All issues can be found at: https://geocraic.com/

Don’t forget to accept your invite to the GeoCraic group at Group.io. Search for Group.io in your email inbox (or junkmail) to find it.

Susan, Muggle, and I are currently driving La Playa Carril bound for Texas and the Total Solar Eclipse on April 8. Hope you’re in a spot to see it too.

World

Melting ice is slowing down the earth’s rotation.

FT Story: https://on.ft.com/4aryZhb
From the WP: https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2024/03/27/leap-second-melting-poles-climate-time/
Sea ice strange behavior: https://www.carbonbrief.org/antarctic-sea-ice-behaving-strangely-as-arctic-reaches-below-average-winter-peak/

Outlaw Ocean The Outlaw Ocean Project in an organization to keep tabs on. Mentioned in Issue 29 they are doing some amazing reporting.

Site: https://www.theoutlawocean.com/

US

Demographics

How we measure matters. Glad to see this update.

“As a society, we cannot properly ensure equal rights and protections for all if we are not able to properly identify those impacted by overt and covert discrimination through systemic biases in the first place,” read one comment from an Egyptian American attorney who agreed with the new MENA category.

U.S. updates how it classifies people by race, ethnicity for first time in decades: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/03/28/census-update-race-ethnicity/
Whitehouse PR on it: https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/briefing-room/2024/03/28/omb-publishes-revisions-to-statistical-policy-directive-no-15-standards-for-maintaining-collecting-and-presenting-federal-data-on-race-and-ethnicity/

The risk of losing GPS satellites can be measured in billions of dollars lost daily. And there’s no backup for the US. There is a relatively cheap and effective alternative that I researched years ago when I was at Microsoft and looking at indoor location. Television signals. When the US started to move to digital TV spectrum bands it meant there was an enormous amount of spectrum that was going to be available from the old TV signals. We already had antennae. The signal penetrates buildings (unlike GPS). Simple triangulation could give us widespread, indoor accurate, time and location. I don’t see any mention of that as a possible alternative backup to GPS.

Despite recognizing the risks, the United States is years from having a reliable alternative source for time and navigation for civilian use if GPS signals are out or interrupted, documents show and experts say.

NYT Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/28/world/asia/as-threats-in-space-mount-us-lags-in-protecting-key-services.html
Spacenews: https://spacenews.com/satellite-firms-cautiously-optimistic-as-dod-boosts-funding-to-integrate-commercial-satcom/
Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation: https://rntfnd.org/
USDOT - Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) & Spectrum Management (PNT): https://www.transportation.gov/pnt
China’s alternate PNT: https://rntfnd.org/2024/03/01/patton-read-their-book-chinas-pnt-projects-and-ambitions/

Climate Change

I know this is one of Eric’s main pet peeves, and I 100% agree. Using water in the drought impacted US West for hay and alfalfa. Good article that backs up the previous ones in the Issue 32 (linked below). We should feed the livestock we eat. We should eat the livestock we feed (not so subtle dig at horses - which taste great!). But maybe we shouldn’t grow that feed from Colorado River water. Most certainly we shouldn’t grow that feed in drought-stricken areas to be exported to Saudi Arabia or China. It is literally exporting precious Colorado River water.

46% of Colorado River water goes to livestock feed crops: https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2024-03-28/alfalfa-hay-beef-water-colorado-river
The detailed usage study referred to: https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-024-01291-0
See also: Issue 32