Native Land Cover, a Safer World, and a Coverup

 #Mike Davis, "Fire in the the Authropocene," The Nation, November 2-9, 2020.

"Our burning deserts are regional expressions of a global trend: the fire-driven transformation and replacement of native land cover from Greenland to Hawaii." "California best illustrates the vicious cycle in which extreme heat leads to frequent extreme fires that prevent regeneration, and with the help of tree diseases accelerate the conversion of iconic landscapes into parched grasslands and treeless mountain slopes. Similarly, over the past 20 years, an exponentially spreading fungal pandemic called sudden oak death has killed millions of live oaks from Big Sur to southwestern Oregon. Climate change, which increases heat and drought, facilitates this disease and drives its spread."

"In the case of Southern California's lifeline, the lower Colorado River, a staggering 20 percent decrease in the current flow has been predicted within a few decades, independent of whether precipitation declines." "A large share of new housing in California over the past 20 years has been built, profitably, but insanely, in high-fire-risk areas like the Sierra foothills. By one estimate, a quarter of the state's population now lives in these interface areas -- with  scores of new developments and master-planned communities in the pipeline." 

#Fareed Fakoaria, "How to build a safer world," TIME, October 10, 2020.

"A 2019 U.N. report, complied by 145 experts from 50 countries, concluded that 'nature is declining   globally at a rate unprecedented in human history.' " The report noted that 75% of all land has been 'severely altered' by human actions, as has 66% of the world's marine environments. "Ecosystems are collapsing, and biodiversity is disappearing." "About 80 billion animals are slaughtered for meat every year around the world. Animal products provide only 18% of calories worldwide, yet take up to 80% of the earth's farmland. Most livestock -- an estimated 99% in America, 74% around the world -- comes from factory farms." 

"To address [the problem] seriously, we would need to start by enacting a carbon tax, which would send the market the right price signal, and raise the revenue needed to fund new technologies, and simultaneously adapt to the already altered planet. Similarly, getting the world to stop eating meat may be impossible, but promoting healthier diets -- with less meat -- would be good for humans and the planet. And factory farming can be re-engineered to be much safer, and far less cruel to animals."

#Ronan Farrow, "The Coverup," The New Yorker, November 9, 2020.

"He [Mark McConnell, a Department of Justice prosecutor] realized that C.I.A. officers and F.B.I. agents, in violation of federal law and Department of Justice guidelines, had concealed the information origins from federal prosecutors, leaving judges and defense lawyers in the dark." "McConnell and other officials accused Patrick Hovakenian, the Associate Deputy Attorney General, of failing to protect McConnell. Hovakenian is President Trump's nominee to become the general counsel for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and his handling of whistle-blower issues has been a central question in his confirmation process."

"Under current law, federal prosecutors can disclose the presence of classified C.I.A. information to judges, and request that it be shielded during trials for national-security reasons." "Giglio v. United States, is a 1972 Supreme Court ruling that obligates prosecutors to disclose information that might call into question the credibility of law-enforcement officials used as witnesses."  

"In 2018, Trump tweeted that 'leakers are traitors and cowards, and we will find out who they are!" "This summer, Senate Republicans stripped whistle-blower protections from annual defense legislation." "McConnell learned this from task-force staff shortly after her [Gina Haspel's] visit." Haspel is the Director of the C.I.A. "In his affidavit to the Senate Intelligence Committee, [McConnell] wrote: "I understand this to mean that the Director of the CIA had personally ordered unlawful retaliation against me for my whistle-blowing activities."

"F.B.I. agents who are accused of making false statements have continued to testify in cases, and some have been promoted."