Trump praises India’s religious freedom while Muslim-Hindu violence erupts

The violence that broke out Sunday and continued through Tuesday was one of the deadliest clashes the Indian capital has seen in decades.

A TALE OF TWO CITIES PHOTO ESSAY
Two very different scenes played out in New Delhi and across India this week.
By Sigal Samuel and Kainaz Amaria Feb 25, 2020 VOX

President Trump leaves a ‘Namaste Trump’ rally at a giant 

cricket stadium on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, India, on

 February 24, 2020. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

MODI AND TRUMP ARE ARYAN NATIONALISTS

President Donald Trump wrapped up his first official visit to India on Tuesday, after touring the Taj Mahal in Agra, addressing huge crowds of fans at a stadium in Ahmedabad, and meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss trade and politics in New Delhi.

At one point, Trump praised the Indian leader for “working very hard on religious freedom.”

But just 10 miles away, in the capital’s working-class neighborhood of Maujpur, tensions boiled over into violence. At least 13 people, including Muslims and Hindus, were killed. Dozens more were badly injured. Residents attacked each other with petrol bombs, clubs, and rocks. Muslim-owned shops and mosques were looted, burned down, and vandalized.

Police officers and paramilitary troops were called in, but some Muslims said the security forces didn’t intervene to stop the Hindu mobs. The violence, which broke out Sunday and continued through Tuesday, was the deadliest communal clash the Indian capital has seen in decades.

Yet Trump and Modi carried on with their scheduled lunch and meetings on Tuesday as if all was well. The American president refused to comment on the Hindu-Muslim violence or the controversial new citizenship law that triggered it, saying only, “I want to leave that to India. And hopefully they’re going to make the right decision for the people.”

Hundreds of thousands of Indians are in their third month of protests against a citizenship law that will fast-track citizenship for migrants from many religious minorities, but not for Muslims. Human rights advocates have been challenging it in the Supreme Court on the grounds that it’s unconstitutional.

India is home to 200 million Muslims, or 14 percent of the Hindu-majority country. Under Modi, they are facing mounting threats to their status and safety.

The new law is closely linked with the National Register of Citizens, part of the government’s effort to weed out people it claims are illegal immigrants in the northeastern state of Assam. Residents there have a limited time to prove that they are legitimate citizens — or risk being rounded up into massive new detention camps and, ultimately, deported.

Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has said it plans to extend the NRC process to the whole country. With so many people facing the threat of detention and deportation, the United Nations and Human Rights Watch are warning that this could soon turn into a humanitarian crisis of horrifying proportions.

All this has turned India into a tinderbox ready to ignite. The killing this week in New Delhi threatens to set off a larger conflagration in a country with a long history of Hindu-Muslim riots.

The contrast between events that happened in parallel — a buzzy sightseeing tour for powerful leaders and a clash that’s left more than a dozen people dead — is perhaps best conveyed by photographs. We’ve selected a few below.

President Trump, first lady Melania Trump and India’s Prime

 Minister Narendra Modi attend the “Namaste Trump” rally 

on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, on February 24, 2020. 

Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

“We will always remember this remarkable hospitality,” 

Trump said of the rally held in his honor at a gigantic 

cricket stadium. “We will remember it forever.”

 Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Police detain an activist from the Center of Indian Trade 

Unions during a protest against President Trump’s visit

 to India in Hyderabad. Noah Seelam/AFP via Getty Images

“We think we’re at a point where our relationship is so special

 with India, it has never been as good as it is now,” Trump 

said at the rally in Ahmedabad, where he shook hands with 

Modi. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

An activist from the Center of Indian Trade Unions is detained

 during a protest in Hyderabad.

Noah Seelam/AFP via Getty Images

White House senior advisers Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner

 attend the “Namaste Trump” rally. Over 100,000 people 

attended the rally. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Activists from All India Democratic Students Organization 

protest against the arrival of President Trump in New Delhi.

 Yawar Nazir/Getty Images

Members of the US Secret Service and Indian Special 

Protection Group (SPG) stand guard during the 

“Namaste Trump” rally. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Activists protest in Guwahati, India, against President

 Trump’s visit. Anuwar Ali Hazarika/Barcroft Media 

via Getty Images

President Trump and Melania Trump visit the Taj Mahal 

in Agra on February 24, 2020. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Indian police and paramilitary forces react to clashes between

 groups over the Citizenship Amendment Act in New Delhi, 

on February 24, 2020 Yawar Nazir/ Getty Images

India’s President Ram Nath Kovind and his wife Savita Kovind 

greet President Trump and Melania Trump as they arrive

 at the Presidential Palace in New Delhi, on February 25, 2020. 

Money Sharma/AFP via Getty Images

Student activists protest against President Trump’s visit to 

India, in Kolkata. Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP via Getty Images

An Indian police officer and a civilian were killed as clashes 

between groups over the Citizenship Amendment Act, 

a controversial law that will fast-track citizenship for 

migrants from many religious minorities, but not for Muslims. 

Yawar Nazir/Getty Images

Demonstrations were held in Shaheen Bagh, a Muslim-majority

 area in New Delhi, where hundreds of women have been

 holding a sit-in protest over the past two months. 

