Coming just a few days before Christmas this year, Jupiter and Saturn will appear within a hair’s-breadth of one-another to the naked eye
Although most of us consider this to be one of the worst, if not the worst, year that we are aware of, it may close out with something miraculous. If you take the time to gaze heavenward on December 21st,, just after sunset, you might see it: A Christmas Star.
Already in early December the two giant orbs can be seen ever so gradually nearing each other, as if they are feeling some sort of mutual attraction, an odd couple. perhaps, Jupiter and Saturn.
And, according to celestial experts at NASA, they will continue to converge until they appear nearly co-joined: just 1/10th of a degree apart, with a barley perceptible gap in-between.
It was in 1226 that this could last have been witnessed
Though these couplings are known to occur in intervals of roughly 20 years, this year they will be the closest they have been to each other since 1623. In that year, however, they were too near the sun to look at, and because this year the event will take place on the winter solstice, you’d have to go all the way back to 1221 for a similar show.
These two spectacular giants, which are the largest in the entire solar system, each with a personality, astrologically speaking, so divergent that they are said to be more like opposites, rather than twins or lovers.
Jupiter, a king and believed to be bringer of good fortune, looks the part in a spectacular explosion of color and power, planet of miracles, hope, and opportunity.
Saturn, meanwhile appears mysterious, unpredictable, even dangerous. Saturn has an air of the impossible and the forbidden. Best known, in astrological circles, for the so-called “quarter-life crisis” and for unexpected challenges to the status-quo.
Across the USA, a view of the two planets coming into near-alignment is going to be most visible and best viewed, just after sunset, in the southwestern part of the sky.
In a glimpse into the relativity of all things in the universe, though this duo will appear to be close together — resembling a double star or a gleaming figure 8 shaped blob, the two planets will not , in reality, be that close.
They will actually be more than 400 million miles apart. It is only from our lonely vantage on this little blue planet that they will appear to be “close” to each other.
Since it will be 2080 before a similar spectacle will grace our view, and that means that all but those who are currently quite young will not likely be alive, it is imperative to search the southwestern sky (from the USA) both the day before, after and of course on December 21st: as this is a rare opportunity to witness a spectacular and special event, and a last chance to do so for a long, long time to come.
A Spectacular show in the sky on the night of the new moon
The 2020 Geminid meteor shower is already underway but will peak the night of December 13th and 14th. There’ll be natural fireworks in the form of star-like objects shooting across the sky.
The date will also correspond with the new moon, enhancing visibility. For good measure
will sling bright shooting stars this December. This will be an excellent year for the Geminids, as the shower’s peak on Dec. 13-14 coincides with the new moon. And, in case your superstitions are on high alert, December 14th, 2020 is the date of a total eclipse of the sun (which will track a visibility path across the southern end of South America).
Geminid meteor showers derive their name from the constellation of Gemini. And, this year, on Sunday night and Monday morning at the peak of the shower’s activity – the source of the shooting stars will be from the area in the night sky near the very bright star Castor. Castor is one of the stars that make up the heads of the Gemini twin brothers.
The most satisfying meteor shower this year is expected
If it’s a clear night it might well be worth it to brave the temperatures, as this is the biggest and most entertaining of all the showers that return annually. It is generally believed to be bigger and more spectacular than the Perseid showers that occur each year in August.
Practically all of the other meteor displays have histories dating back many hundreds or even thousands of years. The first anecdotal account of the Leonids dates back to 902 A.D. The Perseids have been recorded since 36 A.D., and April’s Lyrids are the oldest of all, having first been recorded in Chinese chronicles as far back as 687 B.C.!
The recent Geminid occurrences have been studied and are on record as having been filled with both bright, slow moving meteors and hefty fireballs, in addition to less visible smaller meteors with a dearth of medium bright objects to observe.
In a year filled with celestial shows, another big and special one
The only time there will be a total solar eclipse in 2020 is coming on December 14th. The relatively rare and mesmerizing event will unfold as the the moon blocks the sun, it will gradually shift in front of it until the earth (in the path of totality) is plunged into darkness and only a ring of light will remain.
Since the same day, December 14th, will feature a new moon and a Meteor Shower (not to mention it being the deadline for the electoral college certifications in the U.S.) there will be busy and somehow magical feeling in the air.
The path of totality will follow a track across the southern end of South America, which will include and be visible to Chile and Argentina where, clear skies permitting, it will be possible to watch live. In certain parts of the Pacific and Atlantic, people at sea would also experience the event.
If you are in North America or, in any case not in the path of the eclipse, NASA’s map gives a more exact overview of the viewing zones and NASA will also offer a Spanish-language program with shots from the eclipse on NASA TV.
Penumbral eclipse, a.k.a. partial eclipse will be visible in US early Monday
Above: Photo / Unsplash
On the final day of November 2020 a shining orb will enlighten the early morning skys, due to a partial lunar eclipse occurring during the full “beaver moon”. The nickname “Beaver Moon” stems from the fact that it occurs during the time of year when beavers build their winter dams before the coldest time of winter.
In the early days of the nation, Algonquin Native American tribes and American colonists gave nicknames to each full moon. The names chosen were based on hunting trends, farming routines and weather conditions at the time of the year that each took place.
The fullest phase will be reached at 1:30 a.m. Pacific time. The moon will look big and bright in the sky both Sunday night and also on Tuesday, December 1st, providing that cloud cover is not so thick as to prevent visibility.
The eclipse spectacle will be partial, but spectacular nonetheless. The full “glide across” will take several hours and, unlike solar eclipses, the lunar variation is perfectly safe to view; though a telescope or with the naked eye.
“the moon will take 4 hours and 21 minutes to glide across the pale outer fringe (penumbra) of Earth’s shadow, never reaching the shadow’s dark umbra,”
— Space.com astronomy writer Joe Rao
In the case of a full lunar eclipse instead of a partial one, such as this one, the entire moon would be darkened for a short time, and give off a reddish-orange tint on the edges.
The answer lies in the dirt, or as the movie’s tagline states, “The Solution Is Right Under Our Feet.”
At a time when so many existential, even extinction level issues [climate change] loom and threaten mankind, it is easy to feel helpless and even hopeless. And, yet, in the most unexpected way imaginable, a simple act such as opening up the Netflix app and choosing a documentary could be the first step towards a new way of thought and, indeed, action.
The new documentary “Kiss The Ground” does not minimize climate change, or downplay the fact that it is persistent and would bring terrible catastrophes looming on the global horizon, it does not fixate on the negatives. Instead, it offers a rare and amazing thing: solutions to solve the problems and rebalance Earth’s ecosystem. And it does so in a direct, simple and amazingly uplifting manner.
“Kiss The Ground” emphasizes regenerative soil usage and smart agriculture as the keys to saving the planet. Taking the audience to farms and ecosystems all across the world, the doc illustrates how humans have squandered the Earth’s natural bounty by over-tilling the land and drenching crops in pesticides.
Contrary to popular belief, these conventional farming tactics are not only damaging the environment, but they are also hurting the agricultural economy, leaving crops vulnerable and unsustainable in the event of a disaster. The film explains that these tactics are depleting fertile land, and if we don’t change our methods, the planet will only have sixty more years of harvests left.
Salvation is not beyond reach, though. As aforementioned, the bulk of the documentary is optimistic, and it offers a solution in an unlikely place. Namely, carbon.
[Carbon dioxide] is usually the enemy in [environmental documentaries], as we have far too much of it trapped in our atmosphere and the [fossil fuel industry] pumps it out at alarming rates to our planet’s detriment. Although an excess of carbon in the air could be the planet’s doom, “Kiss The Ground” suggests that increasing carbon in the ground could be a solution.
Through extreme close ups, microscopic images, and a few animations, the documentary shows how healthy soil is rife with living things. These things (worms, bacteria, microbes, etc.) all need carbon to live and play a vital part at the base of the food chain.
