Humanity Needs to All Start Working Together

Nothing shows any better how humanity needs to start and then keep working together for all our benefit than this killing, international pandemic, worst of the last more than 100 years.  Coincidentally, I wrote this on social media, again, a week ago. Also coincidentally, an article in The Atlantic rather makes this same point now.

Credit: Getty Images

Bhutan Is the World's Unlikeliest Pandemic Success Story

On january 7, a 34-year-old man who had been admitted to a hospital in Bhutan’s capital, Thimphu, with preexisting liver and kidney problems died of COVID-19. His was the country’s first death from the coronavirus. Not the first death that day, that week, or that month: the very first coronavirus death since the pandemic began.

How is this possible? Since the novel coronavirus was first identified more than a year ago, health systems in rich and poor countries have approached collapse, economies worldwide have been devastated, millions of lives have been lost. How has Bhutan—a tiny, poor nation best known for its guiding policy of Gross National Happiness, which balances economic development with environmental conservation and cultural values—managed such a feat? And what can we in the United States, which has so tragically mismanaged the crisis, learn from its success?

In fact, what can the U.S. and other wealthy countries learn from the array of resource-starved counterparts that have better weathered the coronavirus pandemic, even if those nations haven’t achieved Bhutan’s impressive statistics? Countries such as Vietnam, which has so far logged only 35 deaths, Rwanda, with 226, Senegal, with 700, and plenty of others have negotiated the crisis far more smoothly than have Europe and North America.

These nations offer plenty of lessons, from the importance of attentive leadership, the need to ensure that people have enough provisions and financial means to follow public-health guidance, and the shared understanding that individuals and communities must sacrifice to protect the well-being of all: elements that have been sorely lacking in the U.S.

America has “the world’s best medical-rescue system—we have unbelievable ICUs,” Asaf Bitton, executive director of Ariadne Labs, a Boston-based center for health-systems innovation, told me. But, he said, we have neglected a public-health focus on prevention, which socially cohesive low- and middle-income countries have no choice but to adopt, because a runaway epidemic would quickly overwhelm them.

“People say the COVID disaster in America has been about a denial of science. But what we couldn’t agree on is the social compact we would need to make painful choices together in unity, for the collective good,” Bitton added. “I don’t know whether, right now in the U.S., we can have easy or effective conversations about a common good. But we need to start.”

But then, beyond this killing pandemic? Other things we need to all come together to work on and against.

Climate change. Global warming.  Pollution.

What Humanity Must Do to Prevent Catastrophic Climate

More.

Poverty.   Yes, poverty. Everyone, the world over, needs to recognize that poverty is a human construct.

Poverty is a social construct

3 Ways Humans Create Poverty

Poverty as a Social Problem its Causes and Solutions

And we need to start soon.

Now.

Earth Day 2019: Where We Are and Where We Need To Go

Earth Day, 2019.

So much to say. Worse, so much to do.

49 years ago today, we had the first Earth Day. People could look around, and they did, to see we had polluted our planet horribly and still were. Rivers were catching fire, literally, from what we poured and dumped into them and our air was filthy. You could not just see it, the air, you could see the filth we dumped and were dumping into that. We called it a nice, polite word we could live with. That is, smog.

So we got smart.

We passed laws, clean air and water laws. We worked together.

And it worked.

Our air is cleaner now than it used to be. Our waterways got cleaner. Rivers stopped catching on fire.

Now, however, there is a man supposed to be leading our nation, he and his political party are taking us backward. They're undoing some of those laws. The old fool wants to take us back to foul, dirty, literally killing coal.  Here are two examples.

Complete Wiping Away of Clean Water Act': Trump EPA Rule Would Free Corporations to Pollute Nation's Water Much as They Please

Trump pressures TVA to keep old coal power plant running

It's insane, it's certainly irresponsible but it's who he is and what he wants. 

