Lindsey J. Smith | The Verge

Even the basics of climate change are still being debated in the 2016 election

2016-09-02T14:07:20-04:00

Grand Canyon National Park | Lindsey J. Smith

Between one Trump tweet after another and inquests into Hillary Clinton’s emails, there’s been little attention paid to either party’s environmental policies. Yet, with devastating flooding in Louisiana and wildfires tearing apart the West, both parties’ environmental platforms deserve more attention.

It’s no surprise that the Republican and Democratic party platforms depict starkly different visions for America’s open spaces. But specifically, we found the platforms hinge on one underlying — and in the Republican party’s case, unspoken — question: Is climate change real, and a real threat?

While Democrats answer the question in their chapter’s title, “Combat Climate Change, Build a Clean Energy Economy, and Secure Environmental Justice,” the Republican platform’s section on energy and the environment, titled “America’s Natural Resources,” never once uses the words “climate change” or “global warming.”

Platforms show “a longstanding division” between the parties

A key to understanding how both parties view climate change is to examine their plans for managing public lands. While both parties view land as an economic resource, the Republican platform defines its value more narrowly as what can be taken from or below its surface. Their policies encourage privatizing public land where possible, expanding oil and gas leases, increasing timber productivity and mining, and opening more federal lands to hunting and fishing. The Democratic platform also speaks to some of these economic values — specifically the cache of oil and gas below federal lands — but it recognizes that open space has other economic and social values, too: for hiking and camping, preserving and restoring air and water quality, and as part of the fabric and history of the nation.

This shows “a longstanding division between our parties,” explains Daniel Fiorino, director of the Center for Environmental Policy at American University. Republicans protect the economic interests of extraction industries, while Democrats protect the public.

One reason that division has become so marked in this election, Fiorino says, has to do with controlling what’s under those lands: coal, oil, and gas. Donald Trump’s energy plan centers on American energy independence, an idea supported by the Republican platform. The platform calls to increase oil and gas exploration and drilling on federal lands, including the Outer Continental Shelf and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

To drill, or not to drill? That is the question

“It’s not as if all public lands are closed right now,” says Oren Cass of the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank. Cass notes that many federal lands and waters are currently open to timber harvest, oil and gas drilling, and coal mining, and that it will take approximately 10 years to see production from any new oil and gas commitments we would make now.

Given that long timeframe, we need to ask ourselves where we want to be in a decade, Cass says. And in Republican eyes, bringing new oil and gas online is “pretty much an unmitigated good for the country,” as evidenced in the recent private and state-led oil and gas boom.

However, whether increasing oil production is an unmitigated good for the country is up for debate. The International Business Times explored how the fracked oil boom in Williston, North Dakota, for example, brought short-lived economic prosperity to the small town. But when oil prices fell, Williston was left with high rents, inflated retail prices, and no jobs to speak of, across most sectors.

“We need to keep 80 percent of fossil fuels in the ground.”

Democrats, on the other hand, oppose offshore and ANWR drilling, not for economic reasons, but environmental ones. The platform proposes instead phasing down fossil fuel extraction on public lands and increasing wind and solar production in Wyoming and Nevada.

“If you look at the top lines of what climate science means for the world … we need to keep 80 percent of fossil fuels in the ground,” says Jason Kowalski, a spokesperson for 350 Action, a climate activism group.

This would help meet the December 2015 threshold set in Paris at the annual meeting of all nations in the United Nations Framework on Climate Change, called the 21st Conference of Parties. Attendees, including the US, agreed to reduce carbon emissions enough to hold the average global temperature below 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, or 2 degrees Celsius, above pre-industrial levels. Although there is some debate at what point we reach runaway climate change, Kowalski noted, most climate scientists agree that warming beyond 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit would have severe global effects.

The Republican platform never uses the word “climate”

The Republican platform does not once use the word “climate,” which is perhaps why Kowalski calls supporting the platform “an act of climate denial.” Trump has repeatedly denied climate change, except when it threatens his interests. While his views on numerous subjects, including climate change, are more extreme than many in the Republican party, the party’s platform calls for Congress “to prohibit the [Environmental Protection Agency] from moving forward with new greenhouse gas regulations.”

The Republican party believes the most effective way to mitigate climate change is to help developing nations, like China and India, manage their own carbon emissions, Cass says. “In terms of actually wanting to change estimates of what the temperature is going to be 100 years from now, whether the US develops its oil and gas resources, its coal resources, [is] pretty much entirely irrelevant,” he says. China emits more greenhouse gasses than any other country. But the United States is the second-worst emitter of greenhouse gasses, and burdening developing nations with the task of reducing emissions completely ignores that fact.

Clinton’s climate change plan and the Democratic platform also call for vast expansions of green technology and renewable energy — including installing a half-billion solar panels by 2020 — but not as the sole viable solution to climate change. Blocking greenhouse-gas regulations would be, Fiorino feels, a “major setback for global action on climate change” with tremendous consequences. And while Kowalski says the Democratic platform doesn’t go as far or move as quickly as he would like, it does represent a huge step to the left for Hillary Clinton, due in part to pressure from Bernie Sanders’ supporters.

