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Louisiana: Women Don’t Need Planned Parenthood. They Have Dentists.

by BrandiPeden Posted on September 10, 2015

Mother Jones

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The task seems straightforward: Make a list of health care providers that would fill the void if Louisiana succeeded in defunding Planned Parenthood. But the state, which is fighting a court battle to strip the group of hundreds of thousands of dollars in Medicaid funds, is struggling to figure out who would provide poor women with family planning care if not Planned Parenthood.

Nowhere is this struggle more apparent than in a recent declaration by Louisiana’s attorneys that there are 2,000 family planning providers ready to accommodate new patients. A federal judge, reviewing the list in an early September court hearing, found hundreds of entries for specialists such as ophthalmologists; nursing homes caregivers; dentists; ear, nose, and throat doctors; and even cosmetic surgeons.

“It strikes me as extremely odd that you have a dermatologist, an audiologist, a dentist who are billing for family planning services,” said the judge, John deGravelles, who will determine in the next week whether it is legal for the state to end Planned Parenthood’s Medicaid contracts. “But that is what you’re representing to the court? You’re telling me that they can provide family planning and related services?”

His harsh questioning sent the state back to the drawing board. On Tuesday, the state’s attorneys acknowledged that the dentists and other specialists didn’t belong on the list. They filed a pared-down version that lists just 29 health care providers.

Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Republican contender for the presidency, moved to cut off $730,000 in Medicaid reimbursements to the state’s two Planned Parenthood clinics in late August in response to several heavily edited, widely circulated videos purporting to show Planned Parenthood employees selling fetal parts, which is illegal.

Planned Parenthood denies the charges and has asked for an injunction to block Jindal.

In straining to identify alternate providers, the state has added to a growing body of evidence that other health care providers would have a difficult time accommodating low-income women if Planned Parenthood were no longer able to take Medicaid. Planned Parenthood clinics in Louisiana do not provide abortions. Instead, the clinics provide thousands of annual cancer and STI screenings, overwhelmingly to low-income women on Medicaid. In Louisiana alone, the group last year performed 2,100 well-woman exams, 1,200 pap smears, and 11,000 STI tests, and it administered long-lasting contraceptives 4,100 times, to 5,200 patients, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of the Gulf Coast said.

Several Louisiana health care providers that would have to take over Planned Parenthood’s patients have stressed that their capacity to do so is very limited. “You can’t just cut Planned Parenthood off one day and expect everyone across the city to absorb the patients,” Stephanie Taylor, who oversees the state’s efforts to curb sexually transmitted diseases, told the New York Times. “There needs to be time to build the capacity.”

Another obstacle is the dearth of family planning clinics and doctors that accept women on Medicaid or other forms of public funding. Across the country, Planned Parenthood provides contraception to almost 40 percent of women who rely on public programs for family planning. The Times notes that four out of five Planned Parenthood patients have incomes below 150 percent of the poverty level, at a time when two-thirds of states reported difficulties ensuring there are enough health providers, especially OB-GYNs, for Medicaid patients.

On Tuesday, there was fresh evidence for what the fight to defund Planned Parenthood means for poor women. The Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights think tank, published an analysis of nearly 500 counties where Planned Parenthood operates clinics. In 103 of those counties, Planned Parenthood is the health care provider for every single woman who relies on public funding for contraception. In an additional 229 counties, Planned Parenthood clinics provide care for at least half of patients who rely on Medicaid.

“Certainly in the short term, it is doubtful that other providers could step up in a timely way to absorb the millions of women suddenly left without their preferred source of care and whether those providers could offer the same degree of accessible, quality contraceptive care offered by Planned Parenthood,” the Guttmacher researchers wrote.

