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Leonardo DiCaprio gives $1 million to help island nation protect its oceans

by ArnetteSoderste Posted on March 19, 2016

Leonardo DiCaprio gives $1 million to help island nation protect its oceans

By on 19 Mar 2016commentsShare

From Shutter Island to Manatee Island, Leonardo DiCaprio keeps winning our hearts — and our climate-inclined minds.

The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation recently granted $1 million to help the Seychelles islands protect their ocean territory — which makes up 99 percent of the country.

It’s part of a huge, unprecedented swap between the Pacific Island nation and foreign investor groups. The gist of the deal: The country of 115 tiny islands commits to protecting 154,000 square miles of its surrounding seas, and in return, its lenders agree to restructure $21.4 million of its debt. From Mashable:

In this case, instead of repaying debt at relatively high interest rates, the Seychelles government will redirect payments to a new, locally-run organization known as the Seychelles Conservation and Climate Adaptation Trust.

DiCaprio’s (ahem) titanic donation will go toward financing this swap, which was brokered by The Nature Conservancy and will result in the second-largest swath of protected waters in the West Indian Ocean. By protecting coral reefs and limiting damaging fishing practices, Seychelles is hoping it will encourage more resilient ecosystems — and in turn, a more robust economy for the ocean-dependent nation.

“We champion projects like this one across the globe that use cutting edge methods in conservation and environmental protection,” said DiCaprio in a press release. “This deal will enhance food security for the local people of Seychelles, help mitigate the effects of climate change on their low-lying island home, and protect the surrounding rich ocean ecosystems for future generations.”

All the more reason to lobby for a new holiday: Leonardo DiCapprecation Day!

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Leonardo DiCaprio gives $1 million to help island nation protect its oceans

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Obama’s Next Supreme Court Pick: Dream Teamer or Confirmable?

by NereidaI04 Posted on February 17, 2016

Mother Jones

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With the unexpected death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, President Barack Obama now has a series of choices to make about how to fill the empty seat on the bench, as he faces unprecedented Senate opposition to naming a replacement in an election year. He could pick a centrist nominee who would be easily confirmable by a GOP-controlled Senate in an ordinary year—though this year is hardly shaping up as ordinary. He could shoot for the moon and select a liberal dream candidate. This person might well become a high-profile sacrificial lamb whose rejection could rally the Democratic base for the coming presidential election. Or Obama could defy partisan lines and go with a nominee he might consider a reasonable conservative, magnanimously opting to keep the court functioning rather than deadlocked with eight members. The White House has not floated any trial balloons, but the legal community can’t help but wildly speculate about whom Obama might pick. Based on some of that speculation, here’s a list of possible candidates for all of those scenarios.

The Centrists:

Padmanabhan Srikanth Srinivasan: The 48-year-old Indian immigrant is at the top of everyone’s list as a likely Scalia replacement, if for no other reason than that the Senate confirmed him unanimously in 2013 to a seat on the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. Senate Republicans would be hard-pressed to explain why a guy who was qualified for the federal judiciary three years ago shouldn’t be confirmed as a Supreme Court justice. Srinivasan served as the principal deputy solicitor general before becoming a judge, and he has argued more than two dozen cases before the Supreme Court. As a private attorney, he often represented business interests. He graduated from Stanford Law School, which would add some West Coast sensibility to the court. He also happened to clerk for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, a Republican appointee, and for federal appeals court Judge Harvie Wilkinson III, a well-regarded, thoughtful conservative. That Wilkinson clerkship may help explain Srinivasan’s previous support among Republicans in the Senate.

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Obama’s Next Supreme Court Pick: Dream Teamer or Confirmable?

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Indonesia Fires Seen From a Million Miles Away

by Myrna Posted on October 29, 2015

Yikes. NASA Normally, I think pictures of Earth from space are among the most beautiful of all astronomical photos. Our home is gorgeous, especially when seen from afar. But Monday, NASA tweeted a picture of our world whose ugliness made me literally gasp when I understood what I was seeing. The photo above is from the Earth-observing DSCOVR satellite, which sits 1.5 million km (almost a million miles) over our planet, taking full-disk images every hour, which are then put online for the public to view. That shot was taken on Oct. 25 at 05:37 UTC. NASA put the picture on Twitter to point out the three tropical low systems developing in the Indian Ocean. Which is great, and very cool. But what caught my eye was the huge grayish hazy patch over Indonesia, over to the right a bit. Read the rest at Slate. From: Indonesia Fires Seen From a Million Miles Away ; ; ;

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Indonesia Fires Seen From a Million Miles Away

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Book Review: My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem

by ThomasEwald Posted on October 24, 2015

Mother Jones

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My Life on the Road

By Gloria Steinem

RANDOM HOUSE

Steinem spent her childhood crammed against her sister in the backseat of a car as her father tried to persuade roadside antique dealers to buy his wares. In My Life on the Road, her first book in more than 20 years, Steinem elegantly reflects on this nomadic upbringing and how it inspired her own travels. Though she never learned to drive, her tours as a young journalist introduced her to women who helped shape her ideology: disgruntled American stewardesses, passengers in a female-only Indian train car, and an Irish taxi driver who told Steinem in the 1970s, “Honey, if men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament!”