Clinton steps to the left with the Democratic platform

Platforms, however, are not policies, and what may actually come of Democrats’ and Republicans’ grand plans in 2016 will depend on everything from presidential will to Congressional cooperation. Obama’s sweeping climate bill failed in 2010, for example, and his Clean Power Plan is currently facing a lawsuit. But he’s been able to work around Congress by making an agreement with China’s President Xi Jinping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and tucking $37 billion for clean energy research into an economic stimulus package. Similarly, if faced with a Congress unwilling to pass legislation that would enact Democratic platform policies, Clinton could work on mitigating climate change through incremental actions. She could refuse to authorize large oil pipeline projects, like Obama did with the Keystone XL Pipeline, or she could instruct all federal agencies to use electric vehicles, Kowalski notes.

What would become of the policies set forth in the Republican platform under a Trump administration? At least when it comes to energy policy, Trump’s toeing close to the party line, Cass says. But whether that will turn into implementing proposed policies is anyone’s guess.

“I think it’s impossible to take anything that Trump says about policy seriously or to predict what he would actually do if he would win,” Cass says.

Cook’s Science demystifies the magic of good cooking

2016-09-01T16:38:24-04:00

Corn nixtamalizing in the Cook’s Science test kitchen. | Cook’s Science

Cook’s Science, a new website from America’s Test Kitchen, launched at the end of July, and has rapidly become excellent lunch-break material. Like all brands under the America’s Test Kitchen umbrella, this new website is grounded in exploring the science of good food and using the scientific method to develop recipes. Unlike other products or brands out of America’s Test Kitchen, everything on the Cook’s Science website is free.

The publication mixes reported stories, videos, and recipes on favorite foods, like a deep dive into the history and science of ice cream, and recent trends, like making runny egg-yolk sauce. Cook’s Science executive editors Molly Birnbaum and Dan Souza hope that through the stories they report and the “good, foolproof recipes” they create, more home cooks will be inspired to look into the science of what’s on their plate, and the people and cultures behind each dish.

”We leave the test kitchen to report on the people, places and technology inspiring the world of food and science,” Birnbaum writes in an email. Birnbaum has a background in narrative journalism, and she and Souza had collaborated for years, including on the cookbooks The Science of Good Cooking and Cook’s Science, set to publish in October.

The website blends food science with food stories

“We wanted to push how we cover science at ATK a little bit further,” Birnbaum says. “We wanted to combine my experience in narrative journalism with Dan’s experience developing recipes using the scientific method.”

For example, have you ever wondered about the origins of your favorite salsa-soaked happy-hour foods? According to a feature in Cook’s Science, tacos and corn chips wouldn’t exist were it not for a fascinating technique called nixtamalization, invented by the Maya, a Mesoamerican civilization that lived from approximately 2000 BC to 1700 AD.

Although many hundreds of years have passed since the Maya discovered nixtamalization, there really isn’t a substitute for the process, Souza says. But, luckily, it isn’t contained simply to tortilla factories or hip restaurants, like Empellón Al Pastor in New York City, featured in the Cook’s Science article. Adventurous home cooks can try their hand at nixtamalizing corn and making fresh tortillas with a recipe created by Tim Chin, test cook at Cook’s Science. The feature goes details each step of the process. As a bonus, they created a recipe for nixtamalized corn bread.

Prince’s Paisley Park home will be open for tours soon

2016-08-25T15:16:14-04:00

Tributes to Prince outside his Paisley Park home and studio | Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

Prince’s legendary home and recording studio complex in Chanhassen, Minnesota, will likely open to public tours beginning in October, according to a report from Minnesota TV station KARE 11. In a statement released yesterday, the late musician’s siblings announced that the complex, called Paisley Park, will be transformed into a museum.

“Opening Paisley Park is something that Prince always wanted to do and was actively working on,” Prince’s sister Tyka Nelson said. Only a few hundred people have ever been inside Paisley Park, Nelson said, but now fans from around the globe will be able to step into the world of Prince Rogers Nelson.

Paisley Park, built in 1987 for $10 million, spans 65,000 square feet on nine acres of land, according to the Star Tribune. A proposal submitted to the city of Chanhassen states 70-minute tours will cover the “recording and mixing studios, video editing rooms, rehearsal rooms, Prince’s private NPG Music Club, and the soundstage and performance hall,” as well as displays of his belongings and memorabilia, including clothes, awards, artwork, his tour bus, and motorcycles. The museum also tentatively plans to offer vegetarian food, in honor of Prince’s strict vegetarian diet. The musician also had an apartment in the complex, but it is not clear if that space will be part of the tour. Paisley Park’s recording studios will continue to be used for special sessions, and concerts will likely be held as well.

