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When I began Schwartzreport my purpose was to produce an entirely fact-based daily publication in favor of the earth, the inter-connectedness and interdependence of all life, democracy, equality for all, liberty, and things that are life-affirming. Also, to warn my readers about actions, events, and trends that threaten those values. Our country now stands at a crossroads, indeed, the world stands at a crossroads where those values are very much at risk and it is up to each of us who care about wellbeing to do what we can to defend those principles. I want to thank all of you who have contributed to SR, particularly those of you who have scheduled an ongoing monthly contribution. It makes a big difference and is much appreciated. It is one thing to put in the hours each day and to do the work for free, but another to have to cover the rising out-of-pocket costs. For those of you who haven’t done so, but read SR regularly, I ask that you consider supporting it.
KARIN KIRK, Contributing Writer - Yale Climate Connections
Stephan:
In the midst of all the chaos and negativity the United States is going through here is some good news about the transition out of the carbon era. I am so happy to be publishing this.
Clean energy jobs grew more than twice the rate of the overall economy in 2023 – and every state has its own piece of the story to tell.
By the end of 2023, there were over half a million jobs in wind, solar, and energy storage in the United States, according to the Department of Energy’s 2024 U.S. Energy and Employment Jobs Report. Jobs within these sectors include design, manufacturing, trade, construction, and operation of energy systems.
Just two states hold one-third of the jobs in clean electricity generation: California and Texas. The rest of the jobs were distributed across the rest of the country in unequal and sometimes unexpected ways.
Get a high-level look at the latest clean energy jobs data in our interactive map below. Each state is ranked by the total number of jobs in solar, wind, and energy storage. Hover over or tap on any state to see the data broken down by sector as well as per capita.
Clean electricity jobs by the numbers: Highs, lows, and surprises along the way
Clean energy jobs are a powerful opportunity for communities. […]
I keep looking for good news trends, but they are getting increasingly hard to find, and the trends about Earth’s ecosystem are becoming ever more alarming. And none of this is getting the attention it requires if we are to sustain human societies in any form we recognize. Can we do it though, are we willing to give up our hate and resentments? I’m not sure, and it isn’t just America facing this reality.
Forest Trees Credit: Shutterstock
More than one-third of Earth’s tree species are at risk of extinction, with logging, forest destruction for agriculture and urban development, and human-caused global heating most responsible for this “frightening” development that threatens life as we know it, according to a report published Monday.
The 2024 Global Tree Assessment—released at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP16) in Cali, Colombia and published as part of this year’s International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) “Red List” of threatened species—warns that more than 16,000 of the 47,000 tree species analyzed in the report are at risk of extinction.
The report blames deforestation and catastrophic global heating, caused by human burning of fossil fuels, as the main drivers of tree extinction. More than 5,000 tree species on the IUCN Red List are felled for construction timber, while 2,000 species are used for fuel, food, and medicines.
According to the report:
Trees now account for over one-quarter of species on the IUCN Red List, and the number of threatened trees is more than double the number […]
This is what a large percentage of Americans have become. Barely literate, willfully ignorant, and deranged in their thinking. This could become the United States of the future if Harris and Walz don’t win, and the Democrats don’t win a majority in the Senate and the House.
Trump supporters speak with The Daily Show’s Jordan Klepper Credit: Screen capture
The Daily Show’s Jordan Klepper recently spoke with supporters of former President Donald Trump who believe that Democratic politicians have the power to control the weather.
In a teaser clip posted on a segment scheduled to air Monday night, a Trump-supporting woman tells Klepper that it’s no coincidence that the United States was hit by major natural disasters with just weeks to go until the 2024 presidential election.
“Back-to-back catastrophic hurricanes? You can’t tell me that they didn’t have any hand in that,” she tells him.
The segment then cuts to two Trump-supporting men who also believe that Democrats control the weather.
“They’re controlling the weather, they’ve been doing that since the Vietnam War!” exclaimed one.
“100 percent,” replied the other man, who then gestured toward the sky.
“See this weather here?” he asked, pointing to partly cloudy skies. “See where that’s coming from? Guess who lives in that direction? Paul Pelosi!”
“The Democrats are controlling the weather?” Klepper asked […]
This is a particularly good report on the perversion of Christianity in the United States, and how it was turned into a fascist political cult.
In recent years, the Christian right has become an increasingly powerful force in American politics. The belief that God has called on conservative Christians to rule over society has extended into all levels of government, from school boards to the White House.
Many pundits call this movement Christian nationalism. But while it may seem like a phenomenon born out of our current political moment, it represents the culmination of various movements with roots that trace back decades. The more extreme elements didn’t just materialize a few years ago. They’ve been there from the start.
In the beginning — in this case, the 1970s — some Christians feared their influence in society was waning. The Supreme Court had outlawed school-sponsored prayer and Bible readings and had legalized abortion.
