onfocus

"For decades, one of the most striking and predictable patterns of human behavior in the western U.S. has been people accidentally starting fires on the Fourth of July. From 1992 to 2015, more than 7,000 wildfires started in the U.S. on July 4 – the most wildfires ignited on any day during the year. And most of these are near homes."

With wildfires already burning in California and Oregon, this is a good year to get creative and find other ways to celebrate on the 4th.

"The investment bank calculated that a $1bn investment in bitcoin would produce the same carbon emissions as the annual output of 1.2m cars due to energy usage associated with bitcoin."

It's the opposite of buying carbon offsets.

"Over the past decade, the blockchain has become a refuge for people who need another place to rest their assets. For global tycoons, it’s just an alternative to parking their money in some real estate they would never visit."

Anil Dash (father of the NFT?!) on its origin and the current state of his problem child.

"The funds raised by the progressive lawmaker will go toward 12 food banks and relief organizations, including the Bridge Homeless Recovery Center, Ending Community Homelessness Coalition, Family Eldercare, Feeding Texas and the Houston Food Bank, according to the donations page."

Amazing work. I also wish we lived in a world where we didn’t need to do this kind of fundraising because the federal government would step in with this help.

"Scientists think that millions of years ago, Venus actually had oceans of liquid water like Earth. At some point, however, a runaway greenhouse effect turned Venus into the inhospitable world it is today, with a surface temperature hot enough to melt lead."

Hey, no Earth spoilers! AND: I, for one, welcome our phosphine belching neighbors.

With The West on fire, you might need a good visualization of where fires are and where smoke is headed.

You might want to celebrate this Earth Day by revisiting Blackened by Metallica. When I was listening to this in junior high I was only vaguely aware it was about nuclear winter if I thought about it all. I was mostly interested in the guitar work. Maybe I grew up to care about the environment because of the heavy metal I listed to?