Decades of industrial chemical mono-crop agriculture has left the soil in much of the United State badly over-acidic, and climate change is just making things worse. This has all kinds of negative implications not just for farmers but for everyone who buys the crops those farmers grow. But a new organic technique is providing an answer, as this article describes. It is new practices such as this, little discussed outside of the farming world that are going to provide a way through what climate change and old practices did to the soil. So I see this as good news.
Studies show that volcanic rock dust can raise the pH of overworked soils, improving productivity. Credit: UNDO.
Across the country, farmers are taking a chance on a new method: adding crushed volcanic rock to fields to improve soil health (and sequester carbon in the process).
Chris Rauch was strolling past booths at the annual ag show in Spokane last summer when he spotted a large jar full of basalt powder. A nearby sign urged him to spread it on his croplands to help improve soil pH.
Rauch looked at the gray dust and shook his head.
“That’s crazy,” he thought. “Why would I want to put even more rocks in my fields?”
Rauch grows dryland wheat in the rolling gold-brown hills surrounding the Pendleton, Oregon, municipal airport. His farm lies on the Columbia Plateau, a 63,000-square-mile basin formed by ancient basalt lava flows. At the end of the last Ice Age, retreating glaciers scoured the bedrock, leaving a wake of grit and gravel to form the deep loess soil.
Not much rain falls in this grassland habitat. Some years, it’s 9 to 12 inches, […]
AS a result of Republicans blocking American world health funding, as described in this report, millions will suffer and the reputation of the U.S. will be further diminished. America’s status as an international leader is fading like a dispersing fog.
An AIDS clinic in South Africa supported by PEPFAR. Two decades after that program was launched, the US appears more willing than ever to disengage with global health efforts. Crredit: Foto24 / Gallo / Getty
Two decades ago, the United States led the establishment of a new global public health order that began with the fight against a devastating HIV epidemic in Africa. The initiative’s success solidified America’s role as the world’s biggest funder of global health programs and the most influential actor in coordinating global efforts to combat infectious diseases. Though the American-led push to fight AIDS does not draw much domestic attention, it is perhaps the single-most impactful US government program ever, saving 25 million lives over the past 20 years.
Global health is necessarily an exercise in long-term thinking. Investments can take decades to pay off. The Covid-19 pandemic infused a fresh urgency into these efforts — but it also politicized public health to a degree not seen in decades. Now, the global health community is trying to forge a new consensus while facing novel obstacles […]
Yet another international event which has left the United States with diminished status. Biden, for reasons I do not understand, has been sending weapons to Israel that have killed tens of thousands of people, and people throughout the Muslim world are all to aware of this.
South Africa presents its case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands
“South Africa recognized the ongoing Nakba against the Palestinian people.”
With those words, Vusimuzi Madonsela, South Africa’s ambassador to the Netherlands, opened his government’s historic suit at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, charging the state of Israel with multiple violations of the Genocide Convention during its three-month siege of Gaza.
South Africa, a nation whose population suffered for decades under an apartheid regime backed by the U.S., has embarked on its historic effort to prosecute Israel for its genocidal war against the people of Gaza. Its 84-page filingOpens in a new tab at the ICJ is a harrowing document. In meticulous detail, it offers an overview of a murderous campaign waged against a civilian population under the fraudulent cover of “self-defense.” It lays out the horrifying scope of Israel’s destruction in Gaza of human life, civilian infrastructure, history, and culture, and paints a devastating picture of the grave conditions faced by those Palestinians who have managed to survive.
The charges describe “an exceptionally brutal military campaign by Israel in Gaza, which is extensive and ongoing, and […]
Because Republicans have rigged the U.S. Tax structure to specifically favor the rich, we have become a nation with a wealth inequality to great it represents the creation of two different societies. I saw another report that suggests that within 10 years one of these en wil become history’s first trillionaire. We have become a country with a wealth nobility rather that the traditional blood line nobility. You have no idea how these people live and they have not idea how you live. This disparity was deliberately created by the Republican Party.
The five wealthiest people on Earth have become a whole lot richer in recent years.
Since 2020, these billionaires’ net worth has skyrocketed 114% to a total of $869 billion, after taking inflation into account, according to Oxfam’s annual inequality report, released Sunday. If current trends continue, the world could see its first trillionaire in a decade.
At the same time, nearly 5 billion people globally have become poorer, as they contend with inflation, war and the climate crisis. It would take nearly 230 years to eliminate poverty based on the current trajectory.
The report, which draws on data compiled by Forbes, is timed to coincide with the kickoff of the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, an elite gathering of some of the wealthiest people and world leaders.
Though inequality is on the rise, there are some bright spots, said Nabil Ahmed, Oxfam America’s director of economic and racial justice. Workers have been flexing their muscle through strikes and deals that better their compensation and working conditions. Also, some governments have been on their side, pushing policies aimed at strengthening workers’ rights.
“We find ourselves in a new Gilded Age, but workers, regulators and union and community organizers are starting to make […]
This survey suggests how unhappy Americans are about the dysfunction of the American government. What this misses is I don’t think the majority of Americans, particularly evangelical votes understand accurate any of what is going on. They live in Fox, Alex Jones, Steve Bannon MAGAt world which is virtually free of actual facts.
Americans agree on at least one thing: A huge margin say their political leaders don’t care about them, according to findings from the Axios Vibes survey by The Harris Poll.
Why it matters: This angry, irritated feeling cuts across all groups, without much hope for improvement with a potential Biden-Trump rematch looming in November.
Axios Vibe Check: 74% of Americans said they don’t think their leaders care about them.
😡 No single group reached 40% — whether broken down by race, party, gender, age, income or geographic region — on saying yes when asked whether they think leaders care about them or their loved ones.
😒 43% said their lives are worse under the Biden administration, vs. 29% who said they’re better and 28% who said unchanged.
Even Democrats are split on how they feel, with just 53% saying they’re better off under President Biden.
Zoom in: “The vibe Americans are giving their political leaders is that they’re pale, stale and frail. Most of the country does not see the people in charge as relatable, caring or connected to their lives in any […]
