All-American Despair: For the past two decades, a suicide epidemic fueled by guns, poverty, and isolation has swept across the U.S. West, with middle-aged men dying in record numbers

Rise in U.S. suicide rates between 1999 and 2016, by state. Data: CDC National Vital Statistics System / CDC Vital Signs, June 2018. Graphic: CDC

June 30, 2019

All-American Despair: For the past two decades, a suicide epidemic fueled by guns, poverty, and isolation has swept across the U.S. West, with middle-aged men dying in record numbers

By Stephen Rodrick 30 May 2019 (Rolling Stone) – Toby Lingle was cremated in a 49ers cap, a Star Wars T-shirt and sunglasses shortly after his funeral at Highland Park Community Church in Casper, Wyoming. He was 43. The outfit was the daily wear for an aggressively coarse and casual man. Lingle was that guy, […]

Artist’s rendering of the proposed liquefied natural gas plant in Kitimat, B.C. Photo: LNG Canada / Flickr

June 30, 2019

Canada government announces “largest private sector investment in Canadian history” for B.C. natural gas project, two weeks after declaring climate emergency – “This is not what concerned citizens expect”

24 June 2019 (CBC News) – The federal government is pumping $275 million into LNG Canada’s $40 billion liquefied natural gas project in Kitimat, B.C. Finance Minister Bill Morneau made the announcement Monday in Kitimat, announcing the $220 million will be directed toward buying energy-efficient gas turbines for the project, with the additional $55 million […]

Observed temperatures in Southern France on 28 June 2019. At least 12 French stations broke the old national record of 44.1°C, with a peak of 45.9°C in Gallargues-le-Montueux. Graphic: infoclimat.fr

June 29, 2019

Wildfires and power cuts plague Europe as heatwave breaks records – Hottest day in French history beats record by 1.8°C (3.2°F) – 2019 on track to be among hottest years ever

By Gus Trompiz and Joan Faus 29 June 2019 PARIS/MADRID (Reuters) – Hundreds of firefighters battled on Saturday to contain wildfires in southern France as a stifling heatwave brought record-breaking temperatures to parts of Europe, killing at least three people in Italy. In the Gard region, where France’s highest temperature on record was registered on […]

Deltoid spurge, shown here in 2005, is one of the endangered plants found only on pine rockland. The pine rockland found near Zoo Miami is the largest intact tract outside Everglades National Park. A 2015 study found 55 plant species in the tract, far more than botanists found in rockland in the park. Photo: Donna E. Natale Planas / Miami Herald

June 29, 2019

Activists lose last legal battle to protect rare Miami forest from Walmart development

By Adriana Brasileiro 19 June 2019 MIAMI (Miami Herald) – Activists fighting to preserve a slice of one of the world’s rarest forests lost what was likely the last legal battle to stop the imperiled ecosystem from turning into a Walmart-anchored development. One of the last remnants in Miami-Dade of pine rockland, a forest that […]

A TV reporter interviews self-employed logger Bridger Hasbrouck, of Dallas, Oregon, outside the Oregon State House in Salem, Oregon, on Thursday, 20 June 2019, the day the Senate is scheduled to take up a bill that would create the nation's second cap-and-trade program to curb carbon emissions. Senate Republicans, however, walked out so there wouldn't be enough lawmakers present for a vote on House Bill 2020, which is extremely unpopular among loggers, truckers and many rural voters. Photo: Gillian Flaccus / AP Photo

June 29, 2019

The insanity in Oregon over climate legislation is a glimpse of our very dark future – People with guns block carbon market bill with threats of violence

By Charles P. Pierce 24 June 2019 (Esquire) – In these times, everything looks like an ill omen. The capitol is crowded with crows. But it is not an exaggeration to say that if you’re not following the ongoing insanity in Oregon, you are missing a look into a very dark future. It begins with […]

Trump EPA official William Wehrum announced his resignation as the EPA's top air policy official on 26 June 2019, after the Energy and Commerce Committee launched an ethics inquiry. Wehrum served as one of the chief architects of the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the ambition and reach of the EPA, and to retreat from President Obama’s push to slash emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants. He oversaw efforts to ease regulation of the coal industry, slow requirements that cars and trucks become more fuel efficient and overhaul how the agency calculates costs and benefits to favor industry. Photo: Eric Vance / USEPA

June 29, 2019

Trump EPA official resigns amid scrutiny over possible ethics violations – “William Wehrum was emblematic of the administration’s struggles to remain ethical”

By Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis 26 June 2019 (The Washington Post) – Bill Wehrum spent only a year and a half as the Environmental Protection Agency’s top air official before announcing plans to resign Wednesday amid scrutiny over possible violations of federal ethics rules. But during that time, Wehrum served as one of the […]

Share of people who believe vaccines are safe in 2018. Data: Gallup World Poll 2018. Graphic: Wellcome

June 29, 2019

France, Russia top list of anti-vaccine nations – Social media the vector for “real infection of misinformation”

By Michael Skapinker 26 June 2019 (Financial Times) – The richer countries are, the less their citizens believe that vaccines are safe. In the US and Canada, only 72 per cent believe vaccines are safe. In the northern European arc from Ireland and the UK through the Nordic countries, the figure is about 73 per […]

A forest fire in Tarragona, Spain, southwest of Barcelona, on 27 June 2019. Photo: Jaume Sellart / EPA / Shutterstock

June 28, 2019

Europe has had five 500-year heatwaves in the last 15 years. And now this.

By Stephen Leahy 28 June 2019 (Natiopnal Geographic) – Another deadly heat wave has Europe in its sweaty grip this week. Record temperatures topping 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius) in parts of France, Germany, Poland and Spain, with hotter days to come. The same thing happened last year — record-breaking heat was responsible for 700 […]

Overdose deaths, by opioid category in the United States of America, 1999–2017. Data: Holly Hedegaard, Arialdi M. Miniño, and Margaret Warner, “Drug overdose deaths in the United States, 1999–2017”, NCHS Data Brief, No. 329 (Hyattsville, Maryland, United States, National Center for Health Statistics, November 2018). Graphic: UNODC

June 28, 2019

Two-thirds of global drug deaths now from opioids: UN drugs report – Cocaine production at all-time high

26 June 2019 (UN News) – Opioids, which include both heroin and legal pain relievers, were responsible for around two-thirds of drug-related deaths in 2017, the latest World Drug Report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) revealed on Wednesday. The study from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), also shows that the […]

Trees burn at night during a forest fire near Maials, west of Tarragona, Spain, 27 June 2019 Photo: Albert Gea / REUTERS

June 27, 2019

France, Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic set June heat records, worst still to come – Spain battles worst Catalonia wildfire in 20 years

By Ian Livingston 26 June 2019 (The Washington Post) – A ferocious heat wave has overtaken parts of Europe. A number of records have already been broken, and there are several days of extreme heat to go. As the heat wave escalates toward its peak late this week, temperatures have already neared or surpassed 100 degrees (37.8 degrees Celsius) […]

Desdemona Despair

Desdemona Despair