Unfortunately, the pesticides and over-tilling actively destroy these organisms, rendering the land naturally defenseless. The movie thus calls for a shift towards using soil with increased organic matter that sucks in and sustains carbon. According to one farmer in the film, every one percent increase in the dirt’s organic matter equals ten tons of carbon per acre. This means cleaner air, healthier ecosystems, and a more sustainable form of agriculture that could combat [global warming].
Many farmers have already endorsed this organic method on macro scales. “Kiss The Ground” even brings audiences to China’s [Loess Plateau], a once luscious place rendered a desert through centuries of depletion. With a rejuvenated focus on land management and organic prioritization in recent decades, however, the Plateau has effectively rebounded. Now the brown landscape is once again an Edenic green.
The change does not only have to happen on farms and distant, rural lands, though. The documentary also takes viewers to [San Francisco] and [Haiti] to show how urban hubs are playing their part, stressing the importance of composting and not letting anything go to waste. Seemingly everything—right down to human feces—can be reused and repurposed for a more sustainable world.
In the end, the people of this film – the farmers, scientists and concerned celebrities, come across almost as walking, talking, living, breathing testimonials for the solutions they are proposing.
In a world where the future will almost certainly hold either oblivion and human extinction, or, if we join together to create it, an almost Utopian rebirth they are the rare exception and point clearly toward a better way for us to live on this planet.
Seeing those who made and collaborated on this film and how they live and interact during their quest to save themselves and all of us, it becomes possible to believe in these solutions, and more importantly in human-kind’s ability to choose the right path for a future.
Tying together the sound, simple yet incredibly powerful ideas of recreating Soil health and Regenerative Agriculture, together with sustainable energy and transportation, the road to survival and hope has never looked so feasible. However, with sustainable energy being more widely known and understood as a priority, it is the ideas in “Kiss The Ground” that most need to be shared and disseminated most urgently. Watch it, then pass the word.
Environmental authors, activists, and documentarians Josh and Rebecca Tickell directed and produced “Kiss The Ground.” The duo also wrote the film with help from Johnny O’Hara. Meanwhile, actor [Woody Harrelson] narrates and celebrity appearances include [Tom Brady], Gisel Bündchen, Ian Somerhandler, Jason Mraz, and California Governor [Gavin Newsom]. There are also dozens of farmers, scientists, and notable environmental scholars featured in the picture.
Climate Change is potentially responsible for creating scorching temperatures and health hazards
A record-breaking heat wave is coming. Moving in today and peaking to coincide with the upcoming Labor Day weekend, excessive heat watches and resulting warnings are ready go into effect. From Friday, September 4th, throughout the Southwest and particularly on the West Coast temperatures are expected to range from 104 to 117 degrees, especially in cities like Las Vegas and Phoenix. These all-time high seasonal temperatures will last throughout the holiday including Monday.
With excessive heat, the National Weather Service’s in Los Angeles posted an official warning that it “is not recommended to spend any extended period outside during the heat of the day.”
The Weather Service also warned residents that there is higher risk for heat illnesses along with heightened fire weather concerns during this time. Near normal temperatures are likely to return by the end of next week.
Southwest States not alone as entire Nation in climate crisis crosshairs
The increased temperatures are said to be worse than the recent heat wave, in August, that hit California and which also resulted in widespread destructive wildfires. These extreme hot and dry conditions will further complicate matters for firefighters that continue to battle active fires. To date th current rash of fires have been responsible for more than 7,000 fires that have burned nearly 1.4 million acres of land.
The extreme changes to the climate make for heat waves to last longer and be more intense. It’s not just the West and Southwest effected by the weather. Other regions of the United States are also set to face extreme weather in the next coming days, with approximately 20 million people in the mid-Atlantic facing threats of severe storms. Those in parts of the South and Midwest that make up nearly 4 million people will be under flash flood advisories.
“From a hazards perspective, it is the Desert Southwest and throughout California’s Great Valley that stand out most with record breaking high temps likely this weekend and into early next week.”
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
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”Holy Grail” believed to be impossible before at least 2025 might now be on the way thanks to battery design improvements
Tesla has proven already that a well designed and engineered EV has many superior qualities compared to an equivalent ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicle. Teslas have shown that they can last up to one million miles with far less maintenance.
While doing that they also have other features; silence, speed and acceleration, an on board computer with eventual over-the-air upgrades to full self-driving capabilities. Although the cars themselves, with no internal combustion engine parts to replace and no oil change every five thousand miles, are already able to run for a million miles, the battery, which is currently very expensive to replace, can not, as yet, last that long. The current lifespan for a Tesla Model 3 battery is 300,000 to 500,000 miles.
Model 3 drive unit & body is designed like a commercial truck for a million mile life. Current battery modules should last 300k to 500k miles (1500 cycles). Replacing modules (not pack) will only cost $5k to $7k.
While the initial cost for EV batteries has gone down a lot – from $1100 per kilowatt hour in 2010 to $156 per kWh in 2019 which is 87% less. In spite of this amazing drop – the elusive cost parity with ICE vehicles has been said to only be achievable when batteries reach $100 per kWh, the so-called Holy Grail of EVs.
Based on information gathered by Reuters from “people familiar with the matter” that is all about to be a quest of the past with the reality of an $80 per kWh “million mile battery” already being developed.
We’re going to have to push out the date or attendance will be very low. Maybe do in two parts: webcast next month & in-person event a few months later?
Battery will be the product of a 3-way Joint Venture with contributors from Tesla, Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (China) and Jeff Dahn based at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia
The new low-cost long life battery will first be used for the Model 3 version manufactured for the Chinese market. The plan, according to sources that spoke anonymously to Reuters, is for an initial roll-out in China and later for the low cost Model 3 to be introduced into other markets, such as North America, for example.
The “million mile” moniker is an illustration of the long lasting life span of the battery design. Less obvious, however, are the potentially ground breaking application as a resource that can be used via Tesla Energy in energy storage products. With highly reliable battery packs lasting potentially up to three decades it will be possible for small for homeowners to have a backup source during outages, or a hybrid solution with solar panels combining with power from the grid as needed.
Battery stored solar generated energy can reduce costs or even be an income source when excess is sold back to public utilities. And, of course a complete off grid, solar and wind powered, fully sustainable system could be employed in large and small settings. A massive version of such a system is already in place at the Nevada gigafactory itself.
Power grid sized installations, such as a recent Hornsdale Power Reserve installation in Australia point toward the industrial solutions of the breakthrough technology.
These twin benefits of significant cost reduction and longer life, along with possible “re-purposing” for use in backs-up for the electric power grid are a combination that points toward a transformation of Tesla’s business model into that of a sustainable power company first and car company second.
Such a leap forward would put the company into the position of an energy provider such as PGE, with eventual added benefits to the planet once sustainable sources are ramped up.
As if all of this is not enough, the upcoming Starlink internet service, power via satellites being launched by Elon Musk’s “other” venture SpaceX, could provide internet connectivity at such an off-grid compound. Once these options are available, a highly functioning sustainable powered, globally connected living compound could be built virtually anywhere in the world.
The many features of such an independent energy and satellite communications option could create a truly decentralized dwelling system, further reducing survival and luxury costs.
Challenges remain yet the upcoming announcement nevertheless changes the outlook considerably
This highly ambitious project and these blockbuster potentials require many desperate elements to come together for this dream to be realized. One is the new, groundbreaking battery design which is the bombshell news being hinted at by Reuter’s unnamed sources.
Based on low-cobalt and cobalt-free battery chemistries, and the use of chemical additives, materials and coatings, the new design is projected to enable batteries to store more energy for longer periods, sources said. Additionally, nano-engineered materials are said to be a contributing factor in creating more bruise resistant and less damage prone due to rapid charging stresses. These improvements are said to make the “million mile” claim for the replacement cycle a reality.
Ramping up battery production methods will be necessary, both for reducing the costs via economies of scale and to keep up with the virtually unlimited demand for a Tesla EV with a million mile lifespan before the cost of battery replacement at a price point on par with or even below current ICE vehicles.
