CO2 Maps Highlight Worst Offenders

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A new, high-resolution, interactive map of US carbon dioxide emissions finds unexpected trouble spots. Too many emissions have been blamed on the northeastern US when the southeastern US is a much larger source than previously estimated. This according to Kevin Gurney at Purdue University, project leader. The maps and system, called Vulcan, show CO2 emissions at more than 100 times more detail than was available before. Previously, CO2 emissions data were reported, at best, monthly at a state level. Vulcan examines CO2 emissions hourly at local levels. Below is a great YouTube video of how it works, told in Geek, but probably understandable to nonGeek speakers or those with Geek as a Second Language. Look hard enough and you can almost find your own tailpipe in the maps.

The three-year project was funded by NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy under the North American Carbon Program, and involved researchers from Purdue University, Colorado State University and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Vulcan will revolutionize carbon cycle research. It’s considered the next generation in our understanding of fossil fuel emissions, with enormous implications for climate science, carbon trading and climate change mitigation work.

Julia Whitty is Mother Jones’ environmental correspondent, lecturer, and 2008 winner of the Kiriyama Prize and the John Burroughs Medal Award. You can read from her new book, The Fragile Edge, and other writings, here.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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