Goldman Sachs released a 34-page analysis of the impact of climate change. And the results are terrifying.

Stephan:  Yet another datapoint on a trend that is not getting anywhere near the attention it deserves.
  • Credit: Lucas Jackson/Reuters

    A Goldman Sachs report on the impact of climate change on cities across the world makes for grim reading. 

  • Rising temperatures would lead to changing disease patterns, more intense and longer-lasting heatwaves, more destructive weather events, and pressure on the availability and quality of water for drinking and agriculture.
  • Major cities were also highlighted at risk of flooding with parts of New York, Tokyo, and Lagos all at risk of being partially submerged. 
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Goldman Sachs released a report on the effect of climate change on cities around the world and the results made for grim reading.

The bank’s Global Markets Institute, led by Amanda Hindlian, warned of “significant” potential risks to the world’s largest cities, which are especially vulnerable to more frequent storms, higher temperatures, rising sea levels, and storm surges.

Cities generate about 80% of global GDP and are home to more than half of the world’s population, a share that Goldman says, citing the United Nations, is projected to reach two-thirds by 2050. About 40% of […]

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Three Decades Ago, America Lost Its Religion. Why?

Stephan:  America historically has been a deeply religious nation, and there remain a hardcore of both mainstream religious and christofascists. But in the larger population of America religion is in a notable decline while, at the same time, there is a notable rise in spirituality. Here's the relevant data on the decline.

Ghostly figure leaving the interior of Sanahin Monastery, Debed Canyon, Armenia

The idea of American exceptionalism has become so dubious that much of its modern usage is merely sarcastic. But when it comes to religion, Americans really are exceptional. No rich country prays nearly as much as the U.S, and no country that prays as much as the U.S. is nearly as rich.

America’s unique synthesis of wealth and worship has puzzled international observers and foiled their grandest theories of a global secular takeover. In the late 19th century, an array of celebrity philosophers—the likes of Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Marx, and Sigmund Freud—proclaimed the death of God, and predicted that atheism would follow scientific discovery and modernity in the West, sure as smoke follows fire.

Stubbornly pious Americans threw a wrench in the secularization thesis. Deep into the 20th century, more than nine in 10 Americans said they believed in God and belonged to an organized religion, with the great majority of them calling themselves Christian. That number held steady—through the sexual-revolution […]

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Canoo signals an end to vehicle ownership with subscription-only EV pod

Stephan:  Yet another new trend. In the midst of the madness these new trends give me hope.

The canoo EV won’t be available to buy, users sign up for a month-by-month subscription instead
Credit: Canoo

Cars can be very expensive and though many folks own the vehicle they use to travel to work, take the kids to school or go shopping, others prefer to lease. Los Angeles-based Canoo has unveiled an electric people mover that you don’t buy or lease, but use through a monthly subscription model.

Rather than buy a car from a dealership, register the vehicle, get insurance and then have to set money aside for running costs including maintenance and repairs, Canoo invites users to pay into a month-to-month subscription model with an app that puts everything needed to get on the road into one place.

“When you subscribe, you think differently about a car – now the value is defined by the user benefit,” said the company’s Richard Kim. “We implemented the Bauhaus philosophy, which is centered around minimalism and functionality, and started with the reduction to the absolute minimal need. Next, we applied that […]

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Best countries to retire? U.S. doesn’t make top 10, study says

Stephan:  It gives me no pleasure to report this trend. We have lost our way, and the symptoms telling us that are all around us. Perhaps the impeachment and conviction of the Trump mafia will give us a chance to reboot.

“What I would say is that [the U.S. is still] in the top 50% of countries,” said David Goodsell, executive director of the Natixis Center for Investor Insight. “We are a large country. We have different issues.”

Why the U.S. fell this year

One reason why the U.S. dropped in finances in retirement is the ratio of working adults to seniors, a key factor in funding Social Security and Medicare benefits.

Next year, there will be 3.5 working-age adults for each retirement-age adult, according to the report. By 2060, that shrinks to 2.5 working-age adults, potentially creating a funding shortage for Social Security and Medicare if current policy doesn’t change.

The decline in quality of life for U.S. retirees is simply due to a decrease in happiness. While U.S. environmental factors improved, this wasn’t enough to offset the fact that fewer retirees are content with their overall lives.

Last, the increasing wealth gap between […]

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First gas station in America to ditch oil for 100% electric vehicle charging opens in Maryland

Stephan:  Always interesting to find a first datapoint in a new trend.
  • The first ever gas station to be converted to electric charging for electric vehicles opens in Takoma Park, Maryland on Thursday, September 26, 2019.
    Credit: Electric Vehicle Institute

    The first gas station in the U.S. that has been completely transitioned from a petroleum station to exclusively charging EVs opened Thursday in Takoma Park, Maryland.

  • RS Automotives, the local gas station, has been around since 1958, made the switch.
  • Depeswar Doley, owner of the station was unhappy with the way oil and gasoline companies structure contracts and decided to go to 100% EV charging.
  • There are more than 20,700 registered electric vehicles in Maryland, and the area also has an electric taxi service in need of more charging infrastructure.

The first gas station in the U.S. that has been completely transitioned from a petroleum station to exclusively charging EVs opened Thursday in Takoma Park, Maryland.

RS Automotives, the local gas station, has been around since 1958.

Depeswar Doley, owner of the station since 1997, said he was already unhappy with the way oil and gasoline […]

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