Joanna Walters, - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: I keep saying: Water is destiny. This story about Phoenix is one of the reasons I say that; Captetown, South Africa is another.
Phoenix midtown skyline with a Saguaro Cactus and other desert scenery in the foreground.
Jennifer Afshar and her husband, John, pushed their bikes across the grass and paused to savour the sunshine, while their two boys went to look at the duck pond. Other kids were playing soccer or doing tricks in the skate park, and families picnicked on blankets or fired up a barbecue across from the swimming pool.
“We moved here from Los Angeles, to get away from the rising cost of living and the traffic,” said Jennifer. “When we saw this park, we thought they were punking us it was so good. There’s low crime, the home owners association takes great care of the grass and trees – we like it.”
The Afshars live in the squeaky-clean suburb of Anthem, Arizona. It’s part of a giant conurbation of satellite towns surrounding Phoenix, and is a classic example of why this metropolitan – or “megapolitan” – area is tempting fate.
Twenty years ago, Anthem sprung out of virgin desert, a community “masterplanned” from scratch […]
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Stephan: Here is some excellent news. It shows that in spite of the willful ignorance and corruption of the presidency and the congress, at the local level cities are doing what the country should be doing but isn't. This story is about Burlington, Vermont, and San Francisco, but there are other towns and cities that are beginning to realize that they will have to save themselves, the Federal government will not be there. And in other countries it is much the same. It is at the community level that real progress is being made.
It should be noted that Burlington is in the successful place it is largely because of Bernie Sanders who was its mayor, and who correctly saw the future. If you live in a city or town get involved; no one is going to save your community but you, your family, your friends.
Credit: Stanford Graduate School of Business
President Trump’s commitment to pull out of the Paris agreement signaled what appeared to be the worst of times for a transition to a low-carbon future in the United States. But actions being taken by a significant number of cities could instead make it the best of times for renewable energy in America.
Cities both in the U.S. and around the world are increasingly setting low-carbon goals and implementing local policies that recognize sustainability investment as essential to new markets, jobs and creating attractive places to live, work and do business.
New research released last month by CDP, a U.K.-based charity that runs the global disclosure system for businesses and governments, showed more than 100 global cities that report that they are getting at least 70 percent of their electricity from renewable sources.
The world’s renewable energy cities: more than 100 cities now get at least 70% of their electricity from renewable sources such as hydro, […]
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Tim Hornyak , - Scientific American
Stephan: I really dislike civilian nuclear power for two reasons: 1) waste. 2) When something goes wrong it goes wrong at an unimaginable scale. I was able to see Chernobyl about nine months after the event, and have never forgotten that trip. In reverse of that I once went through Fukushima region on a train when it was thriving, and look at the pictures now and empathize with the deep social pain this event wrought in the Japanese society .
These things go out of the news, Fukushima was seven years ago, and Chernobyl happened in 1986. But these catastrophes are still being lived; they are unhealed seeping social wounds. This report describes the current situation in Fukushima.
Civilian Nuclear power was a creature of the cold war brought to life so there would be a career path for nuclear engineers and workers, encouraging science oriented students to pursue those paths. Thus assuring that the military-industrial world had a sustaining pool of expertise.
A lone house sits on the scarred landscape, inside the exclusion zone, close to the devastated Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant on February 26, 2016. Credit: Christopher Furlong
Seven years after one of the largest earthquakes on record unleashed a massive tsunami and triggered a meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, officials say they are at last getting a handle on the mammoth task of cleaning the site before it is ultimately dismantled. But the process is still expected to be a long, expensive slog, requiring as-yet untried feats of engineering—and not all the details have yet been worked out.
When the disaster knocked out off- and on-site power supplies on March 11, 2011, three of the cooling systems for the plant’s four reactor units were disabled. This caused the nuclear fuel inside to overheat, leading to a meltdown and hydrogen explosions that spewed out radiation. The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), responded by cooling the reactors with water, which continues today. Meanwhile thousands of people living in […]
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Saturday, March 24th, 2018
Danny Sjursen, Major U.S. Army, Former History Faculty West Point - Truthdig
Stephan: As Trump appoints John Bolton, one of the leading architects of what has proven to be the worse geopolitical action in American history, actually one of the biggest geopolitical mistakes in world history, I thought it might be a good idea to revisit that disaster, which is still going on.
Like all the chicken hawks of the Bush administration, lovers of war, who themselves never actually served, Bolton is very casual about risking American lives, and indifferent to the pain, death, and suffering he causes the peoples of other countries. And now he will be back in power.
It is my personal view that Trump may be gearing up for another war to add to the ones already going on, as a way to coalesce support for himself as the Mueller probe gets closer and closer to issuing its report that will lead to his impeachment. That's why he has appointed Bolton.
Safety officials on the Tallil Air Base in Iraq inspect the wreckage of an Army UH-60 Blackhawk in 2004.
Credit: Jeff Andrejcik / U.S. Air Force
We were always caught in the middle. We still are. As a young man, a new lieutenant, and a true believer, I once led a US Army scout platoon just south of Baghdad. It was autumn 2006, and my platoon patrolled—mainly aimlessly – through the streets and surrounding fields of Salman Pak. To our north lay the vast Shia heartland of East Baghdad, to our south and east, the disgruntled and recently disempowered Sunnis of the rural hinterlands. Both sides executed teenagers caught on the wrong side of town, leaving the bodies for us to find. Each side sought to win American favor; both tried to kill us.
It was a battle of attrition; a war for land, yes, but more importantly a war for the mind. Each day, the platoon had the distinct honor to drive our HMMWVs past the impressive ruins of an ancient Persian (Iranian) […]
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Saturday, March 24th, 2018
Stephan: Yet more social outcome data about Trump supporters, further confirming my assertion that the democracy crisis facing America is due to about 35 per cent of the American population -- the Trump supporters.
Trump supporters
Credit: New York Times
The political corpse that is and was the 2016 presidential election continues to reveal its secrets. The newest revelation? Donald Trump’s public supported an incompetent, ignorant bigot and possible traitor largely out of greed and selfish impulses.
In his new article, “Personal values and support for Donald Trump during the 2016 US presidential primary,” published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, psychologist Ryne Sherman explains “a prototypical Trump supporter” as someone with “little interest in supporting social welfare programs,” “a strong desire for power,” “a strong desire to make money,” various “concerns about personal and financial safety” and a “preference for strictly adhering to social conventions (i.e., order, structure, and following the chain of command).”
Sherman concludes that “values perceived to be shared with Donald Trump” were “a key driver of support” during the 2016 primaries. “This was true of both Republicans and Democrats, regardless of political ideology. Those who felt more similar to Trump in terms of his values were more […]
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