Health Trotter

August 06, 2021 at 06:45PM The bipartisan infrastructure package being negotiated in the Senate promises to fund some important climate programs, with sizable expenditures for cleaning up abandoned oil wells, replacing lead pipes and repairing roads and bridges. The $50 billion in climate resilience funding will protect people from the storms, droughts, floods and other extreme weather events made worse by climate change. Unfortunately, it will do little to address the coal, oil and gas use that is driving climate change. Even worse, many sections, if not removed, will actively make it worse. The looming bipartisan infrastructure deal, if it passes, will be celebrated as a return to pre-Trump politics where politicians reach across the partisan divide, compromise where necessary, and work toward the wrong shared goals. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] But it’s business as usual when it comes to the defining challenge of our time: the climate crisis. The bill provides noth...

August 06, 2021 at 04:30PM Here’s how you fly a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft: Climb aboard; strap yourself in; close the hatch; fly to space. The Dragon takes care of everything, so relax and enjoy the ride—unless, of course, something goes wrong, and in space, something can always go wrong. So here’s how you prepare for that possibility: Spend months of 60-hour weeks in classrooms and simulators; master hundreds of pages of technical specs and procedures; learn the workings of dozens of systems and subsystems aboard the spacecraft; train for emergencies ranging from communications blackouts to navigation failures to on-board fires; and, not for nothing, spend a little time in a centrifuge and an altitude chamber, practicing for the g-forces you’re going to have to endure and the possibility of depressurization. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “There’s north of 60 procedures that range from normal contingency to emergency,” says Jared Isaacman, the CEO of Shift4 Payment...