"Opening Paisley Park is something Prince always wanted"

Chanhassen, a city of approximately 23,000 about 30 minutes southwest of Minneapolis, has already been fielding visitors flocking to the gates of Paisley Park to pay tribute to Prince after his death on April 21st. The proposal will be reviewed by Chanhassen’s planning commission on September 20th. If it is approved, the city council would give it a final vote on October 3rd, three days before the museum’s tentatively scheduled opening, and shortly before a memorial concert. The museum’s proposal estimates 1,500 to 2,000 visitors per day, on tours that start every 10 minutes. It mentions employing 20 to 60 locals, and would almost certainly mean a bump for nearby restaurants, hotels, and other tourist-focused businesses.

“From the documents that I’ve seen and the conversations that I’ve had with family members and close friends, I believe that the plans for Paisley Park are in full accordance with Prince’s wishes,” Chanhassen mayor Denny Laufenburger wrote in a letter of support for the project.

Bremer Trust, which is administering Prince’s contested estate — the singer left no will — has entered into an agreement with a subsidiary of Graceland Holdings, LLC, for the “development, management, and oversight of all aspects of the museum at Paisley Park,” according to the proposal. Graceland Holdings, which manages Elvis Presley’s home, Graceland, will also provide initial financing for the museum.

The museum expects up to 2,000 daily visitors

Although the plan to convert the estate into a museum has not been officially approved, tickets go on sale tomorrow, Friday, August 26th, at 3PM ET, through the Paisley Park website. The proposal states regular tickets will be sold for $38.50, and VIP tickets for $100. (All the proposal says about the VIP experience is that tours will be in “smaller groups” than the 25 to 30 people planned for regular tours.) Bremer Trust’s plans do not state what will happen to advance tickets if the museum is not approved by the city — an event that seems unlikely given Laufenburger’s strong support and the potential lasting boost in revenue it could bring.

Claims that ‘deep ocean water’ rehydrates athletes twice as fast don’t hold up

2016-07-28T13:33:57-04:00

Anyone looking to enter the growing and crowded premium water market has to differentiate themselves somehow, whether it’s with a unique bottling source or a diamond-encrusted bottle cap. Kona Deep’s sell goes like this: deep ocean water, unlike regular water, has minerals that may help with athletic performance. Kona Deep is the first company to sell bottled deep ocean water in the US.

To understand where Kona Deep comes from, it helps to understand the history of deep ocean water. During the 1970s oil crisis, as scientists were scrambling to find energy alternatives, they thought a solution might lie at the bottom of the ocean. They built a plant in the town of Kona, Hawaii, where just a few hundred feet off the coast, the ocean floor drops precipitously. There they began extracting what they hoped would power American homes — the lowest and coldest layer of water in the ocean. The depths of the ocean typically range in temperature from 32 degrees Fahrenheit to a balmy 38 degrees, which is much cooler than the surface temperatures (which vary depending on the ocean). In the 1970s, scientists hoped that the temperature difference could be used to generate electricity. But this idea, called ocean thermal energy conversion, proved to be impractical on a large scale.

So researchers began scrounging for other applications for deep ocean water, which has a high mineral content in part from hydrothermal vents on the ocean’s floor. In the seemingly endless supply of water, two Hawaiian entrepreneurs saw another large and competitive market to shake up: premium bottled water.

Deep ocean water is high in minerals, including electrolytes

But having perhaps the most unique source of all wasn’t enough of a marketing push for Kona Deep. (Because, let’s be real, “deep ocean water” sounds like the kind of bunkum Gwyneth Paltrow would sell.) So the company, which was eventually taken over by Pat Turpin, the founder of Popchips, worked with researchers at the University of Arizona to study how the sea water’s properties might impact athletic performance. Deep ocean water is rich in naturally occurring electrolytes, which are electrically charged minerals, including sodium, calcium, and potassium.

“I was surprised by our data; I didn’t think it would matter, quite frankly,” says John Konhilas, a member of the research team and faculty at the University of Arizona. But according to results published in April in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, which will print research for a fee, deep ocean water rehydrated athletes twice as fast as spring water and carbohydrate-based sports drinks.

Typically, scientific journals made money by charging readers, but a new model of “open-access journals” instead charges scientists who wish to publish their research. Many of these journals are legitimate and the research they publish is subjected to industry standards, like peer review. But scientists are concerned because predatory journals publishing unreviewed research at high fees are becoming increasingly common in the open-access world. The Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, which is part of the BioMed Central platform, is transparent about its fee structure and review process. However, the University of Arizona’s findings lack many of the criteria JISSN suggests for reviewers, including information on subjects who drop out of the study, and results presented as mean numbers with standard deviations.

Scientists are increasingly concerned about “pay-for-play” journals

Konhilas explained in an interview with The Verge the findings were published as a “short report,” meaning the team had the word-count of their article capped by the pay-to-publish journal. Because of this limitation, important information about the study’s design and findings had to be left out.

For instance, the research team used “well-conditioned student athletes,” for the experiment. The abstract says there were eight subjects, but the “Methods” section says “subjects were randomized to one of three experimental groups, Kona (n = 6), Sports (n = 8), or Spring (n = 6).” This discrepancy isn’t explained in the study. Konhilas says that the study used only eight subjects who were supposed to do all three trials. Not all participants completed the three trials, but the authors included their results in the short report anyway.