We had to fight once for all this and we won. Then, there was the hole in the ozone layer. We learned what the problem was, we fought it, we worked together, we corrected our actions, our production and use of chlorfluorocarbons, CFCs and fixed it.

Now, there is an even bigger problem.

We, as a people, all across the world, are pouring carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, at unheard of rates, with our cars and burning coal, etc., and we're heating up the planet. Nearly all scientists, across the world, agree on this. The data shows we are.

The data also shows the ice caps and glaciers across the planet are melting--and at rapid, unheard of rates--we're experiencing ever-hotter years, year after year, across the globe and we're experiencing destructive, even killing weather events worldwide. From floods to drought to wildfires, we're already there.

But corporations and the political parties they can buy want to derail efforts to move from fossil fuels, toward "green", sustainable energy.

Fortunately, the people and technology are against these people and their efforts.

Battery Costs Drop Even Faster As Electric Car Sales Continue To Rise

A Majority of Americans Want the Federal Government to do More to Protect Air and Water

So what this all boils down to is that we must wait this man in the White House out, work against his agenda(s), him and his party, work, fight for clean air and water and soil and not let our guard down.

For a while, with this man in the White House and his political party controlling the Senate, we'll have to fight him and them but fight we must. Fortunately, we have science and data and logic, common sense--and our survival--on our side.

Science in Our Upcoming Elections, State by State

Another fascinating article out this week, this one on the national elections, state by state.

The Most Important Science Policy Issue in Every State

Lots of these issues have to do with flooding, wildfires, chemical runoff and corporate farming.

Missouri’s contribution to this is fascinating and at the forefront of an issue and change.

Missouri: The fake-meat debate

Missouri has become the epicenter of a fracas between meat producers and the burgeoning “fake meat” industry, a market that has jumped 24 percent since 2015. This past May, the legislature passed a bill that bars makers of flesh substitutes from using the word “meat” on their labels. Backed by the Missouri Cattlemen’s Association and pork producers, the bill could stifle growth of a new industry, according to meat substitute producers. Columbia-based Beyond Meat, for instance, could likely have to change its name, and warns that the measure could result in job loss. The company, together with University of Missouri researchers, has developed plant-based burgers, chicken strips, and sausages that closely resemble real meat. Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown says the bill would do little to convince consumers to opt for the real thing.

This part is especially interesting.

In late August, vegan food maker Tofurky, along with the Animal Legal Defense Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri, filed suit against the state, arguing that the new law stifles free speech and hampers competition.

From Kansas, it’s one more example, and a great one, of why we need newspapers and their reporters. In this, the Wichita Eagle-Beacon came to the rescue.

Kansas: Dry-cleaning chemicals in residents’ water

This past summer, an investigation in the Wichita Eagle newspaper found that hundreds of residents drank and bathed in water fouled with the dry-cleaning chemical perchloroethylene (PCE) for more than six years—and that state officials failed to inform the communities. At one site, PCE levels in the groundwater were 8.1 parts per billion; EPA limit is 5 ppb. As many as 22 other contaminated sites may have gone unaddressed, according to the investigation. A 1995 state law lobbied for by the dry-cleaning industry appears to be largely to blame. The Kansas Drycleaner Environmental Response Act included a provision that directed state regulators to refrain from looking for contamination from dry cleaners and “make every reasonable effort” to keep sites off the EPA’s Superfund list. Residents are calling for the state to scrub up the areas and for lawmakers to strike the part of the legislation that bars checking for PCE leaks in groundwater.

All these, from state to state, point out why we so desperately and completely need government—state and federal both. If we don’t have these governments, there are no ways to keep our air, water and soil clean and clear. Corporations would be able to do whatever they wish, people and animal life be damned.

You might also check out Arkansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Virginia and their issues, especially.

With All This Plastic In Our Oceans...

I keep seeing, day after day, video on all the plastic in our oceans and on sea life, choking, killing them. Maybe you've seen some of them.







