(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Overnight News Digest: Countless Joshua trees incinerated, Florida’s coral bleaching from heat [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-08-03 Tonight’s news awaits your comments. Everyone is encouraged to share their 2¢ or articles, stories, and tweets. This is an open thread. a California’s famed Joshua trees are burning up fast. They might be impossible to replace Los Angeles Times A light rain fell on the Mojave National Preserve, where firefighters continued their nearly weeklong battle Wednesday against an unusual desert wildfire that has incinerated countless Joshua trees and threatens to forever alter California’s high desert landscape. Crews were aided by the arrival of monsoonal moisture, which brought some rain and humidity that helped slow the spread of the 82,000-acre York fire, which was about 30% contained Wednesday. But in many ways, the damage has already been done. The fire is the largest to burn through the eastern Mojave in recorded history, surpassing the 71,000-acre Hackberry complex fire of 2005 and searing through a delicate ecosystem already strained by invasive species and the burning of fossil fuels. “The reality is that Joshua trees are already in a state of decline because of global warming and increasing frequency of drought,” said James Cornett, an ecologist who specializes in the species. “And then on top of that, you throw on a fire like the York fire, and these trees are not likely to recover in our lifetime.” WFLA […] In the 1980s summer water temperatures in the Florida Keys typically peaked at 84 degrees Fahrenheit — a temperature at which coral could survive and thrive. Since the 1980s, average water temperatures in the Keys area have warmed by around 3 degrees Fahrenheit (1.7 degrees Celsius) in mid-summer due to climate change. So now, maximum sea surface temperatures in the Keys during summer have warmed to an average of around 87. That temperature is plenty warm for bleaching if the heat persists long enough. So now, almost every summer Keys coral are under the threat of bleaching. This summer, they are being annihilated by water temperatures in the low 90s. […] For weeks, scientists diving into the reefs have been reporting extensive bleaching and mortality. Once vibrant reefs are turning into Ghost reefs. The Washington Post The world has just gotten its first real taste of a planet that is 1.5 degrees Celsius — or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit — hotter than preindustrial times. According to data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service, July of this year was the most scorching July on record, clocking in at somewhere between 1.5 and 1.6 Celsius hotter than the average before the widespread use of fossil fuels. “It’s just shocking just how big an excursion this is from anything we’ve seen before,” said Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist and the climate research lead at the payments company Stripe, pointing out that July was a whopping 0.35 degrees Celsius above the previous record. Before this July, the world had briefly passed over 1.5 degrees for a few times before — but it was during winter months for the Northern Hemisphere, thus blunting the impacts on the largest population centers. This was the first month where temperatures were that far above preindustrial levels and most of the world’s population was under hot, summer conditions. […] It hasn’t been pleasant. NPR News The latest heat wave is fueled by human-caused climate change from burning fossil fuels, but despite the settled science, the overwhelming evidence and the billions of dollars in increases for disaster preparation and recovery that climate change is costing the country, Republicans have grown more skeptical of the need to prioritize fixing it, according to the latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll. […] Overall, a majority of respondents – 53% – said addressing climate change should be given priority even at the risk of slowing the economy. That included 80% of Democrats and 54% of independents. But almost three-quarters of Republicans (72%) said the economy should be given priority, even at the risk of ignoring climate change. That is up 13 points since 2018 – despite the increases in climate-change-related weather disasters. South China Morning Post China continues to approve new coal power plants at an increasing pace in an effort to avoid power shortages and restart economic growth, according to Greenpeace, raising alarm among analysts about the country’s ability to meet its stated decarbonisation goals. Local governments approved nearly 30 gigawatts (GW) of new coal power capacity in the second quarter of 2023, driving total approvals to 50.4GW in the first half of the year, according to Greenpeace research released on Thursday. That is more than half of last year’s total installation and far exceeds 2021’s full-year total, the report said. “Local governments want to ensure energy supply and stabilise the economy, and [they] consider coal power as the safest solution for energy security,” said Gao Yuhe, a Beijing-based project leader with Greenpeace East Asia. Gizmodo […] Researchers looked at 4,711 cities around the world and found what the report calls “climate change fingerprints” in 4,019 of the locations last month. This study concluded that human activity and the fossil fuel industry made it three times more likely to be hotter this July. 6 billion people, about 80% of the world population, experienced an especially hot day last month where climate change affected the daily average temperature, the report said. This July 10 was an especially hot day. About 