A belated addition to Dr S's second post above:
[QUOTE]Moreover, there were so many big industries between the two cities that at night they made the river glow like a worm. As a result of settlement patterns, this reach of the Mississippi had long been known as "the German coast," and now, with B. F. Goodrich, E. I. du Pont, Union Carbide, Reynolds Metals, Shell, Mobil, Texaco, Exxon, Monsanto, Uniroyal, Georgia-Pacific, Hydrocarbon Industries, Vulcan Materials, Nalco Chemical, Freeport Chemical, Dow Chemical, Allied Chemical, Stauffer Chemical, Hooker Chemicals, Rubicon Chemicals, American Petrofina—with an infrastructural concentration equalled in few other places—it was often called "the American Ruhr." The industries were there because of the river. They had come for its navigational convenience and its fresh water. They would not, and could not, linger beside a tidal creek.[/QUOTE]This stretch of the river is also called "Cancer Alley", for the same reasons as the other appellations mentioned, plus lax to non-existent anti-pollution regulation and enforcement.
[QUOTE]Do I smell? I smell home cooking
It's only the river, it's only the river[/QUOTE] David Byrne, The Talking Heads.

More from the Department of "Let's replace facts with ideology" ...
 

[url=https://apnews.com/4ec9affd55a345d582a4cc810686137e]Emails: Trump official pressed NASA on climate science[/url][quote]WASHINGTON (AP) — Once a skeptic about climate change, Jim Bridenstine came around to the prevailing view of scientists before he took over as NASA administrator. That evolution did not sit well with a Trump environmental adviser, nor a think-tank analyst he was consulting, according to newly disclosed emails that illustrate how skepticism of global warming has found a beachhead in the Trump White House.

"Puzzling," says the May 2018 exchange between William Happer, now a member of President Donald Trump’s National Security Council, and Thomas Wysmuller of the Heartland Institute, which disavows manmade climate change. Their exchange calls scientifically established rises in sea levels and temperatures under climate change "part of the nonsense" and urges the NASA head — who was copied in — to "systematically sidestep it."

It cannot be discerned whether it was Happer or Wysmuller who put that pressure on the new NASA chief. Their exchange is included in emails from 2018 and 2019 that were obtained by the Environmental Defense Fund under the federal Freedom of Information Act and provided to The Associated Press.
<snip>

The emails show Happer expressing surprise that Bridenstine, a former Oklahoma congressman, had put his skepticism of global-warming science behind him before becoming NASA chief in April 2018.

Bridenstine a year ago told reporters that after reading Defense Department briefings on global warming, he became convinced it is a serious national security problem: "We’re defending territory in the Arctic that we never had to defend. The Russians are doing things in the Arctic that they never used to be able to do."
<snip>

Two major U.S. science organizations took issue with Happer’s emails.

"We have concerns that there appear to be attempts by a member of the National Security Council to influence and interfere with the ability of NASA, a federal science agency, to communicate accurately about research findings on climate science," said Rush Holt, chief executive officer of the American Association for the Advance of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society.

Hundreds of scientific assessments by leading researchers and institutions the last few decades have looked at all the evidence and been "extremely credible and routinely withstand intense scrutiny," said Keith Seitter, executive director of the American Meteorological Society.

He said efforts to dismiss or discredit such assessments are "an incredible disservice to the public."[/quote]

o [url=https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/07/09/completely-terrifying-study-warns-carbon-saturated-oceans-headed-toward-tipping]'Completely Terrifying' Study Warns Carbon-Saturated Oceans Headed Toward Tipping Point That Could Unleash Mass Extinction Event[/url] | Common Dreams

o [url=https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/07/mining-and-electric-vehicles-lithium-nickel-cobalt.html]Mining and Electric Vehicles: Lithium, Nickel, Cobalt[/url] | naked capitalism -- Good article over at NC on the (non)scalability of current EV tech, in terms of the availability, extraction cost and recyclability of the key "strategic minerals".

[url=https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/07/the-cost-of-climate-change.html]The Cost of Climate Change: Steve Keen Dismantles William Nordhaus[/url] | naked capitalism

Where the hack did they got those functions from? They seem to me like pulled from the ass... They have no real base, and are artificially made, to show the points they want to show. Everything is just politics, with some Dirty Harry inserted here and there to make you keep reading.

[url=https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7309805/Backlash-barefoot-Prince-Harry-hypocrite-celebrities.html]Backlash at barefoot Prince Harry and ‘hypocrite Greenerati’[/url] | Daily Mail: [i]Eco-warrior elite who turned up at secret climate change Google camp in 114 private jets, helicopters and mega yachts are mocked for leaving their own carbon footprint[/i]
[quote]A host of A-list celebrities faced an angry backlash today after they travelled to a climate change conference in Italy in a fleet of supercars, expensive yachts and more than 100 private jets.

Guests at the secretive Google Camp were accused of hypocrisy after they gathered this week to discuss the environment while leaving a considerable carbon footprint of their own.

Prince Harry is understood to have given a passionate barefoot speech about saving the planet, although Buckingham Palace has refused to confirm his attendance or whether he too travelled by private jet.

