Also on today’s menu:
Will New Hampshire Take Up Selling Marijuana?
Melting Permafrost May Cause Erosion
Hungary Approves Sweden’s NATO Membership
Will New Hampshire Take Up Selling Marijuana?
Last May, Governor Chris Sununu — who has opposed the legalization of marijuana — said he could support it if sales were limited and controlled by the state, prioritizing safety over profit. House Bill 1633 does just that, authorizing the establishment of 15 retail franchise locations overseen by the New Hampshire Liquor Commission, which would control how it is tested and marketed. Ten percent of sales would go into state coffers.
The House voted, 263-116, that HB 1633 “ought to pass” as it heads to the House Finance Committee for review. It will go to a final House vote next month and will continue on to the Senate if approved.
The bill would allow anyone 21 and older to possess and consume marijuana.
Discussion: While some marijuana advocates object to the state’s strict control, preferring to allow the “free market” to handle sales, the restrictions make sense when today’s cannabis is so much more powerful than it was 50 years ago and may have additives. Of course, there are still concerns about why the state is selling drugs, currently limited to alcohol, but the reality is that people will find a way to acquire drugs, anyway. It would be more palatable, however, if the state fully paid its statutory obligation to place a percentage of Liquor Commission income into the Alcohol Abuse, Prevention & Treatment Fund. The money becomes more important if marijuana is added to the state sales.
Melting Permafrost May Cause Erosion
Joanmarie Del Vecchio, who as a postdoctoral fellow at Dartmouth College led a study of Arctic permafrost, says that a warmer climate that causes the permafrost to melt may cause channels of water that erode the soil and release the carbon stored there. That could allow microbes to consume the carbon in the soil, releasing methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. “That’s a problem,” she said, “because the more it happens, the more it’s going to warm, and the more we might carve into the soil carbon.”
The study found that places with permafrost have about 20% fewer channels for water than watersheds in temperate places, but Del Vecchio believes that, as the Arctic gets warmer, water channels could form and grow, with erosion exposing the carbon stored in the soil.
“We need to know what happens to the permafrost so that we can set reasonable and aggressive-enough goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” she said. Knowledge of how permafrost releases carbon could help to set climate policy.
Discussion: We have known for years that Arctic melt would increase the amount of water flowing into the oceans, but not much attention has been given to what happens to water on land, or erosion would do. It is another thing that factors into what happens to the climate.
Hungary Approves Sweden’s NATO Membership
Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary has dropped his objections to Sweden joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, saying the two countries are now “prepared to die for each other”. Hungary’s was the final vote needed to approve NATO membership for the Nordic country.
To obtain Hungary’s support, Sweden agreed to provide the country with four additional Swedish-made Gripen jets (Hungary’s air force already has 14 of the jets) and that Saab, which makes the jets, would open an artificial intelligence research center in Hungary.
A large majority of the Hungarian Parliament endorsed Sweden’s admission to NATO, with only six members from the far-right Our Homeland Movement voting against it.
Discussion: The agreement to provide fighter jets and AI manufacturing to Hungary has not received much attention, but it is troubling, given Orban’s authoritarian ways. What will he do with his new jets, and what role will artificial intelligence play?
Sorry for missing yesterday’s post. We were on our way home from a pet-sitting weekend. I had considered saying something about Donald Trump’s latest antics, but I’ve realized that his supporters will not be persuaded to change their minds, so what’s the point? The rest of us already know he’s unfit for office and that, should he win, everything that America has fought for and stood for through the centuries is being subverted.