Stephan: This is part of how a society fosters wellbeing. Think about how relatively inexpensive planting the trees was, and how impressive its affirmative social effect has been. This is the kind of thinking we need from Congress, instead of the culture war we now have.
To see the research paper upon which this report is based go to: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412022005360?via%3Dihub
Money may not grow from trees, but something even better does.
In a new study led by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service, researchers found that each tree planted in a community was associated with significant reductions in non-accidental and cardiovascular mortality among humans living nearby.
On top of that, the study’s authors conclude the yearly economic benefits of planting trees dramatically exceed the cost of maintaining them, by a factor of more than 1,000.
Previous studies have linked exposure to nature with an array of human health benefits. Access to nature is a major factor for mental health, and that doesn’t necessarily require the greenery to be primeval wilderness. Research shows urban forests and street trees can offer comparable benefits.
Several longitudinal studies have shown that exposure to more vegetation is associated with lower non-accidental mortality, the authors of the new study note, and some have also linked exposure to greenery with reduced cardiovascular and respiratory mortality.
“However, most studies use satellite imaging to estimate the vegetation index, which does not distinguish different types of vegetation and cannot be directly translated into […]
Stephan: I don't think this will completely replace agriculture. I chose this piece because it reports on one of the new technologies that recognizes the matrix of consciousness and fosters wellbeing.
Illustration: Eleanor Shakespeare / The Guardian
Never mind the yuck factor: precision fermentation could produce new staple foods, and end our reliance on farming.
So what do we do now? After 27 summits and no effective action, it seems that the real purpose was to keep us talking. If governments were serious about preventing climate breakdown, there would have been no Cops 2-27. The major issues would have been resolved at Cop1, as the ozone depletion crisis was at a single summit in Montreal.
Nothing can now be achieved without mass protest, whose aim, like that of protest movements before us, is to reach the critical mass that triggers a social tipping point. But, as every protester knows, this is only part of the challenge. We also need to translate our demands into action, which requires political, economic, cultural and technological change. All are necessary, none are sufficient. Only together can they amount to the change we need to see.
Let’s focus for a moment on technology. Specifically, what might be the most important environmental technology ever developed: precision […]
Stephan: This is yet another report on attempted corruption by corporations controlled by UBer-rich individuals. What can you do about this? Simple. Don't shop at Home Depot. Change your phone from AT&T, and don't fly on Delta. And, of course, don't do business with anything touched by Koch Industries.
Attendees listen to Donald Trump speak at a rally in Warren, Michigan, on 1 October 2022. Credit: Jeff Kowalsky / AFP / Getty
Some of the best-known corporations in the US, including AT&T, Boeing, Delta Air Lines and the Home Depot, collectively poured more than $8m into supporting election deniers running for US House and Senate seats in this month’s midterm elections.
A study by the non-partisan government watchdog organization Accountable.US, based on the latest filings to the Federal Election Commission, reveals the extent to which big corporations were prepared to back Republican nominees despite their open peddling of false claims undermining confidence in democracy. Though many were ultimately unsuccessful in their election bids, the candidates included several prominent advocates of Donald Trump’s lie that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from him.
At the top of the list of 20 corporations backing election deniers through their political action committees (Pacs) is a familiar name in the world of rightwing agitating – Koch Industries. According to the Accountable.US review, the Koch energy conglomerate spent $771,000 through its Pac […]
Stephan: This is good news. I doubt it will be successful immediately because few if any Republicans in either house of Congress, and not all Democrats will vote for such a weapons ban. But it starts the conversation and will, hopefully, stimulate a response from millions of American voters, and that wave of collective intention will scare Congress members into action fearing they might lose their seats
John Jackson, co-owner of Capitol City Arms Supply, with an AR-15 rifle for sale at his store in Springfield, Ill. The semi-automatic rifle has been sold to the public since the 1960s and the NRA estimates that around 8 million AR-15s and related models are in circulation. Credit: Seth Perlman / AP
President Joe Biden said Thursday that he was open to a last-ditch effort to ban assault-style weapons as the 117th Congress winds down and Republicans prepare to take over control of the House in January.
With Democrats controlling both chambers of Congress for just a few more weeks, Biden said he would “start counting votes” to see how much support there might be for such legislation.
“I’m going to try to get rid of assault weapons,” he told reporters during a Thanksgiving Day visit to Nantucket Island off the coast of Massachusetts.
Stephan: I think this essay raises very relevant reports about what is going on with all these mass shootings. It is time to end the American obsessive gun psychosis and the politics it has produced.
Credit: Joshua Holland
There was another mass shooting last night, this one in a Chesapeake Bay-area Walmart. Using a pistol, the gunman shot dead six people, wounded five more, then killed himself. Police say the suspect was an employee at the store. They say the shooting began in a break room.
We don’t know the shooter’s identity yet, but we do know last night marked the seventh mass shooting in seven days, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit group that tracks and makes available information on gun-related violence. Investigators are still determining a motive for the violence. Honestly, it doesn’t matter.
The gunman’s motive doesn’t matter because whatever it is in detail, the urge to murder expressed itself from inside a political context that’s already highly tolerant of spectacular rates of political violence. The Gun Violence Archive reports an estimated 600 gun-related incidents of mass death so far this year. That’s nearly two daily.
Whether, over 20 years, the bodies piled skyward came from criminals shattering the peace or from police officers “keeping the peace” […]