So with all this, is anyone asking what the cruise ships are doing with their waste from onboard?

Are they still dumping? Indiscriminately?

Shouldn't there be laws, international laws, all making this illegal?

Can we not all agree on that?

Stephen Hawking, 1942 - 2018

Rest in peace, sir.

May we try to live up to your guidance and advice.

Face it. We Like Money More

Click on the picture.  Read it.

It's Getting Worse for Brazil and Those Summer Olympics

I wrote this at the end of January this year:

This Year's Coming Summer Olympics

And then this, the middle of March:

 On These Coming Summer Olympics?

And now, things are getting just many times worse for Brazil and the possibility of their having these Olympics this year.  These are some of the latest revelations that have come out:

Brazil World Cup winner Rivaldo warns tourists to avoid Rio

Check that out. This guy is a Brazilian himself and he's telling people to stay away, first. Second, he's an Olympic athlete who would normally want, of course, people to come to the Olympics but he's, again, advising people to not attend. That's pretty incredible alone.

At the same time as all this is going on, Brazil's President is in the middle of a scandal investigation she may well be impeached for and as soon as this evening and there are other people in the government, too, accused of financial wrongs.

Brazil impeachment: President Dilma Rousseff's fate in Senate hands

The government has had the worst or near worst

How the Rio Olympics Could Cement 

a Brazilian Coup

The nation itself has had to warn pregnant women to stay away from these Olympics due to the Zika virus and because it's considered the epicenter of the problem and outbreak.

Brazil warns pregnant women to 

stay away from Olympics

Taking that one big, no, huge step further, there's this warning and to anyone and everyone who might attend:

Public Health Professor: Because Of Zika, Rio Olympics 'Must Not Proceed'

Finally, as if all that weren't far and awful enough, there's the pollution of Rio and Brazil.

Funding problems hit plan to clean 

Rio's polluted waterways

The athletes even have to train in the pollution, nearly unbelievably.

Trash and contamination continue to 

pollute Olympic training

Rio water will still be polluted for 

Summer Olympics

It's as I said. I think these are likely to be the least attended and certainly most filed Summer Olympics, in fact, Olympics, period, since likely their being begun again, all those decades ago. 

The poor people of Brazil will be made all the poorer with this, all this.

And meantime, for the Olympics overall, perhaps now the IOC will finally, finally give up taking them around the world every 4 years to different cities. It frequently ended up bankrupting cities. Perhaps they could locate it in Greece, permanently.

On These Coming Summer Olympics?

I wrote earlier about this year's coming Summer Olympics:

This Year's Coming Summer Olympics

Between their pollution and the Zika virus, I felt sure these Olympics will quite possibly be the least attended in years.

Now, on top of all those problems and controversies, it seems they aren't done there, they've had to add to it. This news broke this week, internationally:

Brazil corruption: Is the government in crisis?

It seems there's been a great deal of corruption, from the previous Presidente to the current one. And the current one was trying, this week, to give that previous one, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, cover and protection by making him a defacto member of her government so he wouldn't be prosecuted.

I tell you, I have to think the International Olympic Committee is nothing but regretting giving Brazil these Olympics.  I stand by what I said earlier, the closer we get to these Summer Olympics, the more it looks like they will be under attended and possibly greatly so.

Stay tuned.

This Year's Coming Summer Olympics

I would nearly bet this year's 2016 Summer Olympics will be the least attended games in years and there are 2 rather significant reasons in their own right. 

'Rio's filth' spoiling 2016 Summer Olympics

Rio de Janeiro water quality concerns 

continue to rise

and

Zika virus 'spreading explosively' in 

North and South America

We shall see.

I certainly wish them well (for what it's worth).

Fascinating NASA Study

Report today of a study by NASA on civilizations.

NASA claims: Dozens of advanced ancient civilizations collapsed before us

I know, right? I thought they just studied the stars.

