Real-time flight mapping by flightradar24.com — December 18, 2019
The global aviation industry has started burning jet fuel like there is no tomorrow. Its climate pollution is rocketing upward. And hoped-for “solutions” like biofuels and electric planes are being buried by the rising flood of emissions. In response, a growing number of climate-concerned people, including the world’s most famous climate champion, Greta Thunberg, are advocating for less flying.
If you’re interested in an illustrated guide to the hot topic of soaring flight pollution and what’s being done about it, you’re in luck. I’ve read dozens of detailed reports, built the geeky spreadsheets and created a series of charts that tell the story.
CO2 taking off
Let’s start by looking at the dramatic rise in climate pollution from global aviation. My first chart shows past and projected CO2 data from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
![Jet fuel CO2 since 1990, with projections [...]
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<div class=](https://www.nationalobserver.com/sites/nationalobserver.com/files/styles/body_img/public/img/2019/12/18/jets-burn-bk.jpg?itok=7DgNC98t "Jet fuel CO2 since 1990, with projections to 2030")
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Community microgrids offer a way for neighborhoods, villages, towns and cities to meet their energy needs locally. Some make a community’s electricity more reliable and green; others serve critical facilities like fire, police and water treatment facilities; and still others are built for remote outposts that otherwise lack access to electricity.
Because their development can be complex, community microgrids often take more time to build than microgrids for businesses, institutions or campuses. So there are fewer in operation. But they are beginning to emerge worldwide. Here are four model community microgrids that illustrate a range of approaches to local energy.
Brooklyn, New York, USA — Blockchain for community microgrids
The Brooklyn Microgrid, run by LO3 Energy as a test project since 2016, began in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn as a way for tenants in a handful of apartment buildings to track the output of their solar panels and eventually to swap energy among participants.
“Eventually we want to be in all five boroughs,” said Adrienne Smith, Brooklyn Microgrid’s […]
Insurers and healthcare providers in the United States spent a staggering $812 billion on paperwork and other administrative burdens in 2017 alone, bureaucratic costs that could be dramatically reduced by switching to a single-payer system like Medicare for All.
That’s according to a study published Monday in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, which found that administrative costs amounted to 34.2 percent of total U.S. national health expenditures in 2017—twice the amount Canada spent on healthcare administration that same year.
“Medicare for All could save more than $600 billion each year on bureaucracy, and repurpose that money to cover America’s 30 million uninsured and eliminate co-payments and deductibles for everyone.”
—Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, Physicians for a National Health Program
The study’s authors noted that U.S. healthcare providers impose “a hidden surcharge” on patients “to cover their costly administrative burden.” U.S. insurers and providers spent $2,497 per person on healthcare administration in 2017 while Canada spent just $551 per capita, the study found.
“The average American is paying more than $2,000 a year for useless bureaucracy,” said Dr. David Himmelstein, lead author of the study […]
According to a Federal Reserve study released this week, President Trump’s import tariffs backfired and led to job losses and higher price, MarketWatch reports.
“We find that the 2018 tariffs are associated with relative reductions in manufacturing employment and relative increases in producer prices,” concluded Fed economists Aaron Flaaen and Justin Pierce, in an academic paper.
“While the longer-term effects of the tariffs may differ from those that we estimate here, the results indicate that the tariffs, thus far, have not led to increased activity in the U.S. manufacturing sector,” the paper added.
According to the study, the top ten industries affected by Trump’s tariffs were: aluminum sheet, steel product, boilers, forging, primary aluminum production, secondary aluminum smelting, architectural metals, transportation equipment, general purpose machinery, and household appliances.
Read a summary of the report over at MarketWatch.
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