“We were really fascinated by the data,” Konhilas says. “So we included the subjects that didn’t complete even the three trials.”

He mentioned the team is planning a more extensive follow-up study, in which 12 subjects, six male and six female, would be required to complete all three trials, with at least a week between each. The order of the rehydration fluids would be randomized and the results would be broken down by sex. This is called “crossover” study design and is considered the gold standard for study design in the sports nutrition and performance world, according to Dan Baur, a research assistant in the field at Florida State University.

Published results included subjects who did not complete trials

Without a crossover study, however, it’s difficult to know whether variability in the results is due to the way individual people’s bodies responded to the fluids differently, or whether it is due to the effectiveness of the fluid itself. For example, there was greater deviation from the mean amount of time it took to rehydrate when subjects were given deep ocean water than when they were given spring water or sports drinks.

Sometimes small groups can have unusual results just through chance. The deviation from the known amount of time it takes for people to be rehydrated may hint the product is useful; it may also be an artifact of the study design. It’s also possible that the product is useful, but some people respond much better than others, Baur says. A crossover study would eliminate any elements of variability between subjects, and allow researchers to focus solely on whether or not deep ocean water works across the board. And a bigger study would give more reliable results.

For the short report, subjects were put in an 86-degree Fahrenheit room where they pedaled on a stationary bike for more than two hours in some cases, until they lost 3 percent of their body mass through dehydration. They were then rehydrated, drinking one liter of fluid per kilogram of body mass lost. They were given half the fluid immediately, and the other half 30 minutes later.

Studies disagree on whether saliva is a good measure of hydration

All the while, experimenters were taking saliva samples from the subjects, approximately a dozen over the course of the experiment. They were measuring change in salivary osmolality, which is basically the amount of water in saliva compared to its other components, which include electrolytes, mucus, and enzymes.

This is one of three primary ways to test for dehydration, the other two being through urine and blood samples. Studies disagree, however, on the effectiveness of salivary osmolality as a measure of hydration. A study from 2014 by the University of Connecticut reported salivary osmolality is one of the best ways to measure dehydration when people are exercising in a hot environment.

But a 2013 study conducted by the Army and cited in the University of Arizona’s work, used saliva to try to measure dehydration of fluid outside human cells. This extracellular fluid makes up 20 percent of body weight. They found that changes in salivary osmolality were “marginal” and “weakly correlated” with dehydration. Nevertheless, the University of Arizona researchers referenced this 2013 Army study to support using salivary osmolality “as a measure of hydration status.”

The team is planing a follow-up crossover study

“There certainly is variability,” Konhilas says of the metric. “When looking at exercise performance and exercise-induced dehydration salivary osmolality was best correlated with that measure. So that’s the reason why we stuck with that.” He and his colleagues considered using blood or urine samples, but the study’s design required approximately 12 samples in two hours; they felt drawing blood that frequently would be too invasive.

However, the short report explains none of this. Because the team knew they would continue the work with a more rigorous crossover study and produce a “more extensive write-up of the data where we go into the real hard numbers of it all,” they wanted to make sure the short report left readers wanting to know more, Konhilas says.

But with so much detail missing from the published results it would be easy for a reader to question the validity of the research, rather than be left wanting to know more. Baur says this lack of scrutiny of results leads to a problem in the field of nutrition and performance, where scientists, readers, and media are too quick to jump to conclusions.

Scientists, readers, and media can be too quick to laud nutrition studies

“There’s a lot of studies like this where there might be a signal there, but there’s a lot of noise that makes me very concerned about really buying into it,” he said

All that noise common to his field makes Baur a tad skeptical. Despite his qualms about the University of Arizona study, he thinks deep ocean water is an interesting area that merits more investigation, including replication of the findings and an examination of why deep ocean water may be an effective rehydrator — something people have yet to study.

In the meantime, Kona Deep is already leaning heavily on the findings to help market the water as the natural option for people who want the mineral content of spring water with the electrolytes of a sports drink. While it may not be a diamond-encrusted bottle cap, it’s a potent claim that is helping the company carve out a niche in the premium water market — since most consumers probably aren’t checking out research results. Nor are they likely aware the results appeared in a pay-for-play journal.

The Verge Review of Animals: the Steller’s jay

2016-07-03T10:00:03-04:00

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This column is part of a series where Verge staffers post highly subjective reviews of animals. Up until now, we’ve written about animals without telling you whether they suck or rule. We are now rectifying this oversight.

“You might guess that the word ‘Steller’ describes an exceptional jay,” says a 2012 Audubon article on the bird. But you should guess again.

Steller’s jays are the bird version of that person aggressively shouting nonsense on the street corner. They’re the roommate who eats the lunch you packed the night before, and then denies it. They’re every loud-talking, pompous, kleptomaniacal person you know, rolled into one admittedly stylish bird.

Steller’s jays, also known as Cyanocitta stelleri, are often confused with blue jays, because their tail, wings, and most of their body are a brilliant cobalt. But blue jays are blue and white, while Steller’s jays are blue and black. Black: like their souls.

