20 Y ears of S olutions J ournalism
A WOMAN IN TRUMP’S WORLD: 5 WAYS TO SUPPORT YOUR SISTERS IN CHICAGO, THE NATION’S FIRST MODEL FOR MEANINGFUL REPARATIONS
no . 81 spring
2017
SMALL ACTS OF SCIENTIFIC CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE IT TAKES MORE THAN FACTS TO CHANGE HEARTS TO MY FELLOW CLIMATE SCIENTISTS: BE HUMAN, BE BRAVE, TELL THE TRUTH WHY MEDICINES ARE SO EXPENSIVE IN THE U.S.
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WHY SCIENCE CAN’T BE SILENT Up against the White House’s “alternative facts” and attempts to hide climate data, can new allies—citizens and science—prevail against politicians and corporations?
WE ARE ALL SCIENTISTS NOW IT’S TIME TO LOOK UP, LOOK AROUND, AND TAKE NOTE BECAUSE THE PLANET AND DEMOCRACY NEED YOU.
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Madeline Ostrander fter he moved to London in his early 20s, Luke Howard became obsessed with the weather. Howard had a day job running a pharmacy business in the 1790s and early 1800s, but he spent a lot of his spare time staring at the sky. He collected a set of makeshift weather instruments—glass thermometers; a hygrometer (to measure moisture in the
air) cobbled together from a wire spring and a strip of whalebone; and a barometer attached to an old astronomical clock that he bought secondhand and repaired himself. He and his business partner, William Allen, started a science club of a dozen or so members, all men, who met in each other’s houses to give talks about a range of subjects like chemistry, astronomy, and mineralogy. When he was 30, Howard presented to the group three names he had come up with for different types of clouds—cirrus (from the Latin for “curl of hair”), cumulus (referring to a pile), and stratus (a “horizontal sheet”). The talk was a hit, and he published a version of the lecture a year later in a science magazine. And the names stuck: Howard’s cloud categories are still used by professional meteorologists.
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This was science in the late 18th and early 19th centuries—a buzzing world of nerds and amateurs trying to document the workings of the world in their spare time. It was less an institution than a labor of love, like sculpture or poetry. London was a kind of hub, full of scientific societies and clubs—they were like the maker faires, the do-ityourself collectives, the hack-a-thons of the Enlightenment. In the United States, there was a flurry of interest in collecting plant and animal specimens and documenting the natural history of North America. The barriers of the time kept certain people out of science. (There were few scientists of color, although women managed to push their way into influential scientific circles in Europe and America, and Black inventors made important technological contributions in the United States.) Still, the technology for making scientific observations was cheap, much was unknown, and nearly YES! ILLUSTRATION BY ELEANOR SHAKESPEARE
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HIND E B E C E SCIEN L CHANG A SOCI
“HERE, EVERYONE CAN BE A SCIENTIST.”
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Counter Culture Labs founder Kathy Buehmann and secretary Maureen Muldavin, above in lab coats, work on an ongoing art project with other scientists.
