- Africa has a beef with the Western world. Science is
stoking that drama with a new report blaming Africa’s current dry spell on
pollution in the Northern Hemisphere, primarily from North America and Europe.
It is not yet on par with the e biggest drought to hit the planet in the 20th
century, the Sahel drought, which sucked Central Africa dry from the 1970s to
the 1990s. That dry spell caused severe famines that resulted killed hundreds
of thousands of people and turned many nations into smorgasbords of scenes for
aid commercials with Sarah McLachlan songs as musical backdrops. Dargan
Frierson, a study co-author and climatologist at the University of Washington,
and his research team blame small particles of sulfate, called aerosols, for
cooling the Northern Hemisphere and shifting tropical rainfall patterns
southward, away from Central Africa. "Even changes from relatively far
away spread into the tropics," Frierson said. Initially, the cooling
effect went unnoticed, overshadowed by Earth's overall warming, Frierson added.
Scientists instead blamed the drought on overgrazing and poor land use
practices. As researchers have gained a better understanding of the role aerosol
pollution plays in Earth's climate, that blame has shifted. In certain segments
of the planet’s atmosphere, the tiny particles reflect the sun's light and
build longer-lasting clouds, cooling the atmosphere. However, not all aerosols
reflect light and the cooling from sulfate particles offsets global warming
only a regional scale. "Air pollution affects climate as well, and
different parts of the planet are connected in the climate system,"
Frierson continued. He and his colleagues tracked rainfall data worldwide from
rain gauge records from the 1930s to the 1990s and identified the heavy
tropical rainfall band called the Intertropical Convergence Zone wander back
and forth near the equator. This natural phenomenon occurred during the 1930s
through the 1950s. One decade later, the rainfall band shifted southward,
drying out Central Africa and parts of South America and South Asia. They used
that data to model d the reasons for the changing tropical rainfall with all 26
of the climate models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and
every last one backed up the thesis that sulfate aerosol pollution in the
Northern Hemisphere triggered the terrible Sahel drought. Increased pollution
in recent decades seems to have magnified that effect…….
- If baseball fans are fortunate, the Los Angeles Dodgers
are telling the truth when they say that their feud with the Arizona
Diamondbacks isn't even close to being over. The tensions between the two teams
boiled over Tuesday after Diamondbacks pitcher Ian Kennedy blasted Dodgers rookie
sensation Yasiel Puig in the face with a pitch in the sixth inning. Seeing one
of his teammates nearly be hospitalized, Dodgers starter Zack Greinke wasted no
time in acting according to baseball’s unwritten code, drilling Miguel Montero
in the seventh inning in retaliation for Puig's beaning an inning earlier. At
that point, the dispute seemed to be over - but it most definitely was not. Kennedy
went head-hunting again, throwing high and tight to Greinke and nearly hitting
his fellow pitcher in the face. The result was a massive benches-clearing brawl
that saw not only players, but coaches from both sides flood the field with the
sort of malicious intent rarely seen in baseball fights. Dodgers manager Don
Mattingly rag-dolled D-Backs bench coach Alan Trammell to the ground and both
Dodgers hitting coach and D-Backs base coach Matt Williams looked as if they
were ready to find the nearest octagon and go MMA on one another. One day after
the fight, the Dodgers were adamant that regardless of the discipline Major
League Baseball applied to participants in the brawl, their hostilities with
the Arizona Diamondbacks are not over. "It's not done," reliever
Ronald Belisario said. Mattingly said he wasn’t looking for more fighting, but
the two teams play three more series this season and next face off July 8 in
Arizona. "If you really want to get technical about it, in baseball terms,
it really shouldn't be over," Mattingly said. "Again, I don't want to
come here to fight. I want to come to win a game today." As the Dodgers
see it, their beef with Arizona is alive and well because two of their own
nearly ended up in the emergency room. Puig was out of the lineup Wednesday
night with a sore shoulder, but his pitch to the nose from the previous night
added to his pain a bit. The two teams have long-running bad blood between them
dating back k to September 2011, when Kershaw and Mattingly were both ejected
after Kershaw hit Gerardo Parra with a pitch because of showboating after a
home run the night before…….