Yawar Nazir/Getty Images

Indian police stand guard in front of damaged vehicles and 

shops in New Delhi. Yawar Nazir/Getty Images

The violence that broke out Sunday and continued through 

Tuesday was one of the deadliest clashes the Indian capital

 has seen in decades. Yawar Nazir/Getty Image

President Trump and Melania Trump stand with India’s

 President Ram Nath Kovind and his wife Savita Kovind 

during a state banquet at Rashtrapati Bhavan, the 

Presidential Palace in New Delhi on February 25, 2020. 

Alex Brandon/AFP via Getty Images 

While the Trumps had a sumptuous banquet at the Presidential 

Palace in New Delhi, havoc overtook the streets outside. 

Yawar Nazir/Getty Images

Melania Trump visits a government school in New Delhi.

 Sanchit Khanna/Hindustan Times via Getty Images

Women flee from an area where violence erupted in Delhi. 

Yawar Nazir/Getty Images

Trump, flanked by the first lady and Indian Prime Minister 

Narendra Modi, pose for reporters prior to a meeting at 

Hyderabad House in New Delhi. Imtiyaz Khan/Anadolu

 Agency via Getty Images

Protesters walk in traffic demonstrating against the arrival 

of Trump in Kolkata, India. Indranil Aditya/NurPhoto 

via Getty Images 

Donald and Melania Trump wave as they board Air Force

 One in Agra, India. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

At least 20 killed in violent clashes in India's capital

Three days of clashes in India's capital city of New Delhi between opponents and supporters of India's new citizenship law left at least 20 dead and more than 150 injured. The violence erupted during and after President Trump's first official visit to the subcontinent.

HINDU NATIONALISTS HINDUTVA ATTACK MUSLIM NEIGHBOURHOODS
The clashes involved Hindus and Muslims in Muslim-majority neighborhoods about 11 miles from where Mr. Trump stayed and conducted meetings.

Authorities have started releasing the details of those killed in the clashes, said New Delhi Television (NDTV), and four have been identified. Two men, an auto rickshaw driver and a handicrafts trader were Muslim, while two others, a marketing executive and a policeman, were Hindu.

The demonstrations against the law have led to other violent protests since it passed in December, but demonstrations had been mostly peaceful in New Delhi. 

11 SLIDES 
© Adnan Abidi/Reuters © Sajjad Hussain/AFP © Prakash Singh/AFP 
© Danish Siddiqui/Reuters © Manish Rajput/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images
 

1/11 SLIDES © Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty Images

A firefighter walks past damaged shops at a tyre market after they were set on fire by a mob in a riot affected area after clashes erupted between people demonstrating for and against a new citizenship law in New Delhi, India, February 26, 2020.

 

2/11 SLIDES © Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty Images
Local residents look at burnt-out vehicles following clashes in New Delhi, on Feb. 26.
3/11 SLIDES © Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty Images
A Hindu religious flag is seen on a minaret of a burnt-out mosque following clashes between people supporting and opposing a contentious amendment to India's citizenship law, in New Delhi, on Feb. 26.

4/11 SLIDES © Adnan Abidi/Reuters
Firefighters douse the burning wreckage of a shop at a tyre market after it was set on fire by a mob during the riot, in New Delhi, on Feb. 26.

The capital of India, Delhi has faced the worst sectarian violence in decades after the clashes between people supporting and opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). The death toll from several days of rioting has reached to 17.(Pictured) A firefighter walks past damaged shops at a tyre market after they were set on fire by a mob in a riot affected area after clashes erupted between people demonstrating for and against a new citizenship law in New Delhi, India, on Feb. 26.
The Citizenship Amendment Act provides a path to citizenship for some immigrants from India's neighboring nations — as long as they're non-Muslim. The Indian government says the law's aim is to protect other religious minorities and that most of its Muslim immigrants come primarily from other Muslim countries. Opponents argue the law goes against the country's constitution, which states India is a secular nation. Critics of the law say that means India cannot exclude immigrants based on religion.

When asked about the attacks at a news conference Tuesday, Mr. Trump said he hadn't discussed individual attacks with Prime Minister Modi and that it was "up to India."

"If we look back and look at what's going relative to other places especially, they have really worked hard on religious freedom," Mr. Trump said.

© Provided by CBS News Security personnel patrol an area following clashes between supporters and opponents of a new citizenship law in New Delhi on February 25, 2020.

NDTV reported that three of its reporters and a cameraman had been attacked in the clashes, and were asked to "prove their religion." The network said more than 150 people, including a child, had been injured as armed mobs swept through sections of northeast Delhi with reports of stone throwing, arson, and vandalism.

There were also reports of tear gas being fired at protesters, and violent clashes between protesters and the outnumbered police.

The government issued orders late Monday evening in India banning large gatherings across the northeast area of the city.

Police were initially slow to respond to the demonstrations, according to NDTV.

After reports that police were stopping ambulances from going into the affected areas, the Delhi High Court ordered police to ensure the safe transport of injured people to hospitals.

The areas in northeast Delhi where the clashes happened looked like a war zone— roads were covered with bricks and stones and several shops and houses were gutted.


Indian security management held several meetings Wednesday morning. Despite assurances by police Tuesday that the "situation is in control," the clashes didn't stop and the death toll kept rising. 
 
Slide 5 of 11: Men make their way around burnt-out vehicles following clashes between people supporting and opposing a contentious amendment to India's citizenship law, in New Delhi on February 26, 2020. - Four more people have died in some of the worst sectarian violence in decades in New Delhi, a hospital source told AFP, which takes the death toll from several days of rioting to 17. 

