Facebook Profits from White Supremacist Groups:

TTP found that more than 80 white supremacist groups have a presence
on Facebook, including some that Facebook itself has labelled as
“dangerous organizations.” What’s more, when our test user searched for
the names of white supremacist groups on Facebook, the search results
were often monetized with ads—meaning Facebook is profiting off them.

Even more disturbing: TTP discovered that Facebook searches for some
groups with “Ku Klux Klan” in their name generated ads for Black
churches, highlighting minority institutions to a user searching for
white supremacist content.

That’s a chilling result, given reports that the gunman who killed 10
people in the recent, racially motivated mass shooting in Buffalo, New
York, did research to pick a target neighborhood with a high ratio of Black residents.

Facebook Profits from White Supremacist Groups: TTP found that more than 80 white supremacist groups have a presence
on Facebook, including some that Facebook itself has labelled as
“dangerous organizations.” What’s more, when our test user searched for
the names of white supremacist groups on Facebook, the search results
were often monetized with ads—meaning Facebook is profiting off them.Even more disturbing: TTP discovered that Facebook searches for some
groups with “Ku Klux Klan” in their name generated ads for Black
churches, highlighting minority institutions to a user searching for
white supremacist content.That’s a chilling result, given reports that the gunman who killed 10
people in the recent, racially motivated mass shooting in Buffalo, New
York, did research to pick a target neighborhood with a high ratio of Black residents.Read More

Global heating has caused ‘shocking’ changes in forests across the Americas, studies find:

Forests from the Arctic to the Amazon are
transforming at a “shocking” rate due to the climate crisis, with trees
advancing into previously barren tundra in the north while dying off
from escalating heat farther south, scientists have found.

Global
heating, along with changes in soils, wind and available nutrients, is
rapidly changing the composition of forests, making them far less
resilient and prone to diseases, according to a series of studies that
have analyzed the health of trees in north and South America.

Many
areas of forest are now becoming more susceptible to ferocious
wildfires, causing the release of further greenhouse gases from these
vast carbon stores that heat the planet even more. “It’s like humans
have lit a match and we are now seeing the result of that,” said Roman
Dial, a biologist at Alaska Pacific University.

Global heating has caused ‘shocking’ changes in forests across the Americas, studies find: Forests from the Arctic to the Amazon are
transforming at a “shocking” rate due to the climate crisis, with trees
advancing into previously barren tundra in the north while dying off
from escalating heat farther south, scientists have found.Global
heating, along with changes in soils, wind and available nutrients, is
rapidly changing the composition of forests, making them far less
resilient and prone to diseases, according to a series of studies that
have analyzed the health of trees in north and South America.Many
areas of forest are now becoming more susceptible to ferocious
wildfires, causing the release of further greenhouse gases from these
vast carbon stores that heat the planet even more. “It’s like humans
have lit a match and we are now seeing the result of that,” said Roman
Dial, a biologist at Alaska Pacific University.Read More

Cape Breton’s Donkin Mine Pays No Penalty for Exceeding Provincial Emissions Cap | The Energy Mix:

According to a spokesperson for the province’s Department of Environment and Climate Change, Donkin managed to dodge the program after regulations were amended in 2018 to exclude underground coal mines.

The regulatory change meant Donkin paid precisely zero dollars for exceeding the cap by 26,337 tonnes in its first year of operation, 373,000 tonnes in 2019, and 101,000 tonnes while it was closed last year.

“It’s outrageous, really, and to me it feels like one of those moments where you say, ‘OK, everybody out of the pool. What’s going on here?‘” said Tynette Deveaux, communications coordinator for the Sierra Club of Canada Foundation’s Beyond Coal Atlantic campaign.

Cape Breton’s Donkin Mine Pays No Penalty for Exceeding Provincial Emissions Cap | The Energy Mix: According to a spokesperson for the province’s Department of Environment and Climate Change, Donkin managed to dodge the program after regulations were amended in 2018 to exclude underground coal mines.The regulatory change meant Donkin paid precisely zero dollars for exceeding the cap by 26,337 tonnes in its first year of operation, 373,000 tonnes in 2019, and 101,000 tonnes while it was closed last year.“It’s outrageous, really, and to me it feels like one of those moments where you say, ‘OK, everybody out of the pool. What’s going on here?‘” said Tynette Deveaux, communications coordinator for the Sierra Club of Canada Foundation’s Beyond Coal Atlantic campaign.Read More

