"Emperor penguins live in a delicate balance with their environment, there is a sea ice 'Goldilocks' zone," said study author Stephanie Jenouvrier, seabird ecologist and associate scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, in a statement. "If there is too little sea ice, chicks can drown when sea ice breaks up early; if there is too much sea ice, foraging trips become too long and more arduous, and the chicks may starve."
The chicks must shed their down before growing the waterproof feathers they use to swim — but if they are still covered in down when the ice breaks, they'll sink.
As top predators, emperor penguins serve as sentinel species, meaning they are ideal species to study in a fluctuating ecosystem because they can reveal if something is wrong. By studying these birds, Zitterbart and his team can learn about the impacts of the climate crisis in Antarctica.
August 2023 update
"Four out of five emperor penguin colonies analyzed in the Bellingshausen Sea, west of the Antarctic Peninsula, saw no chicks survive last year as the area experienced an enormous loss of sea ice, according to a new study published Thursday [August 24, 2023] in the journal Nature Communications Earth & Environment." — CNN
See also: "Re-envisioning Environment". It's an 8-minute read on Medium. Medium lets you read a certain number of stories for free every month. You may also consider a paid membership on the platform.
From today's reading. Andrew J. Hoffman explained in 2015:
...social change is not always linear; there are often periods when change happens in leaps...Social scientists call this pattern of stasis interrupted by rapid social change ‘punctuated equilibrium.’
American physicist and historian Thomas Kuhn first described this process in science as a series of transitions from normal science to revolutionary science. A phase of normal science begins when a theory emerges as dominant to other existing theories and becomes the ‘paradigm.’ But established theories become challenged and ultimately change when anomalous events emerge which cannot be explained or solved by the existing order. Conflict over the nature, meaning, and response to these events ensues, and the period of revolutionary science ends when a new theory is successful in providing a socially adequate response to the anomaly and becomes the basis of a new paradigm.
We can view the shifting beliefs around environmentalism as having been prodded along by such moments of punctuation: Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring in 1962, the Santa Barbara oil spill in 1969, and the Cuyahoga River fire in 1969 challenged pre-existing beliefs about pollution and ushered in the modern environmental movement of the 1970s. The Bhopal disaster of 1984, the discovery of the Antarctic ozone hole in 1985, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986, and the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1990 elevated pollution concerns to a new level and brought environmental issues into the mainstream of business in the 1990s.
See also: "Talking to Climate Skeptics". It's a 10-minute read on Medium. Medium lets you read a certain number of stories for free every month. You may also consider a paid membership on the platform.
In April 2022, when a reporter asked Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene about January 6, she responded, "It was a riot, it was horrible, I hated it, I was shocked, it was a terrible experience," but she also said it happened only "one time" and was "over" so people had grown "sick and tired" of hearing about it. She said "everyone's being prosecuted that should be prosecuted" while also — contradictorily — proposing that the reporter "visit" people who "are rotting in jail pre-trial" (why would he visit them? for sympathy? or for a sympathetic interview?) and that he verify whether those prisoners included anyone from the political left (she was implying that, no, only conservatives are being unfairly jailed). That was a head-spinning dissertation.
There is a legal case against her to determine whether she is eligible for reelection. People who aid insurrections are ineligible. If she is placed legally in that category, she can't run for office again.
Maybe she'll even join Trump's ticket and run on Trump's ticket. On Jan. 30, 2023, Will Leitch wrote on Medium:
"The day a theoretical second Trump administration would begin, January 20, 2025, Trump would be 78 1/2 years old, famously unhealthy, taking over the most stressful job on the planet. And Marjorie Taylor Greene would be his Vice President. There is a potential future, a very real potential future, where Marjorie Taylor Greene is the President of the United States. Pretending that’s not the case is an excellent route to allowing it to happen."
Update: She won, and she got a '60 Minutes' profile.
As a journalist w/ 20 years on the far right beat, I'm going to close-read @60minutes' MTG segment. To start: "MTG is as famous as they get." That's their justification: fame. AKA popularity. AKA the fundamental currency of fascism. 1/
— THE UNDERTOW, by Jeff Sharlet (@JeffSharlet) April 3, 2023
I was interviewed by @washingtonpost about MTG’s vile use of ‘pedophile’ to attack her enemies. The article is below. Today I’m giving the #history of this term as anti-LGBTQ and #antisemitic, and it’s link to #fascism, eugenics, and Nazis. https://t.co/amHSUjXal4
The real scandal in the awful Marjorie Taylor Greene interview is that Lesley Stahl didn't seem to grasp that "pedophile" is a longtime anti-LGBTQ hate trope. She called it "name-calling." This sanitizes an ugly bigoted smear that goes back many years:https://t.co/EXKQaFmam5
This is an interesting counterpoint from @speechboy71: The more national airtime MTG gets, the worse it is for Republicans. And I do agree that the part of the interview about MTG's Parkland conspiracy theorizing was terrible for her:https://t.co/sP4mal36bMpic.twitter.com/zyaJNi4eZH
I also want to highlight this from historian @bschillace, which explains the through line from use of the "pedophile" slur against marriage equality to its ugly use by MTG, which went unrebutted by Stahl:https://t.co/EXKQaFmam5pic.twitter.com/EOhh6uQXVZ
I just… there are a lot of people in journalism right now that would benefit from having a trans colleague on staff they could quickly consult with and get full context on these every day stories and these outlets just flat out refuse to hire us.
