SunSeeker
SunSeeker's JournalAmazon Rainforests Are Now Releasing More Carbon Than They Absorb
For generations, Amazonia, which spans more than two million square miles, was a reliable carbon sink, meaning that it naturally absorbed high levels of carbon dioxide from the air, and it played an important role in keeping the global environment stable.
Findings from the nearly decade-long research project, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, suggest that deforestation and fire, among other factors, have dramatically undercut the Amazon's ability to absorb heat-trapping carbon emissions from the atmosphere.
"The Amazon is a carbon source. No doubt," Luciana Gatti, a researcher at Brazil's National Institute for Space Research who led the study, said in an interview with environmental news site Mongabay. "By now we can say that the budget for the Amazon is 0.3 billion tons of carbon per year [released] into the atmosphere. It's a horrible message."
Gatti said that were it not for the emissions from man-made fires, the southeastern part of the Amazon could have continued to be a "carbon sink," meaning it absorbs more CO2 than it lets out. The region is now at a "tipping point," Gatti said. But when faced with the question of whether these disastrous effects could be reversed if we started now, she answered, "I don't know."
https://www.npr.org/2021/07/15/1016469317/parts-of-the-amazon-rainforest-are-now-releasing-more-carbon-than-they-absorb
Daily Covid Cases Triple Across Southern California
COVID-19 is rebounding across Southern California, swelling the numbers of infections and hospitalizations and prompting fresh calls for residents to get vaccinated.
While their overall numbers remain relatively low compared with the pandemic’s earlier high-water marks, Orange, San Diego and San Bernardino counties have all seen their daily case averages more than triple over the past two weeks — mirroring a trend in Los Angeles County, data compiled by The Times show.
Fourteen days ago, Orange County was reporting a weekly average of about 48 new cases per day. Now, the figure is 150. During that same time, averages grew in San Diego County from 92 cases per day to 344; in San Bernardino County from 55 cases per day to 215; and in L.A. County from 298 cases per day to 983.
https://ktla.com/news/local-news/covid-19-cases-and-hospitalizations-rebound-in-o-c-other-socal-suburbs/
UNC board approves tenure for journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones after uproar
Trustees of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill voted Wednesday to grant tenure to Nikole Hannah-Jones, after weeks of controversy over why the university initially chose to hire the award-winning journalist as a professor without that level of job protection.
The board’s 9-to-4 vote in favor of tenure came after a lengthy closed-session meeting on the final day of the terms of several members of the public university’s board of trustees. It also came a day before Hannah-Jones had originally been set to start working for UNC.
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Hannah-Jones is best known for conceiving the 1619 Project for the New York Times, an initiative to reexamine American history and the consequences of slavery from the year enslaved African people arrived in colonial Virginia.
Last year Hannah-Jones won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary for the essay she wrote for the project. She has won numerous other professional honors, including a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant. She holds a master’s degree from the UNC journalism school and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/06/30/hannah-jones-unc-tenure-vote/
An Australian destroyer arrived in San Diego with 2 dead endangered whales stuck to its hull
Two dead endangered whales were dislodged from the hull of an Australian destroyer after the warship docked in San Diego last weekend, according to the Royal Australian Navy.
"The Navy takes marine mammal safety seriously and is disheartened this incident occurred," a statement from the Australian navy said. The Australian and US navies -- along with the US NOAA Fisheries, which oversees marine resources -- were investigating, the statement said.
CNN affiliate 10News in San Diego reported the dead mammals were fin whales, the world's second-largest whale species, behind only blue whales. One was 65 feet (about 20 meters) long and the other about 25 feet (7.6 meters), the report said.
A NOAA Fisheries fact sheet on fin whales lists them as endangered under the Endangered Species Act, with a population of about 3,200 off the US West Coast. The whales were once hunted extensively, but today their biggest threat is being struck by a ship, the fact sheet says.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/12/australia/australia-destroyer-whales-san-diego-intl-hnk-scli-ml/index.html
Looks like it was a mom and her baby. I bet she tried to protect it with her body. 
Las Vegas teen helps save desert tortoises, one balloon at a time
Look closely in the desert foothills a few miles northwest of Las Vegas, and you might see shades of color dotting the cloudless landscape of cactus and mounds of dirt with mountains to the west.
On a Saturday morning in April, a few miles from the nearest road, deflated Mylar balloons stuck to plants can be mistaken for colorful flowers.
A year and a half ago, Christian learned that desert tortoises often mistake balloons for flowers and eat them. It’s a potentially deadly mistake for the species found in the Mojave and Sonoran deserts and listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.The goal of the Desert Balloon Project is to raise awareness about the issue and urge people not to release Mylar balloons into the air — something most people don’t think twice about.
