Stephan: One of the reasons this election is so important is that the Democrats are the only party interested in infrastructure that is not immediately profitable to corporations. America's infrastructure for water, electricity, roads, bridges, and sewage is antiquated and inferior. Anyone who has driven a car in Europe, Japan, or China remembers how far superior the roads and bridges were compared to where they came from, no matter what state it was. Biden and his administration, and the Democratic members of Congress, well most of them, realize this and are trying to rebuild what is so dilapidated. Meanwhile, the Republicans are trying to block these expenditures, particularly at the state level. It is going to be critical to getting through climate change and as time goes on living in a Red state is going to become increasingly difficult.
The road to Kayenta, AZ in the Navajo Nation. Credit: Getty
In 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt signed an executive order creating the Rural Electrification Administration. A year later, Congress followed up with the Rural Electrification Act. By funneling federal funds through local electrical cooperatives, the government brought electricity to areas of the country where big power companies were not interested in investing.
In bringing power to rural communities and individual homes across the country, rural electrification made businesses feasible in areas where they could not have bloomed before. The act made it possible for farmers to both farm and store more food. Rural electrification even fostered the invention of new technology that made the entire electrical grid more stable and made possible decades of growth. It was an indisputable good that, as a side benefit, also just happened to increase support for Democrats.
To say that infrastructure funding for the Navajo Nation (and for other communities of American Indians) is insufficient is like saying that there’s not enough water in Death Valley. It’s not just falling short, it’s just barely clear of nonexistent.
Ian Austen, Reporter for Canada - The New York Times
Stephan: Recognizing the matrix of consciousness as being part of all life is going to lead to new technologies, and new ways of thinking about them, which include considering their impact on the matrix. Here is an example of what I mean.
Turbines in the Bay of Fundy. Credit: David Goldman / The New York Times
ABOARD THE PLAT-I 6.40 GENERATING PLATFORM, NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA — The Bay of Fundy, off the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, has long tantalized and frustrated engineers hoping to harness its record-setting 50-foot high tide to generate electricity.
After more than a century of attempts, there has only been one small power-generating station, since closed, and countless broken dreams, abandoned plans and bankruptcies.
Even so, a new coalition of entrepreneurs and scientists in Nova Scotia are trying again. One participant, a company called Sustainable Marine, has devised a new technology and successfully operated it for more than seven months, longer than any other similar system, producing enough electricity for about 250 homes.
Sustainable Marine’s innovation is that rather than placing stationary turbines onto the seabed as has been tried in the past, it floats movable ones on the surface, lifting them when a dangerous object approaches and for maintenance.
If the platform continues to prove reliable, is economically viable and doesn’t harm marine […]
Stephan: This is another variant representing the trend of the future. It happens to be in India, but it could do equally well in rural Mississippi. And please notice that a technology that fosters wellbeing is much cheaper, indeed changes the whole money dynamic.
Gadvi Kailashben, a 42-year-old widow, lives in Modhera, India’s first solar-powered village. UN News
Modhera in the state of Gujarat has become the first solar-powered village in India, setting a precedent for what UN Secretary-General António Guterres called a “reconciliation between humankind and planet,” reported Euronews.
The solar project has provided Modhera’s residents with a surplus of renewable energy at a cost of $9.7 million, UN News reported. The bill for the solar project was split between the Indian government and the Government of Gujarat.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi proclaimed Modhera to be the first village in the country to be powered by solar around the clock every day, as reported by Euronews. Because of this, residents can save from 60 to 100 percent of their power bills, Gujarat’s government said.
“Earlier, when solar was not there, I had to pay huge amount for the electricity bill — close to 2,000 rupees. However, with the installation of the solar, my electricity bill is now zero. Everything from the refrigerator to washing machine now runs on solar in my […]
Stephan: Here, also in India, are two more examples of what I mean by the change in technologies that climate change is going to demand. The first story again makes the point that policies that foster wellbeing are always the best solution. Homelessness in American cities has reached such a level that people avoid going into some cities, or sections of a city. Preposterous amounts of money are spent to essentially avoid dealing with the issue. Fostering wellbeing is also always the cheapest option.
The second report is about a house designed and built with new technologies that recognize the matrix of life. It describes a house in which I would be very comfortable living.
To really get this story, you have to click through and look at the pictures.
Two houses at opposite ends of the financial spectrum employing new technologies, guided by a new consciousness Credit: INHABITAT
Carbon-negative, self-financing and scalable are just a few words to describe BillionBricks and Architecture Brio’s PowerHYDE. PowerHyde solar homes are models aiming to help solve both the global housing and climate crises.
The PowerHYDE housing model was created by Prasoon Kumar and Robert Verrijt of Billion Bricks from India and Singapore. The housing model won a Holcim Award for Sustainable Construction
PowerHYDE house explores sustainable means and solutions to empowering and facilitating growth opportunities to people without homes around Southeast Asia. These homes are now being used to create entire sustainable communities that help to lift homeowners out of poverty.
The project presents an opportunity to shape the future of how houses are built. It helps both people to become homeowners and building […]
James Bruggers, Darreonna Davis, Delaney Dryfoos, -
Stephan: Here is my takeaway from the election: Younger voters, women, and people of color now constitute the majority of voters in the United States. White MAGAts are a shrinking minority. The problem the Republican Party now explicitly faces is how do they survive as an effective party? What very few commentators seem to comprehend is that it is the White MAGAt voters not the politicians that are driving the party, which leaves leaders like McConnell or McCarthy with very few options. Quite particularly, although little remarked, the uber-rich christofascists are already pouring money into schemes to try to peel off blocks of young or female voters. I don't think it is going to work because I think young voters of all races and genders get that climate change remediation must be a top priority, and those uber-rich christofascists largely have fortunes based on the technologies that produced climate change in the first place.
Maxwell Frost, the winning candidate in Florida’s 10th Congressional district, participates in the Pride Parade in Orlando, Florida, on Oct. 15, 2022. Credit: Giorgio Viera / AFP / Getty
Maxwell Alejandro Frost, a 25-year-old community organizer, has become the first member of Generation Z elected to Congress after winning a House seat in Florida’s 10th Congressional District.
The young Democrat’s victory came as his generation was also getting credit for helping to stop a red wave of Republican victories in Tuesday’s national midterm elections.
This historic win in the Orlando-area district will do more than just bring down the average age of a House member, which is currently 58. It will also highlight the importance of two issues credited with motivating Gen Z voters to turn out: gun violence and climate change.
In an interview with iGen Politics in October, Frost said that the climate crisis is one of the reasons he decided to run for Congress. He spoke about experiencing Hurricane Ian, a monstrous Category 4 storm that slammed into Florida’s southwest coast on Sept. 28, killing more […]