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Book Review: My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem

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Breaking: Malaysia Says Washed-Up Wreckage Is from MH370

by SonMdn121076 Posted on August 5, 2015

Mother Jones

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The biggest aviation mystery of our time is one step closer to being solved today, after the Malaysian Prime Minister confirmed that washed-up debris discovered on the remote French island Réunion last week is from Malaysia Airlines flight 370.

The barnacle-encrusted wing-part, called a “flaperon”, was being studied by French authorities for connections to the Boeing 777, which was carrying 239 people when it veered dramatically off-course and vanished on March 8, 2014, sparking an international hunt for the plane, thought to be at the bottom of the Indian Ocean off Australia.

The Guardian quotes Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak as saying: “Today, 513 days since the plane disappeared, it is with a very heavy heart that I must tell you that an international team of experts has conclusively confirmed that the aircraft debris found on Réunion is indeed from MH370. We now have physical evidence that on 31 March last year, flight MH370 tragically ended in the south Indian ocean.”

Great mysteries remain, however, most notably how the wing part ended up drifting so many thousands of miles from the search area off Australia’s Western coastline.

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Breaking: Malaysia Says Washed-Up Wreckage Is from MH370

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Yes, Education Matters. But It’s Not the Answer to Growing Income Inequality.

by GloriaSeeley Posted on March 9, 2015

Mother Jones

David Brooks has a bit of an odd column today:

For many years, Democratic efforts to reduce inequality and lift middle-class wages were based on the theory that the key is to improve the skills of workers. Expand early education. Make college cheaper. Invest in worker training. Above all, increase the productivity of workers so they can compete.

But a growing number of populist progressives have been arguing that inequality is not mainly about education levels. They argue that trying to lift wages by improving skills is an “evasion.” It’s “whistling past the graveyard.”

….Focusing on human capital is not whistling past the graveyard. Worker productivity is the main arena. No redistributionist measure will have the same long-term effect as good early-childhood education and better community colleges, or increasing the share of men capable of joining the labor force.

I don’t quite get who Brooks is arguing against here. Larry Summers is the obvious target, but Summers has been clear that he thinks education is important, both individually and for the economy as a whole. He just doesn’t think that improved education is likely to have much impact on growing income inequality, which is driven by other factors.

But Brooks never even pretends to address this. I don’t think there are any prominent Democrats arguing that education isn’t important. Pretty much all of them are on board with good early-childhood education and better community colleges, among other things. That will help individuals and make the American economy stronger.

But will it rein in growing income inequality? As long as inequality is driven primarily by the gains of the top 1 percent—which it is—then it won’t. To address that particular problem, we have to look elsewhere.

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Yes, Education Matters. But It’s Not the Answer to Growing Income Inequality.

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Sunday Hummingbird Blogging

by AdrieneTrevascu Posted on March 8, 2015

Mother Jones

I’m feeling just energetic enough today to actually eat lunch (hooray!) and take a picture of the baby hummingbirds in our backyard. They sit there all day with their beaks stuck in the air waiting for mama to come home and deposit something yummy.

Hummingbirds must be pretty stubborn critters. Last year’s crop of hummingbird eggs never hatched because the nest was on a thin branch that blew away during the first decent storm of the year. So what happened? This year’s nest is in exactly the same spot as it was last year. I guess mama is lucky that we’ve had pretty mild weather this year.

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Sunday Hummingbird Blogging

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Instead of Tackling Its Rape Problem, India Just Banned a Documentary About It

by KlaudiaLBWL Posted on March 4, 2015

Mother Jones

Citing fears its broadcast would lead to “public outcry,” an Indian court issued an order yesterday blocking the country’s media from airing a documentary centering on the 2012 gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman that occurred on a New Delhi bus.

The BBC documentary, titled India’s Daughter, features an interview with one of the six men accused of the crime, in which he repeatedly blames the victim for fighting back while she was raped. Mukesh Singh spoke to British filmmaker Leslee Udwin from prison, where Udwin says he appeared like “a robot” during the 16 hours the interview was conducted.

“You can’t clap with one hand,” Singh says in the film. “It takes two hands. A decent girl won’t roam around at 9 o’clock at night. A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy. Boy and girl are not equal. Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes. About 20 percent of girls are good.”

Rajan Bhagat, a spokesperson for the New Delhi police, told AFP that police officials were concerned the “very objectionable interview” could incite violence.

“We have only seen the promotional parts of the film. Based on that we took the matter to court because we felt that it will cause likely apprehension of public disorder,” Bhagat said.

The brutal 2012 incident shocked the international community and prompted mass demonstrations in India. Over weeks of protests, advocates called for reform and increased protections for women in a country where sexual assault is perceived as a source of shame and often leads to more restrictions for women.