Loud-talking, pompous, kleptomaniacal birds

They were first named by explorer George Wilhelm Steller in 1714, who spotted them while shipwrecked in what is now called Alaska. Since the obvious choice for a name, blue jay, was already taken, he named them (and several other birds) after himself. Steller’s jays live in coniferous forests up and down Western North America, even stretching a ways into Mexico.

Odious as these squawkers are, let’s start with some good things.

Steller’s jays are part of the Corvidae family, which includes crows, ravens, and magpies — and that means they’re damn clever. Crows get most of the praise in the family for being smart; according to a National Geographic article, their intelligence is on par with primates, and they use “imagination and the anticipation of possible future events” to solve problems. While crows usually use their smarts to procure food, they can use them for their own manipulative pleasure, like to instigate cat fights.

They’re basically garbage disposals

Steller’s jays are not quite as bad as shit-disturbing crows, because they dedicate their overlarge brains for aggressive scavenging campaigns. These birds eat normal bird-in-the-wild food — nuts, seeds, berries, spiders, bugs, and even sometimes birds’ eggs, lizards or small rodents. But they’re also basically garbage disposals that won’t turn down table scraps, according to Audubon, and unreal amounts of cat food, according to me. They can work in groups to outsmart humans and cats, and have good memories. It took them approximately 12 hours to learn that the plastic swivel-head owl in my garden is not a legitimate foe.

Another thing Steller’s jays have going for them is their good looks. They’ve got sweet blue feathers and, arguably, the most on-point haircut (aka, crest) west of the Rockies.

You could play for Real Madrid with hair like that

Finally, they’re pretty egalitarian. Both males and females build nests and feed young, and during courtship the males feed the females (free dates!).

So I begrudgingly grant them points for style and a charming sense of equality. When it comes to their intelligence, that’s a wash; it’s admirable how clever they are, but they use their brains for evil thievery, and I can’t get behind that.

Now for the hard truths. First, Stellar’s jays are noisy cowards. Although they have voracious appetites, sizeable beaks, and talons, a lone, chittering squirrel hero was able to keep multiple jays away from a bowl of peanuts. I’d guess the jays, especially when they scheme together, could take the squirrel. But what do they do? They simply screech in frustration.

And now we really get to the heart of my beef with them: their voice. Like most Corvids, the Steller’s jay doesn’t sing. It hacks and screeches, especially early in the morning right outside my window. It is the bird equivalent of nails on a chalkboard. Even Audubon, lover of birds majestic, strange, and pitiful, describes their call as harsh.

Am I being cold? Is it unfair to despise a bird for its call? I mean, it’s not like it can do anything about it, right? Wrong! Steller’s jays can actually do a spot-on impression of a red-tailed hawk, which, while not melodic, is an improvement. And yet they continue to screech.

“I just don’t like the sound of your voice.”

Once, in undergrad, I was talking on my phone while out for a walk. My meanderings took me into the path of an adorable-looking tiny old lady, who turned around as I was approaching and gave me a quizzical look. The sweet thing is lost! I told myself. So I put aside my phone and asked if she needed some help.

“No,” she said. “I just didn’t like the sound of your voice.”

It was more shocking than offensive, and I believe I said, “Well, then!” because I can be a tad timid when caught off-guard. But now that I am eight years closer to her age (but still, like 70 years away from tiny-old), I get it. Not liking someone’s — or some Steller’s jay’s — voice is enough of a reason to despise them.

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The Steller’s jay

Verge Score: 5.5

5.5 Verge Score

Good Stuff

Brainiac Corvidae family
Cobalt!
Hair game on point
Mimic red-tailed hawk
Males feed females in courtship

Bad Stuff

Annoying AF
Scheming
Steals cat and human food
Noisy cowards
Basically garbage disposals

Florida declares algae emergency

2016-07-01T17:06:10-04:00

Ordinarily, businesses in South Florida would be preparing for a swarm of tourists this holiday weekend. This year, they’re worried the only living thing on their beaches come the Fourth of July might be some putrid blue-green algae.

The algae, which the Washington Post compared to “thick, furry mold,” “chunky guacamole,” or a “festering, infected sore,” has been coating waterways in four counties since late May, when algae in Lake Okeechobee tested positive for high levels of a toxin that targets the liver, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Florida Governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency over the blue-green sludge in Martin and St. Lucie Counties on Wednesday.

The blue-green algae is caused by bacteria that get energy through photosynthesis. These are called cyanobacteria, and they thrive in warm water. While the algae itself isn’t toxic, it can release toxins as it dies. One of those is called microcystin, and though the EPA has limited data on its effects, acute cases of microcystin exposure can cause a range of nasty symptoms from headache, sore throat, vomiting and nausea, to cough, diarrhea, and pneumonia, according to a 2015 report. Residents in affected areas have complained of rashes and coughs, according to the Washington Post. Microcystin can persist for weeks or months in water, and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection has found it in some waters outside the lake.

The algae is coating water like “chunky guacamole”

Politicians of all stripes are calling the extent of the blooms unprecedented. Several beaches in the area have been closed to swimming, and locals are worried the unsightly blooms might put a damper on tourism over the holiday weekend.

