News From the Back Page
On the longest day of the year
The news story about the tourist submarine gone missing is compelling and sad. However, the fact is that story has dominated the news cycle for what seems like days. Certainly, there are other interesting and important events happening around the world.
So, lets take a look at few of the headlines, that didn’t seem to make it to main-stream media this week…
John Kerry hit with ethics complaint over 'inaccurate' climate death toll claims
June 20, 2023 Washington Examiner
John Kerry was hit with an ethics complaint Tuesday alleging he "disregarded" scientific evidence on climate issues.
Protect the Public's Trust filed the complaint against the Biden administration's special presidential envoy for climate, detailing a May 10 speech in which Kerry claimed 15 million people perish every year due to greenhouse gas emissions.
"This claim is both tremendously consequential and entirely unsupported by scientific evidence," the letter to State Department and White House Office of Science and Technology Policy officials states.
PPT is calling for an investigation into Kerry's comments for violating the Biden administration's scientific integrity policies and are asking the government to "adequately correct the public record and deter similar hysterical claims in the future."
“[Fifteen] million people are dying every single year around this planet as a consequence of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, in the air which travels around and drops in the form of pollution and is warming the ocean at record rates, changing the chemistry of the ocean itself," Kerry, a former secretary of state, said at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's AIM for Climate Summit. "Without action, millions of lives and the livelihood of the planet is at risk."
In addition to Kerry's 15 million air deaths, he also said another 10 million people die annually from extreme heat.
“There are few more perilous breaches of scientific integrity than for public officials to convey inaccurate data to the public knowingly or recklessly, especially when it is done to justify politically motivated decisions or agendas," PPT Director Michael Chamberlain told the Washington Examiner. "Simply put, hysteria, hyperbole, and misrepresentation of data have no place in our government’s official pronouncements."
PPT's letter countered Kerry's claims with data with some of the most far-reaching death toll predictions in scientific literature, which claim the globe could see 3.4 million deaths per year by 2100, which is both significantly less than Kerry's prediction and also 77 years from now. Many of the deaths are attributed to wildfires and mosquito-borne illnesses.
"Despite the enormity of Mr. Kerry’s claim, he did not cite any scientific evidence for its basis," the letter states. "Nor is there any apparent scientific research that supports a claim that there are currently 15 million people dying yearly due to greenhouse gas emissions – or any other single cause of death that is tracked."
According to PPT, Kerry violated several of the Biden administration's scientific integrity policies, including a February 2021 memorandum called "Restoring Trust in Government Through Scientific Integrity and Evidence-Based Policymaking," OSTP's "Framework for Federal Scientific Integrity Policy and Practice," and the State Department's scientific integrity policy.
"The American public’s trust in its government has plunged to depths never before seen and is unlikely ever to recover if we have powerful officials throwing out numbers unsupported by evidence," Chamberlain said.
There are those who are celebrating the solstice by competing in an elk calling contest (and yes, prize money is involved).
Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation looking for worlds' best callers
June 13, 2023, KTVH
If you think you have what it takes to be crowned the best elk caller in the world, then mark your calendar for Saturday June 24, because the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation is hosting their World Elk Calling Championship at Big Sky – and this is the first time here in Montana.
Next up on the menu - “cultured” meat.
US approves nation’s first ‘lab-grown’ meat — chicken made from animal cells
June 21, 2023 New York Post
For the first time, US regulators on Wednesday approved the sale of chicken made from animal cells, allowing two California companies to offer “lab-grown” meat to the nation’s restaurant tables and eventually, supermarket shelves.
The Agriculture Department gave the green light to Upside Foods and Good Meat, firms that had been racing to be the first in the US to sell meat that doesn’t come from slaughtered animals — what’s now being referred to as “cell-cultivated” or “cultured” meat as it emerges from the laboratory and arrives on dinner plates.
As the US gets closer to having lab-grown meat in its grocery stores, I wonder what exactly goes into growing animal cells in culture? Having worked under a tissue culture hood for many a year, I know that antibiotics are used heavily. It is also expensive.
Mysterious 'Viking disease' linked to Neanderthal DNA
June 20, 2023, Livescience
A new study finds that the key genetic risk factors for Dupuytren's disease, a crippling hand disorder, are derived from Neanderthals.
Neanderthal genes may be one cause of the disorder nicknamed the "Viking disease," in which fingers become frozen in a bent position, a new study finds.
The study, published June 14 in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution, finds gene variants that were inherited from Neanderthals that dramatically increase the odds of developing the condition, officially called Dupuytren's disease.,
Dupuytren's disease is a crippling hand disorder named after a French surgeon, in which the fingers, typically the ring and little fingers, become permanently locked in a bent position. The condition is very common in Northern European countries where the Vikings settled, hence its nickname. It typically afflicts about 30% of men over 60 years in Northern Europe and seems to run in families. Treatment is mainly surgical, but recurrence is common.
South African taps run dry after power shortages
BBC News, June 19, 2023
"We are in a state of systemic failure, the water sector is collapsing," expert Prof Anthony Turton tells the BBC.
The lack of electricity has exacerbated issues created by poorly maintained infrastructure, which has led to vast leaks as well as sewage problems, and a supply of water that cannot meet demand.
Seventy million litres of treated, clean, drinkable water are lost every single day because of leaks that are endemic in the crumbling water system.
Most of the water wastage identified has been linked to badly run municipalities that are not investing in maintenance, partly because of corruption and theft.
This has also meant that sewage plants are not cleaning the water in the way that they should.
And this has had public health consequences.
Breaking News from Twitter:
June 21,, 2023
More pseudo-science that you can use to make smart life choices!
Have a great solstice everyone and inquiring minds want to know, who will be celebrating the Icelandic solstice holiday “Jónsmessa” this Saturday?
Jónsmessa (Icelandic pronunciation: [ˈjounsˌmɛssa]), also known as Midsummer Night, is an Icelandic holiday celebrated on June 24. It is named after John the Baptist.
According to Icelandic folklore, cows gain the powers of speech, seals become human, and it is healthy to roll naked in the dew-covered grass on Jónsmessa. Icelandic folklore also states that if you sit at a crossroads where all four roads lead to separate churches all night, elves will attempt to seduce you with food and gifts. (Wiki)
I particularly despise Adam Schiff though skull and bones Kerry is a real piece of work too
dr. Malone you note, “that story has dominated the news cycle for what seems like days.....” good observation, and just as you infer, the goal of media is DECIDEDLY NOT to acclimate American citizens to the truth of what’s going on in our world, the truth is instead to throw up the smoke screen of distraction.