This is the link to the following article and comments on it.
Politics intruded on science and intelligence. That’s why I quit my job as an analyst for the State Department.
By
Dr. Schoonover was a senior analyst in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research at the State Department.
Ten years ago, I left my job as a tenured university professor to work as an intelligence analyst for the federal government, primarily in the State Department but with an intervening tour at the National Intelligence Council. My focus was on the impact of environmental and climate change on national security, a growing concern of the military and intelligence communities. It was important work. Two words that national security professionals abhor are uncertainty and surprise, and there’s no question that the changing climate promises ample amounts of both.
I always appreciated the apolitical nature of the work. Our job in the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research was to generate intelligence analysis buttressed by the best information available, without regard to political considerations. And although I was uncomfortable with some policies of the Trump administration, no one had ever tried to influence my work or conclusions.
That changed last month, when the White House blocked the submission of my bureau’s written testimony on the national security implications of climate change to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. The stated reason was that the scientific foundation of the analysis did not comport with the administration’s position on climate change.
After an extended exchange between officials at the White House and State Department, at the eleventh hour I was permitted to appear at the hearing and give a five-minute verbal summary of the 11-page testimony. However, Congress was deprived of the full analysis, including the scientific baseline from which it was drawn. Perhaps most important, this written testimony on a critical topic was never entered into the official record.
In blocking the submission of the written testimony, the White House trampled not only on the scientific integrity of the assessment but on the analytic independence of an arm of the intelligence community. That’s why I recently resigned from the job I considered a sacred duty, and the institution I loved.
As a tenured professor trained in physics and chemistry, I was admittedly an unusual fit for the intelligence community. I likely would never have considered the move if not for a program run by the American Association for the Advancement of Science that connects Ph.D. scientists to roles within the U.S. government to shape and inform policy. I found a home in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, the oldest civilian intelligence agency in the government and well known for its history of analytic sharpness and courageous dissent.
Science has long intersected with intelligence analysis. Indeed it would be difficult if not impossible to elucidate the ramifications of nuclear materials, near-Earth objects, infectious diseases and many other pressing national security concerns without a deep understanding of the foundational science of each. This too applies to climate change.
Decades of scientific measurements have established that global temperatures are increasing and ocean waters are acidifying. These changes produce shifts in a vast number of Earth system processes: in the atmosphere, ocean, freshwater, soil, ice masses, permafrost and organisms comprising the biosphere. Some effects are well known, like increased frequency and intensity of heat waves and droughts and rising sea levels. Others are less familiar, like decreasing oceanic oxygen levels and the redistribution of species.
With these environmental changes we should expect disruptions to global water and food security, reduced economic security and weakened livelihoods, worsened human and animal health, and risks to the global supply chain on which the United States and its partners depend. Political instability, heightened tensions over resources, climate-linked humanitarian crises and adverse effects to militaries in some places are likely to increase. Migration will probably increase both within and between nations, with sociopolitical and resource implications already becoming clear.
Despite the increased politicization of climate change, I embraced the opportunity to participate in an unclassified congressional hearing on such an important matter. In particular, I welcomed the chance to engage Republican members of Congress on the topic because of the party’s historically strong support of other science and technology issues. Previous closed-door discussions persuaded me that at least some Republican lawmakers were open to the argument that climate change was a national security concern. I believe that once one accepts that global temperatures are increasing, a fact that only the most ardent climate disbeliever rejects, the case for that fact’s relevance to nation security directly follows.
When I joined the government in 2009, leadership was generally receptive to environmental security analysis. After the administration changed in 2017, my job was arguably even more important because of the skepticism within the Trump administrative over climate change. The intelligence community tries to deliver objective truth to decision makers — truth that persists irrespective of who occupies the White House.
I take great pride in the many positive and productive interactions I had with senior officials in my 30 months in the Trump administration. But the decision to block the written testimony is another example of a well-established pattern in the Trump administration of undercutting evidence that contradicts its policy positions.
Beyond obstructing science, this action also undermined the analytic independence of a major element of the intelligence community. When a White House can shape or suppress intelligence analysis that it deems out of line with its political messaging, then the intelligence community has no true analytic independence. I believe such acts weaken our nation.
