Category: Environment
Anderson Cooper: I want to take a moment to talk about Haiti
We agree, Anderson Cooper. Haiti is anything but a shithole.
Anderson Cooper Choked Back Tears As He Defended Haiti From Trump's Insults
We agree, Anderson Cooper. Haiti is anything but a shithole.
Posted by A Plus on Friday, January 12, 2018
Donald Trump cancels London visit amid protest fears
The Guardian
Donald Trump cancels London visit amid protest fears
President will not open new US embassy next month, with secretary of state Rex Tillerson likely to take his place
Heather Stewart, Political editor, and David Smithin, Washington January 12, 2018
Donald Trump and Theresa May pictured in Brussels ahead of a Nato summit meeting in May last year. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Donald Trump has cancelled a visit to Britain next month to open the new US embassy in London, amid fears of mass protests.
The president claimed on Twitter that the reason for calling off the trip was his displeasure at Barack Obama having sold the current embassy for “peanuts” and built a replacement for $1bn (£750m). “Bad deal,” he wrote.
But the embassy’s plan to move from Mayfair to Nine Elms in London was first reported in October 2008, when George W Bush was still president.
The London mayor, Sadiq Khan, said Trump had “got the message” that many Londoners staunchly opposed his policies and actions.
Related: The fabulous new US embassy is best not tainted by a Trump visit, Oliver Wainwright
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/12/new-us-embassy-fabulous-not-tainted-by-donald-trump-visit
“It appears that President Trump got the message from the many Londoners who love and admire America and Americans but find his policies and actions the polar opposite of our city’s values of inclusion, diversity and tolerance,” Khan said on Friday.
“His visit next month would without doubt have been met by mass peaceful protests. This just reinforces what a mistake it was for Theresa May to rush and extend an invitation of a state visit in the first place.”
The prime minister invited Trump for a state visit when she became the first world leader to visit the president in the White House a year ago. Activists immediately pledged to stage protests and MPs have said they would not give the president the opportunity to address parliament.
Asked about Trump’s cancellation, a Downing Street spokesman repeated the government’s longstanding position that “an invitation has been extended and accepted, but no date has been set”.
The White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said: “The invitation was made and has been accepted we are still working to finalise a date.”
Instead of a state visit, it had been expected that Trump would make a brief, less formal “working visit” in February to cut the ribbon on the embassy in south-west London, and hold meetings with May. Officials had also been examining plans for the president to meet the Queen without the pomp of a full-blown state banquet.
Government sources suggested Washington had signalled that the secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, would instead open the embassy.
Rex Tillerson.
Trump confirmed on Twitter late on Thursday night that the trip was off. “Reason I canceled my trip to London is that I am not a big fan of the Obama Administration having sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for “peanuts,” only to build a new one in an off location for 1.2 billion dollars,” he wrote just before midnight local time. “Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!”
Citing security and environmental reasons, the US state department agreed to sell the current embassy building in Grosvenor Square to the Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Co, which plans to turn it into a luxury hotel. Estimates put the site’s value at £500m before it was made a listed building, which would have diminished the value because of restrictions on development.
British relations with the president hit a low late last year when May criticised his decision to retweet videos posted by the far-right extremist group Britain First.
Trump responded by tweeting directly to the prime minister that she should focus on tackling domestic terrorism.
The government was so concerned about his decision to share the videos that Britain’s ambassador to Washington, Sir Kim Darroch, took the rare step of raising the issue directly with the White House.
London’s new US embassy: a very diplomatic America on Thames
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/dec/17/us-embassy-nine-elms-diplomatic-mission-hidden-teeth
London’s new US embassy may be just a glass cube with disguised fortifications, but it is also restrained, efficient, green… the antithesis of Donald Trump
Trump’s ambassador to London, Woody Johnson, subsequently insisted: “The president and the prime minister have a very, very good relationship. I know the president admires and respects the prime minister greatly.”
May’s government has been keen to strike up a close relationship with the Trump administration despite his erratic behaviour, because of Britain’s desire to strike a swift trade deal with the world’s largest economy when it leaves the European Union.
Trump has sparked alarm among diplomats by repeatedly entering into Twitter spats with key public figures, including the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, to whom he recently boasted about the size of the US nuclear arsenal.
The White House has been rocked in recent days by the revelations in an explosive book, Fire and Fury, by the US journalist Michael Wolff, who suggested senior figures in the administration questioned the president’s fitness for office.
