This week downtown Lahaina, which I visited many years ago, burned to the ground in a wildfire that started in dry grass and was driven by hurricane-force winds. It was the most devastating event yet in our Climate Change Summer, emphasizing yet again that we cannot simply go on this way.
The Sift leaves breaking news to organizations that have the resources to cover it, and information about the disaster is still coming out. (And the death toll is still rising.) So if I don’t say a lot about Maui, that doesn’t imply I don’t see the seriousness of the situation there.
Instead, my attention was caught this week by something that may seem trivial by comparison. In July, the Authoritarian State of Florida approved videos by the right-wing non-university Prager University for use in public elementary schools. PragerU Kids videos constitute precisely the kind of “indoctrination” Governor DeSantis claims to be against. They are slickly produced and probably quite effective at distorting kids’ views of history and the world we live in today.
One video in particular stood out for me: Two time-traveling kids from the present go back to 1852 to talk to Frederick Douglass about abolition, and come back with a negative view of Black Lives Matter protesters today. The Douglass in the video seemed nothing like the Douglass of history, and yet I know the Prager style: They cherry-pick and deceptively reframe history, but seldom lie outright. So how did they do this?
Via the internet, I took my own trip back to the 1800s so I could listen to Douglass (or at least read his speeches). What I found emphasizes (at least to me) how tricky the Prager people really are, and why it’s so dangerous to give them this kind of access to American children. The post “How Frederick Douglass became a conservative spokesman” should appear before 10 EDT.
That leaves the weekly summary a lot to cover: Maui, of course, but also developments in Trump’s various trials, a victory for reproductive rights in the red state of Ohio, other disturbing things we’re learning about Florida education as the new school year approaches, that viral brawl in Montgomery, and a variety of other news. That post should appear before 1.
The Weekly Sift 
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Climate Change Summer, emphasizing yet again that we cannot simply go on this way.
We need to get scientists focused on sea floor volcanoes at tectonic rifts as the last time precession of equinoxes created a deluge was 13,000 years ago and next is coming up in March 2100!
I asked the Norweigian Lady Scientist on the Copernicus panel a question – if 1939 the heat record was recorded and we had 500,000 cars ; and our own panel says 25% of climate change is because of cars – and we have 1.5 billion cars – why have we not broken the 1939 record ?
She promised to look into it and also the impact of sea floor volcanoes as only last 3 years we mapped 20,000 and we expect to find at least 50,000 more – any thoughts ?
Curious where the reference to cars comes from.
Also, I believe you mean the summer of 1936?
https://www.weather.gov/ilx/july1936heat
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transportation account for about 29 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, making it the largest contributor of U.S. GHG emissions. Between 1990 and 2021, GHG emissions in the transportation sector increased more in absolute terms than any other sector.
EPA says 29% Copernicus 25% and yes 1936