I think the point of HCR’s details, with pertinent references to documentation, points up the difference between News as a form of entertainment and developing historical record.
A historian can use examples from the past to identify critical events and possible outcomes.
The New York Times and a few other major news sources have managed to maintain a depth of reporting similar to HCR.
Modern Media has made todays events seem a form of entertainment but HCR Demonstrates they form history.
Art, great assessment. When Professor Richardson writes "current events", she writes with an intent to inform the historians of 150 years from now to see how we got here and what we did.
I agree with you regarding your point that many news sources focus on entertainment. I subscribe to the New York Times and am have become disappointed in how they portray what is going on in our political world. I truly believe that our country and the world is headed for disaster. And yet the media presents what is going on as “that’s politics “. There is no conservative party. What we have is the Republican cult. And cults are dangerous.
I subscribe to the NYT and to the WaPo. I don't see them covering MAGA antics as anything close to "normal politics". Their online presentation is a bit too entertaining when I'm just trying to scan the headlines. MSNBC is a bit over-the-top in it's shock reaction to Trumpism, but in breaking news, they're quite good. CNN has lurched "right" to take pains to say there are rational opinions on both sides that should be listed to. While that's true, they've gotten rid of those that had the temerity to be rational journalists and call out Republican BS for what it is, so I don't watch them as much. FOX has not improved, other than it's a bit less crappy since TCarlson's out.
Sigh. Who, other than retirees and professional news folk have time to sift through all this? Until I retired, I certainly had little energy for news.
Jerry, I subscribe to The New York Times' and the Washington Post's newspapers and online, among other outlets. I do not find either paper entertaining, except in the entertainment section as in the newspapers they publish.
I didn't see any MAGA stories on the front pages of The New York Times or Washington Post this morning. I did find the following foreign news stories, some of which impact international developments:
LIVEUpdated
July 21, 2023, 7:23 a.m. ET Just Now
Russia-Ukraine WarRussian Strikes and Naval Drills Unsettle Black Sea as U.N. Prepares to Meet
Moscow struck granaries in Odesa, continuing its apparent campaign to incapacitate Ukraine’s ability to export food by sea.
Their City in Ruins, a Ukrainian University and Its Students Persevere
Mariupol State University, an oasis amid the war, has graduated its newest class, more than a year after fleeing its devastated home city.
Around the Globe, Searing Heat With No Sign of Relief
In Asia, Europe and the United States, records are shattering, and forecasters say there’s no respite in sight.
U.K. Voters Hand Sunak’s Party Two Defeats and a Win in By-elections
The governing Conservatives retained Boris Johnson’s former Parliament seat in northwest London, but lost in two districts, including a sobering defeat in northern England.
In Spain’s Election, Left and Right Answer for the Company They Keep
Before voting Sunday, a focus on the leading parties’ allies has dominated the campaign — and obscured debate about more fundamental issues.
Lawmakers Challenge Ford and Chinese Battery Partner Over Forced Labor
Republicans are raising fresh concerns about CATL, the battery maker Ford is working with to bring new technology to the U.S., and its connections to Xinjiang.
What’s Reasonable? A Debate Over a High Court’s Reach Divides Israel.
The legal concept of “reasonableness,” which has allowed the Supreme Court to strike down ministerial appointments, among other things, is at the center of a domestic crisis gripping the country.
A sampling of foreign news on the front page of the Washington Post:
Ukraine now using U.S.-provided cluster munitions ‘effectively’ in combat, official says
Live briefing: Fourth day of Odessa strikes as Russia pounds port region on Black Sea
Viral video of a sexual assault in India sparks outrage and protest
Iraq orders expulsion of Swedish ambassador over Quran controversy
Afghanistan may have $1 trillion worth of electric-vehicle metals. U.S. rivals are angling to exploit them.
The headline that stands out in this long list is "Around the Globe, Searing Heat With No Sign of Relief" - imagine the next great migration here in the US: generations of folks who moved south/southwest for the great weather having to reverse course to stay alive.
I live an hour west of Boston, in a very green semi-rural town that is 230 feet above sea level. I am already trying to imagine how Massachusetts will handle the future influx of climate refugees not only from the South and Southwest, fleeing the killing heat, but also fleeing west from our own coastline as it slowly inundates with sea level rise. Will our state have the foresight to begin relocating towns and cities? Will it be left to individuals as their individual properties flood, with no overall planning by the government, because "freedom" plus government inertia?
If we wait too long, until moving a lot of people becomes an emergency, will the U.S.-internal climate refugee crisis get bad enough that either the government will have to take land by eminent domain on higher ground to build places to relocate people and towns, or alternatively, civil disorder will break out with (armed?) conflict between current landowners and climate refugees squatting or demanding, because they have no place else to go?
These ruminations do not give serenity, as my husband and I walk our cute, enthusiastic dog around our lovely, currently green, currently low-density neighborhood. The more I think about it, the more I think that Biden should be setting up a Cabinet-level department of Climate Mitigation and Adaptation, right now.
The Mitigation side needs to bring together and turbo-charge (sorry, internal combustion engine metaphor) all the initiatives to speed the conversion to green energy and rapidly wind down extraction and burning of fossil fuels.
The Adaption side is needed to start planning right now for an orderly reshaping of where Americans live and work, driven as much as possible by incentives to goose free-market decisions. Your house is destroyed by flooding or a hurricane? In certain zones, no rebuilding help is available in that location, but substantial rebuilding help is available if you relocate to higher ground. Entire cities are doomed to disappear under water? We need to be planning now to turn them into floating cities, a la some towns in coastal Netherlands, or provide a plan and incentives to relocate to a New CityX well inland, where the government buys a big chunk of land and plans a community designed to be net-zero, with social and racial justice, and well above sea level rise.
We can start planning all this to happen in as orderly a way as possible, with input from all stakeholders and preservation of as much freedom and personal choice as possible, or we can fail to plan, which means planning to fail and just letting the chaos and social disorder and unmitigated economic disaster rip.
As a resident of another hilly and currently green place about 40 miles from the Atlantic, well above any reasonably foreseeable flooding of the Kennebec, the proposed office of climate mitigation and adaptation has to make as a first priority perserving as much of our forests as possible, while creating safe clean places for humans to live and work. We have to preserve our forests.
Lynn, you are absolutely correct. Part of the mission and mandate of the proposed new Department of Climate Mitigation and Adaptation (DCMA) absolutely must be to preserve our forests, waterways and wetlands, and land and marine wildlife habitats. This department needs to have the authority to change the policies and practices of the Department of the [Interior?] and the Bureau of Land Management and the Department of Energy, if I am right about the federal agencies that currently administer, make the rules for, and control what happens to all federal land. There also need to be strong incentives for private owners of forests and other carbon sinks and natural habitats, to preserve them. Establishing the DCMA with sufficient power and mandate (while still respecting democratic values) will be an earthquake, but it needs to happen.
Considering the repugnants want to get rid of all the safety regulations that have been implemented such as the EPA so corporations can retain their profits and the cultists Supreme Court aiding them with the new laws ! Its always about money and power and who cares if we destroy the planet !! My money , my precious money !!
Thank you for this excellent post. I'm sharing it with others. Unfortunately, we rarely plan anything and the republicans are actually opposed to planning unless it helps the rich.
Thanks, William! Share away! And please add the comments about protecting forests and habitats. The Republicans, the rich, and Big Carbon will clearly try very hard to completely squash any of the ideas my post proposes.
I live in the lush green farmland and forest of Ontario Canada, beautiful, sparsely populated and elevated enough, and far enough from the ocean to probably never flood. I think about the questions you posed as well. On the other hand, I have a cottage in Newfoundland sitting on a 50 foot bluff overlooking the Gulf of St. Lawrence. I have often wondered how it would be to see the ocean waves coming up over that bluff on to the property. Scary thought. I really appreciate your post. You have obviously thought a lot about how to address and perhaps forestall the coming calamity of weather refugees on the move. I assume you've been in contact with you Senators and Representatives (I know, pretty futile, but perhaps will actually be taken up by someone up there).
Big Oil companies employ hundreds of environmental engineers to minimize (but not prevent) the damage they do, and then remediate afterwards. While I don't tend to vilify them "too" much, I agree that public pressure is absolutely necessary to push them to do more of the right thing. I don't think they'll just go away and shut down until you and I stop driving and using electricity.
Elizabeth M you have a pov that’s so on point and entirely sensible not many will want to digest or will want to listen. Too uncomfortable. Too prescient.
I live near the flank of Vineyard Sound. People are scrambling to build more, yes more and larger houses as close to the shore as they can.
This is not news I’m sure to many of us who live close to beaches and their sunsets.
Oh, and mjust as I was reading HCR’s letter today, I got a banner from the NYTimes suggesting 5 horror films to watch this weekend.
Thanks, Samm. I would love to be wrong about all this. It's painful to see people digging further into locations that will be flooded at high tide or totally underwater in ten, twenty, or thirty years. It's also painful to *not* see the states and the federal government planning for how we will relocate our coastal towns and cities, and how and where we will grow our food when droughts and heat take over some large sections of the country where most of our food is currently grown. Failure to plan is planning to fail. I guess I should be getting people together to lobby the Biden Administration directly, put my time and action where my mouth is.
