Trump retweets QAnon account spreading conspiracy theories and Islamophobia

WELL OF COURSE HE DOES 

While it is usually president Trump's tweets that catch people's attention, it is easy to overlook his retweets, which are equally as important. 

On the same day the president defended far-right activists recently banned from Facebook, he also happened to retweet a video from a conspiracy theory account spreading Islamophobic messages.

The tweet in question came from an alt-right account called "Deep State Exposed", which regularly posts conspiracy theories and Islamophobic content. Some of its previous conspiracies include Kim Jong Un being a CIA asset, and that well-known Democrats are being secretly being monitored.

The tweet Trump retweeted to his 60 million followers contained a video in which a man says they would "kill Americans" if they don't allow Muslims to follow their religion.

It came alongside the caption: "The 'elite' proclaim America must submit to Islam or else", with intent to spread Islamophobia.

The video has since been watched over half a million times, with the account's creator, Jeremy Stone, boasting that the president has retweeted his account nine times. 

This is not the first time Trump has retweeted Islamophobic content. In 2017, he drew outrage after retweeting three anti-Muslim propaganda videos, which originally were posted by the former leader of Britain First, Jayda Fransen.

He also recently posted an edited video on Twitter suggesting links between Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar and the 9/11 attacks.

Trump Retweets Far-right, 9/11 Conspiracy Theorist Recently Banned From Facebook

Trump retweeted Paul Joseph Watson, former editor-at-large of Alex Jones' InfoWars.com, who once pushed the theory that 9/11 was perpetrated by the U.S. government

The Associated Press

 and 

Haaretz

 May 06, 2019 11:39 AM

U.S. President Donald Trump criticized social media companies after Facebook banned a number of extremist figures, declaring that he was “monitoring and watching, closely!!”

Trump, who tweeted and re-tweeted complaints Friday and Saturday, said he would “monitor the censorship of AMERICAN CITIZENS on social media platforms.” He has previously asserted that social media companies exhibit bias against conservatives, something the companies have rejected as untrue.

The president’s comments came after Facebook this week banned Louis Farrakhan, Alex Jones and other extremists, saying they violated its ban on “dangerous individuals.” The company also removed right-wing personalities Paul Nehlen, Milo Yiannopoulos, Paul Joseph Watson and Laura Loomer, along with Jones’ site, Infowars, which often posts conspiracy theories. The latest bans apply both to Facebook’s main service and to Instagram and extend to fan pages and other related accounts.

On Saturday, Trump retweeted a message from Watson urging his followers to “keep up the pressure,” and a second wondering why his opinions should be deemed “dangerous.” Watson previously served as editor-at-large of Alex Jones' website InfoWars.com, promoting conspiracy theories online - including the theory the 9/11 terror attack in the U.S. were perpetrated by the U.S. government.

Facebook’s move signaled renewed effort by the social media giant to remove people and groups promoting objectionable material such as hate, racism and anti-Semitism. The company said it has “always banned” people or groups that proclaim a violent or hateful mission or are engaged in acts of hate or violence, regardless of political ideology.

On Twitter, Trump cited a number of individuals he said were being unfairly treated by social media companies, including Watson and actor James Woods. He insisted it was “getting worse and worse for Conservatives on social media!”

Woods, one of Hollywood’s most outspoken conservatives, has had his Twitter account locked. Twitter spokeswoman Katie Rosborough said Woods will need to delete a tweet that violated Twitter rules before he can be reinstated.

Trump tweeted: “How can it be possible that James Woods (and many others), a strong but responsible Conservative Voice, is banned from Twitter? Social Media & Fake News Media, together with their partner, the Democrat Party, have no idea the problems they are causing for themselves. VERY UNFAIR!”

Rosborough said Twitter enforces its rules “impartially for all users, regardless of their background or political affiliation.”

Trump, who uses Twitter extensively to push his message, recently met with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey at the White House after attacking the company and complaining that it was not treating him well because he was a Republican. He later described it as a “great meeting.”

The president had more than social media on his mind Saturday. Trump also tweeted that he was holding out hopes for a deal with North Korea on its nuclear program, as well as improved relations with Russia, now that he feels the special counsel investigation is behind him.

Social media posts keep repeating Trump's lies — and the way they do it is a problem

Trump is really good at lying, something major media outlets don't know how to handle.

