Sandra Harding, Chair of Universities Australia and Vice-Chancellor of James Cook University - The Raw Story
Stephan: Finally the implications of climate change are being discussed in popular media, as is the case here, stressing how change is playing out in the real world and affecting people's lives. This articles discusses a very important report. You can download it at: http://stateofthetropics.org/the-report
Click through to see the graphics and maps, which are helpful.
More than 2000 years ago, the Greek philosopher Aristotle declared that there were three zones of the world – the Frigid Zone, the Temperate Zone and the Torrid Zone – and only one of these, the Temperate Zone, was a place where civilised human beings could live.
Fast forward to 2014. The Tropics are now home to four out of every 10 people alive on earth today, as well as 80% of the world’s biodiversity. Some of the most pressing issues of our time – including rapid population growth, rising obesity rates, reducing poverty, and the need to preserve vital freshwater and forests – are all playing out in Aristotle’s Torrid Zone.
As our new report on the State of the Tropics reveals, by 2050, 60% of the world’s children will be living in a tropical part of the world, shown in the map below. Whether you live in the Tropics or not, it’s a vast and diverse region that no one can afford to ignore any more.
Launched by Nobel Peace Prize Winner Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar over the weekend, with simultaneous events in Singapore, Townsville and Cairns, the State of the Tropics report shows where life is getting better, […]
No Comments
EZRA KLEIN, Editor in Chief - Vox
Stephan: Ezra Klein writing about the groundbreaking research of Yale Law Professor Dan Kahan, gives us a very insightful essay about why factual evidence is not proving to be persuasive with issues such as climate change or poverty.
Ideology in my view should be seen as an addiction disorder.
Click through to see the graphic.
There’s a simple theory underlying much of American politics. It sits hopefully at the base of almost every speech, every op-ed, every article, and every panel discussion. It courses through the Constitution and is a constant in President Obama’s most stirring addresses. It’s what we might call the More Information Hypothesis: the belief that many of our most bitter political battles are mere misunderstandings. The cause of these misunderstandings? Too little information – be it about climate change, or taxes, or Iraq, or the budget deficit. If only the citizenry were more informed, the thinking goes, then there wouldn’t be all this fighting. It’s a seductive model. It suggests our fellow countrymen aren’t wrong so much as they’re misguided, or ignorant, or – most appealingly – misled by scoundrels from the other party. It holds that our debates are tractable and that the answers to our toughest problems aren’t very controversial at all. The theory is particularly prevalent in Washington, where partisans devote enormous amounts of energy to persuading each other that there’s really a right answer to the difficult questions in American politics – and that they have it. But the More Information Hypothesis isn’t just wrong. It’s backwards. […]
No Comments
JUSTIN MCCARTHY, - The Gallup Organization
Stephan: One of the surest signs of the collapse of American democracy is the extremely poor opinion most Americans have about the institutions of government. This latest Gallup Poll makes the point very clearly. In terms of bills passed, actual work done, this is the worst Congress in American history. And 93% of Americans recognize this. Think about that. More than nine out of 10 of us have no confidence in the Congress.
This is also reflected in the growing number of corrupt and moronic men and women serving in Congress. The same thing is happening with the Supreme Court which, as it showed today with the Hobby Lobby case, is blatantly in the pocket of the uber rich and the corporations they control.
The leading Judicial institution, the source of the last word on interpreting the laws now has only three people out of ten with any confidence in the court. It's not hard to see why. If you read actual rulings as I do, you see reasoning from the Right wing Justices that is openly ideological and non-fact based. The very idea that profit making corporations are people and that they have religious beliefs is an example of what I mean. Read Justice Ginsburg's dissent to see her insider's view.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Americans’ confidence in all three branches of the U.S. government has fallen, reaching record lows for the Supreme Court (30%) and Congress (7%), and a six-year low for the presidency (29%). The presidency had the largest drop of the three branches this year, down seven percentage points from its previous rating of 36%.
Americans’ Level of Confidence in the Three Branches of Government
These data come from a June 5-8 Gallup poll asking Americans about their confidence in 16 U.S. institutions — within government, business, and society — that they either read about or interact with.
While Gallup recently reported a historically low rating of Congress, Americans have always had less confidence in Congress than in the other two branches of government. The Supreme Court and the presidency have alternated being the most trusted branch of government since 1991, the first year Gallup began asking regularly about all three branches.
But on a relative basis, Americans’ confidence in all three is eroding. Since June 2013, confidence has fallen seven points for the presidency, four points for the Supreme Court, and three points for Congress. Confidence in each of the three branches of government had already fallen from 2012 to 2013.
Americans’ Confidence […]
No Comments
Stephan: I am asking all my readers to boycott Hobby Lobby and to sign my petition on Moveon.org: http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/boycott-hobby-lobby-and?source=c.fwd&r_by=1677891
It requires at least 50 signatures to get the petition launched. More is better. Please take a moment to read it and, if you agree, sign it.
Thank you.
-- Stephan
No Comments