According to “hints” leaked by Musk in April, this will be achieved through new truly massive, highly automated “terafactories”. Based on the “gigafactory” concept which already has three in operation, in Nevada, New York State and Shanghai, China, with a fourth in Berlin, Germany, being built, the new battery manufacturing locations are planned to be thirty times larger than the current gigafactory in Nevada, which, at completion, was the largest factory ever built by square footage and second by volume.
If State Legislation Doesn’t Work, Hit the Offenders Where it Hurts…
A couple of weeks ago, California lost a battle with the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. Wanting to set its own standards for vehicular carbon emissions, California campaigned for statewide legislation that would call for lighter, more fuel-efficient cars. The Trump administration, however, backed by car manufactures such as General Motors, Toyota, and Fiat Chrysler, eventually ruled that it was unconstitutional for California to set independent criteria when it came to carbon emissions, and that the state could not create a standard inconsistent with the federal rules.
The Golden State, however, has not given up in its battle to become more eco-friendly. Given the new stipulations, the state has come up with a reactionary plan to continue lowering emissions. Essentially, California is going to block out the car companies that stand in its way and instead use vehicles that already fall in line with its environmentally conscious goals.
This means that the California State government will no longer be purchasing vehicles from GM, Toyota, Fiat Chrysler, or any other company that helped the Trump administration revoke its emissions policy. Likewise, the state will only be using low-emission vehicles and will be transitioning to electric vehicles as much as possible.
Tesla, Rivian and Other Auto Companies’ Benefit by supporting CA’s Green Initiatives
In opposition to the handful car companies that are at odds with California right now, a few other enterprises actually benefit from the state’s eco-friendly plan. Honda, BMW, Ford, and Volkswagen have all backed California and they already make vehicles that fit in with the state’s environmental prerogatives. At the forefront of the situation, however, are Tesla and Rivian—the two premiere electric car manufacturers who can supply Cali with zero-emission vehicles.
Tesla and Rivian have even gone the extra mile, teaming up with charging companies and electric companies to form the National Coalition for Advanced Transportation (NCAT). This group’s goal is to advocate for California’s low-emission standards and try to spread fuel-efficient innovation around the world. It is currently trying to get additional U.S. states to follow in California’s footsteps, and it has filed a lawsuit against the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration for repealing Cali’s right to set its own rules when it comes to clean air.
Admittedly, these electricity-based companies and carmakers might have fiscal motives for pushing environmentally conscious agendas. Perhaps these auto-manufactures are just as interested in greasing their palms as they are in saving the planet or combatting climate change. Even if that is the case, though, and these companies do have ulterior motives, it does not put them in the wrong. In fact, their economic investment in being environmentally sustainable could be a huge step forward, for it shows that going green can be good for business—an eight letter word that has not always been the kindest when it comes to ecological consideration.
The California state government owns over fifty thousand vehicles from snowplows, to school busses, to police cars, to ambulances, and more. The fact that they are ghosting GM, Toyota, Fiat Chrysler and other brands that opposed its initiatives is a big loss for those companies. At the same time, the fact that they are investing in environmentally conscious car manufacturers will launch these eco-friendly companies to greater heights. With fifty thousand vehicles following these stringent emission standards rules, it is possible that the trend will spread outside the Golden State and end up fostering a legitimate shift forward in the ongoing fight against climate change.
80,000 Small Quakes have moved the fault line 0.8 inches since July 5th Quake…
On Wednesday, November 13th at 11:26 a.m., an earthquake with a magnitude of 3.9 and a depth of 5.7 miles was reported 12 miles away from Ridgecrest, California. Interestingly, this earthquake is located at the same epicenter as the record-breaking 6.1 magnitude and 7.1 magnitude earthquakes that occurred on July 4th and 5th, respectively.
A closer look at the big July earthquake that occurred on Independence Day reveals that it appears to have activated the Garlock fault. The fault line is 185 miles long and runs from a junction with the San Andreas fault at Antelope Valley and has largely been inactive for the past 500-years. However since the July quakes, Ridgecrest has felt more than 80,000 earthquakes, most of them too low on the richter scale to warrant news coverage, resulting from the Garlock fault’s movement.
“The fact that the Ridgecrest rupture terminated right next to the Garlock is what cased this behavior.”
Zachary Ross, Assistant Professor of Geophysics at Caltech
However, generally, such movement should not cause immediate alarm as it’s quite common for faults to shift after a big earthquake. A “trigger slip” is where an earthquake is triggered by a previous quake – in this case, according to seismologists, today’s quake may have been a “passive response” to the Magnitude 7.1 earthquake, 11 miles from Ridgecrest, CA at 8:19 PM.
“The fact that we have a trigger slip after a 7 [magnitude earthquake] is really common. It’s like a passive response to the energy being released by the big earthquake”
The best policy is not to be Alarmed but to stay Prepared
In early October, Time magazine published a report citing scientific study, by researchers from the California Institute of Technology and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where it was indicated that the movement along the Garlock fault could indicate a possible increase in seismic activity, and that the fault was capable of producing an 8.0 magnitude earthquake at some point, although there is no way to predict when.
Earthquakes with a 3.0 magnitude or more were reported to have had an epicenter near the Ridgecrest fault in the last ten days. With a recent three-year data sample as a reference, 234 earthquakes on average happen every year in California and Nevada with 3.0 to 4.0 magnitudes. It is important to bear in mind that each whole number on the Richter scale is exponentially stronger than the previous whole number (an 8.0 is 33 times stronger than a 7.0 but a 9.0 is, yikes, 1,089 times stronger – arrived at by multiplying 33×33).
Although this earthquake, at 3.9 was at a magnitude that is common and not powerful enough to do damage, the fact is that Southern California is home to highly vulnerable fault lines and a quake measuring 8.0 or higher is going to happen at some point, it is only a question of when. Therefore it is highly advisable to prepare for any earthquake-induced emergencies that may happen now, and your chance of avoiding any negative effects will be far higher in the event that “the big one” happens anytime soon.
Climate Crisis Will No Longer Go Unnoticed as Global Civil Disobedience Breaks New Ground
It has been 170 years since American transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau published “Civil Disobedience.” In the essay, he questions that in the face of unjust laws, “shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress at once?”
Today, an international rebellion is taking place, and by no coincidence, it is over the environmental matter of sustainability and reformation in the face of governmental inaction. The revolution is about climate change, and it is currently spearheaded by the global movement known as the Extinction Rebellion. The movement’s message is simple: “To the governments of the world, we declared a climate and ecological emergency. You did not do enough. To everyone else, rebel.”
The Extinction Rebellion began in the United Kingdom during May 2018. Their tactic is to use nonviolent civil disobedience to compel governments around the world to take action against climate change. The group’s three primary aims are to get the government to 1) admit to climate change’s reality and urgency, 2) take action to halt bio-diversity loss and carbon emissions, and 3) create legislation and a citizen’s assembly to continue combatting climate change in the future.
Global Mobilization is Only the Beginning as Celebrities & Everyday People Continue to Join the Cause
In the movement’s infancy, the Extinction Rebellion was only about a hundred British academics who signed a commitment towards activism. In late 2018, the group started its rebellion with a number of protests in London. Since then, it has grown to hundreds of thousands of participants from all around the globe.
Among the Extinction Rebellion’s supporters are Greta Thunberg and a number of celebrities, many of whom recently signed a controversial letter admitting to living hypocritical high-carbon emission lifestyles, but refusing to back down from the rebellion.
In 2019, the group has put on protests in cities across all six of the developed continents. Most recently, massive protests have taken place in Vancouver, British Columbia. Over ten of the Canadian protestors were arrested during these events. However, members of the Extinction Rebellion use arrests to their advantage. Basing themselves off of former historic protests, the group assimilates these tactics to the matter of climate change. Therefore, whenever a protestor is arrested, the rebellion can use it as publicity and evidence of oppression. Many of the arrestees so far have pleaded guilty to their charges, owning their actions as just given the cause.
