A BIT OF GOOD NEWS FOR THANKSGIVING

If you've been following the escalating climate crisis, you know that decarbonization of the global economy is a crucial part of achieving a sustainable world. The good news is that the U.S. is moving in the right direction. The latest assessment of how much carbon was injected into the atmosphere from US electricity generation shows that the carbon intensity--pounds of carbon dioxide per MW-hour--dropped 9 percent since this time last year. Total generation fell by 4 percent in the same period. Even better, that's a 40 percent reduction in carbon intensity of power generation in just the last 15 years. 

Carbon emissions per MW-hour in U.S. 2001-2019

Credit: Power Sector Carbon Index, 

Scott Institute for Energy Innovation 

"The U.S. electricity sector is continuing to get cleaner, and both carbon intensity and overall emissions are dropping," said Costa Samaras, assistant professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and co-director of Carnegie Mellon's Power Sector Carbon Index.

The researchers say that this encouraging and continuing trend is due to the decline of coal-powered electricity generation, the increase in power from natural gas, and from renewables such as wind and solar. "We're in the middle of an energy transition right now, and the biggest part of that story in the U.S. is how swiftly coal has been declining over the past decade," said Samaras. "The decline of coal can be attributed to the rise of natural gas, the continued improvement of renewables, and energy efficiency efforts."

There's lots of room for improvement, however. Wind, solar and hydropower still account for less than 20 percent of U.S. electricity, just about equal to nuclear, the other zero-emissions source of power.

The goal, the experts point out, is to continue to produce abundant power while emitting less and less carbon, and also to grow the use of zero- or low-emission electricity in transportation, buildings and industry.

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REA

NOW SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT--A NEW AND BETTER WAY TO CALCULATE YOUR DOG'S AGE

Have you ever noticed how inaccurate the conventional idea that one year in a dog's life equals 7 human years is? Well so did Trey Ideker at UC San Diego and his colleagues. You can read about the details of their study--based on changes to DNA over time--here. The bottom line is that dogs age much more quickly than humans for the first few years, but then their rate of ageing slows down.

It turns out that for dogs one year old or older, a more accurate formula is:

Equivalent human age =16 * ln (dog's age in years) + 31.

That's 16 times the natural logarithm of the dog's age in years, plus 31. 

 Ruff, age 12, or 70.8 using the new formula

Credit: Carol Von Canon/Creative Commons

The link above has a convenient calculator you can use to see how well you think the formula works.

It certainly seems to make more sense for older dogs, for whom the age-times-seven formula makes 12-year-old Ruff 84, and any dog over 14 a centenarian. The logarithmic calculation produces much more reasonable ages for older dogs. See for yourself.

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REA

WANT TO LIVE LONGER? GET A DOG.

Two recent studies show that owning a dog can significantly extend one's life, especially after a major health setback such as a heart attack or stroke. The researchers chalk up the health benefits of dog ownership to reduced social isolation, more exercise and lowered blood pressure.

 Two studies show that dog ownership

provides significant health benefits

Photo credit: Airman 1st Class Isaiah J. Soliz

Tove Fall, a professor at Uppsala University, in Sweden, explains the striking results of a study following nearly 340,000 Swedes aged 40 to 85 after a stroke or heart attack. Heart-attack survivors who lived alone but owned a dog were a remarkable 33 percent less likely to die during the study period than similar patients without a dog. Dog-owning stroke patients living alone were 27 percent less likely to die. The life-extending benefits of dog ownership were somewhat less for people living with others, but still substantial.

"We know that social isolation is a strong risk factor for worse health outcomes and premature death. Previous studies have indicated that dog owners experience less social isolation and have more interaction with other people. Furthermore, keeping a dog is a good motivation for physical activity, which is an important factor in rehabilitation and mental health."

A separate piece of research melded together ten separate studies involving a total of 3.8 million people. This meta-analysis showed that dog owners were 24 percent less likely to die from any cause than non-dog owners. Dog ownership proved especially protective for people recovering from a heart attack--they experienced a huge 65 percent reduction in mortality risk.

