The Market Won’t Save Us: How to Rapidly Reduce Deadly Fossil Fuel Use
Informed Comment – May 25, 2023 – John Feffer
https://www.juancole.com/2023/05/market-rapidly-reduce.html
The prevailing approach to reducing dependency on fossil fuels has been price-based—either by way of a carbon tax or some form of emissions trading scheme. Around two dozen countries levy carbon taxes: establishing a price for carbon and making emitters pay that price per unit of carbon consumed. Meanwhile, under the various “cap-and-trade” systems in place in the European Union and other places, a “cap” on emissions is established through the issuance of permits. But industries can exceed their “cap” by simply paying a penalty, while those that don’t use the full value of their permit can effectively sell their allowance to others. One problem with the carbon tax is that the price of carbon has traditionally been set too low, so that producers and consumers do not feel the economic push to abandon fossil fuels. The problem with the cap-and-trade mechanism is that it has generally moved carbon emissions around rather than substantially reduce them… The plan the UK almost adopted more than a decade ago—Tradable Energy Quotas or TEQs—would have taken a very different approach. “TEQs emerged from a different paradigm to the whole carbon pricing approach.”
‘Clean Energy Is Moving Fast’: Investments in Renewables Will Overtake Fossil Fuels for the First Time This Year
EcoWatch – May 25, 2023 – Cristen Hemingway Jaynes
https://www.ecowatch.com/clean-energy-investments-fossil-fuels-iea.html
“Clean energy is moving fast – faster than many people realise. This is clear in the investment trends, where clean technologies are pulling away from fossil fuels,” said IEA [International Energy Agency] Executive Director Fatih Birol in an IEA press release. “For every dollar invested in fossil fuels, about 1.7 dollars are now going into clean energy. Five years ago, this ratio was one-to-one. One shining example is investment in solar, which is set to overtake the amount of investment going into oil production for the first time.”… “This crowns solar as a true energy superpower. It is emerging as the biggest tool we have for rapid decarbonisation of the entire economy,” said Dave Jones, energy think tank Ember’s head of data insights, as Reuters reported… “The irony remains that some of the sunniest places in the world have the lowest levels of solar investment,” Jones said, as reported by Reuters.
Right-Wing US Supreme Court Delivers ‘Catastrophic Loss for Water Protections’
Common Dreams – May 25, 2023 – Jessica Corbett
https://www.commondreams.org/news/us-supreme-court-epa-water-protections
Earthjusticedeclared in response to the ruling that “this is a catastrophic loss for water protections across the country and a win for big polluters, putting our communities, public health, and local ecosystems in danger.” Manish Bapna, president and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), was similarly critical, saying that “the Supreme Court ripped the heart out of the law we depend on to protect American waters and wetlands.” “The majority chose to protect polluters at the expense of healthy wetlands and waterways. This decision will cause incalculable harm. Communities across the country will pay the price,” Bapna warned. “What’s important now is to repair the damage,” he added. “The government must enforce the remaining provisions of law that protect the clean water we all rely on for drinking, swimming, fishing, irrigation, and more. States should quickly strengthen their own laws. Congress needs to act to restore protections for all our waters.”
How wildfire smoke can harm human health, even when the fire is hundreds of miles away – a toxicologist explains
The Conversation – May 22, 2023 – Christopher T. Migliaccio
https://theconversation.com/how-wildfire-smoke-can-harm-human-health-even-when-the-fire-is-hundreds-of-miles-away-a-toxicologist-explains-206057
As with a lot of things, the dose makes the poison – almost anything can be harmful at a certain dose. Generally, cells in the lungs called alveolar macrophages will pick up the particulates and clear them out – at reasonable doses. It’s when the system gets overwhelmed that you can have a problem.