Global Push for Hydrogen Sidesteps Knowledge Gaps on Climate Impacts | The Energy Mix:

How Hydrogen Can Warm the Atmosphere

But economic losses are
by no means the only concern with hydrogen leakage. While hydrogen
molecules themselves do not trap heat, they exert an indirect warming
effect when they’re released into the atmosphere, primarily because they
tend to react with atmospheric hydroxyl, a substance that also reacts
with methane. As more hydrogen leaks into the atmosphere, less hydroxyl
will be available to neutralize the devastating short-term effects of
methane, a greenhouse gas that is about 85 times more powerful a warming
agent than carbon dioxide over a 20-year span.

Hydrogen is also
part of the chemical chain reaction that leads to the formation of
ground-level ozone, another potent climate pollutant.

And any leaked hydrogen that makes it into the stratosphere produces water vapour, itself a significant heat trapping agent.

All of which adds up to hydrogen having very considerable potential to warm the atmosphere. A UK government report in April found
that over a 100-year time period, a tonne of hydrogen in the atmosphere
will warm the Earth roughly 11 times more than a tonne of CO2 (with a
fairly wide margin for error), making its impact about twice as bad as
previously understood.

Over a 20-year span, Bloomberg writes, hydrogen has 33 times the global warming potential of an equivalent amount of CO2.

There’s
one more wrinkle to the still unfolding saga of how leaked hydrogen
might make the climate crisis worse. The latest soil science indicates
that some 80% of leaked hydrogen is absorbed by hydrogen-eating bacteria
in soils, but the authors of the UK report warn that “a lack of
detailed understanding of the [hydrogen soil] sink is a major source of
uncertainty in calculations of hydrogen change and its impact on
climate.”

Global Push for Hydrogen Sidesteps Knowledge Gaps on Climate Impacts | The Energy Mix: How Hydrogen Can Warm the AtmosphereBut economic losses are
by no means the only concern with hydrogen leakage. While hydrogen
molecules themselves do not trap heat, they exert an indirect warming
effect when they’re released into the atmosphere, primarily because they
tend to react with atmospheric hydroxyl, a substance that also reacts
with methane. As more hydrogen leaks into the atmosphere, less hydroxyl
will be available to neutralize the devastating short-term effects of
methane, a greenhouse gas that is about 85 times more powerful a warming
agent than carbon dioxide over a 20-year span.Hydrogen is also
part of the chemical chain reaction that leads to the formation of
ground-level ozone, another potent climate pollutant.And any leaked hydrogen that makes it into the stratosphere produces water vapour, itself a significant heat trapping agent.All of which adds up to hydrogen having very considerable potential to warm the atmosphere. A UK government report in April found
that over a 100-year time period, a tonne of hydrogen in the atmosphere
will warm the Earth roughly 11 times more than a tonne of CO2 (with a
fairly wide margin for error), making its impact about twice as bad as
previously understood.Over a 20-year span, Bloomberg writes, hydrogen has 33 times the global warming potential of an equivalent amount of CO2.There’s
one more wrinkle to the still unfolding saga of how leaked hydrogen
might make the climate crisis worse. The latest soil science indicates
that some 80% of leaked hydrogen is absorbed by hydrogen-eating bacteria
in soils, but the authors of the UK report warn that “a lack of
detailed understanding of the [hydrogen soil] sink is a major source of
uncertainty in calculations of hydrogen change and its impact on
climate.”Read More

Climate hazards make 58% of infections diseases in people worse, study shows – National | Globalnews.ca:

Doctors, going back to Hippocrates, have long connected disease to
weather, but this study shows how widespread the influence of climate is
on human health.

“If climate is changing, the risk of these
diseases are changing,” said study co-author Dr. Jonathan Patz, director
of the Global Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Doctors, such as Patz, said they need to think of the diseases as symptoms of a sick Earth.

Climate hazards make 58% of infections diseases in people worse, study shows – National | Globalnews.ca: Doctors, going back to Hippocrates, have long connected disease to
weather, but this study shows how widespread the influence of climate is
on human health.“If climate is changing, the risk of these
diseases are changing,” said study co-author Dr. Jonathan Patz, director
of the Global Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.Doctors, such as Patz, said they need to think of the diseases as symptoms of a sick Earth.Read More