Animals in northern hemisphere would have been more vulnerable to intense heat just after winter
Artistic reconstruction by Joschua Knüppe of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs coming down in the northern hemisphere’s springtime.Photograph: Joschua Knüppe
Having an asteroid slam into Earth was catastrophic for the dinosaurs, but the season of the strike may have substantially ramped up extinction rates for others species, research suggests.
Scientists have found evidence that the devastating impact 66m years ago, which wiped out three-quarters of Earth’s species and created the Chicxulub crater in modern-day Mexico, happened in the spring in the northern hemisphere.
The timing means that many animals north of the equator would have been particularly vulnerable to the intense heatwave unleashed by the collision, having just emerged from the harsh months of winter. Other animals in the south may have…
(CNN)Plummeting Covid-19 case counts across the United States are leading to lifted mask mandates and more conversations about steps toward normalcy — but more people are dying of the coronavirus now than during most points of the pandemic.
More than 2,000 Covid-19 deaths have been reported in the United States each day for the past month. Average daily deaths are falling, but from a very high point. They dipped just below that mark in recent days, to about 1,900 on Monday; the federal holiday may have delayed reporting.
Before Omicron became the dominant coronavirus strain in the US, there were only about 100 other days when there were more than 2,000 Covid-19 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The only other time that deaths have been this high for this long was during the first winter…
Over and over again this week — as Russia massed forces along Ukraine’s borders and then invaded on Wednesday night — the former US President found time to praise Russian President Vladimir Putin.
On Tuesday,in an interviewwith conservative radio hosts Clay Travis and Buck Sexton, Trump repeatedly praised Putin for his strategy on Ukraine.
“I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, ‘This is genius.’ Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine — of Ukraine. Putin declares it as independent,”Trump said. “Oh, that’s wonderful.”
Later in that same interview,Trump said this: “Putin is now saying, ‘It’s independent,’ a large section of Ukraine. I said, ‘How smart is that?’ And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper.”
President Biden’sclimate czar, John Kerry, warned thatRussia’swar againstUkrainecould distract the world from the climate change crisis and produce “massive emissions” that will negatively impact the globe.
“I’m concerned about Ukraine because of the people of Ukraine and because of the principles that are at risk, in terms of international law and trying to change boundaries of international law by force,” Kerry, the U.S. special presidential envoy forclimate, said in an interview Monday on BBC…
The first of multiple truckerconvoysslated to arrive inWashington D.C., in the coming days departed fromPennsylvaniathis week and were a few miles outside the capital Wednesday, one of the organizers told Fox News.
Bob Bolus, who owns a trucking company, said his convoy departed Scranton on Tuesday in an effort to grab the attention of lawmakers behindCOVID-19mandates and restrictions.
On Wednesday evening, he told Fox News he was 30 miles from the capital in “bumper-to-bumper” traffic. He earlier promised to caused gridlock and disruptions on the…
“Dear Ukrainian citizens, this morning President Putin announced a special military operation in Donbas. Russia conducted strikes on our military infrastructure and our border guards. There were blasts heard in many cities of Ukraine,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an address to the nation, CNN reported.
“We’re introducing martial law on the whole territory of our country,” he added.
The announcement comes as explosions were heard in cities across Ukraine and Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened other countries against getting involved.
In his announcement, Zelensky also noted he had spoken with President Biden, who released a statement condemning Russia’s actions and vowing consequences.
“A minute ago I had a conversation with President Biden. The US have already started uniting international support,” he said.
Zelensky has previously told his citizens Ukraine would not give any territory to Russia and urged them to stay calm on Thursday morning.
“Today each of you should keep calm. Stay at home if you can. We are working. The army is working. The whole sector of defense and security is working,” Zelensky said.
“No panic. We are strong. We are ready for everything. We will win over everybody because we are Ukraine,” he added.
In the remote counties of Northern Wisconsin, where the closest law enforcement officer is often at least 30 minutes away, a conflict between property owners and bear hunters running hounds through the woods is reaching a boiling point.
The conflict, which has sprung up in counties including Sawyer, Burnett and Polk in the northwest corner of the state, pits hunters against hunters and scared residents who see the remote reaches of the state as a sanctuary. Adding to the frustration are the limitations of law enforcement tasked with patrolling such large areas, the political clout of the state’s bear hunting lobby and the controversial practice of using hounds to hunt large predators such as wolves and bears.
A wolf in Oregon was found shot dead on the morning of February 15 in the latest in a series of killings of wolves in the state.
