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Your favorite climate doc is getting a sequel because, it turns out, we couldn’t handle the truth.

by LeolaChristians Posted on March 30, 2017

Some kids dream of being a movie star or an astronaut, but not Karina Castillo. “Hurricane Andrew hit when I was 6, and it changed who I was,” she says of the historic storm that devastated a swath of South Florida near where her family lived. She decided right then to become a hurricane forecaster.

The youngest daughter of Nicaraguan immigrants, Castillo pursued her dream with the intensity of the storms that fascinated her, earning two meteorology degrees at the University of Miami, then working at NOAA and the Miami-Dade County Office of Emergency Management. But the young scientist soon made an important discovery: “I didn’t want to sit behind a computer and program models,” she says. “I knew I could help communicate science to the public.”

After a stint developing climate curricula at the Miami-based CLEO Institute, she took a job with Moms Clean Air Force, a national coalition of parents and caretakers fighting climate change and air pollution. Castillo is now the point of contact for Florida’s nearly 100,000 MCAF members, guiding them through meetings with policymakers, media appearances, and other climate and clean-air advocacy work. She also conducts national Latino outreach for the group, work she’s eager to ramp up in 2017.

“In the Latino community, the ideas of legacy and conservation are really important,” says Castillo. “When you talk about protecting children, the mama bear comes out of people. And that’s an unstoppable force.”

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Your favorite climate doc is getting a sequel because, it turns out, we couldn’t handle the truth.

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Conservatives Are Freaking Out Because Comic Books Are Getting Too Real

by EulahDittmer Posted on July 17, 2014

Mother Jones

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Before the penultimate issue of “Life With Archie” had even hit newsstands Wednesday, conservatives were preparing their outrage. As had been previously announced, Archie met his maker in Issue #36, heroically taking a bullet meant for his friend Kevin Keller. Keller, the series’ first gay character, has been a lighting rod for controversy since first being introduced in 2010, prompting Singapore to ban the series. After his boyfriend was murdered in a mass shooting targeting gay people, Keller was prompted to run for political office on a strictly pro-gun control platform. Archie’s death appears to be a heroic, selfless act at the end of the lighthearted redhead’s saga, but conservatives are in an outrage—because his killer was a homophobe.

Archie Comics/AP

Christian Toto of Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood doesn’t want his kids exposed to the issues Archie presents: “There’s a sense in conservative circles that there are fewer and fewer places they can enjoy, stories their kids can read or movies they can see without being force-fed a message.”

Rod Dreher of the American Conservative responded to the news of Archie’s death by saying it “seems like everybody is gay in pop culture today,” and expressing concern that just “2 percent” of the population is engulfing the media.

Hot Air, a conservative news blog, had this to say about Archie’s last episode: “Sticking Archie Andrews in the middle of an assassination narrative is like redoing ‘Goofus and Gallant’ so that Goofus is a meth head. When you lose the innocence, you lose part of the charm.”

Before It’s News weighed in on the issue in an opinion piece: “The formerly healthy, all-American Archie Comics franchise has gone to extremes to corrupt children with a depraved liberal sexual/political agenda.”

The news swept Twitter and Facebook too, where conservatives even parodied Archie’s final chapter with a cartoon featuring even more liberal agendas that could have replaced the ending:

Though Archie Comics Publisher Jon Goldwater told the New York Daily News that the super-charged ending “had nothing to do with politics,” this is not the first time Archie’s political storylines have raised conservative ire. In Issue #10 of the Kevin Keller series, Keller confronts a woman upset about him kissing his boyfriend in public. “I don’t mind promoting my work and talking about issues,” writer and artist Dan Parent*, who created Keller, told Comic Book Resources. Though he claims he doesn’t want Archie to be a billboard for gay rights, he admits that “serious issues” sometimes come up in a quality storyline and that the kiss was an important part of a discussion about “tolerance and acceptance.”

The Archie death is not the only cartoon that’s been criticized for its progressive qualities. Conservatives are also freaking out about Marvel Comics’ decision to transform powerhouse hammer-wielder Thor into a woman, and the Council of Conservative Citizens nearly imploded when black actor Idris Elba was chosen to play a Norse God in Marvel Studios’ Thor. Marvel’s recent decision to make the next Captain America black is being described as “ridiculous” over Twitter, and Christian conservative groups threatened to boycott a gay Green Lantern in 2012.

The root of the Archie conservative ire appears to be the imposition of a political agenda. Maybe what they’re really worried about, though, is that their lily-white heterosexual fantasyland is officially too unrealistic, even for comic books.

Correction: This post originally said that Dan Parent wrote “Life With Archie” #36. The writer was actually Paul Kupperberg.