A major frustration about this lack of foresight, is that other countries have all the knowledge and information about how to do this, so we wouldn't have to completely reinvent the wheel. Look at The Netherlands and their water management expertise. And, when there's a flood often the US taxpayer gets the bill. I'd rather my tax dollars go to the long term planning and operationalizing of those plans, then to foolishly rebuild repeatedly.
The beaches around Vineyard Sound are beautiful. Since they were deposited during the Pleistocene as the glaciers from the last ice ager melted and receded, the sand they're made from will continue to naturally compress and subside. For those areas, the effect of seal level rise will be accentuated by this subsidence.
But regarding beach houses, my attitude is that as long as I don't have to subsidize their risk while I'm far from the ocean, and they're willing and able to afford losing the house or rebuilding, I don't mind, as long as public access to those beaches is maintained. I do mind, though, the thought of these beautiful sandy islands shrinking.
The Vineyard and Nantucket are beautiful places. I agree it's a shame that both are eroding. Are you on the landward or island side of Vineyard Sound? Some friends of mine inherited a small cottage at Madaket, on Nantucket. They have had to move it back from the retreating edge of the dune a couple of times in the last 30 years. They feel fortunate their grandparents bought a piece of land that goes all the way back to the road. I hope you are able to stay in your beautiful spot for many decades to come.
An additional comment re rising sea levels-let's see if DeSatan decides to even address that issue, since the entire state of FL is a peninsula! Does the northern states want an influx of MAGA leaning folks?
Florida is the world's largest sand bar - if the sea rises even just 100 feet, half the state disappears. At 200 feet, almost the entire state except for the higher ground near Alabama will be the new Atlantis.....
Well deathsantis will be responsible for that since all of the insurance companies are leaving Floriduh and his non handling of previous flooding and hurricanes are destroying the state !
At 3 to 7 feet sea level rise per century, it's not clear the politics will take the same shape in 30 centuries, when half of Florida might be under water. We might be an enlightened species by then. Or endangered...
Elizabeth M., I agree that the issues you mention are real and worrisome and that addressing them should start now. However, the actual rate of sea level rise we should expect ranges from less than 6 inches per century (what it has been observed to be since 1900 or so) to an unlikely 7 feet per century.
What does it mean? The answer varies by where someone lives. Let's assume (based on the websites I mentioned) that the possible range is 3-6 feet of sea level rise per century. My cousin who lives in Brick, NJ has a house that's 3' above sea level. He's going to have to raise his house or move by 2100, maybe sooner because his neighborhood is on sand, which WILL continue to compress over time and sink. Your neighborhood won't become a beach town for 35-70 centuries, though that should be reassessed to check for sea level rise.
Clearly, there is scope for action now for those affected in the near term in terms of public policy and insurance guarantees. That is actually already happening, as FEMA is redrawing its flood risk maps and insurance companies are raising insurance rates by a lot. Still, if you drive along areas flooded in Houston after Hurricane Harvey or decimated by Hurricane IKE in Galveston, TX, you will see houses on piers in Houston and on very tall stilts in Galveston. For those that can't afford the sky high insurance or the cost to raise their house, FEMA has a flood risk buyout program (for houses already flooded), though they don't quite offer market rates.
All this is progress along the lines you discuss. Yes, more needs to be done, and the sooner the better. But it's not yet time to panic.
One more comment: There is existing technology that can assess actual subsidence rates at a very high resolution, that would enable policy makers and residents alike to assess which coastal areas are at higher risk than others. We need to advocate for that technology to be adopted in the U.S. (a first mover in this technology, but slower-than-Europe rate of adoption).
Jerry Helfand and subscriber friends, the following is the best current information about rise in sea levels that I could find:
'ENVIRONMENTEXPLAINER'
'Sea levels are rising at an extraordinary pace. Here's what to know.
Seas are predicted to rise a foot by 2050, regardless of how much global carbon emissions can be reduced. Why is this happening, and what can we do to adapt?'
BYCHRISTINA NUNEZ ANDNATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC STAFF
PUBLISHED APRIL 10, 2023
'As humans continue to pour greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, oceans have tempered the effect. The world's seas have absorbed more than 90 percent of the heat from these gases, but it’s taking a toll on our oceans: 2021 set a new record for ocean heating.'
'Rising seas is one of those climate change effects. Average sea levels have swelled over 8 inches (about 23 cm) since 1880, with about three of those inches gained in the last 25 years. Every year, the sea rises another .13 inches (3.2 mm.) Research published in February 2022 shows that sea level rise is accelerating and projected to rise by a foot by 2050.'
'That translates into as much sea level rise in the next 30 years as occurred over the last century, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Rick Spinrad, the NOAA administrator, called the findings “historic,” and warned that the projected rise will occur even if carbon emissions are drastically cut.' See link below.
Even though houses can be built to be above high water, how sustainable is that? Storms, drinking water, sewage and garbage disposal, access are all things that are extremely difficult to build and maintain. Lots and lots of R&D are needed.
It's sustainable until the next sucker forest and buys it off you for hus yarn st living the dream of a coastal life. Collectively, we know quite a lot about where houses shouldn't be built. Individually, our constitution allows us to be as stupid as we want.
In light how republicans have treated any ecological programs and basically dismantled the EPA, if the republicans get in, there will be no hope of any thing like that happening. basically they areclimate deniers.
Thank you, Elizabeth M. Last night down here in PA, I was watching on MBL network, the NY Mets play my life-long favorite team, the Boston Red Sox. But in the third and then fourth inning, the rains came, and the game was suspended until this afternoon. I learned this morning that the reason for the suspension was that it had rained so hard that beloved Fenway Park, that's been there since 1912, had flooded. I wonder if the highway that goes underground, known as THE BIG DIG, was also flooded. How about Logan International Airport that is on the Atlantic Ocean and is barely above sea level. Imagine the immigrants, or as you call them 'Climate Refugees' that would be fleeing left to where you live! Roxbury, Southie, the Italian North End, Framingham, and the Cape. And then there is Rhode Island. Then let us skip down to Biden's state of Delaware. I agree with you completely.
Sorry about Fenway Park. And you're right about Boston. Much of the city is only a little above sea level. Several years ago, there was an article in a Boston magazine projecting that in a few decades, Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, built on saltmarsh landfill at the base of Beacon Hill, would need to be turned into a USA Venice with canals instead of streets. In the Seaport District, which in the early 1800's was saltmarsh and was progressively filled, some areas of the district already had sunny day flooding at least a few inches at high tide when I worked there from 2009 to 2013. Nevertheless, the late Mayor Menino spearheaded a massive building campaign of new office space and condo buildings in that built-on-landfill-laid-over-a-saltmarsh district, in that same period. Not only that, there are only three ways to get to the district: over one of two two-lane bridges at Summer Street and Congress Street that cross the Fort Point Channel, or by boat. It was great to take a walk and see tall ships on my lunch break, but getting there was hell. I assume the developers and the lenders who financed them were eager to participate, because I presume they did not hold the buildings they built and collect rent, but sold the office or residential condos to owners who now own all the climate change risk. I still don't get it. You mention Rhode Island. In Newport, the robber barons' mansions are all built along a high cliff. Great views, and well above any high tide for at least another couple of centuries.
Thanks for the detailed information. I'm from Kittery, Maine, which as you probably know is about 55 miles north of Boston. But I move to the D.C. area in 1983 and have moved north to where I now live in York, PA. I went to the University of Maine in Orono, ten miles north of Bangor. U Maine is a land and sea grant school. They heavily involved with various things that include working on climate change issues. Anyway, I still try to keep in touch with what's happening in NE. Did you know that the Gulf of Maine, which is the part of the North Atlantic Ocean bordered by Mass., NH, Me, and Nova Scotia, is considered to be the fastest warming part of the Atlantic and the rest of the 70% of the planet. More moisture in the air causes oceans to heat up. So, those 'experts who tell the world that it will take a long time for land to disappear along coasts are lying. When I lived in Takoma Park, MD, with several others, one of them was a writer and also worked for the Washington Post. He also has published a number of books on different subjects. You might find the book he wrote that was published in 2003 of particular interest about ocean warming and the plight of those that live there. His name is Mike Tidwell, and the book is "Bayou FAREWELL: THE RICH LIFE AND TRAGIC DEATH OF LOUISIANA'S CAJUN COAST." Here is the bio of him from that book. "Mike Tidwell is the author of four previous books, including "In the mountains of Heaven", "Amazon Stranger", and The Ponds of Kalambayi". A former National Endowment for the Arts fellow, Tidwell has published his work in National Geographic Traveler, Reader's Digest, Washingtonian, and many other publications. His frequent travel articles for The Washington Post have earned him four Lowell Thomas Awards, the highest prize in American travel journalism. He lives in Washington, D.C." In this book, he travelled to New Orleans and went down the Mississippi River Delta to speak with Cajun folks who lived and fished there. Over the years, the Gulf Coast had, and still is, taken over the coast of Louisiana moving closer to New Orleans. I saw a number of years ago a TV video of a reporter interviewing the then governor of that state on a boat. He pointed out as they move how the land is disappearing as the Gulf move north. I'm sure Mike's book would be helpful for people who live along the various coasts to read this book. It was written 20 years ago, so you can imagine how much has changed since then.
Yes, Elizabeth, hooray for PLANNING! So like the reasons we got here; how long has the coming of global warming been known? When will the planning begin? When will we speed up the transition to replace our dependency on fossil fuels? When will Americans wake up to our urgent needs to survive and repair democracy?
I have a picture of a newspaper clipping from 1912 with a story about scientists' warning about the effects of burning coal on the atmosphere. This story has been authenticated.
Yup, exactly. But every time we face a choice, we do have the choice. It's getting very late to wake up and take serious, big action on both of these. I read somewhere that half of all the CO2 humans have ever added to the atmosphere has been added since 1988, when NASA climate scientist James Hansen spoke before Congress at Al Gore's invitation, about the onrushing threat of climate change, caused by humans burning fossil fuels. But our species still has the choice to bend the curve of climate change downward, but the longer we wait, the less we can save. Saving and repairing our democracy requires what everyone who comments here already knows: Democrats actively fighting to elect Democrats, up and down the ballot, all over America.
Elizabeth, I write this late at night just before HCR will post her next-day's message. I sometimes skip a day or several in my reads and this was one of them so am late to have read your thoughtful words.
I too, live at +230' above the Atlantic except for being located on a unique geographic anomaly less than a mile from both the sea and NY harbor on the NJ side. The Navesink Highlands are the highest point on the eastern seaboard from southern Maine to the FL Keys. So, while we are well above even the extremes of the coming sea level rise(s) we are also quite exposed to the storms that are similarly rising in intensity and frequency.
I relate better than most to your words as this knowledge has been part of my DNA since my studies in architecture in the early 70's and our program's focus on passive energy design. The late Paolo Soleri whose Arcosanti was / is one of the world's first truly sustainable cities (excepting those of our ancestors) and was an advisor and mentor so everything you speak to was more than words. It was a philosophy and way of life. Sadly, not many were interested in passive energy concepts as it challenged the main stream view of flipping-a-switch to get one's heat, cooling, light or other source. Off-the-grid concepts were seen as radical and often could not even obtain conventional loans for construction. Even now, rather than integrated into our homes and cities through orientation to the sun, wind and other natural forms of energy the solutions are more often, add-ons to traditional structures that have No relationship whatsoever to the planet they are built on.
Our ancestors knew the earth well and built beautiful structures and cities with indigenous materials that often oriented to the sun as well as the seasons and cycles. But, while Tesla's and Edison's beautiful inventions gave us electricity and other forms of energy it also disconnected us from everything we had learned in the millennia before. So, yes we now stand at the precipice of what we have both created and caused having in a very short period of time caused ourselves to believe we could dominate the earth instead of live with it in reasonable harmony with its resources.
It is far too long a conversation because the logic you so accurately present with a process that would prepare us for what is coming still stands in sharp contrast to the social, economic and other systems we have put in place. I prefer optimism and it remains central to my own work but, just miles down the shoreline from where I write this are construction cranes building new high-rise housing towers literally on the beach funded and developed by Kushner's new Saudi-petro dollars.
All to say that while some cities and states with more progressive leaders are already beginning planning for some of these issues that the migration away from the most vulnerable areas will begin by exposing not just the physical but the economic realities. Property values in these zones will begin decreasing with examples like major insurance companies pulling out of entire states as is already happening.
But, with all the negative examples that can be listed my optimism still suggests that it may and will stimulate new, more sustainable developments and cities in the areas of migration (translation: opportunity) in northern latitudes where the "livable" more temperate zones are shifting. Perhaps, the lessons of the precipice may yet still have the ability to bring us back to what our ancestors knew long ago.
More dialog to come but, thank you for starting it for us.
I live in that same area. When I moved here, one of the few houses I could afford within a reasonable commuting distance happened also to be on a small knoll, twenty feet above the surrounding land. I followed the dictum from my military training: "take the high ground, and hold it". I share your worries of the influx of climate refugees: do we have enough space for them all?
We are turning ourselves into an endangered species. Continuing to depend of fossil fuels folks?! 'Humans or modern humans (Homo sapiens) are the most common and widespread species of primate.'
Once we go, the earth will return to its normal rhythms within 100 years. Yes, there will be some continued warming but it will stabilize in a fairly short time - the planet will survive and quite nicely - once we're gone.....
I agree with you up to a point. However, the grotesque amount of plastic with which the species has created and left behind, together with all the places we've poisoned the earth with mining, and all the other things we've done that have damaged local environments, leads me to think it will take a lot longer than 100 years. The nuclear power plants and other facilities alone will continue endangering their local environments for hundreds if not thousands of years. Yes, other life will adapt and evolve to cope with all the crap humans have generated and will have left, but I think that for at least some places, thousands of years will be required. And the losses of species alive today as a consequence of us just being here is staggering.
It's what rats do too. If confined to a single space they will keep reproducing despite the lack of room and begin to eat each other when other resources are gone.
Considering what they and their predecessors have done to the American southwest with their idiotic lawns and development, they can all just stay there and reap what they've sowed - literally.
And our American Cassandra Al Gore warned that we needed to deal with the warming AND what he projected would be mass migrations — way back a couple or three decades ago.
But we did not plan for this. OK, opportunity lost.
😖. I know. Ridicule is a great intellectual vaccinator against anyone taking a person seriously. It is used in politics to great effect. Doesn’t even have to ridicule something real. It still works. Giving Gore grief for talking about being “busy inventing the Internet” is another of those times, but that was actually true, too. The government program — ARPANET — that gave rise to the Internet was funded during Gore’s time as a legislator. [He never said he invented it himself.] But it’s more fun to ridicule than it is to admit reality. That’s why I call him a Cassandra. He was often right, but he couldn’t get any traction with the truth.
Ridiculing the very idea of human activity changing climates the world over worked really well for along time, too. Still works in some circles, though most people these days are too busy trying to stay ahead of the weather to give it much thought ….
If the southerners do move north, I hope they can adjust to our way of living and not try to change it to their narrow way of thinking. I qualify my statement to say not all Southerners are like that
For more "news" from 'the people' in the UK, I recommend you check out THE CANARY, a journalist-owned email that you may also find on Facebook. If you do, you will likely learn how the people feel about things there and around the world.
This fails to be a thoughtful comment. In what universe does sending arms *that already exist* for the precise purpose of defending Europe from Russian aggression to Europe to defend against Russian aggression constitute "pissing away"? You see some personal or national benefit to letting Russia take another bite (Syria, Georgia, Chechnya, etc, etc, etc)?
I just returned from a family reunion in Texas (we've had them annually since 1930.) News? For some of my cousins, nephews and nieces, the "news" that they get comes from OAN, Newsmax and Fox News (sic.) It reminds me of that old adage: you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. The only solution, the desperate solution, is to out-vote them.
Oy, Newsmax. My Texas neighbors were absolutely sure that Trump won in 2020 regardless of the failed lawsuits, failed fake electors, recounts, and failed insurrection. They might still be sure, but I don't go there in conversation. We just talk about trash pickup schedules, weather, and mosquitos. I wish I could find a mosquito repellent as effective as the truth repellents spread by OAN, Newsmax, etc.
I do get it. The "good ol' boy' culture is something that I just never liked. They're going to believe what they want to believe. But that's true for the majority. Real critical thinking is not for the faint of heart. I explain myself by telling them that I have a simple philosophy or theory of government, and that is that government should be organized and operated to benefit the vast majority of the people under its jurisdiction, which means public services, education, health care, security, jobs and more. Government is not set up to advance religious goals, except in places like Israel, Iran, Afghanistan and others. So, I've started asking them, "What is your theory of government?"
Thank you for this on-the-ground reporting. I have a niece in Austin and often wonder what news she gets. Her parents are born again racists (in SC), she is an architect. As a polite aunt, I don’t ask.
In Texas, Austin is often referred to as "The People's Republic of Austin" - a puddle of blue in the devil's den..... :-) Other, bigger blue puddles are around Dallas, San Antonio, Houston and El Paso.....but our esteemed unhinged governor (Greg Abbott) is determined to tame them.
Good question. I didn't realize that it may have been linked only to my AOL account. You might try googling the piece about Fox News being an unindicted co-conspirator with Trump. I think that this is the general MediaMatters link: action@e.mediamatters.org
I do too, getting one delivered and depending on LFAA and the NYT headline articles online for the others. Sometimes I wonder how many people under age 40 still read newspapers, in either their paper or online versions? I also wonder what the age breakdown of those following LFAA is.
We take the NYT. I read parts of it online. We also have the WaPo, the Oregonian, and the Seattle Times on line as well as the Atlantic and a few other things. We take the local rag online, mainly for obits. There are also a few online sources here in Salem which are good for local news and two of them especially on local politics. I start my am with Heather and a cup of coffee. I also read a number of the comments here skipping only those that I know are trolls. I post Heather's letter to my Facebook page. Most of the people who read it are older, but I have a couple ex-students who are also reading although I doubt they are under 40 now. I doubt my relatives in the midwest read anything. Our nephews here on the west coast don't post about politics although I am sure they are aware.
I've subscribed to at least two newspapers almost all of my life; now three: Boston Globe, Worcester Telegram&Gazette, NY Times. And LFAA, Michael Moore, et alii. But my three children (in their late 30s-early 40s now) do not subscribe to any. It appears I have failed at teaching them the value of the free press, and that we need to keep it alive and working - all of us.
My daughter in NYC doesn't read the Times and I gifted my son in Florida a digital subscription to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. I don't know what either spreads on the floor if they want to paint a small item.
My search engine found it immediately: "The LFAA (Looking For Arab Actors) is the place where directors and producers get to search for and meet all the arab actors/actresses out there."
I wasted several minutes looking for that Great news site. I have been a subscriber to Heather for 2 years..I'm glad I'm not the only one who wasn't hip to that acronym. But, like LOL, I won't be using it.
The Guardian is the only online paper I read on a regular basis.
I read HCR's column every day, of course, and I have discount subscriptions to the Post and NYT, but that's primarily to read articles I see on various social media outlets.
Yes, The Guardian! And there is no paywall. We also get the Guardian Weekly in the mail. (Brit husband.) There is useful news in English from France on TV, a half hour program repeating all day.
I didn’t know that the Louisiana Field Archery Association published a daily newspaper. Which is my roundabout way of asking “what is LFAA?” I googled it, and the Louisiana site was the first listing.
In the 1960's I read Le Monde for news inside France but, relied on returning percipient witness reports. Post digital revolution (www) international news is easy.
At the start of the Pandemic, easily accessed South Korean medical research was critical by documenting airborne infection paths (plural). The planet is round.🌍🌏🌎
Today’s newsletter made me think about the hard analytical work that goes on everyday in our various intelligence agencies. Many of us love a good spy novel or movie. Not so much the ones that devolve into endless explosions and absurdly difficult physical feats...although, it’s hard not to like the original Bond movies starring Sean Connery. No, what I’m talking about is the very dangerous and tricky work that gets to the bottom of just who profits from supporting the Russian War of Aggression against Ukraine. Smart college grads are sometimes identified and recruited just for this kind of work and they don’t want any public acknowledgment for their work. Others come from the military or perhaps some come right out of left field and volunteer. At CIA Headquarters in Langley, VA, a few of the greatest, bravest and most brilliant Americans are only memorialized with stars on a wall...no names. For what it’s worth, I’d like to say “thank you” to them all today ...those still doing their jobs and those we’ve lost.
But if you check today's sources, you can see that she does not reiy on them soley. One reason I choose to follow Professor Cox Richardson is that she does not rely on those sources alone. I'm a bit of a news junkie, but I have vision issues, and I welcome the range and depth of her sources. Not to mention her terrific ability to construct a narrative from all she reads.
I learn so much from reading Professor Cox Richardson. She does have a great ability to construct a narrative that is easy to read and comprehend. Thank you, Professor, for all you do.
Jennifer, here is breaking news getting around the country. HCR may have finally been asleep when it broke.
'Trial in Trump Documents Case Set for May 2024'
'Judge Aileen M. Cannon rejected former President Donald J. Trump’s request to delay the trial until after the election but pushed the start date past the Justice Department’s request to begin in December.'
'In her order, Judge Aileen M. Cannon said the trial was to be held in her home courthouse in Fort Pierce, Fla., a coastal city two-and-a-half hours north of Miami that will draw its jury pool from several counties that Mr. Trump won handily in his two previous presidential campaigns.'
'Judge Cannon also laid out a calendar of hearings, throughout the remainder of this year and into next year, including those concerning the handling of the classified material at the heart of the case.'
'The scheduling order came after a contentious hearing on Tuesday at the federal courthouse in Fort Pierce where prosecutors working for the special counsel, Jack Smith, and lawyers for Mr. Trump sparred over when to hold the trial.'
'The timing of the proceeding is more important in this case than in most criminal matters because Mr. Trump is now the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination and his legal obligations to be in court will intersect with his campaign schedule.'
'Indeed, the date Judge Cannon chose to start the trial — May 20, 2024 — is one day before the primary in the key swing state of Georgia. But it falls after the bulk of the primary race contests will have already taken place.' (NYTimes) Sorry, no gifting is available, but this excerpt covers all main points of the report.
She is under some scrutiny from the 11th Circuit, and this schedule in effect sabotages Trump's presidential campaign because May 2024 is the start of serious campaigning after the Republican primaries, and Trump will have to be in court, which means the longer his attorneys try to delay the trial, the longer Trump is off the campaign trail.....
What if the Orange Shameful Shambles just doesn't show up for the trial? I wouldn't put it (or anything, really) past him. You know his counsel will be clamoring for a continuance, due to his busy schedule. He could be tried in absentia under the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure if he shows up for the first day of the trial, then absents himself for the rest - and you know he won't be testifying, in any case, so there's an argument he doesn't actually have to be there.
The question is: will her loyalty be guided by her oath to support the Constitution, that she may realize that Trump wishes to put an end to judicial authority in this country, or whether she will show allegiance to the insurrectionist who appointed her to the bench. Is she "A Profile in Courage?"
I don't understand why she set it so far in the future. This isn't a complicated case and there aren't many classified documents being introduced. I don't know why the lawyers have to read the classified documents. The question is, did he take them or not? It has nothing to do with their content. Yes, there's a lot of evidence but they should be able to read it in 5 months.
I believe it's to help trump. In May trump will cry that it's campaign season and it's unfair to have the trial while he's campaigning. Based on her past actions, I believe she will be receptive to that argument.
I don't assume how she will act. Trump will stamp his feet but don't know if that will serve his interest. My sense is that the noose around his neck will get tighter, and I am neither an optimist or a negativist. .
I wonder if the trial will actually allow some of his followers who end up on the jury to open their eyes, or will they continue to maintain that the trial is a conspiracy by the Justice Department to persecute poor little ol' Orange Menace.
And don't forget, there are 2 more indictments yet to show up and go to trial: DC and GA. Those could slot in before the May trial, but we'll have to see how they play out. Regardless of how he's polling with Republicans right now, a LOT still has to happen before T***p is the Republican nominee. He could still very easily completely tank in the polls before all the primaries get underway next spring. The more stuff that comes out, the harder it may be for Donnie to refute it all, and Republican voters might just start to get really uneasy about having a candidate under multiple indictments as their nominee. Those could be very serious liabilities for a candidate to have come November, even if it IS T***p. We still have a long way to go . . .
The reason the MSM doesn't cover much international news is that many, maybe most Americans don't care about it. Before retirement when I was dealing with my company's international manufacturing plants I had a boss that couldn't understand why I read the Economist. While the Economist has a conservative view point their world wide coverage is outstanding.
We remain insular. It’s very bad for our politics and our history. The Founding Fathers would be horrified. Too bad Scalia and Alito couldn’t understand the 18th century.
That figure probably includes Congress too. Trying to get my stepson who has retired from Bath Shipyards where he designed warships, to design steamships or sailing ships to get us affordably and ecologically across the oceans. It’s time.
I am convinced that if we can unleash both government research and private corporations, we WILL find the solutions to the problem of climate change caused by global warming..... Make it profitable, and there is no limit to the energy and commitment industry will bring to solving the problems. It's what we have done for the past 245 years.....
Relying on TV in the U.S. for international news is best done streaming BBC, or if you speak French, online channels like France24 which is on the Sling information package. At least there are newspapers in the US with decent world news sections. There are plenty of international radio stations you can get for free. And don't forget "The World", a daily news program, on PRX.
I wish the main stream news channels would cover international developments as much as you do. They are giving too much oxygen to the MAGA wildfire.
I think the point of HCR’s details, with pertinent references to documentation, points up the difference between News as a form of entertainment and developing historical record.
A historian can use examples from the past to identify critical events and possible outcomes.
The New York Times and a few other major news sources have managed to maintain a depth of reporting similar to HCR.
Modern Media has made todays events seem a form of entertainment but HCR Demonstrates they form history.
Art, great assessment. When Professor Richardson writes "current events", she writes with an intent to inform the historians of 150 years from now to see how we got here and what we did.
I agree with you regarding your point that many news sources focus on entertainment. I subscribe to the New York Times and am have become disappointed in how they portray what is going on in our political world. I truly believe that our country and the world is headed for disaster. And yet the media presents what is going on as “that’s politics “. There is no conservative party. What we have is the Republican cult. And cults are dangerous.
I subscribe to the NYT and to the WaPo. I don't see them covering MAGA antics as anything close to "normal politics". Their online presentation is a bit too entertaining when I'm just trying to scan the headlines. MSNBC is a bit over-the-top in it's shock reaction to Trumpism, but in breaking news, they're quite good. CNN has lurched "right" to take pains to say there are rational opinions on both sides that should be listed to. While that's true, they've gotten rid of those that had the temerity to be rational journalists and call out Republican BS for what it is, so I don't watch them as much. FOX has not improved, other than it's a bit less crappy since TCarlson's out.
Sigh. Who, other than retirees and professional news folk have time to sift through all this? Until I retired, I certainly had little energy for news.
Jerry, I subscribe to The New York Times' and the Washington Post's newspapers and online, among other outlets. I do not find either paper entertaining, except in the entertainment section as in the newspapers they publish.
Plus I find lots of other interesting articles in both papers (online) that have nothing to do with national or world politics.
Jim Acosta is still good.
A problem is maintaining position. If the Times relied on the same number of commenters to HCR they’d go broke.
But the breadth of their reporting on Trump is awesome. And I succeeded ignoring him until 2022.