Joe Catrambone of the Stuart Martin Chamber of Commerce told The Verge that the economic consequences for the small city of Stuart along the St. Lucie river could be devastating. “Boat rentals are at zero, which means marina sales for services, gasoline and food are zero,” Catrambone says. “I can’t put a pricetag on it, but certainly with a trickle-down effect it’s in the millions of dollars for this weekend.”

Ron Rose of the Jensen Beach Chamber of Commerce was more hopeful. “We’ve had a handful of people call and question about the situation because they’ve had reservations at local hotels. But everyone that has called has decided to come, because there’s still sun in the sky and there’s still unaffected beaches, and there’s lots of things to see and do in Martin County,” Rose tells The Verge.

The algae could devastate local beach and river businesses

Local Chambers of Commerce have been coordinating with the Business Development Board of Martin County to assess how many businesses are struggling due to the blooms. Almost 9 out of 10 of Martin County’s businesses have fewer than 10 employees, says the Business Development Board’s executive director Tim Dougher. If the slime turns people away this weekend and keeps them away, it might mean empty hotels, layoffs at restaurants and bars, and boats docked in harbors. Dougher said their current focus is reaching out to as many businesses as possible to understand the strain they’re under and what kind of help they’d like. They hope to soon have access to other State and Federal programs, possibly including loans.

The blue-green algae originated in Lake Okeechobee, which is managed by the federal Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps has been struggling to protect the lake’s fragile Herbert Hoover Dike and prevent it from bursting and flooding neighboring areas. To do so, the Corps tries to keep the lake’s depth below 15.5 feet above sea level, said the Washington Post.

This has proved challenging because South Florida has been battered by above-average rains. This June, South Florida received 8.01 inches of rain, almost double what it saw in June 2015. The rains caused excessive runoff into Lake Okeechobee, and as water levels rose the Corps had to increase outflow from the lake to protect the dike. Between May 19 and 26, the volume of water discharged in the Caloosahatchee Estuary doubled and almost tripled in the St. Lucie Estuary. With this excess water came a lot of blue-green algae clogging rivers and canals, and washing out to sea.

Heavy rains are jeopardizing the Herbert Hoover Dike’s stability

Despite concerns over the multiplying blooms, the Army Corps of Engineers continued discharging high volumes of water through June, for fears that lake water levels would rise too high for the dam to contain. After Scott declared the state of emergency, the Corps relented and slowed flows. Starting today they will release 3,000 cubic feet per second into the Caloosahatchee Estuary, and 1,170 cubic feet per second into the St. Lucie Estuary, per a press release.

“That’s a drop in the bucket, but at least it’s something,” says Catrambone.

While it might not be in time to help conditions this holiday weekend, he’s hopeful summer tourism can still be saved. “We are pushing,” he says. “We asked Senator Rubio today to get us a reprieve [from water discharge], get us two or three weeks, meet with the Corps, meet with the President, do whatever you can to give us a break.”

Miami may be underwater by 2100

Why doctors are struggling to treat the gun violence epidemic

2016-06-24T15:13:42-04:00

In the first 176 days of 2016, there have already been 196 mass shootings in America. Just two weeks ago, we witnessed the deadliest mass shooting in US history when a gunman killed 49 people in the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. Two days after the massacre, the American Medical Association released a statement calling gun violence in America a “public health crisis.”

Despite this statement, and similar sentiments or calls-to-action from the National Physicians Alliance, Doctors for America, American Public Health Association, and numerous other professional medical organizations, many politicians and citizens hesitate to see gun violence as a public health issue. The 193rd, 194th, 195th, and 196th shootings of 2016 happened this past Wednesday, the day Democratic members of the House staged a sit-in to demand action on gun control — one that was stymied by our government’s political gridlock.

Numerous factors, from the political muscle of the National Rifle Association to popular attachment to the Second Amendment, influence why so many people are reluctant to admit that 30,000 gun-deaths per year and twice as many injuries makes an epidemic. It is the leading cause of premature death in America, according to the APHA. By comparison, the Ebola epidemic that swept Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone last year killed 11,310 people total.

30,000 Americans die every year from gun violence

But two factors in particular turn treating gun violence as a public health issue into an uphill battle for doctors.

The first is that for the past two decades the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been thwarted in its research on injury prevention and guns. In 1996, Congress eliminated the CDC’s funding for firearms injury prevention research with an amendment to its appropriations bill. The amendment also forbids the agency from using other funding “to advocate [for] or promote gun control.” The same language was added to the National Institutes of Health’s funding bill in 2011. While such language doesn’t make research around gun violence illegal, it makes it nearly impossible to fund. Which means it doesn’t happen.

“The impact of this ban is that for 20 years we’re way behind the curve,” says Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association. “And so we believe as a matter of process the language should come off [the appropriations bill.]” The APHA was one of 68 signatories in a letter sent to Congress urging them to fund gun violence research.

The CDC has had no funding for gun violence research since 1996

Benjamin notes that although no one knows precisely the cost of such research, it would surely be less than the direct and indirect costs of gun violence, which Mother Jones pegged at $229 billion a year. Benjamin estimates that a bullet that severs a person’s spine can cost $200,000–$500,000 in immediate health care, plus lifelong loss of income and quality of life.