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Conservatives Are Freaking Out Because Comic Books Are Getting Too Real

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Republicans Portray Obama Climate Push As A Distraction

by Myrna Posted on May 9, 2014

Three members of the Senate’s GOP leadership were not impressed, suggesting Obama was wasting time and effort. Gage Skidmore/Flickr WASHINGTON — Republican leaders in the Senate portrayed President Barack Obama’s push to highlight the devastating impacts of climate change this week as a distraction from issues that are more important to them, and, they argued, to Americans. The Obama administration released its mammoth National Climate Assessment on Tuesday, finding that climate change is already wreaking havoc across the country, and that it will get worse. At the same time, Obama himself met with weather forecasters at the White House to focus attention on the issue. Three members of the Senate’s GOP leadership were not impressed, suggesting Obama was wasting time and effort. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) put the threats of a warming planet on par with reports of botched care at the Veterans Administration. “I wish the White House, instead of traveling around the country talking about the urgency of climate change, would talk with equal urgency about this failure of leadership and confidence at the VA,” said Cornyn, speaking at the leaders’ weekly press conference. To keep reading, click here. Taken from: Republicans Portray Obama Climate Push As A Distraction Related Articles7 Scary Facts About How Global Warming Is Scorching the United StatesWATCH: These Reefs Are Beautiful—But Most of the Coral Is DeadWhat Happens to Fido When Fracking Comes to Town?

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Republicans Portray Obama Climate Push As A Distraction

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Is this train the “little engine that could” for clean energy storage?

by GretchenBamford Posted on March 26, 2014

Track star

Is this train the “little engine that could” for clean energy storage?

By

ARES

In Greek mythology, the story of Sisyphus endlessly rolling a boulder uphill is meant to be a cautionary tale. Gravity, in this case, worked against the poor chump. But the smart folks at Advanced Rail Energy Storage North America (ARES) asked: Why not make gravity your friend?

ARES has pioneered a train full of rocks that climbs up a hill, only to roll back down again and repeat the process, Sisyphus style. But instead of a metaphor of futility, this new train technology offers a breakthrough opportunity in clean energy storage.

It isn’t easy to find feasible solutions for storing grid-scale renewable energy loads for when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing. Pumping water through turbines only returns about 70 percent on energy inputs, while the big battery business comes with its own set of environmental and cost concerns.

That’s what makes the ARES technology all the more exciting. The group repurposed train cars originally meant for (ironically) Australian ore mining to use gravity and friction to store renewables. Each car can haul up to 230 tons of rock up a hill (heavier is better since it will generate more energy when it inevitably rolls downhill).

Here’s how it works: When electricity is at low demand, surplus energy gets sent from the grid to power a chain that hauls the weighted rail cars uphill. Then, when energy demand climbs, the train car’s motor becomes a generator as it rolls downhill, and the momentum pushes the stored energy back through the grid via regenerative braking. Scientific American reports:

 ”They go up, they go down, Slinky fashion,” said Francesca Cava, chief operating officer at Advanced Rail Energy Storage North America, the company behind the Nevada project. “For the most part, the technology we’re using is over a hundred years old – we’re not waiting for any scientific breakthroughs to be profitable.”

The benefits are that it’s less expensive than other storage solutions like pumping hydro through turbines, and it has a small environmental footprint — no water, no emissions, and no synthetic methane needed. ARES says that the energy stored can stabilize the grid and help make the power generated by renewables less intermittent.

The new railcars have been piloted in California, which recently approved a plan to use energy storing technologies to meet the goal of having 33 percent of its power supply from renewable sources by the year 2020. Now ARES has big plans for a large-scale commercial venture that could help the state get on track with its energy-on-demand needs. If this pilot program is successful, other states and countries could soon be riding this gravy train to clean energy storage.


Source
Energy Storage Hits the Rails Out West, The Scientific American

Amber Cortes is a Grist fellow and public radio nerd. Follow her on Twitter.

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Is this train the “little engine that could” for clean energy storage?

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U.S. wants poor and rich countries alike to cut emissions under next climate treaty

by MalenMajure469 Posted on February 13, 2014

U.S. wants poor and rich countries alike to cut emissions under next climate treaty

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Shutterstock

If the U.S. gets its way, developing countries will need to roll up their sleeves and do more to slow down global warming.

The Obama administration is taking the position that poor and rich countries alike should be legally obligated to reduce the amount of climate-changing pollution that they produce after 2020, when a new climate treaty is expected to take effect. The Kytoto Protocol approach, which saw rich countries but not poor ones compelled to rein in greenhouse gas pollution, is “clearly not rational or workable” any more, U.S. officials argue in a new submission to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The next big U.N. climate meeting will be held in Lima, Peru, this December, and then Paris will host a bigger one in December 2015, at which world leaders hope to finalize the new climate treaty.

“[T]he United States supports a Paris agreement that reflects the seriousness and magnitude of what science demands,” Obama administration officials wrote in their 11-page U.N. submission, which was published on Wednesday. “As such, it should be designed to promote ambitious efforts by a broad range of Parties.”

America’s evolving expectations for a world-encompassing climate treaty were alluded to in a recent Washington Post op-ed signed by Barack Obama and French President François Hollande:

Even as our two nations reduce our own carbon emissions, we can expand the clean energy partnerships that create jobs and move us toward low-carbon growth. We can do more to help developing countries shift to low-carbon energy as well, and deal with rising seas and more intense storms. As we work toward next year’s climate conference in Paris, we continue to urge all nations to join us in pursuit of an ambitious and inclusive global agreement that reduces greenhouse gas emissions through concrete actions.