Well thought out and articulated Art. Bravo ~
I didn't see any MAGA stories on the front pages of The New York Times or Washington Post this morning. I did find the following foreign news stories, some of which impact international developments:
LIVEUpdated
July 21, 2023, 7:23 a.m. ET Just Now
Russia-Ukraine WarRussian Strikes and Naval Drills Unsettle Black Sea as U.N. Prepares to Meet
Moscow struck granaries in Odesa, continuing its apparent campaign to incapacitate Ukraine’s ability to export food by sea.
Their City in Ruins, a Ukrainian University and Its Students Persevere
Mariupol State University, an oasis amid the war, has graduated its newest class, more than a year after fleeing its devastated home city.
Around the Globe, Searing Heat With No Sign of Relief
In Asia, Europe and the United States, records are shattering, and forecasters say there’s no respite in sight.
U.K. Voters Hand Sunak’s Party Two Defeats and a Win in By-elections
The governing Conservatives retained Boris Johnson’s former Parliament seat in northwest London, but lost in two districts, including a sobering defeat in northern England.
In Spain’s Election, Left and Right Answer for the Company They Keep
Before voting Sunday, a focus on the leading parties’ allies has dominated the campaign — and obscured debate about more fundamental issues.
Lawmakers Challenge Ford and Chinese Battery Partner Over Forced Labor
Republicans are raising fresh concerns about CATL, the battery maker Ford is working with to bring new technology to the U.S., and its connections to Xinjiang.
What’s Reasonable? A Debate Over a High Court’s Reach Divides Israel.
The legal concept of “reasonableness,” which has allowed the Supreme Court to strike down ministerial appointments, among other things, is at the center of a domestic crisis gripping the country.
A sampling of foreign news on the front page of the Washington Post:
Ukraine now using U.S.-provided cluster munitions ‘effectively’ in combat, official says
Live briefing: Fourth day of Odessa strikes as Russia pounds port region on Black Sea
Viral video of a sexual assault in India sparks outrage and protest
Iraq orders expulsion of Swedish ambassador over Quran controversy
Afghanistan may have $1 trillion worth of electric-vehicle metals. U.S. rivals are angling to exploit them.
The headline that stands out in this long list is "Around the Globe, Searing Heat With No Sign of Relief" - imagine the next great migration here in the US: generations of folks who moved south/southwest for the great weather having to reverse course to stay alive.
I live an hour west of Boston, in a very green semi-rural town that is 230 feet above sea level. I am already trying to imagine how Massachusetts will handle the future influx of climate refugees not only from the South and Southwest, fleeing the killing heat, but also fleeing west from our own coastline as it slowly inundates with sea level rise. Will our state have the foresight to begin relocating towns and cities? Will it be left to individuals as their individual properties flood, with no overall planning by the government, because "freedom" plus government inertia?
If we wait too long, until moving a lot of people becomes an emergency, will the U.S.-internal climate refugee crisis get bad enough that either the government will have to take land by eminent domain on higher ground to build places to relocate people and towns, or alternatively, civil disorder will break out with (armed?) conflict between current landowners and climate refugees squatting or demanding, because they have no place else to go?
These ruminations do not give serenity, as my husband and I walk our cute, enthusiastic dog around our lovely, currently green, currently low-density neighborhood. The more I think about it, the more I think that Biden should be setting up a Cabinet-level department of Climate Mitigation and Adaptation, right now.
The Mitigation side needs to bring together and turbo-charge (sorry, internal combustion engine metaphor) all the initiatives to speed the conversion to green energy and rapidly wind down extraction and burning of fossil fuels.
The Adaption side is needed to start planning right now for an orderly reshaping of where Americans live and work, driven as much as possible by incentives to goose free-market decisions. Your house is destroyed by flooding or a hurricane? In certain zones, no rebuilding help is available in that location, but substantial rebuilding help is available if you relocate to higher ground. Entire cities are doomed to disappear under water? We need to be planning now to turn them into floating cities, a la some towns in coastal Netherlands, or provide a plan and incentives to relocate to a New CityX well inland, where the government buys a big chunk of land and plans a community designed to be net-zero, with social and racial justice, and well above sea level rise.
We can start planning all this to happen in as orderly a way as possible, with input from all stakeholders and preservation of as much freedom and personal choice as possible, or we can fail to plan, which means planning to fail and just letting the chaos and social disorder and unmitigated economic disaster rip.
As a resident of another hilly and currently green place about 40 miles from the Atlantic, well above any reasonably foreseeable flooding of the Kennebec, the proposed office of climate mitigation and adaptation has to make as a first priority perserving as much of our forests as possible, while creating safe clean places for humans to live and work. We have to preserve our forests.
Lynn, you are absolutely correct. Part of the mission and mandate of the proposed new Department of Climate Mitigation and Adaptation (DCMA) absolutely must be to preserve our forests, waterways and wetlands, and land and marine wildlife habitats. This department needs to have the authority to change the policies and practices of the Department of the [Interior?] and the Bureau of Land Management and the Department of Energy, if I am right about the federal agencies that currently administer, make the rules for, and control what happens to all federal land. There also need to be strong incentives for private owners of forests and other carbon sinks and natural habitats, to preserve them. Establishing the DCMA with sufficient power and mandate (while still respecting democratic values) will be an earthquake, but it needs to happen.
Considering the repugnants want to get rid of all the safety regulations that have been implemented such as the EPA so corporations can retain their profits and the cultists Supreme Court aiding them with the new laws ! Its always about money and power and who cares if we destroy the planet !! My money , my precious money !!
Thank you for this excellent post. I'm sharing it with others. Unfortunately, we rarely plan anything and the republicans are actually opposed to planning unless it helps the rich.
Thanks, William! Share away! And please add the comments about protecting forests and habitats. The Republicans, the rich, and Big Carbon will clearly try very hard to completely squash any of the ideas my post proposes.
I live in the lush green farmland and forest of Ontario Canada, beautiful, sparsely populated and elevated enough, and far enough from the ocean to probably never flood. I think about the questions you posed as well. On the other hand, I have a cottage in Newfoundland sitting on a 50 foot bluff overlooking the Gulf of St. Lawrence. I have often wondered how it would be to see the ocean waves coming up over that bluff on to the property. Scary thought. I really appreciate your post. You have obviously thought a lot about how to address and perhaps forestall the coming calamity of weather refugees on the move. I assume you've been in contact with you Senators and Representatives (I know, pretty futile, but perhaps will actually be taken up by someone up there).
Big Oil companies employ hundreds of environmental engineers to minimize (but not prevent) the damage they do, and then remediate afterwards. While I don't tend to vilify them "too" much, I agree that public pressure is absolutely necessary to push them to do more of the right thing. I don't think they'll just go away and shut down until you and I stop driving and using electricity.
I live in Connecticut and have similar feelings.
Elizabeth M you have a pov that’s so on point and entirely sensible not many will want to digest or will want to listen. Too uncomfortable. Too prescient.
I live near the flank of Vineyard Sound. People are scrambling to build more, yes more and larger houses as close to the shore as they can.
This is not news I’m sure to many of us who live close to beaches and their sunsets.
Oh, and mjust as I was reading HCR’s letter today, I got a banner from the NYTimes suggesting 5 horror films to watch this weekend.
Thanks, Samm. I would love to be wrong about all this. It's painful to see people digging further into locations that will be flooded at high tide or totally underwater in ten, twenty, or thirty years. It's also painful to *not* see the states and the federal government planning for how we will relocate our coastal towns and cities, and how and where we will grow our food when droughts and heat take over some large sections of the country where most of our food is currently grown. Failure to plan is planning to fail. I guess I should be getting people together to lobby the Biden Administration directly, put my time and action where my mouth is.
A major frustration about this lack of foresight, is that other countries have all the knowledge and information about how to do this, so we wouldn't have to completely reinvent the wheel. Look at The Netherlands and their water management expertise. And, when there's a flood often the US taxpayer gets the bill. I'd rather my tax dollars go to the long term planning and operationalizing of those plans, then to foolishly rebuild repeatedly.
The beaches around Vineyard Sound are beautiful. Since they were deposited during the Pleistocene as the glaciers from the last ice ager melted and receded, the sand they're made from will continue to naturally compress and subside. For those areas, the effect of seal level rise will be accentuated by this subsidence.
But regarding beach houses, my attitude is that as long as I don't have to subsidize their risk while I'm far from the ocean, and they're willing and able to afford losing the house or rebuilding, I don't mind, as long as public access to those beaches is maintained. I do mind, though, the thought of these beautiful sandy islands shrinking.
The Vineyard and Nantucket are beautiful places. I agree it's a shame that both are eroding. Are you on the landward or island side of Vineyard Sound? Some friends of mine inherited a small cottage at Madaket, on Nantucket. They have had to move it back from the retreating edge of the dune a couple of times in the last 30 years. They feel fortunate their grandparents bought a piece of land that goes all the way back to the road. I hope you are able to stay in your beautiful spot for many decades to come.
Oops I need to finish that: all I need to do is read news headlines shout Putin,
I give up! Putin.
An additional comment re rising sea levels-let's see if DeSatan decides to even address that issue, since the entire state of FL is a peninsula! Does the northern states want an influx of MAGA leaning folks?