Anyway, they studied why civilizations collapse, what takes them down. You'll find the entire study at the link below.

The study came to the conclusion there are two key social features that contributed to the collapse of every single advanced civilization from the past:

“...the stretching of resources due to the strain placed on the ecological carrying capacity”;

and “the economic stratification of society into Elites [rich] and Masses (or “Commoners”) [poor]”

These social phenomena have played “a central role in the character or in the process of the collapse,” in all such cases over “the last five thousand years.”

So I ask you, does any of this sound familiar, folks?

Link to original study: 

Human and nature dynamics (HANDY): Modeling inequality

Climate Talks In Paris: The Story That's Not Being Covered

So, sure, there are climate change talks going on between 150 nations and it's widely agreed we all need to come to conclusions and goals but.....   in the meantime, there is a rather huge story going on that is extremely pertinent but that isn't being reported much, if at all, by American media. It is this:

Northern China is suffering under a cloud of heavy pollution that is bigger than Spain

As the Paris climate change summit kicks off, China, the world’s leading carbon-emitting country, is choked in pollution. The Ministry of Environmental Protection said Sunday (Nov. 29) (link in Chinese) that heavy smog had covered China’s north, including Beijing, for three days in a row. The haze had reached 530,000 square kilometers ( 204,634 square miles) by Nov. 28.

That is even bigger than the total area of Spain, or California.

The air quality index (AQI) for the fine particulate matter known as PM 2.5 had reached “very unhealthy” or “hazardous” levels in 23 cities in the combined Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area and surrounding regions on Nov. 28, the ministry said. At one time on Nov. 29, PM 2.5 in Beijing reached 429 micrograms per cubic meter, 17 times the recommended limit by the World Health Organization. The reading of Beijing’s AQI was still “hazardous” at 2pm Hong Kong time on Nov. 30, according toair quality monitors...

It goes on:

Pollution hit northern China earlier this month after coal-powered central heating kicked in. Beijing has issued an “orange” alert—the highest smog alert so far this year—and urged residents to stay indoor. Factories have to reduce production and construction sites and heavy vehicles are banned under the orange alert.

And then, if that isn't enough, if 23 cities across China having horrific pollution isn't enough to scare that nation into action and the rest of us as well, there's this from their next door neighbor:

Early morning fog delayed many trains in New Delhi.

Smog capitals: Alert in Beijing, business as usual in Delhi

NEW DELHI: As world leaders met in Paris on Monday to commit to a united fight against climate change, the capitals of India and China remained blanketed in heavy smog triggered by pollution. The difference was that Beijing sounded an alert for its citizens while in Delhi it was business as usual...

Authorities in Beijing have issued an 'orange' pollution alert, the second highest of four levels, wherein outdoor activities in schools and construction work is suspended and residents warned to stay indoors, agencies reported.

Delhi, meanwhile, witnessed one of its worst smog of the season, with visibility remaining less than 800 metres through Monday. PM 2.5 levels were in the 'severe' category in many parts of the city, with the most polluted spot, Anand Vihar, showing levels up to 530 mcg/cubic m between 2.30pm and 8pm.

Despite being labelled by WHO as the world's most polluted city, there's no protocol in Delhi for warning residents when pollution levels spike in the city. PM 2.5 levels at individual air monitoring stations have in the past few days crossed the 600 mark.

So while it's bad in China and across much of that nation, it's as bad or worse in India, in Delhi. And unlike China, the Indian government doesn't even do anything about it. There are, as the article states, no warnings to the citizens of just how bad the pollution is or what it could mean for the people's health.

With this, it seems a few conclusions absolutely have to be arrived at.

The first is that, yes, we absolutely have to do things about global warming but that we rather have to "go back" to the 60's or 70's American problem, so to speak, about the pollution in these 2 countries. The governments and people of those 2 nations have got to work on these currently life-threatening problems. With India being so desperately poor and trying to industrialize, this will be extremely difficult, without doubt.