BY RACHEL KRAUS

With 10,000 lies to his name, Donald Trump is a pro at putting out false or misleading information. Unfortunately, many of the people who are tasked with informing the public are inadvertently helping him do just that. 

A new study from the journalism watchdog organization Media Matters for America (MMFA) has found that news outlets frequently amplify Trump’s falsehoods by putting uncontested

For example, an outlet will tweet out something like “President Trump says the Russia investigation was a ‘coup’,” rather than something like “President Trump falsely claims that the Russia investigation was a ‘coup.'”

How frequently does this occur, precisely? According to the study, 35 percent of the time, major media outlets amplify, rather than report and contest, a false Trump statement — that’s an average of 19 times per day. 

The study examined over 2,000 tweets sent out from 32 Twitter accounts belonging to major news outlets. All tweets were sent between January 26 and February 15, the period of time from the end of the 2018 federal shutdown to the final agreement, and Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the border. 

Of all the tweets about Trump's statements, 30 percent referenced something he said that was false and misleading. Of those tweets, 35 percent did not refute the false statement. That’s a total of 407 tweets that amplified, rather than corrected, Trump’s misinformation — an overall average of 19 tweets per day during that stretch of time.

The outlets analyzed included wire services like the Associated Press and Reuters, network outlets and television shows like NBC and ABC, newspapers like the New York Times and Washington Post, and online publications like Politico and The Hill. The Washington Post had the best track record, simultaneously reporting on and correcting Trump’s statements, 89 percent of the time. The Hill was the biggest offender, repeating Trump’s false claims with no correction 88 percent of the time.

Of course, only 8 percent of Americans are on Twitter (based on Twitter’s most recent user numbers). But the tweets these outlets send could reflect how they’re presenting the news in headlines and elsewhere. That’s concerning since research has shown that reading headlines and social media, not full stories, is a common way people get their news; one recent studyfrom the American Press Institute found that, in the past week, 60 percent of Americans had not delved deeper into a story than the headlines. 

This means that, through the power of repetition, not only might media outlets be helping Trump spread lies — they could be cementing those lies as truth in the minds of readers.

Burger King’s attempt to use mental health to sell meals has badly backfired

 by Sophia Ankel in news

Remember that time when Kendall Jenner and Pepsi single-handedly ended police violence forever?

Well, now Burger King can apparently cure your depression with their latest "Real Meal" Whopper boxes, labelled in different moods and colours.

The fast-food chain attempted to throw shade at rival McDonald's and its "Happy Meals" for Mental Health Awareness Month by rolling out a new campaign called #FeelYourWay (a reference to its slogan "Have It Your Way").

Its promoted "Real Meal" boxes come in five different moods, including Salty in teal, Pissed in red, YAAAS in purple, DGAF (Don't Give a F***) in black and Sad in blue. Every mood box includes a Whopper, fries and a drink.

The company partnered up with the non-profit organisation Mental Health America to promote the "overall mental health of all Americans".

In a press release for #FeelYourWay, Burger King said:

With the pervasive nature of social media, there is so much pressure to appear happy and perfect.

With Real Meals, the Burger King brand celebrates being yourself and feeling however you want to feel.

Alongside the campaign, the company also released what looks like a bad music video, featuring several young people with different problems. There's a sad man complaining about his student loans, a teenage girl who is bullied at school, and a woman who was just fired from her "creepy boss". But don't fret, because even if you're a young single mom, all of your woes can be solved by simply going to Burger King.

The nearly two-minute video ends with the phrase:

No one is happy all the time, and that's OK.

But Burger King's attempt to be "woke" quickly backfried, as people took to Twitter to criticise the company for using mental health as a means to make money.

CLICK HERE TO SEE TWITTER BRUTAL RESPONSES

Show this selfie from the top of Everest to a flat Earth conspiracy theorist. Immediately

In a Reddit post, captioned “Checkmate flat Earth society”, user amazed_spirit shared an image of a person posing for a selfie at the summit of Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world. To Flat Earthers’ dismay, the image clearly shows the curved edge of the planet in the backdrop.

Reddit users stated that this evidence finally debunks the flat Earth theory, with one saying:

Forget about curvature arguments. The fact that you can only see 2.5 per cent at a time proves it isn’t flat. If it was flat you should be able to see the whole thing from even just the top of the tallest mountain or on any commercial flat.