But the notion that patients could turn elsewhere remains a key rationale when abortion foes attempt to strip the group of $528 million in federal funding. The argument came up frequently in a Wednesday hearing before the House Judiciary Committee on the Planned Parenthood sting videos. “We often hear that if Planned Parenthood were to be defunded, there would be a health crisis among women without the services they provide,” testified Gianna Jessen, an anti-abortion activist who was born after an unsuccessful abortion. “This is absolutely false. Pregnancy resource centers are located nationwide as an option for the woman in crisis.” Abortion foes have also touted a map showing more than 13,500 clinics that could replace Planned Parenthood.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, the junior Republican from Louisiana, has said there were more than 100 community health care centers “scattered all over the state” that could accept Planned Parenthood’s patients.

Lawyers for the state appeared to contradict him after they whittled down their list of capable providers to 29. And even among those providers, their ability to pick up Planned Parenthood’s slack is questionable. In Baton Rouge, the site of one of two Louisiana Planned Parenthood clinics, the state lists five alternate providers. But only three of those offer contraception, according to the state’s filing, and two of those have wait times ranging from two to seven weeks. One of the Baton Rouge clinics the state suggested is not accepting any new patients for STI, breast cancer, or cervical cancer screenings.

The state did not withdraw its original list without a fight. When pressured by Judge deGravelles, an attorney for Louisiana stood by the list, saying it represented every provider in the state that had used a family-planning billing code for insurance reimbursement. Here is an excerpt of the transcript:

The judge is set to rule on Planned Parenthood’s call for an injunction before September 15, when the state’s contract with Planned Parenthood would expire and Medicaid reimbursements would stop flowing.

In the September 2 hearing, deGravelles expressed reluctance to allow the contract to expire, since the state hadn’t articulated a good reason for doing so. “You have 5,200 women who are getting their care at these facilities,” he said. “If these contracts are terminated that care is going to be disrupted…for no reason related to the health care they’re getting.…They’re going to have to get other doctors, they’re going to have to seek out other places to get their health care. Correct?”

“They will have to do that,” a lawyer for the state replied. “Correct.”

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Louisiana: Women Don’t Need Planned Parenthood. They Have Dentists.

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Either 35, 36, or 39 Percent of Psychology Results Can’t Be Replicated

by AltonDeyoung Posted on August 28, 2015

Mother Jones

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The Washington Post informs me today that in a new study, only 39 out of 100 published psychology studies could be replicated:

I wonder if I can replicate that headline? Let’s try the New York Times:

Huh. They say 35 out of 100. What’s going on? Maybe Science News can tell me:

Now it’s 35 out of 97. So what is the answer?

Based on the study itself, it appears that Science News has it right. It’s 35 out of 97. Using a different measure of replication, however, the answer is that 39 percent of the studies could be replicated, which might explain the Post’s 39 out of 100. And it turns out that the study actually looked at 100 results, but only 97 of them had positive findings in the first place and were therefore worth trying to replicate. But if, for some reason, you decided that all 100 original studies should be counted, you’d get the Times’ 35 out of 100.

So there you go. Depending on who you read, it’s either 35, 36, or 39 percent. Welcome to the business of science reporting.

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Either 35, 36, or 39 Percent of Psychology Results Can’t Be Replicated

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Los Angeles Just Found an Awesome Way to Fight the Drought. It Involves Balls. Here Is a Video.

by EnriqueWray Posted on August 12, 2015

Mother Jones

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On Monday afternoon, the mayor of Los Angeles found a ballsy way to fight California’s unprecedented drought:

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LA just completed a project at the LA Reservoir to save 300 million gallons of water by deploying shade balls on its surface, saving our city over $250 million dollars while keeping our water clean & safe.

Posted by

Mayor Eric Garcetti on Monday, August 10, 2015

There are now 96 million “shade balls” floating on the surface of the LA Reservoir. They’re made of plastic, the same kind of polyethylene that gallon-sized milk jugs are made of, so they don’t pose a threat to the drinking water, according to the LA Times. They’re designed to keep water from evaporating and are expected to conserve 300 million gallons per year. And at a cost of $35 million, they’re about $250 million cheaper than the alternative, a tarp-like covering.

So, saving California from the drought just takes leadership from someone with a pair of…sorry I’ll just stop now.

