Category: Less of What We Don’t Need
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The Americans Started the US War with Russia
The ongoing US war against Russia has elevated American-allied Nazis to the international stage as ‘freedom fighters,’ resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians, raised the risk of nuclear war, ended any effective international cooperation on environmental issues through rekindling energy geopolitics, assured Europe of one or more Great Depression type…
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Unequal Mercy: The West’s Approach to Refugees
Almost anyone would agree that war is horrifying and peaceful countries should do their best to help its victims. The widespread eagerness to welcome fleeing Ukrainians after Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded their country last February is a heartening example of such aid. But behind that altruism lies an ugly truth: most of the countries…
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Why the Feared Wave of Solar Panel Waste May Be Smaller and Arrive Later Than We Expected
New research suggests that the effective lifespan of solar panels may have risen to double what was once estimated, in the range of 40-50 years. That gives manufacturers more time to perfect methods for recycling materials, which still lags behind.
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Is the Energy Transition Taking Off—or Hitting a Wall?
Many environmentalists are thrilled with the IRA; others less so. Those in the more critical camp have pointed disapprovingly to the bill’s promotion of nuclear, and note that, in order to gain Senator Joe Manchin’s vote, Democrats agreed to streamline oil and gas pipeline approvals in a separate bill. In effect, the government will be…
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Capitalism: Why we should scrap it
An understanding of the great extent to which we have overshot sustainability limits leaves no alternative to working for an eventual transition to mostly small, highly self-sufficient and self-governing cooperative communities controlling local economies and embracing materially simple lifestyles and systems. These can enable a higher quality of life than rich countries have now, without…
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It’s Time to Call It What It Is—A Capitalism-Induced Ecological Crisis
The same industries that benefit from ecological destruction- Big Oil, Big Agriculture, Tech Giants, the Military Industrial Complex– have for years tried to sell us a “greener capitalism” as a solution to the crisis. And they have been lying to us. Suggesting that individual consumption habits– light bulbs, electric cars, or the purchasing of carbon…
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“We’ll Meet Them Out in the Fields”: Challenging the Pipelines to Nowhere
Recent polls suggest that the bonkers, even barbaric, rhetoric coming from far-right MAGA candidates could be undermining Republicans’ chances of capturing both chambers of Congress in November. Now, the greater danger may lie down-ballot. If extremists win key offices in swing-state governments in 2022, they might manage to award their states’ Electoral College votes to…
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Life Expectancy: The US and Cuba in the Time of Covid
R ecent data shows that between 2019 and 2021, life expectancy (LE) in the US plunged almost three years while for Cuba it edged up 0.2 years. Yet, in 1960, the year after its revolution, Cuba had a LE of 64.2 years, lower by 5.6 years than that in the US (69.8 years). As I…
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“Water is dignity”: Residents in majority-Black Jackson, Mississippi left without drinkable water
Jackson is 82.5% Black, and has been hit with multiple water crises in recent months. As of September 2, the vast majority of the residents of the city of Jackson, Mississippi—over 150,000—still have no access to safe drinking water. The Jackson water crisis began on August 30 when flooding caused the pumps at the main…
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Game Of Nuclear Chicken In Zaporozhye
It defies logic why the Russians themselves would shell a plant which, by all accounts, is under their control. All the evidence so far supports Russia’s claim that Ukraine shelled the plant and the transmission lines. And if, as Ukraine claims, Russia has positioned heavy military equipment within the plant, it should be a simple matter for…