“When you add all those costs up [to] society it gets enormous, and we all pay for that,” he says. “Think about the investigative costs that are going on right now in Orlando in the forensic medical examiner’s office. The citizens of Orlando are paying for those costs out of their taxes.”

Lack of funding to conduct research isn’t the only obstacle standing in doctors’ ways. Several states have passed or tried to pass legislation backed by the NRA that prohibits doctors from talking to their patients about techniques to make gun ownership safer, according to a whitepaper published by the National Physicians Alliance in 2013. While a doctor may seem like an unlikely source of gun safety advice, a 2003 study cited in the whitepaper found that 64 percent of people who were counseled by their doctors on safe gun storage improved their practices.

“For 20 years we’re way behind the curve.”

The NPA’s paper also lays out seven policy recommendations for treating gun violence as a public health issue. Removing doctor gag laws and funding firearms violence research are among the proposals, which include requiring background checks for private and online sales, restricting assault weapons and large-capacity magazines, and equipping guns with safety devices, like “magazine disconnect mechanisms,” which prevent them from firing when the magazine is not attached, even if there’s a bullet in the chamber.

“Just as the medical community has historically championed substantive injury prevention policies in other areas, it is time again for health care providers to demand concrete actions to reduce gun violence,” the paper concludes.

With many prominent professional medical organizations recognizing gun violence as an epidemic and a public health issue, including the American College of Physicians and the Public Health Institute, practitioners are hopeful that change is on the horizon. Even Jay Dickey, the Arkansas Representative who pushed the 1996 amendment decimating the CDC’s funding for gun research, said last year that he regrets the impact this had. Benjamin is “very cautiously optimistic” that change will come to CDC and NIH appropriations in the near future.

“We’re all pushing for it,” he said. “We believe there is consensus at the White House that this should happen… We’re just hoping we get enough of them on both sides of the political aisle so that we can make it happen.”

Why Bolivia turned away Bill Gates’ chicken donation

2016-06-17T16:38:10-04:00

A Bolivian woman works a field on Isla del Sol | Lindsey J. Smith

Bolivia’s outrage yesterday at being a beneficiary of Bill Gates’s “Coop Dreams” — a project with Heifer International to donate 100,000 chickens to poor countries — shocked many. But upon closer examination of Bolivia’s political climate, none of us, Gates included, should be surprised. Under its current president Evo Morales, Bolivia has a robust history of rejecting US aid, whether governmental or philanthropic.

Over the last decade, the landlocked Andean country has undergone sweeping political changes. Morales, an activist and prominent coca farmer (yes, it’s legal to grow coca in Bolivia; no, it’s not legal to turn it into cocaine), became Bolivia’s first indigenous president in 2006. He won hearts and minds with his socialist party, Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS), which campaigned on a pro-environmental, pro-indigenous platform. Since then, he has been reelected twice and along the way enacted sweeping reforms. In 2008, he established a new constitution and renamed the country Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia, the plurinational state, in recognition of its cultural diversity. (Bolivia has 37 official languages.)

Two concepts sit at the core of Morales’ and MAS’ decade-long agenda. The first is Buen Vivir — a vision of the world as interconnected and interdependent, where economic, social, and environmental priorities coexist in a balance. The second is La Ley de Derechos de la Madre Tierra, or “the Law of Mother Earth.” The law, which passed in 2010, grants nature equal rights to people, including the right to persist without human intervention.

Under Morales, Bolivia has a robust history of rejecting US aid

Part and parcel to this pro-environmental platform is a rejection of Western capitalism and traditional development aid. Morales threw out the US Ambassador and the US Drug Enforcement Agency in 2008, and the US Agency for International Development in 2013 — none have yet to be welcomed back. Although Gates’ offer is nongovernmental, with such chilly diplomatic relationships, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that it was rebuffed.

Good as Gates’ intentions are, it’s easy to see why a nation so hostile to foreign aid would bristle at the offer. Hell, his comment, “In fact, if I were in their shoes, that’s what I would do — I would raise chickens,” rubs me the wrong way, too. It rings insincere (c’mon, do you really believe Bill Gates would be content to simply raise chickens given different, impoverished circumstances?) and a little smug. There’s nothing like having the rich neighbor next door tell you he would live just like you — if he had to.

While chickens could expand economic opportunities for some Bolivians, it’s a gift with little forethought. The charity examiner GiveWell argued that very little information exists on the effectiveness of giving livestock, and that the gifts are tricky to implement. Are there systems in place to teach people to care for their new animals? Who determines who gets a chicken and who doesn’t, and will that distribution foster ill will? How would introducing livestock to a community or region impact existing economies? And, most importantly, do the recipients even want the gift? In Bolivia’s case, the answer to that last question seems to be a resounding “no.”