From London to the Rest of the World, the Extinction Rebellion Will Not Be Stopped Until Demands are Met
Ironically, London, the city where the rebellion began, is now the first city to have banned Extinction Rebellion protests across the board. After a number of arrests and events that took a toll on the city, London declared the group’s protests illegal. Nevertheless, this is unlikely to silence Extinction Rebellion. Although their actions may create temporary inconveniences in local areas, their cause is combatting a potentially irreversible global destruction.
On the Extinction Rebellion’s website, they have over thirty future events lined up between now and the end of the year, and that is not even counting the smaller protests that may not be posted or pre-planned. Climate change is not going anywhere, and neither are the people committed to acting against it. The group’s symbol is an hourglass, representing the limited amount of time we have before climate change permanently affects our planet on a global scale. The clock is running out, and the Extinction Rebellion is determined to accomplish its mission. When will that be? Well, to quote Thoreau yet again, “when a subject has refused allegiance, and the officer has resigned his office, then the revolution is accomplished.” Therefore, when action against climate change is met, and those who deny its severity are overpowered by those who realize the truth, then the Extinction Rebellion will be accomplished.
Your Next New York Taxi ride? It will likely Soon be a Tesla…
The Model 3 has just been approved to join New York City’s taxi fleet.
Among the 40 vehicles approved, Model 3 is the only fully-electric car on the list. Usually, cars only get this kind of certification whenever an automotive manufacturer or individual requests it, but that’s not without some specific standards.
Man Texting in front of Tesla Amsterdam Showroom – Photo / Lynxotic
The qualifications for a vehicle to be certified as a New York taxi cab are simple: it must meet a certain minimum of interior space, have air conditioning installed for, have space for the clear partition between the driver and passengers, and also have its seats covered with an easy-to-clean material. Once approved, these cars can have their official taxi cab equipment installed, which requires a standardized paint job, exterior taxi lights, taxi signage, taxi meter, and interior partition.
Previously, electric cars were seldom used as taxi cabs because of their limited range and power. This was found in an experimental program with Nissan Leaf electric cars that ended in 2015. The problem that the Taxi & Limousine Commission noticed was that drivers were burdened by the significant limits of electric-powered vehicles compared to gas-powered vehicles. It was an especially big burden during hot weather that required extensive use of the air conditioner, which became another battery-draining source that would shorten the vehicle’s already short range even more.
However, Elon Musk’s Tesla vehicles could represent a solution for that problem since the Model 3, for example, has a range of at least 220 miles, which is significantly longer when compared to the Nissan Leaf‘s estimated meager range of 84 miles. The future Long Range Model Y is planned to have an even longer range at 300 miles on a full charge, which matches the average range of a traditional gas-powered vehicle.
Police Department Investigating Tesla Fleet Purchase: Acceleration is Key
As an Allegheny County Sheriff experiments with using Tesla for their police department in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Tesla proves that it could compete in both power and performance against traditionally gas-powered vehicles.
The Allegheny police have reported to particularly enjoy the many technologically advanced features that Tesla has to offer, like its computer monitor, smooth handling, quiet engine, quick acceleration and automatic safety features.
Indeed, many of these Tesla features are particularly handy when it comes to the specific job requirements for police cars to perform at a standard well above the average vehicle. Their only caveat is its average range. Although its range has yet to rival gas-powered vehicles, Tesla has gotten close to the average range of traditional cars that range from 300 to 400 miles on a full tank of gas. This puts Tesla’s foot in the door of the car competition, and who knows how much Tesla’s range will increase in the future as their technology continues to advance and improve.
However, a long range isn’t the only requirement for a police car. It also needs to be incredibly fast, and this is where Tesla dominates. An average gas-powered vehicle could accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 8 seconds, while Tesla’s electric vehicles (EVs) could reach that in as little as 5 to 3 seconds. At this rate, Tesla EVs are definitely capable of chasing and catching runaway vehicles before needing to recharge.
Additionally, Tesla EVs are a lot safer than traditional vehicles. Many of the Allegheny police deputies have noted how the Tesla would immediately start to break on its own after they put their foot off the gas pedal and before they even hit the breaks. Additionally, Tesla EVs are a lot more cost effective by saving money without the use of gasoline in the long run. The Allegheny sheriff deputy also calculated that Tesla EVs would save them about $17,000 over a period of five years compared to their gas-powered vehicles.
Reflection in Tesla showroom window in Cologne, Germany – Photo / Lynxotic
Tesla Scores #1 among EVs for a Low-Carbon Future
According to Moody’s Carbon Transition Assessments (CTAs), which measures an automotive company’s ability to transition into a more sustainable “low carbon future,” Tesla was the only car manufacturer to receive the highest possible score.
The multi-point scale, with the highest rating being CT-1 and the lowest being CT-9, determines how ready the company is to transition to producing cleaner vehicles with zero emissions. Although BMW, Honda, Toyota, Geely, and Beijing Automotive group also received high CTA scores among the 20 surveyed, they are significantly lower than Tesla’s top spot at CT-1.
Notably, electric car sales have increased three-fold, while diesel vehicle sales have lost appeal and plummeted at rapid rates. With this in mind, the future of electric vehicles looks brighter as their demand and production continues to grow significantly, and every other automotive company needs to catch up.
Moody’s predicts that we will need more intensive carbon emissions testing on global car manufacturers in the near future. This comes at an important time when countries have set out crucial deadlines for petroleum phase-out goals during the expedited transition to clean, sustainable energy in light of the present climate crisis.
Moody’s 20-car-manufacturer assessment also puts an end to the circular argument that many critics of the electric vehicle movement have through the faulty narrative that EV production does more harm to the environment than good.
As Tesla’s production and technology becomes more advanced and sustainable, they are knocking over the barriers that previously held electric vehicles back from popular use. Tesla is well on their way to rivaling the range, speed, power, and performance of gas-powered vehicles. The future of clean transportation no longer has to settle for a lower quality of life and has the potential to create something even better than what we have now.
Pollution in DTLA from the 60s to Now: Smoke is the New Smog
Throughout the nineteen sixties, seventies, and eighties, a dark layer of photochemical smog clouded downtown Los Angeles. Produced by carbon emissions, this toxic smog came to define the city in many unflattering ways. Today, the smog is not as noticeable, however, a new kind of cloud has arrived to mask the face of La-La-Land yet again.
This time around, the cloud is composed of smoke from wildfires, and while this leftover smolder from burning forests may not be as immediately caustic as yester-decades’ smog, it could be more dangerous all the same, for it is a sign of California’s increasing vulnerability in the presence of the climate crisis.
Seasonal Wildfires in California Exacerbated and Turned Catastrophic by Climate Crisis
Wildfires in California, like hurricanes in the Deep South or blizzards up north, are somewhat seasonal. After a long, hot, and dry summer, the fires are only now starting to pick up, with an inordinate number of them taking place in the mountains around L.A. since the beginning of autumn. The region’s exceptionally arid landscape this time of year only helps the fires grow and travel at faster rates.
The reasons for these wildfires can vary, from natural causes to someone dropping a cigarette in the wrong place at the wrong time. Many of them are sparked by something immediate and unfortunate. However, their range, frequency, and ferocity can be linked to global warming—especially over the past few years, as the fires have become more intense and the effects of the climate crisis have been increasingly perceptible.
Indeed, a simple wayward cigarette could ignite a wildfire, but how much damage that fire does is determined in part by something far more elemental. As the climate crisis heats up the earth, things naturally become more flammable. The ecosystem is meant to respond to temperature spikes with additional moisture. Unfortunately, we have not experienced such compensation yet, and with the climate crisis being an unnatural phenomenon, it is unwise for us to expect the planet to respond in natural ways.