#shadeballs.

Read this article – 

Los Angeles Just Found an Awesome Way to Fight the Drought. It Involves Balls. Here Is a Video.

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Coca-Cola to World: Don’t Stop Swilling Sugary Drinks, Just Exercise!

by BettyTuttle Posted on August 10, 2015

Mother Jones

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Stunningly, one-third of American adults have a condition called metabolic syndrome, defined as “a cluster of major cardiovascular risk factors related to overweight/obesity and insulin resistance.” People with metabolic syndrome are twice as likely to develop heart disease as people without it, and five times as likely to develop full-blown type II diabetes. Meanwhile, a growing body of research links insulin resistance with Alzheimer’s and other forms of cognitive decline.

There’s a solid consensus that two things need to happen to reverse this budding calamity: People need to eat better—less hyper-processed, sugar-laden fare—and exercise more.

Now, if you were in the business of selling sweet beverages—ones that contain about 9 teaspoons of sugar per 12-ounce serving—you’d have an interest in suggesting that maybe diet’s not that big of an issue, after all. Instead of cutting down on soda, why not just take an extra walk around the block?

According to this New York Times exposé, Coca-Cola, the globe’s biggest purveyor of sugary drinks, invested $1.5 million last year to launch the Global Energy Balance Network, which, The Times reports, “promotes the argument that weight-conscious Americans are overly fixated on how much they eat and drink while not paying enough attention to exercise.”

The beverage maker has also invested “close to $4 million in funding for various projects spearheaded by two prominent US health academics who serve on GEBN’s executive committee, The Times adds. One of them, University of South Carolina health professor Steven Blair, is featured in the above video insisting that “most of the focus in the popular media and in the scientific press is, ‘Oh they’re eating too much, eating too much, eating too much’—blaming fast food, blaming sugary drinks, and so on for rising obesity rates… And there’s really virtually no compelling evidence that that, in fact, is the cause.”

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization recommends holding added sugar consumption to about 25 grams (six teaspoons) per day—meaning a single Coke (nine teaspoons of sugar) will take you 50 percent over its daily recommendation. My colleague Maddie Oatman has a great piece on just how easy it is to catapult over the 6 teaspoons limit in the sugar-happy US food environment.

Now, Coke’s high-dollar drumbeating about how sugary drinks don’t matter much may be nefarious, but it’s also sort of desperate. People are wising up—soda sales have fallen for ten straight years.

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Coca-Cola to World: Don’t Stop Swilling Sugary Drinks, Just Exercise!

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Puerto Rico Crisis Goes From Bad to Worse

by AYZShantell Posted on August 5, 2015

Mother Jones

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Puerto Rico’s economic crisis has only gotten worse in the month since Gov. Alejandro García Padilla told the New York Times the island’s $72 billion in debts was “not payable.” Earlier this week, the island missed a key bond payment, making history and setting the stage for a bruising and protracted battle with creditors. There are many reasons Puerto Rico finds itself in this quandary, including its murky political status, and the situation seems to be deteriorating as time goes on.

Here are the direst problems facing Puerto Rico—and the impact they could have on the upcoming presidential election:

Default: In June, when García Padilla called on Congress to pass legislation that would allow Puerto Rico to get its debt in order under the US bankruptcy laws that apply to the 50 states, the idea that the island would default on loan payments was mostly theoretical. That’s not the case anymore. The island’s government paid just $628,000 of a $58 million debt payment due this week, triggering the first default since the island was taken over by the US in 1898. No state has defaulted since Arkansas failed to make its bond payments during the Great Depression in 1933.

The default complicates an already complicated situation. Since current law doesn’t allow Puerto Rico to authorize its cities and publicly owned entities to seek bankruptcy protection through the courts, the island’s government has to negotiate with each of its lenders individually. As anybody who has ever borrowed money knows, interest rates go up when your credit goes down. Puerto Rico’s default, without any congressional intervention to change the bankruptcy laws, will likely lead to much more expensive borrowing in the future. “The default is consistent with our belief that Puerto Rico does not have the resources to make all of its forthcoming debt payments,” Moody’s Investors Service Vice President Emily Raimes said in a statement this week. “This is a first in what we believe will be broad defaults on commonwealth debt.”

