What In The World

Finally, A Rich American Destroys The Fiction That Rich People Create The Jobs

pschales@gmail.com (Paula Schales) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:45:37 PST

"In the war of rhetoric that has developed in Washington as both sides blame each other for our economic mess, one argument has been repeated so often that many people now regard it as fact:

Rich people create the jobs.

But now a super-rich and super-successful American has explained the most important reason the theory is absurd, while calling for higher taxes on himself and people like him."

Read this article by Henry Blodget from the Daily Ticker to see how he so logically debunks this theory.

Hydraulic Fracturing is just plain bad!

pschales@gmail.com (Paula Schales) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 00:21:41 PST

If you have any questions about the effects of hydraulic fracturing, fracking, on the environment then watch the documentary Gasland. This documentary takes you on a journey from Pennsylvania to Colorado to see the effects of fracking and hear interviews from residents experiencing polluted wells caused by all of the chemicals used in fracking. After watching it then read the following article which was recently published in the New York Times by Ian Urbina and Jo Craven McGinty (Dec 1, 2011):

New York Times Article: Learning to Late of the Perils in Gas Well Leases

Next, read/listen to the interview from 'All Things Considered' on NPR about the EPA study that connects fracking to water contamination in Wyoming:

"The Environmental Protection Agency released a draft study Thursday tying the technique, formally called hydraulic fracturing, to high levels of chemicals found in ground water in the small town of Pavillion, Wyo. EPA scientists found high levels of benzene, a known carcinogen, and synthetic glycol and alcohol, commonly found in hydraulic fracturing fluid."

NPR Interview: EPA Connects 'Fracking' To Water Contamination

The American People are Angry

pschales@gmail.com (Paula Schales) — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 01:38:08 PDT

"The rich are getting richer. Their effective tax rate, in recent years, has been reduced to the lowest in modern history. Nurses, teachers and firemen actually pay a higher tax rate than some billionaires. It's no wonder the American people are angry."

"In the midst of this, Republicans in Congress have been fanatically determined to protect the interests of the wealthy and large multinational corporations so that they do not contribute a single penny toward deficit reduction."

"If the Republicans have their way, the entire burden of deficit reduction will be placed on the elderly, the sick, children and working families. In the midst of a horrendous recession that is already causing severe pain for average Americans, this approach is morally grotesque. It's also bad economic policy."

Read the entire article by Bernie Sanders in the Wall Street Journal

Bernie Sanders in the Senate

Health Care Industry Abuses

pschales@gmail.com (Paula Schales) — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 17:22:42 PDT

Medical debt is the leading cause of bankruptcy in the United States. Wendell Potter wrote an article about some of the abuses by the health care industry. It is pretty outrageous. It makes you wonder how the health care industry got to where it is today where the insurance companies call all of the shots. They set the prices, how much they will pay doctors and hospitals, and how much companies and individuals will pay for a policy. Costs have sky rocketed. When the health care bill was being crafted insurance companies played a huge role in the final outcome. They were responsible for removing the government option. Watch the Frontline about the push to reform health care to learn more about this.

Wendell Potter is a former Vice President of corporate communications at CIGNA, one of the United States' largest health insurance companies. In June 2009, he testified against the HMO industry in the U.S. Senate as a whistleblower. He is now the Senior Fellow on Health Care for the Center for Media and Democracy in Madison, Wisconsin.

Read the article

Bernie Sanders Takes to Senate Floor, Demands 'Shared Sacrifice'

pschales@gmail.com (Paula Schales) — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 17:51:04 PDT

Bernie Sanders, US Senator from Vermont, delivered a great speech where he demanded 'shared sacrifice' to address the deficit. This means raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans and on large corporations as well as a number of other measures that he lists. He makes a great case.

Read or view the speech and then sign the letter to Obama

The Economy Explained in 2 Minutes and 15 Seconds...

pschales@gmail.com (Paula Schales) — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 14:26:19 PDT

This is a great video where former Labor Secretary Robert Reich explains the economy is just over 2 minutes.

The Global Energy Crisis Deepens

pschales@gmail.com (Paula Schales) — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 21:42:54 PDT

"Here’s the good news about energy: thanks to rising oil prices and deteriorating economic conditions worldwide, the International Energy Agency (IEA) reports that global oil demand will not grow this year as much as once assumed, which may provide some temporary price relief at the gas pump. In its May Oil Market Report, the IEA reduced its 2011 estimate for global oil consumption by 190,000 barrels per day, pegging it at 89.2 million barrels daily. As a result, retail prices may not reach the stratospheric levels predicted earlier this year, though they will undoubtedly remain higher than at any time since the peak months of 2008, just before the global economic meltdown. Keep in mind that this is the good news."

"As for the bad news: the world faces an array of intractable energy problems that, if anything, have only worsened in recent weeks. These problems are multiplying on either side of energy’s key geological divide: below ground, once-abundant reserves of easy-to-get “conventional” oil, natural gas, and coal are drying up; above ground, human miscalculation and geopolitics are limiting the production and availability of specific energy supplies. With troubles mounting in both arenas, our energy prospects are only growing dimmer."

