Ryan Jacobs

Ryan Jacobs

Senior Editorial Fellow

Ryan Jacobs is a senior editorial fellow for Mother Jones in San Francisco. His work has also appeared in the Bay Citizen, Sierra magazine, the Point Reyes Light, The Chicago Reporter, and others. During his short reporting career, his coverage has ranged from the discovery of a potentially new species of phytoplankton to the scene of a quintuple homicide.

Get my RSS |

Could Nemo Inspire More Dubious Climate Change Coverage?

—By

| Fri Feb. 8, 2013 2:16 PM PST

Weather forecasts predict that Snowstorm Nemo will be highly unusual in its intensity—the worst blizzard the Northeast has seen in ages. Already, thousands of flights have been canceled and people are scrambling to stock up on emergency supplies. So it might seem like now would be the perfect opportunity for the media to sound the alarm about the connection between climate change and extreme weather. But a new study finds that exactly the opposite is true: When it gets cold out, some prominent newspaper opinion writers start hammering out their next attempt to debunk global warming. 

Despite overwhelming scientific consensus about the long-term phenomenon, newspaper op-ed pages are most likely to opine about how climate change isn't real when seasonal temperatures dip. According to a new study published in Climatic Science, annual and seasonal deviations from mean temperatures can explain attitudes (both positive and negative) expressed in 2,166 opinion pieces between 1990 and 2009 in five major newspapers, the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Houston Chronicle. (It also demonstrated that national public opinion polls aligned with temperature anomalies.)

During heat waves or temperature spikes, the percentage of newspaper columns that agreed with climate change rose. But when winters were rough or temperatures fell, the percentage of disagreement ratcheted up. Lead author and University of British Columbia climate scientist Simon Donner told Mother Jones it was difficult to explain such correlations, but he and his co-author took a stab at it, this way, in the paper:

Furthermore, editors may be more likely to write about climate change or to accept a submission on the subject during or after and [sic] anomalously warm season. Therefore, the relationship between climate variability and the opinion data may arise not solely from people viewing weather or climate anomalies as proof or disproof of climate change, but from the anomalies serving as a reminder of the issue of climate change and as “hooks” for opinion articles.

The problem with writing opinion articles supporting climate change exclusively during heat waves or slamming it during cooler seasons is that it fails to consider that the phenomenon is really "a long-term average," Donner says. "If next decade is warmer than this decade, it doesn't mean every day in next decade is warmer than every day in this decade. There's still going to be variability in the system."

If the public and newspapers are going to trust that climate change is real, even when it's cold outside, scientists and educators also have to step up and be more vocal. "We've got to talk about climate change not just when there's a good 'hook' to talking about it, but even you know, on unusually cold days in the summer," Donner adds.

Advertise on MotherJones.com

CHARTS: The Top 5 Land-Grabbing Countries

—By

| Wed Feb. 6, 2013 4:06 AM PST
A farmer in Tanzania, where land and water grabs are frequent. World Bank/Scott Wallace Flickr

In 2010, a former Wall Street trader flew into war-torn Sudan to negotiate a deal with a thuggish general. He had his eye on a 1 million acre tract of fertile land fed by a tributary of the Nile in the southern section of the country, a region that later claimed its independence as South Sudan. The investor, who planned to profit by developing and exporting agricultural commodities, boasted about how the region's instability was a principal variable in his financial model: "This is Africa," he told reporter McKenzie Funk, who shadowed him for a riveting piece in Rolling Stone (PDF). "The whole place is like one big mafia. I'm like a mafia head."

Over the last decade (and especially during the last four years) wealthy nations have increasingly brokered deals for huge swathes of agricultural land at bargain prices in developing countries, installed industrial-scale farms, and exported the resulting bounty for profit. According to the anti-hunger group Oxfam International, more than 60 percent of these "land grabs" occur in regions with serious hunger problems. Two-thirds of the investors plan to ship all the commodities they produce out of the country to the global market. And droughts, spikes in food and oil prices, and a growing global population have only made the quest for arable land more urgent, and the investments that much more alluring.

In what a recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) characterizes as a "new form of colonialism," investors from the US, UK, and China are gobbling up foreign farmland at "alarming rates" and often with little consultation and compensation of poor small-scale farmers and local populations.

According to the PNAS study, the land grabbing phenomenon has already claimed some 203 million acres, or about .7 to 1.75 percent of the world's total farmland, since 2002, with the majority of acquisitions after 2008. Out of 41 land grabbing speculators, the US ranks second, with 9.14 million acres grabbed, an area larger than the country of Qatar. And according to another report from the Oakland Institute, highlighted by my colleague Jaeah Lee, many of the purchases are carried out by private equity funds, university endowments, pension funds, and hedge funds looking to strengthen their portfolios by capitalizing on declining natural resources. And as Mother Jones blogger Tom Philpott has noted, the grabbers have an average per capita GDP about five times the size of the grabbed.

