Antarctic thaw quickens

Photo: Reuters

OSLO (Reuters) - "An accelerating thaw of Antarctica has pushed up world sea levels by almost a centimeter since the early 1990s in a risk for coasts from Pacific islands to Florida, an international team of scientists said on Thursday.

Antarctica has enough ice to raise seas by 58 meters (190 ft) if it ever all melted, dwarfing frozen stores in places from Greenland to the Himalayas and making its future the biggest uncertainty in understanding global warming and ocean levels."

 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-antarctica/antarctic-thaw-quickens-trillions-of-tonnes-of-ice-raise-sea-levels-idUSKBN1J92IE

Labour exploitation endemic in global tea and cocoa industries

A disappointing report from my alma mater: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/news/nr/labour-exploitation-global-tea-cocoa-industries-1.783519. 

“The study included tea plantations certified by Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance, Ethical Trade Partnership, and Trustea, and cocoa producers who are members of the Fairtrade and UTZ certified co-operative, Kuapa Kokoo.  In the tea industry little difference was found in labour standards, including wage levels, between certified and non-certified tea plantations, with certified plantations faring worse than non-certified plantations against some indicators of labour abuse and unfair treatment.”

Native American poster

Peony

The peony in my backyard is in bloom and I took some blooms into the house. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peony

Photo: Marge Ishmael

Strange failure of the educated elite

Another good piece by David Brooks, New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/28/opinion/failure-educated-elite.html

Photo: Reuters

Poppy

Poppy in my local Spruce park.

Photo: Marge Ishmael