John Hanno – Page 155 – The Tarbabys Blog

Hamas surprise attack out of Gaza stuns Israel and leaves hundreds dead in fighting, retaliation

Associated Press

Hamas surprise attack out of Gaza stuns Israel and leaves hundreds dead in fighting, retaliation

Josef Federman and Issam Adwan – October 7, 2023

People look at the damage from a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Moti Milrod)

Fire and smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike, in Gaza City, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. The militant Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip carried out an unprecedented, multi-front attack on Israel at daybreak Saturday, firing thousands of rockets as dozens of Hamas fighters infiltrated the heavily fortified border in several locations by air, land, and sea, killing dozens and stunning the country. Palestinian health officials reported scores of deaths from Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

Palestinians inspect the rubble of a building after it was struck by an Israeli airstrike, in Gaza City, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. The militant Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip carried out an unprecedented, multi-front attack on Israel at daybreak Saturday, firing thousands of rockets as dozens of Hamas fighters infiltrated the heavily fortified border in several locations by air, land, and sea and catching the country off-guard on a major holiday. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

An Israeli woman react over the body of her relative who was killed by Palestinian armed militants who entered from the Gaza strip, in the southern Israeli city of Sderot, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. Hamas, the militant group ruling the Gaza Strip, carried out a surprise, multi-front attack on Israel at daybreak Saturday, firing thousands of rockets and infiltrating the country by land, air and sea. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

An Israeli soldier stands by the bodies of Israelis killed by Palestinian armed militants who entered from the Gaza Strip, in the southern Israeli city of Sderot, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. Hamas, the militant group ruling the Gaza Strip, carried out a surprise, multi-front attack on Israel at daybreak Saturday, firing thousands of rockets and infiltrating the country by land, air and sea. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

JERUSALEM (AP) — Backed by a barrage of rockets, Hamas militants stormed from the blockaded Gaza Strip into nearby Israeli towns, killing dozens and abducting others in an unprecedented surprise attack during a major Jewish holiday Saturday. A stunned Israel launched airstrikes in Gaza, with its prime minister saying the country is now at war with Hamas and vowing to inflict an “unprecedented price.”

In an assault of startling breadth, Hamas gunmen rolled into as many as 22 locations outside the Gaza Strip, including towns and other communities as far as 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the Gaza border. In some places they gunned down civilians and soldiers as Israel’s military scrambled to muster a response.

Gunbattles continued well after nightfall, and militants held hostages in standoffs in two towns. Militants occupied a police station in a third town, where Israeli forces struggled until Sunday morning to finally reclaim the building.

Before daybreak Sunday, militants fired more rockets from Gaza, hitting a hospital in the Israeli coastal town of Ashkelon. The hospital sustained damage, said senior hospital official Tal Bergman. Video provided by Barzilai Medical Center showed a large hole punched into a wall and chunks of debris scattered on the ground of what appeared to an empty rooms and a hallway. There was no report of casualties.

Israeli media, citing rescue service officials, said at least 250 people were killed and 1,500 wounded in Saturday’s attack, making it the deadliest in Israel in decades. At least 232 people in the Gaza Strip were killed and 1,700 wounded in Israeli strikes, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. Hamas fighters took an unknown number of civilians and soldiers captive into Gaza.

The conflict threatened to escalate with Israel’s vows of retaliation. Previous conflicts between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers brought widespread death and destruction in Gaza and days of rocket fire on Israeli towns. The situation is potentially more volatile now, with Israel’s far-right government stung by the security breach and with Palestinians in despair over a never-ending occupation in the West Bank and suffocating blockade of Gaza.

In a televised address Saturday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who earlier declared Israel to be at war, said the military will use all of its strength to destroy Hamas’ capabilities. But he warned, “This war will take time. It will be difficult.”

“All the places that Hamas hides in, operates from, we will turn them into ruins,” he added. “Get out of there now,” he told Gaza residents, who have no way to leave the tiny, overcrowded Mediterranean territory of 2.3 million people.

Early Sunday, the Israeli military issued warnings in Arabic to residents of communities near the border with Israel to leave their homes and move to areas deeper inside the tiny enclave. In previous Israel-Hamas fighting on Gaza soil, the Gaza communities near the border were hit particularly hard, both by artillery fire and at times by ground incursions.

Gaza’s residents have endured a border blockade, enforced to varying degrees by Israel and Egypt, since Hamas militants seized control in 2007. Civilians are trapped and particularly vulnerable during wars and bouts of fighting.

Israeli airstrikes in Gaza intensified after nightfall, flattening residential buildings in giant explosions, including a 14-story tower that held dozens of apartments as well as Hamas offices in central Gaza City. Israeli forces fired a warning just before.

Around 3 a.m., a loudspeaker atop a mosque in Gaza City blared a stark warning to residents of nearby apartment buildings: Evacuate immediately. Just minutes later, an Israeli airstrike reduced one nearby five-story building to ashes.

After one Israeli strike, a Hamas rocket barrage hit four cities, including Tel Aviv and a nearby suburb. Throughout the day, Hamas fired more than 3,500 rockets, the Israeli military said.

The strength, sophistication and timing of the Saturday morning attack shocked Israelis. Hamas fighters used explosives to break through the border fence enclosing Gaza, then crossed with motorcycles, pickup trucks, paragliders and speed boats on the coast.

In some towns, civilians’ bodies lay where they had encountered advancing gunmen. At least nine people gunned down at a bus shelter in the town of Sderot were laid out on stretchers on the street, their bags still on the curb nearby. One woman, screaming, embraced the body of a family member sprawled under a sheet next to a toppled motorcycle.

In amateur video, hundreds of terrified young people who had been dancing at a rave fled for their lives after Hamas militants entered the area and began firing at them. Israeli media said dozens of people were killed.

Among the dead was Col. Jonathan Steinberg, a senior officer who commanded the Israeli military’s Nahal Brigade, a prominent infantry unit.

The shadowy leader of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, said the assault was in response to the 16-year blockade of Gaza, Israeli raids inside West Bank cities over the past year, violence at Al Aqsa — the disputed Jerusalem holy site sacred to Jews as the Temple Mount — increasing attacks by settlers on Palestinians and the growth of settlements.

