Civil Liberties

The spate of devastating fires hitting the Los Angeles area has dominated headlines and understandably so. At least 10 people have died and upwards of 180,000 people have been evacuated with more than 10,000 structures destroyed. One of these fires, the Palisades Fire, began burning on Tuesday and continues at the time of this writing, has destroyed at least 17,000 acres, the most in Los Angeles history.... Read Original Article

The financial sector appears to be getting cold feet about efforts to curb the effects of climate change. Five of the six largest banks in the United States have pulled out of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) since Dec. 6th, according to a recent report by Reuters.

The first bank to do so was Goldman Sachs, which exactly one month ago announced it was leaving the NZBA because their institution had supposedly “made significant progress in recent years on the firm’s net zero goals and we look forward to making further progress.”... Read Original Article

The universe is full of icy worlds that scientists suspect could serve as homes for alien life. These celestial bodies are so cold that humans could never set foot upon them without freezing to death — yet if they have liquid water and carbon, they could facilitate the evolution of organic beings like the inhabitants of our own planet.... Read Original Article

It was not easy for Dr. Kevin Trenberth to leave the United States. An esteemed climate scientist who has published more than 600 articles on climatology, Trenberth spent more than four decades of his life in America, first teaching at the University of Illinois before joining the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), where he eventually became a distinguished scholar.... Read Original Article

The common noctule bat (Nyctalus noctula) is a tiny golden-brown thing with just 12-to-18 inch (320 to 450 mm) wingspans, but they can travel long distances. They are found across North America, Europe and Asia, but don’t stay in one place. Like some birds, common noctules migrate long distances depending on the season, and scientists have long wondered how they do so despite the threats posed by predators and climate change, as well as high energy demands.... Read Original Article

Plastic pollution is a scourge on Earth because it doesn’t naturally degrade for decades or even centuries. When many plastics break down, they create tiny particles known as microplastics, which are less than five millimeters long. Their tiny size has allowed them to get into everything, from human blood and breastmilk to the food we eat, stretching to every corner of the globe.... Read Original Article

Jimmy Carter lived longer than any other American president, passing away on Sunday at the age of 100. Given that he devoted much of that life to serving others, it is fitting that Carter was blessed with so many years.

During his extra time on earth, the 39th president was involved in charities all over the world, from the peacemaking and disease-fighting Carter Center to Habitat for Humanity, which constructs affordable housing.... Read Original Article

Last month the Copernicus Climate Change Service, an organization run by the European Union to monitor global heating, revealed that Earth was on track to surpass the 1.5º C threshold. This manifested throughout 2024 in so-called “weird weather,” from unusually extreme hurricanes and floods to intense heat waves, parching droughts and unprecedented wildfires.... Read Original Article

Human brains are not computers, in spite of how often such a comparison is made, but a recent study in the journal Neuron reveals our gray matter is quite pokey even when compared to Wi-Fi speeds.

Researchers from the California Institute of Technology calculated the speed at which humans performed tasks that can be quantified as “information processing.”... Read Original Article