Wildfire Prevention is More than Putting Out a Spark, it’s Environmental, and California’s is Highly Flammable
Thus, a small spark can easily kindle a fire that quickly spreads over dry foliage with the wind. Although Los Angeles itself is celebrated as a land of perfect weather, its surrounding canyons produce gusts of wind up to 80 miles per hour. Because climate change has been significantly limiting nature’s innate defense mechanisms, the average area affected by wildfires has increased almost four-fold over the past few decades.
Likewise, longer droughts are also making California’s fire season lengthier. The season is an estimated two months longer than it was in the 1970s, and the longer the season, the more destructive it can be. California’s six most intense seasons on record have all occurred in the past decade, and fifteen of the twenty most extreme individual fires have all taken place since the year 2000.
Official Red Flag Warnings, Evacuations, and Power Outages? Only a Precursor to Future Extremes
Just last week, the fires caused the National Weather Service to issue its first extreme red flag warning ever. A testament to how bad California’s fires are, this unprecedented warning shows that the recent wildfires are on par with some of the worst storms and tornadoes in our country’s history. In fact, they may be even more treacherous.
Californians and Angelinos in particular have already faced evacuations and power outages as results of the fires—and that is just over the past few weeks. President Trump, rarely a champion of progressive environmental policies, has hardly addressed the issue as California’s state government scrambles to combat the blazing infernos on its own. Despite the situation’s intensity, though, it is but a bleak microcosm of what the future may look like if the climate crisis continues to go unchecked by politicians.
From Smog to Smoke, the Only Difference is the Extent of our Unnecessarily-Long Relationship with Pollution
The fires are at their worst in the canyons and hills surrounding Los Angeles, but from downtown, residents can notice the smoke blocking the mountains on the horizon. The air is filled with the pungent smell of burning wood and the skyline becomes hazier each day, returning the city to its smog-infested image of former decades.
Given that the smog was the result of fossil fuel burning and the fires are fueled by the climate crisis today, we can see that their resemblance is familial, and that the smoke from the California’s wildfires are the deformed son, the resurrected corpse, the Frankenstein’s monster of the undead smog and carbon emissions that we continue to carelessly release into our planet’s atmosphere.
Celebrities Took the Stage at Global Citizens Festival in Central Park…
Leonardo DiCaprio has consistently made strong statements in efforts to raise awareness of the Climate Crisis over the years. The actor spearheaded the issue in his 2016 documentary “Before The Flood” and even used the stage during his long-awaited Oscar acceptance speech to talk about importance of preserving our natural world. Clearly, the man is a passionate environmentalist.
On September 28th, 2019, DiCaprio spoke out about this issue yet again at the Global Citizens Festival in New York’s Central Park. In his address to the festival’s ~60,000 patrons, he reflected on the recent climate strike, paid tribute to its leaders such as Greta Thunberg, and condemned climate deniers.
The actor stated: “Last Friday, young people led the world in strike. Millions of individuals did more than simply walk out of their schools and places of employment. They took a stand. They set an example of true leadership that our planet so desperately needs. These young people have said clearly, definitively and without fear, that the time for inaction is over. Yet, surprisingly, some have reacted to this movement with insulting tweets and negative talking points: individuals that seem to care more about profit and their own self-interests than about your own future. But we know that the climate youth movement is more important and crucial than at any time in human history.”
Contemptuously, he denounced politicians and people in power who refuse to act on the climate crisis, and ended his speech reminding the audience that there is scientific consensus surrounding the issue and that its reality is no longer debatable.
Worldwide Concern is Expanding as Big Names Help to Draw Attention
In addition to DiCaprio, Natalie Portman, Forest Whitaker, Laverne Cox, Kal Penn, Alicia Keys, and Dakota Johnson all spoke at the Festival, each addressing a different cause and delivering a humanitarian message. Meanwhile, musical acts included Queen + Adam Lambert, French Montana, OneRepublic, Ben Platt, Carole King, H.E.R. and more.
The Global Citizens Festival plans on organizing additional events—one on each of the six developed continents. The next one will take place in Lagos, Nigeria and celebrities Miley Cyrus, Lizzo, Metallica and Billie Eilish have all expressed interest in appearing at it.
ICYMI: @RepEliotEngel joined thousands of us in Central Park at the end of September to celebrate the #GlobalCitizenFestival and to let Global Citizens far and wide know that he remains committed to ending extreme poverty through strong US foreign aid. #AidWorkshttps://t.co/8EfWieDdvQ
The New York Festival concluded with Coldplay front man and Festival curator, Chris Martin telling the crowd about the 2020 Global Citizen campaign. The campaign aims to raise money to help the UN reach the $350 billion it needs for its Global Goals for Sustainable Development.
All of this is very ambitious, but change will not come without initiative. The Festival garnered an overall feeling of hope—hope that change can come from the bottom up, and hope for a brighter future lead by passionate people who believe in the possibilities of the human spirit.
Say what you want about radical engineer Elon Musk, but his companies have certainly produced some very innovative products over the years. None are perhaps as revolutionary as Tesla’s line-up of wildly popular and stylish electric vehicles that require no gasoline.
This past weekend, a beacon of progressive light shone through the clouds as two gas stations on different sides of the world got rid of all their fuel pumps and transitioned entirely to EV charging stations. One of the gas stations is in Norway and it is a branch of the global Circle K convenience store company. The other is a local gas station in Takoma Park, Maryland called RS Automotives.
This is significant, not due to the world adding two more charging stations, there are many already and Tesla’s network of stations is truly remarkable. The news here, however, is that these are stations that have decided to abandon gas, oil and, presumably, gasoline-based auto maintenance for EV charging and convenience. This is a trend that, hopefully, will accelerate.
In the wake of the UN 2019 Climate Action Summit, these initiatives are but small victories in the fight for environmental reformation. Nonetheless, we can take these updates as signs of individual improvement and solace. Either they are money-driven transformations reflective of more people turning to electric vehicles, or they are examples of non-money driven actions that we may need businesses to make in order to shift consumers in the superior, ecologically sensitive direction.
While gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles have been around for a while with popular older models such as the Toyota Prius and the Honda Insight, Tesla stands as the first widely popular electric car that runs on zero fluids excluding the windshield-wiper fluid (or tiny amounts for cooling batteries). Instead of filling it up with gas, you charge it up like a phone.
Admittedly, charging up a Tesla can, in some situations, take a while— close to an hour if fully discharged and topped off (Tesla suggests 80% maximum at any time to promote battery health and longevity). Although over half a million Teslas have been sold since their first all-electric Model-S debuted in 2012, some people still assume that the time it takes to charge one up is Tesla’s greatest weakness.
The “Range Anxiety” debate is not new, and not entirely real
This “weakness” is part propaganda, part wishful thinking and part scare tactic. The reality is, pumping gas also takes time and if you add in a bathroom break and a short stop to grab a drink to go, a supercharger can approximate, with ease, the turn-around time. Not to mention the peace of mind that comes with using a fill-up (charge up) as a break from driving rather than a hurried gas smelling pit-stop.
Charging stations have been popping up more frequently across the country and the world in the last few years. Tesla, Volkswagon and some venture capital-based start-ups have made initiatives to put up tens of thousands more EV charging stations along highways and roads.
This trend can be seen as a canary in the coal mine moment for the demise of fossil fuel based transportation and, ultimately, the fossil fuel based economic model. The looming climate crisis, breaking out virtually every day into the news, is but one reason to cheer this development. There are many more and many CitCM moments to come.
Natural Magic of the Unseen and Wonders beneath our feet
Louie
Schwartzberg’s documentaries have always had to do with
seeing the world through different lenses. From his independent shorts
“Mysteries of the Unseen World” and “Moving Art: Forests”
to his Disney-backed butterfly doc “Wings of Life,” Schwartzberg has been
opening audience’s eyes to visual beauties hidden in plain sight.
His latest film, “Fantastic Fungi” takes this motif to the next
level, as Schwartzberg not only uses his distinct visual style deliver a
message, but that message itself is actually about our world beneath the
surface and our minds beyond our senses.
