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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.
Jemar Tisby, Deputy Director of Narrative and Advocacy at the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University. - Boston Globe
Stephan: The first time I recognized that ordinary people could create social change that fostered wellbeing was as a teenager when I became involved in the civil rights movement. The Juneteenth landmark signed by President Biden yesterday may not seem like a big deal to some but, in my view, it is a very big deal. I see it as a first acknowledgment of slavery, the racial cancer that has afflicted American society since the colonial period. We cannot fix what we have not acknowledged. Not just racial equality but the reality that slavery shaped this nation from its inception. I see it as the first step toward healing but recognize that there are also dangers to making this a national holiday, and those don't get discussed much.
I have read a dozen articles about what happened yesterday and listened to all the networks talk about it. Of that lot, this is the piece that stood out for me.
Solwazi Browne-Vargas, 7, of Boston, gives his mother a thumbs-up after Black legislators raised the Juneteenth flag on Wednesday to commemorate Massachusetts’ first observation of the holiday. Credit: Christina Botic/Boston Globe
On Wednesday, the House followed the Senate in passing a bill to make Juneteenth a national holiday. President Biden signed it into law Thursday afternoon. After a century and a half, the oldest celebration of Black emancipation is now a federal holiday.
Juneteenth is an occasion we should all commemorate, but what are the risks of taking the celebration of Black freedom mainstream? As more organizations and communities across the nation recognize Juneteenth, there may be some unintended consequences that make it harder for people to recognize the significance of the occasion.
The long effort to make Juneteenth a federally recognized holiday nearly became a reality in 2020 with momentum from historic protests for racial justice. A single lawmaker, Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, opposed the effort, and other GOP officials moved on to other matters.
Even though Congress failed to make Juneteenth a […]
William Rivers Pitt, Senior Editor and Lead Columnist - truthout
Stephan: As this article makes clear on the basis of facts, not politics the Covid-19 pandemic is far from over. As I write 601,000 have died, and there are 33.5 million cases. But something very weird is going on. Because of political disinformation, the pandemic is going from national to region or state. There is a direct correlation between political views and vaccination rates. We are witnessing a phenomenon rarely seen in history. A segment of Americans are holding a world view against all facts, and even though it may cost them their lives.
Anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers gather at Indiana University’s Sample Gates to protest against mandatory COVID vaccinations that the university is requiring for students, staff and faculty during the upcoming fall semester on June 10, 2021. Credit: Jeremy Hogan/SOPA/Lightrocket/Getty
Great Britain had great plans for June 21. English citizens had been calling it “Freedom Day,” the day that nation’s COVID restrictions would be lifted after the pandemic’s long siege. A well-managed vaccine rollout has more than half the population fully inoculated, and everything appeared to be moving in the right direction.
Upon the emergence of the COVID-19 variant dubbed “Delta,” however, the U.K.’s plans have changed. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has delayed “Freedom Day” for another four weeks, with a potential for more if the variant is not better contained.
The Delta variant of COVID first emerged from the coronavirus wave that subsumed much of India earlier this spring. Reports strongly suggest that it is far more contagious than the original version of the virus, and is doing more damage to those who become infected. It took four weeks for Delta to become […]
Stephan: This is one of the best articles I have read on the issues of aging and life expectancy. It is based on a paper in a peer-reviewed journal, grounded on objectively verifiable data not theory.
Citation: The study discussed in the article appears in the journal Nature Communications.
Aged Hands Credit: Sabine van Erp from Pixabay
ODENSE, DENMARK — Aging and death can be uncomfortable topics for many people to talk about, especially as they grow older. While scientists have developed several ways to slow the aging process, a new study finds immortality is (not surprisingly) out of reach. An international team says, no matter how hard we try, every species on Earth has a generally fixed rate of aging that science can’t stop.
“Human death is inevitable. No matter how many vitamins we take, how healthy our environment is or how much we exercise, we will eventually age and die,” says Fernando Colchero from the University of Southern Denmark in a release.
Aging vs. life expectancy
Colchero and his team applied statistics and mathematics to information on populations and life expectancy throughout history. Their findings reveal, although people live longer today than they did in the distant past, the rate of aging among humans really isn’t changing all that much. Simply put, researchers believe today’s life expectancy has less to do with people growing older and […]
Stephan: Climate change is going to alter human culture and the economy radically. Exhibit A.
Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios
A new study finds a strong chance that climate change helped trigger the recent catastrophe that hit France’s wine industry.
Driving the news: An extraordinary cold snap that gripped France in early April, just after a record-warm early spring, devastated grapes and other fruit crops.
New analysis by the research consortium World Weather Attribution shows that climate change made that disaster — a textbook example of a “false spring” event — up to 60% more likely.
Why it matters: As the world warms, growing seasons are shifting their timing, and frosts are changing their frequency and severity, too. The interaction between the two is making prized crops more vulnerable to large temperature swings.
How it works: Researchers focused on central France, in a region known for its Champagne.
They ran computer model simulations of the weather patterns that led to that event.