“Enough is enough,” Deif, who does not appear in public, said in the recorded message. He said the attack was only the start of what he called “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm” and called on Palestinians from east Jerusalem to northern Israel to join the fight.

The Hamas incursion on Simchat Torah, a normally joyous day when Jews complete the annual cycle of reading the Torah scroll, revived painful memories of the 1973 Mideast war practically 50 years to the day, in which Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, aiming to take back Israeli-occupied territories.

Comparisons to one of the most traumatic moments in Israeli history sharpened criticism of Netanyahu and his far-right allies, who had campaigned on more aggressive action against threats from Gaza. Political commentators lambasted the government and military over its failure to anticipate what appeared to be a Hamas attack unseen in its level of planning and coordination.

Asked by reporters how Hamas had managed to catch the army off guard, Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an Israeli army spokesman, replied, “That’s a good question.”

The abduction of Israeli civilians and soldiers also raised a particularly thorny issue for Israel, which has a history of making heavily lopsided exchanges to bring captive Israelis home. Israel is holding thousands of Palestinians in its prisons. Hecht confirmed that “substantial” number of Israelis were abducted Saturday.

Associated Press photos showed an elderly Israeli woman being brought into Gaza on a golf cart by Hamas gunmen and another woman squeezed between two fighters on a motorcycle. AP journalists saw four people taken from the kibbutz of Kfar Azza, including two women.

In Gaza, a black jeep pulled to a stop and, when the rear door opened, a young Israeli woman stumbled out, bleeding from the head and with her hands tied behind her back. A man waving a gun in the air grabbed her by the hair and pushed her into the vehicle’s back seat. Israeli TV reported that workers from Thailand and the Philippines were also among the captives.

Netanyahu vowed that Hamas “will pay an unprecedented price.” A major question now was whether Israel will launch a ground assault into Gaza, a move that in the past has brought intensified casualties.

Israel’s military was bringing four divisions of troops as well as tanks to the Gaza border, joining 31 battalions already in the area, the spokesman Hagari said.

In Gaza, much of the population was thrown into darkness after nightfall as electrical supplies from Israel — which supplies almost all the territories’ power — were cut off. Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that Israel would stop supplying electricity, fuel and goods to Gaza.

Hamas said it had planned for a potentially long fight. “We are prepared for all options, including all-out war,” the deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, Saleh al-Arouri, told Al-Jazeera TV. “We are ready to do whatever is necessary for the dignity and freedom of our people.”

U.S. President Joe Biden said from the White House that he had spoken with Netanyahu to say the United States “stands with the people of Israel in the face of these terrorist assaults. Israel has the right to defend itself and its people, full stop.”

Saudi Arabia, which has been in talks with the U.S. about normalizing relations with Israel, called on both sides to exercise restraint. The kingdom said it had repeatedly warned about the danger of “the situation exploding as a result of the continued occupation (and) the Palestinian people being deprived of their legitimate rights.”

Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group congratulated Hamas, praising the attack as a response to “Israeli crimes.” The group said its command in Lebanon was in contact with Hamas about the operation.

The attack comes at a time of historic division within Israel over Netanyahu’s proposal to overhaul the judiciary. Mass protests over the plan have sent hundreds of thousands of Israeli demonstrators into the streets and prompted hundreds of military reservists to avoid volunteer duty — turmoil that has raised fears over the military’s battlefield readiness.

It also comes at a time of mounting tensions between Israel and the Palestinians, with the peace process effectively dead for years. Over the past year, Israel’s far-right government has ramped up settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, Israeli settler violence has displaced hundreds of Palestinians there and tensions have flared around a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site.

Palestinians demonstrated in towns and cities around the West Bank on Saturday night. Palestinian health officials said Israeli fire killed five there, but gave few details.

Adwan reported from Rafah, Gaza Strip. Associated Press writers Wafaa Shurafa in Gaza City and Isabel DeBre and Julia Frankel in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Feeling Terrible After Your COVID Shot? Then It’s Probably Working.

The New York Times

Feeling Terrible After Your COVID Shot? Then It’s Probably Working.

Apoorva Mandavilli – October 7, 2023

A Maryland resident receives a COVID-19 booster shot at Meritus Medical Center in Hagerstown, Md. on Feb. 22, 2022. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times)

A new study has an encouraging message for Americans who shy away from COVID shots because of worries about side effects: The chills, fatigue, headache and malaise that can follow vaccination may be signs of a vigorous immune response.

People who had those side effects after the second dose of a COVID vaccine had more antibodies against the coronavirus at one month and six months after the shot, compared with those who did not have symptoms, according to the new study. Increases in skin temperature and heart rate also signaled higher antibody levels.

“We know that vaccine uptake can be challenging, and in some cases, it can be so because some people have strong reactions to the vaccine,” said Aric Prather, a clinical psychologist at the University of California, San Francisco, who led the study.

“My hope is that this actually helps assuage some of those concerns,” said Prather, who studies how behavioral factors affect the immune system. “In fact, those symptoms, though they may be unpleasant, may actually be working for you.”

The study was posted online last week. It has not been reviewed for publication in a scientific journal. But several experts said it was well done, and its results were consistent with those from other research.

The relative increase in antibody levels among those who experienced side effects was small and doesn’t mean that people without symptoms don’t muster a strong immune response, experts said.

“Lack of side effects should not be taken as a sign that the vaccine’s not working,” said Alessandro Sette, co-director of the La Jolla Institute of Immunology’s Center for Vaccine Innovation, who was not involved in the work.

An earlier study found that 98% of people who felt no ill effects still produced copious amounts of antibodies, compared with 99% of those who had localized symptoms or worse, Sette said.

Still, the new results suggest that people who have a rough time after vaccination are likely to be well protected from the virus. “If you’re feeling crappy, then odds are that you’re probably mounting a pretty reasonable immune response,” said Deepta Bhattacharya, an immunologist at the University of Arizona who was not involved in the new study.

In research published last year, Bhattacharya and his colleagues looked at vaccine responses in 2,354 people, about half of whom took a painkiller to relieve side effects from the shot.

