Good morning, it’s Tuesday. T-minus three days before vacation. Not that I’m counting or anything.
Water is something we take for granted – until such time that it’s not available, OR if there’s too much of it, as is occurring in California right now.
Water has the power to sustain life. Without it, almost no life form on Earth can survive. It makes up between 60 and 75 percent of the human body and covers 71 percent of the surface of the planet (most of that, close to 97 percent, is in the oceans).
If you lose just 4 percent of your total body water, you become dehydrated, while a 15 percent loss can be fatal. While you could survive an entire month with food, you wouldn’t last three days without water.
You might think that a substance so inherently integral to our very survival – not to mention the survival of the planet that we call home – would be treated like the precious and valuable resources that it is. But no, just like so many other things related to nature, human beings appear dead set on screwing up water.
Since so much of the Earth’s water is salty and therefore undrinkable without going through a lengthy desalination process, just about 2.5 percent is freshwater, and 70 percent of THAT is frozen in glaciers.
When it comes right down to it, most of the freshwater resources available to us are either 1) unreachable or 2) too polluted to be safe, leaving less that 1% of the world’s freshwater – about 0.003% of all water on Earth – readily accessible for direct human use.
Also, take into consideration that due to climate change, more than half of the world’s large lakes and reservoirs are drying up, a recent study published in the journal Science found.
I don’t know about you, but I find these statistics downright terrifying. I knew things were bad, but I had no idea they were THAT bad.
And before you start getting smug about how surely this isn’t a problem of significant magnitude here in the US – (although, to be clear, it’s Japan, and not America, that is about to dump treated nuclear wastewater into the ocean) – and couldn’t possibly be so bad within our borders, I have two words for you: Flint, Michigan.
And closer to home, how about Hoosick Falls? According to the US Geological Survey, almost half of the tap water in the US is contaminated with chemicals known as “forever chemicals.”
August is National Water Quality Month, which was founded in 2005 by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and backed by the United Nations to promote a public discussion about how to conserve natural water sources and ensure that everyone has access to safe, clean drinking water for generations to come.
The average person uses approximately 80 gallons of water or more per day for everything from bathing to flushing the toilet, and yet in some places around the world, people don’t even have indoor plumbing.
In the remaining days of August, maybe we can all pay a little closer attention to using a little less water – you can start by turning off the faucet this morning while brushing your teeth. Sounds like a little thing, I know, but you’ve got to start somewhere.
It will be a beautiful day, with clear, sunny skies and temperatures in the high 70s.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden traveled to Maui, Hawaii, yesterday to meet with residents affected by the wildfires this month, the deadliest in modern U.S. history.
The president toured Lahaina, surveying the charred town where 850 people are believed to still be missing. He promised that the federal government would do all it can to help with the recovery.
Biden told survivors of Hawaii’s wildfires that the nation “grieves with you” and promised that the federal government will help “for as long as it takes” Maui to recover from damage caused by the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century.
On the ground in Lahaina, the president surveyed the damage, and heard firsthand from first responders and local leaders. He also met with community elders out of the earshot of reporters.
House Republicans subpoenaed several FBI and IRS agents involved in the federal investigation into Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden as the party weighs whether to open an impeachment inquiry into the president this fall.
Former President Donald Trump’s bail was set at $200,000 in a sprawling racketeering case charging Mr. Trump and 18 associates with election interference in Georgia.
The 77-year-old former president’s consent bond order was revealed in a filing with the Superior Court of Fulton County on Monday, signed by Judge Scott McAfee, District Attorney Fani Willis, and members of Trump’s legal team.
The bond agreement sets strict rules for Trump’s release. The former president is not allowed to communicate with witnesses or co-defendants about the case, except through his lawyers, and he is barred from intimidating witnesses or co-defendants.
Trump said that he would turn himself in Thursday in Fulton County, Georgia, after he was indicted on sprawling charges stemming from his efforts to hold on to office in the wake of the 2020 election.
Federal prosecutors opposed Trump’s proposal to wait until 2026 to start his trial on charges he conspired to steal the 2020 election, arguing Monday that his lawyers mischaracterized how much evidence they must review and schedules for other cases.
Trump dominated his closest Republican presidential primary competitor, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, in a survey of Iowa voters published yesterday the latest signal of strength for the former president.
Trump won’t be there. But eight other Republicans hoping to catch him are now set for the first debate of the 2024 presidential primary tomorrow in Milwaukee, the Republican National Committee announced.
MAGA, Inc., a super PAC backing Trump, is up with a new TV ad focused on a potential general election matchup between Trump and Biden.
