tingilinde:

This one has been known about for some time - lawyers for a church intercepting reports and covering things up rather than letting the police get involved. This looks at one case, but in the process a large number of records have been found.

Many of these churches happen to be massive businesses. Perhaps firm evidence of a cover-up should revoke the tax-exempt status of the religion for - say - five years.

a tip of the hat to Jim

06:55 in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0)

extinction risk

The number of species in danger of extinction may be much larger than currently believed.

snip

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For these “data deficient” species, a new study published in Communications Biology on August 4 suggests that no news is probably not good news. The authors used machine-learning methods to predict the conservation status of 7,699 data-deficient species—from fish to mammals—and found that 56 percent are likely threatened with extinction. The findings are especially concerning, given that just 28 percent of species whose conservation status is known are deemed to be at risk of disappearing, says lead author Jan Borgelt, a doctoral candidate in industrial ecology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. “Things could be much worse than we actually realize,” he adds.

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06:07 in environment, Science | Permalink | Comments (0)

the human impact database

A discussion of the work

snip

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The team hopes that by having access to simple numbers about human impacts, citizens and scientists alike can develop data-based intuition about the way the world works and make more informed decisions.

“For example, a friend texted me asking how to compare the impact of dairy cattle versus beef cattle,” Chure says. “We can use our database to figure out that, in terms of land requirement, greenhouse gas emissions, and water use, beef cattle are more impactful by a factor of five or more on a per-calorie basis. We really hope that this database is useful for both ordinary citizens trying to make decisions and for people thinking about policy. I view being literate with numbers as a prerequisite for being informed, whether you’re a citizen or a scientist.”

The project takes a planet-wide look at human impacts rather than sorting by country or region.

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and a front end to the database

05:44 in energy, environment, Science, society and technology | Permalink | Comments (0)