You have probably noticed that we have had a number of dangerous train wrecks due to deteriorating equipment and rail lines. You might think that the immediate response would be to upgrade equipment and the rail lines, and establish increased regulatory oversight. You might think that, since it makes good sense but you would be wrong. Instead, as this report lays out it is a study in corruption. The Norfolk Southern railroad a few months after their horrible East Palestine derailment, using the Republican Congress members they have rented, lobbied to weaken the rail safety bill then under consideration. But to really understand how bad this corruption was, one needs context. So start with this: In America the average speed of a freight train is 40 miles per hour, for passenger trains it is 60 mph. THere are a couple of passenger lines that get up to 80mph. In France the numbers are 186 – 195 mph. In Germany it is 200 mph. In Japan it is 186-200 mph. The truth is that like our bridges, the rail system is aged because the corporations who own the railroads don’t want to spend money on upgrading the system. This is yet another area where the U.S. does not lead, and is barely keeping up. Climate change in the United States is going to be a disaster because the only thing that matters today is profit, and we are not doing anything like what it takes to prepare for the climate trends that are occuring.
Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw Credit: John Bazemore / AP
After laying low in the wake of the disastrous East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment, Norfolk Southern is back to spending millions in Congress — and a paper trail indicates that it’s lobbying for weaker regulation and rewarding members of Congress who play along.
From the day of the derailment on February 3 through the end of April, the company made no political contributions, instead receiving refunds of donations it had made to a number of campaigns. But as the national spotlight dimmed, the company got back to work.
In the last four months, Norfolk spent $1,657,500 on lobbyists who met with the same elected officials tasked with regulating the company. And in June and July alone, the company shelled out almost $200,000 to a myriad of congressional campaigns and political action committees, or PACs, according to its recent filings with the Federal Election Commission, including one from this week.
As Norfolk went on a spending spree, the Bipartisan Railway Safety Act stalled in the Senate, due to a lack of […]
In contrast to the previous Norfolk Southern story, here is what it looks like when a country makes fostering wellbeing the priority. This is what Louisiana and Florida and others should be doing.
The pastoral landscape of The Netherlands marshes. Credit: De Agostini / Getty
Travel beyond Amsterdam’s northern outskirts and you enter a scene that looks like a 17th century Dutch painting. Cows chew their cud in lush pasture fringed with reed beds, in a region of pretty villages whose houses are often snapped up by wealthy urban commuters. By Dutch standards, this watery landscape has been left relatively undeveloped. Scratch the surface, however, and all is not well.
“We saw that biodiversity was going down and that peat was disappearing,” says Saline Verhoeven, who is currently leading a project to restore the local environment. Hemmed in by heavily developed land, the area still needs to sustain farmers. But current agricultural methods often drain significant water from the meadows, leaving the peat vulnerable to erosion and creating conditions that threaten marshland species.
To find a way to restore the marshlands and pastures while maintaining its agricultural capacity, the Amsterdam Wetlands project will plow $9 million of funding into experiments. The scheme, a a collaboration between three nature preservation agencies, […]
Here is another example of how fostering wellbeing is always the better choice. You would think it was obvious, but so great is our culture’s greed it isn’t obvious at all. We are at the crossroads. If we don’t awaken to the truth that fostering wellbeing is always the choice to make, we are going to experience massive suffering, misery, and death. What just happened on Maui makes this point. Imagine if the power company had buried all their lines. There would be nothing to blow over into the trees. The destruction of Lahaina would never have occurred. None of those hundreds of people would be gone.
The Wolf River flowing through the Menominee Indian Reservation in Wisconsin. Credit: Chris Ford / Flickr
The Menominee tribe of Wisconsin has sustainably harvested its woods for nearly 170 years, providing a model for foresters worldwide. Amid climate change and other threats to the forest, the tribe continues to follow a traditional code: Let the healthy trees keep growing.
ike Lohrengel looks up in awe at trees he has known for 30 years. “This is one of the most beautiful places I know. This forest has it all: the most species, the most diversity. Many trees I know individually. Look at this one behind us. It’s got a split way up there. I’ll never forget that tree till I die.”
It is a love affair, for sure. But Lohrengel is no tree-hugger, out to preserve a special, pristine place. He is a timber harvest administrator, overseeing logging in one of the most remarkable working forests in the United States — nearly a quarter-million acres of trees that occupy almost the entire Menominee Indian Reservation in northern Wisconsin.
KATHERINE SCHAEFFER and SHRADHA DINESH, Research Analyst | Pew Research Intern - Pew Research Center
Stephan:
I have noticed a marked increase in the number of people I see with tattoos. Have you? Well I went looking for actual data on this trend, and this is what I found. Very Interesting.
Tattoos have become a more common sight in workplaces around the United States, even making appearances among members of the U.S. House and Senate. Amid this shift, a large majority of U.S. adults say society has become more accepting of people with tattoos in recent decades, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. And 32% of adults have a tattoo themselves, including 22% who have more than one.
Here’s a closer look at Americans and tattoos, based on the new survey:
Which Americans are most likely to have a tattoo?
The likelihood of having a tattoo varies by several demographic factors.
Gender: 38% of women have at least one tattoo, compared with 27% of men. This includes 56% of women ages 18 to 29 and 53% of women ages 30 to 49.
Race and ethnicity: 39% of Black Americans have a tattoo, compared with 35% of Hispanic, 32% of White and 14% of Asian Americans.
Age: Adults under 50 are especially likely to have a tattoo. Some 41% of those under 30 have at least one, as do 46% of those ages 30 to 49. […]
, - Science Daily / University of Massachusetts - Amherst
Stephan:
Did you have any idea that America’s obscene wealth inequality produced by our rigged tax laws is also a major source of the pollution causing climate change? Probably not. But here is the actual data, and that statement is true. Do you think we will do anything about this, say change the tax code? Probably not.
Credit: CNBC
A new study reveals that the wealthiest Americans, those whose income places them in the top 10% of earners, are responsible for 40% of the nation’s total greenhouse gas emissions. The study links income, especially income derived from financial investments, to the emissions used in generating that income. The authors suggest that policymakers adopt taxes focused on shareholders and the carbon intensity of investment incomes in order to equitably meet the goal of keeping the global temperature to 1.5 C of warming.
A new study, led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst, reveals that the wealthiest Americans, those whose income places them in the top 10% of earners, are responsible for 40% of the nation’s total greenhouse gas emissions. The study, published in PLOS Climate, is the first to link income, especially income derived from financial investments, to the emissions used in generating that income. The authors suggest that policymakers adopt taxes focused on shareholders and the carbon intensity of investment incomes in order to equitably meet the goal of keeping the […]