Asked about the revelations last weekend, May said she believed they were not serious, and Trump was a man making decisions “in the interests of the United States”.
Trump faced fresh criticism on Thursday night after the Washington Post reported that he had questioned planned changes to immigration rules, asking colleagues why the US had to welcome arrivals from “shithole countries”.
Scott Pruitt confirms who he really works for in a tweet
ThinkProgress
Scott Pruitt confirms who he really works for in a tweet
The EPA’s mission is to protect human health and the environment. Scott Pruitt is most interested in saving money for industry.
Natasha Geiling January 12, 2018
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Credit: Pete Marovich/Getty Images
In a series of tweets on Thursday night, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt cheered his agency’s year-long effort to stall or repeal numerous regulations, arguing that it will save the American public $300 million in regulatory costs.
Pruitt’s tweet fails to mention two important things, however. First, the American public likely won’t see any of those savings, because those regulatory costs are shouldered by industry. And second, the Trump administration’s regulatory rollbacks might save industry money, but they will likely result in widespread environmental and public health costs, which almost certainly will be shouldered by the American public.
Pruitt Tweets: Administrator Pruitt @EPA is working alongside @POTUS to provide the regulatory certainty the American people deserve.
Over the past year @ EPA has issued 20 deregulatory actions saving the American people more than $300 MILLION in regulatory costs.
Take, for instance, the Clean Power Plan — an Obama administration regulation that attempted to place the first-ever limits on carbon emissions from power plants. The rule has been a major target of Pruitt since his days as Oklahoma attorney general and, as EPA administrator, he has overseen its repeal. But even the Trump administration’s own math admits that the CPP would have had significant public health benefits, preventing as many as 4,500 premature deaths per year by 2030.
Complying with the rule, however, would have cost the coal industry by forcing power plants to switch from carbon-intensive sources of fuel like coal to less-carbon intensive sources like wind and solar. By repealing the rule — and potentially issuing a much weaker replacement — the EPA effectively trades public health benefits for industry savings.
Under Pruitt, the EPA has also begun reconsidering rules that limit how much mercury power plants can emit. This rule, known as the Mercury and Air Toxics Standard (MATS), was the culmination of more than two decades worth of work by the agency; in April, the Trump administration asked a federal court to delay arguments over the rule (which has been in place for two years and is currently being challenged a coalition of states and industry) while it considered its position. According to the EPA, the rule would prevent 11,000 premature deaths, 4,700 heart attacks, and 130,000 asthma attacks every year. But industry — especially the coal industry — has vocally opposed the rule, arguing that it imposes burdensome costs that lead to closures of coal-fired power plants (coal-fired power plants are by far the largest emitter of mercury into the air).
These are two rules where the EPA has already studied the measurable public health benefits of the regulation; there are countless other rules that have been rolled back, or put on pause, where exact figures don’t exist. In March, for instance, Pruitt rejected the recommendation of EPA scientists and decided to not issue a ban on chlorpyrifos, a widely-used insecticide that has been linked to brain damage. Along with brain damage, chlorpyrifos has been linked to a higher incidence of lung cancer in pesticide applicators who were regularly exposed to the chemical.
But the ban was vehemently opposed by the chemical industry, especially Dow Chemical — one of the primary manufacturers of chlorpyrifos. Andrew Liveris, Dow’s CEO, donated $1 million dollars to President Donald Trump’s inauguration, and met with Pruitt shortly before the administrator announced his decision not to ban the chemical.
In choosing not to ban the pesticide, Pruitt argued that it was important to bring “regulatory certainty” to agricultural producers that use the chemical. But critics have argued that more than regulatory certainty, Pruitt’s regulatory rollbacks illustrate how the agency has come to place the needs of industry over the EPA’s core mission of protecting public health and the environment. Throughout his first year as administrator, Pruitt has time and again argued that “regulators exist to give certainty to those that they regulate” — but that viewpoint suggests that Pruitt believes his job is to make things easier for industry rather than the American public.
“The only ‘certainty’ Scott Pruitt is providing Americans is that he is failing to protect their air, their water, or the health of their kids in his quest to do whatever the fossil fuel and chemical industries want,” John Coequyt, director of Sierra Club’s global climate policy, told ThinkProgress via email. “The damage that gutting vital air and water protections will do to our families and our health is incalculable.”