Take a look at the top five land-grabbing countries below and their respective claims:  

Data source:"Global land and water grabbing."

Data within the PNAS report also indicate that the "mafia head" approach of targeting vulnerable countries for investments is not just the strategy of a lone land-grabbing cowboy, but standard practice. It's easier to wrest land and displace small-scale farmers in countries with a weak rule of law, according to Oxfam. In many cases, the land is developed to export crops or commodities for biofuels, and in other cases, left to sit idle so it can increase in value before it's sold.

Of the countries that lost the highest percentages of their cultivated land, nine out of 10 have malnourishment rates of 5 percent or more (see chart below). And according to Foreign Policy and Fund for Peace's Failed States Index, all the states in the graph below, with the exception of Uruguay, are categorized as unstable.

Data source:"Global land and water grabbing."

Given that 86 percent of the world's water resources flow into agricultural production, the grabs also hijack a good portion of rainwater and irrigation water. The graph below shows that the top five annual per capita water grabs exceed or come very close to the amount of water needed for a balanced diet for that country's citizens.

Data source:"Global land and water grabbing."

In October of 2012, Oxfam called on the World Bank to freeze its agricultural investments in land in order to review its policies and develop stronger guidelines on how to avoid land grabs. According to Oxfam, the World Bank's projects have been cited in 21 formal land rights complaints since 2008 by communities from Asia to Africa.

But the World Bank rejected the suggestion, saying that it would "do nothing to help reduce the instances of abusive practices and would likely deter responsible investors willing to apply our high standards." It acknowledged, however, that enforcing those standards "is challenging." It's a challenge that must be overcome, or land grabbing, as Oxfam says, could become "one of the great scandals of the 21st century."

Feds Shutter Historic Northern California Oyster Farm

—By

| Sat Dec. 1, 2012 4:03 AM PST
An oyster farm worker at Drakes Estero.

After years of highly publicized debate surrounding the fate of an oyster operation on Drakes Estero in the Point Reyes National Seashore, the Interior Department has decided against renewing the company's lease and has ordered it to vacate the property within 90 days. "After careful consideration of the applicable law and policy, I have directed the National Park Service to allow the permit for the Drakes Bay Oyster Company to expire at the end of its current term and to return the Drakes Estero to the state of wilderness that Congress designated for it in 1976," interior secretary Ken Salazar said in a statement. "I believe it is the right decision for Point Reyes National Seashore and for future generation who will enjoy this treasured landscape."

Salazar plans to designate 2,700 acres of the estuary, including 1,100 acres the farm operated on, as wilderness, the first such distinction for a marine area on the West Coast. Environmental groups—including the Sierra Club, the National Wildlife Federation, and the National Parks Conservation Association—and conservationists hailed the decision as a special victory for a parcel of water and land that hosts 90 species of endangered birds and the biggest colony of seals on the coast.

But owner Kevin Lunny, who bought the property in 2004 from another oyster operation, was predictably devastated. "It's disbelief and excruciating sorrow," he told the San Francisco Chronicle. His team of thirty will lose their jobs, and seven families who live on the property will be displaced. The region, which is also home to many other ranchers, will also lose a historic farm that has thrived on the inlet since the 1930s and well before the park existed. (Full disclosure: I worked as a fellow for the small, Pulitzer Prize-winning weekly Point Reyes Light newspaper, where my colleagues aggressively covered the saga and did not shy away from publishing editorials criticizing the government's role in the matter.)

Several high-profile oyster farm supporters have also criticized the way the National Park Service and the Department of Interior have handled the issue. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California) said she was "extremely disappointed" with Salazar's choice. "The National Park Service's review process has been flawed from the beginning with false and misleading science, which was also used in the Environmental Impact Statement," she said in a statement. Park Service officials have alleged that the farm's operations had a negative impact on marine life. But in 2009, a review by the National Academy of Sciences found that park officials "had made errors, selectively presented information, and misrepresented facts" in their studies. In August, the organization concluded that there was no evidence to support claims about effects on seals and shoreline habitat.

Nonetheless, the shacks, motor boats, and oysters racks will be removed. And the National Park Service will soon preside over a new swath of wilderness.

Chevron Subpoenas Google and Others for Private Email Info

The oil giant goes fishing for private data on activists, attorneys, and journalists connected to its famous Ecuador lawsuit.

