I don’t know what it is going to take to get the greed junkies to recognize that acknowledging the Matrix of Life, and fostering wellbeing is the only successful, and endurable path as climate change proceeds. This article is an example.
The woods I know best, love best, are made of Northern hardwoods, sugar maple and white ash, timber-tall; black and yellow birch, tiger-skinned; seedlings and saplings of blighted beech and striped maple creeping up, knock-kneed, from a forest floor of princess pine and Christmas fern, shag-rugged. White-tailed deer dart through softwood stands of pine and hemlock, bucks and does, the last leaping fawn, leaving tracks that look like tiny human lungs, trails that people can only ever see in the snow, even though, long after snowmelt, dogs can smell them, tracking, snuffling, shuddering with the thrill of the hunt and noshing on deer scat for dog treats. I make lists of finds, two-winged, four-footed, and rolling: black-throated green warblers and blue-headed vireos, porcupines and salamanders, tin cans and old tires, deer mice and fisher cats, wild turkeys and ruffed grouse, black bears and, come spring, their tumbling, potbellied, big-eared […]
Christopher Rowland, Business Reporter - The Washington Post
Stephan:
America is a very sick country and it all traces back to one thing, profits are more important than people; it’s all about greed, when it should be about fostering wellbeing. We have miserable social outcome data, in many categories the worst in the developed world. It is out in the open but rarely discussed. Our values are bad.
Nette Reed checks on Desi Hurd, 62, near the Human Services Campus in Phoenix, where there are several major shelters, a medical center and respite centers. Credit: Caitlin O’Hara / The Washington Post
PHOENIX, ARIZONA — Beatrice Herron, 73, clutched a flier offering low-cost cable TV, imagining herself settling into an apartment, somewhere out of the Arizona heat where,like others her age, she can settle into an armchair and tune into a television of her own.
Instead, the grandmother and former autoworker can be found most mornings in a food line, or seeking shade under the awning of a mobile street clinic. At night, she sleeps on a floor mat at a homeless shelter. She laments the odors of human waste outside and the thieves who have victimized her repeatedly.
“My wallet’s gone,” she said. “My purse was stolen.”
She hardly stands out from the dozens of seniors using wheelchairs and walkers at a complex of homeless shelters near downtown Phoenix, or from the white-haired denizens of tents in the surrounding streets — a testament to a demographic surge […]
As I am writing this it has just been announced that the Republicans and Democratic negotiators have reached a deal on the debt. At the same time I am reading a first report on the effects in my state, Washington, that have resulted from raising taxes on rich. Remember 25% of the nation’s debt came from the Republicans under Trump drastically cutting the tax rate of the rich. The Washington tax increase should be a model for the country because it produces all good news. Here is the report.
Charities often move ‘dark’ money that shapes public policy: report Credit: AlterNet
Proponents of progressive taxation on Friday pointed to data showing Washington state stands poised to reap $849 million in revenue during the first year of its capital gains tax as proof that taxing the rich works—and could serve as a template for federal legislation.
The Seattle Times reports that when Washington state lawmakers passed this fiscal year’s budget, they anticipated collecting $248 million in revenue from the 7% tax on the sale or exchange of stocks, bonds, and certain other assets above $250,000.
However, the legislators were pleasantly surprised when figures showed the state has collected over $600 million more than that.
While the amount collected could change after around 2,500 taxpayers who applied for extensions file their returns, progressives welcomed the windfall that will fund public schools, early childhood education, and building and repairing schools across the state.
“Hey, hey! What we knew would happen: Make the wealthiest pay their fair share and it finances investments in education, transportation, and more,”
Andris Piebalgs, Maria Olczak, and Paul Balcombe, - truthout
Stephan:
What I think this story is telling us is that once again greed has trumped wellbeing and humanity is still not getting serious enough about climate change. As you know from the stories I regularly run, the ecosystems of the earth are changing more quickly than originally projected, and the effect on all forms of life are turning out to be more drastic than understood.
Methane reduction is still often perceived by policymakers as a choice rather than a necessary complement to ongoing decarbonisation efforts focused on CO₂. Credit: Matt Gush / Getty
Methane – a potent greenhouse gas and the second biggest driver of global warming after carbon dioxide (CO₂) – had its moment in the spotlight in 2021. Over 100 countries signed on to the Global Methane Pledge to cut emissions by 30% compared to 2020 levels by 2030.
This is a useful goal, but our new research shows that something is still missing: stringent policies to eliminate methane emissions.
Our study is the first global review of methane policies which have been adopted across the world since the 1970s. It reveals that only around 13% of man-made methane emissions from the biggest sources (agriculture, energy and waste) is regulated by policies capable of controlling and preventing them.
This falls to 10% if we take a conservative view of the total emissions and regions covered by specific policies and whether they have been fully or partially implemented.
These policies may mandate companies to find and […]
Damian Carrington, Environmental Editor - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan:
If you read me regularly you know I have been telling you for years now that climate change is going to fundamentally change the environments in which humans can live, and we must prepare for massive migrations both internally and across national borders. Here is the latest fact based report.
Downtown market streets in Lagos. A large number of people in Nigeria will be pushed outside the human climate niche, say experts. Credit: Peeters / Getty
Global heating will drive billions of people out of the “climate niche” in which humanity has flourished for millennia, a study has estimated, exposing them to unprecedented temperatures and extreme weather.
The world is on track for 2.7C of heating with current action plans and this would mean 2 billion people experiencing average annual temperatures above 29C by 2030, a level at which very few communities have lived in the past.
Up to 1 billion people could choose to migrate to cooler places, the scientists said, although those areas remaining within the climate niche would still experience more frequent heatwaves and droughts.
However, urgent action to lower carbon emissions and keep global temperature rise to 1.5C would cut the number of people pushed outside the climate niche by 80%, to 400 million.
The analysis is the first of its kind and is able to treat every citizen equally, unlike previous economic assessments of the […]