3.5 billion people on that day experienced temperatures that were made more likely due to climate change. The Guardian Now should be South America’s bleak midwinter, but several parts of the continent are experiencing an extraordinary unseasonal heatwave that scientists believe offers a disturbing glimpse of a future of extreme weather. […] The South American heatwave – which experts attribute to the weather system El Niño and human-made climate change – comes as politicians prepare to gather in the Brazilian city of Belém for a major two-day summit about the future of the Amazon rainforest and the climate emergency. The event’s host, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has claimed the gathering will represent a “landmark” moment for efforts to fight global heating before the Cop28 climate summit in Dubai in late 2023. “These days, the climate isn’t just a question for ecologists or environmentalists. It’s a question for anyone with a bit of intelligence who can see that things are changing around the world,” Lula told foreign correspondents this week before the summit, which the leaders of Amazon nations including Bolivia, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela should attend. Science The Atlantic Ocean is running a fever. Waters off Florida have become a hot tub, bleaching the third-largest barrier reef in the world. Off the coast of Ireland, extreme heat was implicated in the mass death of seabirds. For years, the north Atlantic was warming more slowly than other parts of the world. But now it has caught up, and then some. Last month, the sea surface there surged to a record 25°C—nearly 1°C warmer than the previous high, set in 2020—and temperatures haven’t even peaked yet. “This year it’s been crazy,” says Tianle Yuan, an atmospheric physicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. The obvious and primary driver of this trend is society’s emissions of greenhouse gases, which trap heat that the oceans steadily absorb. Another influence has been recent weather, especially stalled high-pressure systems that suppress cloud formation and allow the oceans to bake in the Sun. But researchers are now waking up to another factor, one that could be filed under the category of unintended consequences: disappearing clouds known as ship tracks. Regulations imposed in 2020 by the United Nations’s International Maritime Organization (IMO) have cut ships’ sulfur pollution by more than 80% and improved air quality worldwide. The reduction has also lessened the effect of sulfate particles in seeding and brightening the distinctive low-lying, reflective clouds that follow in the wake of ships and help cool the planet. The 2020 IMO rule “is a big natural experiment,” says Duncan Watson-Parris, an atmospheric physicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. “We’re changing the clouds.” AFP via The Guardian Huge wildfires in Canada have already spewed out twice the smoke emissions than the previous whole-year record, the EU’s climate monitor said on Thursday, with the blazes expected to continue to scorch their way through forests for weeks or even months. The devastating wildfires have burned some 30m acres (12m hectares) this year so far, incinerating an area larger than the size of Cuba or South Korea. Enormous plumes of smoke have choked the air in Canada and neighbouring United States, affecting more than 100 million people and at times disrupting flights and forcing the cancellation of outdoor events. France24 / AFP The United States is preparing to deploy sailors and Marines aboard commercial tankers transiting the Gulf as part of efforts to deter Iran from seizing ships, a US official said Thursday. "There is an effort... to employ security details composed of both Marines and Navy sailors on commercial tankers transiting in and near the Strait of Hormuz as an added layer of defense for these vulnerable ships," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity. An invitation is needed to do so because the ships are private vessels, but "we are undergoing preparations to execute should final agreements be in place to do that," the official said. […] The US military says Iran has either seized or attempted to take control of nearly 20 internationally flagged ships in the region over the past two years. TIME When he looks back on the past year—a year in which he nearly died, became a U.S. Senator, and nearly died again—it is the debate that John Fetterman identifies as the ­breaking point. “The debate lit the mitch,” he says, then shakes his head in frustration and tries again. The right word is there in his brain, but he struggles to get it out. “Excuse me, that should be lit the mitch—” He stops and tries again. “Lit the match,” he says finally. Oct. 25, 2022: the date is lodged in his mind. “I knew I had to do it,” he tells me. “I knew that the voters deserve to have what, what the stroke has done to me—transparency that way.” As soon as it was over, he knew it had not gone well. “I knew at that moment that I was going to be considered—consider myself—like, a national embarrassment,” he says. And then the darkness came. The Kyiv Independent Viktoriia Borodai can not recall the last time she experienced "real joy." She has lived in "uncertainty and despair" ever since Russia's all-out war forced her to flee Kramatorsk, her hometown in Donetsk Oblast, last March. Seeking shelter in different towns across Ukraine and watching how Russian troops bombard her beloved hometown emotionally drained Borodai so badly that she now struggles to get out of bed in the morning. […] Borodai is not the only one who struggles: Russia's all-out invasion left millions of Ukrainians displaced. Many