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This is the summer when, for many, climate change got real. The future looks fiery and dangerous. Hot on the heels of Trump, fake news and the parlous state of the Brexit negotiations, despair is in the air. Now a new scientific report makes the case that even fairly modest future carbon dioxide emissions could set off a cascade of catastrophe, with melting permafrost releasing methane to ratchet up global temperatures enough to drive much of the Amazon to die off, and so on in a chain reaction around the world that pushes Earth into a terrifying new hothouse state...

During the rise of mammals, Earth's temperatures spiked in a scary way that the planet may experience again soon. They were strange days at the beginning of the age of mammals. The planet was still hungover from the astonishing disappearance of its marquee superstars, the dinosaurs. But the most striking feature of this early age of mammals is that it was almost unbelievably hot, so hot that around 50 million years ago there were crocodiles, palm trees, and sand tiger sharks in the Arctic Circle. There were perhaps sprawling, febrile dead zones spanning the tropics, too hot even for animal...

Geese have a problem. Some are arriving at their Arctic mating grounds so exhausted they’re not in the mood anymore. Shifting environmental signals are making the birds race northward on their spring migration, flying faster and skipping the stops they normally use to rest and refuel, said a study in the journal Current Biology. The finding gives new insight into the way climate change is altering the calculus of animal migration. “This is the first one I know of where a long distance migrant is increasing its travel speed,” said Matthew Ayres, a biology professor at Dartmouth. Barnacle geese spend...

An unprecedented global heatwave has shattered records in nearly every corner of the planet. Death Valley set a new record. Cities in the Middle East have seen record hot days. There were days in India where it was so hot outside that conditions were nearly unlivable for human beings. Hundreds of people have died from heatstroke worldwide this summer. Heatwaves are now causing more deaths in U.S. cities than all other disasters combined. These sorts of the extreme heatwave events have been predicted for decades by scientists. We've known for some time now that extreme weather events like extraordinarily hot...

A new study out Monday warns of the possibility of out-of-control global warming if humans fail to band together to fight the worst effects of climate change. The analysis, conducted by researchers at the Australian National University and the Stockholm Resilience Center, among other institutions, outlines the potential for a "threshold" that, if crossed, would lead to runaway warming patterns and the advent of a "Hothouse Earth." If such a threshold is crossed, the study warns, global average temperatures could climb as much as 8 degrees Fahrenheit above current temperatures and sea levels could rise 30 to 200 feet. "Crossing...

In 1999, Roberto Bui, Giovanni Cattabriga, Federico Guglielmi, and Luca Di Meo, writing under the name “Luther Blissett,” published an Italian novel called Q. Luther Blissett was a name regularly adopted in the ’90s by leftists, anarchists, and general troublemakers in Italy. It was used for staging all kinds of pranks. The Luther Blissetts in different cities would occasionally communicate by phone, but for the most part the project just spread organically. Think of it like an analogue Guy Fawkes Anonymous mask. That flowed from the original Q and was entirely in keeping with its leftist-anarchist context. ..the authors believe...

A reverend says a black doll found hanging from a makeshift noose in a Philadelphia playground was apparently staged by a group of kids who wanted to “creep people out.” Police say they received a 911 call around noon after a city worker found a black doll hanging from a telephone wire with a makeshift noose around its neck at the Weccacoe Playground at 4th and Queen Streets.

Much of the heat that’s gripped California and hastened the spread of deadly wildfires recently is due to a strange but familiar shift in the jet stream — one that’s haunted the West with threatening fire conditions in the past and could cause more hot, dry spells in the future, especially with a changing climate. The jet stream, the river of wind high above the Northern Hemisphere, has been weaker and wavier in the past few weeks, scientists say. Instead of pushing weather systems along as it usually does, it’s allowing the patterns to stagnate. “We’re seeing this mix of...

The nine-banded armadillo is quietly expanding its range out of the southeastern United States, invading regions once too cold for the small mammal to survive. Scientists monitoring the armadillo's progress say the migration is a consequence of rising global temperatures. And it's a sign of more to come. "Armadillos are a pretty good climate change indicator species," said John MacGregor, a herpetologist at the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife. "When things that don't tolerate cold climates are suddenly appearing in a cold area, it tells me that area is getting warmer." Areas that once experienced bitterly cold winters, like...

The New York Times Magazine has done something unprecedented. On Wednesday, it released an entire issue containing just one article on the subject of global warming. “Losing Earth,” by Nathaniel Rich, chronicles the ten-year period from 1979 to 1989 in which scientists reached consensus about human-caused climate change, and politicians nearly came to a global-scale solution. Informed by more than 100 interviews and 18 months of reporting, the piece twists and turns around a zany cast of characters who bravely risked their careers to solve the climate crisis. There’s no spoiler alert needed for the ending: They failed. But it’s...

Energized by the internet persona Q’s complex web of conspiracy notions about the forces aligned against President Donald Trump, Q’s followers have spread virally online and now, in real life too, forming a movement known as QAnon. From somewhere in the vast and mysterious “deep state,” a dissident agent rises up to give the people cryptic clues about how their heroic president will push back the forces of evil and make America great again. The renegade informant is known only as “Q,” and if he actually exists, it’s not as a character in a movie, but somewhere in the Washington,...

Mere seconds into the first words spoken to a jury from the special counsel team investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election, Judge T.S. Ellis III interrupted. “Focus on the elements of the offense,” the 78-year-old jurist interjected Tuesday as Assistant U.S. Attorney Uzo Asonye described Paul Manafort as a man who believed he was above the law. Soon after, Ellis interrupted again, as Asonye sketched for jurors Manafort’s luxurious lifestyle. “It isn’t a crime to be profligate in your spending,” Ellis said. He soon admonished defense attorney Thomas Zehnle in a similar fashion. “I take it you plan to...

When gay businessman David Cooley boarded Alaska Airlines flight 1407 from Los Angeles to New York this past weekend, he expected to enjoy the airline's top-rated service and the amenities that accompanied his Premium Class ticket. Instead, however, he said he and his travel companion were subjected to "humiliation" instead. "I have never been so discriminated against while traveling before," Cooley, owner of iconic Los Angeles gay bar The Abbey, wrote in a public Facebook post. He said he and his travel companion were "removed" from their flight "to give preferential treatment to a straight couple." "After my traveling companion...

Securing funding for President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall once again seems to be getting punted further down the road by congressional leadership. During a radio interview with WHAS on Friday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border will likely not make it into the next funding legislation, which must be passed by the end of September in order to avoid another government shutdown. When directly asked if the funding of the border wall would have to wait until after midterm elections, the Republican senator replied “probably,” noting that it is “something [Democrats and Republicans]...

Mostar Bishop Again: All Apparitions in Medjugorje Are Not Credible Bishop Ratko Perić of Mostar-Duvno, Bosnia and Herzegovina,has told Pope Francis' special envoy to Medjugorje, Archbishop Henryk Hoser, that all alleged apparitions of Our Lady in Medjugorje are not credible. According to the Mostar-Duvno diocesan website (July 23) Perić based his judgment “on the basis of numerous investigations”. “The non-credible apparitions of the ‘Medjugorje phenomenon’ include those in the first seven or ten days of 1981”, he added. In summer 2017 a Vatican commission suggested to recognise the first seven apparitions as allegedly supernatural. #newsRyqxirndnz

Something interesting linking the New York Times to a state-run newspaper in Iran. When searching the domain registrar for “Iran” daily’s website, linked to the mullahs’ regime, the registrant and admin telephone number for the domain is the same New York Times calling number (212-556-1831). In addition to the phone number belonging to The New York Times, the registrant domain address is the same address as The New York Times building.“620 8TH AVE NEW YORK NY 10018-1618 US”

CHICAGO (CBS) — Dozens of bags, containing what many are calling “messages of hate,” were discovered over the weekend in Tinley Park. CBS 2’s Jeremy Ross reports area residents are concerned after finding KKK fliers around their community. Amber Stahl says her husband discovered a flyer on their lawn Saturday. The letter was in a plastic bag, weighed down by aquarium gravel. kkk flier KKK Fliers Found In Tinley Park Yards kkk flier in bag KKK Fliers Found In Tinley Park Yards “He took it out and said ‘Amber, can you believe this?’ It was a KKK flyer,” she said....

Rising seas, vanishing water resources, expanded deserts and disappearing species all have been blamed on global warming. Now it’s to blame for more suicides, says a new report. The Guardian of London reported a study published in the journal Nature Climate Change found warming could be as significant a cause as economic recessions, “which are known to increase self-harm.” “The links between mental health and global warming have not been widely researched but the new work analyzed temperature and suicides across the U.S. and Mexico in recent decades. It found that the rate of suicide rose by 0.7 percent in...

A Texas waiter has admitted making up a racist note calling him a 'terrorist' that he claimed was left on a check. Khalil Cavil, 20, claimed he was stiffed out of a tip on a $108 bill at the Saltgrass Steak House in Odessa, Texas over the weekend after the customer wrote on his receipt: 'We don't tip terrorist.' Now Cavill has admitted fabricating the episode, which resulted in the customer being barred from the establishment. Cavil told local paper the Odessa American: 'I did write it. I don’t have an explanation. I made a mistake. There is no excuse...

The Texas restaurant company that banned a customer after an employee’s story of a receipt scrawled with a racial epithet went viral said Monday that it had parted ways with the employee and learned that the story was spurious.