The Heat’s On Big Time!

by Robert Hunziker / May 3rd, 2024

“Nearly nineteen thousand (19,000) weather stations have notched record high temperatures since Jan. 1.” (Source: “Earth’s Record Hot Streak Might be a Sign of a New Climate Era”, The Washington Post, April 19, 2024).

A blistering start to the 2024 year is breaking all-time global temperature records of 2023 and bringing to the forefront a looming threat of Wet Bulb temperature concerns.

Even though summer ‘24 has not officially begun for the Northern Hemisphere (solstice June 20th), according to DW News (German public broadcast network) d/d April 25th, 2024, “Extreme Heat in Southeast Asia Leads to School Closures”:

Hundreds of millions of people across South and Southeast Asia are facing soaring temperatures and drought as a heatwave grips the region. Dozens have been killed by heatstroke in Thailand alone. Authorities in the capital Bangkok are warning their citizens of the ‘extremely dangerous’ conditions. Schools have been closed in the Philippines and Bangladesh for tens of millions of children and the daytime temperature in Myanmar has reached nearly 46 degrees Celsius. The UN has warned that deaths due to heatstroke were widely underreported, calling heat a ‘silent killer.

Throughout several regions:

Soaring heat and drought have been felt in recent weeks from India, which is carrying out the world’s largest election in temperatures that have risen above 40C, to the coffee plantations of Vietnam… Earlier this month, the United Nations Children’s Fund warned that more than 243 million children across East Asia and the Pacific are at risk of heat-related illnesses and death, as the region braces for an unusually hot summer… The prolonged heat wave already forced the Philippines to close some schools earlier this month, prompting a return to remote learning that became the norm during Covid, while the government urged people to save electricity as power plants were forced to shut down. (Source: “Southeast Asia Heat Wave Shuts down Schools, Stokes Power Demand“, Bloomberg News, April 28, 2024).

“Japan Launches New Alert System as Heat Stroke Deaths Rise”, JapanToday, April 25, 2024: “When the alert is issued, municipalities will open designated facilities such as libraries and community centers to residents as ‘cooling shelters.’ The system will be in effect through Oct 23 this year…The nation’s average temperature in the summer of 2023 was the highest since the Japan Meteorological agency began recording comparable data in 1898.

The Wet Bulb Temperature Peril

The Wet Bulb temperature effect is a killer that is unfortunately gaining new respect.

New research suggests that with Wet Bulb temperature above 31.5C the body can no longer cool itself and without air conditioning death follows. (Source: “Policy Watch: Countries Slow to Wake up to the Mounting Deaths from Heat Stress“, Reuters, March 18, 2024).

In that regard, Wet Bulb temperature (which was formerly calcuated to be 35C or approximately 95°F/100% humidity) based upon new research can now occur at 31.5C in a range of temperature/humidity configurations: 87°F/100% humidity to 100°F/60% humidity. This means the Wet Bulb temperature barrier is lower and more of a threat than previously thought.

For an interesting, yet gruesome, aside about the risks of human death caused by Wet Bulb temperatures, Andrew Forrest, founder of Australian mining giant Fortescue, attended COP28 in Dubai last year to press politicians to take the Wet Bulb threat seriously:

If our bodies can’t release the heat, then our bodies turn into ovens and they start to cook – our blood, our organs, and, of course, the proteins which our lives depend on. They basically can never come back, it’s like cooking an egg,” he told The Ethical Corporation. “That is what is going to make increasingly large parts of the world beyond the limits of human survival. (Ibid.)

Human migration, an ongoing worldwide phenomenon, is but one symptom of this devastating risk to human life.

According to EU Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), March 2024 was the 10th straight month of record global heat at 1.68°C hotter than an average March between years 1850-1900, which is a reference period for pre-industrial.

For perspective of too much heat, if monthly all-time record heat is continued year-by-year the final result is Venus, aka: “Earth’s Twin” or “Earth’s Sister Planet.” According to NASA, Venus formed in the same inner part of the solar system as Earth out of the same materials and similar in size but, over time, with a different atmosphere. Venus has a thick carbon dioxide -CO2- atmosphere that has a powerful greenhouse effect resulting in scorching temperatures over 900°F or hot enough to melt lead.

Here on Earth, with one eye on Venus, climate scientists have warned about global warming for decades; however, those warnings have been low and not taken seriously enough. But with fossil fuel CO2 emissions now at full blast, in fact, quadrupling, as oil and gas companies crank up production, given enough time, the entire planet turns into a gigantic heat ball right before everybody’s eyes. Hello Venus.

At the Paris 2015 climate conference, delegates from around the world agreed that measures had to be taken to hold global average temperatures under 1.5°C above pre-industrial or suffer challenging consequences. At the time, nobody thought the 1.5C limit would be hit as early as 2024 and before global implementation of effective mitigation measures to reduce CO2 emissions, which measures, by the way, are a big farce, as CO2 emissions steadfastly increase by the year, and now accelerating, in the face of every mitigation measure adopted to date. Moreover, the often-discussed hopeful lifeline Carbon Capture & Sequestration unfortunately is not a viable solution. Al Gore calls it “a fraud” and for good reason.

Meanwhile, the outlook for global warming is bleak. (It should be noted that the IPCC calculates the 1.5C barrier on a decadal basis, but so what? It’s a big problem right now.)

In January 2024 AP News carried the following article: “Earth Shattered Global Heat Record in ’23 and it’s Flirting with Warming Limit European Agency Says”:

On average, global temperatures in 2023 were 1.48 degrees Celsius (2.66 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than pre-industrial times. If annual averages reach above 1.5 degrees Celsius, the effects of global warming could become irreversible, climate scientists say.

Humanity has pushed the planet to a limit that climate scientists warned about for decades; e.g., Dr. James Hansen, former head of NASA Space Studies, in 1988 warned the US Senate that human influence was changing the chemistry of the atmosphere that would bring global warming. He was spot on. (“Global Warming Has Begun, Expert Tells Senate”, The New York Times, June 24, 1988).

Now, 36 years later, there are politicians at the highest levels of government in Washington, D.C. who still deny the reality of human-caused global warming. Canada’s National Observer has taken notice: “Climate Denial in American Politics” d/d March 28, 2024:

Climate denial is a sinister movement that denies the science of climate change that has infiltrated deep within American politics and is still thriving today. The widespread oppression of science in America is a rarity in modern history — with the exceptions of Germany and Russia during the 1930s — and has never been seen before in a democracy to this extent.

Sinister! Germany 1930s! Some words stick with you.

The environment and energy portfolios of Trump’s administration appeared to be puppets under the control of the “oiligarchs” — the powerful among the energy-industrial complex. As an American election looms later this year, the thought of another Trump presidency sends shivers down the spines of many in the scientific community… This alternate reality is built on alternate facts and alternate science (i.e., fake). We have been too tolerant for too long of this deviant behaviour by elected officials; the time to vote these politicians out of office is long overdue. (Ibid.)

According to CO2.Earth: “A reminder that our world is pushing the planet’s thermostat beyond safe levels at 350 ppm CO2, and that more people are needed to combine our ingenuity and resources to keep the present overshoot brief”:

April 26, 2024        428.59 ppm

April 26, 2023        424.34 ppm

April 26, 1974         333.20 ppm

Good luck with that because the last time CO2 was at a safe level was 50 years ago. The only way to return to 350 is to cut CO2 emissions, but CO2 emissions have never been so robust.

 When it comes to knowledge about climate change, Americans are embarrassingly ignorant:

If you live in the U.S. and happen to get most of your news from national broadcast channels ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox… During the record-smashing year of 2023, these four TV stations spent less than 1% of their news time addressing climate change.” (Source: “Here’s What Record-Breaking Temperatures Looked Like Around the Globe, Yale Climate Connections, April 29, 2024).

 One year ago, the favorite web site for the White House and lawmakers, The Hill article said:

When it comes to the ‘wet bulb temperature’ nearly all of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas are under ‘extreme threat. (Source: “Extreme Threat”: Large Swathe of Southern US at Dangerous ‘Wet Bulb Temperature’”, The Hill, June 29, 2023).

How are the congressional delegations and state politicos from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas doing with the climate change/global warming issue?Facebook

TwitterRedditEmail

Robert Hunziker (MA, economic history, DePaul University) is a freelance writer and environmental journalist whose articles have been translated into foreign languages and appeared in over 50 journals, magazines, and sites worldwide. He can be contacted at: rlhunziker@gmail.com. Read other articles by Robert.

 The Origins and Traditions of May Day

I wrote the Origins and Traditions of Mayday in 1997. Yes way back then, it was one of my first web postings. It was used to launch MayDay on the Web and the Edmonton May Week celebrations that have continued since.

Here it is again and the original web page is here.

An Australian labour historian used it as the basis for his article on May Day which expands on my points.

THE ORIGINS AND TRADITIONS OF MAYDAY

By Eugene W. Plawiuk

The international working class holiday; Mayday,
originated in pagan Europe. It was a festive holy day
celebrating the first spring planting. The ancient
Celts and Saxons celebrated May 1st as Beltane or the
day of fire. Bel was the Celtic god of the sun.

The Saxons began their May day celebrations on the eve
of May, April 30. It was an evening of games and
feasting celebrating the end of winter and the return
of the sun and fertility of the soil. Torch bearing
peasants and villager would wind their way up paths to
the top of tall hills or mountain crags and then
ignite wooden wheels which they would roll down into
the fields

The May eve celebrations were eventually outlawed by
the Catholic church, but were still celebrated by
peasants until the late 1700's. While good church
going folk would shy away from joining in the
celebrations, those less afraid of papal authority
would don animal masks and various costumes, not
unlike our modern Halloween. The revelers, lead by the
Goddess of the Hunt; Diana (sometimes played by a
pagan-priest in women's clothing) and the Horned God;
Herne, would travel up the hill shouting, chanting and
singing, while blowing hunting horns. This night
became known in Europe as Walpurgisnacht, or night of
the witches

The Celtic tradition of Mayday in the British isles
continued to be celebrated through-out the middle ages
by rural and village folk. Here the traditions were
similar with a goddess and god of the hunt.

As European peasants moved away from hunting gathering
societies their gods and goddesses changed to reflect
a more agrarian society. Thus Diana and Herne came to
be seen by medieval villagers as fertility deities of
the crops and fields. Diana became the Queen of the
May and Herne became Robin Goodfellow (a predecessor
of Robin Hood) or the Green Man.

The Queen of the May reflected the life of the fields
and Robin reflected the hunting traditions of the
woods. The rites of mayday were part and parcel of
pagan celebrations of the seasons. Many of these pagan
rites were later absorbed by the Christian church in
order to win over converts from the 'Old Religion'.

Mayday celebrations in Europe varied according to
locality, however they were immensely popular with
artisans and villagers until the 19th Century. The
Christian church could not eliminate many of the
traditional feast and holy days of the Old Religion so
they were transformed into Saint days.

During the middle ages the various trade guilds
celebrated feast days for the patron saints of their
craft. The shoemakers guild honored St. Crispin, the
tailors guild celebrated Adam and Eve. As late as the
18th century various trade societies and early
craft-unions would enter floats in local parades still
depicting Adam and Eve being clothed by the Tailors
and St. Crispin blessing the shoemaker.

The two most popular feast days for Medieval craft
guilds were the Feast of St. John, or the Summer
Solstice and Mayday. Mayday was a raucous and fun
time, electing a queen of the May from the eligible
young women of the village, to rule the crops until
harbest. Our tradition of beauty pagents may have
evolved , albeit in a very bastardized form, from the
May Queen.

Besides the selection of the May Queen was the raising
of the phallic Maypole, around which the young single
men and women of the village would dance holding on to
the ribbons until they became entwined, with their (
hoped for) new love.

And of course there was Robin Goodfellow, or the Green
Man who was the Lord of Misrule for this day. Mayday
was a celebration of the common people, and Robin
would be the King/Priest/Fool for a day. Priests and
Lords were the butt of many jokes, and the Green Man
and his supporters; mummers would make jokes and poke
fun of the local authorities. This tradition of satire
is still conducted today in Newfoundland, with the
Christmas Mummery.

The church and state did not take kindly to these
celebrations, especially during times of popular
rebellion. Mayday and the Maypole were outlawed in the
1600's. Yet the tradition still carried on in many
rural areas of England. The trade societies still
celebrated Mayday until the 18th Century.

As trade societies evolved from guilds, to friendly
societies and eventually into unions, the craft
traditions remained strong into the early 19th
century. In North America Dominion Day celebrations in
Canada and July 4th celebrations in the United States
would be celebrated by tradesmen still decorating
floats depicting their ancient saints such as St.
Crispin.

Our modern celebration of Mayday as a working class
holiday evolved from the struggle for the eight hour
day in 1886. May 1, 1886 saw national strikes in the
United States and Canada for an eight hour day called
by the Knights of Labour. In Chicago police attacked
striking workers killing six.
The next day at a demonstration in Haymarket Square to
protest the police brutality a bomb exploded in the
middle of a crowd of police killing eight of them. The
police arrested eight anarchist trade unionists
claiming they threw the bombs. To this day the subject
is still one of controversy. The question remains
whether the bomb was thrown by the workers at the
police or whether one of the police's own agent
provocateurs dropped it in their haste to retreat from
charging workers.

In what was to become one of the most infamous show
trials in America in the 19th century, but certainly
not to be the last of such trials against radical
workers, the State of Illinois tried the anarchist
workingmen for fighting for their rights as much as
being the actual bomb throwers. Whether the anarchist
workers were guilty or innocent was irrelevant. They
were agitators, fomenting revolution and stirring up
the working class, and they had to be taught a lesson.

Albert Parsons, August Spies, George Engle and Adolph
Fischer were found guilty and executed by the State of
Illinois.

In Paris in 1889 the International Working Men's
Association (the First International) declared May 1st
an international working class holiday in
commemoration of the Haymarket Martyrs. The red flag
became the symbol of the blood of working class
martyrs in their battle for workers rights.

Mayday, which had been banned for being a holiday of
the common people, had been reclaimed once again for
the common people.

 

Monday, May 01, 2006

Summer solstice triggers synchronized beech tree reproduction across Europe

New study finds that the summer solstice provides a celestial cue to synchronise beech tree reproduction across vast distances in Europe,

UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL

 

IMAGE: 

SUMMER SOLSTICE SYNCHRONISED SEED PRODUCTION

view more 

CREDIT: JAKUB SZYMKOWIAK, ADAM MICKIEWICZ UNIVERSITY

A new study published in Nature Plants has found that the summer solstice acts as a "starting gun" to synchronise beech tree reproduction across vast distances in Europe, affecting ecosystem functions.

An international research team from the University of Liverpool, the University in Poznań, Poland and the University of Canterbury, Christchurch in New Zealand joined forces to look at the associations between weather patterns and seed production in perennial plants like the European beech (Fagus sylvatica), and to explore how tree reproduction is consistently synchronized across vast distances.

Previous work by the team showed that the key to achieving this synchrony is a coordinated response to an external trigger, such as weather, but how the European beech -  which grows across the European continent with greatly varying climates  - achieved this was a mystery.

The research team looked at fine-scale changes in plant responses to temperature and found that the 21st June – the summer solstice and the longest day of the year- acted as a celestial cue, triggering synchronised responses to weather conditions among widely separated populations of European beech.

Dr Valentin Journé, a postdoctoral researcher at Adam Mickiewcz University in Poznań, Poland, who led the analysis said: “We got inspired by a recent Science paper where researchers from Switzerland found that the effects of temperature on leaf senescence switch at the summer solstice. The summer solstice is the longest day of the year, and happens at the same time anywhere in the Hemisphere.”

Jessie Foest, a PhD researcher from the University of Liverpool who was involved in the research, said: “The sharp response of beech trees is just remarkable. Once the day starts to shorten after the summer solstice, the temperature sensing-window opens simultaneously, all across Europe.

“What’s truly jaw-dropping is that the change in day length that the trees are able to detect is really small - we are talking about a few minutes over a week. Apparently, trees are able to recognise the difference.”

Many perennial plants do not reproduce regularly and forgo reproduction for a few years to accumulate resources and then produce a bumper seed crop. The remarkable synchrony of this interannual variation was known to extend to hundreds and thousands of kilometres in many species. This study reveals how plants can achieve coordination over such great distances.

Such large-scale regional synchronisation of seed production by trees has important consequences for ecosystems. Large-seeding years result in a pulse of resources for wildlife, while reproductive failures result in famines for seed-eating animals. When this variation is synchronised at sub-continental scales the consequences include far-reaching disruptions in food webs, including rodent outbreaks, migration of ungulates and birds, and spikes in wildlife-borne human diseases.

The paper, ‘Summer solstice orchestrates the subcontinental-scale synchrony of mast seeding’ was published in Nature Plants (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41477-024-01651-w)

---

JOURNAL

Nature Plants

DOI

10.1038/s41477-024-01651-w 

ARTICLE TITLE

Summer solstice orchestrates the subcontinental-scale synchrony of mast seeding’

Spring equinox 2024: When it is and why it's also called the vernal equinox

Tiffany Acosta
Arizona Republic


Spring is blooming and with it comes the spring equinox. This celestial event occurs annually, marking the moment when the Earth's axis is neither tilted away from nor toward the sun, resulting in nearly equal lengths of day and night across the globe.

This phenomenon symbolizes the transition from winter to spring in the Northern Hemisphere and from summer to autumn in the Southern Hemisphere.

Beyond its astronomical significance, the spring equinox holds cultural, spiritual and metaphorical importance for many people worldwide. Throughout history, cultures have marked this occasion with festivals and ceremonies.

Here is everything you need to know about the spring equinox.

When is the spring equinox 2024?

The spring equinox officially starts at 8:06 p.m. Arizona time on Tuesday, March 19.
What is the difference between spring equinox and vernal equinox?

According to NASA, the terms "spring equinox" and "vernal equinox" refer to the same astronomical event and are used interchangeably. Both terms describe the moment when the sun crosses the celestial equator, moving from south to north.

Why is it called vernal equinox?

The term "vernal equinox" originates from Latin, where "vernal" means spring and "equinox" denotes the equal length of day and night. The term "vernal equinox" specifically emphasizes the seasonal aspect while "spring equinox" is more generic, referring to the equinox that occurs in springtime.
Is spring equinox always March 21?

No. The spring equinox does not always occur on March 21. While March 21 is often cited as the date of the spring equinox, it can occur on March 20 or 21st, depending on the year and time zone, according to Almanac.com. This variation is due to the complexities of Earth's orbit around the Sun and the adjustments made in the calendar system to account for these movements.

What happens at the spring equinox?

The spring equinox marks the moment when the sun crosses the celestial equator, heading northward. On this occasion, day and night are approximately of equal duration all over the Earth, according to the National Weather Service.

The spring equinox is considered the beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. Cultures around the world have celebrated this event for centuries through various rituals, festivals and traditions, often focusing on themes of fertility, growth and the balance between light and dark.

Will spring come early 2024?

Sorry, Punxsutawney Phil, but predicting whether spring will come early in a specific year depends on numerous factors such as weather patterns, atmospheric conditions and regional climate dynamics.

While the spring equinox occurs at a fixed point in time each year, the arrival of warmer temperatures, the blooming of flowers and other signs of spring can vary.


Some years may experience earlier spring due to warmer weather patterns or climate variability, while others may see colder temperatures lingering longer.

The spring equinox typically falls on March 20 or 21, but in a leap year like 2024, when February has an extra day, the equinox may occur a bit earlier.
What are the 4 equinox dates?

Here are the 2024 equinox and solstice dates, according to the National Weather Service:
Spring (vernal) equinox: March 19, 2024, at 9:06 p.m.
Summer solstice: June 20, 2024, at 2:51 p.m.
Autumn equinox: Sept. 22, 2024, at 6:43 a.m.
Winter solstice: Dec. 20, 2024, at 2:20 a.m.

All times are Arizona time.
What does the spring equinox symbolize?

The spring equinox symbolizes renewal and rejuvenation, the transition from darkness to light as nature emerges from the dormancy of winter.

Many cultures observe the spring equinox with festivals and rituals centered around fertility, abundance and the renewal of life, according to the almanac.com.

Ancient monuments such as the Sphinx in Egypt and Angkor Wat in Cambodia align with the equinox, showcasing humanity's historical reverence for this celestial event.

The spring equinox is also regarded as a time for balance, harmony and personal growth.
Yes, 'SNL' took on Kyrsten Sinema. No, it wasn't funny. Scarlett Johansson was, thoughWhen is the solar eclipse 2024? Here's how much of it you'll be able to see in ArizonaWhat time is the State of the Union? How to watch it — and the predictable media coverageHow to watch and stream the Oscars — and why this year you really should

Why is it called equinox?

The term "equinox" comes from the Latin words "aequus," meaning equal, and "nox," meaning night. It is called so because during the equinox, day and night are approximately equal in length.

It's a moment of balance and symmetry in the Earth's orbit around the sun, symbolizing the cyclical nature of time and the changing of seasons.

Mystery of common mushroom growing from an amphibian shows how little we know about fungi

Katie Hunt, CNN
Sat, March 2, 2024 


Fungi are fascinating and integral parts of the web of life. They also have a bit of a mixed reputation.

On one hand, mushrooms and networks of fungal roots are sought-after sources of nutritionally rich food, mind-altering drugs and eco-friendly materials — and they help trees share nutrients and store carbon in a way that might fight climate change.


Other members of the fungi family tree are less desirable and act as disease-causing pathogens that can disrupt ecosystems and blight human and animal health.

But a newly described mystery involving a mushroom and a frog suggests that fungi’s role in the environment is anything but black-and-white.
Once upon a planet

A golden-backed frog is seen with a small mushroom (right) growing out of its body. - Lohit Y T

Some naturalists stumbled upon a strange sight within a roadside pond in the Indian state of Karnataka in June 2023: a golden-backed frog with a tiny mushroom sprouting from its flank.

The team photographed the seemingly healthy amphibian and reported the discovery. Examining the images, an expert identified the mushroom as a common bonnet, a type of fungus that mostly grows on rotting wood.

It’s not clear why the mushroom made the frog its home. The odd growth could be the result of a fungal infection, which is common in frogs, or evidence of a symbiotic relationship.

The researchers plan to return to the same spot during the next monsoon season to investigate further.
Look up

The DART mission was a landmark test of asteroid deflection technology — a proof of concept in case humanity ever needs to defend Earth from a potentially devastating collision with a space rock, such as the one that doomed dinosaurs 66 million years ago.

The target of that 2022 NASA mission was Dimorphos, a moonlet asteroid that orbits a larger asteroid known as Didymos. When the DART spacecraft crashed into Dimorphos, it changed the asteroid’s orbital period — how long it takes to circle Didymos — by about 32 to 33 minutes.

Space scientists have since learned more about what happened to Dimorphos. Rather than forming a simple crater, the impact altered the asteroid in a fundamental way, new research has revealed.

“If you think of Dimorphos as starting out as resembling a chocolate M&M, now it would look like it has had a bite taken out of it!” said lead study author Dr. Sabina Raducan, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bern’s Physics Institute in Switzerland.

Ocean secrets

Only half an inch (12 millimeters) long, but louder than 140 decibels, Danionella cerebrum is one noisy fish. - Senckenberg/Britz

Whale songs have long been known to echo through the surprisingly noisy ocean depths, but it’s not just marine giants making themselves heard.

Scientists have discovered a diminutive, translucent fish that makes a noise louder than an elephant. Living in shallow waters off the coast of Myanmar, members of the species Danionella cerebrum can make noises higher than 140 decibels.

“This is comparable to the noise a human perceives of an airplane during take-off at a distance of 100 (meters) and quite unusual for an animal of such diminutive size,” said ichthyologist Dr. Ralf Britz of the Senckenberg Natural History Collections in Dresden, Germany, in a news release.

Britz and his colleagues analyzed high-speed video recordings, micro-CT scans and genetic information to understand the unique way in which males of the species generate the thunderous sound.
Turn, turn, turn

Have you forgotten why February had an extra day this year? Here’s a quick refresher.

A leap year is essentially a necessary piece of cosmic bookkeeping that prevents the seasons from getting out of whack. Without one, the summer solstice we generally experience in June would happen in December 700 years from now.

A solar year is 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds, according to NASA’s calculations. As a result, every year the commonly used 365-day calendar lags behind the solar year by about one-quarter of a day.

While this might not seem like much of a difference, over four years, it works out to roughly a full day.

Plans to build traffic tunnel at Stonehenge to go ahea

By Euronews

Published on 20/02/2024 - 

Campaigners have lost a High Court challenge against renewed plans to build a road tunnel under one of the UK's oldest monuments.

The non-profitable organisation "Save Stonehenge WHS" lost an appeal in the High Court to stop the construction of a road tunnel near the prehistoric structure.

The judge declared that the relevant policies had been considered by the British government and that the evidence presented by the activists "provides no basis" for contesting them.

Nevertheless, one part of the appeal, relating to the Ministry of Transport's position on environmental impact, will be the subject of a later ruling.

Thousands mark Summer solstice in an annual celebration at Stonehenge

National Highways says the tunnel will remove the sight and sound of traffic passing the site and cut journey times.

"We firmly believe that putting much of the busy, noisy and intrusive A303 road into a tunnel past Stonehenge is right for the World Heritage Site," said Duncan Wilson, Chief Executive of Historic England.

 Opinion

Rabbi David Wolpe’s pagans aren’t the ones I know

The distinguished rabbi characterizes a broad collection of small faiths as idolators of nature or money.

(Image by Rihaij/Pixabay/Creative Commons)

January 2, 2024

By 

Nathan M. Hall

(RNS) — The rising sun is shining through my south-facing windows, just over a week after the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. As a scientifically minded person, I understand that this means that the amount of daylight minutes will be increasing until the summer solstice in June. As a modern Pagan (yes, with a capital “P”), I celebrate it as a return of the light after the dark half of the year, bringing clarity and illumination.

It’s clear that I’m not the kind of Pagan Rabbi David Wolpe wrote about last week in The Atlantic in his essay “The Return of the Pagans,” and I can’t say I know any who are. Wolpe, a distinguished rabbi in Los Angeles for most of his career and now a visiting scholar at Harvard Divinity School, working from a monotheistic worldview — one specifically rooted in the Bible — describes Pagans as the arch embodiments of evil or simply idolaters. 

“The worship of natural forces generally takes two forms: the deification of nature, and the deification of force,” Wolpe states at the outset of his essay, and concludes, “Hug a tree or a dollar bill, and the pagan in you shines through.”

Wealth is a particularly odd attraction to assign to Pagans (“Wealth is a cover for, or a means to, the ultimate object of worship in a pagan society,” he writes later, “which is power”), which shows his confusion about who modern Pagans are. His description of Pagans is so clearly a characterization he sets up in order to puncture some trends of our modern era. In itself, this is fine; I don’t agree with some of them either. But it was unfortunate that he chose to create a straw man of Paganism to knock around.

To do so, Wolpe abandons any nuance in describing cultures of antiquity. While there may be kernels of truth to biblical accounts, to land on them as one’s sole source for information about other religions, much less vast numbers of cultures in human civilization, is distressing. I would attribute it to a lack of intellectual curiosity, but Wolpe, a university lecturer, is known for questioning the historicity of the story of the Bible’s Book of Exodus. He can hardly plead ignorance.

Rabbi David Wolpe in a recent video about Hanukkah on social media. (Video screen grab)

Wolpe’s real point seems to be that people on the left have been promoting the primacy of nature, while those on the right award it to the individual. Both, to him, connote some form of what he calls Paganism.

But having used Paganism to call out the failings of the political left and right and to decry how our culture has ruptured along these lines, Wolpe wants us to believe that, if there is a way out, it’s through someone’s interpretation of the Bible. If only, in Wolpe’s view, we weren’t so focused on the beauty of creation, of the pleasures of the body or the acquisition of material wealth, we would be in a better alignment with what the deity of biblical monotheism intended.

What is Paganism, if not the brittle collection of stereotypes Wolpe has assembled? It’s a term that has historically included those moderns who follow pre-Christian religions from Europe, the Middle East and North Africa — think the beliefs of ancient Greece and Egypt, but also modern-day Druids and Heathens. Paganism in some places includes attempts at reconstructing these ancient religions or devising modern approaches and adaptations that stretch far beyond its history.

It includes practitioners of witchcraft; tree-hugging animists; close-knit, family based groups; and large magickal academies. It includes Indigenous peoples from parts of Europe and the Mediterranean. Most importantly, it includes people from any part of the world who simply decide that Paganism is the best description for what they practice.

In the United States and Europe the term Pagan has anecdotally been fading in recent years, as different individuals’ and groups’ practices have become more clearly defined — though Wolpe’s piece has given it new life. In the short time since it was published on Christmas Day, there has been an uproar from practitioners of this small collection of beliefs and religions who have overwhelmingly rejected his message.

What bothers me most, perhaps, is not that nearly everything Wolpe says about Paganism is simplistic or just plain wrong, or his laziness or even his political argument — it’s where his article appeared.

The Atlantic is read by people of a host of different religious and spiritual worldviews — Christians and Jews, of course, but also Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, followers of African traditional religions, Indigenous North American religions and yes, people who have claimed or inherited the descriptor of Pagan as part of their background. Its readers also include atheists, agnostics and so many more. 

There was certainly a way of calling out the behaviors of the people Wolpe wants to blame for our culture’s dysfunction without demonizing those who believe differently than he does. It speaks to a lack of empathy and ability at a time when we have seen a record number of hateful incidents directed at members of minority faiths, not least antisemitic hate.

That the magazine’s editors didn’t challenge Wolpe’s article for being too myopic is troubling. Pieces like his can commonly be found in publications that skew toward more religiously or politically tailored points of view, where Paganism is used as a stand-in for a collection of traits to be mourned or avoided. I can’t entirely fault a monotheist like Wolpe for seeing his path as the only true and correct way of interacting with the world or divinity, but The Atlantic should have considered the harm of allowing the term “Pagan” to be used as a dog whistle.

(Nathan M. Hall is a freelance journalist and author who lives in Florida. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)

Calibrating Instruments For Exoplanets: What Neptune And Uranus Really Look Like

Press Release
University of Oxford
January 6, 2024

Voyager 2/ISS images of Uranus and Neptune released shortly after the Voyager 2 flybys in 1986 and 1989, respectively, compared with a reprocessing of the individual filter images in this study to determine the best estimate of the true colours of these planets. CREDIT Patrick Irwin.

Neptune is fondly known for being a rich blue and Uranus green – but a new study has revealed that the two ice giants are actually far closer in colour than typically thought.

The correct shades of the planets have been confirmed with the help of research led by Professor Patrick Irwin from the University of Oxford, which has been published today in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

He and his team found that both worlds are in fact a similar shade of greenish blue, despite the commonly-held belief that Neptune is a deep azure and Uranus has a pale cyan appearance.

Astronomers have long known that most modern images of the two planets do not accurately reflect their true colours.

The misconception arose because images captured of both planets during the 20th century – including by NASA’s Voyager 2 mission, the only spacecraft to fly past these worlds – recorded images in separate colours.