In mice, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as aspirin and ibuprofen, severely impair immune responses to the coronavirus. But Bhattacharya’s team found that in people, the medications did not mute the immune response to COVID vaccines.

Not only that, but those who took a painkiller seemed to have more antibodies than those who tolerated the symptoms without medication. The most likely explanation for that is not that the painkillers increase antibody levels, Bhattacharya said.

“It’s more that people who have symptoms tend to have a slightly greater antibody response than those who don’t, and of course the people who have symptoms are more likely to take painkillers,” he said.

Other studies have also found that people with self-reported side effects, including fever, chills, body aches and fatigue, had slightly more antibodies than those without the symptoms.

In the new study, Prather and his colleagues tracked people’s antibody levels over time. When the vaccines were introduced in December 2020, they scrambled to recruit study participants through ads placed in newspapers and on television and social media.

At the time, much of UCSF was still closed down, so they commandeered a Pilates studio in the university gym, moving equipment out of the way and bringing in phlebotomists to draw the participants’ blood. The scientists excluded anyone who had evidence of a coronavirus infection before or during the study.

“We knew we had this very finite period where people were rushing to get vaccinated,” Prather said. “It was just an intense time, but we had to do what we had to do.”

The team tracked symptoms among 363 participants who received the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID vaccines for six days after each dose, and gave some participants biometric devices to record their temperature, breathing and heart rate.

Those who had seven distinct side effects — including chills, tiredness, feeling unwell and headache — produced nearly double the levels of antibodies as those who reported no symptoms, the researchers found. And a change in skin temperature of just 1 degree Celsius predicted antibody levels three times higher six months after the second dose.

The study measured protection against the Wuhan variant, the original version of the coronavirus. The research would be difficult to perform now because people have already had multiple infections or shots that would influence their immune responses, Prather said.

The current COVID shots are designed to protect from the XBB.1.5 omicron subvariant, but the results should still be relevant to all iterations of the vaccines, experts said.

The rollout of COVID vaccines this fall has been bumpy, with canceled appointments and confusion about insurance coverage. But about 4 million Americans received the shots last month, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

3 Beginner-Friendly, At-Home Exercises To Blast Fat Over 40

She Finds

3 Beginner-Friendly, At-Home Exercises To Blast Fat Over 40

Mariam Qayum – October 6, 2023

As we age, staying fit and maintaining a healthy weight becomes increasingly important. Fat accumulation, especially around the midsection, can be a common concern for individuals over 40. Fortunately, there are effective ways to combat this issue. Whether you’re just starting your fitness journey or looking for new ways to stay active, these exercises can be a valuable addition to your routine, promoting not only fat loss but also overall well-being.

We spoke with Andrew White, certified personal trainer, who shared his insights on the three easy exercises that can be seamlessly incorporated into your home workout routine to help individuals over the age of 40 effectively tackle fat loss. According to White’s expertise, these workouts comprise squats, push-ups, and standing leg lifts. Read on to learn more.

Squats

Squats are a fantastic exercise that can be a powerful tool in your journey to blast fat. This simple yet highly effective movement engages multiple muscle groups, including your quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, and even your core. By incorporating squats into your routine, you not only strengthen these essential muscle groups but also boost your metabolism, which is crucial for fat loss.

“Squats target the large muscle groups of the lower body, like the quads and glutes. As you engage these major muscles, your body burns more calories, aiding in fat loss. As we age, maintaining muscle mass becomes crucial, and squats help in preserving and building that essential muscle,” White says.

How to perform squats: White says to begin by standing with your feet shoulder-width apart. Keeping your chest up and back straight, bend your knees and push your hips back as if you are sitting in a chair. Lower down until your thighs are parallel with the ground, then push through your heels to return to the starting position.

Push-ups

Push-ups are a fantastic beginner-friendly, at-home exercise for individuals over 40 aiming to blast fat and enhance their overall fitness. This classic bodyweight exercise primarily targets the chest, shoulders, and triceps while engaging your core and stabilizing muscles.

White notes that “push-ups are fantastic for engaging the upper body and core muscles simultaneously. They target the chest, shoulders, and triceps while also challenging the abdominal muscles. This compound exercise promotes calorie burn and muscle strengthening, essential for metabolic health as we age.”

In order to effectively perform push-ups, White says to start in a plank position with your hands placed slightly wider than shoulder-width. Engage your core and keep a straight line from head to heels. Bend your elbows and lower your body towards the ground. Once your chest is just above the floor, push yourself back up to the starting position. If traditional push-ups are challenging initially, begin with knee push-ups.

Standing Leg Lifts

Standing leg lifts are a beginner-friendly, at-home exercise that can be a game-changer for those over 40. These simple yet effective leg lifts target your lower body, specifically the quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes. They also engage your core muscles for stability, which is crucial for balance, especially as we age.

“This exercise targets the outer thighs and hips, strengthening and toning these areas. As a low-impact exercise, it’s excellent for those over 40 as it reduces strain on the joints while effectively engaging the muscles,” White states.

Follow these simple steps to effectively perform standing leg lifts: Stand straight next to a wall or chair for support. Keeping your leg straight, lift it out to the side as high as comfortably possible. Lower it back down slowly. Repeat on the other leg.

These exercises are easy to perform without any special equipment, making them an accessible choice for those looking to maintain or improve their fitness level from the comfort of their own home.

Forget squats and lunges—strengthen your body with this 20-minute knee-friendly workout

Fit & Well

Forget squats and lunges—strengthen your body with this 20-minute knee-friendly workout

Lois Mackenzie – October 6, 2023

Squats and lunges are a staple of many great workouts, but they aren’t gentle on the knees. If you’re looking to take some strain away from your lower-body joints, try this low-impact full-body routine instead. There’s not a squat or lunge in sight.

Certified personal trainer Roxanne Russell (Workout With Roxanne) leads you through each exercise via the follow-along video below. All you need to get started is a kettlebell and 20 minutes of free time.

You’ll be working for 60 seconds on a strength-based exercise, which is followed by 30 seconds of cardio and a 15-second break.

Pay close attention to Russell’s form during the workout, to help you hone your own technique (kettlebell swings can be hard to perfect) and don’t even think about skipping her thorough warm up.