6/11 SLIDES © Prakash Singh/AFP

Security personnel patrol on a street near burnt-out vehicles following clashes between people supporting and opposing a contentious amendment to India's citizenship law, in New Delhi on February 26, 2020. - Four more people have died in some of the worst sectarian violence in decades in New Delhi, a hospital source told AFP, which takes the death toll from several days of rioting to 17

7/11 SLIDES © Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty Images

A man speaks on his mobile phone as he walks past a 

burnt-out mosque and shops, in New Delhi, on Feb. 26.

 

8/11 SLIDES © Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty Images

A man speaks on a mobile phone as he looks at a burnt-out gas station in New Delhi, on Feb. 26.

9/11 SLIDES © Danish Siddiqui/Reuters

A woman speaks with a police officer during a sit-in protest in a riot affected area in New Delhi, on Feb. 25.

10/11 SLIDES © Danish Siddiqui/Reuters

A police vehicle moves past burning debris that was set on fire by demonstrators in a riot affected area in New Delhi, on Feb. 25.

11/11 SLIDES © Manish Rajput/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images

Paramilitary troopers patrol streets during the protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) at Jaffrabad, in New Delhi, on Feb. 25.

Worst communal violence in Delhi in decades leaves 20 dead as Trump visits India


Joanna Slater, Niha Masih, Tania Dutta

NEW DELHI —Rioters roamed the streets with iron rods and wooden sticks, demanding to know whether people were Hindus or Muslims. Mosques were damaged and shops were set ablaze, sending smoke billowing high into the air. People with gunshot wounds and blunt trauma from hurled stones rushed into a nearby hospital.

Two days of communal violence in the northeastern part of Delhi have left at least 17 people dead and 150 injured in the worst such clashes in India’s capital in decades.

The violence happened to unfold as President Trump made his first official visit to India and conducted meetings Tuesday in the tony central area of the city home to central government buildings and embassies.

The riots represent a serious escalation of tensions after months of protests in response to a controversial citizenship law and growing frictions between supporters and opponents of the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Since winning reelection last year in a landslide victory, Modi has moved swiftly to implement his party’s agenda of Hindu primacy in India, a multireligious democracy founded as a secular nation. The citizenship law, which provides a fast track to citizenship for migrants from six religions — excluding Islam — is the most contentious step yet. While India is a Hindu-majority nation, Muslims make up about 14 percent of its 1.3 billion people.

Hundreds of thousands of people have participated in peaceful protests against the law. Some protests have turned violent, and the government mounted a crackdown, storming university campuses and making widespread arrests. Nearly 20 people were killed in protests in India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, in December.






The capital of India, Delhi has faced the worst sectarian violence in decades after the clashes between people supporting and opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). The death toll from several days of rioting has reached to 17.(Pictured) A firefighter walks past damaged shops at a tyre market after they were set on fire by a mob in a riot affected area after clashes erupted between people demonstrating for and against a new citizenship law in New Delhi, India, on Feb. 26.Slideshow by photo services

On Tuesday night, police had barricaded the road to Maujpur, a poor and densely populated neighborhood of narrow lanes that reported some of the worst violence. Isolated gunshots punctuated the tense silence. All of the shops were shuttered.

This week’s violence in northeastern Delhi is the worst in the capital since at least 1992, when there were nationwide riots, and possibly since the anti-Sikh riots of 1984.

The trigger for the clashes came when Kapil Mishra, a local leader of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, on Sunday threatened to clear a sit-in mounted by protesters, nearly all Muslim women, against the citizenship law. He said he would take no action while Trump was visiting but that if police did not move the protesters soon, he would take matters into his own hands.

What happened next remains unclear and chaotic, but groups of Hindus and Muslims hurled stones at one another Monday.

Adil Khan, 29, lives in the neighborhood of Kardampuri and said Muslims gathered in the street to defend themselves after a message went out that a mob was massing to attack. By the next morning, the mob was closer.

Buildings burn in New Delhi amid worst clashes in India’s capital in decades

“From our house, we could see the mobs burning vehicles and shops,” he said. “The mob was very close. I was scared for my life.”

In a nearby area, groups of Hindu activists wielding sticks roamed the streets below Bilal Rabbani’s house, pounding on the hoods of passing cars and forcing them to chant “Jai Shri Ram,” or “Victory to Lord Ram,” a favorite slogan of Modi’s Hindu nationalist ruling party. Rabbani said supporters of the citizenship law — who appeared to be outsiders, rather than people who lived in the neighborhood — also set fire to Muslim shops as police looked on.

“People used to say that things will change for Muslims if [Modi] wins and I never believed them,” said Rabbani, 25, who is training to be a librarian. “But I can see it now.”

Several journalists were attacked. Saurabh Shukla, a reporter with New Delhi Television, said he and a colleague were on an overpass filming damage to a mosque Tuesday when they were spotted by rioters. The rioters came and began punching and beating his colleague with sticks, damaging three of his teeth. He and his colleague were allowed to leave only after Shukla showed them a string of prayer beads to prove he was Hindu and deleted the footage from their phones, Shukla said




  SLIDES © Danish Siddiqui/Reuters

Police struggled to contain the violence, and witnesses said some joined in at points. A Reuters correspondent said he saw policemen encouraging supporters of the law to throw stones at Muslim protesters. Mohammad Sajid, 40, who works at a shop, said police arrived in his Muslim-dominated neighborhood on Tuesday afternoon and fired tear gas. When angry residents began to throw stones, the police opened fire, he said, hitting his younger brother in his back.