The little-known unintended consequence of recycling plastics
The Washington Post – May 22, 2023 – Allyson Chiu
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2023/05/22/plastic-recycling-microplastic-pollution/
A recent peer-reviewed study that focused on a recycling facility in the United Kingdom suggests that anywhere between 6 to 13 percent of the plastic processed could end up being released into water or the air as microplastics — ubiquitous tiny particles smaller than five millimeters that have been found everywhere from Antarctic snow to inside human bodies… “The findings are certainly alarming enough that it’s worthy of far more investigation and understanding of how widespread of an issue this might be,” said Anja Brandon, associate director of U.S. plastics policy at Ocean Conservancy, a nonprofit group.
On the anniversary of George Floyd’s murder, reckoning with police violence remains in limbo
WHYY – PBS – May 25, 2023 – Aaron Morrison and Steve Karnowski
https://whyy.org/articles/anniversary-george-floyds-murder-reckoning-police-violence/
For more than nine minutes, a white officer pressed his knee to the neck of Floyd, a Black man, who gasped, “I can’t breathe,” echoing Eric Garner’s last words in 2014. Video footage of Floyd’s May 25, 2020, murder was so agonizing to watch that demands for change came from across the country… Now, three years since Floyd’s murder, proponents of federal actions — such as banning chokeholds and no-knock warrants, and changing the so-called qualified immunity protections for law enforcement — still await signs of change… “When people casually, and I think too frequently, say that there is some sort of racial reckoning that we’re in the midst of, I see no evidence of that,” Democratic U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, of Massachusetts, said during a recent press conference convened by a Black Lives Matter collective… “I don’t play with words like ‘reckoning,’” Pressley said. “That needs to be something of epic proportion. And we certainly have not seen a response to the lynching, the choking, the brutality, (and) the murder of Black lives.”
White House plan to combat antisemitism takes on centuries of hatred, discrimination and even lynching in America
The Conversation – May 22, 2023 – Pamela S. Nadell
https://theconversation.com/white-house-plan-to-combat-antisemitism-takes-on-centuries-of-hatred-discrimination-and-even-lynching-in-america-206062
Encounters with antisemitism, and not only those from public figures, linger in the memories of American Jews. My book “America’s Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today” highlighted some of them. In the 1880s, a Philadelphia writer ruefully recalled a teacher saying: “It is your misfortune, not your fault, that you are a Jew.”The antisemitism the White House hopes to combat today rests on this history and much more. The White House plan comes just as the trial of the man accused of the deadliest hate crime against American Jews, the murder of 11 worshippers in a Pittsburgh synagogue in October 2018, gets underway.
Muslim Groups Call on DOJ to Transfer Imam Jamil Al-Amin
CAIR – May 24, 2023 – Press Release
https://www.cair.com/press_releases/muslim-groups-call-on-doj-to-transfer-imam-jamil-al-amin-back-to-georgia-for-fulton-da-review-of-credible-and-consistent-confessions-by-actual-perpetrator/
The Georgia chapter and national office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-GA/CAIR) today joined 28 other American Muslim organizations in calling on the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to transfer Imam Jamil Al-Amin (formerly known as H. Rap Brown) from federal custody in Arizona back to state custody in Georgia so that he can fully participate in an ongoing review of his wrongful conviction by the Fulton County District Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit. In a letter sent to the DOJ and the Bureau of Prisons, local and national American Muslim organizations also noted that the person who confessed to committing the crimes for which Imam Al-Amin was convicted, federal inmate Otis Jackson (also known as James Santos) has provided consistent and credible confessions under oath.
The invention of whiteness: the long history of a dangerous idea
The Guardian – April 20, 2021 – Robert P Baird
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/apr/20/the-invention-of-whiteness-long-history-dangerous-idea
Before the 17th century, people did not think of themselves as belonging to something called the white race. But once the idea was invented, it quickly began to reshape the modern world
As Pandemic Policies End, Hundreds of Thousands Have Lost Their Health Insurance
Mother Jones – May 26, 2023 – Arianna Coghill
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/05/report-as-pandemic-policies-end-hundreds-of-thousands-have-lost-their-health-insurance/
Nearly two months ago, a pandemic-era policy that prevented states from dropping ineligible people from Medicaid ended. Now, we’re starting to see the fallout. According to a recent New York Times report, hundreds of thousands of low-income people have already lost their health insurance, including those who may still qualify for coverage but appear to have been booted for “procedural reasons,” like failing to turn in paperwork… As I’ve previously reported, the program saw 20.2 million new recipients over the course of two years, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Since the program’s expiration at the end of March, states have begun checking Medicaid eligibility once again, requiring households to file paperwork in order to verify their eligibility.