Read the article by Michael T. Klare:

"How to Wreck a Planet 101: Three Energy Developments That Are Changing Your Life"

Soot Layer Accelerating Arctic Warming?

pschales@gmail.com (Paula Schales) — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 02:01:19 PDT

"An international research team is in the land of snow and ice, in search of soot. Though the Arctic is often pictured as a vast white wasteland, scientists believe a thin layer of soot — mostly invisible — is causing it to absorb more heat. They want to find out if that's the main reason for the recent rapid warming of the Arctic, which could have a long-term impact on the world's climate."

Read the article by Randolph Schmid.

Frontline Report on the Health Care Reform Bill

pschales@gmail.com (Paula Schales) — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:24:15 PDT

On March 23, 2010, after a bruising year of debate, negotiation and backlash, President Barack Obama finally signed the health reform bill that he had promised more than a year before. But at what cost to his popularity and to the ideals of bipartisanship and open government that he'd campaigned on?

In Obama's Deal, veteran FRONTLINE producer Michael Kirk (Bush's War, Dreams of Obama) takes viewers behind the headlines to reveal the political maneuvering behind Barack Obama's effort to remake the American health system and transform the way Washington works. Through interviews with administration officials, senators and Washington lobbyists, Obama's Deal reveals the dramatic details of how an idealistic president pursued the health care fight -- despite the warnings of many of his closest advisers -- and how he ended up making deals with many of the powerful special interests he had campaigned against.

View the Frontline Report.

Free Energy: The Race to Zero Point

pschales@gmail.com (Paula Schales) — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 23:27:53 PST

The award-winning documentary, Free Energy—The Race to Zero Point, provides a thorough, professional examination of the leading theories and practical inventions that tap into zero point energy—now acknowledged by quantum physicists to exist in all space as a potential source of infinite and accessible electromagnetic energy. Respected engineers and scientists explain in understandable terms how amazing new energy technologies and inventions can go beyond alternative energy to solve the energy crisis on our planet.

View the video - you won't be disappointed!

‘The End of Growth’ excerpt by Richard Heinberg

pschales@gmail.com (Paula Schales) — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 16:01:18 PST

This article is an excerpt from Richard’s new book (working title ‘The End of Growth’), which is set for publication in July 2011. Given the urgency and fragility of the global economic crisis, it is being serialized as Richard writes it. This chapter gives the history of events that have lead us to where we are today.

Richard Heinberg is the author of nine books, including The Party’s Over, Peak Everything, and the newly released Blackout, and is widely regarded as one of the world’s most effective communicators of the urgent need to transition away from fossil fuels. With a wry, unflinching approach based on facts and realism, Richard exposes the tenuousness of our current way of life and offers a vision for a truly sustainable future.

Read the chapter on 'The Sound of Air Escaping' and make sure to visit his Facebook page.

Rural Areas in Developing Nations use Small Roof-top Solar Panels for their Power

pschales@gmail.com (Paula Schales) — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 01:39:43 PST

The New York Times published an article about how rural areas in developing nations are using small solar panels to generate electricity to power their cell phones and LED lighting since they do not have access to the power grid that the larger cities have. The problem is that there is no effective distribution network.

"With the advent of cheap solar panels and high-efficiency LED lights, which can light a room with just 4 watts of power instead of 60, these small solar systems now deliver useful electricity at a price that even the poor can afford, he noted. “You’re seeing herders in Inner Mongolia with solar cells on top of their yurts,” Mr. Younger said."

Read the article: African Huts Far From the Grid Glow With Renewable Power

300 Years of Fossil Fueled Addiction Video

pschales@gmail.com (Paula Schales) — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 19:17:02 PST

Watch the video about 300 years of fossil fueled addiction in 5 minutes. It is great!

Macrowikinomics: The Choice Between Atrophy or Renaissance

pschales@gmail.com (Paula Schales) — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 15:23:44 PDT

Don Tapscott has written a new book that is being released today! It is called Macrowikinomics: Rebooting Business and the World. If you read Wikinomics then you will really enjoy this book. I haven't read it yet but plan to after reading this blurb about it. This book talks about the state the world is in right now and how we can fix it. The social web and open data is crucial and things are being done now.

Read the blurb.

Inside the BP Oil Spill

pschales@gmail.com (Paula Schales) — Sun, 30 May 2010 22:56:51 PDT

ABC news went underwater with Phillippe Cousteau Jr. to see how bad the BP oil leak is. He described what he saw as "one of the most horrible things I’ve ever seen underwater."

View the video.

Read the New York Times article by Susan D. Shaw who is a marine toxicologist and the director of the Marine Environmental Research Institute, a nonprofit scientific research and educational organization. She describes her dive in the oil and the toxic effects of the oil dispersant, Corexit, BP has been using.

Read the article.