America’s desire for all countries to tackle climate change is shared by a growing number of low-lying and impoverished states that are increasingly worried about the effects of India’s and China’s ballooning emissions. During previous climate talks, countries agreed that the new treaty will include funding commitments from developed countries to help developing countries adapt to climate change and deploy clean sources of power.

The push for universal action on climate change comes as the White House mulls committing to a steep reduction in greenhouse gases during the upcoming talks. ClimateWire reports:

In at least three interagency meetings at the White House since September, administration sources said, officials have debated whether [the U.S.’s new climate] goals should extend to 2025 or 2030. They also have laid out the scientific and economic modeling that must be done in the coming months and discussed whether a new target should assume Congress will eventually enact climate legislation or whether the White House must continue to use existing authority under the Clean Air Act to squeeze out more emissions reductions. President Obama’s new special adviser, John Podesta, is expected to have an overarching role in the process. …

Several GOP lawmakers contacted by ClimateWire blasted the work on new targets as another example of the Obama administration’s “go it alone” approach that, like the current U.S. EPA effort to rein in emissions from coal-fired power plants, will face fierce opposition from Congress.

Actually, the international action that Obama is calling for is pretty much the opposite of a “go it alone” approach. Here’s hoping that the idea takes root — and that wealthy countries open their purses to help poor ones meet new climate obligations.


Source
U.S. Submission on Elements ofthe 2015 Agreement, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
Obama and Hollande: France and the U.S. enjoy a renewed alliance, The Washington Post
Obama admin quietly preparing pledge of deeper GHG emissions targets for U.N. talks, ClimateWire

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin 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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Dot Earth Blog: A Reality Check on a Plan for a Swift Post-Fossil Path for New York

by Myrna Posted on June 22, 2013

A journal that published an ambitious plan for New York State to go fossil free in a few decades now runs a critique. More:   Dot Earth Blog: A Reality Check on a Plan for a Swift Post-Fossil Path for New York ; ;Related ArticlesTax Programs to Finance Clean Energy Catch OnThe Caucus: Obama to Unveil Climate Plan on TuesdayDot Earth Blog: Obama Previews an Upcoming Global Warming Speech ;

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Dot Earth Blog: A Reality Check on a Plan for a Swift Post-Fossil Path for New York

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We Seem to be Losing the Race Against Superbugs

by MayeskiLatouf679 Posted on March 12, 2013

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There have been a spate of headlines recently—and not for the first time—about outbreaks of diseases that are completely resistant to all known antibiotics. The basic reason for this, of course, is that we’ve used antibiotics with abandon ever since they were discovered, and diseases have mutated to resist them. We’re now at the point where there are a few diseases that have mutated enough that pretty much no antibiotic known will kill them.

So why not develop new antibiotics? Partly because there’s not a lot of money in it. But Megan McArdle points us to medicinal chemist Derek Lowe, who points out that although killing bacteria is hard, it’s not that hard. The problem is killing bacteria without killing everything else at the same time. The virtue of penicillin wasn’t that it was the first antibiotic ever discovered, but that it was the first nontoxic antibiotic. Put it in a human being, and it killed bacteria without killing the human too. Lowe says that this, more than money, is what makes it so hard to figure out how to kill the new strains of superbugs:

I realised after my first exposure to antibiotic drug discovery that I’d never had any problem generating cytotoxic compounds against mammalian cells. Happened all the time — not that I wanted it to, of course. But killing bacteria, especially fully armed wild-type bacteria? That was a major event. And even then, most of the compounds you find that can accomplish that will do the same thing to your own cells, which is definitely not the idea.

And that brings up another question about those bacterial targets, the ones that are so orthogonal to human cellular pathways. A disturbing number of them have already been the subject of screening efforts and optimisation attempts — without success. They also seem to be a bit orthogonal to the kinds of structures that medicinal chemists make. There are antibiotics with reasonable-looking structures, but they’re outnumbered by natural-product-derived beasts, complex structures no one would have gotten around to synthetically for another few hundred years otherwise. Perhaps these kinds of things are needed to get in through the bacterial membranes, or needed to avoid being pumped right back out, but it does complicate one’s research.

This all means, it’s sad to say, that the limiting factor in antibiotic drug discovery probably isn’t the amount of money to be made at it. That’s too bad. Money’s a factor that could be adjusted by regulatory agencies, governments, and foundations. But no amount of cash will keep resistant bacteria from being the hard targets they are.

More money would probably still help, of course. Too bad about all those sequester cutbacks at NIH, isn’t it? It also might help if we didn’t medicate every farm animal in the world to within an inch of its life. Drug-resistant diseases are going to develop no matter what we do, but they’ll develop faster the more drugs we use. So maybe we should cut back a bit?

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We Seem to be Losing the Race Against Superbugs

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