Here is some excellent good news. Young teens are using less alcohol and Marijuana.
Teen drug and alcohol use reached a record low this year, according to survey results released this month.
Why it matters: The downward trend began during the widespread isolation of the pandemic. Delaying first-time substance use until after adolescence could decrease addiction, researchers said.
Declines were most notable among alcohol, marijuana and nicotine vaping in the annual Monitoring the Future study of eighth, 10th and 12th grade students.
Nicotine pouch use was an exception. About 6% of 12th graders saying they’ve used them, up from about 3% in 2023.
By the numbers: Increases in abstention, which is considered no use within the previous 30 days, were statistically significant among 12th and 10th graders.
Alcohol: 42% of 12th graders reported consumption, down from 75% in 1997. Among 10th graders, it fell to 26% from 65%. And among eighth graders, it dropped to 13% from 46%.
Marijuana: Levels were the lowest they’ve been in the past three decades, at 26% for 12th graders and 16% for 10th graders.
Nicotine vaping: 12th grade use was 21% compared to 35% in 2020 and 19% in 2017.
State of play: Teen substance use dropped at the start […]
I recently talked with a friend of mine who is also one of my doctors and he told me how bad the hassle of being a physician trying to practice in the American illness profit system has become. Another of my physicians told me her group practice was sold to Optum, and she is now an employee, and not very happy about it. My wife goes to two doctors who no longer will take Medicare or any form of insurance. It is just too much paperwork and insurance clerks, not they themselves, make some of the medical decisions. American healthcare is the worst amongst all developed democracies and yet although it gets worse every year nothing happens to improve it. What Obamacare did was help pay for it, not correct its fundamental flaws. Ask yourself: Why can’t the United States have universal birthright single payer healthcare like the rest of the developed democraacies? The answer, of course, is corporate greed for profit. No corporation gives a damn about the wellbeing of Americans, and Congress is owned by the corporations.
Doctors share many of the same frustrations with US health care as their patients do. Credit: Universal History Archive / Getty
Insurers are popular villains — and they have definitely earned their reputation by employing underhanded tactics to restrict benefits. But other observers have recently pointed to doctors as the underlying driver of the US health care crisis because of the prices charged for their services, the highest in the world on average; hospital and physician spending account for most of the system’s costs.
That has in turn drawn backlash from doctors who, as the clinicians who actually care for patients, felt unfairly maligned for the system’s problems.
It was the latest round of a blame game that obstructs our ability to meaningfully change the health care system. Much has been written recently on the aggregate contributions of health insurers and providers — hospitals, doctors, nurses […]
Here is some good news. Costco, is the store where we do most of our shopping. It is owned by one of the few American companies that actually support social wellbeing. In contrast to, say, Walmart, owned by the Walton family, a store system we don’t shop in because of its vile corporate policies and support of MAGAt politicians. Costco is going more organic, they pay their people better, and they have very good deals in the pharmacy. If you have a Costco near you I urge you to shop there; it fosters wellbeing.
In an aerial view, the Costco logo is displayed on the exterior of a Costco store in Richmond, California. Credit: Justin Sullivan / Getty
NEW YORK, NEW YORK — Costco is battling an anti-DEI wave with a stern rebuke to activist shareholders looking to end the warehouse retailer’s diversity ambitions.
Walmart, John Deere, Tractor Supply and other companies are changing or walking away from diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies. But Costco believes DEI helps its “treasure hunt” shopping atmosphere, and it is standing behind its efforts.
Costco’s board of directors unanimously recommended that its shareholders vote against a proposal brought by a conservative think tank, the National Center for Public Policy Research, that would require Costco to evaluate and issue a report on the financial risks of maintaining its diversity and inclusion goals. The group criticized Costco for possible “illegal discrimination” against employees who are “white, Asian, male or straight.”
The National Center for Public Policy Research did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.
Costco has a chief diversity officer and a supplier program that focuses on expanding with small […]
We are destroying the ecosystems of Earth, and making wholy inadequate attempts to restore Earth’s matrix of life. For that reason humanity is going to have a horrible planet-wide catastrophe occur about 2040, 15 years from now.
Giant pandas eat bamboo at Chongqing Zoo in China on May 3, 2024. Credit: Costfoto / NurPhoto / Getty
More than a third of animals on Earth are herbivores, but since plants don’t have a lot of calories it can be hard for grazers to eat enough to meet their energy needs. To add to the problem, climate change is lowering the nutritional value of certain foods that these plant eaters rely on.
Fossil fuel emissions produced by humans are causing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide to rise, pushing up temperatures worldwide. This is causing plants to grow faster in ecosystems across the globe, research biologist Ellen Welti with the Smithsonian Institution’s Great Plains Science Program wrote in The Conversation.
“Some studies suggest that this ‘greening of the Earth’ could partially offset rising greenhouse gas emissions by storing more carbon in plants. However, there’s a trade-off: These fast-tracked plants can contain fewer nutrients per bite,” Welti wrote in The Conversation.
Welti and colleagues looked at the ways in which nutrient dilution might impact species throughout the food web. They focused on the responses of plant-feeding populations, from giant […]
In the post-World War II period the United States has made one geopolitical mistake after another. Viet Nam was a mistake. Iraq was a mistake. Iran was a mistake. Afghanistan was a mistake. Sudan was a mistake. Syria is a mistake, and supporting Israel’s genocide is a mistake. We, the world, is watching a mass murder of Muslims being carried out. Why did these mistake occur; why are they occurring? In my opinion, it is because the United States has become a nation that no longer has the fostering of wellbeing as a priority. Instead, our decisions are based on greed for power and profit for the military-industrial complex, the carbon corporations, and various other corporate interests. Of course, it is all ostensibly supposed to be about promoting democracy.
Palestinians gather to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen amid a hunger crisis in Deir el-Balah, Central Gaza Strip, on December 19, 2024. Credit: Majdi Fathi / NurPhoto / Getty
A key international food insecurity monitor retracted a report warning of imminent famine in Israeli-sieged north Gaza after the Biden administration pressured the group to do so, new reporting finds.
Earlier this week, the Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET) put out a report warning that deaths due to starvation were reaching the threshold of famine in north Gaza, as Israel has blocked nearly all humanitarian aid from entering the region for months now.
The U.S.-funded FEWS NET is supposed to provide unbiased analyses of food insecurity in regions across the world. Other groups, like researchers for the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), have also corroborated findings of imminent famine in north Gaza, if it’s not already happening across all of Gaza; many human rights advocates have noted that official famine declarations often happen belatedly, not until long after conditions […]