The collared female wolf, known as OR-109, was found around 3.5 miles south of Cove in Union County in the northeast of the state. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) and Oregon StatePolice(OSP) troopers found the wolf after receiving a tip off alerting them to the body.
The OSP is now appealing for the public’s help in locating the person or people responsible for killing OR-109. An image releasedshowed the wolf’s bodylying in the snow with visible injuries.
Wolf hunting and trapping is illegal in Oregon, and gray wolves are a protected species under state law. The animals were controversially removed from the Endangered Species Act during the…
Servicemen take part in joint tactical and special exercises of the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ukrainian National Guard and Ministry Emergency in a ghost city of Pripyat, near Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant on February 4, 2022.
Arenowned organization comprised of U.S. and Russian physicians warned late Tuesday that a military conflict involving the two powers in Ukraine risks a nuclear “catastrophe” that could have horrific effects on all of Europe — and potentially the entire planet.
In a new statement, nuclear energy specialists joined members of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) — a coalition of medical groups that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985 for its non-proliferation work — in noting that while Ukraine does not possess nuclear weapons, it does maintain more than a dozen nuclear power reactors that could be in the line of fire should the current situation descend into all-out war.
Linda Pentz Gunter, founder of the advocacy group Beyond Nuclear, said a conflict in Ukraine could result in a disaster on par with — or even worse than — the devastating 1986 Chernobyl reactor crisis.
Don’t miss a beat
Get the latest news and thought-provoking analysis from Truthout.
Email
“No matter the genesis, the cause, or who started what, the reality remains that there are 15 operating nuclear reactors in Ukraine that, if conflict breaks out there, could be in peril,” said Gunter. “If the reactors find themselves amidst a conflict or war, they cannot simply be abandoned by the workforce. This makes the prospects of a war in Ukraine all the more alarming, and the imperative to avoid this all the more urgent.”
Additionally, physicians voiced concerns that the present crisis could ultimately escalate to the use of nuclear weaponry. While the U.S. and Russia — which together control more than 90% of the world’s nuclear arsenal — signed a joint statement earlier this year affirming that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought,” the military doctrines of both nations allow for the first use of nukes in conflict.
“If even a single 100-kiloton nuclear weapon exploded over the Kremlin, it could kill a quarter of a million people and injure a million more, completely overwhelming the disaster response capability of the Russian capital,” said Dr. Ira Helfand, co-president of IPPNW. “A single 100 kiloton bomb detonated over the U.S. capital would kill over 170,000 people and injure nearly 400,000.”
“But it is unlikely that an escalating nuclear conflict between the U.S. and Russia would involve single warheads over their respective capitals,” Helfand added. “Rather it is more likely that there would be many weapons directed against many cities and many of these weapons would be substantially larger than 100 Kt.”
Over the weekend, Dr. Olga Mironova — a cardiologist in Moscow and president of IPPNW’s Russian affiliate —led an emergency discussion focused on the health impacts of a potential nuclear war involving the U.S. and Russia, which have roughly 6,000 nuclear warheads each.
The physicians’ dire warnings came as tensions between Russia and the West continued to grow in the aftermath of President Vladimir Putin’s decision Monday to send troops into breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine — a move that the U.S. and European countries met with a barrage of economic sanctions.
Citing Russia’s deployment of troops into Ukraine, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced late Tuesday that he canceled his planned meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, a potential blow to diplomatic negotiations that peace groups say are the only way to step back from the brink of war.
In recent weeks, observers have lamented how little attention the possibility of a nuclear conflict has received from political leaders and the press relative to the threat it poses. Further heightening peace advocates’ concerns was Russia’s recent staging of nuclear drills, exercises that included practice launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles.
“Of all the obvious dangers that come with war, one of the most far-reaching in the current Russia-Ukraine conflict has been woefully underappreciated. Even if commanders took pains to avoid striking Ukraine’s 15 nuclear power reactors, that might not be enough to avoid a catastrophe,” Bennett Ramberg, an expert on nuclear weapons, wrote in an op-ed for Project Syndicate last week.
“The reactors present a daunting specter. If struck, the installations could effectively become radiological mines. And Russia itself would be a victim of the ensuing wind-borne radioactive debris,” Ramberg observed. “Were a reactor core to melt, explosive gases or belching radioactive debris would exit the containment structure. Once in the atmosphere, the effluents would settle over thousands of miles, dumping light to very toxic radioactive elements on urban and rural landscapes. And spent nuclear fuel could cause further devastation if storage pools were set afire.”
