Thursday, April 11th, 2019
MORGAN GSTALTER, - The Hill
Stephan: He's White. He's a man. He's a Republican. He's a heartless moron. But he is an elected official in Texas. How did that happen do you think?
Republican Texas state Rep. Tony Tinderholt
A Republican state lawmaker in Texas has reintroduced a bill that would criminalize abortion without exception, making it possible for women to be convicted of homicide and sentenced to death for having the procedure.
Texas state Rep. Tony Tinderholt (R) was placed under state protection in 2017 when he first introduced the bill because of the death threats he received, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
His bill earned its first public hearing this week, and he argued that his intention is to guarantee “equal protection” for life inside and “outside the womb.”
He has previously said that his proposal would completely remove access to abortions and “force” women to be “more personally responsible” with sex.
“Right now, it’s real easy,” Tinderholt told the Texas Observer in 2017. “Right now, they don’t make it important to be personally responsible because they know that they have a backup of ‘oh, I can just go get an abortion.’ Now, we both know that consenting adults don’t always think smartly sometimes. But consenting adults need to also […]
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Wednesday, April 10th, 2019
Stephan: Jay Inslee is my governor, and he has been a good one. Washington is a better state because of his tenure. And his views on climate change, I think, are particularly sound. Do I need to say he is a Democrat?
Democratic Governor Jay Inslee
Credit: Slate. Photos of Smitt/iStock/Getty Images Plus, rottadana/iStock/Getty Images Plus, Besiki Kavtaradze/iStock/Getty Images Plus, and Zach Gibson / Stringer.
No other Democrat running for president has a more straightforward message than Jay Inslee, the second-term governor of Washington state who has built his 2020 bid entirely around addressing climate change. “The science is clear,” he wrote in a January op-ed laying out his case before he had even jumped in the race. “We have a short period of time to act. And whether we shrink from this challenge, or rise to it, is the biggest question we face, as a nation and as a people.” He’d soon kick off his campaign with an 80-second video that uttered the words climate change or global warming a dozen times.
It’s natural, then, that Inslee’s campaign often gets boiled down to two words, climate change, but what truly distinguishes him from his Democratic rivals is a different word: priorities. “To govern is to choose,” as he likes to put it. Other White […]
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Wednesday, April 10th, 2019
Damian Carrington , Environment Editor - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: Here is some excellent good news. The Nordic countries are setting the pace in the transition out of the carbon era, even the Saudis get it. The only people who don't are Trump, his administration, and the Republicans in Congress.
Norweigan renewables
Credit: cleantechnica
Norway’s $1tn oil fund, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, is to plunge billions of dollars into wind and solar power projects. The decision follows Saudi Arabia’s oil fund selling off its last oil and gas assets.
Other national funds built up from oil profits are also thought to be ramping up their investments in renewables. The moves show that countries that got rich on fossil fuels are diversifying their investments and seeking future profits in the clean energy needed to combat climate change. Analysts say the investments are likely to power faster growth of green energy.
Norway’s government gave the go-ahead on Friday for its fund to invest in renewable energy projects that are not listed on stock markets. Unlisted projects make up more than two-thirds of the whole renewable infrastructure market, which is worth trillions of dollars.
Previously, it had warned that such investments could be at risk from political […]
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Wednesday, April 10th, 2019
McKinley Corbley, - Good News Network
Stephan: Seen in the context of the article I ran the other day about the multi-nation tree planting effort in Africa I think this is more good news.
Sikhs planning to plant 1 million trees
Sikhs around the world are joining together to plant one million trees as a means of helping the planet and honoring the founder of their religion.
The Million Tree Project is being orchestrated by the Washington DC-based environmental group EcoSikh. Since the project was launched last month, thousands of saplings have already been planted across Australia, the UK, Kenya, the US, and India.
Sikh volunteers are working with environmental specialists in order to collectively plant 1,820 forests around the world. Each forest is set to contain several hundred shrubs and trees, all of which will be made up of species that are native to the area.
Since the majority of the Sikh population lives in Punjab, every single village in the Indian state has committed to planting their own forest of 550 trees.
The Million Tree Project is expected to be finished in time for the 550th birthday of Sikhism’s founder Guru Nanak in November.
Rajwant Singh, the president of EcoSikh, told Read the Full Article
Wednesday, April 10th, 2019
Stephan: This is a little thing but an important data point marking a change that is occurring in the U.S. diet. It will be interesting to see how this change by three of the largest fast-food franchise networks plays out. If it succeeds it will be good news.
Burger King claims its new Impossible Whopper is indistinguishable from traditional burgers.
Credit: The Washington Post/Getty
Plant-based meat just went mainstream.
Starting April 1, Burger King is selling a new kind of Whopper that it claims is identical in taste to its traditional beef patty, with just one difference: It contains zero beef.
No, that’s not an April Fools’ joke (though some people, including in the Vox newsroom, wondered if it might be).
The new beefless burger is a partnership with the startup company Impossible Foods, which will supply patties made with heme, a protein cultivated from soybean roots that mimics the texture of meat — convincingly, by the sounds of it.
“People on my team who know the Whopper inside and out, they try it and they struggle to differentiate which one is which,” Fernando Machado, Burger King’s chief marketing officer, told the New York Times.
This is a huge deal for those who want to see meat alternatives replace actual meat because of concerns over animal cruelty or climate […]
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