Month: June 2017

dendroica:

ā€˜Ghost Forestsā€™ Appear As Rising Seas Kill Trees | Climate Central

Bare trunks of dead coastal forests are being discovered up and down the mid-Atlantic coastline, killed by the advance of rising seas. The ā€œghost forests,ā€ as scientists call them, offer eerie evidence of some of the worldā€™s fastest rates of sea level rise.

Forests provide habitat and protect against global warming, but theyā€™re declining worldwide because of land clearing, fires, disease and invasive species. The ghost forests show sea level rise can be yet another cause of deforestation.

Climate scientists like Walker, a PhD candidate at Rutgers University researching sea level rise, have begun investigating these dead forests, which are becoming common features along some coastal landscapes. The poison that kills the trees is salt, delivered to their roots by rising tides.

ā€œAs you have sea level rise, you get saltwater intrusion further upstream,ā€ Walker said. The ā€œvisual impactā€ of the dead trees could be useful for ā€œcommunicating sea level rise to the public,ā€ she said ā€” ā€œwhich I find difficult a lot of the time.ā€

Stands of dead trees have been used by scientists for decades as evidence of past environmental tumult. When submerged in seas and lakes, dead trees have revealed to scientists the details of prehistoric changes in water levels.

Seas are rising worldwide because of the warming effects of greenhouse gas pollution from fossil fuels and farms. Several feet of sea level rise is projected this century as the pace of climate change accelerates. That rise will inundate infrastructure, homes and ecosystems. Efforts to switch to clean energy, protect forests and revamp farming and transportation could curb the inundations ahead.

The mid-Atlantic is sinking faster than nearly anywhere else. The Gulf Stream has been shifting northward, bringing warmer water to the region, accelerating sea level rise. Meanwhile, groundwater pumping and natural geological processes are causing lands to sink.

High tides rose here by several inches during a recent decade. That was more than three times faster than the average rate of sea level rise worldwide, simulating conditions expected globally during decades to comeā€¦.

Similar forest diebacks have been documented in Canada and Louisiana and monitored in wildlife refuges in Maryland. The botanical corpses occasionally topple during storms, becoming crisscrossed logs, which are slowly buried beneath the muck of marshes. Those marshes can migrate inland as seas riseā€¦.

Preliminary findings from an analysis by Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) scientists suggests 100,000 acres of coastal forest may have died off around the edges of the Chesapeake Bay since the 1850s. Much of the dead forest has now been replaced by marshland, while former marsh areas are now open water. Overall, the changes are diminishing the ability of plants in the region to fight global warming by absorbing carbon dioxide.

The cuts to a major disability program in Trump’s budget

withasmoothroundstone:

How to kill tons of disabled people (including possibly me) in one(?) probably-too-easy step? Ā 

Keep in mind the US was already as bad as the UK is getting, in many ways. Now they want to make it worse. And I have no clue how people on disabled adult child benefits (which are neither SSDI nor SSI, but affect SSI-eligible people who were provably disabled prior to a certain age and have at least one parent who is retired, disabled, or dead) will be affected ā€“ nobody thinks about us and even the SSA doesnā€™t seem to understand the program very well.

The cuts to a major disability program in Trump’s budget

elodieunderglass:

anamatics:

thevelvetdevil:

smallercomfort:

luchia13:

hey guys psa regarding hospital bills

donā€™t just pay it. do not automatically pay the hospital bill when you receive it. call your health insurance provider and POLITELY say, ā€œexcuse me, i just received a bill for $1200 for my hospital visit/ER visit/etc., is that the correct amount iā€™m supposed to pay?ā€ because hospitals bill you before your health insurance and they willĀ take your money no matter how the amount due may change based on your health insurance looking at it. 90% of the time, if your health insurance is in any way involved in the payment of that bill, you do not have to pay as much as the hospital is billing you for. call your health insurance provider first, and POLITELY request clarification, always remember that the person you are talking to is human and this is just their job, and then you will very likely find out you actually only owe $500.

donā€™t shout at anyone about it, donā€™t get mad, just understand that this is The Way Things Are right now and call your health insurance provider before paying the bill your hospital just sent you. thereā€™s a chance the hospital bill might be correct, true, but call your health insurance provider.

THIS IS SUPER IMPORTANT. after my car accident last year the hospital billed me ~$8000. They sent me letters asking me to pay, and I called them back saying my insurance was processing the claim. This is also what I told the collection agency when they kept calling me about the $1000 emergency room fee (billed separately from the hospital fee, mind you). Once everything got straightened out, all I was actually liable for was my $200 emergency copay.

!!!!!!! things my ass didnā€™t know !!!!!!!!

Yes this is a life lesson my adulting ass didnā€™t know I needed and Iā€™m out 80 bucks for an anti-nausea pill. šŸ˜’šŸ˜’šŸ˜’šŸ˜’šŸ˜’

Reblogging for American friends.

Also, it is important [for people receiving medical care in the USA] to carefully read all of the items on the medical bill and look for errors and overcharges. I know that the normal feelings of avoidance and dread can make it hard to look at scary hospital bills, and thatā€™s okay! But as the OP mentions, private orgs like hospitals donā€™t monitor overpayment of bills – they are motivated to charge you extra – and it is basically impossible to get your money back. Read the bill carefully and make sure that the charges are correct, using the links below for help if you need. If they havenā€™t sent you an itemized list, you can ask for one. Sometimes you will be charged extra for items or treatment you didnā€™t receive. Most people donā€™t know that you can dispute medical bills! But in 2009, Consumer Reports stated that 8 out of 10 medical bills scrutinized by a watchdog had errors, and generally you are not obligated to pay for someone elseā€™s error.

You may be charged for using medication that you actually brought into the hospital with you – thatā€™s easy to dispute! You may be charged for the consumables used during your stay such as sheets, gloves, gowns, etc – the hospital should actually cover that under its running budget. You may be charged for a brand name drug if the generic was available for cheaper – the links below explain how and when you can dispute this. You may be charged a surprisingly expensive ā€œoral administration feeā€ (where a nurse puts pills for you to take in a little clean paper cup and then hands it to you) but thatā€™s worth disputing if you were actually able to take the pill out of a bottle and put it in your own mouth. And so on.

8 Things You Should Know About Challenging a Medical Bill (FORBES)Ā (includes links to sites that help you calculate how much a procedure/treatment usually costs in your area, if the costs seem super high)

7 Tips for Fighting and Paying A Huge Medical BillĀ (FORBES) This explains briefly how to negotiate costs, and payment plans.

10 Common Medical Billing Overcharges You Can Prevent (Bill Advocates) A breakdown of errors and overcharges to double check.

Check medical bills for errors:Ā Overcharges are fairly common, and correcting them can save you thousands of dollars (Consumer Reports) More of the same with links to some groups.