Florida is the world's largest sand bar - if the sea rises even just 100 feet, half the state disappears. At 200 feet, almost the entire state except for the higher ground near Alabama will be the new Atlantis.....
Well deathsantis will be responsible for that since all of the insurance companies are leaving Floriduh and his non handling of previous flooding and hurricanes are destroying the state !
At 3 to 7 feet sea level rise per century, it's not clear the politics will take the same shape in 30 centuries, when half of Florida might be under water. We might be an enlightened species by then. Or endangered...
If we have the good fortune not to have driven ourselves to extinction, along with many other species.
Elizabeth M., I agree that the issues you mention are real and worrisome and that addressing them should start now. However, the actual rate of sea level rise we should expect ranges from less than 6 inches per century (what it has been observed to be since 1900 or so) to an unlikely 7 feet per century.
(A graph of the full range can be found in https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-global-sea-level#:~:text=Future%20sea%20level%20rise,-As%20global%20temperatures%20continue%20to ) .
The Royal Society in 2020 took a stab at a "best guess" of 16 to 31 inches (about 2.5 feet). (link: https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/projects/climate-change-evidence-causes/question-14/)
What does it mean? The answer varies by where someone lives. Let's assume (based on the websites I mentioned) that the possible range is 3-6 feet of sea level rise per century. My cousin who lives in Brick, NJ has a house that's 3' above sea level. He's going to have to raise his house or move by 2100, maybe sooner because his neighborhood is on sand, which WILL continue to compress over time and sink. Your neighborhood won't become a beach town for 35-70 centuries, though that should be reassessed to check for sea level rise.
Clearly, there is scope for action now for those affected in the near term in terms of public policy and insurance guarantees. That is actually already happening, as FEMA is redrawing its flood risk maps and insurance companies are raising insurance rates by a lot. Still, if you drive along areas flooded in Houston after Hurricane Harvey or decimated by Hurricane IKE in Galveston, TX, you will see houses on piers in Houston and on very tall stilts in Galveston. For those that can't afford the sky high insurance or the cost to raise their house, FEMA has a flood risk buyout program (for houses already flooded), though they don't quite offer market rates.
All this is progress along the lines you discuss. Yes, more needs to be done, and the sooner the better. But it's not yet time to panic.
One more comment: There is existing technology that can assess actual subsidence rates at a very high resolution, that would enable policy makers and residents alike to assess which coastal areas are at higher risk than others. We need to advocate for that technology to be adopted in the U.S. (a first mover in this technology, but slower-than-Europe rate of adoption).
Jerry Helfand and subscriber friends, the following is the best current information about rise in sea levels that I could find:
'ENVIRONMENTEXPLAINER'
'Sea levels are rising at an extraordinary pace. Here's what to know.
Seas are predicted to rise a foot by 2050, regardless of how much global carbon emissions can be reduced. Why is this happening, and what can we do to adapt?'
BYCHRISTINA NUNEZ ANDNATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC STAFF
PUBLISHED APRIL 10, 2023
'As humans continue to pour greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, oceans have tempered the effect. The world's seas have absorbed more than 90 percent of the heat from these gases, but it’s taking a toll on our oceans: 2021 set a new record for ocean heating.'
'Rising seas is one of those climate change effects. Average sea levels have swelled over 8 inches (about 23 cm) since 1880, with about three of those inches gained in the last 25 years. Every year, the sea rises another .13 inches (3.2 mm.) Research published in February 2022 shows that sea level rise is accelerating and projected to rise by a foot by 2050.'
'That translates into as much sea level rise in the next 30 years as occurred over the last century, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Rick Spinrad, the NOAA administrator, called the findings “historic,” and warned that the projected rise will occur even if carbon emissions are drastically cut.' See link below.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/sea-level-rise-1#:~:text=Average%20sea%20levels%20have%20swelled,by%20a%20foot%20by%202050.
Thanks for the link.
Even though houses can be built to be above high water, how sustainable is that? Storms, drinking water, sewage and garbage disposal, access are all things that are extremely difficult to build and maintain. Lots and lots of R&D are needed.
It's sustainable until the next sucker forest and buys it off you for hus yarn st living the dream of a coastal life. Collectively, we know quite a lot about where houses shouldn't be built. Individually, our constitution allows us to be as stupid as we want.
In light how republicans have treated any ecological programs and basically dismantled the EPA, if the republicans get in, there will be no hope of any thing like that happening. basically they areclimate deniers.
Thank you, Elizabeth M. Last night down here in PA, I was watching on MBL network, the NY Mets play my life-long favorite team, the Boston Red Sox. But in the third and then fourth inning, the rains came, and the game was suspended until this afternoon. I learned this morning that the reason for the suspension was that it had rained so hard that beloved Fenway Park, that's been there since 1912, had flooded. I wonder if the highway that goes underground, known as THE BIG DIG, was also flooded. How about Logan International Airport that is on the Atlantic Ocean and is barely above sea level. Imagine the immigrants, or as you call them 'Climate Refugees' that would be fleeing left to where you live! Roxbury, Southie, the Italian North End, Framingham, and the Cape. And then there is Rhode Island. Then let us skip down to Biden's state of Delaware. I agree with you completely.
Sorry about Fenway Park. And you're right about Boston. Much of the city is only a little above sea level. Several years ago, there was an article in a Boston magazine projecting that in a few decades, Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, built on saltmarsh landfill at the base of Beacon Hill, would need to be turned into a USA Venice with canals instead of streets. In the Seaport District, which in the early 1800's was saltmarsh and was progressively filled, some areas of the district already had sunny day flooding at least a few inches at high tide when I worked there from 2009 to 2013. Nevertheless, the late Mayor Menino spearheaded a massive building campaign of new office space and condo buildings in that built-on-landfill-laid-over-a-saltmarsh district, in that same period. Not only that, there are only three ways to get to the district: over one of two two-lane bridges at Summer Street and Congress Street that cross the Fort Point Channel, or by boat. It was great to take a walk and see tall ships on my lunch break, but getting there was hell. I assume the developers and the lenders who financed them were eager to participate, because I presume they did not hold the buildings they built and collect rent, but sold the office or residential condos to owners who now own all the climate change risk. I still don't get it. You mention Rhode Island. In Newport, the robber barons' mansions are all built along a high cliff. Great views, and well above any high tide for at least another couple of centuries.
Thanks for the detailed information. I'm from Kittery, Maine, which as you probably know is about 55 miles north of Boston. But I move to the D.C. area in 1983 and have moved north to where I now live in York, PA. I went to the University of Maine in Orono, ten miles north of Bangor. U Maine is a land and sea grant school. They heavily involved with various things that include working on climate change issues. Anyway, I still try to keep in touch with what's happening in NE. Did you know that the Gulf of Maine, which is the part of the North Atlantic Ocean bordered by Mass., NH, Me, and Nova Scotia, is considered to be the fastest warming part of the Atlantic and the rest of the 70% of the planet. More moisture in the air causes oceans to heat up. So, those 'experts who tell the world that it will take a long time for land to disappear along coasts are lying. When I lived in Takoma Park, MD, with several others, one of them was a writer and also worked for the Washington Post. He also has published a number of books on different subjects. You might find the book he wrote that was published in 2003 of particular interest about ocean warming and the plight of those that live there. His name is Mike Tidwell, and the book is "Bayou FAREWELL: THE RICH LIFE AND TRAGIC DEATH OF LOUISIANA'S CAJUN COAST." Here is the bio of him from that book. "Mike Tidwell is the author of four previous books, including "In the mountains of Heaven", "Amazon Stranger", and The Ponds of Kalambayi". A former National Endowment for the Arts fellow, Tidwell has published his work in National Geographic Traveler, Reader's Digest, Washingtonian, and many other publications. His frequent travel articles for The Washington Post have earned him four Lowell Thomas Awards, the highest prize in American travel journalism. He lives in Washington, D.C." In this book, he travelled to New Orleans and went down the Mississippi River Delta to speak with Cajun folks who lived and fished there. Over the years, the Gulf Coast had, and still is, taken over the coast of Louisiana moving closer to New Orleans. I saw a number of years ago a TV video of a reporter interviewing the then governor of that state on a boat. He pointed out as they move how the land is disappearing as the Gulf move north. I'm sure Mike's book would be helpful for people who live along the various coasts to read this book. It was written 20 years ago, so you can imagine how much has changed since then.
Yes, Elizabeth, hooray for PLANNING! So like the reasons we got here; how long has the coming of global warming been known? When will the planning begin? When will we speed up the transition to replace our dependency on fossil fuels? When will Americans wake up to our urgent needs to survive and repair democracy?
I have a picture of a newspaper clipping from 1912 with a story about scientists' warning about the effects of burning coal on the atmosphere. This story has been authenticated.
Yup, exactly. But every time we face a choice, we do have the choice. It's getting very late to wake up and take serious, big action on both of these. I read somewhere that half of all the CO2 humans have ever added to the atmosphere has been added since 1988, when NASA climate scientist James Hansen spoke before Congress at Al Gore's invitation, about the onrushing threat of climate change, caused by humans burning fossil fuels. But our species still has the choice to bend the curve of climate change downward, but the longer we wait, the less we can save. Saving and repairing our democracy requires what everyone who comments here already knows: Democrats actively fighting to elect Democrats, up and down the ballot, all over America.