Learn how to have a Smaller Impact on the Environment

pschales@gmail.com (Paula Schales) — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 01:35:38 PDT

Collectively, small lifestyle changes can make a huge impact on the environment–and your life. Looking for happiness and health? What’s good for the environment is also, it turns out, great for you. Visit this website to learn about the No Impact experiment and to get tips on how you can have less impact on the environment.

Visit noimpactproject.org.

8 Reasons Wall Street Loses Another 20% in This Decade

pschales@gmail.com (Paula Schales) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:33:20 PST

You cannot win at Wall Street's "Loser's Game." The past decade proves it. The house always wins in Vegas and on Wall Street. So why bet on the house? Why bet with the Wall Street casino for another decade? Why? You're betting in a rigged casino. Worse, they keep adding powerful new tools, scams and algorithms to their "financial weapons of mass destruction" arsenal, as Warren Buffett calls this mysterious $670 trillion global shadow banking world of derivatives. You cannot win.

Statistically, the odds now predict Wall Street losing another 20% of your money in the next decade. The momentum's headed down. So, what should you do? Sell all your stocks, ETFs, bonds and funds. Get out of commodities and gold. Sell.

Read the article by Paul B. Farrell.

From Ocean to Ozone: Earth's Nine Life-Support Systems

pschales@gmail.com (Paula Schales) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:42:24 PST

Last year, Johan Rockström, director of the Stockholm Environment Institute in Sweden, sat down with a team of 28 luminaries from environmental and earth-systems science and came up with nine "planetary life-support systems" that are vital for human survival. They then quantified how far we have pushed them already, and estimated how much further we can go without threatening our own survival. Beyond certain boundaries, they warned, we risk causing "irreversible and abrupt environmental change" that could make the Earth a much less hospitable place (Ecology and Society, vol 14, p 32).

Read the article.

Long-term Ocean Oxygen Depletion in Response to Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Fossil Fuels

pschales@gmail.com (Paula Schales) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:37:34 PST

A panel of 155 scientists from 26 countries is warning that rising levels of CO2 in the world’s oceans are quickly making waters more acidic and threatening the health of shellfish and coral reefs. “Severe damages are imminent,” said the panel of oceanographers, chemists, and biologists. The problem of ocean acidification has recently drawn scientific attention. But the latest report takes the most comprehensive look at the problem and warns that rising CO2 emissions are fundamentally altering the chemistry of the sea, posing a direct threat to organisms that need calcium to build their shells. The panel said that the acidity of the ocean has increased 30 percent since the 17th century and that scientists already have discovered
decreases in shellfish, shellfish weights, and the ability of corals to grow skeletons. The oceans absorb about 25 percent of carbon dioxide emissions, and in the sea the gas dissolves to form carbonic acid. “Any increase in dead zones from global warming will last for thousands of years. They will be a permanent fixture” of our oceans, said lead researcher Gary Shaffer of
the University of Copenhagen. [Yale Environment 360]

Nature (February 2009, v2 n2, p105 – 109 ) / by Gary Shaffer, Steffen Malskær Olsen and Jens Olaf Pepke Pedersen

Read the article (pdf)

H1N1 Vaccine Information

pschales@gmail.com (Paula Schales) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:45:29 PST

Click on the widget to find out where you can get an H1N1 vaccine and other information.

Status of Global Warming

pschales@gmail.com (Paula Schales) — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 14:16:11 PDT

Since the 1997 international accord to fight global warming, climate change has worsened and accelerated — beyond some of the grimmest of warnings made back then.

Read the article to see what has been happening since then.

Biomimicry Pioneer, Janine Benyus, PopTech Talk 2004

pschales@gmail.com (Paula Schales) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:43:10 PST

Champion of the Earth honoree and biomimicry pioneer Janine Benyus has transformed the way we think about innovation and design. Benyus challenges us to study nature’s best ideas, then imitate its designs and processes to solve some of our greatest human challenges.

View the video of her PopTech talk.

Architect William McDonough at TED 2005

pschales@gmail.com (Paula Schales) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:06:29 PST

This is a great talk by William McDonough at TED in 2005. He believes that green design can prevent environmental disaster -- while also driving economic growth. He champions “cradle to cradle” design that considers the full life cycle of a product, from its creation with sustainable materials to a recycled afterlife. In 2002 he co-wrote Cradle to Cradle. (The book itself is printed on recyclable plastic.)

View the talk he gave at TED

Biomimicry For Green Design (A How-To)

pschales@gmail.com (Paula Schales) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 01:05:52 PST

This is a great article by Jeremy Faludi explaining how to use biomimicry for design. He describes the biomimetic approach and gives a comprehensive list of priciples. He lists reference material that are must-reads.

Read the article.

When Nouriel Speaks People had better Listen...

pschales@gmail.com (Paula Schales) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:35:54 PDT

Here is an interesting with Nouriel Roubini about the current state of the global economy. He thinks a big crash is coming and that there is another bubble that has formed in commodities.

Index Universe (IU.com) interview with Nouriel Roubini.