Florence and the Meat Machine

Some pretty devastating pictures in today's Washington Post, showing the damage done by animal feeding operations. Cesspools of hog waste, flooding the environment for miles, washing down rivers; that's pretty much as bad as the coal ash reservoirs, breached by the flood, sending accumulated heavy metals downstream. It's going to take a very long time to clean up after this, and remember: North Carolina's gerrymandered legislature has been given the legal OK to continue to organize its voting along racial lines, ensuring that racists and anti-environmental groups still hold sway. Appalling.

Growing pains in Asia

Asia is growing- news flash, right? This article calls attention to the need for production of more meat, whether seafood or land-based.

This article talks about the health consequences of air pollution, and particularly damages that are accruing to intelligence. Crap in the air, it turns out, actually has major consequences for developing brains, with pollution being associated with a penalty of up a year of education.

Finally, another problem associated with climate change is getting worse in India. Climate change changes plant growth patterns in a way that leads to plants having reduced nutritional content. That's bad news for the 1 billion-plus people trying to stay alive on the subcontinent. :(