At Counter Culture Labs in Oakland, California, pipettes, microscopes, and petri dishes cover lab tables, while the lab’s latest, crowdfunded acquisition sits nearby: an ultra-cold freezer for storing enzymes and DNA. The lab provides a place for open science, where anyone can do research and research results are free, says Maureen Muldavin, a board member of the nonprofit public biology lab. Established in 2013, the lab hosts projects that range from making “bioart” inspired by colorful bacteria to reverse-engineering insulin. “We’re trying to do the research to make it easier for someone to produce a generic version [of insulin], so it’s not available through just a few pharmaceutical companies,” says Muldavin. The equipment is professional, but the lab’s participants don’t have to be. Participants include people without science backgrounds as well as those with Ph.D.s. Crowdsourcing buys the equipment, and peer-to-peer education teaches people the skills to use it. Some are looking to learn skills for a new career, others to conduct research outside their home institution. Many are just curious about science. “Usually, it’s scientists who decide what to research,” says Muldavin. “Here, everyone can be a scientist.” —Shannan Stoll
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YES! PHOTO BY ANNIE HALL
WHAT YOUR DNA KNOWS THE SOCIAL JUSTICE IMPLICATIONS OF SPITTING INTO A TEST TUBE
Zenobia Jeffries
A
s
a
descendant
e n s l av e d
I’ve
always
of
Africans, wondered
where on the massive continent does my family have
its roots. As I aged, I became more uneasy with the phrase “descendant of enslaved Africans.” Where in Africa and from whom, specifically? Millions of people from several different regions were brought to this land. More than 20 years ago, my mother and aunt started a process of finding these answers. My mother then was excited to tell me about a man named Cupid, a not-so-distant relative. The Rev. Cupid Aleyus Whitfield was born in 1868 to Cato and Amanda Whitfield, former slaves of Gen. William Gilchrist of Gadsden County, Florida. When he was about 16 years old, Cupid began teaching at a primary school and became known as one of the leading “colored” teachers in Gadsden County. He married Rebecca Zellene Goodson in 1889, and they had either nine or 14 children, depending on the source consulted. My mother and aunt learned their father, Charlie Whitfield—my grandfather—was one of Cupid’s grandsons. This is all that I know
YES! ILLUSTRATION BY BOBBY SIMS
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TO MY FELLOW CLIMATE SCIENTISTS: BE HUMAN, BE BRAVE, TELL THE TRUTH
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Peter Kalmus ’m afraid to publish this article. Why? Because I’m a climate scientist who speaks out about climate change, and in speaking out I may be risking my career. But I do so anyway, out of love—love for my two young sons, for others’ kids, for wild animals, for this beautiful planet. These are infinitely more important than my career, and I see that global warming poses a clear and present danger to them
all. The choice to speak out has become easy, though, because I no longer see it as a choice. I need to speak out. Knowing what I know, I couldn’t live with myself otherwise. And in this I’m not alone. At the annual American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco last December, I sensed some collective urgency for the first time. As a few of us gathered for a rally on the steps of a nearby church, Kim Cobb, a paleoclimatologist from Georgia Tech who studies corals, gave a call to action. “It has been a very tough year for me personally, having scuba dived on a reef in the far reaches of the tropical Pacific, and watching 85 percent of that reef die between one of my trips and the next in six months,” she said. “We have for too long, as scientists, rested on the assumption that by providing indisputable facts and great data that we are providing enough … and obviously that strategy has failed miserably.” But many scientists—myself included—worry that standing up for
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what we know to be true, or advocating for a particular action in response to anthropogenic change that we find deeply disturbing, will make us look biased or unprofessional. We’re afraid that if we speak out, we’ll lose our funding or be labeled as politicized or alarmist. We scientists have a careful, understated culture; we don’t like calling attention to ourselves. We prefer letting our results speak for themselves. As a group, we prefer evidence to politics; we communicate mainly within our ranks and behind paywalls in scientific journals. And when we have something scary to say, we employ the dry and precise language of science. What Cobb was acknowledging that day, however, was that when climate scientists don’t speak out, we’re
