Office of the Director of National Intelligence: “This annual report, April 2021 of worldwide threats to the national security of the United States responds to Section 617 of the FY21 Intelligence Authorization Act (P.L. 116-260). This report reflects the collective insights of the Intelligence Community (IC), which is committed every day to providing the nuanced, independent, and unvarnished intelligence that policymakers, warfighters, and domestic law enforcement personnel need to protect American lives and America’s interests anywhere in the world.This assessment focuses on the most direct, serious threats to the United States during the next year. The order of the topics presented in this assessment does not necessarily indicate their relative importance or the magnitude of the threats in the view of the IC. All require a robust intelligence response, including those where a near-term focus may help head off greater threats in the future, such as climate change and environmental degradation. As required by the law, this report will be provided to the congressional intelligence committees as well as the committees on the Armed Services of the House of Representatives and the Senate.Information available as of 9 April 2021 was used in the preparation of this assessment…”
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Category Archives: Climate Change
What Plants Can Teach Us About Politics
Outside – “In his new book, ‘The Nation of Plants,’ botanist Stefano Mancuso suggests that human democracies may have something to learn from the world’s trees and flowers.. By perceiving plants as being much closer to the inorganic world than to the fullness of life, we commit a fundamental error of perspective, which could cost… Continue Reading
Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, April 10, 2021
Via LLRX – Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, April 10, 2021 – Privacy and security issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the… Continue Reading
Recycle everything with TerraCycle
“TerraCycle® is a social enterprise Eliminating the Idea of Waste®. In 21 countries, we tackle the issue from many angles. We have found that nearly everything we touch can be recycled and collect typically non-recyclable items through national, first-of-their-kind recycling platforms. Leading companies work with us to take hard-to-recycle materials from our programs, such as… Continue Reading
ITER, The Grand Illusion: A Forensic Investigation of Power Claims
“Is nuclear fusion a likely solution to climate change? Is fusion a viable energy alternative? For 70 years, fusion scientists have promoted new design concepts, pointed to computer models, and unequivocally stated that fusion is the answer. But where is the experimental evidence that the scientific method demands? And why has energy from nuclear fusion… Continue Reading
A 20-year-forecast for the world: increasingly fragmented and turbulent
National Intelligence Council – Global Trends 2040 – A More Contested World – March 2021: “…Published every four years since 1997, Global Trends assesses the key trends and uncertainties that will shape the strategic environment for the United States during the next two decades. Global Trends is designed to provide an analytic f ramework for… Continue Reading
New U.S. Carbon Monitor website compares emissions among the 50 states
UCI News: “Following last year’s successful launch of a global carbon monitor website to track and display greenhouse gas emissions from a variety of sources, an international team led by Earth system scientists from the University of California, Irvine is unveiling this week a new data resource focused on the United States. Near real-time, state-level… Continue Reading
Why You Should Plant Oaks
The New York Times – “These large, long-lived trees support more life-forms than any other trees in North America. And they’re magnificent…Oaks support more life-forms than any other North American tree genus, providing food, protection or both for birds to bears, as well as countless insects and spiders, among the enormous diversity of species….“There is… Continue Reading
How can we better dispose of PPE so it doesn’t keep polluting our oceans?
Fast Company: “Six months after the Ocean Conservancy added a PPE category to its waste collection app, beach cleaners said they collected 107,219 such items. It’s another sad reality of the COVID-19 era that some of the steps we’re taking to stay safe and combat the coronavirus spread are often in opposition to hard-fought efforts… Continue Reading
U.S. High Tide Flooding Probability Scenarios Through 2100
ESRI.com – “High tide flooding today mostly affects low-lying and exposed assets or infrastructure, such as roads, harbors, beaches, public storm-, waste- and fresh-water systems and private and commercial properties. Due to rising relative sea level (RSL), more and more cities are becoming increasingly exposed and evermore vulnerable to high tide flooding, which is rapidly… Continue Reading
Biden administration will investigate Trump-era attacks on science
The New York Times – “The Biden administration will investigate Trump-era political interference in science across the government, the first step in what White House officials described as a sweeping effort to rebuild a demoralized federal work force and prevent future abuses. In a letter to the leaders of all federal agencies, the White House… Continue Reading
NASA study says it’s the first to directly measure humans’ role in climate change
Observational evidence of increasing global radiative forcing. First published: 25 March 2021 https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL091585 “Changes in atmospheric composition, such as increasing greenhouse gases, cause an initial radiative imbalance to the climate system, quantified as the instantaneous radiative forcing. This fundamental metric has not been directly observed globally and previous estimates have come from models. In part,… Continue Reading