The topic, of course, is mushrooms, or rather fungi of all sorts,
the plantlike organisms that sprout from the earth and extend beneath our feet
in all different directions. As Schwartzberg documents, fungi are of unparalleled
importance to the natural world, and if used correctly, they could also help
people improve their perception of life on the inside and out.
The movie starts out standard enough, with Schwartzberg’s signature
time-lapses, landscape shots, and animations illustrating the awesome lives of
mushrooms in the wild. Over interviews with ecologists, journalists,
nutritionists, and more, the film shows how fungi’s roots are all connected beneath
the surface, creating an enormous active network of billion-year-old ecological
information that humans only understand the very beginning of.
Fungi’s potential is thus unpredictable. The natural sophistication
of mushrooms could make them an inherent resource for health, sustainability,
medicine, nutrition, and more. Their relationship with people is a beautiful
example of humans not just learning about, but learning from a different form
of life in its untouched place on earth.
Despite the intriguing topic, though, this first part of the movie
still feels kind of like a simple National Geographic special or something cut
out of a “Planet Earth” episode. “Fantastic Fungi” really distinguishes itself
in its second and third acts. After Schwartzberg introduces us to fungi in the
wild, he then delves into the ways humans use the organism for their own
advantage.
Here, the film obviously looks at the ways mushrooms can be used as
food and medicine, but it also talks about the ways that fungi preserve water
and adapt efficiently, making them potentially valuable resources in creating
revolutionary environmental progress.
Additionally, the film digs into the psychedelic
aspects of mushroom consumption, interviewing mental health councilors and
patients who use fungi as therapeutic tools. This is where the film becomes
meta, as the experience of taking psychedelic mushrooms is meant to play with
perception and ultimately make people feel extra clam or enlightened.
Maybe there’s more to Fungi if we Become One with them?
Perhaps gratuitously, this raises the question of what it would be
like to watch “Fantastic Fungi” under the influence of these mushrooms. Certain
films, particularly movies with intricate colors or visuals, are known for
being extra interesting when watched on psychedelics. Because “Fantastic Fungi”
has some very cool, high-resolution visuals as well as an illuminating message,
one could expect that watching the film with a mushroom-tinted consciousness might
be a transcendent existential experience. Given the subject matter, we cannot
help but wonder whether or not this was aesthetically intentional all along.
The film was featured at the Maui Film Festival’s Celestial Cinema
screenings. Along with Louie Schwartzberg as the movie’s director, Brie
Larson narrates the film and Mark
Monroe of “Before the Flood” and “The Cove” wrote the screenplay.
Monroe has written many documentaries that have to do with environmentalism and
the human body, most notably perhaps the Oscar-winning “Icarus,” which started
as a film about athletic doping in Russia, but eventually escaladed into a political
thriller.
“Fantastic Fungi” looks like it will be leaving politics at the
doorstep, though. Except for maybe a brief conversations regarding the legality
of psychedelics, the film looks will probably be a happy and hopeful movie, one
that not only teaches us an interesting lesson in ecology, but like a mushroom
trip itself, will open up our minds to possibilities we never considered
before.
A Growing Urgency and yet Denial Remains a Stubborn Reality
Coincidentally or not, corresponding with week’s nationwide climate strike, Mercury Films is releasing an environmental documentary focusing on the human impact on the planet. In “Anthropocene: The Human Epoch,” filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal, Edward Burtynsky, and Nicholas de Pencier travel to twenty countries across six continents to show the irreversible effects that human beings have had on the natural landscape.
While many environmental documentaries with such a global scale might focus on the earth’s beauty in order to get audiences to appreciate the planet, “Anthropocene” takes the opposite route, and looks at the some of Earth’s least flattering, most unnatural images. Rather than taking us to the mountains, prairies, or deep seas, the film shows us landfills, mines, power plants, refineries, and junkyards on both land and water, revealing the Anthropocene’s unavoidable and unattractive reality.
Anthropocene as a term denotes a new geological age, or epoch, in which humans are the primary influence on the natural world. With today’s hot debates about climate change and global warming, Anthropocene has become somewhat of a buzzword, but the term dates back to the 1980s when scientists Paul J. Crutzen and Eugene F. Stoermer first coined it. Evidently, the process has been going on for a while, but in the current day and age, the Anthropocene is increasingly hard to ignore, as the human footprint eats up more of the natural world and the effects of climate change are becoming increasingly tangible.
Photo / Mercury Films
Where are the Solutions and what can any of us do to Slow Down the Juggernaut?
The question on everybody’s mind, then, is how do we combat climate change? It is a lofty question that even the brightest of scientists and the most ambitious of politicians struggle to find consensus on. At the most basic, humanistic level, the answer might start with everybody doing their parts to live sustainably and spread awareness of the issue. From an artist’s perspective, that means of spreading awareness might come in the form of a painting, a novel, or a film.
Film has certainly had its bouts with addressing climate change in the past. Many documentaries from Al Gore’s revolutionary “An Inconvenient Truth” to Leonardo DiCaprio’s foreboding “Before The Flood,” have zeroed in on the issue. On the complete opposite side of the cinematic spectrum, the concept has even made its way into recent blockbuster movies such as “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Mission Impossible: Fallout,” both of which had eco-terrorists as their main villains.
It almost seems impossible to make a movie about the world and not have it relate to climate change in some way. Animal-focused docuseries like BBC’s “Planet Earth” or Netflix’s “Our Planet” may avoid people altogether, but their subject-matter always comes back to anthropogenic preservation. Similarly, documentaries working in other sectors of environmentalism, such as the recent “Supersize Me 2: Holy Chicken!” or “The Game Changers,” which focus on diet and nutrition, all circle back to the correlation between consumption and climate in one way or another. Clearly, the issue is deeply engrained in any conversation we might have about the environment, and with eco-criticism becoming a growing sector of theory and thought, audiences will start to notice the topic emerging in even more ways.
Watching “Anthropocene: The Human Epoch,” however, does not require a lot of deep thinking to realize that it is addressing global warming. The subject is made quite clear through the documentary’s unambiguous and straightforward expository mode.
Directors Baichwal, Burtynsky, and de Pencier are no strangers to this blatant style of informative documentary that focuses on pressing issues. The three have collaborated before on the award winning documentaries “Watermark” and “Manufactured Landscape,” both of which covered environmental topics. But while these two earlier films only touched on the concept of climate change and its effects, “Anthropocene” goes full-throttle, traveling far and wide to illustrate the harrowing impacts of this new epoch. It shows urban floods, melting glaciers, excavated canyons, and poached animals on the edge of extinction, all aiming to evoke an emotional response from viewers—none of whom are blameless for or exempt from this planetary phenomenon.
Photo / Mercury Films
What does it take to Wake Up a Population that Sleeps as the Threat keeps growing?
Nevertheless, as effective as “Anthropocene: The Human Epoch” might be in pulling on our heartstrings and making us fear for the future, one must question weather the environmental documentary is as impactful as people often make it out to be. Fourteen years have gone by since Al Gore warned us about global warming in “An Inconvenient Truth,” and since then countless documentarians have approached the topic from several different angles. Sadly, though, we are hardly any closer to an environmental reformation. The general public may have caught on to the issue’s severity, but many people—particularly people in power—still refuse to even acknowledge climate change.
This is not to say that “Anthropocene: The Human Epoch” or other films in the same vein are futile gestures. They are compelling and will likely inspire many people to live more environmentally consciously. However, as a society—or rather, as a human species—we should probably be past exposition and be making more progress in combating and adapting to the changes already going on in the world around us. As a film, “Anthropocene: The Human Epoch” is bound to be captivating and informative. As a piece of activism, though, the odds are unfortunately against it.
The calculation of the average global temperature was arrived at by measuring data from satellites, buoys, weather balloons and various other sources, daily and hourly, and then inputting that information into proprietary computer models.