The second thing that needs to be pointed out is that we, here in the US, need to lose, once and for all, the silly, irresponsible idea that we don't need the Environmental Protection Agency or that it should be weak.

These 2 countries situations, let alone our own history, should prove that we certainly, absolutely, unquestionably need to commit to clean air, water and soil and that any person or group of people---like the Republicans or Right Wing---who say otherwise are being absurdly, irresponsibly short-sighted and foolish.

Finally, we need, as a nation, as a world, to commit to and accept the idea that we must work, all of us, together, to keep that same air, water and soil clean and that we must accept global warming as described and defined and accepted by the scientists as fact for us all. Then we must work, all of us, the world over, to decrease the ways in which we add to these problems and this issue.

It will not be easy.

Links: China and India Cities Have Worst Air Pollution in the World

Cities in India Among the Most Polluted, W.H.O. Says

Top 20 most polluted cities in the world

x

Beijing Leaders Talk Climate in Paris While Residents Sit in Record Smog

Mind your carbon footprints, give us space to grow: PM Modi to rich nations 

The Latest: Obama says India can cut emissions and poverty

Further Proof and Reason Why the US Needs to Cut Its Defense Budget

Our biggest military threat?

China?

This, from the New York Times, late last evening:

China Pledges to Cut 300000 Troops From Its 

Massive Army

BEIJING — Chinese President Xi Jinping has pledged a reduction of 300,000 troops from China's 2.3 million-member People's Liberation Army, amid rising personnel costs and growing technological capabilities that reduce the need for large numbers of troops.

The announcement Thursday at the start of a massive parade commemorating Japan's World War II defeat 70 years ago brings the military's headcount down to about 2 million.

Once known for its human wave tactics in conflicts such as the Korean War, the PLA is increasingly focused on high-tech weaponry and more focused missions.

This, following the now-famous blast a few weeks ago:

Death toll from Tianjin, China, 

explosions over 100

Not to be done there, followed by this, 3 days ago:

Another Chemical Plant Explosion in China

And then there's all their other environmental problems, effecting their economy, their collective health and so many other issues:

China's Environmental Crisis

So tell me again why the US spends so grossly, wildly, even obscenely and certainly immorally on our defense budget and military?

Links:  Chinas Top 6 Environmental Concerns

WWF - Environmental problems in China

China's Environmental Awakening

China Wakes Up to Its Environmental Catastrophe

Why China Can't Fix Its Environment

China's environmental problems are grim, admits ministry

China turns to drastic measures to avoid water crisis

China's Looming Water Shortage

China's Water Problems Are Even Worse Than You Think

Quote of the Day -- Sunday Edition

Dear Future Generations

Link:  Stand for Trees

How To Be A Good Repubican

The Time Has Come to Tax Trash in the US

Really, the time has long since come and gone that we need to tax trash.

Yes, tax trash.

Check out this one statistic:

In 2010, U.S. residents recycled 34% of their waste–an embarrassing amount compared to European countries like the Netherlands, Germany, and Austria, where people recycle almost all of their waste. In Sweden, people are so diligent about recycling that just 4% of all trash ends up in landfills...

We Americans figured, I think, we have all this space--quite unlike Europe--we don't have to care.

Well, we do have to care. The total municipal solid waste in 2012 alone was 251 million tons. (see link below). And that amount has surely risen greatly since then.

The time is now.

The more one throws away, the more you pay. It only makes sense. We need to do this.

In the first place, we throw away and waste far too much. We all know that. If we recycled only paper, aluminum and glass, alone, millions upon millions of pounds, if not tons, of products wouldn't go to waste dumps.

Second, surely we recognize we can no longer afford the soil, the Earth our waste dumps take up.

Third, there's the pollution it causes, the runoff into the soil and possibly into waterways. We have to recognize that--and that it must stop.

Then, there's the fact that it would be so very easy to do. And we could use the market economy to make this happen.