Watch Roxanne Russell’s knee-friendly workout

Low-impact sessions place less strain on your joints, improving your fitness and strengthening your body without subjecting your knees, hips and ankles to the stresses of running and jumping.

This particular low-impact routine uses supersets, which means you perform one exercise straight after another with no rest in between. Russell has twinned strength-building exercises with cardio moves, which will help you build muscle and burn calories at the same time.

Burning calories with a sweaty cardio session is one way to create a calorie deficit for weight loss, if that’s your goal. But it’s worth bearing in mind that strength training can help with weight loss, too.

That’s because strength training helps you build muscle, which is a metabolically active tissue. This means that muscle (unlike fat) takes energy to maintain, so it burns more calories even when you’re resting.

How hot is too hot for humans? Local physician tells how climate change affects us

The Oak Ridger

How hot is too hot for humans? Local physician tells how climate change affects us

Carolyn Krause – October 6, 2023

As the Earth heats up owing to increased fossil fuel use and deforestation, Americans should be aware that heat waves are the leading cause of weather-related deaths in the country and that certain high temperature ranges can endanger our health and even the ability of our cellphones to work.

That was the message presented by Elaine Bunick, a retired endocrinologist who has traveled to Ghana, Haiti and other countries on medical mission trips. In her recent talk to Altrusa International of Oak Ridge, she presented extensive information on the effects of climate change on the environment, human health and healthcare facilities.

She provided advice on how to protect yourself from excessive heat. And she relayed predictions on impending health care worker shortages that likely made some audience members hot and bothered.

Physician Elaine Bunick, center, signed a book to be donated to the Oak Ridge Preschool.The title is National Geographic Kids’ “Little Kids First Big Book of Weather” by Karen de Seve. With her are Altrusa members Kari Iwanski, left, and Mary Jellison, right.

This summer in Oak Ridge, she said, residents experienced 33 days with temperatures greater than 90 degrees Fahrenheit. July was the hottest month. Bunick said people can expect to have to endure 20 to 30 more days a year of sizzling heat with peak temperatures over 90.

A check with Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge indicated that the emergency room reported more cardiac issues and interventions this year than in the past, but an increased death rate was not observed. Heat waves and air pollution from burning forests can cause heart problems.

Heat is greater risk for some

Bunick said people with chronic medical conditions, such as heart disease, respiratory disorders, diabetes, obesity and kidney ailments, have a greater risk for succumbing to heat illnesses.

“Medications such as antidepressants, beta blockers, calcium channel blockers, diuretics, antipsychotics and opioids alter your ability to handle the heat,” she added.

The increased heat, she said, will especially endanger the health of outdoor workers, such as farmers, police officers, firefighters, road workers, power line maintenance workers and transporters of supplies to stores and homes. The loss of labor hours, she added, will hurt the economy.

Others who are most susceptible to falling ill from excessive heat are persons older than 65, infants, children, pregnant women, people with pre-existing medical conditions and disabilities, athletes and people living in lower-income households or those who are homeless.

Take care of each other

“We have to be adaptable and protect each other to survive,” Bunick said. She cited statistics on the future of health care in the nation.

“The U.S. is predicted to have a shortage of 129,000 doctors and 200,000 nurse practitioners, physician assistants and technical personnel by 2034,” she said. “That’s scary. Our population has an increasing number of seniors – we’re almost 25% of the population. Who is going to care for us? We’re going to have to care for each other.”

Physician Elaine Bunick speaks on climate change and health to Altrusa International of Oak Ridge.

She noted that “in the early 2000s, the U.S. government put a cap on the number of doctors, nurses and physician assistants that can be trained. To this day they have not rescinded that order, so we have a growing shortage of trained medical staff. It takes 15 years to train a specialist like me and six years to train a nurse.”

The average temperature of the earth’s surface has been around 58 degrees Fahrenheit. This year, Bunick said, “the earth’s average surface temperature rose to 62.9 degrees and the oceans reached a peak of 69 degrees, almost the temperature of bath water. That was hottest ocean temperature ever recorded.”

Heat indexes, heat exhaustion and more

So, how hot is too hot? What are the dangerous temperatures and heat indexes for humans?

A normal adult body temperature, when taken orally, can range from 97.6 to 99.6 degrees Fahrenheit. According to Bunick, “The hottest air temperature for human survival is 123.8 degrees; beyond that you’re unlikely to survive. A body temperature over 108.14 degrees causes the body to become scrambled because the heat fries the proteins, denaturing them and causing dysfunction of enzymes and harm to the brain. Death can occur within six hours. Building heat tolerance and acclimatization takes about six weeks.”

According to one of her slides, a human body temperature of 103 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit can cause confusion and impaired judgment, and a temperature of 109 to 110 degrees Fahrenheit can cause brain damage, seizures, cardio-respiratory collapse, shock and death. The highest temperature recorded of a person surviving a heat stroke was 115.7 degrees Fahrenheit.

The heat index is a measure of the interaction of temperature and humidity. “Sweat cools the body by evaporation but if it’s too humid, you can’t add any more moisture to the air,” she said. A heat index of 95 degrees is considered the absolute limit of human tolerance above which the body cannot lose heat efficiently enough to maintain core temperature and avoid brain and organ damage within about six hours.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke are headache, nausea, dizziness, weakness, irritability, thirst, heavy sweating, elevated body temperature, confusion, altered mental status, slurred speech, loss of consciousness, profuse sweating, and seizures. Under these conditions, the body temperature is higher than 104 degrees Fahrenheit.

To protect yourself from heat exhaustion or heat stroke when you’re outdoors on hot days, the CDC recommends that you wear lightweight, light-colored, loose-fitting clothing and a sun hat; take breaks to drink water and cool down in an air-conditioned or shady place; wear sunscreen and sunglasses when you’re outside; drink Gatorade or other drinks with electrolytes; avoid alcoholic beverages, splash yourself with water or use a cold, wet cloth to cool down and check your body temperature periodically.