Environmental regulations place compliance costs on industry, but they also prevent those costs from being transferred to the American public in the form of increase illness, polluted air, and dirty water. Since the Clean Air Act first became law in 1970, it has created some $22 trillion in net economic benefits, from reductions in illness to improvements in the yield of some agricultural crops. If Pruitt is going to champion the regulatory savings of his actions, he should take responsibility for the loss of public health and environmental benefits, too.
Honey Bees Attracted to Glyphosate and a Common Fungicide
EcoWatch
Honey Bees Attracted to Glyphosate and a Common Fungicide
Modern Farmer
How can the globe be warming if it was so cold?
EcoWatch
January 10, 2018
A bomb cyclone capping off two frigid weeks on the east coast left many wondering: How can the globe be warming if it was so cold?
Read more: http://bit.ly/2CWIwjJ
A bomb cyclone capping off two frigid weeks on the east coast left many wondering: How can the globe be warming if it was so cold? Read more: http://bit.ly/2CWIwjJvia Years of Living Dangerously #ClimateFacts #YEARSproject
Posted by EcoWatch on Wednesday, January 10, 2018
Bill Maher just ROASTED every member of Trump’s collection of the WORST “best people”…
Bill Maher just ROASTED every member of Trump’s collection of the WORST “best people”…
Shared by Occupy Democrats; like our page for more!
Bill Maher Decimates EVERY SINGLE MEMBER of Trump's Cabinet
Bill Maher just ROASTED every member of Trump's collection of the WORST "best people"…Shared by Occupy Democrats; like our page for more!
Posted by Occupy Democrats on Saturday, November 11, 2017
California girl, 12, dies from infection misdiagnosed as flu, family says
Fox News
California girl, 12, dies from infection misdiagnosed as flu, family says
By Jennifer Earl, Fox News
Alyssa Alcaraz, 12, Visalia, California, died from a strep blood infection on Dec. 17 — just days after her parents say she was misdiagnosed with the flu. (Jeremy Alcaraz)
When Alyssa Alcarez was sent home from school after throwing up, her family thought she probably had a “bug” of some sort – maybe even a mild case of the flu.
The next day, Alcarez’s mother, Keila Lino, decided to take her daughter to a nearby urgent care, where doctors confirmed her suspicion: Alcarez had the flu.
“Stunning” breakthrough in brain health leaves doctors baffled.
Doctors gave the young girl some nausea medicine and cough syrup, just in case.
“She’s been sick before with a cold and flu that has lasted longer,” Lino told Fox News. “It was nothing new for us. Like any normal teen, she just wanted to be left alone on her phone.”
Over the next four days, Alcarez’s health continued to deteriorate. She was fatigued, had no appetite and was having trouble breathing.
When medication, rest and fluids failed, Lino rushed her daughter to urgent care. A physician told Lino the seventh grader’s oxygen levels were low, and Alcarez was rushed to Kaweah Delta Medical Center in Visalia, California.
Alyssa Alcaraz, 12, died from a strep infection hours after she was taken to Kaweah Delta Medical Center in Visalia, Calif. (Jeremy Alcaraz)
“The doctor wanted to rule out meningitis, though she wasn’t complaining about her neck, he didn’t want to rule it,” Lino explained. “We were starting to do that procedure to test her fluid when she coded.”
The 12-year-old went into cardiac arrest, which, her parents say, was a result of septic shock from a strep infection in her blood – an infection she had no idea her daughter was suffering from. Within hours, Alcarez was dead.
It wasn’t until days after her daughter died, on Dec. 17, that Lino learned the cause of her death.
“A couple days after she passed, we got a call from the lab at the funeral home,” Lino said. “We were shocked by it. Doctors said it was the flu, but it was a bacteria infection due to strep that shut down [her] organs all within three days.”
With the nation suffering from an unusually severe flu season, Lino says she isn’t surprised her daughter was misdiagnosed with the flu.
“We don’t want revenge. We want changes. We want something positive out of this.”
The flu is now widespread in 46 states, according to the latest report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). California is being hit particularly hard. State health officials say at least 27 people younger than 65 have died of the flu in the state since October.
“I know right now with the flu season clinics, hospitals, everyone is just busy and assuming that’s what everyone has,” Lino said. “But it’s more than that. In order for us to know, with simple blood work, it could have been caught. Something so simple.”