My last day on the job was July 12. In the weeks since the hearing I came to understand that there was little left for me to achieve in my position. More than most officers in the intelligence community, I interacted often with the public in discussions of environmental security issues. After the experiences of the prior two months, I wondered whether I could continue public engagements without being tainted by questions about my own analytic independence.
Grappling with the implications of climate change and biodiversity loss, the two primary security concerns I’m focused on, is too important to me to wait around for a possible change on these issues in a future administration. We need to better understand and anticipate the challenges facing the nation and its partners. Whatever my next step might be, I believe these issues remain critical, and I will try to continue this work going forward.
Rod Schoonover was, until recently, a senior analyst in Bureau of Intelligence and Research at the State Department. He also worked as director of environment and natural resources at the National Intelligence Council and was a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
Genetically modified food is permitted without labeling in Mexico. Here is a listof some foods that you might find were made with GMOs, or maybe not. These products were not necessarily grown or made in Mexico. This article in La Jornada from February of this year addresses the existence of GMOs in processed food lines here. The illustrations are NOT endorsements. They are just a sad effort to liven up the appearance of the list.
MASECA: Maseca is a tortilla-making mix. Maseca with Vitamins may have genetically modified corn in it.
MISIÓN: Tortillas made ith 100% maize. Maseca and Misión both are part of Gruma, SA de C.V.
GRUPO MINSA: Masa de Nixtamal Instant, La Unica tortillas, tortillas from fresh masa La Única (brand) and tostada plana (toasted flat tortillas) La Única (brand)
BIMBO (Mexican company that owns Wonderbread) (Their products are "packed with goodness and made with love".) Milpa Real (brand) Toasted Corn Tortillas, white bread, multigrain bread, whole wheat bread, Pinguinos, chocolate rolls, Rocko, Triki-Trakes, and some more things available in Mexico, but I don't recognize what they are.
SMUCKERS: Jams and jellies (J.M. Smucker de México)
DEL FUERTE: Canned pickled chipotle peppers, corn, bottled catsup.
DEL MONTE: Canned jalapeño chiles in slices, whole jalapeño, sliced carrots, pickled chipotles, corn, marinated garbanzo beans, bottled catsup.
HERDEZ: Canned bean salad, jalapeño chiles, marinated green sliced jalapeños, nachos with pickled jalapeños, corn, vegetable salad, pickled mushrooms.
NESTLE (uses a LOT of our water, among other things): Baby food, dried milk drink for kids, Carnation, Cerelac, Cerelac Infantil, Mom , Bebé menu (dried milk drinks for mom and baby.) (When a product says drinks, it seems to mean that it's not pure milk. Has other stuff in it.) (When we were in the Peace Corps in Uganda about 45+ years ago [YIKES] Nestle worked hard to promote infant formula over breastfeeding.) sopón de frijol (I have no idea what this is), Carlos V chocolates, Kit-Kat candy bars, Tin Larin chocolate bars (Mexico), Nestea, Nestle's Gold, Corn Flakes, Zucosos and Chocapic cereals, dog Alpo and Friskies (Nestlé México).
CLEMENTE JACQUES: Jams and jellies (Anderson Clayton and Co.-Unilever)
CAPULLO: Edible vegetable oil (Anderson Clayton and Co.-Unilever)
RAGÚ: (Anderson Clayton and Co.-Unilever) (I don't know which products).
MAFER: Japanese peanuts, special peanuts, toasted peanuts, classic peanuts (Anderson Clayton and CO.-Unilever.
PRONTO: Toppings (Anderson Clayton and Co.-Unilever)
HOLANDA: Ice cream (Anderson Clayton and Co.-Unilever)
HELLMAN'S: (Dressings and mayonnaise (Cocina Corn Products (S.A: de C.V.)h
KNORR: Mole, adobo y Pipián (I think this means dried versions. (Cocina Productos de Maíz, S:A: de C.V.)
KARO: Baby food, high fructose corn syrup, maple syrup (Cocina Productos de Maíz, S.A. de C.V.)
