Latest news with #Vose
Boston Globe
20-07-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Today in History: Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin walk on the moon
In 1775, 250 years ago, Major Joseph Vose of Milton led about 400 soldiers and rowers on a raid on Boston Light, which was held by British troops. The patriots stripped the lighthouse of furniture and the island of gunpowder and set afire the lighthouse. This was the latest in a series of raids -- including off Cape Ann -- destroying light houses and other navigation aids thought to benefit the British. Vose's forces also stripped the Nantasket Peninsula of grains. In 1917, America's World War I draft lottery began as Secretary of War Newton Baker, wearing a blindfold, reached into a glass bowl and pulled out a capsule containing the number 258 during a ceremony inside the Senate office building. Advertisement In 1944, an attempt by a group of German officials to assassinate Adolf Hitler with a bomb failed as the explosion only wounded the Nazi leader. In 1951, Jordan's King Abdullah I was assassinated in Jerusalem by a Palestinian gunman who was shot dead by security. In 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon after reaching its surface in their Apollo 11 lunar module. In 1976, America's Viking 1 robot spacecraft made a successful, first-ever landing on Mars. In 1977, a flash flood hit Johnstown, Pa., killing more than 80 people and causing $350 million worth of damage. In 1990, Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, one of the court's most liberal voices, announced he was stepping down. In 1993, White House deputy counsel Vincent Foster Jr., 48, was found shot to death in a park near Washington, D.C.; it was ruled a suicide. In 2006, the Senate voted 98-0 to renew the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act for another quarter-century. In 2007, President George W. Bush signed an executive order prohibiting cruel and inhuman treatment, including humiliation or denigration of religious beliefs, in the detention and interrogation of terrorism suspects. In 2012, gunman James Holmes opened fire inside a crowded movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, during a midnight showing of 'The Dark Knight Rises,' killing 12 people and wounding 70 others. (Holmes was later convicted of murder and attempted murder, and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.) In 2015, the United States and Cuba restored full diplomatic relations after more than five decades of frosty relations rooted in the Cold War. Advertisement
New York Times
06-02-2025
- Science
- New York Times
Global Temperatures Shattered Records in January
Even as much of the United States shivered under frigid conditions last month, the planet as a whole had its warmest January on record, scientists said on Thursday. The warmth came as something of a surprise to climate researchers. It occurred during La Niña conditions in the Pacific Ocean, which tend to lower the globe's average temperature, at least temporarily. Earth's surface has now been so warm for so much of the past two years that scientists are examining whether something else in the planet's chemistry might have changed, something that is boosting temperatures beyond what carbon emissions alone can explain. Those emissions, the byproduct of burning coal, gas and oil, remain the main driver of global warming, which reached record levels in both 2023 and 2024. It's because of La Niña that scientists expected this year to be slightly cooler than the past two years, both of which experienced the opposite pattern, El Niño. The waters of the eastern tropical Pacific oscillate between El Niño and La Niña conditions, influencing weather worldwide by changing the balance between heat in the ocean and heat in the air. But a host of other factors figure into global temperatures as well. At the moment, chances aren't high that 2025 will end up being the hottest year on the books, Russell Vose, a climate scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told reporters recently. But this time last year, researchers were saying much the same thing about 2024, Dr. Vose said. They were wrong. 'So it's a tough game, forecasting global temperature,' Dr. Vose said. According to Copernicus, the European Union climate monitoring agency, last month was much balmier than usual in northern Canada, Alaska and Siberia, as well as parts of Australia and Antarctica. Abnormally high temperatures above the Hudson Bay and the Labrador Sea helped shrink Arctic sea ice to a record low for January, Copernicus said. As scientists try to explain the unending streak of worldwide warmth, one thing they've focused on is reductions in air pollution. In a report this week, James Hansen, the famed former NASA scientist, argued that cutting pollution had already played a big role in causing global warming to accelerate. The reason is a little counterintuitive: For decades, humans have not only been emitting carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases when they burn fossil fuels. They've also been spewing tiny sulfate particles into the air. These particles spur the formation of more and brighter clouds, which help shield Earth from the sun. But as regulators have curbed sulfate pollution to protect people's lungs, this cooling effect has diminished, exposing the planet to more of the full force of greenhouse warming. Three decades ago, Dr. Hansen was among the first scientists to draw broad attention to climate change. Speaking to reporters this week, he argued that the United Nations was ill-prepared to address accelerated warming. The U.N.'s approach to meeting its climate goals still counts on societies to slash their carbon emissions in the coming decades, he said. Those goals now look 'impossible' to achieve, Dr. Hansen said, 'unless some miracle occurs that we don't understand.'
