Reading archive 2021-08-20

Forgotten Landscapes: Bringing Back the Rich Grasslands of the Southeast: Native prairie and savanna once covered vast areas of the U.S. Southeast from Maryland to Texas, but agriculture and sprawl have left only small patches remaining. Now, a new initiative, driven by scientists and local communities, is pushing to restore these imperiled grassland habitats. - The Southeast is one of North America’s great, but forgotten, grassland regions. Its native prairies and savannas have been reduced by more than 90 percent since the first Europeans arrived, almost 100 percent in many areas. Yet the remaining scraps include more grassland plants and animals than the Great Plains and Midwest combined — a big part of the reason why the Southeast coastal plain, the flat, low-lying portion of the region that extends inland from the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean, was designated the latest of the world’s 36 biodiversity hotspots in 2015.

U.S. officials reviewing possibility Moderna vaccine is linked to higher risk of uncommon side effect than previously thought - "But the CDC’s vaccine advisers, at a June 24 meeting, said that getting covid-19, the illness caused by the virus, puts someone at far greater risk of heart inflammation and other serious medical problems than the risk of developing myocarditis from vaccination."

Amid a global banana crisis, Puerto Rico’s abundant biodiversity offers a taste of hope - "Colombian workers for the United Fruit Company, now Chiquita, went on strike in 1928 and were gunned down by the Colombian army, at the behest of U.S. business interests in the region."

The Washington, DC region has built too much housing in the wrong places - "Large employment centers and transit infrastructure are durable features of the built environment that persist for many decades. Therefore, a climate-friendly growth strategy for the region would concentrate new housing, retail, and services around these existing locations."

‘World’s Worst Invasive Weed’ Sold at Many U.S. Garden Centers: Banned by federal and state regulators, many invasive plants are still being sold at garden centers, nurseries and online retailers nationwide

Opinion: Do we even care about the health of the Chesapeake Bay?

Opinion: Maryland Gov. Hogan could save the Chesapeake - "The certification of Conowingo Dam on the Susquehanna River, the gateway to the Chesapeake Bay, is still in question. The last time the opportunity presented itself was before it was known that structures negatively impact our environment and that altering the natural flow of major rivers leads to a slow degradation of the resource we treasure and want to protect."

Opinion: The D.C. Council should stop allowing private entities to take over public parks and buildings - "Leasing buildings and properly scaled playing fields to private schools seems at best poor planning and at worst a slap in the face to D.C. families who send their kids to public schools and support our public education system. Prioritizing the desires of a few elite private schools over the very real needs of DC public school students and DC taxpayers should not continue. The D.C. Council should introduce and pass legislation this fall closing this loophole and protecting D.C.’s playing fields and buildings."

Opinion: Go-go music is finally getting the recognition it deserves in D.C.

‘I’m begging you. ... Take that shot.’: As covid-19 surges in unvaccinated Alabama, the intimate conversations between doctors and patients have taken on a new urgency