‘Code red for humanity.’ That’s how the United Nations secretary-general describes a UN climate change panel’s report on global warming.
■ It concludes some changes to Earth’s climate are inevitable and irreversible.
■ A senior U.S. climate scientist who co-wrote the report: “It’s going to get worse. … Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.”
■ Another co-author: “The planet is changing at a rate unprecedented for at least thousands of years.”
■ But another says it’s not too late to limit what could otherwise be unlimited damage.
■ The Guardian’s environment editor, Damian Carrington, summarizes the report’s verdict on humanity’s role: “Guilty as hell.”
■ The AP boils the report down to five things.
■ Or read the full document.
■ Radio Health Journal talks to climate scientists who fear Earth has reached a turning point more quickly than expected.
■ The Chicago area faces a tornado risk today.
■ California, still reeling from the largest single wildfire in its history, is bracing for more fire-friendly weather.
■ A massive forest fire in Greece was burning for a seventh day.
‘It’s … starting to feel like the general crisis … will never end.’ Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg offers counsel to people feeling burnt out and scared by the pandemic.
■ Dr. Anthony Fauci on NBC’s Meet the Press: “There’s no doubt in my mind” that masks should be required for kids heading back to school. (Cartoon: Keith J. Taylor.)
■ The delta variant’s rise is messing with Chicago’s commercial real estate revival.
■ CNN: Delta is sowing division within the Republican Party.
■ Block Club rounds up a list of Chicago music venues requiring vaccines to enter.
‘We either stand as a city with the police, even as we support police reforms, or we sink as a city without the police.’ A Sun-Times editorial reflects on the shooting death of one Chicago cop and the critical wounding of another Saturday night.
■ Three people were in custody in connection with the crime.
■ WTTW News anchor Brandis Friedman talks to a friend whose son was shot and killed last month, a day before his 19th birthday.
■ Chicago’s weekend violence toll: At least 86 shot, 13 killed.
Not so small. Despite a pledge to “significantly” scale back his weekend birthday bash plans in the pandemic, ex-President Obama nevertheless gathered at least a couple of hundred people Saturday …
■ … but the Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet reports there were plenty of masks—some with a party logo.
■ Guests were encouraged not to share details …
■ … but that hasn’t kept some from doing so. (Update, Aug. 10: Stephen Colbert corrected that Daily Mail report, explaining that he was in the area but not at the party.)
■ A Tribune editorial: “The court has spoken. Time to get behind the Obama Presidential Center.”
Money talks. The Intercept ties House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s surprise flip against the presidential cancellation of college student debt to a billionaire couple who’ve been big campaign supporters.
■ Speaking of the mega-wealthy, Last Week Tonight’s John Oliver is mocking the Sackler family—which prospered off the opioid crisis—for being too cheap to buy the “dot-com” version of their defensive website …
■ … which Oliver has now done—and populated with a more, let’s say, cynical view of the Sacklers’ role.
Company’s coming. Axios is launching a Chicago-based daily email news roundup, anchored by Chicago radio veterans Justin Kaufmann and Monica Eng.
■ You can subscribe free here.
■ New research from Harvard confirms how an email newsletter report triggered transformation of working conditions at one of the nation’s largest restaurant chains.
And now a word from a Square advertiser.
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