Recently I have done articles on the Incel movement of celibate men, and yesterday I published a piece on the “Boy Sober” movement of women. Now this. Increasingly younger men and women are not making having children a priority in their lives. The net-net of this is that our population is going to get older — which has all kinds of negative implications — and, except for immigration, smaller. To remain stable in its population a country has to have 2.1 children born for every death. The fear of the 1970s that America would be devastated by overpopulation turns out to be a fear-based fantasy and miscalculation by futurists.
Credit: The New York Times
When Jurnee McKay, 25, imagines having children, a series of scary scenarios pop into her mind: the “horrors” of childbirth, risks associated with pregnancy, a flighty potential partner, exorbitant child care costs.
Abortion care restrictions are also on her list of fears. So Ms. McKay, a nursing student in Orlando, decided to eliminate the possibility of an accidental pregnancy. But the first doctor she consulted refused to remove her fallopian tubes, she said, insisting that she might change her mind after meeting her “soul mate.”
“For some reason,” she said, “society looks at women who choose not to make life harder for themselves as crazy.”
Next week, she will speak with another doctor about sterilization.
Like Ms. McKay, a growing number of U.S. adults say they are unlikely to raise children, according to a study released on Thursday by the Pew Research Center. When the survey was conducted in 2023, 47 percent of those younger than 50 without children said they were unlikely ever to have children, an increase of […]
David Corn, Washington, DC, Bureau Chief - Mother Jones
Stephan:
J.D. Vance is one of the weirdest people in the history of American politics. Spend a few moments Googling his quotes, and what he believes. The Republican Party in 2024 is running a crook and a weirdo, and in Project 2025 they tell you exactly what they have in mind for your future. It strikes me as one of the most bizarre tickets any country has ever seen.
J.D. Vance Credit: Julia Nikhinson / AP
During his acceptance speech at the Republican convention last week, Sen. J.D. Vance, the GOP vice presidential candidate, praised Donald Trump’s call for “unity.” But this year, Vance endorsed a new book co-written by a far-right conspiracy-monger that calls progressives “unhumans” and claims they are waging an “Irregular Communist Revolution” against American civilization.
The book, Unhumans: The Secret History of Communist Revolutions (and How to Crush Them), was written by Jack Posobiec and Joshua Lisec. Posobiec is a well-known alt-right agitator and conservative media personality who promoted the bonkers Pizzagate conspiracy theory. Lisec is a professional ghostwriter. And their book professes to be a history of communist and leftist revolutionary abuses over the decades—but with a twist. They claim, “For as long as there have been beauty and truth, love and life, there have also been the ugly liars who hate and kill.” And these “people of anti-civilization” have always gone by different names: communists, socialists, leftists, and progressives. The […]
Oliver Milman and Nina Lakhani, Environmental Reporters - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan:
This report in The Guardian describes both the shame and the corruption of the United States and other rich countries, and the servitude of the many to the few. It assures we will not meet the Paris accord for climate control. As it says, “the oil and gas rush, led by the richest countries, risks demolishing hopes that the world can stay within internationally agreed-upon limits aimed at preventing catastrophic heatwaves, wildfires, flooding and other impacts. No new oil and gas project can proceed if the Paris agreement, which calls for global temperatures to be restrained to a 1.5C (2.7F) rise above preindustrial levels, is to be met, according to the International Energy Agency.” What this means is that your life and mine, and the lives of our children and their children have been condemned to the misery, death, and forced migration climate change will create for humanity, so that a tiny percentage of the world’s population can stay rich.
A surge in new oil and gas exploration in 2024 threatens to unleash nearly 12bn tonnes of planet-heating emissions, with the world’s wealthiest countries – such as the US and the UK – leading a stampede of fossil fuel expansion in spite of their climate commitments, new data shared exclusively with the Guardian reveals.