But Dr. Barry Levy, a leading expert on the health consequences of military conflicts, stressed Tuesday that even if a nuclear disaster is averted, “much death and illness could occur among noncombatant civilians from explosive weapons, population displacement, and damage to hospitals and clinics, water treatment plants, and the food supply system” in the case of a conventional war.
“As a result, children and pregnant women would suffer from malnutrition, more infants would be born prematurely, and more women would die during childbirth,” said Levy. “More people would contract communicable diseases, including Covid-19. More older people, who comprise more than one-sixth of Ukraine’s population, would develop complications of heart disease, lung disorders, and diabetes. And many Ukrainians would suffer from depression and posttraumatic stress disorder.”
Abipartisan group of lawmakers and a coalition of anti-war groups reminded President Joe Biden on Tuesday that he is legally required to seek authorization from Congress before involving U.S. troops in any military conflict with Russia, which began moving forces of its own into eastern Ukraine earlier this week.
“Our nation’s laws are highly relevant to the ongoing situation in Ukraine,” 43 U.S. House members led by Reps. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) wrote in a letter to the White House on Tuesday. “Were an attack by Russia to be imminent or underway, the War Powers Resolution would clearly require congressional authorization before the president may command U.S. Armed Forces to engage in hostilities.”
Signed by an ideologically diverse cohort of lawmakers spanning from right-wing Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) to progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), the letter was delivered after Biden announced new economic sanctions against Russia and said he “authorized additional movements of U.S. forces and equipment already stationed in Europe to strengthen our Baltic allies.”
Stay in the loop
Never miss the news and analysis you care about.
Email
“Let me be clear: These are totally defensive moves on our part,” added Biden, who has approved the deployment of thousands of U.S. troops to Eastern Europe in recent weeks. “We have no intention of fighting Russia.”
But no matter the president’s stated intentions, the lawmakers argued in their letter that he must “seek specific congressional authorization” in order to “leave any remaining U.S. advisers, trainers, special forces, or other U.S. military personnel in areas of these imminent or active hostilities.”
“You must also receive congressional approval before initiating any preemptive strike,” they wrote. “We strongly urge your administration to respect the separation of powers, U.S. law, and Congress’ constitutional war powers authority. Should your administration seek to introduce U.S. Armed Forces into hostilities or decline to remove any U.S. military personnel currently deployed inside Ukraine from unauthorized hostilities or imminent hostilities, Congress stands ready to deliberate over the potentially monumental implications of such scenarios.”
“The American people, through their representatives in Congress, deserve to have a say before U.S. troops are placed in harm’s way or the U.S. becomes involved in yet another foreign conflict,” the lawmakers added.
The letter came as the situation on the ground in Ukraine continued to deteriorate and fears of an all-out war mounted. On Wednesday, Ukraine began preparations to impose a nationwide state of emergency and instructed its citizens to leave Russia, warning of a broader invasion.
With congressional Republicans and hawkish Democrats clamoring for Biden to respond more forcefully to Russia’s latest aggressive actions in Ukraine, DeFazio toldPolitico on Tuesday that the president should instead show restraint and consult with Congress.
“Americans are fed up with risking U.S. troops’ lives and spending taxpayer dollars on endless overseas wars,” said DeFazio. “I’m calling on President Biden to ignore the warmongers and receive authorization from Congress — as required by the Constitution and U.S. law — before even considering any involvement by the U.S. military in a conflict between Russia and Ukraine.”
Nearly a dozen advocacy groups — including the progressive anti-war organizations Just Foreign Policy, Peace Action, and Demand Progress — endorsed DeFazio’s message, hailing it as a “timely” and “level-headed” intervention amid loudening drumbeats of war.
“Even allowing U.S. advisers and special forces to remain in harm’s way in Ukraine without authorization creates the potential for direct conflict between the world’s leading nuclear powers,” Erik Sperling, executive director of Just Foreign Policy, said in a statement Tuesday. “Regardless of one’s view on how the U.S. should respond to tensions over Ukraine, these are precisely the critical questions that the framers of our Constitution sought to entrust to the American people through their representatives in Congress.”
Cavan Kharrazian, a foreign policy campaigner for Demand Progress added that “by no means should the president put American troops — including embedded military advisors and special forces — into harm’s way in Ukraine without a debate and vote in Congress.”
“While Congress remains divided on many issues,” Kharrazian added, “we are glad to see such a diverse range of representatives defending our constitutional system of checks and balances when it comes to war.”