There is little evidence of long term planning. If Biden attempted it, the republicans would do everything in their power to block it.
Elizabeth, I write this late at night just before HCR will post her next-day's message. I sometimes skip a day or several in my reads and this was one of them so am late to have read your thoughtful words.
I too, live at +230' above the Atlantic except for being located on a unique geographic anomaly less than a mile from both the sea and NY harbor on the NJ side. The Navesink Highlands are the highest point on the eastern seaboard from southern Maine to the FL Keys. So, while we are well above even the extremes of the coming sea level rise(s) we are also quite exposed to the storms that are similarly rising in intensity and frequency.
I relate better than most to your words as this knowledge has been part of my DNA since my studies in architecture in the early 70's and our program's focus on passive energy design. The late Paolo Soleri whose Arcosanti was / is one of the world's first truly sustainable cities (excepting those of our ancestors) and was an advisor and mentor so everything you speak to was more than words. It was a philosophy and way of life. Sadly, not many were interested in passive energy concepts as it challenged the main stream view of flipping-a-switch to get one's heat, cooling, light or other source. Off-the-grid concepts were seen as radical and often could not even obtain conventional loans for construction. Even now, rather than integrated into our homes and cities through orientation to the sun, wind and other natural forms of energy the solutions are more often, add-ons to traditional structures that have No relationship whatsoever to the planet they are built on.
Our ancestors knew the earth well and built beautiful structures and cities with indigenous materials that often oriented to the sun as well as the seasons and cycles. But, while Tesla's and Edison's beautiful inventions gave us electricity and other forms of energy it also disconnected us from everything we had learned in the millennia before. So, yes we now stand at the precipice of what we have both created and caused having in a very short period of time caused ourselves to believe we could dominate the earth instead of live with it in reasonable harmony with its resources.
It is far too long a conversation because the logic you so accurately present with a process that would prepare us for what is coming still stands in sharp contrast to the social, economic and other systems we have put in place. I prefer optimism and it remains central to my own work but, just miles down the shoreline from where I write this are construction cranes building new high-rise housing towers literally on the beach funded and developed by Kushner's new Saudi-petro dollars.
All to say that while some cities and states with more progressive leaders are already beginning planning for some of these issues that the migration away from the most vulnerable areas will begin by exposing not just the physical but the economic realities. Property values in these zones will begin decreasing with examples like major insurance companies pulling out of entire states as is already happening.
But, with all the negative examples that can be listed my optimism still suggests that it may and will stimulate new, more sustainable developments and cities in the areas of migration (translation: opportunity) in northern latitudes where the "livable" more temperate zones are shifting. Perhaps, the lessons of the precipice may yet still have the ability to bring us back to what our ancestors knew long ago.
More dialog to come but, thank you for starting it for us.
I live in that same area. When I moved here, one of the few houses I could afford within a reasonable commuting distance happened also to be on a small knoll, twenty feet above the surrounding land. I followed the dictum from my military training: "take the high ground, and hold it". I share your worries of the influx of climate refugees: do we have enough space for them all?
We are turning ourselves into an endangered species. Continuing to depend of fossil fuels folks?! 'Humans or modern humans (Homo sapiens) are the most common and widespread species of primate.'
Only fitting, I guess, that we are driving ourselves into extinction. Life on earth, ever adaptable, will continue in our absence.
Once we go, the earth will return to its normal rhythms within 100 years. Yes, there will be some continued warming but it will stabilize in a fairly short time - the planet will survive and quite nicely - once we're gone.....
I agree with you up to a point. However, the grotesque amount of plastic with which the species has created and left behind, together with all the places we've poisoned the earth with mining, and all the other things we've done that have damaged local environments, leads me to think it will take a lot longer than 100 years. The nuclear power plants and other facilities alone will continue endangering their local environments for hundreds if not thousands of years. Yes, other life will adapt and evolve to cope with all the crap humans have generated and will have left, but I think that for at least some places, thousands of years will be required. And the losses of species alive today as a consequence of us just being here is staggering.
It's what rats do too. If confined to a single space they will keep reproducing despite the lack of room and begin to eat each other when other resources are gone.
Considering what they and their predecessors have done to the American southwest with their idiotic lawns and development, they can all just stay there and reap what they've sowed - literally.
Heartbreaking.
And our American Cassandra Al Gore warned that we needed to deal with the warming AND what he projected would be mass migrations — way back a couple or three decades ago.
But we did not plan for this. OK, opportunity lost.
NOW, what must we do?
Not only didn't we plan, he was ridiculed.
😖. I know. Ridicule is a great intellectual vaccinator against anyone taking a person seriously. It is used in politics to great effect. Doesn’t even have to ridicule something real. It still works. Giving Gore grief for talking about being “busy inventing the Internet” is another of those times, but that was actually true, too. The government program — ARPANET — that gave rise to the Internet was funded during Gore’s time as a legislator. [He never said he invented it himself.] But it’s more fun to ridicule than it is to admit reality. That’s why I call him a Cassandra. He was often right, but he couldn’t get any traction with the truth.
Ridiculing the very idea of human activity changing climates the world over worked really well for along time, too. Still works in some circles, though most people these days are too busy trying to stay ahead of the weather to give it much thought ….
If the southerners do move north, I hope they can adjust to our way of living and not try to change it to their narrow way of thinking. I qualify my statement to say not all Southerners are like that
Fern: Your sweep is daunting. Thank you.
Good morning, K Barnes. It is good to see you. Cheers!
For more "news" from 'the people' in the UK, I recommend you check out THE CANARY, a journalist-owned email that you may also find on Facebook. If you do, you will likely learn how the people feel about things there and around the world.
Pissing away another 1.3 Billion to the Ukraine.
This fails to be a thoughtful comment. In what universe does sending arms *that already exist* for the precise purpose of defending Europe from Russian aggression to Europe to defend against Russian aggression constitute "pissing away"? You see some personal or national benefit to letting Russia take another bite (Syria, Georgia, Chechnya, etc, etc, etc)?
I just returned from a family reunion in Texas (we've had them annually since 1930.) News? For some of my cousins, nephews and nieces, the "news" that they get comes from OAN, Newsmax and Fox News (sic.) It reminds me of that old adage: you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. The only solution, the desperate solution, is to out-vote them.
Oy, Newsmax. My Texas neighbors were absolutely sure that Trump won in 2020 regardless of the failed lawsuits, failed fake electors, recounts, and failed insurrection. They might still be sure, but I don't go there in conversation. We just talk about trash pickup schedules, weather, and mosquitos. I wish I could find a mosquito repellent as effective as the truth repellents spread by OAN, Newsmax, etc.
I do get it. The "good ol' boy' culture is something that I just never liked. They're going to believe what they want to believe. But that's true for the majority. Real critical thinking is not for the faint of heart. I explain myself by telling them that I have a simple philosophy or theory of government, and that is that government should be organized and operated to benefit the vast majority of the people under its jurisdiction, which means public services, education, health care, security, jobs and more. Government is not set up to advance religious goals, except in places like Israel, Iran, Afghanistan and others. So, I've started asking them, "What is your theory of government?"
Thank you for this on-the-ground reporting. I have a niece in Austin and often wonder what news she gets. Her parents are born again racists (in SC), she is an architect. As a polite aunt, I don’t ask.
In Texas, Austin is often referred to as "The People's Republic of Austin" - a puddle of blue in the devil's den..... :-) Other, bigger blue puddles are around Dallas, San Antonio, Houston and El Paso.....but our esteemed unhinged governor (Greg Abbott) is determined to tame them.
Want to know how serious a situation we are in, speaking of fake news and the effort to bring down our government? This from MediaMatters for America:
https://mail.aol.com/d/folders/1/messages/AHMeoiREHgehZLqdawV6WPKRS6o
Is this available somewhere other than aol? I haven't had an aol account for years, and don't want to create another one.
Good question. I didn't realize that it may have been linked only to my AOL account. You might try googling the piece about Fox News being an unindicted co-conspirator with Trump. I think that this is the general MediaMatters link: action@e.mediamatters.org
I'm sorry that I can't be of more help.
Is this the article you're citing: https://www.mediamatters.org/january-6-insurrection/whatever-trumps-jan-6-indictment-brings-fox-news-effectively-his-unindicted?
My last few years in the US during the mid-1980s, I needed a shortwave radio to get any reasonable amount of international news.
That's why I read three newspapers. Starting with LFAA.
I do too, getting one delivered and depending on LFAA and the NYT headline articles online for the others. Sometimes I wonder how many people under age 40 still read newspapers, in either their paper or online versions? I also wonder what the age breakdown of those following LFAA is.
We take the NYT. I read parts of it online. We also have the WaPo, the Oregonian, and the Seattle Times on line as well as the Atlantic and a few other things. We take the local rag online, mainly for obits. There are also a few online sources here in Salem which are good for local news and two of them especially on local politics. I start my am with Heather and a cup of coffee. I also read a number of the comments here skipping only those that I know are trolls. I post Heather's letter to my Facebook page. Most of the people who read it are older, but I have a couple ex-students who are also reading although I doubt they are under 40 now. I doubt my relatives in the midwest read anything. Our nephews here on the west coast don't post about politics although I am sure they are aware.
