 million killed, mostly civilians. Via Wikimedia Commons

when america went to the philippines…

Click here for a rundown of American atrocities during the war. Via New York Journal

napalm

Napalm during the Vietnam War has a remarkably ugly legacy.

US Naval War College Museum

US-backED death squads

Memorial of the 1981 El Mozote massacre in El Salvador. Efrojas/Wikimedia Commons


IRAQ

Staff Sgt. Sean A. Foley/US Army

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In the Context of "1,000 Years" of Warfare, Drones Are "More Humane"

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Florida Hunt Nabs 50 Invasive Pythons

by u60uurf Posted on February 11, 2013

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Officials in Florida wrapped up a month-long hunt for Burmese pythons on Sunday, and are pleased by the haul of their inaugural snake sweep. The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission rounded up 50 pythons wandering the Everglades, the Miami Herald reports.

“You can argue it’s not a huge number,” Fish & Wildlife spokesman Jorge Pino told the paper, “but its 50 pythons not in the ecosystem causing havoc.”

As we’ve reported here before, giant, invasive snakes are creating significant problems in Florida—and not just because they might crash your pool party or explode after eating too much alligator. The snakes—which can grow to 18 feet long and weigh as much as 164 pounds—have been eating native rodents and birds, reproducing with abandon, and generally causing problems in an ecosystem where they do not belong. That’s why the state organized the hunt, complete with rules for how to kill pythons and a cash prize:

Hunters had to register with the wildlife commission, take a quick online course, and follow specific humane rules the commission determined were best fit to kill the Southeast Asian native monsters that can grow to close to 20 feet long. The pythons can be legally killed only by a gunshot to the head or by beheading with a machete.
Hunters have until 5 p.m. Monday to turn in what they have captured. They can keep the skins to do with as they wish. Prizes of up to $1,500 for the most pythons caught, and $1,000 for largest python captured, will be awarded at Zoo Miami on Saturday.

Scientists believe that the snakes initially entered the wild as abandoned exotic pets. This is what prompted the Obama administration to issue new rules last year barring the import of pythons and several other breeds of giant snakes. While pythons have been spotted in the wild elsewhere, Florida’s warm, tropical climate is a more viable habitat for them. But with the rest of the US getting ever-warmer, we might want to pay more attention to Florida’s python problem.

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Florida Hunt Nabs 50 Invasive Pythons

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Ranchers Confront Climate Change in Chiapas

by u60uurf Posted on February 7, 2013

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Ranchers Confront Climate Change in Chiapas

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We answer your questions about the coming East Coast blizzard

by u60uurf Posted on February 7, 2013

We answer your questions about the coming East Coast blizzard

By Philip Bump

pbumpA New York City bus, stuck during a 2010 blizzard

It’s going to snow on the East Coast tomorrow, lasting overnight until Saturday. That much is known and agreed upon.

The following points are up for debate.

How much snow will there be?

Boston’s mayor, Thomas Menino, held a press conference this morning, canceling school and suggesting that people not be on the roads after noon. At that time, the city will be in a state of snow emergency. Why? Because of this:

weather.gov

That blizzard could dump two feet of snow on the city — perhaps as much as 30 inches. Or, according to one report: over four feet.

New York, meanwhile, could see an equal amount. Or it could see three inches. Gawker explains the discrepancy:

Right now, American (GFS) computer models are predicting a few inches of snow for much of the tri-state: a little over two inches for New York City; under an inch for much of New Jersey. Some of it might be rain. The sky-water is expected to start falling Thursday night through Friday morning, but the the brunt of the storm probably won’t hit until late Friday night. …

The European model, like a European model, is much more intimidating (and mean). According to the ECMWF (European Center for Medium range Weather Forecasting — boring name; brainstorm improvements while trapped in your home this weekend), the amount of snow in New York could reach over a foot by Saturday evening (about 15 inches). The European model is generally considered by meteorologists to be the most accurate (it was the first to accurately predict the track of Hurricane Sandy).

So the answer to the question above is: We’ll see.

Does the storm have a name?

If you work in the marketing department at the Weather Channel, your answer to this will be an emphatic “yes.” The network has declared the storm to be “Nemo,” after the terrifying submarine captain in that old book, or maybe the terrifying clownfish in that newer movie.

Others, like Time TV critic James Poniewozik, don’t embrace the idea.

What’s the scariest part of the National Weather Service’s blizzard alert?

Well, of all of the words in the alert, it’s probably this section:

VERY STRONG WINDS UP TO HURRICANE FORCE ARE POSSIBLE FRIDAY NIGHT INTO SATURDAY. THIS MAY RESULT IN SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE ALONG WITH BLIZZARD CONDITIONS FOR A TIME. SCATTERED POWER OUTAGES ARE A POSSIBILITY.

Why is this storm happening?

(This issue isn’t actually up for debate.)

The Capital Weather Gang explains:

The cause of the storm is the explosive combination of two weather disturbances.

“A strong northern stream system will translate its energy to a southern stream low coming up the coast,” says [Wes Junker, the Gang’s winter weather expert]. “The latter will pull lots of moisture northward setting the stage for a major blizzard for the northeast as the low bombs out and slows off the New England coast.”

Is this a climate-change-related thing?

We can’t attribute specific weather events to climate change. It is the case that a warmer atmosphere results in more energy and stronger systems, and that incidents of heavy precipitation have increased over the past 60 years.

Will everyone who is still affected by Hurricane Sandy be OK?

God, I hope so.

Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.

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We answer your questions about the coming East Coast blizzard

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Michigan Tea Partier: Charter Schools Are for Kids From "Ethnically Challenged Families"

by u60uurf Posted on February 4, 2013

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A few weeks ago, the Michigan chapter of Americans for Prosperity, the Koch-backed conservative advocacy group, held a “citizen watchdog training” in a suburb of Detroit. The training was billed as a workshop for regular folks to learn “the best tools and techniques in investigative journalism, social media, and opposition research.” Featured speakersâ&#128;&#148;including local activists, conservative state legislators, and Scott Hagerstrom, AFP-Michigan’s directorâ&#128;&#148;would also speak about efforts to “reform” Michigan’s schools.

Among the AFP set, reforming public schools usually means converting them into non-union, privately-run charter schools. Nationally, AFP is a vocal proponent of charters and “school choice.” And at the Michigan citizens training, one of the featured speakers, Norm Hughes, a member of the North Oakland Tea Party Patriots, offered this take on charters:

Kids aren’t going to charter schools if they’re “A” students. They go to charter schools because they’re failing students and, by and large, the charter schools have a higher percentage of poor families, ethnically challenged familiesâ&#128;¦

Ethnically challenged? Hughes did not explain what he meant, but you won’t find that take on charters anywhere in the AFP literature. (Listen here to the audio of Hughes’ comment, grabbed by Progress Michigan, a liberal advocacy group.)

Whatever Holmes’ view of charters, AFP’s agenda in Michigan is cause for concern for Michigan’s public schools and teachers unions. AFP played a central role in ramming through so-called right-to-work legislation for public- and private-sector workers in Michigan in December. Right-to-work legislation is central to AFP’s agenda, and its passage in Michigan, a cradle of organized labor, was a major victory for movement conservatives.

If the January 19 event is any indication, a big push for charters is next up for AFP and its allies in the Michigan legislature. But before they go whole-hog on charters, AFP conservatives might want to give their conservative bedfellows, like Norm Hughes, a few tips about messaging.

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Michigan Tea Partier: Charter Schools Are for Kids From "Ethnically Challenged Families"

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