inadvertently sending a message that climate change isn’t urgent. If the experts—the scientists on the front lines, the people who know—are so calm, dispassionate, and quiet, how bad can it really be? I experience a surreal tension between the terrifying changes unfolding within the Earth system and the Spock-like calm maintained within the scientific community. Following a formal scientific talk about dying forests or disappearing glaciers, for example, audiences commonly ask a few questions on instrumentation or methodology, and then quietly shuffle out. But after I give a public talk, without fail, someone in the audience will ask, “What can we do?” It’s a natural question, and it seems irresponsible to reply, “Figure it out yourself” or “That’s up to the policymakers.” I’ve spent more than a decade grappling with that very question. After all, I’m allowed to think about things other than science. I’ve developed informed opinions as to what works for me as an individual and what seems sensible for society (hint: reduce my own emissions and instate a revenue-neutral carbon fee). There are two ways for scientists to speak out. The first is simply to communicate that ongoing human-driven changes
to the Earth system demand urgent action before things get much worse. This message contains a value judgment, something you’ll almost never see in a formal scientific talk; scientists prefer staying far away from feelings and value judgments. A second way to speak out is to suggest solutions, which takes us even further out of our scientific comfort zone. When I suggest solutions, I make it clear that I’m speaking as a citizen, not a scientist. But if the public expects scientists to have no opinions about policy, they hold a false expectation. Better to accept that we do, and recognize that good scientists are capable of keeping those opinions from biasing results. Offering meaningful solutions is crucial to meaningful communication. As climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe points out, acceptance of a problem is much higher when an engaging solution is offered. I recently surveyed 66 Earth scientists to see how they felt about speaking up. Half of the respondents said they engage with the public at least twice per year; a quarter engage more than six times per year. Two-thirds said they strongly feel that climate scientists should “warn society that change is needed (without necessarily suggesting a particular policy),” and feel increased ILLUSTRATION BY VIK_Y/ISTOCK
respect for peers who speak out. But three-quarters said that speaking out is risky; the most commonly cited fear was loss of credibility. Respondents also feared loss of peer respect, harassment from trolls, and playing into the narratives of climate deniers. Michael Mann is intimately familiar with these risks. Currently a climate scientist at Penn State University, in 1998 he was the lead author of the original “hockey stick” graph that traced global temperature over the past 400 years and showed the alarming extent of recent warming. Mann speaks out regularly. Over the course of his career, he’s faced vilification by politicians, federal subpoenas for personal emails, and research grant audits. He has even received death threats. So speaking out takes real courage. But now the stakes here are so high that we need to find that courage. We scientists are the ones who synthesize the laws of physics with observations of the recent past, reconstructions of the distant past, complex computer models, and a spectrum of possible human behavior; and we fold these into possible futures. We’re the ones who stand face to face with the beast on a daily basis. If the future we’re headed toward looks scary, it’s up to us to sound the alarm that a change
of course is needed. We’ve stayed the course too long, and now, frankly, reality is alarming. But the public and policymakers simply don’t speak our language, and this is why we need to know when to shed the mantle of scientific authority and speak from the heart. We need to let our emotions shine through; we need to become storytellers. Relaying the science, as beautiful and convincing as it is to us, hasn’t worked. We have a responsibility to tell the whole story. The real problem here surely isn’t scientists being political—it’s politicians being just plain wrong. Infrared photons and carbon dioxide molecules don’t give a crap about our politics. But with climate deniers sweeping into the White House and the halls of Congress, the stakes just got even higher. For the sake of my kids, I don’t feel that I can afford to wait for our policymakers. It’s a curious situation: You can get in more trouble these days by telling the truth than by telling lies. y Peter Kalmus is an Earth scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Caltech (speaking on his own behalf, not NASA’s) and a contributing editor for YES! Magazine. His book, Being the Change: Live Well and Spark a Climate Revolution, is forthcoming from New Society this summer.
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JUST THE FACTS
WHY DOES MEDICINE COST SO MUCH IN THE U.S.?
ALMOST 1 IN 2 PEOPLE USED A PRESCRIPTION DRUG IN THE PAST MONTH, AND MORE THAN 1 IN 5 USED THREE OR MORE. As the population ages and deals with rising chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and depression, the percentage of people needing prescription medicines is growing. But what really sets us apart is how much they cost. Drug prices in the U.S. are higher than anywhere else in the world.
U. S CAN
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Z WIT
.
AD
$1,034 A
$761 $756
AN JAP D AN ERL
NY MA GER E NC FRA LY I TA SW
ED
EN
$696 $678 PER CAPITA SPENDING ON MEDICINES IN 2015 (IN U.S. DOLLARS)
$622 $572 $496
Sources: Centers for Disease Control, 2009-2012 data. Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) 2015 data.
HERE’S WHY THAT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE.