BETTY CROCKER: Arroz con Leche (rice with milk), Brownies, toppings, (Cocina Productos de Maíz, S.A. de C.V.)
ADES: Soy drinks (Cocina Productos de Maíz, S.A. de C.V.)
MAIZENA: Atoles (corn-based drinks) (Cocina Productos de Maíz, S.A. de C.V.)
SABRITAS: Doritos and Ruffles and Fresqui Bon Bebidas (which seems to be some kind of drink mix)
KRAFT: Jell-O, Kool-Aid, Tang (Kraft Foods of Mexico, S.A. de C.V.)
GREAT VALUE: Catsup, Mayonnaise, BBQ sauce, Corn Flakes and sugared cereals (Servicios Administrativos Wal-Mart, S.A.de C.V.)
PRINGLES: Potato chips, pizza, cheeses (Procter and Gamble. Ex president Ernesto Zedillo has something to do with Pringles)
DANONE: Danette, Danup (Danone de México, S.A. de C.V.)
GAMESA; Cookies and crackers (Grupo Gamesa S.A. de C.V.)
MACMA: Cookies (Macma, S.A. de C.V.)
ESTEC: Pancake mix (South West International)
NABISCO: Three Stars cake flour, Royal baking powder, Oreos. (Nabisco, S.A. de C.V.)
DEL VALLE: Fruit juices Del Valle and Florida Juice 7, Shrimp, chicken (Nissin brand) and beef soup.
(Jugos del Valle, S.A. de C.V.)
PEPSI: Pepsi Cola (Pepsico de México, S.A. de C.V.)
SONRISA Fruit juices (Valle Redondo)
SANTA CLARA: Ice creams (Santa Clara Productos Lácteos, S.A de C.V.)
KELLOGG'S: Corn Flakes, Corn Pops, Corn Flakes crumbs, Froot Loops (Kelloggs de México, S.A. de C.V.)
MAIZORO: Corn Flakes and I think Sugared Corn Flakes (Maizoro, S.A. de C.V.)
PURINA: Various dog and cat foods. (Agibrands Purina México, S.A. de C.V.)
GRUPO MODELO: Various beers (Grupo Modelo, S.A. de C.V.)
CERVESERIA CUAHTEMOC: Various beers (Cervecería Cuahtémoc en México, S.A. de C.V.)
DELIMEX: Taquitos (Delimex Mexicana, S.A. de C.V.)
AURRERÁ, COMERCIAL MEXICANA (MEGA), NUTRISA, SUPERAMA, WAL-MART: Various proprietary labels.
A good friend who denies global warming, at least, did again in response to my facebook post linking to the NYTimes article about the truly frightening changes in CO2 in the atmosphere. I wrote this in response:
I think we should say climate CHANGE not warming. I think if you constructed a simple"biosphere" -- there's another name for it. We used to construct them in high school -- and then changed the composition of the gases in it you'd see what climate change means. It means that things can't live the way they do now, and some, perhaps not at all. It is such a thin layer of stuff that we survive in, so unusual. Why would we want to threaten it more than other forces of nature do? What if temperatures don't, on average, change, but fish are wiped out from their homes, birds fall dead in some areas, butterflies don't make it to Michoacan. There is a beautiful short film with various people who have seen earth from space speaking here: http://vimeo.com/55073825# I really think it might sway you a bit.
Yesterday we saw the first really scary looking snake here. It was dead, it's head having been removed. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera, so you'll just have to believe me. It was probably closer to three than to two feet long, skinny, striped black, red and white (I think). The (I think) white stripes were jagged, like lightening looks in comic books. The deadly snake in our area is the coral snake. They are relatively shy and not aggresssive and rarely seen. I don't know how this one came to lie across our path, but I do know it wasn't a coral snake. I came home and looked through dozens of snake pictures and didn't see one just like it. Maybe my imagination was playing tricks with me and maybe the white stripes didn't look like lightening bolts in comic books. I stopped looking at the pictures because I didn't want to end up dreaming about snakes which are not my favorite animals in the world. If this description makes sense to any of you and you could offer an identification, I would really like to hear from you.
