Friday, December 29th, 2017
Don Lee, - Los Angeles Times
Stephan: The rich are getting richer, much richer. For the young and the middle class it looks like this. The Neo-Feudalism Trend is getting us two worlds that are almost completely disconnected. Historically that has never been a sign of social stability.
Just 11% of Americans moved between 2016 and 2017, almost half the 20% rate back in 1985, according to the Census Bureau.
Credit: Josh Edelson / AFP
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Despite a long recovery and record streak of job growth, the share of Americans moving to a new location continued a steady decline in 2017, reaching a new post-World War II low, an indicator of a less mobile workforce that reflects both an aging society and economic problems facing younger workers.
The decline marked the fifth straight year in which the share of the population moving dropped. In 2017, the number fell to 11%, according to the Census Bureau. The level was nearly twice as high in 1985, 20%, but has fallen steadily, except for occasional cyclical zigzags, for the last three decades.
For decades, high rates of mobility sharply distinguished the U.S. from other developed economies in Europe and Japan. The decline in mobility is due partly to what has become a less-dynamic and fluid American labor market, some economists believe.
The decline also reflects […]
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Friday, December 29th, 2017
Loes Witschge, - Aljazeera (Qatar)
Stephan: The materialist model of reality has an extractive view of the world. It sees humanity as basically unconnected to the great matrix of life, and the earth's resources as just something to be used as needed. This is a trend I had never thought about, but it is one more example of the failure of the extractive model.
A dredger excavates sand at a river beach of Yangtze River in Chongqing Municipality, China
Credit: China Photos
Sand and gravel are the most-extracted materials in the world.
The UN believes that sand and gravel, or aggregates, account for up to 85 percent of all mining activity around the world, measured in weight.
“It’s almost become like air, the air we breathe, we don’t think too much about it, but you can’t live without it,” says Kiran Pereira, the founder of SandStories.org, in the documentary Sand Wars.
While sand might seem like an abundant resource, it is being mined at a pace much faster than its natural renewal rate.
A 2014 report by the UN estimates that globally, more than 40 billion tonnes of sand and gravel are extracted every year.
Here’s how that compares to the production of other natural resources.
Worldwide, the legal sand extraction industry is worth $70bn, roughly the equivalent of the GDP of Kenya.
What is sand used for?
Sand has numerous applications that cut through our daily life. It’s used for glass and is the […]
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Thursday, December 28th, 2017
Stephan: Here is a glimpse of the non-carbon future the rest of the world is headed towards. I see it as good news. Those who have only one interest, greed and profit will see it quite differently.
Power from wind and solar waxes and wanes with the breeze and sunshine, not in response to when it is most needed.
Credit Gordon Welters/ The New York Times
Germany has spent $200 billion over the past two decades to promote cleaner sources of electricity. That enormous investment is now having an unexpected impact — consumers are now actually paid to use power on occasion, as was the case over the weekend. (emphasis added)
Power prices plunged below zero for much of Sunday and the early hours of Christmas Day on the EPEX Spot, a large European power trading exchange, the result of low demand, unseasonably warm weather and strong breezes that provided an abundance of wind power on the grid.
Such “negative prices” are not the norm in Germany, but they are far from rare, thanks to the country’s effort to encourage investment in greener forms of power generation. Prices for electricity in Germany have dipped below zero — meaning customers are […]
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Thursday, December 28th, 2017
Anna Maria Tremonti, - CBC Radio (Canada)
Stephan: Recycling is about to take a major hit. Here's the story.
Chinese Trash Gatherine SIte
As of January 1, 2018, China will no longer import much of the plastic and paper we have been shipping there for decades.
China is the world’s biggest importer of recycled materials, unloading the burden from countries like Canada and the U.S.
Adam Minter, a Bloomberg columnist and author of Junkyard Planet: Travels in the Billion-Dollar Trash Trade, describes China’s change in policy as “a massive deal.”
“It’s going to be disruptive both within and outside of China,” he tells The Current‘s guest host Catherine Cullen.
Minter says the shift is informed by China’s desire to protect importers from bad trades and keep used goods from flooding its markets. Accordingly, China is unlikely to revert or delay the policy, despite international pressure.
So what happens if there’s no longer a market for all of our recyclables?
‘The individual recycler is probably going to be asked to pay more for their recycling down the line.’– Adam Minter, a Bloomberg columnist
In what many are calling a “waste crisis,” Canadian municipalities are already finding they have no place for their […]
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Thursday, December 28th, 2017
Ben Coxworth, - New Atlas/Rush University
Stephan: I suggest you read this article and adjust your diet accordingly.
According to a new study conducted by Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center, just one serving of leafy green vegetables per day could help preserve memory and thinking skills as we get older. In fact, following such a diet may slow brain aging by up to 11 years.
The study involved 960 participants, who were followed over an average of 4.7 years. Their average age was 81 when the study began, and none of them were experiencing dementia. They got their thinking and memory skills tested every year, plus they completed food frequency questionnaires – these assessed how often they ate one or more half-cup servings of greens such as spinach, kale, lettuce or collard greens.
Although all of the participants’ test scores decreased somewhat over the years, the rate of decline for the people who ate the most leafy vegetables (1.3 servings per day) was 0.05 standardized units slower than that of the people who ate the least vegetables (0.1 servings per day). While that might not sound like much, over the course of the study it added up […]
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