Though it is unclear whether the photographer was using a fisheye lens, which could have distorted the image.

As of yet, there has been no comment from the most prominent voices in the flat Earth movement, but it is doubtful that the image will have swayed their belief the earth is not round.

Brunei won’t impose death penalty for gay sex after global protests

Brunei will not impose the death penalty on those convicted of engaging in gay sex after global outrage and protest after new laws passed in the country last month.

The country’s ruler, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, addressed the nation and the world in a televised speech on Sunday, where he revealed he would provide a moratorium on capital punishment and ratify the United Nations Convention Against Torture.

His decision comes following mass condemnation of the small southeast Asian country’s initial decision to extend the death penalty for gay sex, with the likes of actor George Clooney, musician Sir Elton John and comedian and host Ellen DeGeneres among those who protested the loudest.

Ahead of the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, the Sultan said: “I am aware that there are many questions and misperceptions with regard to the implementation of the SPCO. However, we believe that once these have been cleared, the merit of the law will be evident.”

As evident for more than two decades, we have practised a de facto moratorium on the execution of death penalty for cases under the common law. This will also be applied to cases under the SPCO, which provides a wider scope for remission.

Some crimes already command the death penalty in Brunei, including premeditated murder and drug trafficking, but no executions have been carried out since the 1990s.

Though this is a progressive move, LGBT+ citizens are still facing punishment in the country

Human Rights Campaign Director of Global Partnership Jean Freedberg told CNN:

The world has turned its eyes to Brunei in recent months and we urge the countless advocates, activists and organizations who seized this moment to speak out against these human rights abuses to continue to do so.

And campaigners continue to fight to overturn the laws completely

View image on Twitter

Ellen DeGeneres

✔@TheEllenShow

Tomorrow, the country of #Brunei will start stoning gay people to death. We need to do something now. Please boycott these hotels owned by the Sultan of Brunei. Raise your voices now. Spread the word. Rise up.

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2:32 PM - Apr 2, 2019

129K people are talking about this

Stop dismissing bisexual women like Miley Cyrus. What’s the point in liberation if it’s not everyone?

The need to put ourselves into boxes and reject those who don’t fit may provide a sense of comfort in a harsh world, but it won’t solve discrimination

• Molly Fleming

In a recent article for The Spectator, feminist activist Julie Bindel wrote: “Why are boringly straight women claiming to be lesbians?” In it she accuses singer Miley Cyrus and others of being “lesbian tourists” masking their heteronormativity in a bid to be more “interesting”.

Not long ago, Cyrus, who identifies as queer, described her marriage to Liam Hemsworth as “redefining, to be fucking frank, what it looks like for someone that’s a queer person like myself to be in a hetero relationship”.

While Cyrus’s statement is hyperbolic – she is far from the first queer woman to be in a relationship with a man – Bindel’s argument is far more problematic, ignoring the idea that people can be attracted to more than one gender. And it speaks to a broader issue of biphobia in the lesbian community, where dismissing bisexual women as “confused” or simply non-existent can be rampant.

Bisexuals exist, I promise. There is a clear “B” in the LGBT+ acronym that so many seem unable to acknowledge. If you’re struggling to remember, it’s the “bacon” in the new M&S Stonewall sandwich.

The argument that women who date multiple genders won’t face violence also couldn’t be further from the truth. A United Nations report claims bi women are “especially at risk” of sexual violence. Other studies have found that bisexual women are more likely to be abused by their partner than lesbians and five times more likely than heterosexual women when it comes to sexual assault.

I understand Bindel’s frustration. Of course we all low-key hate the girl who tells you she’s queer but “could never go below” with a woman, but that doesn’t mean we get to pick and choose people’s sexuality.

There is no question that a minority of people use the term queer to hide behind their privilege. I will always remember an acquaintance explaining to a closeted me that she understood oppression as she was now a “political lesbian” – despite not being attracted to women.

Queerness has, for some, become a way to disown the privilege you hold. But the truth is that it doesn’t work that way.

The privilege I experience as a white, middle class woman didn’t go away when I came out. Oppression doesn’t negate privilege and in queer spaces those dynamics are often replicated and amplified – with racism rife.

