- There is a long history of the UK Labour Party sending volunteers to Democratic campaigns in the US (as well as the Conservatives and other rightwing parties sending volunteers to Republican campaigns). Now, though, Donald Trump's campaign is calling it "blatant foreign interference" and has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission.
- The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) held its annual meeting in Hobart this week. Unfortunately every substantive proposal put forward, including the extension of existing measures for the conservation of krill, was vetoed by Russia and China.
- Apparently Donald Trump has promised RFK Jr. control of several public health agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services as well as the Department of Agriculture, if he wins next week. As if there weren't enough other reasons to stop Trump..
- A Republican super-PAC, called Badger Values PAC, is contributing money to Jill Stein's campaign in Wisconsin. Sounds like the Republicans are borrowing a page from Gary Filmon's book.
- A coalition of 17 states, led by Ohio, is challenging California's right to regulate air pollution in the US Supreme Court. Prospects for a reasonable decision are not good. And speaking of the court, they could also be called upon to decide on a disputed presidential election, which is not reassuring. Biden should have enlarged the court while he had the chance.
- A group of American and Italian researchers have discovered a strain of cyanobacteria (often called "blue-green algae") that holds some promise for carbon sequestration. The particular strain, which has been nicknamed "Chonkus", is quite dense, and thus could either sink to the bottom of the ocean, (thus taking a lot of carbon down to a place where it wouldn't be liberated quickly) or be made into pellets that could potentially be used to make useful materials. To be clear, carbon sequestration on its own isn't going to be enough to solve the problem, but it could at least make things less bad than they will otherwise likely be in a few decades.
- Not only do many authoritarian governments have policies that exacerbate rather than mitigate climate change, the disasters resulting from climate change often help authoritarians win power. And the worst part of it is that when things get really bad, tackling the situation sufficiently to keep civilization alive will probably require some policies that we generally associate with authoritarianism.
