SAR #15202

The gap between what we know and what we should do about it is getting bigger and bigger.

Either/Nor: Demands for the government to do something – put more armed guards in shopping strips – to prevent deranged youth from doing incomprehensible things with guns are filling the airwaves following the Chattanooga killings. The death of two and wounding of three in Maine by a deranged ex-con hostage taker with a gun got the national attention it deserved.

Warm-ups: A massive new study on the state of the oceans reports that the oceans are in a sorry state and getting worse. Record warming continues on the surface in the upper levels of the oceans and continued warming due to climate change is “unstoppable.” Also unstoppable is the uptake of carbon dioxide by the oceans, and the acidification that that brings. So the death of the bottom of global food chain is also unstoppable. Even if we stopped all carbon emissions today– cars and planes and trucks and trains and burning coal and burning oil and burning natural gas - “the sea would actually continue to warm for centuries and millennia, and as they continue to warm and expand the sea levels will continue to rise.” Fun times.

Forgotten But Not Gone: Nuclear experts say that the catastrophe at Fukushima is not over. It is leaking cesium, strontium, and plutonium into the Pacific and will for years to come. The ice wall that was supposed to contain the radioactive water is a “complete failure” and radioactive material continues to infiltrate the ground water.

Small Victories: India has successfully blocked two patent claims of US consumer goods major Colgate-Palmolive, which wanted intellectual property right (IPR) cover on traditional two combinations of native Indian spices and other herbs used as medicines It's called biopiracy, when a giant corporation attempts to privatize and profiteer from traditional medicines. That's 2 down, 1,500 to go. 
 
Memory Lane: Two through efforts- one by the defense department and one by the CIA – failed to find stockpiles of WMD in Iraq. None were found because there never had been any and Bush/Cheney knew it and deliberately lied to you. Repeatedly. And you believed them. They used those lies to start a war and kill upwards of a million Iraqis and strip you your civil liberties. Half of you still think it was a Good Idea.

Drop In The Bucket: The California drought (which is worse than you think) is just the beginning for water problems, and it is not unique to the US. The UN reports that by 2030 global water demand will exceed supply by 40% and that 21 of the world’s 37 largest aquifers have passed their tipping points and are no longer sustainable. That means they are going to run out. And 'global' doesn't mean just in poor countries. The price of water in 30 major US cities is rising faster than most other household goods – it's up 40% in the last 5 years.