A sunset over the Arctic during a NOAA Climate Program expedition north of Russia. (NOAA Photo Library/Flickr cc 2.0)
Permanently passing an important milestone –> We soon may be looking back at this week as the one when our atmosphere reached 400 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide. The safe amount is 350 parts, the figure that provided the name for climate activist group 350.org. “In the centuries to come, history books will likely look back on September 2016 as a major milestone for the world’s climate. At a time when atmospheric carbon dioxide is usually at its minimum, the monthly value failed to drop below 400 parts per million,” Brian Kahn writes for Climate Central. “That all but ensures that 2016 will be the year that carbon dioxide officially passed the symbolic 400 ppm mark, never to return below it in our lifetimes, according to scientists.”
It’s that time of year again –> Set your watches: time for the government to shut down again maybe. Congress needs to pass a continuing resolution by the end of this week to keep the government funded, and Democrats have a couple of key sticking points. They want to make sure any funding bill includes money to help Flint, Michigan. They also want to get rid of a law passed in last year’s funding bill that prevents the SEC from forcing corporations to disclose to shareholders how they spend political money. The Republicans are saying no to both. Jordain Carney and Sarah Ferris report for The Hill.
Largest ever –> The nationwide prison strike is still going on — and has even expanded, in some places, to include corrections officers. Few people know about it, but The Marshall Project has put together an explainer. “On Sept. 9, prisoners around the country staged a coordinated strike to mark the 45th anniversary of the bloody uprising at Attica prison in New York,” Beth Schwartzkapfel writes. “According to strike organizers, more than 24,000 inmates in at least 29 states did not show up for work that day, and protests are ongoing in a handful of places.”
Another black man shot by police –> CNN: “A black man has died after police shot him in El Cajon, California, sparking protests in the suburb northeast of San Diego. On Tuesday afternoon, El Cajon police responded to a 911 call regarding an African-American man in his 30s who reportedly was behaving ‘erratically’ behind a restaurant at the Broadway Village Shopping Center, Lt. Rob Ransweiler said.” The Root reports: “Earlier eyewitness accounts claimed that [Alfred] Olango was having a seizure or some other sort of medical or mental health emergency.”
Millionaire still avoiding jail –> James Rufus Koren for the Los Angeles Times: “Wells Fargo & Co. Chief Executive John Stumpf will forfeit compensation worth about $45 million, part of the company’s response to the still-unfolding scandal over millions of fake accounts created by bank employees. Stumpf will give up about 910,000 shares in unvested stock awards, and will not get a bonus this year, according to a statement released late Tuesday by members of Wells Fargo’s board of directors.”
RIP, Shimon Peres –> The former prime minister and president of Israel has died, two weeks after his hospitalization for a stroke. He was 93. Peres was present at the creation of Israel as an independent state in 1948 and remained a pivotal, often controversial figure in its government and politics for the next nearly seven decades.
“He ended his career revered by left and right, an outstanding president who brought healing and renewal to the office of the presidency and to a discouraged and divided country,” Rabbi Eric Yoffie writes in today’s edition of the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz. Peres shared the Nobel Peace Prize with prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for the Oslo Accords, signed on the White House lawn in 1993, which attempted to establish Palestinian self-rule in Gaza and the West Bank.
“There are few people who we share this world with who change the course of human history,” President Obama said, “not just through their role in human events, but because they expand our moral imagination and force us to expect more of ourselves. My friend Shimon was one of those people.”
Morning Reads was compiled by John Light and edited by Michael Winship. See a story that you think should be included in Morning Reads? Tell us in the comments!
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