The For-Profit Takeover of Medicare Is a Huge Scam
Jacobin – May 26, 2023 – Matthew Cunningham-Cook and Andrew Perez
https://jacobin.com/2023/05/private-health-insurance-medicare-advantage-lobbying-overpayment-upcoding
Humana is the most prominent example of how insurers have built a major cash cow out of systematically overbilling Medicare Advantage, the private Medicare program operated by private interests. These overpayments are symptomatic of a broader profit-driven policy agenda that seeks to completely privatize Medicare, one of the nation’s most popular social programs, and lock program recipients into subpar private insurance plans, even when they get sicker and need the best care possible… At the root of Medicare Advantage overpayments is “upcoding” by insurers, a scheme by which the companies systematically overbill the public as if their patients are sicker than they really are.
When faith says to help migrants – and the law says don’t
The Conversation – Mahy 19, 2023 – Laura E. Alexander
https://theconversation.com/when-faith-says-to-help-migrants-and-the-law-says-dont-203087
Many religious traditions preach the need to care for strangers. But what happens when caring for the stranger comes into conflict with government policy? After Title 42 restrictions at the U.S. border ended on May 11, 2023, debates about immigration have heated up again – focused mostly on reform, border security or refugees’ needs. But the treatment of immigrants is deeply intertwined with religious freedom as well. As a scholar of religious ethics who studies immigration, I am interested in recent cases that highlight growing tensions between immigration policies and religious groups’ commitments to pastoral and humanitarian care… Many religious traditions teach adherents to care for people regardless of what community they belong to. Religious thinkers do argue over whether their traditions encourage greater attention to people in their own communities. Still, when it comes to people’s most basic survival needs, most emphasize that care should know no borders.
Why immigration policy is so inhumane
Vox – May 21, 2023 – Kelsey Piper
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2023/5/21/23729789/immigration-title-42-migration-united-states-politics-biden-refugees-texas
The expiration of Title 42 has put migration front and center in US politics. Can a humane policy also be a winning political one?… Most economists think the country would be much richer and better off if it were significantly easier for people to get permission to live and work here, but instead it’s nearly impossible. And millions — arguably billions — of people who want to live and work here live in poverty elsewhere instead because we have made it illegal for Americans to choose to hire them… Politics is about doing what’s possible, not what’s best, and what’s possible is always going to fall far short of what’s best. At the same time, if all of us are too willing to give unethical systems and the politicians perpetuating them a pass on the pragmatic grounds that their opponents are even worse, I think that makes those unethical decisions easier to keep making — even where they aren’t necessary and we can do better.
Low-Cost, High-Quality Public Transportation Will Serve The Public Better Than Free Rides
Next City – May 25, 2023 – Nicholas Dagen Bloom
https://nextcity.org/urbanist-news/low-cost-high-quality-free-public-transit
Public transit systems face daunting challenges across the U.S., from pandemic ridership losses to traffic congestion, fare evasion and pressure to keep rides affordable. In some cities, including Boston, Kansas City and Washington, many elected officials and advocates see fare-free public transit as the solution… Some providers have initiated or are considering fare integration policies. In this approach, transfers between different types of transit and systems are free; riders pay one time…As ridership grows under Fair Fares and fare integration, I expect that additional revenue will help build better service, attracting more riders. Increasing ridership while supporting agency budgets will help make the political case for deeper public investments in service and equipment. A virtuous circle could develop.