To treat someone with heat exhaustion, move them to a cool area, give frequent sips of cool water, apply cold and wet compresses, remove unnecessary clothing, call 911 or take the individual to the ER for medical evaluation and treatment. If you and others are on a hike on a hot day, she warned, be sure you keep your cellphone cool and out of direct sunlight or a hot car (120 degrees). Between 96 and 109 degrees the battery will be so damaged that your phone will no longer allow you to make emergency calls.

Bunick noted that weather-related and climate-related events can threaten human health and safety in other ways. Wildfires and house fires can release cancer-causing and other irritating particles to the air, causing respiratory disease and heart issues. She advised checking on the EPA Air Quality Index (stay inside when the air is labeled Code Orange, Red, Purple or Maroon) and wearing N95 or KN95 masks if you must be outside when the air is unhealthy.

Wear insect repellant because ticks and mosquitoes migrating north as the climate warms carry Lyme disease, West Nile virus, dengue fever and malaria, according to one of her slides. Climate change can increase the probability that people get sick from disease-carrying organisms entering drinking water and from harmful algal blooms caused by algae and bacteria present in waters where people swim, causing eye irritation and respiratory illness especially in people with asthma.

“In 2022 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced there were 18 weather-related disasters costing over $1 billion each,” Bunick said.

Some of these disasters caused flooding, leading to drownings and homes destroyed by unhealthy mold. The disasters included heat waves, drought, flooding, hailstorms, hurricanes, tornadoes and winter storms. The death and destruction from these disasters cause mental health problems in victims.

Hospitals are preparing

Bunick said that administrators of hospitals, which use lots of electricity and produce 10% of U.S. greenhouse gases, as well as their healthcare workforce, are preparing for climate-related emergencies and extreme weather events that can disrupt operations, including hurricanes, floods and wildfires. Medicines in hospital pharmacies may be damaged by floods or by the heat, causing them to lose their potency. She gave an example close to home.

“Many hospitals keep their computers, medicines and other important supplies in the basement,” she said. “Recently, there was a water main break at Fort Sanders hospital in Knoxville. My son-in-law, who’s in charge of home infusion therapy at Fort Sanders, had to rush to save the medication in the hospital basement pharmacy from six inches of water!”

Global temperatures are off the charts for a reason: 4 factors driving 2023’s extreme heat and climate disasters

The Conversation

Global temperatures are off the charts for a reason: 4 factors driving 2023’s extreme heat and climate disasters

Michael Wysession, Professor of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. October 6, 2023

2023's weather has been extreme in many ways. <a href= — 2023’s weather has been extreme in many ways. AP Photo/Michael Probst

Between the record-breaking global heat and extreme downpours, it’s hard to ignore that something unusual is going on with the weather in 2023.

People have been quick to blame climate change – and they’re right: Human-caused global warming does play the biggest role. For example, a study determined that the weekslong heat wave in Texas, the U.S. Southwest and Mexico that started in June 2023 would have been virtually impossible without it.

However, the extremes this year are sharper than anthropogenic global warming alone would be expected to cause. September temperatures were far above any previous September, and around 3.1 degrees Fahrenheit (1.75 degrees Celsius) above the preindustrial average, according to the European Union’s earth observation program.

July was Earth’s hottest month on record, also by a large margin, with average global temperatures more than half a degree Fahrenheit (a third of a degree Celsius) above the previous record, set just a few years earlier in 2019.

September 2023’s temperatures were far above past Septembers. <a href= — September 2023’s temperatures were far above past Septembers. Copernicus

July 2023 was the hottest month on record and well above past Julys. <a href= — July 2023 was the hottest month on record and well above past Julys. Copernicus Climate Change ServiceMore

Human activities have been increasing temperatures at an average of about 0.2 F (0.1 C) per decade. But this year, three additional natural factors are also helping drive up global temperatures and fuel disasters: El Niño, solar fluctuations and a massive underwater volcanic eruption.

Unfortunately, these factors are combining in a way that is exacerbating global warming. Still worse, we can expect unusually high temperatures to continue, which means even more extreme weather in the near future.

An illustration by the author shows the typical relative impact on temperature rise driven by human activities compared with natural forces. El Niño/La Niña and solar energy cycles fluctuate. The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano’s underwater eruption exacerbated global warming. Michael Wysession

How El Niño is involved

El Niño is a climate phenomenon that occurs every few years when surface water in the tropical Pacific reverses direction and heats up. That warms the atmosphere above, which influences temperatures and weather patterns around the globe.

Essentially, the atmosphere borrows heat out of the Pacific, and global temperatures increase slightly. This happened in 2016, the time of the last strong El Niño. Global temperatures increased by about 0.25 F (0.14 C) on average, making 2016 the warmest year on record. A weak El Niño also occurred in 2019-2020, contributing to 2020 becoming the world’s second-warmest year.

El Niño’s opposite, La Niña, involves cooler-than-usual Pacific currents flowing westward, absorbing heat out of the atmosphere, which cools the globe. The world just came out of three straight years of La Niña, meaning we’re experiencing an even greater temperature swing.

Comparing global temperatures (top chart) with El Niño and La Niña events. <a href= — Comparing global temperatures (top chart) with El Niño and La Niña events. NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center

Based on increasing Pacific sea surface temperatures in mid-2023, climate modeling now suggests a 90% chance that Earth is headed toward its first strong El Niño since 2016.

Combined with the steady human-induced warming, Earth may soon again be breaking its annual temperature records. June 2023 was the hottest in modern record. July saw global records for the hottest days and a large number of regional records, including an incomprehensible heat index of 152 F (67 C) in Iran.

Solar fluctuations

The Sun may seem to shine at a constant rate, but it is a seething, churning ball of plasma whose radiating energy changes over many different time scales.

The Sun is slowly heating up and in half a billion years will boil away Earth’s oceans. On human time scales, however, the Sun’s energy output varies only slightly, about 1 part in 1,000, over a repeating 11-year cycle. The peaks of this cycle are too small for us to notice at a daily level, but they affect Earth’s climate systems.

Rapid convection within the Sun both generates a strong magnetic field aligned with its spin axis and causes this field to fully flip and reverse every 11 years. This is what causes the 11-year cycle in emitted solar radiation.