He said he saw five others with gunshot wounds. “It’s a dark day,” said Sajid. The “police shouldn’t have fired.” A spokesman for the Delhi police did not respond to calls and messages seeking comment on the incident.

On Tuesday night, nearly a dozen injured people arrived on motorbikes, rickshaws and ambulances at Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, several with gunshot injuries. Rajesh Kumar Singh, 36, came with a gunshot wound in his thigh. Singh’s brother Amit said he was shot by masked men near his home and blamed Muslims for the attack.

“Why are they attacking us? If they are against the [citizenship] law, they should tell the government,” said Singh.

Sajid, the shop worker, said the area was plunged into bloodshed when members of the ruling party decided to confront opponents of the law. For two months, the protest against the citizenship law in the area had unfolded “without any violence,” he said. “Things turned ugly when the [law’s] supporters came.”

joanna.slater@washpost.com

niha.masih@washpost.com

Saurabh Sharma in Lucknow contributed to this report.
Slideshow by photo services

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=HINDUISM IS FASCISM, CASTISM AND RACISM

Baboon ready for vasectomy escapes with 2 female pals


Storm Gifford

In movies, it’s usually the humans running from the primates.

© AP Photo/Halden Krog In this photo taken on Monday, Sept. 17, 2018, baboons forage near the Buitenverwachting Wine Farm in the historic wine growing area of Constantia, Cape Town. Groups of baboons regularly raid vineyards on the foothills of South Africa’s Table Mountain, dodging and weaving as farm workers with motorbikes and paintball guns try to chase them off the land. The workers even wear leopard print clothes and lion masks in an attempt to scare off the baboons on the mountainside overlooking Cape Town. The cat-and-mouse maneuvers are happening in the Constantia vineyards, home to farms that produce some of South Africa’s finest wines. (AP Photo/Halden Krog)

Three Australian baboons — including a male who was set to receive a vasectomy — made a break for it Tuesday by escaping from a truck at a Sydney research facility, confirmed police.


After shocked onlookers spotted the trio of simians in a parking lot, officials were able to capture them unharmed, reported the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Brad Hazzard, the New South Wales Minister for Health and Medical Research, stated that the 15-year-old male was accompanied by two females baboons who were meant to keep him calm before his surgery.

“He cut loose before the big cut,” joked Hazzard.

The animals reportedly aren’t involved in research projects, and the minister claimed the vasectomy for the male would go on as planned.

“The reason they are doing (the operation) is to allow (the baboon) to continue to live his life in peace and harmony with his own family and they couldn’t have him continuing constantly to breed within the troupe because it presents all sorts of genetic problems.”

Some Aussies found humor in the not-so-great escape.

“And, I for one, welcome our new escaped baboon overlords,” joked Twitter user Justin Warren.

Another social media user also piled on.

“Can’t believe Melbournians think Sydney has no culture when stuff like this happens,” tweeted Joe Cordy.

But Animal Justice Party MP Emma Hurst was in no mood to chuckle, claiming the baboons were medical experimentation survivors.

“Several baboons have made an attempted flee to freedom in a desperate attempt to avoid further painful procedures forced upon their bodies against their will,” wrote Hurst on social media. “These are the hidden faces behind animal experimentation in this country.”

SEE
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/sydney-baboon-escape-police-confirm.html

A Forgotten Forest of Ancient Trees Was Devastated by Bushfires

Maddie Stone

Deep in the rain forest on the southern edge of Australia’s Nightcap Range, around 200 unassuming gray trees are among the last survivors of a fallen world. These are Eidothea hardeniana, trees that trace their roots to the bygone supercontinent of Gondwana, where long-necked sauropods grazed on towering conifers and flowers were an evolutionary novelty.  

© Darcy Grant Bushfires burnt through groves in Australia's Nightcap range.

The Eidothea lineage has survived the fracturing of its continent and the cosmic catastrophe that ended the age of the dinosaurs. But it might not survive the disaster now facing it, living in a biosphere that’s been vandalized by humanity.

Tens of millions of years of tectonic transfiguration and the slow desiccation of Australia have steadily eroded Eidothea’s territory, constricting its two living species to patches of forest along the continent’s eastern coastline. One of those species, Eidothea hardeniana, or the Nightcap Oak, occupies just a few acres of land in a rain-forest preserve. The grove’s adult trees resprout over and over by cloning, and some of them are likely to be many thousands of years old.

This past bushfire season killed at least 10 percent of the population. It was the worst in living memory—a disaster brought on by a multiyear drought, months of extreme heat, and the warming, drying effects of humanity’s fossil carbon emissions—and up to 30 percent of Eidothea hardeniana’s grove was harmed by fire. For a species that numbers so few, Robert Kooyman, a botanist at Macquarie University, told me, “losing any individuals is a disaster.”

“Elements of what you lose … are irreplaceable,” he said. “If we’ve lost some of its genetic diversity, in evolutionary terms that’s lost forever.”

[Read: How long will Australia be livable?]

