Influenza (Avian and other zoonotic)
We All Know Climate Change Is Real. How Did The US Let It Become A Partisan Debate?Opinion
This year marks the 55th Earth Day. At the first one in April 1970, I found a bunch of booths on the lawn of my college informing us about ecological issues.
Fast-forward to 2024 and we've made some important improvements in our treatment of the planet — and at the same time, many of our actions are abysmally inadequate.
A perspective on the past could foretell our future. Bipartisan bills in the early 1970s included the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act — all excellent laws. The Environmental Protection Agency was created as one means to enforce them.
Catalytic converters were required for all gasoline-powered automobiles produced after 1974, and they reduced cars' carbon monoxide emissions by 97%, making our air much cleaner. A news video of a river in Ohio burning from petrochemical pollution shocked the country's conscience and inspired crackdowns, so factories and power plants had to stop dumping their toxic refuse into waterways.
That was a great start, which proved that we can find solutions — but then the progress stalled. The environment became a partisan issue, with the Republican Party choosing to serve the interests of fossil fuel firms, which contributed millions of dollars to their campaigns. The Democrats weren't much better, with many also accepting big payouts from polluters.
By the 1990s, climate scientists told us of the perils of climate change, but many Americans scoffed at the science. Anti-scientific sentiment took hold, encouraged by disinformation ads financed by the fossil fools. (Internal company documents have since revealed that Exxon knew in the 1970s that burning its gas would cause global warming.)
Some other countries, especially in Europe, have committed more seriously to sustainability, and over there the environment is not usually a partisan issue. But the United States, one of the world's biggest polluters per capita, shows scant leadership in world treaties because of our partisan divide.
Now decades of disregarding the dangers have come back to bite us. An Associated Press news story in March told us:
"The U.N. Weather agency is sounding a 'red alert' about global warming, citing record-smashing increases last year in greenhouse gases, land and water temperatures and melting of glaciers and sea ice, and is warning that the world's efforts to reverse the trend have been inadequate."
Climate scientists say that we are close to going over a rise of 1.5 degrees Celsius (more than 2.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial worldwide temperature levels. Consider if your child's temperature went from 98.6 up to 101 — and stayed there. That's not when reasonable people would dismiss thermometer science. As in humans, the Earth's temperature is sensitive, and a spike is a serious situation.
The net effect is climate chaos. It's already happening in the form of stronger and more frequent hurricanes, longer droughts and horrific forest fires. Coastal cities are in danger of drowning. Miami will be home to the dolphins — and not the football team. Except these dolphins will head north to cool off. Ocean temperatures exceeded 100 degrees off Florida's coast last August. Heat like that kills many fish and sea mammals.
Such disasters have persuaded people of the problem. In an October survey, CNN found that 71% of Americans believe the climate crisis is causing some harm to their fellow citizens. That's a big jump from other polls in the past, where it was under 50%.
Still, the deniers double down on disinformation. Even a mainstream newspaper such as The Kansas City Star published an opinion piece in January claiming that electric cars are "garbage" and ignoring their environmental upsides. The Wall Street Journal is extremely conservative, but even its car expert Dan Neil wrote a well-informed article that same week defending electric cars against such distortions.
On the bright side, prices of solar panels and wind turbines have plummeted while their efficiency has soared. So it's economical to be ecological for home and business owners. Batteries are getting better, even for storage of sustainably sourced power. Biodegradable plant-based plastics are available, if only packagers would provide them. There are even microbes that eat plastic waste, if we'd use them.
"Earth's issuing a distress call," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said last month. "Fossil fuel pollution is sending climate chaos off the charts."
It's up to all of us. If choose our food, our fuel and our leaders as if our lives depend on it, maybe we can save the Earth from ourselves.
Frank Lingo is a Lawrence-based columnist for The Progressive Populist and former contributing columnist for The Kansas City Star.
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History Not On The Islanders' Side As They Try To Make It
RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA - APRIL 22: Head coach Patrick Roy of the New York Islanders looks on ... [+] during the second period against the Carolina Hurricanes in Game Two of the First Round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs at PNC Arena on April 22, 2024 in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Photo by Josh Lavallee/NHLI via Getty Images)
NHLI via Getty ImagesThe good news for the Islanders is they're the right franchise playing the right sport in the right market to be reminded that overcoming a three games to none deficit is not impossible.
The 1975 Islanders became just the second team in history to overcome a three games to none deficit when they stormed back to beat the Penguins in a quarterfinal series. Of the five teams in the four major sports leagues to mount the miraculous comeback, four are in the NHL. And the only NHL team to lose a series after going up three games to none is the most famous victim of a historic comeback — the 2004 Yankees, who were of course vanquished by the Red Sox in the AL Championship Series.
The bad news, alas, is the Islanders are down three games to none in their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series following Thursday night's 3-2 loss to the Hurricanes and that 291 of the 295 previous teams to fall into an 0-3 hole didn't win their next four games.
That's a failure rate of 98.6 percent, which is a good temperature reading, at least, if not a good sign for the Islanders or the NHL's Lightning and the NBA's Lakers and Suns, all of whom joined the Islanders in falling into a 3-0 hole Thursday night.
As was to be expected, the Islanders spent late Thursday and Friday subscribing to the one-game-at-a-time theory — this is the one time when those words are not just cliche — and reminding themselves of the 1.4 percent of teams who have mounted the comeback.
"Just get the first one," captain Anders Lee said Thursday night. "We've got to win a game before we can win four."
"There's been, obviously, teams that have overcome this in the past and I think we have such a resilient group here that everybody still believes we can do this," Bo Horvat said Friday.
Resiliency has been the Islanders' trademark throughout the most successful decade-long run since the dynasty years. Eleven players remain from the 2020 team, which mounted a surprising run to the semifinals after ending the pandemic-shortened regular season in ninth place in the Eastern Conference.
The Islanders have made the playoffs in each of the last two seasons despite endured three losing streaks of at least six games. They had two such streaks this year, including a skid in March that left them five points out of a playoff spot entering play on April 1.
The Islanders are down 0-3 despite outshooting Carolina by a combined 65-48 in Games 1 and 3. The Islanders were outshot 39-12 in Game 2, when they led 3-0 fewer than five minutes into the second period.
"Comes down to very small things throughout each game," Lee said Friday. "We've come up short three times. Now there's another level we need to get to."
But that level is very rarely reached by teams once they fall into an 0-3 hole. The only NHL team to fall behind three games to none last season was the Hurricanes, who fell to the Panthers by one goal in each of the first three games of the Eastern Conference finals. The Panthers then earned a 4-3 win in Game 4.
"I thought we could have won Game 1 and this one," Islanders head coach Patrick Roy said Thursday night. "Game 2, in the second half, they took it away from us. But hey, that's the playoffs. We've been resilient all year. I love this group. These guys, they care and I know we're going to come back with a big effort on Saturday.
"Unfortunately, we cannot look back. We need to look forward and try to make a comeback."
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