Global warming is changing phytoplankton, and scientists say it’s not good.
Plankton are the food chain’s staple throughout the whole ocean neighborhood.
But they’re losing proteins and nutrients,
Replaced by lipids and carbohydrates.
Just don’t tell Robert Kennedy Jr. we’re turning phytoplankton into junk fish food.
“Right now we are facing a man-made disaster of global scale, our greatest threat in thousands of years: Climate change. If we don’t take action the collapse of our civilizations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon.”
— David Attenborough, naturalist and broadcaster, sounding a dire warning in a speech Monday to the U.N. climate conference in Poland, NPR reports.
We have record high sea surface temperatures. Illustration from NOAA Climate.gov
2016 was the hottest year in 137 years of record-keeping, and the third in a row to be so noted. That and other omens are confirmed in a new report available from the American Meteorological Society called, “State of the Climate 2016.”
The report, peer-reviewed by international scientists, describes the following “highlights.”
Greenhouse gases highest on record
Global surface temperature highest on record
Sea surface temperatures highest on record
Global sea level highest on record
Extremes in the water cycle and precipitation
Arctic continued to warm, sea ice extent remained low
Barack Obama put out the follow statement on President Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement:
A year and a half ago, the world came together in Paris around the first-ever global agreement to set the world on a low-carbon course and protect the world we leave to our children.
It was steady, principled American leadership on the world stage that made that achievement possible. It was bold American ambition that encouraged dozens of other nations to set their sights higher as well. And what made that leadership and ambition possible was America’s private innovation and public investment in growing industries like wind and solar – industries that created some of the fastest new streams of good-paying jobs in recent years, and contributed to the longest streak of job creation in our history.
I woke up thinking about the disheartening news yesterday that Trump is doing his level best to set back Obama’s efforts to avert climate change. And then I saw this video, and realized that Al Gore is still out there somewhere, plugging away at making it better. As Gore put it in his response to Trump’s announcement:
No matter how discouraging this executive order may be, we must, we can, and we will solve the climate crisis. No one man or group can stop the encouraging and escalating momentum we are experiencing in the fight to protect our planet.
Of Americans say they care a great deal about climate change, according to a new Pew Research poll. “Among them, 72% are Democrats and 24% are Republicans; both numbers include independents who say they generally lean toward one party. … On other questions on climate change, Americans remain starkly divided: Nearly 7 out of 10 Democrats believe climate change is mainly a result of human activity; less than a quarter of Republicans believe that.”
Amount that rising global temperatures could cost the global economy by 2030, according to Quartz. “New research suggests that climbing temperatures will make it harder for workers to do their jobs, particularly in the world’s poorest economies. The situation is worst for those in the lowest paid and most heat-exposed professions, such as construction and farming.”
Of likely U.S. voters say they are not willing to pay anything more in higher taxes and utility costs annually to generate cleaner energy and fight global warming, according to a Rasmussen telephone survey. But that’s down from 48% last August and the lowest level measured since January 2013. However, 56% are willing to pay, with 24% willing to spend $100 more per year, unchanged from earlier surveys, and 26% are ready to spend $300 or more a year, with 6% who are willing to spend at least $1,000 more annually.
In Florida we believe that bad words can be harming,
So we’re extra careful when sentences we are forming.
Phrases must be rearranged
If they would include “climate change,”
And we would never ever use a term like “global warming.”
From Trump’s “stolen election” lies, we can’t get no relief,
He carps on about stolen votes, but he never names the thief.
Somebody needs to tell this guy
Americans aren’t buying his lies,
And that he’s turned us into the United States of Disbelief.
“If you are committing fraud against the American people, all of us in public leadership should be trying to stop it and throw you in prison for enriching yourself off the American taxpayer.”
“We are done, Americans are done with endless conflict in the Middle East, spending trillions of dollars, American lives… this is insane and we have to call it for what it is.”
“The U.S. State Department announced on Monday that it has revoked more than 175,000 visas during President Donald Trump’s administration so far,” Fox News reports.
President Donald Trump is asking for $1,500,000 million for the military for next year. That’s close to $600 billion (adjusted for inflation) more than we were spending on the military in fiscal year 2025, before Trump took office, Alternet reports. This increase is huge by any measure. It comes to around $4,600 per household. It is around 8% of the total budget.
A new Emerson College survey of likely 2026 voters finds the Democrats with an 11-point advantage over the Republicans on the generic congressional ballot, leading 53% to 42%. President Trump holds a 39% job approval rating, consistent with the past two months, whereas his disapproval increased another point, to 57%.
A new American Research Group poll finds just 30% of Americans say they approve of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president and 67% say they disapprove.
Wall Street Journal: “Around 40% of voters in the 2024 election said the economy was their top issue, far outstripping any other matter. And those voters favored Donald Trump by 60% to 38%. Many say they were moved by his pledges to tame inflation, rebuild U.S. infrastructure, cut red tape and trim government waste. … About a year and a half later, more voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy than approve, 61% to 35%, an average of polls by the Cook Political Report found this month.”