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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

Catano, Puerto Rico, September 21, 2017

Hurricane Maria in 2017 was only one of Puerto Rico’s woes that resulted in this considerable exodus; earthquakes and the financial debacle springing from its huge debt burden didn’t help either.

Unlike the other two, however, hurricanes can only be expected to become more frequent and virulent as time passes and the temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans continue to rise.

At a certain point, the island will become uninhabitable, because the cost of rebuilding after each superstorm will eventually be impossible to justify.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Here’s a reminder of all the good in people.

The Earth, the human civilization that lives on it, and the other life forms that make up the entirety of our ecosystem are all in trouble.  At the same time, there are more than 200,000 groups on the planet, each with the mission of environmental and/or social justice.

We all need to do our part.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

My wife frequently mentions that she’d like to leave this country, that the sickening level of cruelty and stupidity has brought her to a point that she’s extremely uncomfortable here.

If you’re physically capable of watching this video, hard to do as it may be, you’ll see exactly what lies behind her thinking.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

The only real hope for America is that stupidity is not normalized.

At left is a reminder that the 45th president is missing some important faculties.

As a nation, we need to get to a point at which we all recognize that Trump was a mistake, that he was both intellectually and morally incapable of running a country.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

It’s common knowledge that the rate of change that our civilization is experiencing is increasing at an incredible clip.  This applies to technology, of course, but it’s also true of the general activity that we see in our society.

It’s easy to be pessimistic about all this because, let’s be honest, there is a lot of scary stuff out there, with the racists, the QAnon people, anti-vaxxers, the climate deniers, the stolen election folks, and the rest.

But look at all the progress the United States has made in just the last few months, and the meme here is an excellent example.  During the Trump administration we saw a member of Congress stand up and make the nonsensical claim that there is no evidence that school lunches improve student performance.  And here we are, just a couple of years later, on our way to universal school lunches.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

As suggested here, we really do have a problem in America regarding the distribution of wealth.  Ever since I was a young man, I’ve believed that this is the inevitable end-game of free-market capitalism, a system of government that is totally amoral.  Note, it’s not immoral; it doesn’t deliberately hurt innocent people; it just couldn’t care less about their well-being. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

The 1992 United States presidential election saw Democratic Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas defeat incumbent Republican President George H. W. Bush (as well as Ross Perot).

I was lucky enough to live in one of Bush 41’s whistle stops, Woodland Hills, CA, and listened to a speech in which he asserted that Clinton was such a thoroughgoing liberal treehugger that, if elected, the entire nation would become overrun with (the endangered) spotted owl. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I’m reminded of the time then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo challenged NPR’s Harvard/Cambridge educated Mary Louise Kelly, arguably the most senior news broadcast journalist in the nation, to identify Ukraine on an unmarked globe.

What a boob.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

Here’s a recent edition of the PBS News Hour, covering the part of U.S. President Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure plan that promotes electric transportation.

According to the piece, the path to getting the replacement of internal combustion engines is not without hurdles. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I just signed up to receive a daily e-newsletter called 1440 whose ad reads:

Overwhelmed By Opinion Disguised As Fact, And Relentless Clickbait?  1440 provides an impartial view of what’s happening in the world so our readers can form their own conclusions. We scour hundreds of sources each day to bring you a single morning briefing thoughtfully curated by experts. (more…)

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