PHOTO BY LILLIDAY/ISTOCK
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JUST THE FACTS
80% AVERAGE SAVINGS TO CONSUMERS BUYING GENERIC DRUG VERSIONS
1. INCREASE ACCESS TO GENERICS Generics save consumers 80 percent on average. One way to increase access to generics is to dust off the 1981 Bayh-Dole Patents & Trademarks Amendments Act and actually use it. The act allows universities and small companies that receive public research money to claim patents and license them. To protect the public interest, the act lets federal agencies that are funding drug research petition the NIH for “march-in” rights to manufacture a generic version of a patented drug if the NIH finds the license holder is not making the drug “available to the public on reasonable terms.”
2. BREAK UP GOVERNMENT-INDUSTRY COZINESS Number of times NIH has approved a request for march-in rights under Bayh-Dole in 35 years? Zero. In January 2016, 51 congressional representatives who advocate for affordable drug prices signed a letter requesting that the NIH set standards for the use of march-in rights. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell responded that cost is not sufficient reason to invoke march-in rights. But there’s this: Big Pharma has spent more than $2.4 trillion on lobbying over the past 10 years. So when it comes to a federal agency deciding whether exorbitant prices merit “reasonable” access, the public may have a hard time being heard.
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6 WAYS TO PUT PUBLIC INTEREST AHEAD OF BIG PHARMA PROFITS Clo Copass
3. ROYALTY-FREE LICENSING FOR GOVERNMENT Patent law allows the federal government to manufacture patented drugs for government use, which could include treating patients served by federally funded health care programs. In 2015, Bernie Sanders requested that the Department of Veterans Affairs break the patents on the powerful but pricey hepatitis C drug SOVALDI so that the agency would not have to deny patients treatment for lack of funds.
4. BAN “PAY TO DELAY” DEALS Anti-compete kickbacks made by brand manufacturers to generics manufacturers keep generics off the market. The FTC says these deals cost taxpayers $3.5 billion in higher drug costs each year.
5. END “EVERGREENING” OF DRUG PATENTS This allows drug companies to make small changes in products to justify extending exclusive patent protection past the standard 20 years.
6. LET MEDICARE BARGAIN LIKE VETERANS AFFAIRS AND MEDICAID DO Repeal the 2003 Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act, which forbids Medicare from negotiating drug prices. These policies render drug companies the sole decision-makers on the price. Bernie Sanders estimated it could save Medicare between $230 billion and $541 billion over the next decade if Medicare paid the same drug prices as Medicaid or VA. The Wall Street Journal estimates $160 billion in savings. PHOTO BY SERGIOZACCHI /ISTOCK
SOLUTIONS WE LOVE
5 Ways: A Woman in Trump World, 6 In Chicago, a Model for Meaningful Reparations, 8 People We Love: Immigrant Advocates, 14 Commentary: Why This Is Not a New Third Reich, 15 The Page That Counts, 16
5 Ways to Support Your Sisters
A WOMAN IN TRUMP WORLD Melissa Hellmann
Not only does Donald Trump’s policy plan for his first 100 days mention nothing about supporting women’s rights, but Trump has flaunted his misogyny, making disparaging comments about women’s looks and bragging about sexual assault. So it’s unlikely that the 20 percent wage gap between women and men will be addressed soon. Nor will Trump rush to guarantee paid family or medical leave to help care for newborn children or ill family members, responsibilities that disproportionately fall upon women. The day after the inauguration, millions of women marched in Washington, D.C., and cities across the country to send a message to the new administration that women demand better treatment. This is what we have to do—this having each other’s back—join together to insist on a way forward even in a Trump world. Here are five actions women can take to build sisterhood.
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1 ESCORT OTHER WOMEN TO THE ABORTION CLINIC Despite Roe v. Wade, abortion rights are being eroded in state after state. The dismantling disproportionately affects rural women, poor women, and women of color. Donate to organizations that provide reproductive health care and sex education, but also consider volunteering at a family planning clinic like Planned Parenthood. You can escort patients outside of the clinics, where women are often harassed by picketers. They could use someone to join them walking to and from the clinic.