No Help From Congress: When American cities and political entities such as towns, water districts, counties, and publicly run corporations face similar financial problems, they reorganize their debt under Chapter 9 of the US Bankruptcy Code. Detroit, which filed for bankruptcy in 2013, is perhaps the best-known example of this, but according to Governing magazine, it has happened nearly 50 times in the US since 2010. Federal bankruptcy law specifically excludes Puerto Rico, which means that the island’s government is forced to negotiate directly with a range of lenders, all of whom have different requirements and some of whom recommended closing schools, cutting university subsidies, and firing teachers to repay the debt.

Pedro Pierluisi, Puerto Rico’s non-voting representative in Congress, has more than once introduced legislation that would allow Puerto Rico to be treated like the states when it comes to US bankruptcy laws, but it has gone nowhere. More recently, Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) introduced an identical bill to Pierluisi’s, but some Republicans continue to oppose the idea on the grounds that it’s a backdoor bailout, so any relief coming from Congress is unlikely.

Medical Issues: Puerto Ricans face a host of problems as a result of the economic implosion, but a looming health care crisis might be the most serious. As the New York Times reported over the weekend, Puerto Rico is bracing for large cuts to a Medicare program called Medicare Advantage, which is being pared back under the Affordable Care Act. The result is that tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans are expected to face higher copays, reduced services, and a shrinking network of already stressed doctors. Puerto Rico’s Medicaid program, which serves nearly 1.6 million people, is also in danger of running out of federal grant money by the end of 2016. If the financially strapped government can’t come up with funding, as many as 900,000 people could get dropped from the program, according to the Times—and funds are hard to come by these days.

The lack of Medicaid funding is partly responsible for $25 billion of the island’s $73 billion debt burden, because the government has had to borrow to make up Medicaid funding gaps. Puerto Ricans pay Medicare taxes (along with many other federal taxes), but the federal government’s funding to the island is capped, forcing Puerto Rico to try to make up the difference.

All of this helps explain the mass exodus of doctors from the island, who are leaving at a rate of about one per day for work in Florida, New York, or other states. The rate is expected to climb, further exacerbating the health care woes of a place that already has too few doctors serving the population.

The Effect on Mainland Politics: Doctors aren’t the only ones abandoning the island. As US citizens, Puerto Ricans can freely move to the US mainland, so now, there are more Puerto Ricans living on the mainland than on the island. The growing number of Puerto Ricans moving to the US, mainly Florida, will likely play a big role in the coming presidential election. As the Washington Post reported last week, politicians hoping to win Florida will face problems if they don’t have Puerto Ricans backing them up at the polls. “Puerto Ricans are the swing voters in the swing region of a swing state,” former Puerto Rico Secretary of State Kenneth McClintock told Mother Jones in July. “So, come March of next year, the presidential primaries in Florida will be very important in terms of what is done with Puerto Rico in the future.“

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Puerto Rico Crisis Goes From Bad to Worse

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The New York Times Needs to do a Better Job of Explaining Its Epic Hillary Clinton Screw-Up

by SISJessika Posted on July 31, 2015

Mother Jones

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As you probably know, the New York Times screwed up epically last week by publishing a story claiming that Hillary Clinton was the target of a criminal probe over the mishandling of classified information in her private email system. In the end, virtually everything about the story turned out to be wrong. Clinton was not a target. The referral was not criminal. The emails in question had not been classified at the time Clinton saw them. When the dust settled, it appeared that the whole thing was little more than a squabble between State and CIA over whether certain emails that State is releasing to the public should or shouldn’t be classified. In other words, just your garden-variety bureaucratic dispute. Hardly worth a blurb on A17, let alone a screaming headline on the front page.

