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When I began Schwartzreport my purpose was to produce an entirely fact-based daily publication in favor of the earth, the inter-connectedness and interdependence of all life, democracy, equality for all, liberty, and things that are life-affirming. Also, to warn my readers about actions, events, and trends that threaten those values. Our country now stands at a crossroads, indeed, the world stands at a crossroads where those values are very much at risk and it is up to each of us who care about wellbeing to do what we can to defend those principles. I want to thank all of you who have contributed to SR, particularly those of you who have scheduled an ongoing monthly contribution. It makes a big difference and is much appreciated. It is one thing to put in the hours each day and to do the work for free, but another to have to cover the rising out-of-pocket costs. For those of you who haven’t done so, but read SR regularly, I ask that you consider supporting it.
I have been telling you for more than two decades that this trend was coming, and it is only going to get worse in the coming years. Climate change is going to cause enormous migrations both inside countries and between countries, and water violence is going to become a critical aspect of this crisis.
Children line up at a well to get water near a makeshift camp for internally displaced Yemenis in Abs in the northern Hajjah province. Credit: AFP / Getty
The number of violent incidents linked to water resources around the world has increased dramatically in recent years, according to a new study.
The Pacific Institute’s annual Water Conflict Chronology report shows there were 347 instances of water-related armed conflict in 2023, compared to 231 in 2022.
These include attacks on water systems, disputes over access to water, and the use of water as a weapon of war.
Senior fellow and the co-founder of the think tank Peter Gleick said the increase in such incidents around the world last year was “disturbing.”
“It was a very substantial increase, and it’s an indication of the importance of water and the failure of institutions to manage water properly,” he said in an interview.
According to the study, there were conflicts last year involving access to water in every major region around the world.
The institute’s senior researcher Morgan Shimabuku said there have been a […]
European countries are beginning to recognize that children face more danger online with social media than they do travelling alone on the railroad, particularly young girls. My question is: why is the United States doing virtually nothing about the danger faced by American children as a result of social media interactions.
One psychologist said Kirstie Allsopp had given her son the ‘gift’ of a fun, exciting and at times risky childhood. Credit: Maskot/Alamy
Safeguarding experts and child psychologists have said the risks to teenagers are increasingly “far greater” online at home than when travelling independently following the row about the television presenter Kirstie Allsopp allowing her teenage son to go Interrailing.
A debate on the protection of teenagers was prompted by Allsopp, who revealed that social services had interviewed her after she posted online about her son, then 15, taking a rail trip around Europe after his GCSEs.
A child safeguarding consultant, Simon Bailey, told the Guardian: “The risk is far greater with a child up in their bedroom with access to a smart device than it is travelling to Berlin, Munich and seeing some of the wonderful sights that Europe provides.”
Bailey, a former chief constable who was the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) lead for child protection before becoming a consultant on the issue, said teenagers were at greater risk at home on their smartphones than many parents realise.
If you have ever seen what children are offered for lunch in Europe compared to what they get in the U.S., you know how inferior school lunches in America are. It’s pathetic and, of course, it is all about money and profit. The fundamental problem we have as a country is that the only social priority we have is profit. It negatively affects every aspect of our lives, from healthcare, to child care, to elder care, to school lunches. And because we are an oligarchy dominated democracy nothing about this seems to change. Only you and I can change this, and that is by voting only for Democrats. Yes, I know all the Democrat problems, but the alternative is Project 2025 run by a criminal.
Student getting a slice of pizza for lunch Credit: Getty / SDI Productions
In 2022, The Lancet, a British peer-reviewed journal with a focus on global public health, published a short article with the title: “Unhealthy school meals: A solution to hunger or a problem for health?” As the report laid out, providing school meals is an important measure in preventing food insecurity as nearly 30 million children receive a free or reduced-cost breakfast and lunch on an average American school day, and many of those students rely on school meals as their main source of nutrition.
Yet while those meals meet federal nutrition mandates, they are often simply composed of a smattering of processed foods — breakfast cereal, fruit juice, chicken nuggets, corn dogs, frozen pizza — served alongside a fruit or vegetable and carton of dairy milk. “In fact, the official meal dietary guidelines do not discourage serving pizza or corn dogs, as long as the nutritional specifications (total calorie, sugar, fat, and salt content) are met,” the report said.
I am genuinely concerned that a part of MAGAt world already armed and not very emotionally stable may create serious civil violence, and the criminal Republican Party knows this and is betting on its happening. He is my take on consciousness, authoritarianism, and political violence, which I see as a major threat to our democracy.
White christofascist terrorism Credit: Go Nakamura / Reuters
Day after day as one watches their television or computer screen or reads most fact-based media, one sees an endless series of stories of Trump followers being called to commit acts of political violence, while social media apps fill the minds of Americans with weaponized disinformation specifically designed to enrage them, make them feel victimized and resentful, and encourage them to violence.1 This confluence of modern technology and long-established psychological manipulation techniques has produced something never before seen in the United States, and it has been going on for several years now. Judges are under threat. Their children are under threat; prosecutors have to have security protection. Since Trump began these calls for violence election workers by the score have been quitting their posts making conducting a safe and fair election in some districts increasingly problematic.2
Civil political violence particularly since the January 6th insurrection, has become one of the most notable features of the American political landscape, and two things stand out about […]
Today I did my podcast for Friday focused on how materialism is destroying the earth’s matrix of life. I covered a lot of material that few people, except those doing the actual research, know about or talk about. Here is yet another example of what I mean. We are creating a tragedy over which future generations will condemn us passionately.
Researchers listening to soundscapes in the soil to learn more about its biodiversity. Credit: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian
Sounds of the natural world are rapidly falling silent and will become “acoustic fossils” without urgent action to halt environmental destruction, international experts have warned.
As technology develops, sound has become an increasingly important way of measuring the health and biodiversity of ecosystems: our forests, soils and oceans all produce their own acoustic signatures. Scientists who use ecoacoustics to measure habitats and species say that quiet is falling across thousands of habitats, as the planet witnesses extraordinary losses in the density and variety of species. Disappearing or losing volume along with them are many familiar sounds: the morning calls of birds, rustle of mammals through undergrowth and summer hum of insects.
Today, tuning into some ecosystems reveals a “deathly silence”, said Prof Steve Simpson from the University of Bristol. “It is that race against time – we’ve only just discovered that they make such […]