have lost their loved ones or faced violence while living under Russian occupation. Reuters When they found the bodies of Russian troops at an abandoned position, something about the corpses looked wrong. "There were three or four of their dead. Two guys were lying on each other, which made us suspicious, because if there had been an explosion they would have been thrown in different directions, but here, one is lying on the other," said Volodymyr, a 47-year-old sapper with possibly the most dangerous job in Ukraine: clearing landmines at the front. "We did well by not touching them, because when we reached there with a 'kitten', we saw that under them was a PM mine," he said. The kitten is a folding steel hook that sappers use to dislodge booby traps, nicknamed for its retractable tongs that spring out like cat's claws. The PM is a Soviet-era anti-personnel mine. "It exploded and blew up both of them, but we stayed safe, thank God." EuroNews US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking at the United Nations on Thursday, has accused Russia of “blackmail” over its recent withdrawal from the UN-brokered Black Sea grain initiative. “Every member of the United Nations should tell Moscow 'enough'. Enough of treating the world's most vulnerable people as leverage," he said. Blinken was presiding over a Security Council meeting on the famine and food insecurity caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine. […] Blinken said grain prices had increased by more than eight per cent around the world since Russia’s withdrawal from the agreement, hitting poorer countries hard. CNN President Joe Biden on Thursday called for the immediate release of Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum in a written statement commemorating Niger’s Independence Day, saying the US “stands with the people of Niger” as the country faces a “grave challenge to its democracy.” This marks the first time Biden has commented on the situation in Niger since last week’s military takeover. “The Nigerien people have the right to choose their leaders. They have expressed their will through free and fair elections – and that must be respected,” Biden said. “Defending fundamental democratic values, and standing up for constitutional order, justice, and the right of peaceful assembly, are essential to the partnership between Niger and the United States.” GQ I always thought of the thrift store as a comforting place. Somewhere I could reliably and conscientiously take unwanted clothing to be resold and re-worn, or as the fashion industry has recently rebranded it, re-loved. In the process, charities do great things with the profits from reselling them… Unfortunately, it’s never that simple. Consider: only between 10 and 30 percent of second-hand donations to charity shops are actually resold in store. The rest disappears into a machine you don’t see: a vast sorting apparatus in which donated goods are graded and then resold on to commercial partners, often for export to the Global South. The problem is that, with the onslaught of fast fashion, these donations are too often now another means of trash disposal—and the system can’t cope. Consider: around 62 million tons of clothing is manufactured worldwide every year, amounting to somewhere between 80 and 150 billion garments to clothe 8 billion people. USA Today Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to charges that he tried to steal the 2020 election − following his third arrest and court arraignment in four months. […] As he left court late Thursday afternoon, chants of “lock him up” were heard outside the courtroom. […] During Trump’s arraignment, the presiding judge, Magistrate Judge Moxila A. Upadhyaya, told the former president that he faces a maximum of 55 years in prison if convicted on all counts. Bloomberg Donald Trump is concerned that evidence sought by Michael Cohen in a $500 million lawsuit the former president filed against his ex-lawyer could potentially incriminate him in other cases. Trump argued in a court filing Wednesday in Miami that documents sought by Cohen, particularly Trump Organization financial records, should be covered by a confidentiality order amid the former president’s separate criminal proceedings. Cohen has said the evidence should be made public, regardless of any prosecutions. […] In a phone call, Cohen said every document sought by his attorneys is necessary to defend himself against the “frivolous and retaliatory” lawsuit. “If Donald was concerned that release of this information could or will cause him damage in the ongoing criminal investigations, he should have thought twice about bringing the lawsuit in the first place,” Cohen said. “You can’t have it both ways.” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Security will be tightened around the Fulton County Courthouse in coming weeks ahead of the possible local indictment … Donald Trump. He’s been indicted elsewhere three times, most recently on Tuesday. […] Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has said she’ll have most staff members work remotely between Monday and Aug. 18, and magistrate court hearings will be virtual. […] Willis has been investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. That includes the former president’s phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which he urged the fellow Republican to “find” the 11,780 votes needed to win Georgia. The Dallas Morning News Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who faces an impeachment trial next month, appeared in a Houston court on Thursday to answer for separate criminal securities fraud charges that have been pending for years. Other than Judge Andrea Beall