You can’t be the gatekeeper of other people’s sexualities, and for every woman that details their thrilling festival threesome, there are far more who are desperately trying to find their place in the world. Those are the ones who sidle up at parties, tentatively asking when I knew I was gay.

Make no mistake, limiting who gets to be a woman, or queer, hurts everyone. In the same way the hyper-regulation of trans bathrooms affects non-conforming women, so too will Bindel’s bumbling attempt to define who can and can’t be a lesbian.

When anti-trans lesbians invaded Pride last year, for example, most lesbians were appalled, myself included. A minority of lesbians are using their struggle to perpetuate hate, whilst most recognise that trans women’s invaluable place within our community, with many on the front-line of women’s rights for decades.

Using Bindel’s logic, you have to ask what it does take for someone to be considered a “real lesbian”. Is there a graduation ceremony, a member’s club or a quota? Was I not a lesbian before I had sex with a woman?

Do I need to sleep with multiple women in order to identify? Does watching The L Word while frantically googling the Kinsey Scale count or do I need to have been in a couple of serious long-term relationships first?

I have cried on the shoulders of bisexual women and fallen in love with non-binary people. I’ve protested alongside those who refuse to be pigeonholed by their sexuality and gender and the intersections of our identities has been a source of strength not dispute.

The need to put ourselves into boxes and reject those who don’t fit may provide a sense of comfort in a harsh world, but it won’t solve homophobia. Suffering shouldn’t be a condition of one’s sexuality. I’m not more of a lesbian because my family initially rejected me than my friend whose mum marches at Pride.

As a younger lesbian, I am grateful to my elders, like Bindel, who fought for my right to live my life openly and I don’t take my identity or their struggle for granted. But what’s the point in liberation if it’s not everyone?

In a world where queer people are still fighting to be in the curriculum, and gay white men dominate our nightlife, shouldn’t we be standing in solidarity with each other as a community to create a safe space for everyone?

Elephant Man: 

Joseph Merrick's unmarked grave discovered in London, says author

Biographer says she is ‘99 per cent certain’ she has tracked down correct site

Joseph Merrick, photographed by Radiological Society of North America  PA Archive/PA Images

The unmarked grave of Joseph Merrick – the Victorian freak show exhibit better known as the Elephant Man – has been discovered in London, an author has claimed.

Jo Vigor-Mungovin said she tracked down the precise burial spot of his remains in an east London cemetery almost 130 years after died.

A circus attraction deemed a medical marvel due to his severe deformities, Mr Merrick’s skeleton was carefully preserved at the Royal London Hospital after his death in 1890. The final resting place of his soft tissue, however, has remained a mystery for over a century.

Mr Merrick’s life was depicted in a 1980 film by director David Lynch titled The Elephant Man. The cause of the Leicester man’s deformities is still uncertain, but some believe he had a genetic disorder known as Proteus syndrome.

Ms Vigor-Mungovin consulted cemetery records around the time of his death and found he had been interred at the City of London Cemetery and Crematorium near Epping Forest.

Microplastics have seeped into our water systems — over 80 percent of drinking water in India is contaminated with it — and even infiltrated our food sources






EARTH DAY 22 April, 2019

by Dr. Vikas Goswami

Joint efforts by stakeholders can help control the use of single-use plastics and effectively manage solid waste.

When a dead pregnant whale washed ashore in March 2019 in Italy with nearly 23kg of plastic in her stomach, it created ripples on social media. Just weeks earlier, a young whale also died in the Philippines after ingesting almost 40kg of plastic bags. But such tragic events are not just limited to Italy or the Philippines, it is an alarming trend that has also been seen in Indonesia, Thailand, and Spain.


How many of us throw away plastic shopping bags once we’ve emptied them? How often have we binned plastic spoons and straws after just one meal? Excessive use of single-use or disposable plastics is having severe environmental consequences, and the dead whales are just the tip of the iceberg. The UN estimates that up to five trillion single-use plastic bags are used every year across the world. Overall, half of all plastic produced is designed to be thrown away after just being used once.


As single-use plastics continue to choke our rivers, seas, and oceans, it doesn’t seem surprising then that microplastics have been found in the Mariana Trench, which is the deepest part of the ocean in the world. Microplastics have seeped into our water systems — over 80 percent of drinking water in India is contaminated with it — and even infiltrated our food sources. Research hasn’t yet figured out a way of filtering them and scientists are racing to find out the implications on our health.