The Clinton campaign has now officially asked the Times to account for how it could have bollixed this story so badly. Here are the most interesting paragraphs:

Times’ editors have attempted to explain these errors by claiming the fault for the misreporting resided with a Justice Department official whom other news outlets cited as confirming the Times’ report after the fact. This suggestion does not add up. It is our understanding that this Justice Department official was not the original source of the Times’ tip. Moreover, notwithstanding the official’s inaccurate characterization of the referral as criminal in nature, this official does not appear to have told the Times that Mrs. Clinton was the target of that referral, as the paper falsely reported in its original story.

This raises the question of what other sources the Times may have relied on for its initial report. It clearly was not either of the referring officials — that is, the Inspectors General of either the State Department or intelligence agencies — since the Times’ sources apparently lacked firsthand knowledge of the referral documents. It also seems unlikely the source could have been anyone affiliated with those offices, as it defies logic that anyone so closely involved could have so severely garbled the description of the referral.

Yes indeedy. Who was the person who first tipped off the Times reporters? And does that source still deserve anonymity? Clinton’s letter seems to be pretty clearly implying that it might have been Trey Gowdy or someone on his staff, who are currently running the Benghazi investigation that’s recently morphed into a Hillary Clinton witch hunt. Apparently they knew about this DOJ referral a day before the Times story ran, so maybe they’re the ones who passed along the garbled version.

The Clinton campaign can’t say that, of course, since they have no proof. Neither do I. But it sure seems to be the plain implication of their response. Pretty clearly, someone who didn’t have direct access to the referral—but knew of its existence—was the original source, and it’s a pretty good guess that this source was someone unfriendly to Clinton. In other words, someone whose word shouldn’t have been accepted without the most stringent due diligence.

But when you get oppo research, it’s a pretty good bet that others are getting it too. So you have to publish quickly if you want to be first. But that’s not all: you also have to be pretty willing to accept dirt on Hillary Clinton at face value and you have to care more about being first than being right. The authors of the story, Michael Schmidt and Matt Apuzzo, really ought to address these issues in public at a press conference. After all, the press loves press conferences, right?

Link:  

The New York Times Needs to do a Better Job of Explaining Its Epic Hillary Clinton Screw-Up

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If the EPA relaxes deadlines for CO2 cuts, will the U.S. still be able to keep its climate promises?

by EusebiaBailey Posted on July 29, 2015

If the EPA relaxes deadlines for CO2 cuts, will the U.S. still be able to keep its climate promises?

By on 29 Jul 2015 3:53 pmcommentsShare

Like pigeons to bread crumbs, climate hawks have been pecking for final details on President Obama’s Clean Power Plan. Now, in what is perhaps slightly more loaf than crumb, there’s some actual news: Sources familiar with the plan report that the timeline for its implementation will likely be extended.

The plan, which is expected to be finalized next week, will require CO2 emission cuts from coal-fired power plants and will allow states to craft their own strategies for reaching specific emissions targets. The original proposal, released last June, asked for states to begin making cuts by 2020. Sources now suggest the date will be pushed out to 2022. States are also expected to be given an extra year, up from 2017 to 2018, to submit their action plans.

The extended timeline could give rise to a potential problem: The United States just told the U.N. that it would reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 26–28 percent of 2005 levels by 2025. Which is pretty soon — especially if states have longer to curb their power plant emissions. The Clean Power Plan is a major mechanism for hitting the target the U.S. submitted to the U.N., so the more time states have to draw up and adhere to new standards, the more difficult it could be for the country to follow through on its pledge.

The U.S.’s commitment, submitted in advance of the climate negotiations that will take place in Paris this December, is regarded as ambitious but achievable by those familiar with the lay of the emissions landscape. Referred to in climate negotiation parlance as an Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC), the U.S.’s emissions target is one of 22 pledges (of varying degrees of ambition) put forth by countries around the world and the European Union. Success of the INDC process — and of the Paris negotiations in general — hinges on participating countries’ abilities to implement their pledges at home. Uncertainty around the Clean Power Plan’s implementation demonstrates again the tight coupling between international negotiations and domestic politics.