'This is not something we are commenting on,' a spokeswoman told MailOnline.

Some 114 fuel-guzzling planes were scheduled to land in Palermo for the elite gathering, according to Italian media, while others brought their super-yachts to a three-day conference whose guests include Katy Perry and Harry Styles.

BBC presenter Andrew Neil was among those to point out the irony, saying: 'Scores of celebrities and the rich have arrived in Sicily for a Google conference. They came in 114 private jets and a flotilla of super yachts. The conference is on global warming.'[/quote]

Greta Thunberg is on a no-frills voyage to the US from Plymouth on the Malizia II, to attend climate demonstrations on September 20 and 27 and speak at the United Nations Climate Action Summit.

[url=https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/greta-thunberg-yacht-accident-plymouth-3212228]Tycoon tweets about 'freak yachting accident' after Greta Thunberg sails from Plymouth[/url][quote]Insurance tycoon Arron Banks has come under fire for a tweet about 16-year-old climate change activist Greta Thunberg.

The Leave.EU founder responded to a post by Green party MP Caroline Lucas about Greta's voyage across the Atlantic on a racing yacht, writing: "Freak yachting accidents do happen in August ..."

He later tweeted that it was a "joke" after his comment sparked outrage from social media users.[/quote]Oh, what veddy British wit. Reminds me of the "Conquistador Coffee Campaign" from [i]Monty Python's Flying Circus[/i]:[quote]Boss: Shut up, I want to have a word with you, Frog.

Frog: S. Frog, sir.

Boss: Shut up. It's about your advertising campaign for Conquistador Coffee. Now, I've had the managing director of Conquistador to see me this morning and he's very unhappy with your campaign. Very unhappy. In fact, he's shot himself.

Frog: Badly, sir?

Boss: No, extremely well. (lifts up a leg belonging to a body behind desk, and holds up a card saying 'joke') Well, before he went he left a note with the company secretary (opens a nearby door; a dead company secretary falls out), the effect of which was how disappointed he was with your work and, in particular, why you had changed the name from Conquistador Instant Coffee to Conquistador Instant Leprosy. Why, Frog?

Frog: S. Frog, sir.

Boss: Shut up. Why did you do it?

Frog: It was a joke.[/quote]

[url=http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2019/08/the-antarctic-ice-sheet-is-melting-and-yeah-its-probably-our-fault/]The Antarctic ice sheet is melting and, yeah, it's probably our fault.[/url] | RealClimate
[quote]The key finding is that we now have evidence that the increasing loss of ice from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is a result of human activities — rising greenhouse gas concentrations in particular. Now, some may be surprised to learn that this wasn’t already known. But the argument that humans are responsible has rested largely on the grounds that there must be a connection. After all, why should melting have increased only in the late 20th century, precisely when the impacts of anthropogenic climate change were becoming more and more apparent? It seems an unlikely coincidence.

As Richard Alley* put it:
[i]
It has been hard to imagine that the ice sat around happily for millennia and then decided to retreat naturally just as humans started perturbing the system, but the evidence for forcing by natural variability was strong.
[/i]
To be sure, there have been studies suggesting a discernible anthropogenic impact on Antarctic surface temperature, particularly on the Antarctic Peninsula. And it’s known that the depletion of stratospheric ozone and the rise in greenhouse gases has caused the circumpolar winds to increase in strength. But there has been little direct evidence that what’s happening to the ice sheet itself can be attributed to human-induced climate changes. Consequently, there has been no paper published that makes a strong claim about this. Indeed, a formal solicitation of expert views in 2013 showed that opinion was pretty much evenly divided on whether observed changes to the Antarctic ice sheet were simply part of the natural variability of the climate/ice-sheet system. In stark contrast, agreement among those same experts was (and is) unanimous that Greenland is melting because of anthropogenic global warming.[/quote]

[QUOTE]Greta Thunberg is on a no-frills voyage to the US from Plymouth on the Malizia II, to attend climate demonstrations on September 20 and 27 and speak at the United Nations Climate Action Summit.

Tycoon tweets about 'freak yachting accident' after Greta Thunberg sails from Plymouth[/QUOTE]
After reading one of the "tycoon's" later tweets, it comes to me that "lefties" is the new "libtards". Oh yes, and Greta is being exploited: "used."

[QUOTE=kladner;523786]After reading one of the "tycoon's" later tweets, it comes to me that "lefties" is the new "libtards". Oh yes, and Greta is being exploited: "used."[/QUOTE]
Ah, yes, unfortunate Greta Thunberg, poor little child, is being "exploited." Who might be "exploiting" her is left unsaid, of course.

Seems hard to imagine [i]anyone[/i] exploiting a gal with so much spunk. Perhaps her critics routinely think about child exploitation. Who can say?

Phew, what a scorcher!
 

It's 35C outside right now.

That not may seem very hot by Arizonan or Saudi standards, but this is an ocanic island located in a cold current. I don't remember the temperature rising above 30C on previous visits, and I've been coming here for thirty years.

We are in a blast of hot air coming in from the Sahara. Even at this distance the dust turns the sky milky-white at noon and lemon-yellow towards sunset.