Some of us in the Midwest (Kansas) read Heather every morning. First news read of the day!
For me in Oregon also.
Me too in Canada
I've read that most young people get most of their news from Tic Toc, Facebook and Twitter.
And that is where the First Amendment starts to become the Achilles heel of democracy. What can we do about it without diminishing our freedoms?
I've subscribed to at least two newspapers almost all of my life; now three: Boston Globe, Worcester Telegram&Gazette, NY Times. And LFAA, Michael Moore, et alii. But my three children (in their late 30s-early 40s now) do not subscribe to any. It appears I have failed at teaching them the value of the free press, and that we need to keep it alive and working - all of us.
My daughter in NYC doesn't read the Times and I gifted my son in Florida a digital subscription to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. I don't know what either spreads on the floor if they want to paint a small item.
Did a search which yielded nothing for LFAA. What is it?
My search engine found it immediately: "The LFAA (Looking For Arab Actors) is the place where directors and producers get to search for and meet all the arab actors/actresses out there."
I wasted several minutes looking for that Great news site. I have been a subscriber to Heather for 2 years..I'm glad I'm not the only one who wasn't hip to that acronym. But, like LOL, I won't be using it.
https://www.theguardian.com/
I recommend The Guardian
The Guardian is the only online paper I read on a regular basis.
I read HCR's column every day, of course, and I have discount subscriptions to the Post and NYT, but that's primarily to read articles I see on various social media outlets.
Yes, The Guardian! And there is no paywall. We also get the Guardian Weekly in the mail. (Brit husband.) There is useful news in English from France on TV, a half hour program repeating all day.
I didn’t know that the Louisiana Field Archery Association published a daily newspaper. Which is my roundabout way of asking “what is LFAA?” I googled it, and the Louisiana site was the first listing.
Letters From An American....the name of Heather's newsletter.
OMG! Now I know what LFAA is! I call it "Heather"
In the 1960's I read Le Monde for news inside France but, relied on returning percipient witness reports. Post digital revolution (www) international news is easy.
At the start of the Pandemic, easily accessed South Korean medical research was critical by documenting airborne infection paths (plural). The planet is round.🌍🌏🌎
My sentiments, too, Jerry.
Today’s newsletter made me think about the hard analytical work that goes on everyday in our various intelligence agencies. Many of us love a good spy novel or movie. Not so much the ones that devolve into endless explosions and absurdly difficult physical feats...although, it’s hard not to like the original Bond movies starring Sean Connery. No, what I’m talking about is the very dangerous and tricky work that gets to the bottom of just who profits from supporting the Russian War of Aggression against Ukraine. Smart college grads are sometimes identified and recruited just for this kind of work and they don’t want any public acknowledgment for their work. Others come from the military or perhaps some come right out of left field and volunteer. At CIA Headquarters in Langley, VA, a few of the greatest, bravest and most brilliant Americans are only memorialized with stars on a wall...no names. For what it’s worth, I’d like to say “thank you” to them all today ...those still doing their jobs and those we’ve lost.
IF you look at all the places where this news come from (bottom) you can see there is WAPO. NYT and Reuters.
But if you check today's sources, you can see that she does not reiy on them soley. One reason I choose to follow Professor Cox Richardson is that she does not rely on those sources alone. I'm a bit of a news junkie, but I have vision issues, and I welcome the range and depth of her sources. Not to mention her terrific ability to construct a narrative from all she reads.
I learn so much from reading Professor Cox Richardson. She does have a great ability to construct a narrative that is easy to read and comprehend. Thank you, Professor, for all you do.
Clear, precise, well-ordered, brilliant. Grateful for her magnificent intelligence.
Ditto and also the many comments from all of you which except for the trolls I appreciate.
I also learn much from the comments.
Yes! People that are so much more knowledgeable than I.
Jennifer, here is breaking news getting around the country. HCR may have finally been asleep when it broke.
'Trial in Trump Documents Case Set for May 2024'
'Judge Aileen M. Cannon rejected former President Donald J. Trump’s request to delay the trial until after the election but pushed the start date past the Justice Department’s request to begin in December.'
'In her order, Judge Aileen M. Cannon said the trial was to be held in her home courthouse in Fort Pierce, Fla., a coastal city two-and-a-half hours north of Miami that will draw its jury pool from several counties that Mr. Trump won handily in his two previous presidential campaigns.'
'Judge Cannon also laid out a calendar of hearings, throughout the remainder of this year and into next year, including those concerning the handling of the classified material at the heart of the case.'
'The scheduling order came after a contentious hearing on Tuesday at the federal courthouse in Fort Pierce where prosecutors working for the special counsel, Jack Smith, and lawyers for Mr. Trump sparred over when to hold the trial.'
'The timing of the proceeding is more important in this case than in most criminal matters because Mr. Trump is now the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination and his legal obligations to be in court will intersect with his campaign schedule.'
'Indeed, the date Judge Cannon chose to start the trial — May 20, 2024 — is one day before the primary in the key swing state of Georgia. But it falls after the bulk of the primary race contests will have already taken place.' (NYTimes) Sorry, no gifting is available, but this excerpt covers all main points of the report.
Thanks for this! I hadn't yet seen it! Just knowing that she ISN'T going to play games that benefit the jaundiced horror is a big relief. :)
Given her prior history, I wouldn't count on her not playing sneaky games.
She is under some scrutiny from the 11th Circuit, and this schedule in effect sabotages Trump's presidential campaign because May 2024 is the start of serious campaigning after the Republican primaries, and Trump will have to be in court, which means the longer his attorneys try to delay the trial, the longer Trump is off the campaign trail.....
What if the Orange Shameful Shambles just doesn't show up for the trial? I wouldn't put it (or anything, really) past him. You know his counsel will be clamoring for a continuance, due to his busy schedule. He could be tried in absentia under the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure if he shows up for the first day of the trial, then absents himself for the rest - and you know he won't be testifying, in any case, so there's an argument he doesn't actually have to be there.
The question is: will her loyalty be guided by her oath to support the Constitution, that she may realize that Trump wishes to put an end to judicial authority in this country, or whether she will show allegiance to the insurrectionist who appointed her to the bench. Is she "A Profile in Courage?"
I don't understand why she set it so far in the future. This isn't a complicated case and there aren't many classified documents being introduced. I don't know why the lawyers have to read the classified documents. The question is, did he take them or not? It has nothing to do with their content. Yes, there's a lot of evidence but they should be able to read it in 5 months.
I believe it's to help trump. In May trump will cry that it's campaign season and it's unfair to have the trial while he's campaigning. Based on her past actions, I believe she will be receptive to that argument.
I don't assume how she will act. Trump will stamp his feet but don't know if that will serve his interest. My sense is that the noose around his neck will get tighter, and I am neither an optimist or a negativist. .
You have more faith in her than do I.
I don't call it faith; it's secular observance.
I wonder if the trial will actually allow some of his followers who end up on the jury to open their eyes, or will they continue to maintain that the trial is a conspiracy by the Justice Department to persecute poor little ol' Orange Menace.
'Little', he is not, J. Nol.
And don't forget, there are 2 more indictments yet to show up and go to trial: DC and GA. Those could slot in before the May trial, but we'll have to see how they play out. Regardless of how he's polling with Republicans right now, a LOT still has to happen before T***p is the Republican nominee. He could still very easily completely tank in the polls before all the primaries get underway next spring. The more stuff that comes out, the harder it may be for Donnie to refute it all, and Republican voters might just start to get really uneasy about having a candidate under multiple indictments as their nominee. Those could be very serious liabilities for a candidate to have come November, even if it IS T***p. We still have a long way to go . . .
And the Guardian and Steve Benen (MSNBC).
The reason the MSM doesn't cover much international news is that many, maybe most Americans don't care about it. Before retirement when I was dealing with my company's international manufacturing plants I had a boss that couldn't understand why I read the Economist. While the Economist has a conservative view point their world wide coverage is outstanding.
We remain insular. It’s very bad for our politics and our history. The Founding Fathers would be horrified. Too bad Scalia and Alito couldn’t understand the 18th century.
The last figure I read was that 80% of Americans today have never had a passport, so they have never traveled beyond the borders of the US.....
That figure probably includes Congress too. Trying to get my stepson who has retired from Bath Shipyards where he designed warships, to design steamships or sailing ships to get us affordably and ecologically across the oceans. It’s time.
I am convinced that if we can unleash both government research and private corporations, we WILL find the solutions to the problem of climate change caused by global warming..... Make it profitable, and there is no limit to the energy and commitment industry will bring to solving the problems. It's what we have done for the past 245 years.....
So that’s their problem! Brilliant, Virginia.
Relying on TV in the U.S. for international news is best done streaming BBC, or if you speak French, online channels like France24 which is on the Sling information package. At least there are newspapers in the US with decent world news sections. There are plenty of international radio stations you can get for free. And don't forget "The World", a daily news program, on PRX.
The PBS Newshour is excellent.
CSpan!
NPR broadcasts of BBC News.
Please notice how often HCR cites 'mainstream' news media as her sources. I only have radio and print, so don't follow tv or internet news channels.
https://www.theguardian.com/
I recommend as well The Guardian
Thats my favorite cross reference.
Then reading through I encounter fascinating minutiae.
Agree!