As The New York Times notes, the Clean Power Plan has already been subject to a steady stream of Republican and industry attacks:

Several coal-producing states and business groups like the United States Chamber of Commerce are already preparing to file suit against the rules, in a legal clash that is widely expected to end up before the Supreme Court.

The looser deadline came after states and electric utilities spent months appealing to the E.P.A. for more time to comply. The leaders of major electric utilities warned that the tighter timeline could threaten electric reliability, saying that the race to shut down polluting plants and rapidly replace them with wind and solar plants and miles of new transmission lines could lead to rolling blackouts and brownouts.

Conservatives and the utility industry have also been warning that electric bills could soar under the plan, disproportionately affecting the poor. A recent report, however, suggested that early state compliance with the plan coupled with clean energy investment and energy efficiency action could actually reduce residential electricity bills. Another report by a coalition of smart grid and energy companies from earlier this year argued that GOP and industry warnings about grid reliability are overstated, and that plenty of strategies exist to avoid blackouts.

Without knowing further details, though, it’s difficult to say whether the date extension will constitute a net weakening of the new power plant rules. Anonymous officials familiar with the discussions told The New York Times that the extended timeframe could be balanced by tighter requirements in other sections of the plan. The final plan might also include incentives for states to beat the deadlines. We could find out as early as Monday.

Source:
Later Deadline Expected in Obama’s Climate Plan

, The New York Times.

Timing is the element most likely to change in EPA’s final Clean Power Plan

, ClimateWire.

Sources: EPA will ease deadlines on pollution rule to help states comply

, The Washington Post.

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If the EPA relaxes deadlines for CO2 cuts, will the U.S. still be able to keep its climate promises?

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Another Fatal Police Shooting Caught on Video—and More Questions About a Dispatcher’s Role

by LouellaP07 Posted on July 16, 2015

Mother Jones

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On Tuesday, a federal court ordered the release of video showing a June 2013 police shooting in Gardena, California (a city in southern Los Angeles County) in which an unarmed man, Ricardo Diaz-Zeferino, was killed and another unarmed man wounded. Previously, an internal review by the Gardena Police Department had concluded that the shooting was justified, and prosecutors in Gardena decided not to pursue criminal charges against the officers involved. In May, the City of Gardena agreed to pay $4.7 million to settle a federal lawsuit filed by the family of Diaz-Zeferino. But the newly released police dash cam footage, first posted by the Los Angeles Times, has raised questions about the events leading up to the fatal encounter—including the potential mishandling of a 911 call, an issue that has come up with other officer-involved killings.

More MoJo coverage on policing:


How Cleveland Police May Have Botched a 911 Call Just Before Killing Tamir Rice


Native Americans Get Shot By Cops at an Astonishing Rate


Here Are 13 Killings by Police Captured on Video in the Past Year


The Walter Scott Shooting Video Shows Why Police Accounts Are Hard to Trust


Itâ&#128;&#153;s Been 6 Months Since Tamir Rice Died, and the Cop Who Killed Him Still Hasn’t Been Questioned


Exactly How Often Do Police Shoot Unarmed Black Men?


The Cop Who Choked Eric Garner to Death Won’t Pay a Dime


A Mentally Ill Woman’s “Sudden Death” at the Hands of Cleveland Police

According to the Los Angeles Times, there may have been a miscommunication by the police dispatcher:

The shooting occurred about 2:30 a.m. on June 2, 2013, after a bicycle was stolen from outside a CVS Pharmacy on Western Avenue. A police dispatcher mistakenly told officers that the crime was a robbery, which usually involves a theft using weapons or force, and officers headed to the area in search of two suspects.

Gardena police Sgt. Christopher Cuff saw two men riding bicycles east on Redondo Beach Boulevard. The men were friends of the bike theft victim and were searching for the missing bicycle. Mistaking them for the thieves, Cuff ordered the men to stop and put their hands up, according to a district attorney’s memo written by a prosecutor who reviewed the police videos.