The authors of these studies point out that these results don't prove a cause-and-effect relationship between owning a dog and a longer, healthier life. However, they clearly show a powerful correlation and add a new data-supported dimension to the old saw that dogs really are our best friends.

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REA

DONALD TRUMP IS OUR ID MONSTER

I saw the sci-fi movie Forbidden Planet when it came out in 1956. Even though I was just ten years old, it made a huge impression on me.

In it, a team from Earth lands on Altair IV, a planet where aging scientist Morbius and his daughter Altaira are the only survivors of an earlier expedition. Morbius warns that the planet is haunted by a monster with incredible powers. I still recall a scene in which the raging, previously invisible monster is outlined in sparks as it penetrates a force field protecting the visiting spacecraft, and another in which it melts its way through a supposedly impenetrable door.

The Id Monster from Forbidden Planet

Credit: Joshua Meador/United Artists

We eventually learn that the monster isn't real; it's a projection of Morbius' id, amplified and made incredibly powerful by an enormous machine that is all that remains of the Krell, a race of hyper-intelligent beings that disappeared suddenly 200,000 years earlier. 

We eventually learn that it was the machine's unleashing of the Krell's own unconscious fears and hatreds that led to their extinction.  In turn, it was Morbius' inner demons, manifested by the Krell machine, that destroyed everyone in the previous expedition except for him and his daughter. 

Not surprisingly, Morbius strenuously denies the possibility that he is the source of the monster. But finally, when the monster melts through a supposedly impenetrable door and threatens Altaira and him, he confronts it. The confrontation proves fatal, but the moment Morbius dies the monster vanishes.

In retrospect, Forbidden Planet was one of many films--science fiction and otherwise--that gave us a glimpse beneath the shiny surface of America in the 1950s. Movies like Rear Window, On the Waterfront, Strangers on a Train, Rebel Without a Cause, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Them, High Noon and many more expressed the fears, darkness and delusions of postwar American life and culture. On the surface, Ike's America seemed buoyant and optimistic, but those films exposed the hidden fault lines and mounting pressure that lay beneath.

Fast forward five decades, and we find ourselves grappling with our very own id monster in the form of Donald Trump. In his race-baiting campaign, his slimy, hate-fueled rallies, his fox-in-the-henhouse appointments and his draconian immigration policies he voices and acts out the inner demons of our nation--racism, xenophobia, authoritarianism, greed, narcissism, religious intolerance, white nationalism; in fact just about every kind of fear and hatred. And as head of state and commander in chief he controls the mighty Krell machine that amplifies those ugly, destructive drives and makes them dangerously real.

We have a President who demonizes Muslims and Hispanics and would lock them out of the US, who repeatedly labels the press the enemy of the people, who smears and demeans his adversaries, incites violence, has assaulted and is contemptuous of women, lies constantly and shamelessly, embraces conspiracy theories, scorns our allies but loves dictators and uses the office of President and US foreign policy for his own personal and political gain. He's an arrogant, nasty and dangerous bully, now wielding world-shaking power.

There's no doubt that Trump as President and Commander in Cheif amplifies our nation's dark drives and turns them into dangerous and destructive real-life events. There's also no doubt that the darkness was always there, lurking in the shadows and biding its time. As progressives have been pointing out for decades, we as a nation need to acknowledge and confront our history of slavery, genocide, patriarchy, and imperialism--not to mention our current rush towards ecocide--if we are ever to live up to the ideals of liberty and equality that comprise our conscious self-image and that we have at times shown the world.

As Einstein famously pointed out, "We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them." Trump's world is one of towers and walls, with him, his family, and those who are absolutely loyal to him high in their real or imagined castles and protected by walls from what they see as the dirty and dangerous rabble below. If we dream of a different world, we can't hide in our own towers and behind our own walls, physical, emotional or intellectual. As Morbius showed us, unless we accept and confront our own id-monsters, they will break through whatever walls we build. 

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REA