5 STEP IN AND SPEAK UP
4 2 “LEAN IN” WITH OTHER WOMEN When women help each other, we can accomplish great things. A “Lean In Circle,” inspired by Sheryl Sandberg’s book Lean In, is a small group in which women regularly meet to discuss their ambitions and help each other accomplish their goals. A circle can be an online meetup with other women around the world or a small local gathering.
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AMPLIFY OTHER WOMEN’S IDEAS Studies have shown that women are less likely to receive credit for their contributions in predominantly male settings. President Obama’s female staffers, who had to navigate meetings that were often two-thirds men, used a meeting technique they called “amplification,” according to the Washington Post. Here’s how it works: When a woman has an idea or makes a point, other women in the room support it and credit her, giving the contribution more weight in a room full of men who tend to hear mostly each other.
There are concerns that Trump’s election has publicly normalized misogyny and sexual assault. The Southern Poverty Law Center collected reports of 45 anti-woman incidents in the month following the election, and more than 80 percent of the assailants made reference to Trump during those incidents. How can women protect each other? Involve yourself. Step in when you see harassment. Speak directly to the assailant, stand beside the woman, offer to call the police. Alert a woman if you think she’s being followed, and walk with her. y
DONATE MENSTRUAL PRODUCTS Periods are not only a health issue for some women living in poverty and homelessness— they can also break the bank. A year’s worth of feminine hygiene products like tampons and pads can cost more than $100. Disposable menstrual products are some of the most needed items at food pantries and homeless shelters, but donors often overlook them. Consider donating tampons and pads to your local food bank and homeless shelters to help make that time of the month easier.
ILLUSTRATION BY SEITA/SHUTTERSTOCK
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GOOD HEALTH OUTSIDE THE DOCTOR’S OFFICE Daphne Miller, M.D.
It’s a perfect day in Pensacola, Florida, and the Blue Angels, based at the nearby air station, are doing their weekly exercises over the Gulf. A drive inland along Palafox Street starts at the upscale town square and passes freshly painted colonials, esthetic surgery clinics, boutiques, and banks. But all this changes at Cervantes Avenue: Suddenly the trappings of wealth disappear, replaced by foreclosure signs, dialysis centers, thrift stores, and check-cashing outlets. This is still Pensacola, but not the one that snowbirds and tourists see. As Sandra Donaldson, a native of this second Pensacola, explains, “There is an invisible divide between here and there.” Blocks later, I park in front of`a professional brick building, not unlike community clinics that I have worked in during my medical career. Inside, I am surprised to find that Chandra Smiley, executive director for the Escambia Community Clinic network, is working right next to the waiting area busy with coughing patients, beeping toys, and CNN blaring on a wall-mounted TV. “Being this close to the patients helps me understand what’s really going on,” Smiley says. “I don’t want this to be just another community clinic; I want it to be the community’s clinic.” Her emphasis on the possessive might at first pass seem like an unimportant distinction, but, in fact, it represents radical thinking. Traditionally, safety net clinics like Escambia offer medical services to low-income and underserved patients who access
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their facilities, but Smiley and her team are trying to expand this role by improving the quality of life in the surrounding community. “Our goal,” Smiley says, “is to help fix things that get us sick in the first place, like substandard housing, unhealthy food, and lack of opportunity.” Escambia, along with four other clinic sites that dot the Gulf Coast, is part of a twoyear health care experiment called the Community Centered Health Home (CCHH) demonstration project, which is funded through the Deepwater Horizon Medical Benefits Class Action Settlement, a result of the 2010 BP oil spill off the coast of Louisiana. If it succeeds, this experiment could help redefine the role of community clinics in the United States.
YES! PHOTO BY ANNABELLE ROSE PHOTOGRAPHY
Sandra Donaldson, Ashley Parish, and Chandra Smiley stand in front of the playground they helped create at C.A. Weis Elementary School.