Sunspot activity is considered a proxy for the Sun’s energy output. The last 11-year solar cycle was unusually weak. The current cycle isn’t yet at its maximum. <a href= — Sunspot activity is considered a proxy for the Sun’s energy output. The last 11-year solar cycle was unusually weak. The current cycle isn’t yet at its maximum. NOAA Space Weather Prediction CenterMore

Earth’s temperature increase during a solar maximum, compared with average solar output, is only about 0.09 F (0.05 C), roughly a third of a large El Niño. The opposite happens during a solar minimum. However, unlike the variable and unpredictable El Niño changes, the 11-year solar cycle is comparatively regular, consistent and predictable.

The last solar cycle hit its minimum in 2020, reducing the effect of the modest 2020 El Niño. The current solar cycle has already surpassed the peak of the relatively weak previous cycle (which was in 2014) and will peak in 2025, with the Sun’s energy output increasing until then.

A massive volcanic eruption

Volcanic eruptions can also significantly affect global climates. They usually do this by lowering global temperatures when erupted sulfate aerosols shield and block a portion of incoming sunlight – but not always.

In an unusual twist, the largest volcanic eruption of the 21st century so far, the 2022 eruption of Tonga’s Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai, is having a warming and not cooling effect.

The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano’s eruption was enormous, but underwater. It hurled large amounts of water vapor into the atmosphere. <a href= — The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano’s eruption was enormous, but underwater. It hurled large amounts of water vapor into the atmosphere. NASA Earth Observatory image by Joshua Stevens using GOES imagery courtesy of NOAA and NESDISMore

The eruption released an unusually small amount of cooling sulfate aerosols but an enormous amount of water vapor. The molten magma exploded underwater, vaporizing a huge volume of ocean water that erupted like a geyser high into the atmosphere.

Water vapor is a powerful greenhouse gas, and the eruption may end up warming Earth’s surface by about 0.06 F (0.035 C), according to one estimate. Unlike the cooling sulfate aerosols, which are actually tiny droplets of sulfuric acid that fall out of the atmosphere within one to two years, water vapor is a gas that can stay in the atmosphere for many years. The warming impact of the Tonga volcano is expected to last for at least five years.

Underlying it all: Global warming

All of this comes on top of anthropogenic, or human-caused, global warming.

Humans have raised global average temperatures by about 2 F (1.1 C) since 1900 by releasing large volumes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is up 50%, primarily from the combustion of fossil fuels in vehicles and power plants. The warming from greenhouse gases is actually greater than 2 F (1.1 C), but it has been masked by other human factors that have a cooling effect, such as air pollution.

Sea surface temperatures in 2023 (bold black line) have been far above any temperature seen since satellite records began in the 1970s. <a href= — Sea surface temperatures in 2023 (bold black line) have been far above any temperature seen since satellite records began in the 1970s. University of Maine Climate Change Institute, CC BY-NDMore

If human impacts were the only factors, each successive year would set a new record as the hottest year ever, but that doesn’t happen. The year 2016 was the warmest in part because temperatures were boosted by the last large El Niño.

What does this mean for the future?

The next couple of years could be very rough.

If a strong El Niño develops over the coming months as forecasters expect, combined with the solar maximum and the effects of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai eruption, Earth’s temperatures will likely continue to soar.

As temperatures continue to increase, weather events can get more extreme. The excess heat can mean more heat waves, forest fires, flash floods and other extreme weather events, climate models show.

A heavy downpour flooded streets across the New York City region, shutting down subways, schools and businesses on Sept. 29, 2023. <a href= — A heavy downpour flooded streets across the New York City region, shutting down subways, schools and businesses on Sept. 29, 2023. AP Photo/Jake OffenhartzMore

In January 2023, scientists wrote that Earth’s temperature had a greater than 50% chance of reaching 2.7 F (1.5 C) above preindustrial era temperatures by the year 2028, at least temporarily, increasing the risk of triggering climate tipping points with even greater human impacts. Because of the unfortunate timing of several parts of the climate system, it seems the odds are not in our favor.

This article, originally published July 27, 2023, has been updated with September’s record heat.

Read more:

Michael Wysession does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

The Ripples of Republican Chaos

The New York Times – Opinion

The Ripples of Republican Chaos

By Charles M. Blow – October 4, 2023

A blurry image of an American flag. — Credit…Emil Lippe for The New York Times

This week, Donald Trump delivered his version of a sad tiny desk performance, hunched over the defendant’s table in a New York courtroom, diminished and watching the illusion of power and grandeur he has sold voters thin and run like oil in a hot pan.

He insisted on appearing in person at his civil fraud trial, apparently believing that he would continue to perform his perverse magic of converting that which would have ended other political careers into a political win for himself.

His hubris seemed to consume him, persuading him that in matters of optics, he’s not only invincible but unmatched.

He has done it before: In August he scowled in his mug shot — a precursor to his Fulton County, Ga., criminal trial — summoning the allure of an outlaw, using the photo to raise millions of dollars, according to his campaign.

But I think his attempts at cosplaying some sort of roguish flintiness will wind up being missteps. Courtrooms don’t allow for political-rally stagecraft. There’s no place to plant primed supporters behind him to ensure that every camera angle captures excited admirers. He’s not the center of attention, the impresario of the event; no, he must sit silently in lighting not intended to flatter and in chairs not intended to impress.

Courtrooms humble the people in them. They equalize. They democratize. In the courtroom, Trump is just another defendant — and in it, he looks small. The phantasm of indomitability, the idea of him being wily and slick, surrenders to the flame like tissues in a campfire.

The image was not of a defiant would-be king but of a man stewing and defeated.

The judge in the case even issued a limited gag order after Trump posted a picture of and a comment about the judge’s clerk on Truth Social.

Meanwhile, there’s the historic ouster of the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, by members of his own party for the unforgivable sin of seeking a bipartisan solution to keep the government open.

In Greek mythology exists the story of the Gigantomachy, a battle between the Olympian gods and giants. According to prophecy, the gods could emerge victorious only if assisted by a mortal. Hercules came to the rescue.

But in Republicans’ version of this drama, McCarthy could have emerged victorious over his party’s anarchists only if Democrats had come to his aid. None did.