—By

| Sat Nov. 3, 2012 3:03 AM PDT
A toxic pool of crude oil in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

After two decades of contentious court battles, a group of indigenous Ecuadorian communities clinched a $19 billion judgment against Chevron in 2011 for the destruction its subsidiary Texaco oversaw in the Amazon rainforest. Chevron has fought bitterly against the enforcement of the payout—one of the largest ever handed down in an environmental suit—and is attempting to build up evidence for a fraud case it's leveling against the Ecuadorians, their legal advisor, and his associates.*

In its latest effort, Chevron has effectively sucked a whole cast of environmental activists, attorneys, and journalists into the vortex of the litigation with a series of wide-reaching subpoenas for private email data. Most of the dozens of targets of Chevron's massive "fishing expedition" are not directly tied to the original lawsuit against the company or its current legal claims; they include the plantiff attorney's summer intern who only worked on the case briefly in 2007, a writer who worked for a non-profit on behalf of the affected Amazon communities, and an environmental activist in Ecuador who fears that Chevron could use information about his whereabouts to intimidate or harass him or pass it along to third parties "that could do the same or worse."

Revealing data for more than a hundred private email accounts over the span of nine years will fall into Chevron's hands if federal courts in New York and California fail to dismiss what legal experts call "sweeping" and "invasive" subpoenas the oil giant has issued to service providers Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft.

[Read the full article]

7 Surprising Items That Get Prisoners Thrown Into Solitary

From Christmas cards to newspaper clippings, California prison officials have cited just about everything as "evidence" of gang activity.

—By

| Thu Oct. 18, 2012 1:28 AM PDT

Deep within the Orwellian milieu of California prisons, gang investigators operate with almost total discretion when placing inmates into solitary confinement. Artifacts an outsider might deem innocuous can prove inmates' association with prison gangs and warrant indeterminate periods in Security Housing Units (SHUs). The following excerpts from hundreds of pages of lawsuits, internal reports, and validation documents highlight seven shocking items used in this process, offering a firsthand look into a procedure that normally remains hidden behind bars.

1. A Christmas card: In the yuletide season of December 2009, the investigative services unit at Pleasant Valley State Prison intercepted an outgoing piece of mail from inmate Sean Dunne, a suspected associate of the Northern Structure prison gang. Of particular interest to prison officials was the appearance of stars in an illustration on a Christmas card, which also featured a Santa hat, Hershey's Kisses, a prominent candy cane, and carol notes. In a photocopy of the drawing below, an assistant institutional gang investigator labels each of the "Northern Stars," explains how they are symbolic of Dunne's association, and concludes that the card will count as one source document in his validation.

 

2. Political books and writing from black sources: Officials from Centinela State Prison informed inmate Ricky Gray in May 2005 that his possession of the following literature was jeopardizing "the safety and security of the institution" and represented his "continued association with the Black Guerilla Family [BGF] and their beliefs." Most of the titles mentioned in the report are written by or relate to the experiences of black prisoners, like the late George Jackson.  

 

3. The huelga bird and the number 14: Former inmate Ernesto Lira was validated as a Northern Structure gang member on the basis of a drawing which featured the huelga bird, the number 14, and, again, the "Northern Star." This excerpt, which describes the illustration, is from a judge's ruling to expunge Lira's gang validation in September 2009, after he had been released on parole.

 

Former San Quentin Warden Daniel Vasquez testified that the huelga bird and the number 14, both popular symbols in Mexican American culture, were unreliable validation evidence. Vasquez couldn't locate the "Northern Star." 

 

4. Newspaper article: According to prison regulations, at least one of the three items necessary for a gang validation must demonstrate a "direct link" with another gang member or associate. The gang investigator who prepared inmate Dietrich Pennington's validation package cites Pennington's possession of a newspaper clipping from the San Francisco Bay View, an African American weekly, as evidence of BGF association because it is written by another validated inmate. In this response to Pennington's legal petition, California Attorney General Kamala Harris describes the actions of prison officials and argues that his case should be dismissed.

 
 

5. Dragon Tumbler: Another item cited in Pennington's validation was a drinking cup with a dragon etched on it. According to the investigator, the dragon is "the most common identifying symbol" used by BGF. In Harris' response, she included a poorly photocopied image of the cup.

 

6. Journal Musings: Pennington's third questionable validation item was a notebook, in which he had pondered the oppression of prison life and copied quotes from black prisoners, like George Jackson. Here's a sampling:

 

7. Statements from confidential "informants": After inmate Ricky Gray was validated in 2006, a warden asked a staff assistant to review the package. Crucial statements about Gray actively recruiting other BGF members came from two confidential informants. When interviewed later, they maintained they did not know Gray or the officer who purportedly interviewed them.

 
 
 

Contact the prisoners in this article.