[MCN] Ethnic antagonism erodes Republicans’ commitment to democracy

[Lance Olsen]

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences  First published August 31, 2020 
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2007747117 <https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2007747117>

Ethnic antagonism erodes Republicans’ commitment to democracy
Larry M. Bartels
Significance
Growing partisan polarization and democratic “backsliding” in various parts of the world have raised concerns about the attachment of ordinary Americans to democratic institutions and procedures. I find that substantial numbers of Republicans endorse statements contemplating violations of key democratic norms, including respect for the law and for the outcomes of elections and eschewing the use of force in pursuit of political ends. The strongest predictor by far of these antidemocratic attitudes is ethnic antagonism—especially concerns about the political power and claims on government resources of immigrants, African-Americans, and Latinos. The strong tendency of ethnocentric Republicans to countenance violence and lawlessness, even prospectively and hypothetically, underlines the significance of ethnic conflict in contemporary US politics.

Abstract

Most Republicans in a January 2020 survey agreed that “the traditional American way of life is disappearing so fast that we may have to use force to save it.” More than 40% agreed that “a time will come when patriotic Americans have to take the law into their own hands.” (In both cases, most of the rest said they were unsure; only one in four or five disagreed.) I use 127 survey items to measure six potential bases of these and other antidemocratic sentiments: partisan affect, enthusiasm for President Trump, political cynicism, economic conservatism, cultural conservatism, and ethnic antagonism. The strongest predictor by far, for the Republican rank-and-file as a whole and for a variety of subgroups defined by education, locale, sex, and political attitudes, is ethnic antagonism—especially concerns about the political power and claims on government resources of immigrants, African-Americans, and Latinos. The corrosive impact of ethnic antagonism on Republicans’ commitment to democracy underlines the significance of ethnic conflict in contemporary US politics.

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“In releasing the energy stored in fossil and nuclear fuels man accelerates slow cycles of nature. The waste products of power generation then interact with the fast cycles of the biosphere.”

Abstract/Summary : Human Energy Production as a Process of the Biosphere. S. Fred Singer. Scientific American, Sept. 1970

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Science  07 Feb 2020:
Vol. 367, Issue 6478, pp. 612-613
DOI: 10.1126/science.367.6478.612OCEANS
Climate change spurs global speedup of ocean currents
Paul Voosen
<<https://science.sciencemag.org/content/367/6478/612 <https://science.sciencemag.org/content/367/6478/612>>>

Summary
For nearly 25 years, the ocean's great continent-wrapping currents, each one moving as much water as all the world's rivers combined, have been rapidly speeding up, partly because of global warming, a new study concludes. Based on observations combined with models, the authors claim that from 1990 to 2013, the energy of the currents increased by some 15% per decade. No sustained, direct measurements of currents around the world are available, so the team turned to reanalyses, which combine observations of the ocean and atmosphere with computer models to fill in the gaps and produce a global picture. Five different models showed a distinct rise starting around 1990. Independent data from the Argo array, a fleet of nearly 4000 robotic floats deployed around the world, showed a similar rise from 2005 to 2010. The increase is driven by higher winds over the oceans, the authors say. If the acceleration is verified and continues, it could affect jet streams, weather patterns, and the amount of heat stored in the ocean's depths

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PNAS May 26, 2020 117 (21) 11350-11355; first published May 4, 2020
 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1910114117 <https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1910114117>

Future of the human climate niche
  <http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1841-9032>
Chi Xu, Timothy A. Kohler, Timothy M. Lenton, Jens-Christian Svenning, and Marten Scheffer
<<https://www.pnas.org/content/117/21/11350 <https://www.pnas.org/content/117/21/11350>>>

Significance
We show that for thousands of years, humans have concentrated in a surprisingly narrow subset of Earth’s available climates, characterized by mean annual temperatures around ∼13 °C. This distribution likely reflects a human temperature niche related to fundamental constraints. We demonstrate that depending on scenarios of population growth and warming, over the coming 50 y, 1 to 3 billion people are projected to be left outside the climate conditions that have served humanity well over the past 6,000 y. Absent climate mitigation or migration, a substantial part of humanity will be exposed to mean annual temperatures warmer than nearly anywhere today.
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