Some simulations included the current amount of human-caused greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, while others omitted these concentrations.
The models showed that climate change made April’s cold snap less likely as the lowest temperatures […]
Andrea Germanos, Senior Editor and Staff Writer - Common Dreams
Stephan: I don't know how much clearer it can get that climate change is about to radically alter the earth's environment. And yet 139 Republican Congress members do not think human-mediated climate change is real and, although most Americans do agree that climate change is affected by human activity. But even then, most don't talk about it or contact their Congress members requiring them to do something about climate change.
The good news is that Biden seems to understand the reality of climate change and the role humans are playing in bringing it on. But can he get the Republican morons in Congress to get behind him and act? We are going to see, and we are going to have to live with what happens.
Credit: Climate
The atmospheric scientist that led a major year-long Arctic research expedition said Tuesday that the world may have already hit one of the so-called climate “tipping points.”
“The disappearance of summer sea ice in the Arctic is one of the first landmines in this minefield, one of the tipping points that we set off first when we push warming too far,” said Markus Rex of the Alfred Wegener Institute, reportsAgence France-Presse.
“And one can essentially ask if we haven’t already stepped on this mine and already set off the beginning of the explosion,” he added.
“If we keep going as we are then the Arctic will be ice-free in summer within a few decades and the world I just described will no longer exist.”
“During the Mosaic expedition, the ice in the spring of 2020 receded more quickly than ever before on record,” Rex said. “The expansion of the ice was only about half as large in the summer than decades ago and only about half as thick as during the times of [Norwegian explorer Fridtjof] Nansen and his expedition with Fram, a […]
Stephan: If you look at the social outcome data, and put aside your emotions and loyalties, the United States is a dangerous, expensive, stressful place to live. For some reason we cannot tell ourselves the truth about ourselves, and therefore we seem unable to make fostering wellbeing the basis for all our social policies.
Working class family Credit: Masko/Getty
U.S. workers are some of the most stressed employees in the world, according to Gallup’s latest State of the Global Workplace report, which captures how people are feeling about work and life in the past year.
U.S. and Canadian workers, whose survey data are combined in Gallup’s research, ranked highest for daily stress levels of all groups surveyed. Some 57% of U.S. and Canadian workers reported feeling stress on a daily basis, up by eight percentage points from the year prior and compared with 43% of people who feel that way globally, according to Gallup’s 2021 report.
This spike isn’t surprising to Jim Harter, Gallup’s chief workplace scientist, who tells CNBC Make It that rates of daily stress, worry, sadness and anger have been trending upward for American workers since 2009. Concerns over the virus, sickness, financial insecurity and racial trauma all contributed to added stress during the pandemic.
But stress spikes were especially acute for women in the last year: 62% of working women in the U.S. and Canada reported daily feelings of stress compared […]
Stephan: I watched various news outlets in both the U.S. and abroad today and took aboard the good news from Biden's overseas meetings. In place of the childish incompetence of Trump, a statesman represented our country, and it has changed the way America is perceived. Here is how the BBC saw it.
President Biden with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen Credit: Reuters
What lessons have Europeans learned from Biden’s trip?
President Biden has reaffirmed America’s traditional support for the European Union as an important partner in global affairs.
Tuesday’s EU-US summit declaration announces a series of joint actions, ranging from the response to the pandemic and action in the fight against climate change to strengthened co-operation on trade, investment and technology. There’s also a firm commitment to defend democracy and human rights.
There is even a breakthrough agreement on greater joint work and co-operation in the area of security and defence, previously an almost taboo subject.
A series of working groups and a new Trade and Technology Council will ensure that, in the coming months, the co-ordination is intensified across the full range of these issues. Europe, and specifically the EU, is back at the centre of US global policy.ADVERTISEMENT
Has Biden’s visit improved security in Europe?
President Biden’s very strong reassertion of America’s support for Nato and, in particular, Article 5, represents an important return to the American leadership of the past and […]
Stephan: Here is some interesting and, I think, on balance good news. British Petroleum (BP) seeing the writing on the wall is shifting investment to noncarbon energy technologies. Here is the latest.
OSLO, NORWAY – British oil major BP (BP.L) will join Norway’s Statkraft (STATKF.UL) and Aker Offshore Wind (AOW-ME.OL) to bid for permits to build offshore wind power projects off Norway, the companies said on Monday.
The consortium in which each partner will have a 33.3% stake plans to bid for offshore wind power projects in the Soerlige Nordsjoe II licensing area in the southern part of the North Sea, one of the two areas opened in Norway.
The area is suitable for bottom-fixed wind power platform and sits on a maritime border with Denmark, providing a potential to export electricity to neighbouring markets.
The consortium also plans to explore opportunities to provide renewable power to electrify offshore oil and gas facilities, they added.
“Our partnership with Aker and BP will create significant value and contribute towards Europe’s energy transition,” Statkraft Chief Executive Christian Rynning-Toennesen said in a statement.
Statkraft has previously been involved in developing offshore wind parks off Britain, but exited the business several years ago citing high costs.