CULTURE SHIFT
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he idea that health care can be an engine for community change is not entirely new. In the mid1960s, physician Jack Geiger opened clinics in the impoverished rural South, with a mission to go beyond treating patients to address the social determinants of health. Instead of simply recommending better diets, he helped his patients obtain tractors, seeds, and farmland so that they could grow healthful food. While Geiger is credited with starting the first community clinics, his more radical idea to use organized medicine to address the root causes of illness never caught on. Recently, Geiger’s ideas are getting more attention. The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, has created a series of mandates and incentives to cut health care costs while expanding health care access and improving quality. Since the United States spends more than twice per capita on health care as countries like Germany, France, and Switzerland but lags far behind in health outcomes, most would agree that these are worthy goals. There is less agreement on how to accomplish them. Initially, programs promoted by the ACA prioritized expanding insurance coverage and retooling medical services, but it has since become evident these efforts are necessary but not sufficient to change health outcomes for vulnerable communities—hence more outside-the-box approaches such as the one being tested by the Escambia Clinic. If Obamacare in its entirety is repealed, these innovative efforts could also fall by the wayside.
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wo days before visiting Pensacola, I met Eric Baumgartner at his office in the Louisiana Public Health Institute in New Orleans. Baumgartner, a pediatrician and public health expert, is directing the Gulf Coast CCHH demonstration project. Early in his pediatric residency, Baumgartner became frustrated by the fact that much of the illness he was seeing in his young patients was
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YES! BUT HOW? DIY WAYS TO LIVE SUSTAINABLY
NATURE’S OLD-FASHIONED WEATHER REPORT In an age where the weather app is a tap away, we don’t need to look far for a forecast. But what if you don’t have internet? As you head out into spring, try it the oldfashioned way. Here are five hints from nature to help you decide whether to plan a picnic. Research and illustrations by Lydia Cain
Open Pine, Weather’s Fine
Curious about humidity? Pine cones are one of Mother Nature’s most reliable hygrometers. Pine seeds travel by wind, so on days when weather is damp or rainy, cones will keep their seeds sealed inside. Once the air dries out, cone scales shrink and open, allowing seeds to escape with the breeze. If you’re unsure of whether to bring an umbrella, check the cones.
Closed in the Morning, It' be Pouring Dandelion flowers close nightly, but if they’re still shut in the morning, rain is on its way. Many different flora have evolved to protect themselves against the detrimental effects of wet weather, which can wash away pollen and dilute nectar. Tulips are also known for this trait.
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Favored the Wind from theEast The winds bring all sorts of different weather across our paths. However, wind from the east is a tell-tale sign of unsettled weather to come. The wind pattern around a low-pressure system, which brings stormy weather, is always counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere. In North America, most of our weather systems travel west to northeast thanks to prevailing winds. As the low forges forward, the counterclockwise wind that precedes it arrives from the east, meaning the so-called bad weather is still to come. That’s why a developing east wind is a pretty sure sign that unsettled weather is on the way.
SOURCE: GRANDMA SAYS, AUTHOR METEOROLOGIST CINDY DAY
Clear Moon,
Frost Soon
If you have a clear view of the winter moon at night, you can expect a brisk morning to follow. Without cloud cover to insulate the air, the Earth’s heat rises, which causes surface temperatures to plummet. This quick drop often yields a blanket of frost the next day.
When Chimney Smoke Descends, The Nice Weather Ends
Chimney smoke that slides from the roof to the ground is indicative of wet weather coming. Moisture in the air preceding a storm clings to smoke particles, weighing them down and causing them to sink instead of rise. yesmagazine . org
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Why does a No! guy like me read YES! Magazine? We are in a desperate place. There’s a lot we need to say “No!” to. In the middle of all that are opportunities to change in deep and meaningful ways. When we say “No!” to business as usual, then we say “Yes!” to a different way of doing things. And that different way is starting to emerge—the things YES! Magazine has been writing about for years, the things YES! has worked so hard to make happen. Bill McKibben Author, Activist, and YES! Contributing Editor
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