Lino, a mother of four, said she’s sharing her daughter’s story as a warning to other parents, encouraging them to push doctors to do further testing.
“We want to do something on her behalf and make a change in some way,” Lino said. “It’s not fair. We know it’s not fair. We don’t want revenge. We want changes. We want something positive out of this.”
Alcarez’s father, Jeremy, agreed – and thanked the dozens of people who have showed support for the family since Alcarez’s unexpected death. Nearly 200 people raised $12,350 via GoFundMe to help cover funeral expenses.
“She loved to sing. She was a smart girl, beautiful,” Jeremy said. “It was awesome. She had a beautiful funeral.”
Trump takes the wrong message to America’s farmers
MSNBC
The Rachel Maddow Show / The Maddow Blog
US President Donald Trump speaks to the media prior to departing on Marine One from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, October 25, 2017,…Saul Loeb
Trump takes the wrong message to America’s farmers
By Steve Benen January 9, 2018
Ahead of Donald Trump’s speech to the American Farm Bureau’s annual convention yesterday, the editorial board of the Des Moines Register published a highly unflattering piece, explaining that the president and his team have offered very little so far in the way of “policies that actually help farmers, consumers and rural America.”
“They’re just pandering to big corporations. They aren’t interested in the family farmer. The USDA is the U.S. Department of Agriculture, not the U.S. Department of Big Agribusiness.”
Which liberal uttered that? U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley. The Republican railed on Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue in October for killing a rule designed to protect the rights of farmers who raise chickens, cows and hogs for large meat processors. The Farmer Fair Practice Rule was rolled out by USDA under President Barack Obama but never took effect.
The USDA, and agriculture in general, doesn’t seem to be much of a priority to Trump. Seven of the top 13 USDA officials still haven’t been nominated. Perdue is also reorganizing the department in ways that threaten to downplay rural development.
It’s against this backdrop that the president was warmly received in Nashville yesterday, though he said alarmingly little. Trump seemed to understand that he’s enjoyed strong political support in rural areas, but when it came time to present a substantive vision for how intends to help rural communities, he seemed far more eager to celebrate himself.
“Oh, are you happy you voted for me,” Trump said at one point, straying from the prepared text on his trusted teleprompter. “You are so lucky that I gave you that privilege.”
He proceeded to talk about the number of electoral votes he received in 2016 — yes, this remains an area of intense focus for the president — before badly misstating the ways in which the Republican tax plan will affect farmers and taking credit for recent gains on Wall Street. Trump even found the need to request a standing ovation after discussing changes to the estate tax, which, GOP talking points notwithstanding, has very little to do with farm owners. (I don’t recall any modern president ever asking for a standing ovation.)
Trump then signed executive orders on rural broadband that don’t appear to actually do anything.
It was, to a very real extent, a missed opportunity for the president. Because while there may be a cultural connection between rural areas and Republican politics, the New York Times noted yesterday that some of the economic policies the Trump administration is pursuing “are at odds with what many in the farm industry say is needed.”
[S]ome of the president’s economic policies could actually harm the farm industry. New analyses of the tax law by economists at the Department of Agriculture suggest it could actually lower farm output in the years to come and effectively raise taxes on the lowest-earning farm households, while delivering large gains for the richest farmers.
And the administration’s trade policies continue to be a concern for farmers, who benefit from access to other markets, including by exporting their products. Mr. Trump continues to threaten to withdraw from trade pacts if other countries do not grant the United States a better deal, a position that has put him at odds with much of the farm industry.
This dovetails with an item of ours from last summer, after many farmers expressed disappointment with Trump’s move to kill the Trans Pacific Partnership, which was poised to be a “lifeline” to struggling farms. Rural communities thought the Republican White House might at least offer an alternative to the TPP, but the president never bothered.
How did Trump address these issues in his remarks to the American Farm Bureau? He didn’t — though he had plenty to say about the stock market.
Norway has built one of the greenest airports
EcoWatch
January 9, 2018
Who says air travel has to harm the planet?
Read more about the city of Oslo! —> http://bit.ly/2CXwHty
Who says air travel has to harm the planet? Read more about the city of Oslo! —> http://bit.ly/2CXwHtyvia World Economic Forum
Posted by EcoWatch on Tuesday, January 9, 2018