Daily Quick Read - July 11, 2019

“A World Without Ice”

Dahr Jamail is an acclaimed journalist, who spent over 10 years as a war correspondent, including months as an embed with US troops in Iraq.  His new book “A World Without Ice” is a worldwide view of the impact of global warming seen through on the ground interviews with the scientists and the victims of the climate crisis.

…the reality is that we are already in a catastrophic stage of runaway climate disruption. In California, an entire town just burnt to the ground and, you know, probably dozens of people personally that were incinerated in the fire. These impacts are not in the future. They’re right now. If you live on the coast of Alaska that’s melting into the sea as the permafrost thaws, this is present tense. And so, those of us privileged enough to still live in bubbles where maybe our house hasn’t burned to the ground or sunken into the sea yet, can still talk about this as a future tense situation.

Red Wolf Pups Get Names

There are fewer than 40 red wolves living in the wild and perhaps less than 300 red wolves left in the world – North Carolina specifically.  One Earth Day, six red wolf pups were born at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, North Carolina.  The museum is one of the sites that is working to save red wolves and return them to the wild.  The Trump administration is actively working to drive them to extinction.

“The impression we’ve gotten is that Fish and Wildlife have got tired of trying to save controversial species like wolves,” said Dr Ron Sutherland, an ecologist and red wolf expert at the Wildlands Network. “They don’t have the budget or the backing of Congress. It’s easier to let the wolves decline to the point where they can just pull the plug and we’re very nearly at that point. This wasn’t a thing started by Trump but Trump could certainly finish it off.”

Looming Climate Change Driven Disaster in Louisiana

Record rain the Mississippi River basin have result in epic flooding and record high water levels.  Now a major storm is bearing down on New Orleans that could result disaster.  And, if not this time, a life altering disaster is going to occur as storms get stronger.

Louisiana on Wednesday declared a state of emergency as a storm in the Gulf of Mexico was fast developing into a category 1 hurricane and spinning towards the Louisiana coast. Experts are warning that the resulting storm surge could push the already swollen Mississippi River precariously close to the tops of levees that protect New Orleans – in what will be their greatest test since the catastrophic failure during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Mold Will Survive – Will Humans

Up in the International Space Station (ISS) the crew must routinely clean house including build-upsof mold that appears to thrive in space. 

…new research suggests that efforts to completely de-mold the ISS may be in vain. Mold spores can survive even on the outside walls of the station and can bear radiation levels thousands of times harsher than ourselves. The results also point to mold as a useful ally on space travels, which could help supply the crew with biological products such as antibiotics or vitamins.

An Instagram From the Future

When the entire world has become one vast waste dump, selfies will survive.  Lake Ash Dump will be the garden spot.

“In the last week, our ash dump has become a celebrity on social networks,” the Siberian Generating Company said last month, warning potential visitors not to drink the water and saying that even “skin contact with the water can lead to an allergic reaction”.

Photographs of women in bikinis lying on the ash dump’s dirt banks and of visitors riding inflatable unicorns on the azure waters have gone viral on social networks.

The dump is man-made and contains the ash that results from burning coal at the nearby thermal power station, which provides energy to the city of Novosibirsk. It was built in the 1970s and is the largest of its kind in Siberia.