Warmer climate and mass migration

Warmer climate leads to current trends of social unrest and mass migration: study

 

Research by an international team of scientists led by University of New Mexico Professor Yemane Asmerom suggests contraction of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) during a warming Earth, leading in turn to drying of the Neotropics, including Central America, and aggravating current trends of social unrest and mass migration.

Positioned near the equator where the trade winds of the northern and southern hemisphere converge, the ITCZ is the world's most important rainfall belt affecting the livelihood of billions of people around the globe. Globally, seasonal shifts in the location of the ITCZ across the equator dictate the initiation and duration of the tropical rainy season. The behavior of the ITCZ in response to the warming of the Earth is of vital scientific and societal interest.

 "What we found was that in fact during the Medieval Climate Anomaly Southern Belize was very dry, similar to modern central Mexico. In contrast, during the Little Ice Age cool period, when it should have been dry by the standard old model, it was the wettest interval over the last 2000 years," said Asmerom. "The pattern that emerges when all the data across the full transect of ITCZ excursion is supportive of the expansion-contraction model." The implication of this that regions currently in the margins of the ITCZ are likely to experience aridity with increased warming, consistent with modeling data from Central America. These data have important implications for rainfall-dependent agriculture system on which millions of people depend for food security.

Co-author and UNM Professor of Anthropology Keith Prufer is an environmental archaeologist, who has been conducting research in Belize for 25 years. "In the last five years there have been mass migrations of people in Guatemala and Honduras—partially driven by political instability, but also driven by drought-related conditions and changes in seasonality. This is creating enormous problems for agricultural production and feeding a growing population. There is growing evidence that these changes are a direct consequence of climate change."
"This work highlights the convergence of good science with policy relevancy. It also illustrates the strength of cross-disciplinary collaborative work, in this case international," said Asmerom.

 

 

by University of New Mexico

seniors looking for assisted living

 For more than a decade, “assisted living” residences grew faster than any other segment of the long-term care industry. Typically more home-like than a full-care nursing facility, assisted living is often favored by people who are generally independent, but still need support with daily activities. In general, providers offer fewer medical services, though many provide health and memory care for residents with Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia.

 

 We and our colleagues track the ever-changing circumstances of long-term care in the U.S. As we study policies and practices, we have observed that the expansion of assisted living is clearly a game-changer, creating new challenges in the industry. Many states have increased assisted living regulation in recent years. Some consumer advocates have called for nursing-home style federal rules, though others oppose this, saying assisted living should remain flexible enough to serve residents with a range of needs, from personal care only to end-of-life comfort.

Using criteria formulated from prior research, along with information provided by some states, we examined 39 key elements of each website. Those elements included the size of the facility, cost, license status, the insurance it accepts, and any special services offered, such as memory care. We also looked at each website’s usability – the ease in finding critical information.

more and more people are choosing assisted living. The government is now funding many residences to provide care for low-income disabled citizens. Their needs – and vulnerability – are significant, enough for states to reassess their roles in protecting assisted living residents. Adding accurate and detailed content to their websites would be a great first step. 

https://theconversation.com/incomplete-and-inadequate-information-lacking-for-seniors-looking-for-assisted-living-129426

career and technical education

My research has found that the best investment in career and technical education is when it’s targeted toward schools that design all instruction around developing career paths, say, as an electrician or as a nurse’s assistant. Career and technical education can also improve high school graduation and employment when it is integrated with core subjects and offers work-based learning.
The proposal also calls for allocating $83 million to competitive grants to states. Proposing competitive grants suggests that the administration will look to fund states with the most innovative proposals. This is in contrast to just giving out money based on how many students a state may serve, which is how most of the federal funds for technical education are allocated.
Trump also wants to double fees associated with H1-B visas – visas that allow for the hiring temporary workers from abroad with high skills that are in short supply in the U.S. This hike could raise an additional $100 million or more. The idea here seems to be to use revenue collected from programs that use talent from abroad to invest in educating students here in the United States.

.., the only technical education programs that research has shown lead to improved graduation rates and higher wages are whole-school models.
 https://theconversation.com/trumps-big-bet-on-career-and-technical-education-131558

read more
https://www.brookings.edu/research/what-we-know-about-career-and-technical-education-in-high-school/

Readings 18/01/2020

Election, 
Cambridge Analytica and the end of elections, by Nanjala Nyabola

The latest Cambridge Analytica leaks show just how compromised voting - one of the pillars of democracy - has become.

Public Health; Suicide
Black kids and suicide: Why are rates so high, and so ignored?, by Rheeda Walker
"Black youth may be less likely to share their thoughts of loneliness or depression than other youth, which could be a reason for higher rates of death by suicide among black youth"

Militarism Has Become Enormously Popular and Nearly Universally Accepted by HOWARD LISNOFF

Militarism Has Become Enormously Popular and Nearly Universally Accepted

by HOWARD LISNOFF

On December 13, 2019, the segment “188 Democrats vote for Trump’s Bloated Defense Budget” aired on The Read News. Here’s host Marc Steiner about 13 minutes into the discussion of the $738 billion so-called defense “budget” that will stoke the profits of the permanent war contractor class to levels of stratospheric proportions for the endless wars the US now fights and supports: "I mean the people in this country and from many and interesting and good reasons support their military.”

When the antiwar group I was involved in in 2001 gave up the ghost and disbanded in response to the rise of militarism following the heinous attacks on September 11, 2001, I knew the handwriting was on the proverbial wall for the celebration of all things connected to war and militarism. Many go hungry in the US, schools aren’t properly funded, the environment decays beneath our feet, and millions of others can’t get good medical care, but anything the military and its contractors want is okay in this not-so-new world order.