While the Nightcap grove is ancient, the scientific community was unaware of its existence until a few decades ago. In 1988, Kooyman was walking along a creek in a remote part of Nightcap National Park when he discovered a juvenile tree with elliptical, sawtooth-edged leaves he couldn’t identify. The tree seemed to have some affinity to Proteaceae, an early family of flowering plants with a lineage going back more than 120 million years. But its identity would remain a mystery until Kooyman returned to the same patch of forest 12 years later and came upon specimens of the same type of tree in different stages of growth: a seedling, a sapling, and an adult tree with fleshy golden fruits underneath it. When he returned a few months after that, he discovered its tubular, cream-colored flowers.

With the entire life cycle of the plant now evident, Kooyman and fellow botanist Peter Weston of the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney soon confirmed that the tree was, in fact, a member of Proteaceae. They set about formally describing the species, and in 2002, they gave it a name: Eidothea hardeniana.

Eidothea was a goddess from Homer’s The Odyssey, a daughter of Proteus, with extraordinary powers. Hardeniana, meanwhile, paid homage to Gwen Harden, a prolific botanist at the Royal Botanic Garden who was on the brink of retirement.

“We regarded Gwen as something of our goddess of the rain forest, but she’d never had a species named for her,” Kooyman said. “To support women in science and acknowledge her incredible contributions, we named our newly discovered goddess for Gwen.”

The mythological epithet is appropriate in more ways than one. Based on DNA evidence, researchers have estimated that the Eidothea genus evolved more than 70 million years ago, deep in the history of flowering plants. At that time, Antarctica, Australia, and South America’s Patagonia region were stitched together into an evolved form of Gondwana blanketed in temperate rain forest. Many of the plant lineages found growing in the Nightcap area today, including araucaria and eucalyptus trees and evergreen tree ferns, are present in Gondwanan fossil beds from Argentina to Antarctica, suggesting Eidothea is part of a primitive botanical community that spanned the supercontinent.

[Read: The bleak future of Australia wildlife]

“It represents an ancient lineage from an ancient family,” Peter Wilf, a paleobotanist at Penn State University who studies remnant Gondwanan forests, told me. “It also represents an ancient type of forest.” In fact, ecological surveys suggest that in addition to sheltering dozens of threatened endemic animals, the Nightcap area is more “Gondwanan,” floristically speaking, than any other place in Australia.

“It’s a true refugia,” Kooyman said—an area that serves as a sort of biotic bomb shelter where species can survive geologic upheaval.

Now, it’s a shelter in crisis. In early November, a lightning-sparked blaze flared up near Nightcap National Park’s border, and before long, the grove’s understory had started to burn. With firefighters’ resources stretched thin and the weather working against them, not every leafy resident could be saved.

When Kooyman traveled to the Nightcap area in late November to start assessing the damage, he found a grim sight. All of the ground-level shrubs and ferns had been burned away; piles of smoldering wood lay everywhere. Charred rain-forest trees were split and dying. Adding to the surreal quality of the scene, the forest canopy remained largely intact: an umbrella of green over a blackened forest floor.

“It was pretty distressing,” he said.

Working with members of the National Parks and Wildlife Service’s Saving our Species conservation program, Kooyman quickly set up a series of forest-monitoring plots, which have become the site of a morbid science experiment. As researchers assess the fire’s impacts on dozens of rain-forest species in the Nightcap area, they’re monitoring these plots over time to see how many trees succumb to the knock-on effects of fire damage. As Kooyman explained, if heat or fire penetrates the thin bark of rain-forest trees, they can develop fatal vascular embolisms or fungal infections long after the flames have passed.

[Read: Australia will lose to climate change]

Kooyman’s biggest concern is that the loss of even a few individuals could deal a crippling blow to Eidothea hardeniana’s gene pool. Early genetic work spearheaded by Maurizio Rossetto at the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney revealed that the species is remarkably diverse given its small population size. If the recent mortalities included some of the most genetically distinct individuals, the species’s ability to adapt to long-term changes might be severely diminished.

“Losing 10 percent of stems doesn’t necessarily mean you’re losing 10 percent of evolutionary potential,” Rossetto told me. “It will depend on what has been lost and the distribution of individuals.” Once Kooyman’s ongoing surveys have painted a clearer picture of which trees have been killed by the fires, Rossetto and his team plan to revisit their genetic data to quantify the evolutionary impact.

Because the fires occurred before the fruiting season, new Eidothea hardeniana seedlings could take root this year. Even adult trees that were severely affected might yet be able to put out new suckers, or sprouts. But Eidothea hardeniana grows slowly, and in a fragmented habitat, where local fauna doesn’t seem to find its fruit particularly palatable, its ability to spread is limited. Humans could help by actively propagating the tree into other suitable habitat areas, Rossetto said; Kooyman, by contrast, emphasized the need to redouble conservation efforts within the Nightcap area by clearing out encroaching weedy vegetation and felled timber left behind after historical logging.

However, centuries could pass before any new seedlings reach reproductive maturity, Kooyman said. And with Australia’s fire season rapidly worsening, as humans pump heat-trapping carbon into the atmosphere at a rate not seen in the last 66 million years, the next pyrotechnic assault could arrive long before that.

The Gondwanan glory days are over, and in geologic terms, time capsules such as the Nightcap area were on their way out. But humanity has “really kicked things forward,” Wilf, the paleobotanist at Penn State, said, pushing species such as Eidothea hardeniana that much closer to extinction and threatening to sever our connection to an ancient world far sooner than nature intended.

