Category: Environmental Issues
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Tuesday, February 08, 2022
Pandemic Rear View Mirror - Next Potential Catastrophe? / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Nadeem_Walayat
We are fast leaving the pandemic behind in the rear view mirror where as expected the Omicron wave despite shrill cries from the vested interests barely resulted in a bump than a wave.
But what's next? What could be the next big real life global disaster movie that we are largely unprepared for.
Top of the list is - CLIMATE CHANGE!
Despite all of the noise, we actually are facing a CLIMATE CHANGE CATASTROPHE!
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Friday, December 06, 2019
How Much Crude Oil Do You Unknowingly Eat? / Commodities / Environmental Issues
By: OilPrice_Com
You may think (or hope) that in your daily life you don’t need to worry about unknowingly eating or otherwise ingesting crude oil or any of its many, many petrochemical byproducts. But you would be wrong. And not just a little wrong--very, very wrong. Petroleum-based substances are in all kinds of innocuous-seeming things that we willingly put into our bodies. Even though petrochemicals are not technically (or really any other adverb you want to insert here) edible, we eat quite a lot of them.
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Monday, May 06, 2019
Earth vs. The Human Amoeba / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
A few days ago, I received a video of an April 22 (Earth Day) lecture by my longtime friend Nate Hagens. Nate and I both owe a lot concerning our view and understanding of the world to Jay Hanson, who tragically died about a month ago on a diving trip in Indonesia. Many people have written and thought about issues of energy, or economics, or ecology; Jay brought it all together and, crucially, added the human brain and genetic properties to the mix.
Teaching at the University of Minnesota, Nate has greatly expanded on this big picture, and produces -among other things- a lot of video material for his students. Lucky them: a view with so much breadth and depth at the same time is exceedingly rare. What most people don’t get is that you can say: we can do so-and-so, but it’s mostly just in theory. In practice, our brains make us react much different from the theory. Because it’s not our “rational brain” that drives us, it’s our amoeba brain.
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Monday, April 29, 2019
Climate Gains in the West, Exported Pollution in the Rest / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Dan_Steinbock
Recently, President Duterte slammed Canada for sending waste to the Philippines. Yet, the challenge is huge. Exported pollution from advanced economies penalizes the rest of the world and distorts climate gains.President Duterte’s statement ensued after environmental groups’ renewed call for Canada to take back waste sent to the Philippines in the Aquino era, some six years ago.
According to the Pacific Center for Environmental Law and Litigation (PCELL), Ontario-based Chronic Inc. shipped 40-foot containers to the country in 2013, which is considered “illegal traffic” under Article 9 of the Basel Convention. More than 100 shipping containers arrived in Philippine ports around 2013-14.
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Thursday, March 21, 2019
Green New Physics / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
You could probably say I’m sympathetic to the schoolchildren protesting against climate change, and I’m sympathetic to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her call for a Green New Deal. Young people are the future, and they deserve a voice about that future. At the same time, I’m also deeply skeptical about their understanding of the issues they talk about.
In fact, I don’t see much understanding at all. I think that’s because they base their comprehension of the world they’ve been born into on information provided by the very people they’re now protesting against. Look kids, your education system sucks, it was designed by those destroying your planet, you need to shake it off and get something better.
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Wednesday, March 20, 2019
The Secret to Funding a Green New Deal / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Ellen_Brown
As alarm bells sound over the advancing destruction of the environment, a variety of Green New Deal proposals have appeared in the U.S. and Europe, along with some interesting academic debates about how to fund them. Monetary policy, normally relegated to obscure academic tomes and bureaucratic meetings behind closed doors, has suddenly taken center stage.
The 14-page proposal for a Green New Deal submitted to the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., does not actually mention Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), but that is the approach currently capturing the attention of the media—and taking most of the heat. The concept is good: Abundance can be ours without worrying about taxes or debt, at least until we hit full productive capacity. But, as with most theories, the devil is in the details.
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Friday, March 08, 2019
The Real New Deal / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
While we’re on the issue of the Green New Deal, here’s an article by Dr. D. with an intro by Dr. D., one he sent me in the mail that contained the actual article, and that I think shouldn’t go to waste. I hope he agrees.