The Movement To Stop Dollar Stores From Suffocating Black Communities
Next City – May 22, 2023 – Aallyah Wright
https://nextcity.org/urbanist-news/the-movement-to-stop-dollar-stores-from-suffocating-black-communities
For years, the Rev. Donald Perryman wondered why the formerly thriving Black downtown of Toledo, Ohio, couldn’t get a grocery store. His suspicions were confirmed after a city study found in 2020 that the opening of new Dollar General stores drove other companies out of business, deterring potential grocers from investing there. He, along with a group of ministers, knew that in order to get a supermarket, they had to stop new chain dollar stores from plaguing their communities… “They’re like an invasive species. They overpower all the resources and make the businesses in those neighborhoods vulnerable. That’s where dollar stores can thrive,” Perryman, 70, said. “No matter what community, the cause of food deserts stem from one route, and that’s economic disinvestment in vulnerable communities.”
A New Digital Legal Tool Helps Immigrant Workers Reclaim Their Stolen Wages
Next City – May 26, 2023 – Emily Nonko
https://nextcity.org/features/a-new-digital-legal-tool-helps-immigrant-workers-reclaim-their-stolen-wages
The result is ¡Reclamo!, the first independent and not-for-profit worker advocacy digital legal tool to screen and file wage theft complaints. After a three-year design process and eight-month pilot, the app launched this month as a web and mobile platform to empower New York workers and advocates to know, use and shape employment laws… As the app becomes available to anyone who needs it in New York State, there’s already demand elsewhere. Justicia Lab plans to adapt ¡Reclamo! for use in other industries, like hospitality, restaurants and retail, as well as other states with high wage theft. “Our hope is to make ¡Reclamo! available nationally,” Camarena says. Camarena and Gutierrez are particularly excited for the app to serve as an organizing tool. “Our hope is that we can use this data to inform organizing and inform policy,” Camarena says. “We don’t want to just help workers and worker advocates navigate an unjust process more quickly — we want to tackle the process itself, and tackle wage theft as a systemic issue.”
Ireland will require cancer warnings and calorie counts on alcoholic beverage labels
WHYY – PBS – May 22, 2023 – Joe Hernandez
https://whyy.org/npr_story_post/ireland-health-warning-labels-alcoholic-beverages/
Ireland has approved new rules that will require extensive health labeling on alcoholic beverages, including cancer warnings and a calorie count. Officials say providing such information, which will also have to be available in pubs and other licensed establishments, is critical as experts learn more about the health hazards of drinking. “This law is designed to give all of us as consumers a better understanding of the alcohol content and health risks associated with consuming alcohol,” Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said in a statement. “With that information, we can make an informed decision about our own alcohol consumption.” Though Ireland says it’s the first country in the world to introduce such comprehensive labeling.
Your Perfect Green Lawn Is a Buzz Kill
Mother Jones – May 7, 2023 – Tom Philpott
https://www.motherjones.com/food/2020/05/your-perfect-green-lawn-is-a-buzz-kill/
The very essence of a lawn (closely shorn, uniform, weed-free) leaves little room for the sustenance that pollinators depend on—pollen and nectar from a variety of flowers. Residential landscaping contributes to an alarming ecological crisis: a steep decline in the health of pollinating animals, whose services provide one-third of the food we eat. They don’t just power the supermarket produce aisle; pollinators keep forests, parks, and shrublands humming.
Henry Kissinger’s Killing Fields
The Intercept – May 23, 2023 – Nick Turse
https://theintercept.com/2023/05/23/henry-kissinger-cambodia-bombing-survivors/
The U.S. carpet bombing of Cambodia between 1969 and 1973 has been well documented, but its architect, former national security adviser and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who will turn 100 on Saturday, bears responsibility for more violence than has been previously reported. An investigation by The Intercept provides evidence of previously unreported attacks that killed or wounded hundreds of Cambodian civilians during Kissinger’s tenure in the White House. When questioned about his culpability for these deaths, Kissinger responded with sarcasm and refused to provide answers… “You can trace a line from the bombing of Cambodia to the present,” said Greg Grandin, author of “Kissinger’s Shadow.” “The covert justifications for illegally bombing Cambodia became the framework for the justifications of drone strikes and forever war. It’s a perfect expression of American militarism’s unbroken circle.”