Marjorie Taylor Greene's inclusion of mechanisms for prohibiting medical instruction on gender-affirming care and deporting providers in her new anti-trans bill signals two extremely worrying turns in the war on trans people. pic.twitter.com/4ZTpLorug5
She can run for office (and win) but she can't, however, do anything anywhere she likes. Example: "A Florida resort scheduled to host Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) for what organizers claimed would be a small book signing abruptly canceled it Thursday after learning the gathering was actually meant to commemorate the third anniversary of the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol." (HuffPost, Jan 5, 2024)
"While it’s very nice that cars are transitioning from gas to electricity, switching the fuel source of our automobiles is unlikely to be enough to meet our goals for emissions reductions to combat climate change. Combating climate change also requires American to drive less and walk and bike a lot more than we do now."
So, regarding bike safety:
"American states and cities now have an opportunity to do [the] same [as Amsterdam]. But they must act fast, and they must act decisively. This is no time for half-decade-long action plans."
"In an influential essay in 1938, Lewis Mumford, perhaps the greatest American critic of urban planning, defined a city as that place where 'the diffused rays of many beams of life fall into focus.' Cities, said Mumford, are the culmination of humankind’s domination of the earth; they’re where the need for industry and cooperation have come together. Cities are the great sites of monumental and public life they are living museums of themselves, cathedrals to their own glory and to the forms of life they make possible; cities are where vastly different kinds of people can come together with different functions, and desires, and needs, that somehow are orchestrated into the great four-dimensional fold of human social life."
"About a dozen states, including Oklahoma, Arizona, Iowa and Florida, have passed laws banning trans athletes from participating in sports teams consistent with their gender identity. These laws really only target young trans kids in school who are looking to express themselves, play sports with their friends or who like me, escape their anxieties through competition."
See this article by Steven Saus — Oklahoma senator didn't speak to a single trans person before drafting legislation to prevent people from accessing transition care until they're 26 — at which point they're likely uninsured under the Affordable Care Act. So, the sports law wasn't just about sports.
Do you understand what is happening?
This has nothing to do with encouraging girls to be athletes.
This is totalitarianism. It is the white nationalist agenda. The anti-LGBTQ agenda. The anti-abortion agenda. It is all the same agenda.
I've been waiting for 6+ years to see a statistical analysis of sports performances of trans athletes that demonstrates this supposed 'advantage' trans women have. Not just measuring bones and muscles then hand-waving, but hard stats proving trans women win disproportionately.
— @minusplnp@social.transsafety.network (@minusplnp) July 18, 2022
— Arthur Webber 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ (@BernieTranders) March 23, 2023
It is so disappointing to see World Athletics announce a unilateral ban on trans women in track and field events.
Their own statement recognises that there are no trans women competing at an international level and that they have no specific evidence to justify the ban.
Fascinating how she mentions the score for the trans men but not the trans women, almost as if her narrative would fall apart if she did pic.twitter.com/AWIUL1Ly2s
— Lily Simpson IS the Trans Agenda (@LilySimpson1312) April 5, 2023
Sad to report that the people who argued that banning trans women from rugby etc. was necessary on the grounds of ‘safety’ and ‘athletic advantage’ are now losing the entirety of their shit because a trans woman beat a cis woman at…(wait for it)…SNOOKER.
— Based Brenda 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ (they/them) (@SpillerOfTea) August 30, 2022
Well, look at this: "FIDE bans transgender women from competing in women’s chess events pending ‘further analysis’," Ben Church, CNN, August 17, 2023. Under regulations taking effect August 21, trans women must provide the chess organization with "sufficient proof of a gender change that complies with their national laws and regulations," and the organization can take up to two years to decide whether to allow them to play in women's tournaments. Also, "if a player holds a women’s title, but changes their gender to male, their women’s title will be 'abolished.' However, if the gender change is from male to female, all previous titles will remain 'eligible.'" The National Center for Transgender Equality noted that this policy "assumes that cis women couldn’t be competitive against cis men."
A Minnesota court granted a transgender woman athlete the right to participate in DGPT disc golf games for women. In response, the DGPT, "recognized as the top-tier professional league for disc golf athletes," said they'd stop holding women's games — but oddly, not men's games — in states where nondiscrimination laws might require them to allow trans women to compete with cis women. Erin Reed wrote: "DGPT released a statement that announced the cancellations, and cited 'competitive fairness' as their reason for cancelling all female professional games in states with strong protections around gender identity and human rights for transgender people. In the statement, they announce that they 'will not waiver' from this policy..." Note well: It isn't the transgender golfer, but the golf organization itself, that decided to stop hosting golf games. Reed said: "In adopting a similar stance — akin to the notion of 'taking my ball and going home' — DGPT is inflicting harm on the very individuals they purport to be safeguarding." ("Disc Golf Shuts Down 5 Events Because Trans Athlete Wins Court Case": Disc Golf Pro Tour has officially cancelled five events just to stop transgender athlete Natalie Ryan from playing after she won a major court victory. Erin Reed, Erin in the Morning (Substack), July 15, 2023.)
