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4 Dec, 8 tweets, 3 min read
2020’s been a hell of a year — and a year of hell. Our attention has been fixated on the pandemic and partisan politics.

But another crisis has been unfolding right before our eyes: Countless climate nightmares have become reality.
2020 was the hottest year recorded in history, with extreme temperatures charted worldwide.

Read this whole thread from meteorologist Scott Duncan and prepare to be astonished:
It’s December, and California is literally on fire: The Bond Fire, exacerbated by Santa Ana winds, is spreading uncontrollably.

Californians must now make a dystopian choice: evacuate due to the flames or abide by the state’s COVID stay-at-home order.
latimes.com/california/sto…
California fires broke records this year: 5 of 6 of the state’s biggest fires *ever* occurred in 2020.

In both California and Brazil’s Pantanal region — the largest wetland on Earth — fires destroyed twice as much land as they did in 2019. (AP/Andre Penner/Noah Berger) ImageImage
After an already-epic typhoon season in the Philippines, a super-typhoon hit the islands in November, causing floods that trapped thousands of people.

Reminder: Typhoon season is typically June to September.
aljazeera.com/news/2020/11/1…
It’s not just fire and water. A chillingly biblical scene unfolded from East Africa to China: Desert locusts swarmed, the most in recent history.

Why? You guessed it: Warming temperatures create the perfect conditions for locusts to propagate.
earth.org/data_visualiza…
COVID itself may be a harbinger of even more doom. Though people have referred to the pandemic as “once-in-a-century,” that may not be true.

Though future risks are hard to predict, a warmer climate is friendlier to the spread of certain pathogens.
usatoday.com/story/news/nat…
The rapidly changing climate has prompted the UN to declare that humanity is waging a “war on nature.”

As the UN Secretary-General António Guterres said: “The state of the planet is broken … this is suicidal.”

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More from @therecount

The Recount Profile picture
3 Dec
We've talked a lot about how prisons are COVID hotbeds. So as the U.S. moves closer to a cure, here's a question worth considering:

Should inmates be given priority access to COVID-19 vaccines? A thread 👇
nytimes.com/2020/11/30/hea…
Incarcerated individuals are *four times* more likely to be infected with COVID than the general public.

So far, 200,000 inmates have already tested positive — and at least 1,450 have died.
themarshallproject.org/2020/05/01/a-s…
In the debate over who should receive the first vaccine doses, prison inmates don’t even rank among the top tiers of federal criteria.

You know who does? Correctional officers who work in those prisons, considered essential workers.
Read 7 tweets
The Recount Profile picture
1 Dec
It’s well-known the COVID death toll in America bears disproportionately on people of color.

Now, a jarring report shows nearly a third of the nurses who have died from COVID are Filipino — though Filipinos account for only 4% of nurses nationwide.
cnn.com/2020/11/24/hea…
Filipino nurses migrated to the U.S. after WWII to fill a demand for health care workers.

During its colonial rule, the U.S. set up an Americanized nursing curriculum in the Philippines — and it’s been the leading exporter of nurses to America ever since.
news.berkeley.edu/2019/05/28/fil…
So why the shocking death toll? Let’s start with the inequitable distribution of Filipinos across health care.

A report found they’re more likely to be placed in ICUs, ERs, and long-term care facilities, making them more likely to be exposed to COVID.
nationalnursesunited.org/sites/default/…
Read 5 tweets
The Recount Profile picture
24 Nov
President-elect Joe Biden and VP-elect Kamala Harris have unveiled their initial Cabinet picks — and our next White House is shaping up to be one full of "firsts."

(AP/Carolyn Kaster)
Topping the list is Avril Haines, the first woman to lead the intelligence community, and Alejandro Mayorkas, the first Latino and immigrant to lead the Dept. of Homeland Security.
cnn.com/2020/11/23/pol…
If you need a refresher on Trump’s first — but certainly not last — Cabinet, take a look at this @nytimes article from 2017.

Of the 24 positions: 20 were filled by men (18 white), 4 by women (2 white).
nytimes.com/interactive/20…
Read 4 tweets
The Recount Profile picture
20 Nov
In case you missed it, the White House squashed a deal to offer mental health services to migrant families separated at the border.

Sources say one man is to blame: senior adviser Stephen Miller.
nbcnews.com/politics/immig…
Let’s rewind to October 2019: After nine months of negotiations, an $8 million settlement had been "agreed to in principle" by both the Justice Department and lawyers representing the migrant families.

But in the 11th hour, the White House swooped in to kill the deal.
A month ago, we reported that the parents of 545 migrant children could not be located as a result of Trump’s zero-tolerance family separation policy. That number is now 666.

Let that sink in: 666 kids without parents — and without mental health services.
Read 5 tweets
The Recount Profile picture
18 Nov
We’re in the midst of a staggering COVID peak: Hospitalizations hit a record 77,000 yesterday, per the COVID Tracking Project.

Yet this week, 22 percent of U.S. hospitals reported staffing shortages.
theatlantic.com/science/archiv…
A Wisconsin health official said they’re “short of staff at all times.” In North Dakota, they’re so hard-hit that nurses with asymptomatic COVID cases are being told to report to work.

At a protest in Pennsylvania, one nurse held this sign. (AP/Jessica Griffin) Image
Minnesota ICU nurse Mary Turner in a Biden-led roundtable:

"I myself have held the hand of dying patients who are crying out for their family that they can’t see. I've taken care of coworkers ... they got sick because of the hospital, or their government hasn’t protected them."
Read 4 tweets
The Recount Profile picture
18 Nov
Wayne County, Michigan, home of Detroit: The Board of Canvassers tasked with certifying ballots is deadlocked 2-2 along party lines. Biden won the county decisively.

Board member @NedStaebler rips into his colleagues who represent the GOP. Must-watch:
More from member of the Board of Canvassers @NedStaebler:
Michigan Sec. of State Benson weighs in:

"Importantly, this is not an indication that any votes were improperly cast or counted."
Read 8 tweets

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