Yes, Climate Change Can Supercharge a Winter Storm. Here’s How

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Yes, Climate Change Can Supercharge a Winter Storm. Here’s How (Maria)

The author writes, “If it feels like you’re at the North Pole right now, it’s because you kind of are. Swirling high above the Arctic is a very cold air mass known as the polar vortex. This is encircled  — and typically trapped — by a strong wind pattern called a jet stream, which separates cold air in the Arctic from warmer air to the south. Things are changing up North as it warms four times faster than the rest of the planet, a phenomenon known as Arctic amplification. Dwindling sea ice exposes darker waters, which absorb more of the sun’s energy than ice does.”

Inside the Somali-Led Resistance to Trump’s Assault on Minneapolis (Laura)

From The Intercept: “Creating new ICE watch patrols and rapid response networks, fearing going to work or leaving home, watching their shared community spaces grow desolate and their shops sit empty — these are the experiences of Somali residents of the Twin Cities who spoke with The Intercept about being under siege in their own hometowns. While many of the state’s residents are being impacted by President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, Somalis in particular know they are targets of the administration and the thousands of federal immigration agents deployed to Minnesota.”

How Marco Rubio Went from ‘Little Marco’ to Trump’s Foreign-Policy Enabler (Al)

From The New Yorker: “As Secretary of State and also national-security adviser, [Marco] Rubio is, at least in theory, the most powerful American diplomat since Henry Kissinger. But compared with Kissinger, whose crusading interventionism defined a generation of America’s global relationships, Rubio often seems like a support staffer for the President. As Trump lurches from one crisis to another, Rubio—calm, articulate, and capable of projecting a Boy Scout’s earnest charm—justifies his policies, soothes rattled allies, and puts the best face on initiatives that only a few years ago he would have denounced.”

‘Womanosphere’ Influencers Panic as Their Audiences Turn Against ICE (Bethany)

The author writes, “As ICE escalates a fatal terror campaign in Minneapolis and across the country, far-right female influencers find themselves increasingly at odds with their own audiences of conservative women. According to new polling from The New York Times, the vast majority of women oppose what they’re seeing from ICE. 61 percent of women, regardless of party, ‘strongly disapprove’ of ICE, and 69 percent of women think ICE has ‘gone too far.’ The poll was conducted before the kidnapping of Liam Ramos and the murder of Alex Pretti. But commentators popular in the so-called ‘womanosphere,’ a growing ecosystem of right-wing podcasters and social media stars targeting young women through lifestyle and wellness content, have so far defended ICE. Now their heavily female audiences are pushing back.”

After Sowing Distrust in Fluoridated Water, Kennedy and Skeptics Turn to Obstructing Other Fluoride Sources (Dana)

From ProPublica: “Florida and Utah have banned fluoridation, with multiple other states looking to do the same. Critics of fluoride in drinking water point to supplements as an alternative, but many are creating barriers to these very products.”

Plants Can’t Absorb as Much CO2 as Climate Models Predicted (Mili)

The author writes, “CO2 can stimulate plant growth, but only when enough nitrogen is available—and that key ingredient has been seriously miscalculated. A new study finds that natural nitrogen fixation has been overestimated by about 50 percent in major climate models. This means the climate-cooling benefits of plant growth under high CO2 are smaller than expected. The result: a reduced buffer against climate change and more uncertainty in future projections.”

New DB Cooper FBI Files Released, Offering up Intriguing Suspects Never Seen Before (Reader Steve)

From The Oregonian: “A phone tipster who would insist on remaining anonymous reached a special agent in the FBI’s Little Rock office in the summer of 1972. The caller, the resulting investigative report stated, said a man there ‘with a propensity for overspending’ was DB Cooper. ‘Suspect described as white male American, five ft ten, one seventy-five, light complexion, light hair, heavy cigarette smoker, jolly attitude.’ Needless to say, he’d have good reason to be jolly if he had parachuted out of a Boeing 727 in the dead of night with $200,000 in ransom and lived to not tell about it. But the FBI ultimately decided the suspect, whose name is redacted in the official report, wasn’t their man. The memo comes from the declassified D.B. Cooper case files Part 113, released on Jan. 6. That’s 391 more pages from the FBI investigation into the Nov. 24, 1971, hijacking of Northwest Orient Flight 305 out of Portland.”