Tuesday, August 01, 2023

Updates to Recent Posts

 Nine days after the Climate Distortion post, about 175 million people (or close to the total US population in 1960)  in every region of the United States were under heat advisories with many experiencing high heat indexes. The temperature of the ocean off Florida was 100F.  High ocean temperatures in the Atlantic may fuel storms in the fast-approaching hurricane season.  After forty days of excessive heat, the southwest was anticipating moderating temperatures but higher humidity as monsoon rains were forecast for early August.  There were forest fires in ten European countries, as well as Canada and elsewhere around the world.  Antarctic sea ice is the thinnest on record for this time of the year, beating the all time record in 2017 by a considerable margin. The era of global boiling has arrived, said the UN Secretary-General. 

Apropos of the New College of Gilead/Florida post: for the start of the upcoming 2023-24 academic year, New College of Florida announced that 36 of 100 full time teaching positions were vacant.  Six vacancies were the result of resignations, and a quarter of them followed the extreme right takeover of the board of trustees.  In Florida universities generally, the loss of faculty this year is expected to at least double and perhaps triple the normal turnover.  One senior professor at the University of Florida law school who is Black said simply: "Florida is toxic."  He said there's been no new hires of Black teachers for years.  He has left the school and the state, partly for his own safety.  More at the Guardian.

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