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MANHATTAN, NY — This week, 60 Minutes host Scott Pelley held a sit-down interview on the universe's ecological sustainability with a figure who has been both dismissed as a doomsdayer and celebrated as humanity's best hope for longevity on earth: Thanos. "Little one, it's simple calculus. The universe is finite, its resources finite. If life is left unchecked, life will cease to exist. It needs correcting." Thanos spoke to CBS's Scott Pelley in an interview that many onlookers called "ominous" and "awkward." When Pelley pressed the hulking purple figure on "who would do the correcting," Thanos demurred, opting to rub...

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the world needs to change how it makes, eats and wastes food in comments to the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday. “The war on our planet must end and food systems can help us build that peace,” Guterres told the UN summit in New York. Noting that food systems create one third of greenhouse gases, he said following UN sustainable goals established in 2015 could end hunger and poverty while creating global health and wealth. Guterres called for reform of agricultural subsidies and said food should not be seen “simply...

After a temporary reprieve due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Earth Overshoot Day — the day humanity is projected to have used up all the planet’s biological resources regenerated in one year — has shifted forward again, this year landing on July 29. “With almost half a year remaining, we will already have used up our quota of the Earth’s biological resources for 2021,” said Susan Aitken, leader of Glasgow City Council, where world leaders will gather later this year for the COP26 climate summit in November. “If we need reminding that we’re in the grip of a climate and ecological...

A 1972 MIT study predicted that rapid economic growth would lead to societal collapse in the mid 21st century. A new paper shows we're unfortunately right on schedule.A remarkable new study by a director at one of the largest accounting firms in the world has found that a famous, decades-old warning from MIT about the risk of industrial civilization collapsing appears to be accurate based on new empirical data. As the world looks forward to a rebound in economic growth following the devastation wrought by the pandemic, the research raises urgent questions about the risks of attempting to simply return...

As the global population exceeds 7.8 billion people, some French people have made the decision not to have children — a radical choice born out of a desire to help the planet and do their part to reverse global warming. “Having a child would be totally against my principles. I’ve never wanted children and am more certain of this decision the older I get,” says Manon, 26. “I don’t see why I would impose another consumer on this world. In the Western world, we consume more than the resources available,” she adds. Like Manon, more and more young adults are...

UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock has appeared to suggest that people who refuse to get the vaccine may be banned from using the National Health Service. This is excellent news for at least two good reasons. First, it reassuringly demonstrates that just occasionally in his life Prime Minister Boris Johnson is capable of telling the truth. We now know with absolute certainty that Johnson was entirely honest and accurate in his assertion, in an old text message leaked by former Special Adviser Dominic Cummings, that Hancock is ‘totally —ing hopeless’. Second, it might possibly make so-called vaccine ‘refuseniks’ a lot...

...just how bad is the situation? Our new paper shows the outlook for life on Earth is more dire than is generally understood.The research published today reviews more than 150 studies to produce a stark summary of the state of the natural world...Our paper was authored by 17 leading scientists... While the problems are too numerous to cover in full here, they include:a halving of vegetation biomass since the agricultural revolution around 11,000 years ago...about 1,300 documented species extinctions over the past 500 years, with many more unrecorded... Read more: What is a 'mass extinction' and are we in one...

The idea of a new vaccine being developed in less than a year was laughable before last year, before the COVID pandemic, before President Donald Trump. But it became a reality, an unmitigated success. You’d think that would be cause for celebration, in and of itself, right? And while Operation Warp Speed has received some plaudits, leftists can’t bring themselves to give it the full credit the Herculean effort deserves. And now, as the injections are going into people’s arms, the left has found a new way to downplay the Trump administration’s success: the injections themselves.How many stories have you...

The Malthusian Pope He uses Covid to call for anti-growth policies. Most popes urge austerity as a means of saving one’s soul. Pope Francis urges it for a different reason: to save the planet. The pope’s one-sided treatment of technology, free markets, and consumerism is astonishing. In keeping with that temporal focus, he called this last week for humans to adopt “simpler” lifestyles not for reasons of spirituality but out of “respect” for the earth: We also need once more to listen to the land itself, which Scripture calls adamah, the soil from which man, Adam, was made. Today we...

