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Mixed Woodlands Help Temper Extreme Weather, Study Shows
The author writes, “Woodland with lots of different kinds of trees can do a good job of buffering heatwaves and extreme cold. Now a new study demonstrates that increasing the mix of species can help to mitigate climate extremes. Florian Schnabel, from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research in Leipzig, and colleagues measured forest temperatures over a six-year period at the world’s largest tree diversity experiment in Xingangshan in subtropical China. Their results, published in Ecology Letters, show that species-rich plots provided the greatest cooling effect during summer.”
ICE to Release Detainee Who Came to the US to Give His Brother a Kidney (Reader Steve)
The author writes, “A Venezuelan man who came to the United States to donate a kidney to his ailing brother but faced deportation before he could undergo surgery will be temporarily released from custody, ‘allowing him to save his brother’s life,’ immigration advocates said Wednesday afternoon. José Gregorio González was detained last month outside Chicago, sparking outcry from his community and immigration advocates. Family supporters said José Alfredo Pacheco’s life was on the line if González was deported before he could donate the organ, while immigration advocates worried what a case like González’s signaled about the ability of detainees to appeal deportations on humanitarian grounds in the Trump era.”
More Than 150 ‘Unprecedented’ Climate Disasters Struck World in 2024 (Laura)
From The Guardian: “The devastating impacts of the climate crisis reached new heights in 2024, with scores of unprecedented heatwaves, floods and storms across the globe, according to the UN’s World Meteorological Organization. The WMO’s report on 2024, the hottest year on record, sets out a trail of destruction from extreme weather that took lives, demolished buildings and ravaged vital crops. More than 800,000 people were displaced and made homeless, the highest yearly number since records began in 2008. The report lists 151 unprecedented extreme weather events in 2024, meaning they were worse than any ever recorded in the region.”
Trump Just Pardoned … a Corporation? (Sean)
From The Intercept: “Amid a flurry of pardons President Donald Trump issued to white-collar criminals last week, one name that has largely escaped notice did not belong to a person at all. In what may have been a first, Trump pardoned a corporation. The company to earn that distinction was a cryptocurrency exchange sentenced to a $100 million fine for violating an anti-money laundering law. The move surprised scholars of presidential pardons, which have traditionally been considered the domain of human beings. Several experts contacted by The Intercept said Trump appears to have acted within his powers, but they were unaware of any prior instances of corporations granted full pardons.”
Soft Power… From the Very Beginning (Al)
The author writes, “You’ve probably heard the words ‘soft power’ being thrown around a lot lately. It can sound a bit wonky; something that is discussed in hallways of college buildings after political science classes or the academic debates in the text of foreign policy journals. But it’s critically important. The world is a big, chaotic place and soft power is in our best interest to cultivate—and it always has been. That’s the part of the story that isn’t always told. I thought it would be helpful to explain what soft power is, how it works, why it matters, and critically, where it started.”
Quirky Livestream That Lets Viewers Help Fish Is a Hit With Millions (Dana)
From the AP: “The central Dutch city of Utrecht has installed a ‘fish doorbell’ on a river lock that lets viewers of an online livestream alert authorities to fish being held up as they make their springtime migration to shallow spawning grounds. The idea is simple: An underwater camera at Utrecht’s Weerdsluis lock sends live footage to a website. When somebody watching the site sees a fish, they can click a button that sends a screenshot to organizers. When they see enough fish, they alert a water worker who opens the lock to let the fish swim through. Now in its fifth year, the site has attracted millions of viewers from around the world with its quirky mix of slow TV and ecological activism.”