But the controversy over India’s Daughter demonstrates the country remains divided over the issue of sexual assault and how to move forward. India’s parliamentary affairs minister M. Venkaiah Naidu slammed the documentary as an “international conspiracy to defame India.” In its Tuesday order, the court echoed these concerns and said the film violated Indian law preventing “intent to cause alarm in the public.”

Udwin has asked the Indian prime minister to lift the ban. The film premieres on BBC Wednesday evening.

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Instead of Tackling Its Rape Problem, India Just Banned a Documentary About It

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Alaskan tribes given tiny amount of cash for climate change resilience

by Teofil1vo Posted on February 20, 2015

Alaskan tribes given tiny amount of cash for climate change resilience

By on 19 Feb 2015commentsShare

Alaskan Native American communities are soon to be the happy(ish?) recipients of $8 million from the U.S. Department of the Interior in order to encourage climate resilience. If you think that $8 million sounds like chump change when it comes to federal disaster relief funds, and particularly piddling when you consider that the money will go to an area deeply in need of repair and protection in the midst of a climate-induced crisis — well, you are right!

The Office of the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs issued a press release on Tuesday announcing that U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell plans to make the money available for promoting “climate change adaptation and ocean and coastal management planning.” The press release also states that the Interior “must act to protect these communities” — because, we assume, Alaskan tribal communities are losing access to basic needs like food, water, and adequate shelter due to the effects of climate change.

That money isn’t, however, intended for rebuilding purposes. The Department of Interior notes that of these funds, $4 million will be available for “climate adaptation planning” and the other half for “ocean/coastal management planning” — essentially, it will all go to educate, train, and plan for climate adaptation. More funds could come from President Obama’s FY16 budget proposal, which included $50 million to support resilience projects in coastal areas.

A little background, now: Native American tribes occupy about 4 percent of U.S. land, and make up about 1 percent of the population — and for the part of that 1 percent living in Alaska, climate change is a significant health hazard. For the tribes that still practice traditional lifestyles, 80 percent of their diets are foods gathered from the immediate surrounding — but they can’t gather like they used to, because climate-change provoked coastal erosion is making food harder to come by. Other scary, climate-induced effects include aquatic changes, ecosystem shifts, and increased flooding due to melting ice shelves.

Native Americans have been making their case for relocation money for years. One coastal Alaskan town, Shishmaref, has sought funding since 2002. Homes lack running water and plumbing, beaches are shrinking, and houses are literally falling into the sea. How much would it cost to save the town by moving it inland? That’s estimated at a cool $179 million.

So, you get it: $8 million isn’t nearly enough to prepare Alaskan villages for rising seas and a warmer climate. With this federal money, tribal members will be sitting in on technical workshops about “long-term climate resilience” while they watch their homes slowly tilt towards the shore.

Source:
Interior Department Will Provide Millions To Help Native Americans Adapt To Climate Change

, ThinkProgress.

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Alaskan tribes given tiny amount of cash for climate change resilience

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One of the World’s Biggest Lakes Is Dying and We’re to Blame

by AjaStallings Posted on January 30, 2015

Mother Jones

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At Ibrahim Mohammed’s fish stall, business is slow.

He’s sitting behind a wooden table piled with a dozen tilapia and Nile perch at the market in Katoro, a roadside town in northern Tanzania. The fish—a staple of the Tanzanian diet—came in that morning from Lake Victoria, an hour’s drive north. Around us, hundreds of shoppers are snatching up pineapples, textiles, and motorcycle parts. But Mohammed explains that basic economics is keeping customers away from his fish.

“There’s less fish,” he says. “So the price goes up, so customers can’t afford to buy.”

In the two years Mohammed has operated this stall, the retail price for both species has doubled. An average Nile perch has gone from roughly $2 to $4; tilapia from $4 to $8. That’s far above the overall rate of inflation.

Stories like Mohammed’s are becoming common among vendors and fishermen across Tanzania. The freshwater fishing industry here is nine times larger than the ocean fishing industry, and it’s a vital source of income for more than 2 million people, according to the United Nations. Half of the freshwater haul comes from Lake Victoria.

Nile perch makes up the majority of the catch. An invasive species that has dominated the lake for half a century, it’s driven many of the native fish to extinction, earning it a reputation as an ecological disaster. For fishermen, though, it has become a cornerstone of the economy.

But over the last several years, locals here say, fish yields have begun to drop. The culprit: a worrisome combination of overfishing and climate change.

Hard statistics are notoriously difficult to come by, as the resource-strapped federal fisheries agency struggles to keep tabs on an industry composed almost entirely of small-scale, informal operators. But a 2013 government audit painted a disturbing picture. Between 2009 and 2011, according to the audit, yields of Nile perch on Lake Victoria fell about 5 percent.

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One of the World’s Biggest Lakes Is Dying and We’re to Blame

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