All over the east coast and Midwest, forests are getting hotter and drier. Many are also overgrown and overdue for wildfire. And increasingly, Americans are moving to areas where these forests and their homes tangle close together.
The fastest such growth is in the Southeast, where few consider wildfire much of a threat. Molly Samuel with member station WABE reports from Tate City, Georgia.
Additional reporting in this episode from Annie Ropeik of New Hampshire Public Radio and from NPR's Nathan Rott, who reported on fire risk in Wisconsin, home to the deadliest fire in American history.
In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what's going on in your community.
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Reset with Sasha-Ann Simons - An Encampment In Avondale Pulls Chicago’s Homelessness Crisis Into Sharp Focus
Do Chicago’s “cleaning” of homeless encampments protect the health and safety of residents? Or do they perpetuate the cycle of homelessness?
Science In Action - Human induced climate change heats up fast
Scientists say the record-breaking Pacific North-West heatwave of recent weeks must have been caused by human induced climate change, but as Geert Jan van Oldenborgh explains to Roland Pease, despite a herculean effort to analyse the event in just a week, the precise mechanism to cause such an extreme and sudden event is so far bewildering climate modellers, exceeding even worst expectations.
Looking to the skies, Rosita Kokotanekova of the European Southern Observatory and colleagues have been getting excited about the discovery of a comet maybe twice as large as any observed before. Being so big, it has been spotted much further out from the sun and – if the best telescopes can be convinced to join the fun – will provide astronomers a chance to observe the core of the comet before the solar heat induces a gaseous coma to form as it nears the point in its orbit closest to the sun. It will be around for the next decade before continuing its several million year journey around our mutual star.
But it won’t get terribly close to earth, at least not as close as lumps of an asteroid that fell onto a driveway in the UK earlier this year. Dr Ashley King of the UK’s Natural History Museum is leading a consortium of scientists (benefitting from a rapid research grant by the UK’s STFC) who have now officially classified it and named it. The Winchcombe meteorite is a CM carbonaceous chondrite, meaning it represents the unspoilt early building blocks of the solar system. Falling like 4.5 billion year old leftover celestial lego, only a few are known around the world but perhaps none have been in scientists hands in such a short period of time, continuing its pristine survival.
Dr Pablo Tsukayama has published a preprint paper announcing a new variant of interest in the ongoing evolution of the SARS-CoV2 virus. Now named by the WHO as the Lambda variant, it seems it has driven the pandemic for much of this year in Peru – as much as 80% of cases – and large fractions of the outbreak elsewhere in South America. But as Pablo suggests, the reason we don’t know as much about it as for example the Alpha or Delta variants is likely because it hasn’t thus far affected the countries best equipped to do the analysis. Maybe that could change.
Image: Wildfires in Lytton, British Columbia Credit: ProPics Canada Media Ltd/Getty Images
Presenter: Roland Pease Producer: Alex Mansfield
Village SquareCast - A Conversation with President Thomas Jefferson
In a live audience taping of The Thomas Jefferson Hour, we looked through the eyes of the author of the Declaration of Independence and marked our progress toward a more perfect union. We considered what both Mr. Jefferson and those of us charged with perfecting America today might think is yet to achieve.
Thomas Jefferson is portrayed by Presidential Scholar Clay Jenkinson, who has spoken as Jefferson in forty-nine states over a period of fifteen years, having performed before Supreme Court justices, presidents, eighteen state legislatures, and countless public, corporate and student audiences as well as appearing on The Today Show, Politically Incorrect, The Colbert Report and CNN. Clay is a humanities scholar, Rhodes Scholar, author and social commentator who is considered one of the most entertaining and articulate public speakers in the country.
Clay will be joining us again soon for Dead Presidents + Living Statues as we continue the conversation and talk openly about Jefferson's hypocrisy and the debate around statues in our country.
This program is part of the Created Equal and Breathing Free podcast series presented in partnership with Florida Humanities.
Find this event, including speaker bios, online at The Village Square.
CoinDesk Podcast Network - BREAKDOWN: Are GBTC Unwinds Bullish or Bearish for Bitcoin?
With so many strong opinions about the mechanisms behind GBTC and BTC plays, the answer is elusive.
This episode is sponsored by NYDIG.
NLW explores the debate surrounding the GBTC unlock’s bearish or bullish nature on this episode of “The Breakdown,” including:
- Historical impacts of market structure on prices
- GBTC’s influence on markets as its premium attracted investors
- Analysis of the GBTC unlock bearish vs. bullish debate
Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) is an investment vehicle that allows institutional and public market investors to invest in bitcoin without purchasing the cryptocurrency directly.
While many GBTC investors were simply looking for public market exposure to bitcoin, many firms also took a more strategic approach to capture the neutral arbitrage trade of GBTC shares trading at a premium to the native asset value (NAV) of bitcoin. The demand for public market vehicles coupled with a lack of other alternatives placed GBTC at a desirable premium.
The GBTC NAV trade was a significant source of buying pressure through the back half of 2020 and the beginning of 2021, but when the premium turned to a discount (thanks to a variety of factors, including competition from other bitcoin proxies in the public markets), that source of buying pressure dried up.
When an investor buys into GBTC, their shares are locked up for six months. More than 100,000 bitcoin worth of shares are expected to be released throughout July. The looming flood of shares into secondary markets has sparked a debate on whether the unlock will be bearish or bullish for the spot price of bitcoin.
Featuring commentary from Lyn Alden, Loomdart, Willy Woo and more.
Grayscale is owned by Digital Currency Group, which is CoinDesk's parent company.
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NYDIG, the institutional-grade platform for Bitcoin, is making it possible for thousands of banks who have trusted relationships with hundreds of millions of customers, to offer Bitcoin. Learn more at NYDIG.com/NLW.
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Image credit: Francis Specker/Bloomberg/Getty Images, modified by CoinDesk
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Cato Daily Podcast - A High Court Win for Nonprofit Donor Privacy
In AFPF v. Bonta, the Supreme Court made clearer that donors to nonprofits deserve greater privacy protection from state actors. Trevor Burrus examines the case
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The Commentary Magazine Podcast - COVID, Class Action, and Clowns
We talk about the recent uptick in U.S. COVID cases, the ever-elusive end of the pandemic, and the skepticism around vaccines and lockdowns. We touch on Donald Trump’s move against Big Tech, and we close out with some old sitcom gems. Hint: Chuckles the Clown. Give a listen. Source
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Audio Poem of the Day - Matisse
By Gertrude Stein
CBS News Roundup - World News Roundup: 07/08
Ending the search for condo collapse survivors. Tropical Storm Elsa moves up the coast. Lightning strikes twice as Tampa Bay wins the Stanley Cup. CBS News Correspondent Steve Kathan has today's World News Roundup.
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The Intelligence from The Economist - Assassins’ deed: Haiti’s president killed
Jovenel Moïse presided, in an increasingly authoritarian way, over a country slipping toward failed-state status. The unrest is likely to worsen following his assassination. The Democratic primary race for New York’s mayor has at last been decided, with lessons for Democrats elsewhere and for fans of ranked-choice voting. And the movement to revive Islam’s bygone relaxed attitudes to homosexuality.
For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer