Probably the least welcome four words in the language are "I told you so," which is why I haven't posted much here while so many people are in misery because of Harvey, Irma and Maria. Nonetheless, as Neil deGrasse Tyson says, now is probably a good time to remind people of the benefits of having scientifically literate politicians:



Meanwhile, elsewhere on the planet, there is that rare thing: a news story about the environment that can actually cheer us up a little:



If a poor country like Senegal can plant 11 million trees, I'm sure the developed world could be planting a few more too.

As flooding in the US has been a regular theme in this thread, I'd like to post John Oliver's look at the strange financial realities of owning a beach-front property:-

I was just watching that this morning, but I didn't finish the last ten minutes before I had to go to work. I think my favorite thing about Oliver is that so much of what's wrong in the world is completely ridiculous when laid bare, and he does a great job of showing just how absurd all of this is.

^ Thanks for responding to my post, Batlord ! We must've been watching the John Oliver clip at about the same time, and yes, he does a good job of telling it like it is, with humour. If anyone imagines that misapplied use of public funds is a particularly American problem, well take a look at the EU. There have been so many scandals about out-of-control spending and lack of accountability that I'm sure it was one of the main reasons people voted Brexit in the referéndum last year. The Brits got sick of throwing their money into the bottomless pit of various ineffectual EU projects.

Nothing funny about this next clip, I'm afraid. It's about a recent report by The Lancet, Britain's most respected medical journal, which analyses the effect of pollution on world health. To me the crucial take-aways are:-

> One in six premature deaths worldwide can be attributed to pollution*.
> Low- to middle-income groups are most at risk.
> India and China are worst offenders.



* That's much more than war, disease and anything else that the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse can throw at us put together.

"Clean up the air 'n' treat the an-i-mals fair"

Despite Captain Beefheart's advice we still consistently do the opposite, which makes this latest report card from scientists very depressing:-

16,000 scientists sign dire warning to humanity - CNN

From the article:-

So, "F minus: must try harder" :(

The CNN website is one of my regular sources of news, and I was surprised that its lead story today was this special report. It's a mixture of scary facts, beautiful images and dire predictions. Global warming is a slow-developing saga, so it doesn't often grab a headline, and the fact that CNN rates it front page news is in itself worrying:-

Greenland?s melting glaciers may someday flood your city

There's not nearly enough talk about these things in mainstream media - or in the arts for that matter.

Did the fire just burn a giant penis onto California?