Citizen Cartwright

'Troubling milestone' for climate change

So before the move to protect the environment in the 1970s, the question was whether we Earthlings had irreparably damaged our little planet.

In general, we acted in time and the rivers recovered, the Bald Eagle recovered.

But now the question is whether we will act in time on global warming. 

Monitoring stations across the Arctic are measuring more than 400 parts per million of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. 

Jim Butler, global monitoring director at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Earth System Research Lab in Colorado says it's a "troubling milestone." 

Before the Industrial Age, carbon levels were about 275 parts per million. The burning of fossil fuels, such as coal for electricity and oil for gasoline, has caused most of the man-made increase in carbon in the air, scientists say.

It's been at least 800,000 years since the Earth saw carbon dioxide levels in the 400s, says Butler.

The International Energy Agency says it's becoming unlikely that the world can achieve the goal of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius.

 

 

Congress looking at future Internet control

As U.S. officials prepare for a December meeting in Dubai where delegations from 193 nations will discuss whether the U.N. should have more say over the way the Internet is organized and controlled, a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee is holding a hearing on the issue Thursday.

The U.S. government is seeking support, both domestically and internationally, to preserve a decentralized Internet.

 

Former Justice Stevens talks Citizens United

The retired Supreme Court justice said in a speech Wednesday night he expects that the court already has had second thoughts about parts of its controversial Citizens United ruling that eased restrictions on corporate spending in political campaigns.

Stevens questioned whether the court's majority was prepared to apply one of the principles it had announced in the decision in other contexts. In striking down part of the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, the majority said “the First Amendment generally prohibits the suppression of political speech based on the speaker’s identity.”

But Stevens said the court has sustained laws that did just that in other settings.

Stevens wrote the dissent in the 2010 Citizens United case.

When asked about the Bush vs. Gore case, Stevens said, "I think you have to have confidence that the justices will do their best to not make that same mistake again."

 

Huh? Exercise could be bad for you?

About 10 percent of people in six exercise studies got worse on at least one of the measures related to heart disease: blood pressure, levels of insulin, HDL cholesterol or triglycerides, researchers report in the journal PLoS One.

Nobody knows why.

 

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World response to the Syria massacre

While a dozen Western countries are expelling Syrian diplomats in the wake of Friday's massacre of 108 people in Houla, Russia's deputy foreign minister says his country is "categorically against" foreign intervention in Syria and believes any new steps by the U.N. Security Council would be "premature."

 

GOP groups' big campaign-spending plans

Republican super PACs and other outside groups plan to spend $1 billion on the campaigns for the White House and control of Congress, Politico reports.

That's in addition to spending by the traditional party apparatus — the Romney campaign and the Republican National Committee — which together intend to raise at least $800 million, according to Politico.

The plans are unlike anything seen before in American politics, says Politico.

If the Republican groups hit their targets, they could outspend their liberal competitors by at least two-to-one, according to officials involved in budgeting for outside groups on the right and left.

 

Who is the Greek bailout bailing out?

The $163 billion bailout is mainly servicing only the interest on Greece's debt, as the country's economy continues to struggle, The New York Times reports.

"On its face, the situation seems absurd," the Times says. "The European authorities are effectively lending Greece money so Greece can repay the money it borrowed from them."

 

Scientists unveil genetic data on childhood cancers

The Pediatric Cancer Genome Project has mapped the entire genome — all the DNA — of 260 young cancer patients and has pinpointed the causes of some of the deadliest child cancers.

 

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