For now, Christian has no plans to stop hiking on Saturday mornings, picking up stray balloons from the desert and protecting tortoise lives in the process.
https://ktla.com/news/nationworld/las-vegas-teen-helps-save-desert-tortoises-one-balloon-at-a-time/
California has lowest virus case rate in the entire U.S.
Months after a coronavirus surge sickened hundreds of thousands of people, left thousands dead and pushed hospitals to their breaking point, California’s virus case rate is now the lowest of any state in the nation, federal figures show.
Although the distinction doesn’t lessen the heavy toll exacted by the fall-and-winter wave, it does demonstrate the tremendous strides the state has made in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic — progress that, to this point, has not been interrupted even as the state more widely reopens its economy.
California’s latest seven-day rate of new cases was 32.5 per 100,000 people, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Over that same period, Hawaii had the second-lowest rate, at 36.8, and the nationwide rate was 114.7. California has for weeks reported one of the lowest case rates in the nation — though the top spot had remained largely out of reach.
https://ktla.com/news/california/california-has-lowest-virus-case-rate-in-the-entire-u-s/
But Republicans are about to spend $400 Million of California taxpayer money to try to recall CA Governor Newsom for implementing health measures that got us to this better place.
Climate Change Could Cut World Economy by $23 Trillion in 2050, Insurance Giant Warns
The effects of climate change can be expected to shave 11 percent to 14 percent off global economic output by 2050 compared with growth levels without climate change, according to a report from Swiss Re, one of the world’s largest providers of insurance to other insurance companies. That amounts to as much as $23 trillion in reduced annual global economic output worldwide as a result of climate change.
Some Asian nations could have one-third less wealth than would otherwise be the case, the company said. “Our analysis shows the potential costs that economies could face should governments fail to act more decisively on climate,” said Patrick Saner, who is in charge of global macroeconomic forecasts for Swiss Re.
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If countries succeed at holding average global temperature increases to less than two degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels — the goal set by the 2015 Paris accord, an agreement among nations to fight climate change — economic losses by midcentury would be marginal, according to Swiss Re. The company found that most countries’ economies would be no more than 5 percent smaller than would otherwise be the case.
But current emission levels are far from those targets. Global temperatures are likely to increase as much 2.6 degrees by 2050 based on current trajectories, Swiss Re reported.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/22/climate/climate-change-economy.html
Half of LAPD personnel have not gotten COVID-19 shot.
Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore said this week that about half the department’s personnel had received at least one COVID-19 vaccination, with thousands now fully vaccinated.
During a meeting of the civilian Police Commission on Tuesday, Moore said 6,264 officers and civilian personnel out of more than 12,600 had received at least one shot. He said others who had not received a vaccination have had COVID-19 and may have some protection against the virus from resulting antibodies that are naturally created to fight infection.
According to recent state data, more than 41% of L.A. County residents 16 and older have received at least one shot, with more than 25% of those residents fully vaccinated. The department’s personnel, many of whom work public-facing jobs, had much earlier access to the shots than most members of the general public because of their public safety role.
The fact that half still haven’t been vaccinated suggests a large number of officers have chosen not to receive the shots. An informal survey of department personnel in January found that only 60% of respondents said they would accept the vaccine when offered.
https://ktla.com/news/local-news/about-half-of-lapd-personnel-have-gotten-at-least-one-covid-19-shot/
Note: LAPD has had covid vaccines available to them since at least January. https://abc7.com/la-county-covid-vaccine/9450876/
Maria Butina, Russian agent who infiltrated NRA, visits Navalny in jail, with video cameras in tow
Source: Washington Post
“Instead of a doctor, Butina, a wretched propagandist from RT channel, arrived today accompanied by video cameras,” said a post Thursday on Navalny’s Twitter account. She was “shouting that this is the best and most comfortable prison.”
The account said Navalny lectured her for 15 minutes in front of the other prisoners, calling her “a parasite and a servant of thieves.”
Posts on Navalny’s social media are made in his name by members of his team since he has no access to the Internet.
Navalny, suffering severe back pain, requested access to a doctor and painkilling injections. He says he is beginning to lose feeling in both legs.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/russia-navalny-jail-maria-butina/2021/04/01/63a41626-92ff-11eb-aadc-af78701a30ca_story.html
Butina should still be in jail in the US.
Citing gun violence, Gabby Giffords' trauma surgeon enters race for her old House seat
Randy Friese, the trauma surgeon who a decade ago treated Gabby Giffords after she was shot in the head, launched a run for Congress on Thursday — a year into a global pandemic and amid a flurry of mass shootings that have revived a national debate over gun laws.
Friese, who has served in Arizona’s state Legislature since 2015, hopes to succeed Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, who is retiring next year from a southeastern Arizona district. He is friendly with Giffords and her husband, Sen. Mark Kelly, and plans to make his support for gun safety legislation a key theme of his run.
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/25/gabby-giffords-trauma-surgeon-house-run-477973
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