- The Mats are back. Iconic ‘80s punk rock outfit The Replacements
are set to play live for the first time since 1991. They aren’t working on a
new studio album or going out for a North American tour of 25 cities, but they d
have confirmed headline slots at three dates as a part of the North American
alt-rock roadshow Riot Fest. Their comeback to the live scene will take place
at the Toronto stop on the tour, which takes place from Aug. 24-25. After that,
it’s on to Chicago for a three-day run from Sept. 13-15, and Denver for a
two-day stint Sept. 21-22. The Mats will bring founding members Paul Westerberg
and Tommy Stinson to the stage after the two rock stars reunited last October
to record a limited-edition covers EP. They only produced 250 copies of the EP
and pressed them on 10" vinyl before auctioning them off to help pay the
medical bills of the band's former guitarist Slim Dunlap, who died of a stroke
earlier in the year. With two members of the band committed and Dunlap no
longer alive, the remainder of the band's line-up for the Riot Fest dates will
be confirmed nearer to the time. For those who are punk history-ignorant, The
Replacements formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1979 and went on to release
seven studio albums. Their most commercially successful release was “Don’t Tell
a Soul,” which peaked at No. 59 on the U.S. albums chart. They played their
final live show before splitting up on July 21, 1991 and they have been singled
out as an influence by many current rockers, including Green Day's Billie Joe
Armstrong, who said attending a Replacements gig "changed by whole life,"
and members of The Cribs, The Goo Goo Dolls and They Might Be Giants……..
- Styrofoam has been forewarned. You are about to become
persona non grata in Baltimore, where the powers that be are seriously
considering a ban on all Styrofoam cups and containers. The aim for this ambitious potential law
is less litter on land and in the water. Proponents of the idea say that when
it rains, Styrofoam cups, plates, bowls and containers join the massive flow of
street litter that washes onto storm drains to pollute the Inner Harbor and
bay. These items are part of a larger flow of junk, but harbor officials
believe foam is a primary culprit in the clutter. “There’s been various surveys
done, but it’s been shown to be about 20 and 30 percent of the total litter that
ends up in the harbor,” said Tine Neyers, Baltimore Harbor waterkeeper. The
proposed new measure would target the Styrofoam products most commonly used by
restaurants and carry-outs. Many eateries have already begun shifting away from
such containers for leftover, but city leaders clearly believe that restaurants
in their fair town are not acting quickly enough and need a little extra push.
Alternative containers do cost most than Styrofoam and restaurant owners are
notorious for giving a damn about their profit margins more than they care
about saving the environment. One such alt-container comes with a machine glaze
on that’s biodegradable and it typically costs triple what a Styrofoam
container of the same size retails for. Critics of the plan to ban foam say
even if a new law is enacted, there is still plenty of trash floating around
and the litter problem will remain a major issue……..
- It’s a sight the world does not get to see often enough. A
group of Indians, native people who live their days out wearing no shirts,
crude skirts of their own making and little else, clashing with modern society
and staring down The Man in an epic duel of will and mental strength. Images of
pot-bellied, face-painted Indians storming a government building and seizing
control are so jarringly awesome that they must be seen in order to be fully
appreciated. Thankfully, a group of Munduruku Indians made those dream sights a reality this week
when they picked up their bows and arrows and occupied the headquarters of
Brazil's Indian affairs bureau. The Munduruku are currently embroiled in a
hotly contested dispute with the government for alleged violations of
indigenous rights. These dwellers of the Amazon Basin are calling for the
suspension of the huge Belo Monte hydroelectric project, on the Xingu, Teles
Pires and Tapajos rivers, which is aimed at feeding Brazil's fast-growing
demand for electricity. It may seem like a clichéd take on the ages-old
tale of a people that time forgot trying desperately to cling to their outdated
lifestyle and standing in the way of both progress and modern society, but the
fact that these Indians had the kahones to hoist their crude weapons and use
them as a means of staging a hostile takeover of a government building earns
the Munduruku plenty of bonus points. Ironically, the Brazilian air force flew
the Indians to the capital Brasilia for talks aimed at resolving the dispute
last week. Officials may now be kicking themselves for that decision and
wondering why they ever though having these proud people in their capital city
was a wise choice, but they just need to sit back, relax and enjoy the
awesomeness of the uprising like every else……..
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