Researchers have known that a fair amount of methane escapes during mining for natural gas. This new article reveals that gas escaping isn't just a problem associated with the frack sites: it's a huge problem all over the US. Of course, it's worse near frack sites, where babies are more likely to suffer. Gas is so much better than coal, but problems just keep cropping up!
On the other hand the offshore wind energy sector seems to be booming. New Jersey's making a $1.6 billion wind farm, offshore wind generation is set to expand in Britain, and just last week New York approved another large facility. Wow, I was wrong: it's so ridiculously expensive that I thought there were better alternatives, but this looks like where things are going in the near term, at least!
Update 7/29: more offshore wind now online in Scotland.
Update 11/20: it looks like the natural gas boom may be winding down
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
Tuesday, July 9, 2019
Minimum wage
This really isn't my bag, but this article on the effects of raising the minimum wage caught my eye. In places where the minimum wage is raised:
* Suicide rates drop (and increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit for the poor does too)
* Criminality drops
* Consumer spending rises
* Workers are more productive
* Wage increases happen for higher paid employees as well
* Poverty rates drop
* Job-hopping drops
* Old folks work longer
* Suicide rates drop (and increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit for the poor does too)
* Criminality drops
* Consumer spending rises
* Workers are more productive
* Wage increases happen for higher paid employees as well
* Poverty rates drop
* Job-hopping drops
* Old folks work longer
Saturday, July 6, 2019
Global destabilization
Can you tell I'm cleaning out my files for tidbits that were of interest to me over the past year? I hope you find something interesting in all of this!
This tidbit focuses on how the 1492 interaction of Europeans with indigenous Americans was a major turning point for world climate. Yes, about 60 million people died, and though most of that wasn't anyone's fault, it's certainly true that the Europeans' behavior was hardly exemplary thereafter. More importantly from the climate's perspective, a great deal of carbon was removed from the atmosphere as plants took up a lot of what had been previously used by people clearing fields for crops and burning wood and other fuels.
This is the latest update I've seen on the inquiry that for me started with Jared Diamond's Guns Germs & Steel and later continued in Charles Mann's books 1491 and 1493. I am not an expert on this area at all but I do find it fascinating! I welcome anyone else's suggestions on books or other work on this topic.
This tidbit focuses on how the 1492 interaction of Europeans with indigenous Americans was a major turning point for world climate. Yes, about 60 million people died, and though most of that wasn't anyone's fault, it's certainly true that the Europeans' behavior was hardly exemplary thereafter. More importantly from the climate's perspective, a great deal of carbon was removed from the atmosphere as plants took up a lot of what had been previously used by people clearing fields for crops and burning wood and other fuels.
This is the latest update I've seen on the inquiry that for me started with Jared Diamond's Guns Germs & Steel and later continued in Charles Mann's books 1491 and 1493. I am not an expert on this area at all but I do find it fascinating! I welcome anyone else's suggestions on books or other work on this topic.
Meat vs. Carbs
Two contrasting points for you today! Should we:
1) limit our red meat intake? That heightens your risk of dying by 10-13%. :O
or
2) limit our intake of carbs? Wrong again: that will increase your probability of coming down with Alzheimer's. :( So I guess we should eat only vegetable, fruits, chicken, and fish...?
That's pretty much the right answer, actually, according to this 2019 article in leading health journal the Lancet (Lancet link here, found online here). "Transformation to healthy diets by 2050 will require substantial dietary shifts, including a greater than 50% reduction in global consumption of unhealthy foods, such as red meat and sugar, and a greater than 100% increase in consumption of healthy foods, such as nuts, fruits, vegetables, and legumes."
1) limit our red meat intake? That heightens your risk of dying by 10-13%. :O
or
2) limit our intake of carbs? Wrong again: that will increase your probability of coming down with Alzheimer's. :( So I guess we should eat only vegetable, fruits, chicken, and fish...?
That's pretty much the right answer, actually, according to this 2019 article in leading health journal the Lancet (Lancet link here, found online here). "Transformation to healthy diets by 2050 will require substantial dietary shifts, including a greater than 50% reduction in global consumption of unhealthy foods, such as red meat and sugar, and a greater than 100% increase in consumption of healthy foods, such as nuts, fruits, vegetables, and legumes."
Friday, July 5, 2019
10x US spending on education?
Do you know what the US government spends its money on? More than the defense budget, and 10x more than all education spending, at $649 billion per year (as of 2015) fossil fuel subsidies are even higher than Medicare, if I'm reading this right. Whoa.
Meanwhile, I found this video on Nuclear pretty interesting, and there's more on Forbes about renewables. Certainly our tax dollars can be better spent!
Meanwhile, I found this video on Nuclear pretty interesting, and there's more on Forbes about renewables. Certainly our tax dollars can be better spent!
Glyphosate & Australia
In my class this spring semester we watched a documentary about glyphosate that was posted by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The end of the movie talks about what a huge change it is going to be for agriculture across the country if glyphosate is no longer a part of the system. Today I read that workers are taking the first steps to rid themselves from reliance on the chemical. Rooting that out is going to be a difficult process but hopefully they can make progress!
Update: found another interesting article on the role of glyphosate in modern agriculture. "Desiccation makes it possible to cultivate massive tracts of farmland and feed billions of people profitably. Based on the evidence we have so far, we can’t prove that that there is any health cost to the practice. But neither can we say there isn’t a cost—and there are many reasons to think there might be one. "
Update: found another interesting article on the role of glyphosate in modern agriculture. "Desiccation makes it possible to cultivate massive tracts of farmland and feed billions of people profitably. Based on the evidence we have so far, we can’t prove that that there is any health cost to the practice. But neither can we say there isn’t a cost—and there are many reasons to think there might be one. "
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)