He was felled by a revolt led not by a giant but by the smallest of men, not in stature but in principles: the charmless Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida.

Anyone who thought that Democrats were going to save McCarthy should have thought again. Ultimately, he succumbed to the result of his own craven pursuit of power: The rule that Gaetz used to initiate the vote to strip McCarthy of the speaker’s gavel was the rule McCarthy agreed to in order to get his hands on the gavel in the first place.

Republicans are engaged in an intense session of self-flagellation. Does it also hurt the country? Yes. But in one way it might help: America needs to clearly see who the culprits are in today’s political chaos, and the damage they cause, so that voters can correct course.

And the events of this week should give voters pause. The tableau that emerges from the troubles of Trump and McCarthy is one in which the G.O.P.’s leaders are chastened and cowed, one in which their power is stripped and their efforts rebuked.

This is just one week among many leading up to the 2024 elections, but it is weeks like this that leave a mark, because the images that emerge from them are indelible.

All the inflamed consternation about Joe Biden’s age and Hunter Biden’s legal troubles will, in the end, have to be weighed against something far more consequential: Republicans — obsessed with blind obeisance, a lust for vengeance and a contempt for accountability — who no longer have the desire or capacity to actually lead.

Their impulses to disrupt and destroy keep winning out, foreshadowing even more of a national disaster if their power grows as a result.

How Republican primary voters respond to this Republican maelstrom of incompetence is one thing. How general election voters will respond to it is quite another.

Franklin elections: Hanson says Tennessee Active Club not hired; board decries ‘neo-Nazis’

The Tennessean

Franklin elections: Hanson says Tennessee Active Club not hired; board decries ‘neo-Nazis’

Craig Shoup, Nashville Tennessean – October 4, 2023

Controversial Franklin mayoral candidate Gabrielle Hanson posted on social media Wednesday that she did not hire members of the Tennessee Active Club, an organization identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a white nationalist hate group, for security during Monday’s candidate forum.

Hanson’s comments were followed by a response from Franklin’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen, which released its own public statement via email within hours of her post.

“We, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen, are deeply concerned and disturbed by the events that unfolded at Monday night’s candidate forum for the upcoming city election,” the board’s statement reads. “Individuals identifying as neo-Nazi’s and self-admitted supporters of Gabrielle Hanson threatened both our citizens and members of the media during and after this important civic event.”

The board’s statement said it wouldn’t “tolerate any form of hatred, intimidation, or violence directed at our residents, media representatives, or anyone else attending or participating in the democratic process,” and it urged all candidates currently seeking office in Franklin, including Hanson, to “join us in denouncing the actions and organizations as well.”

The statement ended with the names of the current Franklin board, including Hanson’s opponent in the mayoral race, incumbent Ken Moore. She wasn’t listed.

More: Why Franklin aldermen didn’t act to censure mayoral candidate Gabrielle Hanson

In her post, Hanson said she wanted to set the record straight about what happened Monday.

“I want to make something very clear. I did not hire the group that showed up at the debate the other night, nor did I ask them to participate as security for the event. I want to be unequivocal on this matter,” Hanson said in the statement posted to her Instagram story Wednesday afternoon.

“Furthermore, I want to state categorically that I am not, nor have I ever been associated with any white supremacy or Nazi-affiliated group.”

Hanson explained that she’s working as the “broker on Brad’s (Lewis Country) store,” and categorized her interactions with him as nothing but professional and courteous. Lewis Country Store came under fire earlier this summer after it was revealed that members of the Tennessee Active Club were using the gym above the store.

Media coverage focusing on the Tennessee Active Club’s presence at the forum is “nothing more than a baseless hit piece meant to distract from the real issues at hand,” Hanson wrote.

Tennessee Active Club also released statements about what happened Monday, noting that it was “absurd Gabrielle Hanson hired us. We do this for free at our own expense.”

The group did not say whether Hanson asked them for help.

The Franklin mayoral race has become increasingly controversial in recent months, largely due to Hanson’s comments and views, which have included unfounded theories about the motive behind Nashville’s Covenant School shooting, multiple ethics complaints filed against her by residents in response to an email she sent to Nashville International Airport criticizing a Juneteenth donation and her admission to being arrested on a promoting prostitution charge out of Dallas in the 1990s.

Early voting began Wednesday and runs through Oct. 19. Election day is Oct. 24.

MAGA Mayoral Candidate Seemingly Promotes White Nationalists in News Release

Daily Beast

MAGA Mayoral Candidate Seemingly Promotes White Nationalists in News Release

Josh Fiallo – October 4, 2023

Gabrielle Hanson, the MAGA-loving mayoral candidate who’s become embroiled in controversy after controversy this year, has done it again—this time inserting screenshots of messages from a known white nationalist group into her own news release.

Hanson, who’s vying to become the mayor of Franklin, Tennessee, shared the messages in an attempt to prove that the Tennessee Active Club—a recognized hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center—weren’t invited to provide security for her outside a mayoral forum on Monday. She claimed they instead showed up and acted on their own.

But Hanson never condemned the neo-Nazis in her news release, nor did she ask them to not show up at future forums and events. Instead, she embedded three Telegram messages to a news release that did more to promote the hate group than it did to denounce it.

The posts claimed the current Franklin mayor, Ken Moore, has connections to “antifa”—a blanket term for a loosely-affiliated network of anti-fascist groups that have battled right-wing demonstrators at various public gatherings over the past few years—and that the group of white nationalists showed up to provide security for community members.

“Our group is not backing any political entity but is protecting the public from Antifa,” the first message said. “Remember there is no political solution.”

The other messages emphasized that the group showed up “for free at our own expense” and that they’ll continue to pop up at municipal gatherings until Franklin—a wealthy suburb of Nashville that’s famously home to scores of country musicians and their families—is free of antifa.

Hanson emphasized in her release that she’s never been associated with a neo-Nazi group. She also took a shot at the local TV news reporter Phil Williams—who’s been a thorn in Hanson’s side—by claiming he published a “baseless hit piece” for pointing out that white supremacists escorted Hanson and her husband inside Monday’s forum.