Little information exists on the effectiveness of giving livestock

But the issue is larger than philanthropy of dubious effectiveness and a few ruffled feathers. Assuming that a project like this was wanted and well-implemented, it could actually do some good for the 600,000 farmers in Bolivia, 68 percent of which have small farms. But the true issue is the Morales government has little interest in supporting the type of small farmers Gates’ “Coop Dreams” targets, which MAS views as economically insignificant. When the MAS government does turn its eye to agriculture, it’s to promote industrial production of soy and corn, driven by foreign investment. Although the majority of Bolivia’s farms belong to smallholders, 91 percent of the country’s agricultural land is tied up in just 4 percent of the farms. Small farmers will not drive the economy, and, therefore, they get little love from MAS.

Morales has done much for Bolivia, and the hand-over-fist growth he’s created by focusing on oil and gas exports has made Bolivia one of the strongest economies in South America since 2009. He has used profits from these exports to fund subsidies for the elderly, school children, and pregnant women. But the country’s economic health is tied to a volatile market, and their gas reserves are projected to run out in the next decade. In this climate, Morales would do well to begin to diversify the economy, investing more in farmers large and small, foreign and domestic, so that his country can maintain the independence from foreign aid and chicken-wielding philanthropists it so craves.

Three babies born in the US with Zika-related birth defects

2016-06-16T15:31:09-04:00

Three babies have been born in the United States with Zika virus-related birth defects, according to figures released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The report noted an additional three “pregnancy losses with birth defects” in Zika-infected mothers.

Since Zika was declared a public health emergency by the World Health Organization five months ago, doctors have been working to understand and track the disease. This is the first time the CDC has reported any pregnancy losses or babies born in the United States with Zika-related defects, according to Stat.

The data in the CDC’s report is from last week, and the agency updates it weekly with anonymized information about any pregnancies where the mother has “laboratory evidence of possible Zika virus infection.” Data comes from the US Zika Pregnancy Registry, a system created by the CDC to track reported infections in pregnant women, and the outcomes of their pregnancies.

Birth defects can include microcephaly and nerve damage

In mid-April the CDC confirmed that women with Zika virus, especially those who become infected early in pregnancy, may give birth to babies with abnormally small heads — a condition called microcephaly. Zika is transmitted via mosquitos or sexual intercourse, and since early this year it was suspected to cause a range of birth defects.

The CDC’s announcement today did not specify which birth defects the three babies were born with. It simply stated that they included “microcephaly, calcium deposits in the brain indicating possible brain damage, excess fluid in the brain cavities and surrounding the brain, absent or poorly formed brain structures, abnormal eye development, or other problems resulting from damage to brain that affects nerves, muscles and bones, such as clubfoot or inflexible joints.”

The report also did not make clear whether the three pregnancy losses in women infected with Zika were voluntary terminations or miscarriages.

So far, 234 pregnant women in the United States and 189 in US territories have been diagnosed with Zika virus, Stat noted.

Apple announces updates to CarPlay and Maps

2016-06-16T13:29:25-04:00

Apple unveiled iOS 10 at its Worldwide Developers Conference this week, and CarPlay — the company’s car-focused UI — got a bunch of updates as well, some of which weren’t announced on stage.

One new feature in particular will save us time, tears, and countless arguments. As reported by 9to5Mac, Apple Maps will automatically remember where drivers park their cars with the “Parked Car” feature in iOS 10. There were already third-party apps that do this, but this is the first time such a feature is integrated directly into the phone. It notes when users disconnect from a car’s Bluetooth or the CarPlay system and marks the car as parked, tagging its location in Maps and pushing a notification. Drivers can add text notes and photos to the car’s location, and when it’s time to hit the road, Maps can guide them back to the car.

iOS 10’s “Parked Car” feature saves us from ourselves

The system will also start integrating with some instrument clusters for turn-by-turn directions right in front of drivers’ eyes, instead of needing to look to the display in the center console or listening for voice instructions. (Google has deployed a similar feature in Android Auto.)

CarPlay was first announced in 2014 and has been steadily gaining traction since. It only integrates with certain cars, though the list of supported vehicles has steadily grown over the past year and a half. It connects via USB (it can also connect wirelessly if a car supports it) and then silences most notifications and whittles down the apps available to drivers. Essential apps, like Phone, Messages, Maps, and Music are mirrored onto a car’s touchscreen display with simplified controls and can be actuated using Siri.

The updates in iOS 10 give users even more control over what they see while on the road, said 9to5Mac in a separate story. Certain apps, like iBooks and Podcasts, can be removed from the CarPlay Home screen. Apps that can’t be removed can now be rearranged in the system’s settings, letting you hide unused apps on the second page of the Home screen.

Updated CarPlay will be more customizable to drivers’ likes

Finally, iOS 10 will include a new Apple Music app for both the iPhone and CarPlay. The navigation tabs have been reordered to make more sense, starting with “Library” rather than “For You.” Furthermore, users can now customize the arrangement of their music groupings, perhaps throwing out the “Songs” category and putting “Playlists” first if that’s how they most often search for music.

The theme of this whole CarPlay update is giving users more control over the experience, and while it still may not be perfect, it’s a good step forward — and considering that Google just updated Android Auto, it’s a well-timed update.