In response, religious figures began to organize around the idea that they had a duty to bring Christianity back into public life. Several Christian-influenced organizations, including Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority and James Dobson’s Family Research Council, were soon formed and went on to shape Republican policies for decades to come. Evangelical Protestants of different denominations joined forces and united with […]
Yet another group of scientists crying out for our attention, warning of the catastrophic effects that would occur if the Atlantic currents collapsed as they seem destined to do. Yet not a word was spoken about climate change during the six hours of fascist Trump’s rally in New York. It was all hate, racism, genderism, and vulgarity as the overwhelmingly White audience cheered and laughed. I listened to parts of it and kept thinking: Is this what America has become? Is the country I served as a medic in the Army to defend back in the 60s, and as Special Assistant to the Chief of Naval Operations in the 70s? Is this what friends of mind died for? I do not understand how it is possible that this Presidential election could be. Are there that many Americans that actually believe in and support this loathsome fascist party and its Führer?
Map of North Atlantic Ocean currents, with Gulf Stream and other major ocean currents, red color for warm and blue color for cold currents. Credit: alamy
A group of scientists warned Monday of the greatly underestimated risk of a collapse of ocean currents in the Atlantic which could have catastrophic consequences for the Nordic countries as the region’s leaders gathered in Iceland.
In an open letter addressed to the Nordic Council, which is meeting this week in Iceland’s capital Reykjavik, the scientists said they wanted to bring attention “to the serious risk of a major ocean circulation change in the Atlantic.”
The “Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation” (AMOC) is a complex system of ocean currents, including the Gulf Stream, which carries heat from warmer regions to the north and is therefore crucial to living conditions in the Arctic.
The collapse of the system — which according to a recent study has already weakened — is one of the tipping points that concern scientists because of cascading effects they could trigger.
But there is no consensus on when this is likely to happen. The sixth […]
This is what I see in the future about climate change and migration. It is not a happy story.
Climate change refugees Credit: NPR
Since March of 2009, in these pages, I have been warning you about the civilization altering massive disruption of people because of climate change provoked migrations, both internal migrations within countries and international migrations forcing people to leave their homeland for another country.
In that first paper I pointed out something that is not often noticed by the media, saying, “Migrations come in two varieties: glacial and volcanic. The 1994 Tutsi flood that poured out of Rwanda and the several million non-Islamic Sudanese forced from their villages by the progovernment Janjaweed militias are volcanic migrations—violent ejections of populations based on immediate crisis.
The volcanic time frame is short term, because just as the Rwandans—both Hutu and Tutsi—came back as soon as it was possible, those ejected by a volcanic migration do not surrender their allegiance to their homeland and always hope to return. Theirs is the commonsense response of simple people caught in […]
The Rio Grande is one of America’s most famous rivers, and it is in trouble. Here are the details of what is happening. Changes like this are occurring in rivers all over the country.
Credit: Paul Horn / TCEQ:ESRI
FAR WEST TEXAS—The year was 1897. Flood waters from the Rio Grande submerged entire blocks of downtown El Paso.
The New York Times described the crash of crumbling houses and the “cries of frightened women and children” on its May 26 front page. The raging river displaced hundreds of people and destroyed scores of adobe homes.
In Mexico, the Rio Grande is known as the Rio Bravo—the rough, or wild, river—signifying the force that caused several devastating floods in El Paso and neighboring Ciudad Juárez.
Today these historic floods are hard to imagine. The river channel in El Paso-Juárez now only fills during the irrigation season. Further downstream, the river is frequently dry in a 200-mile section known as the Forgotten Reach.
Inside Climate News documented this remote stretch of the river in July on a flight with the non-profit Light Hawk. Other than limited flows from springs and creeks, known locally as arroyos, this section of the Rio Grande barely has water.
That’s because reservoirs now harness the flows of snowmelt and monsoon rains that once defined […]
As I watched the Trump fascist gathering in Manhattan, so reminiscent of Hitler’s gatherings, and listened to those Trump fanatics cheer and laugh at the vulgar racism, misogyny, hate, and endless lies, I wondered how many of these willfully ignorant men and women realized that the homelessness, the housing crisis, that has made it so difficult for some of them to buy a house or created the homelessness in their towns and cities can largely be traced to the billionaires who own their Fuhrer? It is explained very well in Thom Hartmann’s column.
Stephen A. Schwarzman, chairman, CEO and co-founder of Blackstone speaks as then-U.S. President Donald Trump looks on during a strategic and policy discussion with CEOs in the State Department Library in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on April 11, 2017 in Washington, D.C: Credit: Olivier Douliery / Getty
The principle cause of today’s crisis of homelessness and housing affordability has one, single, primary cause: billionaires treating housing as an investment commodity.
America’s morbidly rich billionaires are at it again, this time screwing the average family’s ability to have decent, affordable housing in their never-ending quest for more, more, more. Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, and Denmark have had enough and done something about it: We should, too.
There are a few things that are essential to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” that should never be purely left to the marketplace; these are the most important sectors where government intervention, regulation, and even subsidy are not just appropriate but essential. Housing is at the top of that list.