The single-colour images were later recombined to create composite colour images, which were not always accurately balanced to achieve a “true” colour image, and – particularly in the case of Neptune – were often made “too blue”.

In addition, the early Neptune images from Voyager 2 were strongly contrast enhanced to better reveal the clouds, bands, and winds that shape our modern perspective of Neptune.

Professor Irwin said: “Although the familiar Voyager 2 images of Uranus were published in a form closer to ‘true’ colour, those of Neptune were, in fact, stretched and enhanced, and therefore made artificially too blue.”

“Even though the artificially-saturated colour was known at the time amongst planetary scientists – and the images were released with captions explaining it – that distinction had become lost over time.”

“Applying our model to the original data, we have been able to reconstitute the most accurate representation yet of the colour of both Neptune and Uranus.”

In the new study, the researchers used data from Hubble Space Telescope’s Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope. In both instruments, each pixel is a continuous spectrum of colours.

This means that STIS and MUSE observations can be unambiguously processed to determine the true apparent colour of Uranus and Neptune.

Uranus as seen by HST/WFC3 from 2015-2022. During this sequence the north pole, which has a paler green colour, swings down towards the Sun and Earth. In these images the equator and latitude lines at 35N and 35S are marked. CREDIT Patrick Irwin

The researchers used these data to re-balance the composite colour images recorded by the Voyager 2 camera, and also by the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).

This revealed that Uranus and Neptune are actually a rather similar shade of greenish blue. The main difference is that Neptune has a slight hint of additional blue, which the model reveals to be due to a thinner haze layer on that planet.

The study also provides an answer to the long-standing mystery of why Uranus’s colour changes slightly during its 84-year orbit of the Sun.

The authors came to their conclusion after first comparing images of the ice giant to measurements of its brightness, which were recorded by the Lowell Observatory in Arizona from 1950 – 2016 at blue and green wavelengths.

These measurements showed that Uranus appears a little greener at its solstices (i.e. summer and winter), when one of the planet’s poles is pointed towards our star. But during its equinoxes – when the Sun is over the equator – it has a somewhat bluer tinge.

Part of the reason for this was known to be because Uranus has a highly unusual spin.

It effectively spins almost on its side during its orbit, meaning that during the planet’s solstices either its north or south pole points almost directly towards the Sun and Earth.

This is important, the authors said, because any changes to the reflectivity of the polar regions would therefore have a big impact on Uranus’s overall brightness when viewed from our planet.

What astronomers were less clear about is how or why this reflectivity differs.

This led the researchers to develop a model which compared the spectra of Uranus’s polar regions to its equatorial regions.

It found that the polar regions are more reflective at green and red wavelengths than at blue wavelengths, partly because methane, which is red absorbing, is about half as abundant near the poles than the equator.

However, this wasn’t enough to fully explain the colour change so the researchers added a new variable to the model in the form of a ‘hood’ of gradually thickening icy haze which has previously been observed over the summer, sunlit pole as the planet moves from equinox to solstice.

Astronomers think this is likely to be made up of methane ice particles.

When simulated in the model, the ice particles further increased the reflection at green and red wavelengths at the poles, offering an explanation as to why Uranus is greener at the solstice.

Professor Irwin said: “This is the first study to match a quantitative model to imaging data to explain why the colour of Uranus changes during its orbit.”

“In this way, we have demonstrated that Uranus is greener at the solstice due to the polar regions having reduced methane abundance but also an increased thickness of brightly scattering methane ice particles.”

Dr Heidi Hammel, of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), who has spent decades studying Neptune and Uranus but was not involved in the study, said: “The misperception of Neptune’s colour, as well as the unusual colour changes of Uranus, have bedevilled us for decades. This comprehensive study should finally put both issues to rest.”

The ice giants Uranus and Neptune remain a tantalising destination for future robotic explorers, building on the legacy of Voyager in the 1980s.

Professor Leigh Fletcher, a planetary scientist from the University of Leicester and co-author of the new study, said: “A mission to explore the Uranian system – from its bizarre seasonal atmosphere, to its diverse collection of rings and moons – is a high priority for the space agencies in the decades to come.”

However, even a long-lived planetary explorer, in orbit around Uranus, would only capture a short snapshot of a Uranian year.

“Earth-based studies like this, showing how Uranus’ appearance and colour has changed over the decades in response to the weirdest seasons in the Solar System, will be vital in placing the discoveries of this future mission into their broader context,” Professor Fletcher added.

Modelling the seasonal cycle of Uranus’s colour and magnitude, and comparison with Neptune, PNAS (open access)

Astrobiology