Friday was El Dia de la Vera Cruz, the Day of the True Cross. The capilla of the True Cross is located behind our neighbor's house. It is only used on this day. For the celebration, it is cleaned and decorated and looks beautiful. This year it had its own arco. In addition to the misa, there is often an effort to have a fiesta of some sort. One year it was very successful with all kinds of activities for younger people as well as music. For this year's celebration the community hired a DJ for a baile, a dance, at night. I don't think too many people came, but I couldn't swear to it because it is also the holiday outside of La Fiesta de la Virgen de Guadalupe that has the most cohetes and the biggest ones, and these ones are fired off right around us and these big nearby ones still make me VERY nervous even after all these years, so I hide inside.
Here is a picture of the capilla all decorated:
There were a number of very pretty hanging decorations:
Here is the interior:
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Moving right along....
Much to my amazement, the carrots we planted in the garden at our other little house actually grew into real carrots! I still am amazed when stuff actually comes up, especially stuff I've not planted before, and carrots seem particularly miraculous. These came up (or rather, went down) full-sized, crisp and flavorful!
Last week our young neighbor Graciela went on a walk with us. She has the other afghan hound in the neighborhood. It is also a found afghan. This one was at one point the dog of a neurologist who lives in Xico. The guy tried to keep the dog without a fence! So of course it wandered. His wife tried to bring it back quite a number of times, but they finally gave up. (This according to our friend and vet, Marco Antonio) Kids in our neighborhood saw it and thought it was ours. Anyway, it ended up with Graciela and she and the dog (now tied up) adore each other. So she came on our walk.
Graciela has eagle eyes. She saw a snake in the grass which she repeatedly pointed to while making alarmed little noises. Finally I saw it as it scurried away, and at long last, so did Jim. It was a slender green grass snake. She also was the first to notice a clump of tiny, shiny black worms inching its way across the path. Each worm must be about a quarter of an inch at most and quite skinny. Each pile of them must contain a couple of hundred. She showed us that when you see one clump, you will see more. They tunnel and come up. And sure enough, we saw a trail of them, spaced apart. She also saw wild cilantro which doesn´t look at all like the cilantro we are accustomed to. The leaves are clustered around a center, like dandelion leaves. They are fairly narrow and have pointed edges which are sharp. You have to cut off these edges to use the leaves, but then they not only smell and taste just like cilantro, according to Graciela, but can be used just like regular cilantro. She collected a bunch for her mom.
Below are some leaves I picked. I didn't have my camera on the walk so these are on our table.
And finally, yesterday Doña Gloria came over with a beautiful bunch of roses for me. Today is Mother's Day in Mexico, and she brought them "as one mother to another" so I wouldn't feel too lonely with my kids far away. We sat and had coffee and commented on the weather which has gotten a bit May-like: no rain, dusty air, and a lot of humidity, although this year the temperatures have been pretty mild. So she told me about the Fiesta of San Isidro which is coming up and will be celebrated in Xico and I think in our Colonia. She said that on this feast day, people carried a gourd upside down to show there had not been enough rain. They pray to San Isidro for rain, and if all goes well, it will rain shortly thereafter.
And that's all for now. El Pacto por México pronto. Maybe.
There is a novel by Jose Saramago called The Cave set in Spain. In it, a rural potter and his family find themselves selling their wares to a place called The Center. They slave to make the quotas, and one day, The Center cuts them off cold turkey: no more of your pots. Finally, the family has to move to The Center to work and to survive. The Center turns out to be an enormous surrealistic construction which aims to meet all the needs of the workers as well as the shoppers and businessmen so that they no longer have any desire to return to the real world. I am abridging here mercilessly. I only want to say that The Cave reminds me of the Chinese-Mexican plans to build a Dragon Mart near Cancun. The Dragon Mart is to be an enormous complex 122,000 square meters or 1,310,000 square feet. In addition to some 3000 commercial locations operated by Chinese businesses, there will be housing for some 700 housing units for Chinese workers. A lot of things are blurry: how many workers will be Chinese, for instance, vs. how many jobs will be available to Mexicans. Something like 6000 Chinese are expected to come to work in the complex. What isn’t in doubt is that the products will be Chinese and will be sold at far cheaper rates than comparable Mexican (or other nations’) goods. It will probably make WalMart look like child's play.