The Alarming Reality of a Coming Nuclear Arms Race
Slate – May 20, 2023 – Fred Kaplan
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/05/new-nuclear-arms-race.html
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida decided to hold this weekend’s G-7 meeting in Hiroshima—the first city destroyed by an atom bomb at the end of World War II—as a way of urging his fellow leaders to work for “a world without nuclear weapons.” Now, he said, “is the moment we must insist on the need to revitalize … nuclear disarmament.”… The fact is, the world is less disposed to nuclear arms control than at any time in the past half-century—and the pressures for a renewed nuclear arms race, this time involving more than just two players, are disturbingly intense…. All of the presidents, prime ministers, and tyrants plowing their way toward possible nuclear arsenals—or enlarging their real, existing arsenals—have reasons for doing so. They may be unsound or illogical reasons. But they are based on real fears, which leave open plenty of doors for certain advisers in their midst to make the case that nukes will solve their problems… The point is, there is a logic to the U.S. and Russian impulses to build new types of nuclear weapons—though it has an insane premise. It would require a politically secure and sage leader to step out of the rabbit hole, point out that it leads only to catastrophe, and do something to snap both sides out of the race.
Defense Industry Crying Wolf on Its Finances
POGO (Project On Government Oversight) – May 22, 2023 – Julia Gledhill
https://www.pogo.org/analysis/2023/05/defense-industry-crying-wolf-on-its-finances
For the first time since 1985, the Department of Defense (DOD) has comprehensively reviewed how it finances military contracts… The study confirms the obvious: Military contractors are doing quite well in the aggregate. It also reveals financial data that contradicts industry statements about its financial inability to invest in innovation. Defense companies are grossly mischaracterizing their financial well-being and pushing Congress to grant them even more taxpayer dollars — all in the name of competing with China and supporting Ukraine. But the data indicates that defense companies are more focused on enriching their shareholders than on investing in their businesses to meet national security challenges.
Trump and DeSantis: (White Nationalist) Peas in a Pod
Tom Dispatch – May 21, 2023 – Clarence Lusane
https://tomdispatch.com/donald-trump-and-ron-desantis/
In a number of ways, as the Republican Party continues to move ever more to the right, MAGA has already evolved beyond him. Despite the media oxygen he continues to consume, the current moment is less about him than most of us believe. Just as Cleveland reflected the growing racial retrenchment of the white South in the late 1800s, Trump embodies the growing entrenchment of an ever more extremist wing of American politics… Sadly, the problem isn’t just Trump — or rather it’s not only Trump — or DeSantis either. The horror of our moment is the way the base of the contemporary Republican Party has come to embrace the most extreme views and policies around. So, here’s a final question for this difficult moment: In a forest of fascism, does it matter which tree is the tallest?
A playbook for autocracy… A State Attacks Its Universities
Steady – May 17, 2023 – Dan Rather and Elliot Kirschner
https://steady.substack.com/p/a-state-attacks-its-universities
Whereas once they were the exclusive domain of the most privileged (originally a majority were explicitly open to white males only), they have come to more closely reflect the diversity of our society and the planet as well, drawing students and faculty from around the world. These same attributes render colleges and universities dangerous to autocrats like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the pitchfork-wielding wave of like-minded Republican officials in other states who are targeting academic freedom, free speech, and the very need to reckon with reality. The health, vitality, and future of our nation are at risk. It is common for despots to attack intellectuals and universities. Free thought is anathema to the slavish obedience that authoritarians demand. So it should come as no surprise that DeSantis has put Florida’s schools in his sights as he wages a cynical and destructive culture war that he believes will one day deliver him the presidency of the United States… The crowd that countenances racism, denigrates science, and undermines democratic values is eager to remake higher education to serve their craven interests. They are weakening their states and our nation in the process. But one has a feeling — perhaps hope is the more apt word — that they will ultimately lose.