Others involved in Franklin politics quickly denounced the Active Club’s presence, including Moore and State Rep. Sam Whitson, but Hanson never did. In a News Channel 5 report, Williams said that masked neo-Nazis told reporters on Monday that they were “just here to protect Gabrielle.”

One of the men working as security detail reportedly identified himself as Sean Kauffmann, who was described by the Stop Antisemitism watchdog group as being a “disturbed neo-Nazi and Holocaust denier with a documented history of violence and a massive cache of firearms.” He was reportedly spotted doing a Nazi salute outside a drag show in Cookeville, Tennessee, earlier this year.

From Speedos to Spats: Is This the Nuttiest MAGA Candidate Yet?

Hanson’s beef with Williams escalated last week. The reporter’s station was the first to reveal on Sept. 27 that Hanson’s husband once rocked an American flag Speedo—and nothing else, save for a gold chain, glasses, and shoes—to a Pride event in Chicago, with Hanson’s blessing. The report exposed her hypocrisy on LGBTQ issues, as she’d earlier that year used her position as a city alderman to try to stop a local Pride festival because she feared it’d bring out drag queens and scantily clad revelers she deemed a threat to “innocent children.”

Later that day, drama broke out at a mayoral forum held inside a ritzy subdivision’s clubhouse, with Hanson-supporting residents getting into a nasty—and briefly physical—spat with Williams as he tried to enter the event with a cameraman.

One Hanson supporter was captured on video taking a swipe at Williams, which prompted a Franklin cop to scold the woman and say, “Stop touching him or you’re going to jail.” After the event, Hanson didn’t apologize for her supporters’ behavior, instead railing against Williams on Facebook and painting him as an agitator. A recording by a journalist at the event also captured Hanson telling someone, “No Channel 5. They have to leave.”

Even prior to last week’s forum, Hanson routinely put herself in the center of drama. She claimed in May that Audrey Hale, the shooter who gunned down six before being killed by cops at The Covenant School, was in a love triangle with staffers there. Cops immediately shot that rumor down as false, but Hanson has still insisted her sources know the truth.

Hanson has also been skewered for downplaying lynching and for opposing the addition of “racial terror” markers in Franklin. She was also criticized for bizarrely threatening to retaliate against the local airport for supporting a Juneteenth festival, and it was revealed in September that she was arrested in college for promoting prostitution—charges she claimed publicly amounted to a simple misdemeanor, though Williams confirmed last week that they were actually felony charges.

Whether Hanson’s laundry list of controversies will hurt her at the polls will be known soon, as Franklin’s mayoral election is slated to be held on Oct. 24.

The ultra-rich are not just the worst polluters–their donations to climate action are also another way of hoarding money and gaming the system

Fortune

The ultra-rich are not just the worst polluters–their donations to climate action are also another way of hoarding money and gaming the system

Alan Davis – October 4, 2023

Everyone should know that we’re heading to a climate disaster that can best be modified by immediate actions addressing the causes. But it doesn’t appear that the excessively rich are feeling the heat and stepping up to the plate. Their philanthropic foundations announce commitments to fight climate change but in reality, they are building up endowments to save for the future.

Over $200 billion are sitting in donor-advised funds and over $1.3 trillion in private foundation endowments. Charitable giving to fight climate change, estimated by the ClimateWorks Foundation at $7.5 billion last year, is only 0.5% of the money sitting in private foundations and donor-advised funds–and amounts to about 0.04% of the assets of the ultra-rich.

It is estimated that it could take $3 to 10 trillion (twelve zeroes) per year to avoid climate disaster. Even if they wanted to fix the climate problem, it would require extraordinary collective action for philanthropists to pony up enough money to fix the climate problem. Only governments (funded by taxes on these very ultra-wealthy donors) can effectively do that. In short, the philanthropic investments now being made are necessary but insufficient.

We need to hold the ultra-rich responsible for the role their investments play in worsening the climate crisis, call out their insincere philanthropic efforts aimed at “addressing” climate change, and hold them accountable for paying their fair share of taxes to provide funding for clean energy.

Extreme inequality and wealth concentration undermine humanity’s ability to stop climate breakdown. The richest of the rich play the largest role in driving and accelerating the climate crisis with out-of-control carbon footprints due to extravagant lifestyles, excessive wealth-hoarding, corporate greed, and investments in polluting industries. Poor and middle-class communities who share the least responsibility for the problem will bear the brunt of climate change and suffer the most as shifting weather patterns, destructive storms, floods, wildfires, and heat waves wreak havoc across the globe, with the potential to displace 216 million people from their homes (and countries) by 2050.

According to the most recent data, the world’s top 125 billionaires have “an average of 14% of their investments in polluting industries, such as fossil fuels and materials like cement….Only one billionaire in the sample had investments in a renewable energy company.” When combining the impact from both their investments and lifestyles, carbon emissions exceed 3 million tons per billionaire, about a million times greater than the average person! The same report finds that through campaign contributions and lobbying, the wealthiest among us have an oversized impact on election outcomes and more political power than anyone else to protect their investments and shape climate policies in their favor.

And therein lies the biggest problem: We must have a functioning democracy to address society’s most pressing issues, including climate change–one where an exclusive ruling class doesn’t control our policies. When the government is beholden to the excessively wealthy, backroom deals influence laws and shape the rules without the public’s knowledge or ability to change the outcomes. The only way to limit the power of the excessively wealthy is to stop the hoarding of excessive wealth.

Extremely rich Americans hoard their wealth through tax loopholes and preferential policies enforced by their armies of lawyers, accountants, wealth advisers, and politicians. Four simple tax solutions would address excessive wealth hoarding: a multi-millionaire income tax, a robust wealth tax, closing gaping estate tax loopholes through an estate or inheritance tax, and finally, changes to the tax rules to foster increased, transparent and more equitable charitable giving.

We are facing a collective emergency: to save the planet from–and for–ourselves. The rapidly accelerating climate crisis is a class issue that impacts all of humanity. The reality is that our futures are interconnected with one another–and economic and climate inequality reinforce each other. To develop solutions that slow or solve climate change, we must address the deep-seated conflicts of interest and the systemic inequalities of our unjust wealth system.

Alan Davis is the chairperson of the Excessive Wealth Disorder Institute.