The smallest tax, employed to reduce this waste, would very likely have a huge,  positive effect.

And it's so simple. It's not like it wouldn't be understood.

The more your throw away, the more the hauler takes away, the more you pay. That's it. It makes far too much sense not to do this.

Can you imagine what we would save, what we would no longer waste, by doing this?

Think now about how much paper and plastic alone go into waste dumps just from corporate America--from the fast food industry alone.

We'd save the paper, we'd save the glass, we'd reuse the aluminum, all.

Then we'd be saving the land, saving our streams and saving forests.

No, this makes far, far too much sense.

We need to get on this.

Link:

 Municipal Solid Waste in the United States: Facts and Figures

Happy Earth Day

This is what I think of when I hear people say we shouldn't do anything about global warming or climate change:

I also think "Idiots."

The Social Media Sell Job on the Keystone XL Pipeline has begun

With Republicans taking over Congress this week, it became clear the social media "sell job" has gotten under way. I was just pulling up a video to watch on YouTube---ironically, with Noam Chomsky and Chris Hedges---when this disgusting bit of advertising just came up:



Naturally "Comments are disabled for this video."  Of course. 

In the ad, they claim they're building it "to bring energy security to the United States."

Wow.

That is one gigantic lie.

Here's the YouTube video more should see:



And this one:



No to the KXL. No on the Keystone XL pipeline.

Missourians Against the Keystone XL Pipeline

Contact your representatives in Congress. Tell them no on the Keystone XL pipeline.


Contacting the Congress: A Citizen's Congressional Directory

With the New Year and New Congress

With the coming new year and a new, now Republican Congress, it's important---so important---that Missourians and Americans realize all that the Transcanada tar sands Keystone XL pipeline is and what it would mean to Americans. This only benefits the oil company, Transcanada and wealthy people. It takes that foreign oil, has it cross our country--it's fields and creeks and water sources---and goes out to world markets. This does not benefit America. No way.



More here. Links:

Oil field fumes so painful, Alberta families forced to move

Buyout packages allegedly silence Albertans struck with industry-related cancer

Broken trust: Alberta family without answers about oil sands' health impact

Enbridge Line 4 spills 56,700-gallons of oil, causing closure of pipeline to U.S.

Contact your representatives in Congress and President Obama. Tell them America neither needs nor wants this Keystone XL pipeline.  

Contact the U.S. Congress and the White House

Thank you, in advance.

We can do this.

The Time Has Come for International Recycling

I've held this opinion for quite some time that all cities in the US need to require we recycle.

Think about it.

All the paper, plastic, glass and aluminum we use?

Right now, far, far too much simply goes into wastebaskets first, then dump trucks, then into landfills.

How does that make any sense?

And the ones the worst at it?

Chain restaurants.

But all of us need to do this.

Then, I got thinking bigger and more broadly. I got to thinking statewide. Then, why stop there? We need this nationally.

But again, I got thinking bigger yet.

We need all nations, all people around the world to recycle. It only makes sense.

We don't have the room to just dump all this waste. And the fact is, it doesn't have to be waste. We can reuse it. And we know we can. Some of us have recycled for years.

Now? We all need to.

And like "Obamacare", Americans won't like being told what to do. They won't like it even if it's the next president in the White House and not this one. Being told what to do just goes against our grain. We're far too proud for that.

But in the meantime, take a quick look at what all this waste of paper, plastic, glass and aluminum is getting us. I saw this article yesterday. It's from ABC News:

Startling Images of the Tons of Trash in the World's Oceans

It just makes no sense to continue as we have until now. There's more here, this time on those waste dumps we've created, all around the world:

Community, Globalization, and Tons of Trash

The time has come.

This makes too much sense. It makes far too much sense. We even need to do it just for ourselves but we need to do it for our children and grandchildren, as well, certainly.

And heads up, folks. It would create jobs, too.

Let's get this party started.