The Fight Against Book Bans Is Mobilizing a New Generation of Student Activists
Truthout – May 25, 2023 – Emily Drabinski
https://truthout.org/articles/the-fight-against-book-bans-is-mobilizing-a-new-generation-of-student-activists/
The rise of organized attempts to censor school curricula and materials available in school libraries is proving to be a fertile training ground for a new generation of student activists. Facing the removal of books about LGBTQ+ and BIPOC experiences, students are demanding the right to read in schools across the country. Nowhere is this truer than in Texas, a state where equal access to a range of stories has been under attack for years… “I tapped into already established networks that were already passionate,” Samuels told Truthout. Student clubs for creative writing, reading groups and the Gay-Straight Alliance were their first targets. “These were groups that already had leaders,” Samuels said. Over the next few months of organizing, Samuels and their fellow activists packed school board meetings (Samuels never testified alone again), lobbied for the right to read at the Texas legislature as part of Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, and distributed hundreds of copies of banned books to students in the school district.
Hot Labor Summer
Portside – May 25, 2023 – Bill Lipton
https://portside.org/2023-05-25/hot-labor-summer
Could this summer be an opportunity for allies of labor to mobilize a broader cross-section of the public to engage in acts of solidarity? Could such an effort help build a coalition politically powerful enough to demand that Democrats embrace labor’s agenda as their own? And finally, could our collective actions help produce a political shift that could eventually win labor law reform, unlocking the labor movement’s power—and the democratic impulses that come with it—that we desperately need to begin to address some of our most pressing issues?… But perhaps the fights this summer could be a turning point. With these three contract battles heating up, hundreds of thousands of workers will mobilize across racial and generational lines in every region of the country. It could be a unique moment to grow a coalition that engages a broader public, one that partners with Black and brown, rural and LGBTQ communities and cuts against the Right’s divide-and-conquer politics. It’s not a new idea, and, to their credit, Jobs With Justice (JWJ) and others have labored for decades on behalf of this very notion… Most ambitiously, one could imagine this solidarity work being a step toward fostering the broader coalition we need to win pro-labor Democratic majorities that can pass labor law reform and, in the process, help save our democracy.
Imagine a Renters’ Utopia. It Might Look Like Vienna
Portside – May 25, 2023 – Francesca Mari
https://portside.org/2023-05-25/imagine-renters-utopia-it-might-look-vienna
Soaring real estate markets have created a worldwide housing crisis. What can we learn from a city that has largely avoided it? The difference is Vienna prioritizes subsidizing construction, while the U.S. prioritizes subsidizing people with vouchers .. Experts refer to Vienna’s Gemeindebauten as “social housing,” a phrase that captures how the city’s public housing and other limited-profit housing are a widely shared social benefit: The Gemeindebauten welcome the middle class, not just the poor. In Vienna, a whopping 80 percent of residents qualify for public housing, and once you have a contract, it never expires, even if you get richer. Housing experts believe that this approach leads to greater economic diversity within public housing — and better outcomes for the people living in it… To American eyes, the whole Viennese setup can appear fancifully socialistic. But set that aside, and what’s mind-boggling is how social housing gives the economic lives of Viennese an entirely different shape… America’s public housing was designed to fail: to be unappealing to anyone who could afford to rent. As Bauer predicted early on, housing programs targeting only the poor would lack the political support necessary to thrive. Only an integrated program, one that welcomed the majority like the Gemeindebau of Vienna, would be sustainable.
ChatGPT Imagines A World Where Power Structures Are Reversed
The Pulse – May 24, 20923 – Joe Martino
https://www.thepulse.one/p/chatgpt-imagines-a-world-where-power
We spend so much time as a society imagining what is possible from inside the insanity and disconnection of our current moment. We spend little time in curious wonder about what’s possible if we truly believed we could change things. Usually it’s economic endeavours or other system incentives that drive what our evolution should look like. Creating space for these truly wondrous and creative conversation, outside the confines of our existing system, seems paramount to me. It’s why I was intrigued when I learned that someone asked ChatGPT to describe a world where the power structures are reversed.