“It is tragic to think about,” he added. “These are plants that have survived an enormous amount of global change—immense global cooling, continent splitting.” But with Eidothea hardeniana’s lone life raft now breaking apart in a geologic eyeblink, the survivors might not be able to chart an evolutionary escape route fast enough.

Dramatic satellite observations that show the true scale of Arctic change

Aishwarya Sukesh 2/25/2019 

Slide 1 of 9: 

The Earth has been through some devastating environmental episodes in the first eight months of 2019 alone, including fires in Brazil, Hurricane Dorian devastating the Bahamas, and record-breaking temperatures in Paris. 

But nowhere does the rate of environmental change or its impacts occur more quickly or severely than in the Arctic. When something changes in the Arctic, things closer to home can change as well—sometimes in a more amplified way. Melted land ice in this region has been responsible for roughly 60% of the global sea-level rise since 1972, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). 

But because the Arctic is thousands of miles away and for some exists merely as a childhood trope for Santa's headquarters, that change can be hard to understand. Satellite images of the Arctic promote conversations about climate change and allow people to understand a relatively inaccessible place. 

To explain and contextualize the impacts of climate change in the northernmost part of our planet, Stacker used maps from the Satellite Observations of Arctic Change project. 

Resulting from a collaboration between the NSIDC and NASA, these maps use a specific metric to display how current conditions in the Arctic compare to those of the last four decades. Some examples of the parameters include surface air temperature, snow cover, and water vapor levels. The interactive images use data from 1979 to 2017. 

NSIDC Senior Research Scientist Walt Meier told Stacker in an email that images from October would be the most representative of change. That's because while the sun's northerly position has remained constant, smaller amounts of sea ice have caused uncharacteristic changes in air temperature and water vapor. 

Therefore, five of the eight images presented in this gallery use data from October 2015. The remaining three images include the most recently available data. 

Read on to see satellite observations that show the significant scale of Arctic change.

2/9 SLIDES © NSIDC // NASA

Near-surface air temperature

- Time period: October 2015

- "The map shows how air temperatures in the Arctic compared to averages from 1979 to 2015. On the map, areas with higher than average temperatures for the selected month and year are indicated in oranges and reds (positive anomalies), and areas with lower than average temperatures are shown in blues (negative anomalies). These are temperatures two meters above the surface, similar to the temperatures given in weather reports and forecasts."

- More air temperature info here

Air temperature is essential to facilitate many natural processes such as plant growth and even wind speeds. The October satellite map from 2015 shows a lot of orange and red areas, which indicate higher than average temperatures. Arctic amplification is a term used to describe this effect. When there is less ice covering the water, the ocean absorbs the sun's energy instead of ice reflecting it back. As the water absorbs the heat, the near-surface air temperature is amplified in months like October when it historically has been lower.

 

3/9 SLIDES © NSIDC // NASA

Water vapor

- Time period: October 2015

- "The map shows how the amount of water vapor in the Arctic atmosphere for different years and months compares to averages from 1979 to 2015. On the map, areas with greater than average water vapor for the selected month and year are indicated in purples (positive anomalies), and areas with less than average water vapor are shown in greens (negative anomalies). The values show the mass of water vapor in a column of the atmosphere that stretches from the surface to the top of the atmosphere."

- More water vapor info here

Water vapor regulates the Earth's climate and is what scientists call a greenhouse gas. These gases are capable of trapping and holding heat in the atmosphere instead of allowing the radiation to escape back to space. This process is called the greenhouse effect. This map shows higher than average water vapor temperatures in 2015, which is indicative of a warmer atmosphere.

4/9  © NSIDC // NASA

Sea ice

- Time period: October 2015

- "The map shows how the Arctic Ocean sea ice cover for different years and months compares to averages from 1979 to 2015. The map shows spatial patterns of the differences (anomalies) of sea ice concentration for each year and month. Sea ice concentration is the fraction of the ocean covered by sea ice and is expressed as a percentage. (Most red = 50% less sea ice cover than average)"

- More sea ice info here

Perhaps the most dramatic representation of change, the red on this map represents areas with less sea ice coverage. One of the essential roles of sea ice—beyond the habitat it provides for many organisms—is its ability to reflect solar radiation back to space. A lack of ice means the ocean absorbs the heat. Satellite images from September 2012 showed a record low level of sea ice. While the extent of sea ice in 2015 isn't as low as it was then, it's still below normal levels.

5/9 SLIDES  © NSIDC // NASA

Snow cover

- Time period: October 2015

- "The map shows how Northern Hemisphere snow cover for different years and months compares to averages for the period 1966 to 2015. The map shows snow cover, expressed as the number of days a grid cell is snow covered for each month for each year. On the map, areas with longer than average snow cover duration are indicated in blue (positive anomalies). Areas with shorter than average snow cover duration are indicated in red (negative anomalies). The maps of anomalies help show where changes in snow cover are strongest."

- More snow cover info here

Snow cover is the length of time an area is covered in snow, which acts as an insulator for the arctic soil. The process of melting and freezing releases and traps essential minerals that regulate local bodies of water. In later months such as October, snow cover remains relatively high because of the freezing temperatures. But in other regions below the Arctic, anomalies in snow cover are more prominent.