Managing India’s solid waste


Closer home, the situation isn’t too different either. India generates 25,940 tonnes of plastic waste every day and at least 40 percent of this doesn’t get collected, according to official statistics. It usually ends up poisoning the soil and choking water bodies.


The situation (rightfully) seems grim, but there is hope. Efforts by various stakeholders, including the government, the community, local bodies, and the private sector are proving to step in the right direction. The Swach Bharat Abhiyan, the Government’s five-year cleanliness drive, for example, works towards collaborative efforts, including that of citizens, to tackle cleanliness and waste segregation disposal. Workshops, cleanliness drives, and rallies have been held to sensitize stakeholders in various cities on the importance of solid waste management. This has reflected in results wherever it was implemented properly: door-to-door collection coverage increased from 53 percent to 80 percent in 2017 and 43 percent of wards in the country have been segregating their waste at source (as per data available in 2018).


Extended producer responsibility or EPR, which was a key element of the Centre’s Plastic Waste Management Rules 2016, has also led to plastic being collected and being recycled, reused or designed to be compostable. The Central Pollution Control Board’s EPR waste recovery targets have further given a fillip to recycling efforts.


Local solutions for local issues


Local bodies too have been playing their part. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) decentralized solid waste management in order to promote recycling and converting waste into energy. Garbage at its Kanjurmarg landfill is treated using bio-methanation. BMC staff has also been training households on how to segregate waste. The Muzaffarpur Municipal Corporation in Bihar adopted a zero landfill model and now has two processing centres for segregated waste from 34 of 49 wards.


The biggest change however probably been seen among the community itself. Though community participation is mandatory under the new Solid Waste Management Rules 2016 (SWMR), awareness is clearly increasing. The “world’s largest beach clean-up in history” is proof enough of this. It took hundreds of volunteers, three years and the removal of 20 million kg trash to transform Versova beach — one of the dirtiest in Mumbai — into an Olive Ridley turtle breeding site. A small but growing number of people are exploring leading zero-waste lifestyles by embracing the three pillars of waste management: reuse, reduce and recycle. Many are also realizing the wisdom of following simple practices such as carrying cloth bags to buy groceries, ditching plastic cutlery, or even using steel or glass containers for storage.


Involving corporate stakeholders


Corporates can also play a proactive role in promoting the cause for cleanliness through their CSR and sustainability programmes. There are several testimonials to corporate playing the Good Samaritan. Dabur has tied up with the Indian Pollution Control Association and a waste management company to recycle plastic waste across nine states. Coca-Cola India’s bottling partners work with other stakeholders to collect and recycle PET waste. Bisleri’s Bottles for Change programme connects waste pickers with schools, colleges, and offices in 14 wards in Mumbai to collect PET bottles safely. Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail upcycles PET bottles into staple fibers to create sustainable clothing.


Godrej has reduced its plastic intensity by 14 percent and by 2025, it aims to ensure that the plastic it uses will be recyclable, reusable, recoverable and or compostable. Seventy-two percent of its waste is currently diverted from landfill and it aims to touch 100 percent.


Another corporate intervention is facilitating behavior change communication through partnerships with local government bodies and nonprofits. However, individual efforts are not enough to tackle the emergency at hand. In order to bring change at scale, it is imperative that the government anchors campaigns save the environment.


Tackling solid waste and ending plastic pollution requires a multi-pronged effort. Increasing awareness, bringing about large-scale behavior change and effective partnerships between all stakeholders concerned can help achieve it. And as recent efforts have shown, it is possible to bring about change and make a dent in the pollution problem.




Dr. Vikas Goswami, Head Sustainability at Godrej Industries

AND WHERE DO PLASTICS COME FROM? 

POLYMERS MADE FROM HYDROCARBONS

Coca-Cola and Nestle among worst plastic polluters based on global clean-ups

“These brand audits offer undeniable proof of the role that corporations play in perpetuating the global plastic pollution crisis,” said Von Hernandez, global coordinator of Break Free From Plastic. “By continuing to churn out problematic and unrecyclable throwaway plastic packaging for their products, these companies are guilty of trashing the planet on a massive scale. 

“It’s time they own up and stop shifting the blame to citizens for their wasteful and polluting products.” 

