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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.
WHR Editorial Board, formed of John F. Helliwell, Lord Richard Layard, Jeffrey D. Sachs, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Lara B. Aknin, and Shun Wang., - World Happiness Report
Stephan:
The 2024 World Happiness Report has just come out. The report is researched and written by a partnership among Gallup, the Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and the World Happiness Report’s Editorial Board. The news for America is very sad. The United States of America has fallen out of the top 20 for the first time since the World Happiness Report was first published in 2012, driven by a large drop in the wellbeing of Americans under 30, and now ranks 23rd. Almost no one in politics talks about any of this, except for a few brave souls like Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. You never see anyone in corporate media even dare mention it. The truth is, however, by any objectively verifiable social outcome measure you choose, the United States is a failing society.
To download the full report: https://happiness-report.s3.amazonaws.com/2024/WHR+24.pdf
World Happiness Report 2024: Most comprehensive picture yet of happiness across generations
Fresh insights from the World Happiness Report 2024, released today (March 20), paint the richest picture yet of happiness trends across different ages and generations.
The findings, announced today to mark the UN’s International Day of Happiness, are powered by data from the Gallup World Poll and analysed by some of the world’s leading wellbeing scientists.
Experts use responses from people in more than 140 nations to rank the world’s ‘happiest’ countries. Finland tops the overall list for the seventh successive year, though there is considerable movement elsewhere:
Serbia (37th) and Bulgaria (81st) have had the biggest increases in average life evaluation scores since they were first measured by the Gallup World Poll in 2013, and this is reflected in climbs up the rankings between the World Happiness Report 2013 and this 2024 edition of 69 places for Serbia and 63 places for Bulgaria.
The next two countries showing the largest increases in life evaluations are Latvia (46th) and Congo (Brazzaville) (89th), with rank increases of 44 and 40 places, respectively, between 2013 and 2024.
Significantly, the United States of America (23rd) has fallen out of […]
Madalina Vlasceanu, Kimberly C. Doell, and Joseph B. Bak-Coleman et al., Research Scientists - Science Advances
Stephan:
One would think that the leadership of all the nations of the world understood by now that the only way to successfully address the challenge of climate change would be for all governments to agree to a plan and each pass national policies to implement that plan. Obviously, this is not happening in any effective way. Why not? Here is an. enormous international study by several hundred scientists involving 59,440 participants from 63 countries. What that means is that this study should be taken very seriously. Unfortunately, it is not a happy report. What that tells us is we each need to begin thinking about what is going to happen to our local area, and what can we do to prepare ourselves. I am setting it up for you to click through and read the entire scientific article because I think this issue is so important. Once again the November election makes the choice very clear: the Democrats are far from perfect but they are planning to take serious steps to prepare for climate change, The TCPs (formerly the Republican Party, as a party doesn’t even accept the reality of climate change.) If you are planning for you and your children, and their children to survive in anything like the present quality of life you better vote only for Democrats.
Figure 1 Credit: Science Advances
Abstract
Effectively reducing climate change requires marked, global behavior change. However, it is unclear which strategies are most likely to motivate people to change their climate beliefs and behaviors. Here, we tested 11 expert-crowdsourced interventions on four climate mitigation outcomes: beliefs, policy support, information sharing intention, and an effortful tree-planting behavioral task. Across 59,440 participants from 63 countries, the interventions’ effectiveness was small, largely limited to nonclimate skeptics, and differed across outcomes: Beliefs were strengthened mostly by decreasing psychological distance (by 2.3%), policy support by writing a letter to a future-generation member (2.6%), information sharing by negative emotion induction (12.1%), and no intervention increased the more effortful behavior—several interventions even reduced tree planting. Last, the effects of each intervention differed depending on people’s initial climate beliefs. These findings suggest that the impact of behavioral climate interventions varies across audiences and target behaviors.
INTRODUCTION
The climate crisis is one of humanity’s most consequential and challenging problems (1). Successfully rising to the challenge depends on both “top-down” structural changes (e.g., regulation and investment) and “bottom-up” changes (e.g., individuals’ and collectives’ beliefs and behaviors). These bottom-up processes require widespread belief in climate change, […]
The lack of literacy and numeracy in American adults is becoming an increasing problem undermining maintaining U.S. democracy. If you can’t read and comprehend a standard newspaper report, or if you can’t understand basic statements about the economy, you can’t really understand why democracy is so important to our society. Authoritarianism, where someone like criminal Trump claims to know how to fix everything, if you put him in power seems a simpler easier solution to the country’s problems than the reality of the actual complexities. As the Trump christofascists (TCP) try to dismantle public fact-based education, this problem is just going to get worse. It is yet another failure on the part of the U.S. Congress, and Red state legislatures as well, I am sorry to say, both the Trump and Biden administrations and corporate media.
The SchwartzReport tracks emerging trends that will affect the world, particularly the United States. For EXPLORE it focuses on matters of health in the broadest sense of that term, including medical issues, changes in the biosphere, technology, and policy considerations, all of which will shape our culture and our lives. Something very insidious is going on in our world today. Something that is directly eating away American democracy. I am speaking here of adult illiteracy, dropping education levels amongst children, and the weaponization of misinformation trends that collectively have combined to create an alternate reality with alternate facts. When the Founders created the First Amendment in 1791 they understood the power of misinformation. Someone spreading a false rumor in a bar, a printer distributing flyers filled with misinformation. A charismatic speaker spewing lies to a crowd in a square. The amendment’s wording itself reveals their thinking. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”1
The idea of an internet containing social media read each day by tens of millions, who carry around a […]
In the midst of the hacking attack on my personal computer, and the fact that I have to go in for surgery on Friday, as well as all the evil and madness I see every day as I do research for the daily SR and the weekly SR podcast, which leaves me very pessimistic about the future of the United States, yesterday I got an unexpected announcement that made me feel that even in Europe my work was having an effect to foster wellbeing. It was much appreciated and lightened my heart. My wife thought I should share it with you.
Double Eagle Energy Oil Rig, Wednesday, July 29, 2020, in Midland, Texas.Credit: Tony Gutierrez / AP
TheAmerican Oil Lobby launched an eight-figure media campaign this week promoting the idea that fossil fuels are “vital” to global energy security, alarming climate experts.
“US natural gas and oil play a key role in supplying the world with cleaner, more reliable energy,” the new initiative’s website says. The campaign comes amid record fossil fuel extraction in the US, and as the industry is attempting to capitalize […]