Waste being the key term here, because he arrives at the same conclusion I’ve often remarked upon: that our societies and economies exist to maximize waste production. Make them more efficient and they collapse.
Ergo: no Green New Deal is any use if you don’t radically change the economic models. Let’s see AOC et al address that, and then we can talk. It’s not as if a shift towards wind and solar will decrease the economic need for waste production (though it may change the waste composition), and thus efficiency is merely a double-edged sword at the very best.
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Thursday, March 07, 2019
How the New “Green Deal” Has Already Worked / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Rodney_Johnson
If you have assets, income, or both, then you are responsible for every bad thing that has happened in the U.S. But don’t worry! The Green New Deal, co-sponsored by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey, will give you a chance to fix it.All you have to do is sign over, well, everything to the central government, which will then use its wisdom to determine how we should live for the foreseeable future so that all outcomes are equalized and no one is left behind.
Good-paying jobs? Check.
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Friday, January 05, 2018
How Arboriculturalists Shredded Their Reputation at Sheffield Tree Felling's 2017 / Local / Environmental Issues
By: N_Walayat
Many Arboriculturalists' fantasise that their 'profession' is all about looking after the well being of Trees, perhaps even dreaming of themselves as being real life LORAX's. However, the Arb rampage across the city of Sheffield during 2017 revealed the reality that Arboriculturalists are Once-ler's NOT LORAX. For 2017 clearly illustrated that it the ordinary people of Sheffield ARE the REAL LORAX, who with everything stacked against them from Judges in their robes, council evidence gatherers, to recruiting bouncer platoons from the north, had ordinary people in vane try to protect Sheffield's remaining street trees from the Arb Army Once-ler onslaught, that likely claimed near 1000 more big tree's bringing the total felled to date to approx 6,000, MOST of which were HEALTHY TREES!
Tuesday, June 06, 2017
Orphaned Poisoned Waters,Severe Chronic Water Shortage Imminent / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Richard_Mills
There's a lot of water on the planet we inhabit – an estimated 326 million trillion gallons or 1,260,000,000,000,000,000,000 liters. Hard to believe are reports water is going to get much dearer in our near term future – yet Peter Voser, chief executive of the world's second-largest energy company, Royal Dutch Shell, warned us, as far back as June 2011, that global demand for fresh water may outstrip supply by as much as 40 per cent in 20 years if current fresh-water consumption trends continue. And Voser isn’t the only one warning about future fresh water shortages…
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) predicts that by 2025, one-third of all humans will face severe and chronic water shortages.
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Friday, April 28, 2017
Earth Overshoot Day - Human Population Growth / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Richard_Mills
The second half of the 20th century saw the biggest increase in the world’s population in human history. Our population surged because of:
- Medical advances lessened the mortality rate in many countries
- Massive increases in agricultural productivity caused by the “Green Revolution”
The global death rate has dropped almost continuously since the start of the industrial revolution – personal hygiene, improved methods of sanitation and the development of antibiotics all played a major role.
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Saturday, December 17, 2016
Trumping the Environment / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Walter_Brasch
Whether Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump was elected, the environment is going to suffer.
Both have supported horizontal fracking, the destruction of the earth to extract oil and gas. The use of fracking is so harmful to the environment and public health that numerous banks refuse to lend funds to individuals who wish to build or sell their houses near drilling operations. Numerous lenders have also refused to loan money to corporations that wish to drill.
Thursday, June 25, 2015
Nature Rebounds - Trends in America Portend a Global Restoration of Nature / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: John_Mauldin
The common meme in today’s world is that we are slowly (or perhaps even rapidly in some instances) destroying our global environment. Not just by way of global warming, but pollution, over-farming, water usage, and increasing use of all sorts of resources taken from the ground. Post-apocalyptic movies and books are the rage, showing us living in a world where man has ravaged his environment and our lives have been degraded if not destroyed. Our failure to deal with global warming and the destruction of the environment are key components of the mantra repeated by the mainstream media, pundits, and politicians.