setting the next hearing date for Oct. 6, no significant decisions were made during the brief meeting. Both sides agreed to wait for the outcome of Paxton’s upcoming impeachment trial, which is scheduled to kick off Sept. 5, before setting possible trial dates in the fraud case. They agreed that the outcome of the impeachment trial, as well as an ongoing FBI investigation into alleged corrupt acts perpetrated by Paxton, will affect the outcome of the fraud case. Minneapolis Star Tribune John Browning is beyond frustrated. The Minnetonka resident and Vietnam veteran lost his parking management job during the pandemic. He had countless job leads since but has only landed a part-time job despite 32 months of searching and a willingness to tackle grungy, demanding work. He thinks it's because of his age. "Nobody will hire me because I am 77. As soon as they find out how old I am, it's over," said Browning. "Twenty-seven companies in a row turned me down. I am in good shape. I have an excellent résumé. I have no criminal record. But they want someone 27. I worry I'm going to lose my home." AP News The conservative chief justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court accused her liberal colleagues of a “raw exercise of overreaching power” after they flexed their new majority Wednesday and fired the director of the state’s court system. The four liberal justices, on just their second day as a majority on the court after 15 years under conservative control, voted to fire Randy Koschnick. Koschnick held the job for six years after serving for 18 years as a judge and running unsuccessfully as a conservative in 2009 against then-Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson, a liberal. “To say that I am disappointed in my colleagues is an understatement,” Chief Justice Annette Ziegler, now a member of the three-justice conservative minority, said in a lengthy statement after Koschnick was fired. Vox The state of Wisconsin does not choose its state legislature in free and fair elections, and it has not done so for a very long time. A new lawsuit, filed just one day after Democrats effectively gained a majority on the state Supreme Court, seeks to change that. The suit, known as Clarke v. Wisconsin Elections Commission, seeks to reverse gerrymanders that have all-but-guaranteed Republican control of the state legislature — no matter which party Wisconsin voters supported in the last election. […] Wisconsin’s Republican gerrymander is so aggressive that it is practically impossible for Democrats to gain control of the state legislature. In 2018, for example, Democratic state assembly candidates received 54 percent of the popular vote in Wisconsin, but Republicans still won 63 of the assembly’s 99 seats — just three seats short of the two-thirds supermajority Republicans would need to override a gubernatorial veto. Nature The floods that swept through China’s capital this week were exacerbated by urban development and insufficient drainage systems, researchers say. Typhoon Doksuri hit southern China’s coast in Fujian province on 28 July. It then rolled north to Beijing, dissipating to a lower grade of storm, but in the process dumping up to 745 millimetres of rain on the capital over 5 days — 4 times the city’s average August rainfall. The tail end of the storm also soaked the nearby city of Tianjin and the nearby Hebei province. The deluge of rain was the heaviest to hit Beijing in 140 years, leading to floods killing more than 20 people, destroying roads, cutting off power and forcing thousands of residents to evacuate. “We didn’t expect that the typhoon could impact such a large, vast area,” says Junqing Tang, who focuses on urban resilience and disaster risk reduction at Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School in Shenzhen, China. […] One factor behind Beijing’s recent vulnerability to floods is its rapid development, says Shao Sun, a climatologist at the University of California, Irvine. Over the past three decades, the city’s population has almost tripled. The result is a concrete sprawl of buildings, roads and other infrastructure. Mongabay In the Chapada dos Veadeiros area, in Goiás state — 230 kilometers (143 miles) from Brasília — members of seed networks from several parts of Brazil met for almost a week in early June. Together with environmental organizations, researchers and government officials, they participated in discussions to boost Redário, a new group seeking to strengthen these networks and meet the demands of the country’s ecological restoration sector. “This meeting gathered members of Indigenous peoples, family farmers, urban dwellers, technicians, partners, everyone together. It creates a beautiful mosaic and there’s a feeling that what we are doing will work and will grow,” says Milene Alves, a member of the steering committee of the Xingu Seed Network and Redário’s technical staff. In 2022, 64 metric tons of native seeds were sold for this purpose by the more than 20 member networks. Redário directly supported the sales of around 16 metric tons of more than 200 species sown across 1,200 acres. Similar figures are expected for 2023. Collection of native seeds by traditional populations in preserved areas of different Brazilian biomes has contributed to effective and more inclusive restoration of degraded areas. The effort is necessary for Brazil to fulfill its pledge under international agreements to recover 30 million acres of vegetation by 2030. Ars Technica [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/3/2185099/-Overnight-News-Digest-Countless-Joshua-trees-are-incinerated-Florida-s-coal-bleaching-from-heat Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/