'These brand audits offer undeniable proof of the role that corporations play in perpetuating the global plastic pollution crisis'

• Global glacier mass loss 1961–2016
• Earth's glaciers lost 9 trillion tons of ice. That's the weight of 27 billion 747s.
• The map below, developed by the European Space Agency, illustrates where this ice loss has occurred. Alaska leads the race with over 3019 gigatons lost in total, or 816 million 747s.

The world's total ice loss between 1961 and 2016.IMAGE: EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY / ADAPTED FROM ZEMP ET AL. (2019) NATURE / DATA COURTESY OF WORLD GLACIER MONITORING SERVICE

• Released 08/04/2019 5:00 pm
• Copyright ESA, adapted from Zemp et al. (2019) Nature, and data courtesy of World Glacier Monitoring Service
• Description A paper published in Nature describes how an international team led by the University of Zurich in Switzerland used classical glaciological field observations combined with a wealth of information from various satellite missions to painstakingly calculate how much ice has been lost from and gained by 19 different glacierized regions around the world. They reveal that 9625 gigatonnes of ice was lost from 1961 to 2016, raising sea level by 27 mm.
  
  Read full story: Glaciers lose nine trillion tonnes of ice in half a century
• BY MARK KAUFMAN
  APR 08, 2019
• 
  Nine trillion metric tons. 
  That's how much ice Earth's glaciers lost in the 55 years between 1961 and 2016. An international team of scientists used satellite and direct field observations to conclude that Earth's glaciers have melted such a profound sum of ice in the last half-century. They published their report Monday in the journal Nature.  
• 
  If one were to assume an average weight of 735,000 pounds for a 747 airliner (not the colossal Alaskan bear), that comes out to around 27 billion 747s worth of ice lost over this period. 
• 
  This grand figure also means the planet is now losing, on average, 335 billion metric tons of ice per year. (For reference, there are 2 trillion pounds of ice in just 1 billion tons.)
  "In other words, every single year we are losing about three times the volume of all ice stored in the European Alps, and this accounts for around 30 percent of the current rate of sea-level rise," Michael Zemp, director of the World Glacier Monitoring Service at the University of Zurich and lead author of the research, said in a statement. 
•  The world's total ice loss between 1961 and 2016.
• The pronounced melting in Alaska is little surprise. The Arctic is the fastest warming region on Earth, warming two to three times faster than the rest of the globe. 
  Overall, the over 9 trillion metric tons of melted ice equates to a little over an inch of sea level rise, or 27 millimeters, over the 55-year period. 
• 
  But, critically, it's not just melting glaciers that are driving sea level rise, which has raised sea levels by around 9 inches along portions of the East Coast in the last century. The ocean is absorbing vast quantities of heat, and is expanding. Specifically, the absorbent oceans soak up over 90 percent of the heat trapped by human-generated greenhouse gas emissions. 
• 
  What's more, the pace of melt is expected to pick up as the planet continues on its accelerated warming trend — stoked by the highest levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide in millions of years.
• 
  Projections of sea level rise by century's end are between two and three feet, though NASA scientists admit this is almost certainly a "conservative estimate." In more extreme scenarios, the number could be as much a six feet by 2100. 
•  
  There is only one region of the world, southwest Asia, that has gained some ice mass since the 1960s. But its neighbor, southeast Asia, lost a similar amount of ice, canceling these fleeting gains. 
• 
  Overall, the picture is clear. Greenland is in hot water. Ice loss in the Antarctic is picking up steam. The vast Himalayan glaciers have a dire future, at best. And you don't need to be a scientist employing sophisticated satellite technology to see what's transpiring on Earth. 
   Animation showing how the distribution over Earth's surface of annual average temperature anomalies has been shifting due to global warming since 1850. #GlobalWarming #ClimateChange
• 
  Alaska's famous Mendenhall Glacier is vanishing in front of the public's eyes. In 1850, there were an estimated 150 sizable glaciers in what is now Glacier National Park. Today, there are 26 glaciers large enough to be counted.   
• 
  The reason for such wide-scale planetary change is not due to the whims of weather, natural variation, volcanoes, or other factors climate scientists have considered for decades.
  "We know it's caused by global warming and human emissions of these greenhouse gases," NASA oceanographer Josh Willis, who has been watching Greenland melt into the sea, told Mashable. "The basic physics of the warming planet have been known for over a century."
•