Photo / The Copernicus Program
Next, the results were compared with other measurements taken by various similar climate research agencies around the world.
In case you are wondering, more modern and accurate global average temperature records have been kept for approximately 100 years. General record keeping goes back much further, for example, the recent heatwave in Europe broke high temperature marks dating to the 1500s, according to the Climatology Institute in Potsdam, Germany.
The warmest previous July in history was in 2016 and global average temperatures in July this year were at least as high, if not higher. Northern latitudes had particularly high temps, compared to the average from 1981-2010 including, Alaska, Baffing Island, parts of Siberia, and also, Iran as well as large parts of Antarctica.
Photo / Adobe Stock
Extreme Measures During Euro-Heatwave Required:
Heat across Europe was extreme and caused disruption and dismay during it’s recent severe heatwaves, in June and again in July.
It got so hot in Antwerp, Belgium, for example, that 2 suspected drug smugglers called the police to rescue them, after they accidentally locked themselves into a scorching hot shipping container, which also happened to be filled with cocaine.
Better than death by frying, apparently.
In areas of Germany, known for it’s stretches of autobahn without speed limits, limits were put in place, for the first time, in order to prevent cars from overheating and even damaging the roads themselves, while operating at high speeds.
In the Pairi Daiza Zoo in Belgium, bears were fed watermelons encased in blocks of ice, to keep them from potentially suffering heatstroke.
A wildfire burns in western Greenland on July 31, 2019. (Photo Credit / Orla Joelsen via Twitter)
Ice on Fire: This is Real
Arctic wildfires; yes, wildfires where there was once nothing but snow and ice, struck again. Again, that is, after a series of fires were reported in western Greenland in 2017.
Over 100 intense wildfires in the Arctic Circle were tracked by CAMS, part of the Copernicus program mentioned above, during June and July, 2019.
In June the fires caused 50 megatons of carbon dioxide to be released into the atmosphere, as much as the total yearly emissions for Sweden. Shortly thereafter in July, during the European heatwave, melting ice, also in Greenland, sent 197 billion tons of water into the Atlantic.
They call this a “melt event” and this summer there have been several of the largest on record, since at least 1950. Not because there was more melting in 1950, but because records have only been kept since that year.
It may well take years of these “melt events” to combine together and raise the world sea level, and endanger coastal cities around the globe, but if it is happening at all, that is alarming, in and of itself.
Since these kinds of ice melt events, such as we experienced this year, and a previous extreme event in 2012, are thought to occur only approximately every 250 years, therefore, already having seen two in less than a decade is a strong indicator that climate change is increasing the frequency of these, and many other anomalous weather patterns.
Last weekend it was New York, Boston and much of the rest of the US that was in a dire situation due to dangerous temperatures. Then, Europe took its turn. Twice. Anecdotal evidence builds, seemingly by the day, that the climate crisis is accelerating. Below we feature stories with a little more detail on the heat this week:
In the second extreme weather event so far this summer, Paris, hit an all time record high on Thursday, after the recent, record breaking heatwave in June. This time, the thermometer hit an unheard of 108.6 degrees Fahrenheit (which is 42.4 Celsius) and, since 30 degrees Celsius is considered extreme heat in Europe, this is a truly astonishing stat.
The blistering barrage is being felt as far west as Texas and north to Canada and even Alaska. The Great Lakes region and as far as Colorado and Kansas are also being affected.<p> The wave is being seen as a worsening of summer extremes related to the climate crisis. This, after France and Europe experienced all time record high temperatures and even the arctic seas are being monitored at unheard of temps.
Man refreshing himself in Public square under summer high temperature with Fire-hydrant
A week and a day after the metropolis endured a blackout affecting hundreds of thousands due to a transformer fire, another power outage has affected up to fifty thousand throughout Brooklyn, Queens and The Bronx.
While New York City might seem to experience a heat wave almost every summer, while perhaps not of the intensity we’ve seen lately, Europe, most definitely, does not.
In the second extreme weather event so far this summer, Paris, hit an all time record high on Thursday, after the recent, record breaking heatwave in June. This time, the thermometer hit an unheard of 108.6 degrees Fahrenheit (which is 42.4 Celsius) and, since 30 degrees Celsius is considered extreme heat in Europe, this is a truly astonishing stat.
The highest temps ever recorded also went into the books in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium causing extreme distress and discomfort and potentially dangerous conditions.
Climate-change Becoming More Likely As Cause
In the past 17 years, with records being shattered seemingly on a yearly basis, a trend has been noted, with all the most extreme temperatures occurring during that span. Climate change, due to the influence of mankind, is becoming more difficult to doubt as the most likely cause.
While a direct link is not 100% traceable, the statistical likelihood of more extreme events happening is clearly rising, according to experts. According to the climatology institute in Potsdam, Germany, the five years with the most extreme summer heat, since the year 1500, were all recorded since the year 2000.
The situation is considered life threatening all across Europe with London hitting record high temperatures, also.
When northern France has the same temperature as Death Valley in the summer, that is a serious and alarming trend. Not only because that is a standard for the most extreme heat on earth, but more so because Europe has, historically, a milder climate overall than much of the world, relative to its latitude.
While seeing the temperature rise to above 100 degrees in not uncommon in many parts of the USA, in particular the South and Midwest, as well as the deserts of the Southwest, Europe is buffeted and, in normal times, cooler in summer and warmer in winter, due to the influence of the Gulf Stream.
Death Valley-like Heat in Traditionally Mild Europe Sending Shockwaves
In Europe, unlike in the US, many homes and even business, in particular restaurants where tourists congregate during the summer months, do not have air conditioning. Even refrigeration of food is, in many home, much less of a “given” than here in the US. Many apartments have only small units and the internal temps are set warmer than would be the case in the US.
Partly cultural, with grocery shopping a daily ritual and fresh food a “must have”, this kind of extreme weather will be felt, in some ways, far more that an equivalent heat event in many parts of the US, such as we had last week on the East Coast.
This cultural expectation of mild weather is a real factor in the danger and seriousness of these events in Europe, making then even more concerning than similar situations like we had last weekend in the US. The UK’s national weather service went so far as to state that “Climate change has increased the likelihood and severity of heatwave episodes across Europe”.
In France, the ministry of health warned people to stay home and avoid commuting or travel of any kind, where ever possible.
We don’t celebrate 49 year anniversaries. But is 50 just a number? The echos of the past are haunting us, with politics drifting into conflicts that would meet or even surpass the standards of that tumultuous year, 1969.
And as we count down the hours and days to the 50th anniversary of the first man to walk on the lunar surface, and watch as Woodstock 50 preparations begin, and see the climate boil for one more summer of record temps, we can only look skyward to that orb of earthly dreams, and notice it’s full eclipse.
Lunar eclipses always coincide with a full moon. Tonight, the alignment of all the necessary heavenly orbs, the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun, will all collaborate to create the conditions that will yield a lunar eclipse.
Visible in Europe, Australia, Africa, and most of Asia, the Earth’s shadow will darken the moon, with a visible penumbra outer ring as well as the deep dark umbra, almost fully obscuring the moon in the area that it covers. Since it will happen during US daylight hours (starting around 3pm Eastern Daylight Time), this spectacular event will only be seen from our shores via photographic evidence, received from the countries above.
This particular eclipse will not be total, but will produce an eerie, red shade wherever the shadow, after passing through the Earth’s atmosphere, hits its target.
In the USA, however, the so-called Buck Moon will begin, post eclipse at approximately 5:38pm Eastern Time. The moonrise will commence shortly after and, should be something special to view, assuming no cloud cover. Called “Buck”, according to the Farmer’s Almanac, due to the fact that a buck’s antlers are in full growth season at the time of this, first of the summer, full moon.
If your area is clear tonight this will be a dramatic sight.
Reuters
Heat, Passion, Conflict and, Hopefully Beauty to Behold
Sure it was HOT in 1969, but was it the summer with the highest temperatures in recorded climate history in France?
