AUGUST 20 - “On July 31, the Houston Independent School District (HISD) announced plans to repurpose 28 libraries into ‘discipline centers.” The exponential growth of book bans challenging a right to read is a partisan issue. That is only part of the picture. Jaime Taylor points out in this August 18 Truthout article that the continuing disinvestment of public libraries is a decades-long bipartisan practice across states that disproportionately affects children in low income schools.
AUGUST 1 - In June, Oklahoma’s Statewide Virtual Charter School Board approved the nation’s first religious public charter school. The Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa were given permission to open St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School in August 2024.
AUGUST 24 - In built in AI has been used to model more accurate climate predictions, optimize energy efficiency in buildings and monitor things like deforestation and ocean health through satellite imagery. It can optimize power grids, enable smart buildings, enhance transportation systems, and facilitate precision agriculture. All in all AI can potentially reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, foster energy efficiency, and upgrade climate modeling in support of mitigation policies in order to weigh the costs and benefits of a particular strategy.
However, AI is an extractive industry with a rapidly growing carbon footprint. It is heavily dependent on gas and oil and water, including in regions where water is scarce.
Research shows it takes 1287 megawatt hours of electricity to train GPT-3, which is enough energy to supply an average US household for about 120 years. Around March 2023 ChatGPT received millions of daily queries equating to what is estimated to be about 4,000 to 6,000 hours of electricity. These figures are being replicated by an increasing number of companies.
In terms of social justice, AI can contribute to gross inequities. This is an understudied area with many potential effects.
So, the question remains…do the ends justify the means? Priya Donti, co-founder and executive director of Climate Change AI, says there is a need for inclusive policies. Justifying the growth of AI also depends on whether or not the business side of AI seeks the right alignment between technological advances and climate change or alternatively conducts business as usual.
Climate Change AI will host a webinar titled Harnessing Machine Learning for Climate Policy on August 31.
AUGUST 18 - And so the content war begins...From NPR, Lawyers for the New York Times are exploring whether to sue OpenAI to protect the intellectual property rights associated with its reporting as ChatGPT, a child of OpenAI, summarizes reporters original content without permission and so becomes a direct competitor.
AUGUST 1 - How 'green' is green when it comes to electric car batteries? Electric car sales are expected to reach 23 million in 2030. The problem is production can be dirty and it consumes resources such as water. Mining practices can be associated with polluted air. Then there are the social costs given that lithium is more frequently found in third world countries. Batteries still mean extraction and this invariably carries costs. Mining activities have both a social and economic impact on the lives of indigenous people. Possible remedies are to reduce the use of minerals through recycling and finding alternatives to graphite, cobalt, nickel,and lithium. These breakthroughs would not only green-up battery use they might make cars, as one example, more affordable.
AUGUST 23 - Promises, promises...The G20 agreed at COP26 and indeed since 2009, to take a step toward climate change goals. Instead the amount of public money surpassed 2019 expenditures directed to coal and oil and gas in 20 of the largest economies ($1.4tn) in 2022 according to the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD).
AUGUST 21- 94 brown bears, five black bears, five wolves over 17 days in May and June this year “…were shot from the air in and around Wood-Tikchik State Park in southwestern Alaska.” This chilling report in the New York Times, written by Jon Waterman, reveals massive and heartless killings conducted by state game workers.
OPINION These killings might be labelled as a narrow predator/prey policy to save caribou herds during calving season. This killing policy is easier and probably cheaper for the state to implement despite poor results with killing wolves.
The current mass killings of bears by air as prey, as Waterman notes, is a faulty premise that ignores a complex ecosystem in a fragile environment.
Alternative policies might include focusing on the changing carrying capacity of the land in relation to climate change, identifying where the caribou are most affected by limited food sources and disease, which are greater survival factors for the caribou compared to defining predator /prey relations as a need to kill the predators.
Understanding the protection of bears as an indicator species is critical. This designation not only has to do with monitoring and insuring the health of predators and prey, but helps to understand the general health of ecosystems which more broadly includes insights into the future of humanity.
AUGUST 20 - The Department of Justice (DOJ) claimed in Juliana v. United States that “there is no constitutional right to a stable climate system.”
The lawsuits below beg to disagree.
In 2020 lawsuits against Big Oil were filed by Oahu’s City and the County of Honolulu as well as Maui County. The Children’s Trust recently won a battle for generational rights to a healthy environment.