There are growing objections to the project, as well there should be, especially to the effect on Mexico’s economy and industrial production and to environmental damage. Random changes foreseen: vast increase in shipping (Chinese) into the area; the use of Mexico as a point from which to ship cheap Chinese goods not only around Mexico to the US, Canada and Latin America without the need for non-Chinese middlemen; the Chinafication of Mexico; the ability of the Chinese to vastly undersell EVERYONE.
The model for this monstrosity is Dragon Mart, Dubai, the biggest shopping and wholesale mart in Dubai, though the Mexican Dragon Mart is to be bigger. http://www.yadig.com/business/Dubai/Dragon-Mart/19382 describes the Dubai version this way:
DragonMart is the largest trading centre for Chinese products outside mainland China. DragonMart features everything you'd find in mainland China: home appliances, communication and acoustic equipment, lamps, household items, building materials, furniture, toys, machinery, garments, textiles, footwear and general merchandise.
Shoppers describe mountains of junk and mountains of “such-a-deals”, everything you need and don't need, all Chinese. ALL Chinese. Of course there is a huge difference between Dubai and the country of Mexico. Dubai is not an agricultural and industrial country which depends on its own goods at least in part for its survival.
The project seems to have slipped in under the radar in 2011, but recently, people have taken notice. Initially, mostly Chinese-funded, it is now funded maybe up to 90% by some very rich Mexicans including some from Monterrey. This will not change the basic nature of the place, but will make some very rich Mexicans richer. Also the state and Federal governments are starting to stir as are environmental groups.
It will, I suspect, make WalMart seem like child’s play.
Links to some articles in Mexico in Spanish:
http://www.excelsior.com.mx/2013/01/19/julio-faesler/880100
http://diariolaverdad.com.mx/divide-dragon-mart-cancun-al-partido-verde/193910/
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2013/01/28/edito
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2013/01/07/estados/030n1est
I’ve got lots more if you are interested.
There is more than Dragon Mart to China’s move into Latin America (and points north). China is also now Latin America’s biggest lender.
More soon.
This morning five brown jays were flying around and landing on the nopales outside our living room windows. They were eating the tiny flower buds and in between bites chattering with each other.. I found a recording of their sounds and was amazed to see them come to swift attention, looking towards me to try to understand where the sound was coming from. They clearly recognized it. You can read about the jays and listen to them here.
Here you can see three of them (click on the image for a larger view). A gas truck came by playing its jingle with the man on the back banging on the tanks to keep the beat. It scared the birds away, though they look too big to me to be scared away.
In our second terreno in the colonia there stands a lone macadamia tree. We -- or I should say Oscar Reyes the jefe ín charge of making a jardín over there has just harvested maybe 75 pounds of macadamias. Now these are nuts within shells within shells, so the final yield will be far less. Like coffee, macadamias requaire quite a bit of work. The leaves of the macadamia tree and the branches are all spiny, and there is no easy way to avoid them. It is best to get them off by climbing up and knocking them down and then collecting them. Oscar did that job. He is on the right in the photo below. Guillermo is helping him. Guillermo is in charge of the garden here at the house we live in.
Next, you have to lug the bag to our house where you hope for a few sunny days to dry the outer shell. This shell cracks when it is ready to be peeled off. THEN you hope for some more sunny days so you can dry the next layer. This can be removed when you hear the nut itself rattling around inside. .
The first picture is our sack of macadamias, our harvest.
Here below are some macadamias, the bigger ones still in their outermost shell, the smaller one in the interior shell.
Getting them out of the interior shell is the really hard part. One day we came home to find our neighbor Ismael drenched in sweat sitting on our curb hammering away. It wasn't a hot day. I want to tell you, each nut is a big deal. Ingrid, his wife, and their three kids were watching. Ismael gave us a nut. That was extremely generous, given the labor involved. Macadamias get a good price, but it is hard-earned.