The new oil and gas field licences forecast to be awarded across the world this year are on track to generate the highest level of emissions since those issued in 2018, as heatwaves, wildfires, drought and floods cause death and destruction globally, according to analysis of industry data by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD).
The 11.9bn tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions – which is roughly the same as China’s annual carbon pollution – resulting over their lifetime from all current and upcoming oil and gas fields forecast to be licensed by the end of 2024 would be greater than the past four years combined. The projection includes licences awarded as of June 2024, as well as the oil and gas blocks open for bidding, under evaluation […]
Benoît Morenne and Collin Eaton, Reporters - Wall Street Journal
Stephan:
In this article in the Murdoch-owned fascist Wall Street Journal you see how blatant corruption in the United States has become, and how criminal Trump and his varlet J.D. Vance have openly whored themselves to the oil billionaires.
Donald Trump and Harold Hamm, the billionaire founder of Continental Resources, at a 2019 shale energy conference in Pittsburgh. Credit: Leah Millis / Reuters
As Donald Trump accepted the GOP presidential nomination last Thursday, he reminded the megawealthy coterie of oil tycoons backing him why he is their man.
“We have more liquid gold under our feet than any other country by far, we are a nation that has the opportunity to make an absolute fortune with its energy,” Trump said during his prime-time address.
The speech was music to the ears of oil billionaires Harold Hamm of Continental Resources, Kelcy Warren of Energy Transfer, Jeffery Hildebrand of Hilcorp, and George Bishop of GeoSouthern Energy. Since March, they, together with their spouses and companies, have contributed at least $9.9 million to Trump-aligned committees and the Republican National Committee, according to Federal Election Commission data.
Those donations make the magnates among some of Trump’s biggest donors and represent an increase from past election cycles. Their contributions and those of another oil billionaire, Tim Dunn of CrownRock, topped $16 million since October, compared with the more than $20 million the […]
LEC TYSON and BRIAN KENNEDY, - Pew Research Center
Stephan:
The tragic reality of the MAGAt cult that supports criminal Trump and his varlet Vance is that they have been conned by Trump and other leaders in the cult to not believe in the reality of climate change, as reflected by their sharp decline of support for non-polluting energy. Sadly, even Democrats have been influenced by this humanity threatening thinking, as you can see in this Pew Research Center research. I hate doing these stories, but SR is about trends shaping the future. And this is our future.
There’s been a decline in the breadth of support for wind and solar power. The shares who favor expanding solar and wind power farms are down 12 percentage points and 11 points, respectively, since 2020, driven by sharp drops in support among Republicans.
Interest in buying an electric vehicle (EV) is lower than a year ago. Today, 29% of Americans say they would consider an EV for their next purchase, down from 38% in 2023.
Still, a majority of Americans (63%) support the goal of the U.S. taking steps to become carbon neutral by 2050. When asked which is the greater priority, far more Americans continue to say the country should focus on developing renewable energy than fossil fuel sources (65% […]
Here is an aspect of climate change I have not seen mentioned previously. He shows that every part of our society is going to be affected, and it is just going to get worse if the nations of the world do not make radical changes. If the MAGAt cult wins that isn;t going to happen, as I showed you in the previous articles.
Credit: Martin Roll
Climate change is not just leading to more heatwaves and hurricanes — it’s making the atmosphere more turbulent, too. As I found out while flying from Kuala Lumpur to London a few weeks ago, sudden jolts from bumpy air can send your coffee flying. Riding jet streams can feel like being on a roller coaster.
Air turbulence has been in the news because dozens of passengers on a Singapore Airlines flight in May were injured and one person died when the aeroplane lost 54 metres of altitude within seconds over Myanmar. Those passengers were not just unlucky; the frequency of such events is rising, because global warming is making the air stormier.
As a researcher in fluid dynamics and climate change, I can assure you that flying remains one of the safest modes of travel. But I also know that the changing patterns of air turbulence need much more research. Scientists need to understand how climate change is […]