6/9 SLIDES © NSIDC // NASA

Soil non-frozen period

- Time period: 2015

- "The map shows how the number of days in each year the soil surface is unfrozen compares to the average for the period 1979 to 2012. On the map, areas where soil surfaces are unfrozen for more days than average are shown by reds (positive anomalies). Areas where soil surfaces are unfrozen for fewer days than average are shown by blues (negative anomalies). The map of anomalies helps to show where changes the number of days with unfrozen soil are the strongest."

- More information on soil non-frozen periods here

A soil non-frozen period is exactly how it sounds: a period when the soil is not frozen. According to the NSIDC, the soil's non-frozen period started to significantly increase in 2005, which means that the soil was not covered by ice for longer than normal. However, in 2015, the soil was not frozen for fewer days than average. While the changes are seasonal, the duration has been in flux for reasons other than the position of the sun. And just like it's detrimental to have less ice coverage; it's harmful to disrupt the natural, seasonal exposure of the soil as well.

 

7/9 SLIDES © NSIDC // NASA

Age of sea ice

- Time period: October 2015

- "The map shows the age of Arctic sea ice for each year of a chosen month. On the map, ice that has survived four years or more appears in the darkest shade of blue, while sea ice under a year old appears in the lightest shade of green."

- More info on age of sea ice here

An ice's age is determined by the amount of time it survives without melting. For example, ice that hasn't melted in four years would be considered older ice. The map shows blue ice as old and green as young. Younger ice is more vulnerable to solar radiation and therefore melts more quickly, which makes it harder to sustain sea ice. In October 2015, less than 15% of the sea ice was older than five years.

8/9 SLIDES © NSIDC // NASA

Arctic vegetation

- Time period: October 2010

- "Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is a measure of the concentration of green vegetation for a given area of the land surface. The map shows how NDVI in Arctic land areas for different years and months compares to the long-term average for the period 1982 to 2010. On the map, areas with higher NDVI than the average for the selected month are indicated in greens (positive anomalies), and areas with lower than average NDVI are shown in browns (negative anomalies)."

- More arctic vegetation info here

This map represents data from October 2010 and shows a significant green coloration, meaning that the concentration of plant life is higher than average. July is considered the growing season, and positive change is expected during this time. But the measure of concentration spiked significantly since 2000.

Minimum exposed snow and ice

- Time period: 2013

- "The map shows annual minimum exposed snow and ice cover for each of the years of the NASA Earth Observing System era (2000-2013). This product indicates those areas that never reveal complete soil or vegetation cover across a pixel during the particular year. The annual exposed ice is indicated by blue pixels."

- More minimum exposed snow and ice cover info here

Minimum exposed snow and ice cover translates to areas that rarely show ground, meaning these areas are constantly covered by snow. This map was created with an algorithm that uses daily snow and ice cover images. Change is best seen when zoomed in on the interactive map. This establishes the annual baseline minimum for exposed ice.

Trump nominee to federal court once called for abolishing Social Security, several government agencies

LIFETIME APPOINTMENT BUT IT CAN BE IMPEACHED

Robert O'Harrow

A Trump nominee to serve on a court that hears claims against the government once argued that several federal agencies should be eliminated and that Social Security should be abolished because economic disparity “is a natural aspect of the human condition.”

© The Yale Herald Stephen Schwartz, a judicial nominee to the US Court of Federal Claims as seen in a 2005 article in The Yale Herald.

Stephen Schwartz, nominated to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, spelled those ideas out 15 years ago in a student newspaper as an undergraduate at Yale. Schwartz wrote that the departments of Transportation, Agriculture and Education lack a “constitutional basis,” and that Social Security benefits were intended to prevent “outright starvation” but had become a “standard component of most retirement programs.”

In the years since, the view that federal government powers should be sharply curtailed has been central to his legal work. Schwartz, 36, has recently worked as a lawyer on controversial efforts that would have severely restricted the voting rights of African Americans in North Carolina and bathroom rights of transgender students in Virginia.

In 2015 and 2016, he sued the government multiple times while working at Cause of Action Institute, a tax-exempt group affiliated with the conservative Koch network and that seeks to curb the authority of federal agencies, according to legal and tax filings. “There are lots of circumstances today in America where agencies of the federal government exercise their discretion in ways that are terrible for personal liberty, for economic freedoms,” he said in a radio interview at the time.

Schwartz is among a growing cadre of conservative legal activists selected by President Trump to serve on the federal bench, part of the administration’s campaign to move the judiciary to the right. The Republican-controlled Senate has confirmed two Supreme Court justices, 51 Circuit Court judges and 137 United States District Court judges. In a news release last fall, the White House said it was “transforming our judiciary.”

Through a representative, Schwartz declined requests for an interview. In written statements to the Senate Judiciary Committee, he described his past legal work as judicious and fair.

“I believe that my own work has been characterized not only by integrity and careful legal reasoning, but by objectivity and fairness,” he wrote.

A White House spokesman referred questions about Schwartz to the Justice Department, which defended his nomination in a statement. “Stephen Schwartz has spent more than a decade litigating a wide range of constitutional and commercial claims in a sophisticated litigation practice,” the statement said. “Combined with his sterling academic credentials, this deep and varied experience makes him well-qualified for the Court of Federal Claims.”

In 2008, Schwartz received a law degree from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was a member of the law review. He became an associate at the Kirkland & Ellis, a law firm that has employed such notable conservatives as Attorney General William P. Barr, White House counsel Pat Cipollone and Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh.

