A worker fills a tanker train with water, which will be transported and supplied to drought-hit city of Chennai, at Jolarpettai railway station in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, India, 11 July 2019. Photo: P. Ravikumar / REUTERS

Water train set to relieve drought-hit Indian city – Doctors forced to buy water for surgery – “We won’t be able to supply water even to the people who can pay a huge sum for a tanker of water”

By P. Ravikumar 11 July 2019 JOLARPETTAI, India (Reuters) – Indian authorities on Thursday filled tanks with water and loaded them onto a train in the southern state of Tamil Nadu to supply its manufacturing capital Chennai where reservoirs have run dry. Technicians in the railway station at Jolarpettai, located over 135 miles (217 km) […]

U.S. church membership down sharply in past two decades – Percentage of Americans who report belonging to a church, synagogue, or mosque at all-time low, averaging 50 percent in 2018

By Jeffrey M. Jones 18 April 2019 WASHINGTON, D.C. (Gallup) – As Christian and Jewish Americans prepare to celebrate Easter and Passover, respectively, Gallup finds the percentage of Americans who report belonging to a church, synagogue or mosque at an all-time low, averaging 50% in 2018. U.S. church membership was 70% or higher from 1937 […]

Pope Francis encourages teen climate campaigner Greta Thunberg after she scolds EU leaders: “Continue, continue”

Pope Francis encourages teen climate campaigner Greta Thunberg after she scolds EU leaders: “Continue, continue”

By Emily Dixon 17 April 2019 (CNN) – Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg met Pope Francis after his weekly audience at the Vatican on Wednesday. The Swedish 16-year-old carried a sign reading “Join the Climate Strike,” which she showed the Pope after he greeted her. A day earlier, Thunberg urged European Union leaders to “panic” […]

Christian faithful take up climate protest – “If God created all that is, what does it mean for us to be destroying it?”

By Shannon Larson 8 April 2019 LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Cloaked in black and carrying white buckets filled with artificial blood, the group filed in silence to the entrance of London’s Downing Street, behind a troupe of child and teen activists. Ringing a bell as they walked, the 45 adults – all participants in […]

Midwest voters in Trump country face historic floods and call for climate action – “People are being smacked with climate change at a phenomenal rate”

By Hans Nichols and Stefanie Cargill 19 March 2019 La CROSSE, Wisconsin – In two states that flipped from Democratic to Republican in the 2016 presidential race, the devastating floods are focusing voter’s attention on climate change — and both parties’ response to it. “My big concern is the environment,” said Amy Bouska, a retired […]

Gene scientists call for moratorium on heritable genome editing – “Genetic enhancement could divide humans into subspecies”

13 March 2019 (Nature) – We call for a global moratorium on all clinical uses of human germline editing — that is, changing heritable DNA (in sperm, eggs or embryos) to make genetically modified children. By ‘global moratorium’, we do not mean a permanent ban. Rather, we call for the establishment of an international framework […]

As global democracy retreats, ethnic cleansing is on the rise

By Michael J. Abramowitz and Arch Puddington25 February 2019 (The Diplomat) – Ethnic cleansing, a staple of geopolitical crises in the 1990s, is making a comeback. According to Freedom in the World, the annual report on political rights and civil liberties published by Freedom House, the number of countries earning a score deduction for some […]

TIME Person of the Year 2018: The Guardians and the War on Truth

By Karl Vick 10 December 2018 (TIME) – The stout man with the gray goatee and the gentle demeanor dared to disagree with his country’s government. He told the world the truth about its brutality toward those who would speak out. And he was murdered for it.Every detail of Jamal Khashoggi’s killing made it a […]

We are drowning in a devolved world: An open letter from Devo – “Is there any question that De-evolution is real?”

By Gerald V. Casale 6 December 2018 (Noisey) – In 2018, 15 years after becoming eligible, Devo was nominated for the Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall of Fame. The honorees will be announced a week from today. I was immediately struck by the timing of our sudden recognition: When Devo formed more than 40 years ago, […]

California wildfires: Trump will say anything to deny the grim facts of global warming

19 November 2018 (Desdemona Despair) – In August 2018, it was “environmental terrorist groups” causing California’s forest fires. Before that, it was water regulations. Now, California just needs to rake its forests and manage them like Finland.Anything to deny the obvious: global warming is causing California’s megafires.Throughout 2018, the Trump administration has undertaken a Stalinist […]

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