Sunday, August 16th, 2015
Dan Levine, Reporter - The Times of India (India)/The New York Times
Stephan: We think of China as the hot new economy. Here is just one aspect of the human price it is costing to build that economy. Imagine 4,400 people a day, 1.6 million a year dying in the U.S. of air pollution. And this pollution doesn't just stay in China. Humanity is on a crash course with nature and the impact is going to be millions upon millions of deaths. As a species we may not be clear thinking enough to survive.
Heavy smog in Harbin, China
Credit: beforeitsnews.com
BEIJING — Outdoor air pollution contributes to the deaths of an estimated 1.6 million people in China every year, or about 4,400 people a day, according to a newly released scientific paper. (emphasis added)
The paper maps the geographic sources of China’s toxic air and concludes that much of the smog that routinely shrouds Beijing comes from emissions in a distant industrial zone, a finding that may complicate the government’s efforts to clean up the capital city’s air in time for the 2022 Winter Olympics. The authors are members of Berkeley Earth, a research organization based in Berkeley, California.
According to the data in the paper, about three-eighths of the Chinese population breathe air that would be rated “unhealthy” by United States standards. The most dangerous of the pollutants studied were fine airborne particles less than 2.5 microns in diameter, which can find their way deep into human lungs, be absorbed into the bloodstream and cause a host of health problems, including asthma, strokes, lung […]
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Sunday, August 16th, 2015
Sara Aridi, Staff Writer - The Christian Science Monitor
Stephan: We are in essence living on credit, and we are about to go bankrupt on our account with the Earth. And we just don't seem able to muster the intelligence to stop.
Large quantities of seaweed lays ashore at the ‘Playa Los Machos’ beach, in Ceiba, Puerto Rico, Aug. 8, 2015.
Credit: Ricardo Arduengo/AP
Planet Earth crossed into the ecological red Friday.
Thursday marked Earth Overshoot Day – the day when the world’s population officially exhausts all the natural resources the Earth can generate in a single year, as defined by the sustainability think tank, Global Footprint Network.
What exactly does that mean for humanity, and more importantly, the environment?
Overshoot depletes the Earth of its natural capital and catalyzes a buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, environmentalists say.
That buildup drastically harms the environment through deforestation, drought, fresh-water scarcity, soil erosion, and biodiversity loss, according to GFN.
All of these degenerative conditions lead to excessive ecological spending, and Overshoot Day serves as a reminder that the global […]
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Sunday, August 16th, 2015
Ian Millhiser , - Nation of Change/Think Progress
Stephan: I spent a good part of my late teens and early 20s participating in demonstrations against segregation, and I must admit that this story made me feel very sad that it appears to have been mostly for naught.
Over the past two weeks, This American Life ran a two part series on the resegregation of American public schools. It is excellent and you should go listen to it here and here.
The centerpiece of the first part is a town hall meeting in a predominantly white Missouri school district. White residents had just learned that students from the mostly black district that includes Ferguson, Missouri would be joining their own children due to a law giving students in failing school systems the opportunity to attend classes elsewhere — and these white parents were pissed. One mother demanded metal detectors and drug sniffing dogs, because she falsely believed that the black district was struggling because of a record of “violent behavior.” “I shopped for a school district!” she proclaimed as the crowd of white parents erupted around her in cheers, “I deserve to not have to worry about my children getting stabbed, or taking a drug, or getting robbed.”
Another parent recalled, again to an approving crowd, a time when the mostly white community blocked plans to […]
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Sunday, August 16th, 2015
Jordan Weissmann, Senior Business and Economics Correspondent. - Slate
Stephan: Studying Red value states like Wisconsin, Louisiana, and Kansas is like watching the slow motion destruction of rust. Here is the latest from Theocratic Rightist Scott Walker. The Republican Party governs with no consideration that I can see for the actual people who live in the state, with the exception of the uber-rich who are pandered to like johns in a brothel. And yet this man has been elected twice and withstood a recall. So I guess Wisconsinites either like having the quality of their lives, and their children's lives degraded -- or they are too lazy or uninterested to vote. It is quite amazing.
Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker.
Credit: educationvotes.nea.org
In July, Wisconsin governor and presidential candidate Scott Walker signed a budget that slashed $250 million from his state’s higher education system. Wednesday, he signed a bill that would spend $250 million of taxpayer funds on a new stadium for the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks.
It is difficult to think of a clearer illustration of a politician’s comically misplaced priorities.
I should say upfront that, if you want to get nit-picky about it, the two figures aren’t exactly comparable. For starters, the stadium spending will be spread out over 20 years. And once you include bond interest, the cost to Wisconsin residents is expected to hit $400 million. Meanwhile, only about $80 million will be coming exclusively from the state government—the rest will basically be financed by the city and county of Milwaukee, and by a $2 surcharge on tickets to events at the Bucks’ current stadium. You could also […]
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Saturday, August 15th, 2015
Kate Kelland , - iol scitech (South Africa)
Stephan: Food like water is going to be strongly affected by climate change, and like water I don't think most people really understand this reality. It isn't just a case of eggs going from $6.00 to $8.00, although that will happen. It is more a case that getting eggs will be difficult or impossible, period. And the effect, as this report describes, will be particularly powerful with commodity crops, maize, wheat, rice, and such.
For poor nations it is going to mean starvation on a mass level, with a developed world itself increasingly in need and, thus, unable to offer the same open-handed assistance as in the past.
The experts looked at production of the world’s most important commodity crops – maize, soybean, wheat and rice – and how droughts, floods and storms might impact it in future.
Credit: AP
LONDON — Extreme weather such as intense storms, droughts and heatwave will cause more frequent and severe food shortages as the global climate and food supply systems change, British and American experts warned on Friday.
The pressure on the world’s food supplies is so great, and the increase in extreme weather events so rapid, they said, that food shortages on a scale likely to occur once a century under past conditions, may in future hit as often as once every 30 years.
“The chance of having a weather-related food shock is increasing, and the size of that shock is also increasing,” said Tim Benton, a professor of population ecology at Leeds University who presented a report commissioned by the British government. (emphasis […]
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