As the year moves on, it is certain that events of 2019 will echo, in some strange ways, those of 1969, and we may also use this 50 year span to measure how much has changed, how far we have come, and yet, how much remains the same.
We can use the Apollo Mission’s anniversary to reflect on what is new, private space missions, mars on our minds, looming climate crises and, oh yes, computers in our pockets. What’s the same? Sadly, racists and political division and mind bending change on all sides.
Isn’t it odd that everyone on the internet either seems to hate or love Elon Musk and Tesla? One theory behind why this may be the case, was put forth in a recent article by John Mayo-Smith published on Medium.com called Elon vs. The Alligators. In a nutshell, the article is a list, with a nice graphic in part II, of vested interests that would stand to lose from Tesla’s success and, conversely, benefit from its demise.
This Is Not A New Development and Elon is Not Alone
Fans of the 2006 documentary, “Who Killed The Electric Car” would be well aware of the “conspiracy” against the proliferation of electric cars. The rise of Tesla, by definition, signals the failure of those entrenched interests that previously banded together to try and stop the emergence of this essential technology in the transition away from deadly fossil fuels.
Musk and Tesla represent an initial sign that these kinds of cabals to suppress technological development may be losing their strangle-hold on our world. Meanwhile, overwhelmingly obvious facts, once seen as “conspiracy theories”, are beginning to be recognized for what they are: simple facts of history.
Take, for example, the video below “Why The US Has No High Speed Rail”, released on May 7th, 2019, by none other than that “underground, subversive organization” CNBC. This short documentary clip has already garnered more than 4.5 million views.
The video shows the highly evolved, generally safe, and amazingly comfortable high speed rail systems across the globe: China, Japan, France, Germany, India, Saudi Arabia and so on. And while more countries develop low emission, luxurious, high speed transport, the US still has no high speed rail.
Meanwhile, overwhelmingly obvious facts, once seen as “conspiracy theories”, are beginning to be recognized for what they are: simple facts of history.
The clip goes on to trace the history of the transportation infrastructure and show how it was dominated and controlled in the US by Big Oil, government road building subsidies and the Auto Industry. It follows the clear path of these forces, and how they systematically prevented any rise of non-automotive transportation.
As the Media Slowly Comes Around, the Dollars Still Twist the Story
Perhaps, even ten years ago, this video would have likely been systematically attacked, in the same way as previous stories, for daring to sing the virtues of highly efficient, low pollution transportation, and for the very same reasons.
Today, after a Sea change, it appears that it is not so easy to squelch access to information that lays out plain truths about the past. Information is no longer so easy to suppress. While we, as a species, face possible extinction from climate change / global warming, brought about at least partially by the precise “conspiracy” of corruption that is the reason the US still has no rail infrastructure, the need to face these kinds of facts is undeniable.
Could the large viewership, unchallenged, indicate that it is no longer possible to bully the citizenry into silence, simply by disparaging the source of information, be it journalistic or otherwise?
It doesn’t take an eagle eye to notice, that when it comes to auto fatalities, Tesla and Musk are held to a very different standard than any other car company. Doing any search of a general grouping of news reports pertaining to fatal auto collisions, instantly, a stark pattern emerges. Ford is not mentioned. Chevy? Nope. Neither is Toyota, or Nissan nor Chrysler or Subaru. Mercedes Benz? Never. This list could go on and on, but any casual observer can see the pattern.
Although there are almost 40,000 auto accident fatalities per year in the US, and a very tiny fraction of those involve any electric car, nevertheless, the name Tesla comes up again and again, as the headline of stories about car crashes, with or without fatalities.
Titles like: “5 killed on way to Funeral” or “His 6th DUI Proved Fatal” are common. But it appears that any crash, of any kind, that involves a Tesla is “news”. This is but one of endless examples that could be cited, and corroborated, showing a pattern of negative stories aimed at one car company above all others. Coincidence?
The Story of Suppression of Design Innovation, Particularly when that Innovation Threatens the Status Quo is, Unfortunately, a Long One
A little known episode in this long history is that of Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion car. Featured prominently at the 1933-34 World’s Fair in Chicago, it had an amazing fuel efficiency, with approximately 30 mpg, and at 20ft in length, could transport 8-11 passengers at up to 70 mph.
However, after a local Chicago politician (Chicago South Park Commissioner) ran his own vehicle into the first prototype, killing the driver of the Dymaxion, the whole episode was used, in bogus press reports, to bury not only public interest in the car itself, but any chance of the advances in gas milage and overall efficiency that it represented. Gas mileage in the 30 mpg range would then be delayed for decades.
Photo Credit / Medium.com
Headlines in New York and Chicago read: “Freak car rolls over – killing famous driver – injuring international passengers“. In a subsequent investigation the Dymaxion was cleared of any fault, and the politician and his car were found to have been illegally removed from the scene before any reporters arrived. To this day, the average fuel economy in the US is less than 30 MPG. Even after over 80 years, articles can still be found that smear the history of the car with lies and baseless inferences, the same ones propagated in 1933.
A Trillion Gallons of Gasoline Wasted by Intentionally Inefficient Cars
If suppression of inventions that could have reduced carbon emissions, the same polluting substances that, eventually, could destroy the earth, is not pure evil, it’s hard to say what is. And yet, those same forces and corrupt powers remain with us today. “Tump Loves Coal“.
It would be interesting to speculate why 4.5 million would want to know the answer to the question: “Why the US Has No High Speed Rail”. And what about the “Alligators” that are out to get Tesla and Elon Musk? Are they going to succeed? Or will 400 million decide that the alligator’s time, like the dinosaurs they resemble, is finally over.
We have all experienced how, in the hustle and bustle of everyday life, it can be very challenging to break away from convenience. When it comes to products and services, many large companies utilize fast, cheap, and easily disposable single-use containers made from plastic.
Sodas bottles are plastic, baristas serve coffee in plastic cups with plastic caps and straws, fast food restaurants prepare orders in single use wrappers with plastic containers for condiments, and the list can go on and on. These products are used and then discarded.
Single use plastic items, as the name indicates, are used only once, yet plastic breaks down extremely slow, with some forms taking hundreds of years to degrade as shown in the tweet below from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF):
Zero Waste as explained by Waste Management, is a philosophy that aims for resources to be reused, recycled or composted, in order to allow for very little to “zero” trash to be sent to landfills or spill into the ocean.
Clearly this issue is important, and getting more so, therefore should be considered a high priority – the reality is that huge amounts of plastic garbage does end up in the ocean and dumped in landfills. This dire state of affairs continues to jeopardize ocean and wildlife as well as our own health.
The organization Eco-Cycle Solutions urges the need for a complete change to our current system. With dwindling natural resources, a compromised ecosystem, and major changes in climate already evident today and with likely more on the way, there is no way the Earth can sustain for much longer and survive for future generations.
The obvious need for large-scale changes at the corporate level, regarding plastic usage, is clear, but we also need to ask ourselves: what can be done on an individual scale?
Here are a few products that can be swapped-out and used instead of single and disposable use options:
Bamboo Toothbrush – both brush and bristles can be composted when time to replace
Lunchbox – making meals at home instead of eating out eliminates containers and can also be an opportunity to eat healthier
Water and Coffee Bottles (aluminum, glass or BPA free bottle) – can be refilled endlessly
Metal or Glass Straws – sturdier than the plastic counterpart and can be used over and over
Shopping Bags (canvas or other fabric) – can be used to carry groceries or any purchases
Cloth Napkins – for drying hands or wiping up around the house
“Using more sustainable products offers many benefits: saving money, eating healthier, all while creating a smaller ecological footprint in the world. While all are positive steps, most importantly, these small individual acts can ultimately help in the fight for the survival of future generations.”
While it may be impossible to free us of all waste, with effort and change, not necessarily perfection (decades of waste cannot be eliminated by a short term solution), small steps can lead to a better tomorrow.