Federal prosecutors pushed back on Trump’s request to postpone his election interference trial in Washington until well into 2026, asserting that his main reason for the delay — the amount of evidence his lawyers have to sort through — was vastly overstated.
Nearly 160 Wall Street firms have moved their headquarters out of New York since the end of 2019, taking nearly $1 trillion — yes, that’s trillion with a “T” — in assets under management with them, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Brokerage firm Charles Schwab said it plans to lower its headcount in a bid to counter cost pressures, joining a list of Wall Street firms taking a similar path.
Thousands of migrants are flowing across the US border in Arizona every day — literally through open floodgates that have made the Tucson post the busiest point of illegal entry into the country.
The Biden administration has tentatively offered a long-sought lease agreement that would allow New York to put a state-funded migrant shelter at an airfield in southeast Brooklyn, Gov. Kathy Hochul said.
Hochul told reporters in the Bronx that her team has a proposed lease from the federal government for use of the former naval air station, which is now a greenspace managed by the National Park Service.
Word that the former naval air station, housed in the Gateway National Recreation Area, would be available came after the feds rebuked Hochul’s plan to use the 1,300-acre-plus (2-square-mile) venue for emergency shelter.
Hochul announced that the state will pour an additional $20 million into aiding asylum seekers in New York City with the goal of helping them exit emergency shelters, secure work authorizations and manage their claims for asylum.
The newly announced outlay is in addition to $1.5 billion the state has already directed toward the city to address the migrant crisis, which has strained the city’s social services infrastructure since last April.
DocGo, a medical services company enlisted to help New York City manage an influx of thousands of immigrants, is now under investigation by AG Tish James for possible violations of state or federal laws over the treatment of people in its care.
Adams met with the mayor of Jerusalem in Israel yesterday and plans to huddle with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today, which some pundits see as an effort to woo Jewish voters back home.
Adams will also meet with pro-democracy protest leaders, although his office did not specify which leaders or where the meeting was being held, and reporters were barred from attending
More than 13,000 rent-stabilized apartments sat empty for the past two years amid a heated debate over “warehousing” low-cost units, according to a new review of state data.
In the escalating race to be one of the first to open a casino in the New York City area, developers are rushing to win local support after state regulators said projects needed to be “embraced by the community.”
Police misconduct allegations filed with the Civilian Complaint Review Board jumped about 40% in the first half of the year, the watchdog agency said in a report issued yesterday.
A Queens man who menaced a peaceful group of Black Lives Matter protesters with a bladed glove and then drove his car at them faces a long prison term after being convicted on nine attempted murder counts and other charges, officials said.
People who endured a week without heat or electricity while incarcerated at a Brooklyn federal jail during a polar vortex in 2019 could share as much as $10 million in compensation under a proposed settlement deal.
The cost of the malfunctioning fire suppression systems at the MTA’s East New York bus depot continues to grow.
The fatal shooting of a store owner near San Bernardino, CA, by a man who made disparaging remarks about the shop’s Pride flag is latest in a barrage of anti-LGBTQ+ attacks that have put queer New Yorkers on edge and emboldened extremists.
A Long Island animal rescue shelter is calling the recent seizure of a wallaby on Coney Island “the tip of the iceberg” and is building a marsupial rescue center in anticipation of more such exotic animals.
“Once Upon a One More Time,” a pop musical using the songs of Britney Spears, will close on Broadway on Sept. 3 after opening to mixed reviews and failing to find an audience.
A familiar face will now formally lead operations at one of New York state’s most favorite annual events. Hochul has appointed Sean Hennessey as Director of the Great New York State Fair. He has been serving in an interim capacity since 2022.
Late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg became the first new face in the state Capitol’s Great Western Staircase since its completion in 1898, a milestone marked by Hochul.
Crossgates Mall has new lenders — although it is unclear exactly who bought the mall’s debt that was recently auctioned off by its Wall Street bondholders.
The addiction epidemic is getting worse in the Capital Region. Through local zoning laws, residents fight to keep the state’s solutions out of their backyards.
Albany County and private businesses have examined the possible purchase of the Gateway Sports Complex, which has announced it will close at the end of the month, city officials said.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany said the funeral for Bishop Emeritus Howard J. Hubbard will be held at 11:30 a.m. on Friday.
The “Freewheelin’ ” folk legend Bob Dylan and his band are coming to Proctors on Oct. 30.
Carol Robles-Román, a brainy and determined lawyer from a Puerto Rican family who as a top official in Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s administration made New York City’s legal system more accessible, died Sunday at a Westchester hospital. She was 60.
Former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn Carter, are still holding hands and making memories together in their Georgia home six months after he entered hospice care there, one of the couple’s grandsons said.
