Wednesday, January 29th, 2020
Stephan: Over the years I have repeatedly made the point, based on research evidence, that industrial chemical monoculture agriculture not only isn't the best way to grow plants, it is actually harmful to the earth, the animals, birds, and insects in the area, and the humans who do the farming. Well, here is some good news. Just a beginning, but at least a start.
Young organic soybean plants growing in a cultivated field.
Credit: Stevanovicigor/Getty
Ben Hagenbuck calls himself a full-time banker and a part-time farmer. But working with his father and uncle on the family’s 1,100-acre corn and soybean farm in north-central Illinois has become much more than a hobby: Hagenbuch is part of a network of American farmers hoping to save the world. This is a grandiose goal to be sure, but it has its roots in science. Growing evidence points to chemically driven industrialized food production as a key culprit behind a broad range of both environmental and human health problems. To reverse the damage requires a focus on enriching soil health and perfecting farming practices that are free from synthetic chemicals. It’s not an easy undertaking, these farmers are finding. But it is urgent.
Fifty-year-old warnings by scientist and author Rachel Carson about how indiscriminate use of chemicals could decimate the natural world are playing out now in undeniable ways. Numerous scientific studies show that routine use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides is […]
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Wednesday, January 29th, 2020
Christoph Steitz and Vera Eckert, -
Stephan: While the United States run by criminal Trump, and his syndicate of similarly compromised minions, does everything it can to promote the carbon industries, countries like Germany with more intelligent, more honest, more forward thinking leadership are going in exactly the opposite direction. Here is a report from Germany.
Tesla model 3 charging in Germany
Credit: Teslarati.com
BERLIN – Germany’s transition to a fossil-fuel free energy mix will be like undergoing “open-heart surgery” as the car, steel and renewable industries will need to work hard to stay competitive, its economy minister said on Tuesday.
The German government has spurred Europe’s largest economy to shift to volatile renewable energy sources like wind and solar power in the wake of its decision to end nuclear power by 2022 and exit coal-fuelled power sources by 2038.
Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said Germany could in the meantime use natural gas as a transition fuel, tap into intra-European Union power sharing, and develop a green hydrogen-based economy that will offer energy storage and enable industry to work sustainably.
“We have to keep fighting for our competitiveness,” Altmaier told an annual energy summit of government and industry leaders hosted by newspaper Handelsblatt. Germany’s efforts to wean itself off nuclear energy and coal could be an export model going forward, he said.
“Climate protection and competitiveness are […]
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Tuesday, January 28th, 2020
Jake Johnson, Staff Writer - Common Dreams
Stephan: Slowly something I have been advocating on SR for two decades is beginning to dawn on others, as this report demonstrates. You cannot run a universal healthcare system successfully when the only social purpose of such a system is to produce profit. Why? Because large numbers of people just don't have enough money to meaningfully participate, and yet good health is a benefit not just to specific individuals, but society itself.
Vicki Ibarra opens a late medical bill for her son at her home on Saturday, February 2, 2019 in Fresno, California. Credit: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post/Getty
The for-profit U.S. healthcare system is so broken that a growing number of people who are fortunate enough to have private insurance coverage are still unable to afford doctor visits and other essential services due to soaring costs—leaving a larger number of Americans with unmet medical needs today than there were two decades ago.
That’s a central finding of a new study by Harvard University researchers published Monday in the peer-reviewed journal JAMA Internal Medicine, examining 20 years of government data between 1998 and 2017.
The study found that despite a major expansion of insurance coverage in the U.S. during that period—most significantly through the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA)—”most measures of unmet need for physician services have shown no improvement, and financial access to physician services has decreased.” The study’s authors noted that the rise of “narrow networks, high-deductible plans, and higher co-pays” has contributed to the growth […]
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Tuesday, January 28th, 2020
NICOLE KARLIS, News Writer - Salon
Stephan: Here is the hard data that supports the point I made in my comment on the previous article. How is it that every other advanced country in the world has been able to work out healthcare to the benefit of both individuals and society as a whole? The answer, of course, is that other countries see actual health and wellbeing as a priority, and also the cheaper option.
Healthcare costs and fees
Credit: Getty/Prapass Pulsub
In 2017, Americans spent an average of $10,209 per capita on health care, more than any developed nation. That figure is perhaps unsurprising given the patchwork, largely privatized system in place in the United States. And while a per capita figure like $10,209 sounds high, it is an overall average, meaning it says nothing of how that money is distributed between people of different means. Now, a new study putting this in context reveals that the American health care system is even more horrifically classist than we knew.
The new study from the RAND corporation, a nonprofit global policy think tank, found that healthcare payments account for a far greater proportional share of income for low-income households than high-income households. The study was published in the journal Health Services Research. The RAND researchers found that U.S. households in the bottom fifth of income cohorts pay an average of 33.9 percent of their income toward health care. Families in the highest income group pay 16 percent of their income toward health […]
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Tuesday, January 28th, 2020
Miranda Bryant, - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: Are you okay with this? I certainly am not, and I find this unacceptable. We need mass nonviolent social action; I mean millions of people out in the streets, and voting to remove most of the cretins in office, replacing them with men and women interested in fostering wellbeing.
The US is the only OECD country without a national statutory paid maternity, paternity or parental leave
Illustration: Guardian Design
According to a 2019 report by Unicef, which analysed which of the world’s richest countries are most family friendly, Estonia leads the field for new mothers with over 80 weeks of leave at full pay.
At the bottom of the table was the United States – which, with a grand total of zero weeks, was the only country in the analysis that offered absolutely no national paid leave.
The report, which used data from the 41 countries from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and European Union, found only half offered mothers a minimum of six months full pay.
Using OECD figures, here is a snapshot of paid leave for mothers around the world.
Estonia – 84 weeks full rate equivalent (166 weeks total)
Female workers […]
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