A parasite linked to bagged salad mixes has sickened 641 people in 11 states, States that reported the illnesses were Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Wisconsin,

Once confined to the small scientific community of climate researchers and ecological economists, the idea of degrowth is now blazing into the mainstream. Not surprisingly, people are trying to figure out what to make of it. Is it an inspiring idea that points the way to a better economy? Or is it a mad notion that’s sure to plunge us all into poverty? Degrowth is a planned reduction of total energy and material use to bring the economy in line with planetary boundaries, while improving people’s lives by distributing income and resources more fairly. The scientific case for degrowth is...

Americans will need to cut their average consumption of beef by about 40% and Europeans by 22%, for the world to continue to feed the 10 billion people expected to live on this planet in 2050, according to a new report. That means each person could have about a burger and a half each week. This calculation comes from the World Resources Institute, a global research nonprofit that supports better use of natural resources to sustain a growing population. Its research looks at agriculture, the climate crisis, poverty and gender, among other topics. Its final "Creating a Sustainable Food Future"...

In one year, a single acre of black soldier fly larvae can produce more protein than 3,000 acres of cattle or 130 acres of soybeans. Such yields, combined with the need to find cheap, reliable protein for a global population projected to jump 30 per cent, to 9.8 billion by 2050, present big opportunity for the black soldier fly. The United Nations, which already warns that animal-rich diets cannot stretch that far long term, is encouraging governments and businesses to turn to insects to fulfill the planet’s protein needs. People who’ve seen what black soldier fly larvae can do often...

RUSH: Grab audio sound bites number 20 and 21. Classic illustration. Major point made on the program yesterday. And particularly I think a valid point if you’re trying to convince Millennials of something. Let me restate it a slightly different way. As we know, Millennials are frustrated economically. They come out of college, they have student loan debt that is oppressive. They’re looking at maybe not being able to pay it back for a long, long time, many of them still have to live at home with mom and dad. Why? The job market is still not there because economic...

... Hawking, the renowned theoretical physicist turned apocalypse warning system, is back with a revised deadline. In "Expedition New Earth" — a documentary that debuts this summer as part of the BBC’s "Tomorrow’s World" science season — Hawking claims that Mother Earth would greatly appreciate it if we could gather our belongings and get out — not in 1,000 years, but in the next century or so. You heard the man — a single human lifetime. Is this nerd serious? Thanks, Steve.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson interviewed the Sierra Club’s Executive Director, Michael Brune, on Tucker Carlson Tonight, Feb 2, 2017. Carlson, a former Sierra Club member himself, dove right into asking Brune the tough questions. Puzzled by some of the Sierra Club’s recent position statements on such varied topics as President Trump’s border wall, the women’s march, abortion, and transgender bathrooms, Carlson asked Mr. Brune why the Sierra Club was veering away from protecting the environment to taking positions on the unrelated issues. For those who still naively believe that the Sierra Club is focused on protecting the environment, Brune’s...

Denmark’s development minister, Ulla Tørnæs, has expressed her disappointment in the Trump administration’s decision to reinstate a ban on US funding to health groups around the world that provide information about abortion. Following Trump’s move to reinstate what is formally known as the “Mexico City Policy” but more popularly described as the “global gag rule”, Tørnæs said that Denmark will not waver in its commitment to women’s rights and the belief that women should be allowed to choose what they do with their own bodies. […] The Danish government is being urged by some to join a Dutch effort to...

Should We Be Having Kids In The Age Of Climate Change? 4:36 August 18, 201611:09 AM ET Heard on All Things Considered Standing before several dozen students in a college classroom, Travis Rieder tries to convince them not to have children. Or at least not too many. He's at James Madison University in southwest Virginia to talk about a "small-family ethic" — to question the assumptions of a society that sees having children as good, throws parties for expecting parents, and in which parents then pressure their kids to "give them grandchildren." Why question such assumptions? The prospect of climate...

The female teacher who raped five teenagers was being sentenced at 4PM local when the TV cut away for other programming. Does anyone know what the sentence is? Thanks.

Whether you’re a free-loading virus or a meat-stealing monkey, selfishness pays. So how could cooperators survive in a cheater’s world? Thomas Flatt, a postdoctoral research associate at Brown, was part of a group that created a theoretical model that neatly solves this dilemma, which has stumped evolutionary biologists and social scientists for decades. The trick: Keep the altruists in small groups, away from the swindling horde, where they multiply and migrate. It’s a truth borne out in biology and economics: Selfishness pays. Viruses can steal enzymes to reproduce. Tax evaders can take advantage of public services to survive and thrive....