The Gardena killing is the latest in a string of high-profile police shootings captured on video, which have brought scrutiny on police tactics and procedures. With the Tamir Rice shooting in Cleveland, evidence emerged that the dispatcher who relayed the 911 call did not include potentially key details about the suspect, as Mother Jones previously reported. And according to a recent Washington Post data investigation of police shootings of mentally ill suspects, “officers are routinely dispatched with information that is incomplete or wrong.”

Excerpt from – 

Another Fatal Police Shooting Caught on Video—and More Questions About a Dispatcher’s Role

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Poll shows Americans are starting to worry about climate change again

by DemetriBurbidge Posted on June 17, 2015

Do Panic

Poll shows Americans are starting to worry about climate change again

By on 17 Jun 2015commentsShare

You know how this country has had something of an “it’s complicated” relationship to our feelings about the climate? Well, a new Pew poll out yesterday shows that more Americans are starting to worry about the climate again — after taking a break around 2008, presumably to fret over other things, like our country’s complete financial dysfunction. From the New York Times:

About 69 percent of adults say that global warming is either a “very serious” or “somewhat serious” problem, according to a new Pew Research Center poll, up from 63 percent in 2010. The level of concern has still not returned to that of a decade ago; in 2006, 79 percent of adults called global warming serious. …

The percentage of Americans who agree with the scientific consensus — that global warming is occurring and caused by human activity — has also bounced back in the last few years. Sixty-eight percent of Americans also say there is “solid evidence of warming,” up from 57 percent in 2009.

With an eye to the upcoming climate encyclical from the pope, the same survey looked specifically at attitudes about climate change among American Catholics. They pretty much matched the partisan divide in the rest of the country, says Pew:

Generally speaking, Catholics express higher levels of belief in global warming and concern about its effects than do Protestants, but lower levels than people who are religiously unaffiliated (atheists, agnostics and those whose religion is “nothing in particular”). However, analysis of the survey findings shows that political party identification and race/ethnicity are much better predictors of environmental attitudes than are religious identity or observance.

Good to know that climate change deniers don’t allow silly, ideological divisions like religion to get in the way of wrongheaded opinions!

Meanwhile, the rest of us who are slowly starting to realize that this climate thing is actually a big deal: Good job! Your panic is wise and well-informed.

Source:
Americans Are Again Getting More Worried About the Climate

, New York Times.

Catholics Divided Over Global Warming

, Pew Research Center.

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Poll shows Americans are starting to worry about climate change again

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Congratulations, by the way – George Saunders

by Myrna Posted on June 15, 2015

READ GREEN WITH E-BOOKS

Congratulations, by the way

Some Thoughts on Kindness

George Saunders

Genre: Self-Improvement

Price: $7.99

Publish Date: April 22, 2014

Publisher: Random House Publishing Group

Seller: Random House, LLC


NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Three months after George Saunders gave a graduation address at Syracuse University, a transcript of that speech was posted on the website of The New York Times, where its simple, uplifting message struck a deep chord. Within days, it had been shared more than one million times. Why? Because Saunders’s words tap into a desire in all of us to lead kinder, more fulfilling lives. Powerful, funny, and wise, Congratulations, by the way is an inspiring message from one of today’s most influential and original writers. Praise for Congratulations, by the way   “As slender as a psalm, and as heavy.” — The New York Times   “The graduating college senior in your life probably just wants money. But if you want to impart some heartfelt, plainspoken wisdom in addition to a check, you can&apos;t do much better than [ Congratulations, by the way ].” — Entertainment Weekly “The loving selflessness that [George Saunders] advises and the interconnectedness that he recognizes couldn’t be purer or simpler—or more challenging.” — Kirkus Reviews   “Warm and tender.” — Publishers Weekly From the Hardcover edition.

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Congratulations, by the way – George Saunders

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