"The Nobles moved [from Iowa to neighboring Minnesota] because one of their children is trans, and the government of their home state of Iowa has decided that it would be better if trans people didn’t exist quite so much in Iowa, and have passed a law to make that happen. ... There are a lot of intentions stated behind this: the desire for fairness in girls’ sports is one, for example—which is interesting, since Republicans have never been particularly interested in funding girls’ sports, and the actual impact of trans kids on high school sports in Iowa is best described as “undetectable.” The desire to keep girls safe in school bathrooms is another, which is sort of rich coming from the same people who refuse to make schools safe from gun massacres, and who insist on forced birth legislation that is making maternal mortality rates spike, and who pass laws that require genital inspection. ... what it actually represents is an eliminationist attack, designed to make trans people and their families not exist—not in Iowa anyway. ...anywhere Republicans are able to gain (or seize) power, they are moving to eliminate trans people. It’s a standard feature of the eliminationist bundle in the United States. It’s sort of table stakes if you’re courting support from nice good-hearted white Christian fascists."
February 2024: "An executive order in Nassau County [New York] banning female transgender athletes from competing on girls’ teams is causing controversy with state officials and lawyers ridiculing it and questioning its legality." ("Hochul joins chorus of opposition to Nassau’s ban on transgender athletic participation," Katelyn Cordero, Politico, Feb 23, 2024)
See also: "Oh, It's About Sports, Is It?". It's a 14-minute read on Medium. Medium lets you read a certain number of stories for free every month. You may also consider a paid membership on the platform.
Sometimes (well, all the time) I am curious about books I notice while browsing Twitter. A few recents:
Short thread of gratitude:
So, this happened. After a convo with the @wwnorton team, I reached out to Judith Butler, a cold email. I'd met them briefly, but I wrote to them about my book, and how their work made not just my book but *myself* possible.https://t.co/lSWV0pw0Fspic.twitter.com/9vVnqMMAfH
— joseph osmundson (all pronouns) (@reluctantlyjoe) April 4, 2022
In Unearthingly, Mithra engages a dizzying array of literary forms to construct a poetic documentation of violence, nationalism, environmental devastation read primarily through the eyes of Cheeky and the unstoppable arc of her girlhood.
Our first publication, WERE TALES: A SHAPESHIFTER ANTHOLOGY, is a finalist for the Imadjinn Awards this year. This is very exciting for all of us here at Brigids Gate Press.
Congratulations to all the other finalists! Lots of great entries in all the categories! pic.twitter.com/a9ZNs2MeQa
reminder that you can preorder my @glass_poetry chapbook about sad Jewish daughter stuff and/or reach out to me to talk about it on your magazine/podcast/online. would love to talk to other Jewish authors as well pls 😇☺️ pic.twitter.com/oHdFq0eYTx
Iceland is a small nation with 265 small museums. Many weird and wonderful, some may even say magical things to discover about the enchanted island and A. Kendra Greene collects them all in The Museum of Whales You Will Never See, a history of obsession, curation and yes, magic. pic.twitter.com/SlkPfPf5pq
— The Margate Bookshop (@margatebookshop) July 19, 2021
This is blowing up so a gentle reminder to drink some water and update your emergency contacts and also my friend @sarafmradio’s newest book The Wonder State (July, 2023) is a terrific coming of age story about magic and home(s) set in the Arkansas Ozarks https://t.co/pXLoeRlrkE
You know what this means, and how important preorders are for a book. But this time, it is @ruthmadievsky's book, and I am her agent, and it was the first book I ever sold, so please, PRE-ORDER YOUR HEARTS OUT!!!https://t.co/tPadHRG6zE
Happy pub day to my firstborn book, PRETEND IT’S MY BODY, which is today a real “boy” (it identifies as an ISBN)! love and gratitude to its many midwives, most especially the stalwart @adamschear and the glorious @FeministPress, as well as my dear friends who keep on cheering. pic.twitter.com/5XUBD5YYlN
— Luke Dani Halloween Is Over Blue (@LukeDaniBlue) October 18, 2022
![The Midnight Society tweets:
[mysterious circle of robed figures]
JK Rowling: hello children
JK Rowling: today we begin our biggessssst challenge
Jesse Singal: bigger than convincing our terf legion that men have a special bone that makes them good at chess?
JK Rowling: no that was remarkably easssy actually](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_SRVk8EmFha5_xiGoaRUjYFwQCEZXVRTnteL57u2lBu2q_cpPqatRhz1D6fT5vdNMEwY7WF_8DjuBqgyE8Q5879LeZnzWbA0XUEFlZewtwull6J67jyI7E_kT-KaxlztazFXl1kfhjjkjIuvGVRK5GJJPTeBlV066C4KBVjG1v8RnW1vsz9KRujhbaxo/s1600/midnight.png)