Technology is supposed to somehow save us from our dystopian future by creating new ways to clean the environment, feed us, and help us become more thrifty and less wasteful. But when? When will we see those breakthroughs, that light at the end of the tunnel?
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Sunday, April 05, 2015
Soil Isn't Sexy Between Us and Extinction / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Richard_Mills
After watching Interstellar w/Matthew McConaughey I was motivated to update and republish an article, Between Us and Extinction, I wrote a couple of years ago.
"Soil is the earth's fragile skin that anchors all life on Earth. It is comprised of countless species that create a dynamic and complex ecosystem and is among the most precious resources to humans...Half of the topsoil on the planet has been lost in the last 150 years." WWF
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Saturday, August 02, 2014
Flood And The Desert – The Heroic Water Crisis Clash / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Andrew_McKillop
Oh California
As you read this California's lakes, rivers and streams are steadily dwindling to nothing. Across the SW USA underground aquifers are relentlessly draining dry and by 2025 Lake Mead has a 50% probability of becoming totally dry. About 80% of all rivers in China are so polluted they can support no aquatic life at all. Due to a lack of water, Saudi Arabia has given up on trying to grow irrigated wheat and will be 100% dependent again on wheat imports by 2016. Elsewhere in the Middle East, the flow of water to the Jordan river, Tigris and Euphrates is down to less than 5% of historic averages. The Dead Sea is shrinking so fast that huge sinkholes proliferate daily, able to swallow roads, buildings and any imprudent person. In central Asia the Aral Sea, one of the world's biggest lakes outside the US-Canadian Great Lakes continues to shrink leaving rusted hulks of ships a dozen kilometres from the retreating waters.
Tuesday, January 07, 2014
Emerging Markets and the Arctic: Equity in Key Industries / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Submissions
Georgi Ivanov writes: In the 21st century, increasing interest in the Arctic will make the region one of the most dynamic geopolitical spaces, and with it, open up new business opportunities for investment and trade. The impetus will be on resource industries, shipping and the required infrastructure development that will support these investments. However, the political and legal framework needed to make any of these initiatives work rests with having the proper governance capacity in the Arctic.
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Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Fukushima Radiation Leaks Totally Out of Control - Threatening Human Survival / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Global_Research
Harvey Wasserman writes: We are now within two months of what may be humankind’s most dangerous moment since the Cuban Missile Crisis.
There is no excuse for not acting. All the resources our species can muster must be focussed on the fuel pool at Fukushima Unit 4.
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Sunday, September 01, 2013
Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Radioactive Groundwater Crisis Worsens - Fully Unsolvable / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Submissions
Tracy Turner submits: LATEST: The coriums are still hot enough to volatilize all sorts of isotopes, more proof now confirms: Evidence that Ag110m is still being volatilized by corium. It's not just radioactive silver. Per our conclusion to Chapter 12, strontium, cesium and plutonium are still being vaporized fairly effectively. Quote: 'Note that the temperatures of the corium at several of the reactors at Fukushima are probably still high enough to continue volatilizing strontium, plutonium and dozens of other isotopes for years; this corium won't cool down, or be properly contained, for years or decades.'
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
We Are All Going to Die! Looming 6th Major Extinction / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Bill_Bonner
Today, we interrupt our regular coverage of markets, morons and mush-head economics to give you a heads-up:
We may all be doomed!
Not just you... not just us... but the whole friggin' human race may soon be on the endangered species list. Boohoo! We're going extinct. So says an article in Newsweek. (More below...)
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Monday, April 01, 2013
Solar Cycle Warnings / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Andrew_McKillop
RECORD LOW SUNSPOT NUMBERS
For reasons including "pure politically correct", NASA has fought a losing battle - against reality - on the subject of Global Warming, which it feels obliged to believe in as a "scientifically correct" theory. Linked to this, quite directly, NASA has also battled against reality on the subject of sunspot frequency, size, location on the Sun's surface and other variables linked to sunspot cycles in this present Cycle 24 of approximately 11-year-long cycles. These have been accurately recorded since Cycle 1 set by convention between astronomers as starting in Feb 1755.