A C. T U. A L. L Y

Oh! We're having a heatwave, a tropical heatwave The temperature's rising, it isn't surprising Irving Berlin It’s the Dog Days of Summer, even though summer is still a puppy, and this Sunday's climate post is all about the HEAT!! Drastic Temperatures Call for Drastic Measures .   European cities are taking exceptional steps to limit the impact of a historic early summer heatwave as a plume of hot Saharan air was sucked northwards last week by a storm stalled over the Atlantic and a high pressure system in central Europe.    German officials imposed a 120km/h speed limit on stretches of the Saxony-Anhalt A utobahn when the road surface began to deteriorate.   Milanese charities distributed up to 10,000 bottles of free water to the homeless and other people in need.   Innsbruck’s famous carriage horses were taken off the streets. Schools in parts of France were closed and examinations were postponed for a week.   ...

Isn’t it high time the U.S. stopped blaming the migrants for its Central American immigration crisis?   While the reasons behind any individual migrant’s decision to leave his or her home country and seek asylum or just a better life in the U.S. are unique and deeply personal, I think the myriad causes can be loosely grouped into the big three:   drug cartel gang violence, political instability, and climate change.   And not a single migrant is blameable for any of those causes.   Salvadoran Drug Cartel Insignia Drug Cartel Gang Violence .   Sure the cartels are out to make a buck, like any other capitalist, but why drugs?   Simple answer:   voracious U.S. demand.   And what fuels that demand?   In my opinion, a search for meaning and an escape from a fundamentally unfulfilling life.   Put a bit simplistically, capitalism is an economic system; it’s not a philosophy or a religion.   It’s about making money,...