Jessica Corbett writing for Common Dreams reports that the Hawaiian wildfires, generally cited within the scientific community as linked to climate change, have sparked a national conversation not only about the increase in human caused disasters but about related socioeconomic justice issues such as disaster capitalism.
Martin Luther King said …the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice. –Maybe, just maybe - it does.
AUGUST 18 - 2009 Happening Now LISTEN. This episode of the radio show Ecoshock returns to a classic 2009 episode. "It's later than you think" captures harsh realities associated with the progression of climate change and the question, can humans change their behavior. The projections made by scientists then were on target. For the rest of us climate changes are happening before our very eyes and there is pain and suffering around the globe. There is no going back.
AUGUST 15 - As of August 14 around 99 people have died so far from the wildfires on Maui. That number is almost certain to rise as a result of what is being called the largest natural disaster in the history of Hawaii. As of August 15, according to officials, searchers and cadaver dogs had only covered around a quarter of the town of the hard hit Lahaina. Fires are still burning in parts of Maui.
AUGUST 1 - Getting green isn’t easy when it comes to the home front. Are heat pumps the answer despite their electricity consumption. Or, what about electrolysis, hydrogen boilers are clean but they produce CO2 - maybe capturing CO2 and pumping it underground? What about solar and wind power. Onshore wind turbine might be one of the cheapest ways to generate energy but it would take thousands of turbines. Then there the idea of regenerating nuclear plants. Justin Rowlatt Climate Change editor says there are no easy answers and the public is slow to change. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-66359093.
Out of control fires are rapidly growing across California and Nevada and generating spawning “fire whirls” , also referred to as a fire tornado in cases, making firefighting even more dangerous. Out of control fires on the US- Canadian borders have forced evacuations.
The largest wildfire in California so far this year is burning out of control in the Mojave National Preserve and had torn through 70,000 acres of juniper and Joshua tree woodland as of Sunday night.
AUGUST 10 - In the Guardian, rapidly moving wildfires in western Maui have killed at least 36 people and displaced thousands of others. Hawaii is facing drought conditions and is in the middle of its dry season. The fires are being fanned by Hurricne Dora.
AUGUST 10 - The summit of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) held August 8 and 9 in Belem, Brazil led to a final joint statement called the Belem Declaration which asserted indigenous rights and protections, and an agreement to cooperate on water management, health, common negotiating positions at climate summits, and sustainable development.
However, even while the world is on fire accompanied by successive unprecedented heat waves associated with gas and oil production, collaboration among countries around the world remains a challenge. The summit's eight participating countries were mired in conflicting meanings of "energy transition" away from fossil fuels and deforestation goals. Colombia's President Gustavo Petro likened the countries' desire to keep drilling for oil to the right-wing denial of climate science.
AUGUST 1 - Brain fog and other long COVID systems affect millions. New treatment studies bring hope. The first drug purporting to slow the advance of Alzheimer's disease is likely to cost the U.S. health care system billions annually even as it remains out of reach for many of the lower-income seniors most likely to suffer from dementia .On August 1 Amazon announced its virtual health clinic service rollout, AMAZON CLINIC. For users in 50 states It is a platform to connect telemedicine partners with patients. It is unclear how many users have signed up.
AUGUST 29 Opinion - Georgia on my mind - A drive through Georgia reveals numerous markers reminding the public about an important seat in American history for racial equality. Lugenia Burns Hope, Susie King Taylor, and Dorothy Cotton are just a few of Black women from the past who worked for equal justice for all in Georgia; each in their own way.
Today in this state with its heritage of civil rights actions it is painful to watch two Black women face the denial of the separation of powers, the implosion of democracy, and racism all of which contribute to Georgia’s disintegration of the rule of law.
DeKalb County District Attorney, Sherry Boston, was forced to strategically back out of her prosecutorial role when she was faced with prosecuting young activists, attempting to stop Cop City, en masse as domestic terrorists rather than recognize civil liberties on a case by case basis.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis did her job with the mantra that no one was above the rule of law. She built on critical and extensive fact-finding to construct a likely justifiable RICO case against Mr. Trump. The District Attorney has experienced death threats, and racial slurs as a result.
Apparently another consequence for her, or potentially any district attorney, who attempts to stand for justice, is an ad hoc weaponization of the justice system. In this case that is Georgia's formation of a state commission called a Prosecutorial Oversight Committee approved by Gov. Brian Kemp to fight any politicalized abuse of power by a district attorney. The commission then holds the power to sanction or dump prosecutors for neglect among a impressive array of other violations. State Sen. Clin Dixon said he will use the commission to stop District Attorney Fani Willis who has "weaponize[d] the justice system..."