Schwartz was first nominated in June 2017. The nomination, to a 15-year-term, languished as Senate Democrats raised questions about his credentials and Republicans focused on higher priority seats on the federal district and appeals courts. He was renominated in November, and his nomination moved to the Judiciary Committee last month.

The Court of Federal Claims handles many financial claims against the government that draw on the Constitution, federal statutes or agency contracts. Cases include environmental regulations, contracting disputes and labor issues. The court is based in Washington but has jurisdiction over the entire country.

Daniel Epstein, who founded Cause of Action in 2011 and now advises Trump as a White House lawyer, has also been nominated for one of the court’s 16 seats. His nomination is pending.

Democrats and some left-leaning legal observers said Schwartz exemplifies the Trump administration’s strategy of naming young, conservatives to every level of the federal court system.

“Schwartz is another example of Trump’s ideal nominee for the bench: a conservative ideologue who is determined to undermine civil rights and federal agencies,” said Vanita Gupta, who headed the Obama Justice Department’s civil rights division and is now president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Hum­­­­an Rights.

Schwartz, a native of Rochester, Minn., was outspoken about his political views at Yale from the time of his arrival in September 2001.

While pursuing a degree in history, he became active in the university’s relatively small conservative community, according to documents he submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee and a review of his columns in the Yale Herald. He joined the Tory Party of the school’s political union and often sought out debates with his more liberal classmates.

In interviews, two former classmates recalled Schwartz as gracious, opinionated and dapper — in khakis and button-down shirts even at hours when others in his dining hall wore pajamas. “He was impeccably dressed and very comfortable in his own skin,” said Gwendolyn McDay, who lived in the same housing as Schwartz. “He had the courage to share his views, even though it was unpopular. His views were different.”

In early 2005, Schwartz began writing a biweekly column that sometimes carried the label “Always Right.”

“Being ideologically at odds with nearly everyone in your college isn’t a pleasant experience in itself, needless to say, but it can be a useful one, especially if one relishes notoriety,” he wrote in one column, adding that “I got used to being addressed as ‘enemy’ in the dining hall.”

In another, he wrote skeptically about Social Security and other government payments to Americans, chiding political leaders for trying to offset financial inequalities in the country. “Since differences in wealth correlate with normal human differences in capacity for work, collaboration, innovation, leadership, thought, and so on, economic inequality is a healthy byproduct of differences between people,” he wrote.

In still another, he blasted the George W. Bush administration for failing to cut spending sufficiently in its proposed budget. Schwartz wrote that the best approach “is a paring back of federal activity at all levels.”

“The federal government should devolve many of its current responsibilities to the states which are constitutionally empowered to fill them and may well do so better than Washington,” he wrote.

In an April column, with his college career drawing to a close, he expressed pride in his conservative advocacy.

“I very much hope that I’ve done credit to the conservative tradition during my Yale career,” he wrote. “I’ve argued that abortion is wrong, that racial preferences in college admissions are dangerous, that gay marriage should stay illegal, that immigration should be curtailed.”

In 2015, Schwartz joined Cause of Action. The group received about $30 million in donations through June 2018, according to the most recently available data. Most of that money came though Donors Trust, a clearinghouse of contributions to free-market and conservative advocacy organizations. The contributors who gave to Cause of Action through Donors Trust are not publicly disclosed.

Schwartz began filing lawsuits aimed at curtailing federal agencies and attempting to scale back government regulations. He sued the Department of Commerce on behalf of East Coast fisherman seeking to reverse a decision forcing them to pay for monitoring of their activities at sea. And he represented an Arkansas women, who ran a multistate consignment business, in an action brought by the Department of Labor.

In the 2015 radio interview, Schwartz said Cause of Action wanted to help individuals and companies while also combating government overreach. “And it’s really an immense problem, kind of a structural problem with American government that is hurtful to American society,” he told WBSM radio in New Bedford, Mass.

In 2016, Schwartz moved to a small law firm in Washington cofounded by Gene Schaerr, who has fought multiple legal battles against same-sex marriage. The firm’s co-founder was Stuart Kyle Duncan, a Trump appointee to a federal appeals court who has denounced the Supreme Court’s landmark decision guaranteeing the right to marry for same-sex couples.

That year, Schwartz and the firm’s two founders argued on behalf of North Carolina in an unsuccessful bid to get the Supreme Court to uphold a controversial voter law. An appeals court had ruled that the law was intended to “target African Americans with almost surgical precision” and was “the most restrictive voting law North Carolina has seen since the era of Jim Crow.”

In 2017, the three represented Gloucester County, Va., in an unsuccessful effort to adopt a policy requiring transgender students to use bathrooms that correspond to their birth gender, not their gender identity, court records show. The Supreme Court chose not to hear their appeal.

In written questions after he was first nominated, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) asked Schwartz about the political controversies related to his legal work.

“In short, you seem to have spent the vast majority of your time representing clients on hot-button social political issues,” she wrote in August 2017. “How can we be sure that you will approach your role as a judge on the Court of Federal Claims with the fairness and objectivity that all judges must exhibit?”

Schwartz responded that he has worked for and against the government and on a large amount of general commercial litigation.

“The diversity of interests I have represented, and the ways that I have represented those interests, should encourage confidence that I can fulfill the obligations of a judge,” he wrote, according to records maintained by the Judiciary Committee.

robert.oharrow@washpost.com