Our area is the biggest macadamia producer in Mexico. There are other ways besides a hammer to crack the shell but you have to know you will have enough nuts to warrant the expense. I think we may. We are going to investigate. I once had a small bag of macadamias in a drawer in our kitchen when we lived in San Antonio, a bag I'd bought on a trip down before we lived here. We never succeeded in opening more than a couple.
NAFTA (The North American Free Trade Agreement or El Tratado de Libre Comercio de America del Norte in Spanish) has been deadly for many ordinary Mexicans who depend[ed] on their farms for their livelihoods. I have been a small voice among many talking about this over the years. Today in La Jornada there is an article on NAFTA's effects on traditional food and on the growth of the junk food market here in Mexico. I often wish I could beg the owners of the tiendas in our colonia to stop selling soda and chips and all the other crap that has so affected the health of my neighbors, but then they'd be done out of much of the small income they get as would the delivery men and line workers at places like Coca Cola. I do know that at least on special occasions, one of the shop owners sells home-made syrup for jamaica, the delicious local agua made from a local flower.
The translation of the article below is mine and is kind of loose to make it flow (I hope).
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The North American Free Trade Treaty (with the US and Canada) has distorted Mexican eating habits. The use of transgenics and the importation of "junk food" [chatarra in Spanish] in local cooking and eating represents a danger to the national cuisine which is included in the list of the Non-material Cultural Patrimony of Humanity of Unesco noted Gloria López Morales, ex-official of the United Nations Organization for Food and Agriculture (FAO).
Interviewed at the Mesoamerican Food Summit, she said that "the changes in food are a secondary effect [of NAFTA] on the availability of affordable local ingredients. The real danger for the Mexican kitchen is that they are losing these ingredients. There are a series of such products which, without adecuate farm policies, can be lost. This is going to mean we will have to give up a traditional balanced diet: varieties of corn and beans, many kinds of quelites [I think this is amaranth and related plants]. and wild and culivated greens and herbs.
Also the former director of the regional office for culure of Unesco for Latin American and the Carbbean, López Morales warned of the "enormous fragility" of the products of the milpa. [The milpa is the indigenous/traditional and effective small-scale method of farming corn, beans and squash together. The link is in Spanish but you can use google translate if you need help.]
"Everything has been distorted by the foodstuffs of the free market, and we import junk food, transgenic maize, all that is deterimental to the cultivation of our own products." Studies have been called for from biological and anthropological perspectives so that policies in defense of local products can be developed.
Sooner or later, she affirmed, governments are going to have to develop adequate policies for the preservation of our food system, "first, because we've already lost self-sufficiency and sovereignty and second, because we have already won the championship in obesity and diabetes. [These "championships"] also hit us hard in something that matters a great deal: our pocketbooks.
We are learning that we have to spend too much of our public budget to treat illnesses caused by malnutrition."
During the current transition [from the presidency of Calderón to that of Peña Nieto] the promoter of Mexican gastronomy suggested that citizen actions should be undertaken to attract the attention of the new government to the country's food problems.
At the gathering which took place in Mexico Ciy from the 25th to the 28th of July Guadalupe Latapi, promoter of organic products through her business Aires del Campo, emphasized that in Mexico the consumption of organic food has increased twenty percent (in the US it grew this past year by 9 percent) since more and more people are worried about health, flavor, the environment, the well-being of animals and the sustainability of the agricultural economy.
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Me speaking again: the government takes a much more active approach in advertising issues of health and nutrition here than the US government does.
I cannot emphasize how very important the issue of water is. This Truthout article does a good job of summarizing the situation in Bolivia. Here where I live you either have to buy bottled water or boil it--which is of course an expense. Areas of Mexico right now are oppressed by drought and grim pictures of dead and dying cattle are scattered through the news. There are many issues involved in water use. For instance, industrial agriculture (including at times organic vegetable agriculture) suck up the water in water tables depriving small farmers of having it available for their often subsistence crops. The water that industrial agriculture returns to the land is often polluted beyond usefulness. It seeps from larger pools into smaller streams and springs.
You should follow some of the links at the end of the article to learn more about this issue and seek to get involved.