Martin Luther King, Jr., reminds us that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Justice depends on those few who stand up whatever the price.
AUGUST 23 - Supreme Court says President Biden says the president exceeded his authority and strikes down debt forgiveness program. Dissenting opinions argued that the Court exceeded its authority. The White House did have the authority and the Supreme Court does not have the right to second guess this authority. Loan repayments begin this fall.
AUGUST 2 - On August 1, 2023 Trump was indicted by a federal grand jury on four charges related to his alleged participation in attempts to overturn the 2020 U.S. presidential election and his involvement in the January 6 Capitol attack. The indictments also follow from a special counsel investigation led by Jack Smith.
AUGUST 15 - In the state of Georgia case Mr. Trump has been indicted for Racketeering and more. From The Hill, A comprehensive and detailed 98-page indictment outlines Trump’s pressure campaign against election officials, a plot to submit false slates of electors and a lawsuit seeking to overturn the results in the state. Trump has been charged alongside 18 co-defendants. The Georgia indictment's release follows a federal indictment represented as a powerful summation of charges.
AUGUST 15- Children win in court. In a 103-page decision, Judge Seeley’s Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, and Order set forth critical evidentiary and legal precedent for the right of youth to a safe climate. The hard won case fought by children and their advocates sets a new precedent for representing the effects of climate change on future generations.
AUGUST 14 - Despite significant roadblocks on the part of the City of Atlanta and with the help of a judicial interventions, such as the extension of the deadline and the inclusion of KeKalb residents, Stop Cop City activists have surpassed the requirement of 59,000 needed to qualify for the November ballot with 80,000 signatures to date. The plan is to continue gathering signatures before the deadline.
AUGUST 24 - In Mother Jones, as of August 22 the Stop Cop City citizen referendum seeking a fair and inclusive vote on Cop City in Atlanta Georgia has gathered 104,000, which is twice the number required to be placed on the ballot. However, Atlanta’s city government is fighting back with plans to enact a burdensome auditing procedure involving several steps including a signature verification process. This conflicted process has received national attention. It is viewed as subjective and lacks transparency. Previous lawsuits have revealed that the process, which undermines the right to vote, has led to significant numbers of valid signatures being rejected.
AUGUST 10 - A new exhibition at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library explores the president’s “mixed” record on civil rights — and the charged debate over racism in the New Deal.
AUGUST 10 - On August 8th Ohio voters rejected Issue 1, a proposed constitutional amendment, by a wide margin. Issue 1 would have limited direct democracy in the state by raising the signature and approval threshold for citizen initiatives to amend the state constitution. The vote had major implications for abortion rights since a November amendment is on the ballot to enshrine reproductive freedom.
AUGUST 23 - Texas Governor Greg Abbott initiated a multi-million project named Operation Lone Star in March 2021. Its latest action features wrecking ball -sized buoys attached to cement blocks, webbing, and razor wire, creating a barrier in the Rio Grande River that appeared to trespass into Mexico.
The US Justice Department challenged the action and sued Texas this July. The justice department cited the federal Rivers and Harbors Act.
The latest deterrent followed the Governor’s pronouncement, that there would be no drinking water for immigrants despite unprecedented heat, has been described as despicable and dangerous especially to women and small children.
Texas governor responded by claiming sovereignty over the navigable water shared by Mexico and the US.
In the suit the Justice department said you should have asked first.
David Donatti, an attorney for the Texas ACLU says Texas is making up a system as they go along.
14 other Republican-led states have supported the Texas claim that the border crossings are a national security issue.
The case was heard in district court on Tuesday August 22. Closing arguments are next week. Date of final ruling unknown.
AUGUST 1 - The British government wants to use barges to house 50 male migrants in an attempt to reduce the bill for hotel rooms. The Bibby Stockholm barge in Dorset should be ready for housing on August 2. The hope is to increase the number of residents to 500 in the coming months. The question is one of safety and the availability of ports as well as significant opposition to the plan.
AUGUST 15 - Western African heads of state 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) held an emergency summit on August 10, 2023 looking for ways ranging from sanctions that had been put in place, diplomatic solutions, and a standby military force to address a military takeover of the Republic of Niger on July 26. It has been presented by some ECOWAS members as an either or situation; uphold democracy or fight neocolonialism.
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