alanjjohnstone
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The Clinton Camp Vs “Royal Majesty King” Bernie Sanders
Stabs in the back
The 2020 Democratic presidential primary became even more crowded on Monday, when former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper announced he was entering the race.
Simon Evans, the policy editor at the group, said: “The lion’s share of recent CO2 reductions in the UK have been due to falling coal use.”
Experts said future emissions cuts would not necessarily be more costly, but would be politically harder.
Michael Grubb, professor of energy and climate change at University College London, said: “The next steps involve more coordination of government efforts – the infrastructure and industrial policy dimensions of electric vehicles, coordination of zero carbon homes with housing policy.
“I don’t see higher costs, but tougher lobbying and coordination problems which can’t easily be tackled…”American coal plants produce about 100m tons of coal ash each year, with at least 2bn tons stored in pits of varying quality. Most coal ash pits are ageing and not lined with a protective substance that would prevent the ash seeping into streams and rivers. A stew of pollutants emanate from coal ash, including cadmium, cobalt, chromium and lead, as well as arsenic and lithium. These toxins are linked to a range of health conditions, including cancers, kidney damage and developmental problems.
Global warming under the sea
Heatwaves affecting the planet’s oceans has increased sharply killing swathes of sea-life like “wildfires that take out huge areas of forest”. The damage caused in these hotspots is also harmful for humanity, which relies on the oceans for oxygen, food, storm protection and the removal of climate-warming carbon dioxide the atmosphere
Heatwaves are becoming more frequent, prolonged and severe, with the number of heatwave days tripling in the last couple of years studied. In the longer term, the number of heatwave days jumped by more than 50% in the 30 years to 2016, compared with the period of 1925 to 1954. As heatwaves have increased, kelp forests, seagrass meadows and coral reefs have been lost. These foundation species are critical to life in the ocean. They provide shelter and food to many others.
Dr Éva Plagányi at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia said. “This study shows that record-breaking events are becoming the new normal…In the space of one week, scientific publications have underscored that unless we take evasive action, our future oceans will have fewer fish, fewer whales and frequent dramatic shifts in ecological structure will occur, with concerning implications for humans who depend on the ocean,” said Plagányi.
“…He himself has talked in the past about “the hand of Israel” subtly and secretly acting from a distance. And from there it is only a short hop to two ideas which seem to have spread from a small hard core rooted in the anti-imperialist far left out into the wider party. First, that Israel – and by extension Jewish people – must have something do with many of the “smears”. And second, that accusations of antisemitism usually have a concealed agenda…”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/04/labour-antisemitism-party-left-bigotry
This is no conspiracy theory without hard evidence yet supposedly well-informed journalists are neglecting to mention Israeli interference in UK politics, preferring perhaps to consider it an aberrant event and not policy.
The Union of Jewish Students (UJS) received money from the Israeli embassy, and attempted to influence the NUS presidency election, and even oust Bouattia following her victory.
During the Labour Party conference,Masot and Joan Ryan, a Labour MP and head of Labour Friends of Israel,alluded to a fund of more than £1m from the Israeli embassy used to send activists and politicians on paid trips to Israel.
A senior political officer at the Israeli embassy in London discusses a potential plot to ‘take down’ British politicians – including a minister.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/01/lobby-episode-4-takedown-170112091750073.html
The dispute with Williamson was a showing of a documentary in defence of expelled member Walker but little is made of the fact that Walker herself is Jewish.
Surely, the British intelligence agency should be investigating any plan by a foreign country to interfere in domestic politics. And surely it should be headline news and all those investigative reporters should be delving into the Friends of Israel’s role.
Who has heard of the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_lobby_in_the_United_Kingdom
There is not so much apologetic response but acquiescence by the media.
The Tory Party, once the natural home of anti-Semitism, does not have any such problems…Or is it the fact that the Tories are not anti-Israel and therefore need not be targeted.
Russia is ready to take part in bilateral talks with the United States over the issue of Venezuela, Russia’s foreign minister told his U.S. counterpart late on Saturday.
As many as 96 water basins out of the 204 supplying most of the country with freshwater could fail to meet monthly demand starting in 2071, a team of scientists said in the journal Earth’s Future. A water basin is a portion of land where water from rainfall flows downhill toward a river and its tributaries.
“There’s a lot of the U.S. over time that will have less water,” said co-author Thomas Brown, a researcher with the U.S. Forest Service, in a phone interview. “We’ll be seeing some changes.”
The basins affected cover the country’s central and southern Great Plains, the Southwest and central Rocky Mountain states, as well as parts of California, the South and the Midwest, said Brown.
Water shortages would result from increased demand by a growing population, as well shrinking rainfall totals and greater evaporation caused by global warming.
One way to alleviate pressure on water basins would be to reduce irrigation for farming, the scientists said. The agricultural sector can consume more than 75 percent of water in the United States, they said. Farmers could cut their irrigation of industrial crops used primarily for animal feed and biofuels, such as hay, field corn, soybeans, sorghum, millet, rapeseed and switchgrass.
Having read that NS speech and his repetition of the virtues of coops, I wonder why he did sign up to the Cooperative Party. Or are the differences between Labour and them make-believe? A distinction without a difference.
You brought it up before, ALB, that the EU ban on GM foods was really a protectionist stratagem.
The US claim that other EU food safety rules are for the same purpose.
Fears over chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-fed beef are “myths”, according to the US ambassador to the UK describing warnings over US farming practices as “inflammatory and misleading” smears from “people with their own protectionist agenda”.
National Farmers Union, said the UK government should not accept a US deal “which allows food to be imported into this country produced in ways which would be illegal here”
Amy Mount from Greener UK, an environmental lobby group, said: “This wish-list shows that a hard-Brexit pivot away from the EU in favour of the US would mean pressure to scrap important protections for our environment and food quality. “Any future trade deals should reflect the high standards that the UK public both wants and expects.”
The world is going down the toilet.
The boreal forest covers almost 60% of Canada and is home to 600 indigenous communities. Its huge size means it can absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the equivalent to the annual emissions of 24m cars each year. The report found that major brands’ refusal to switch to sustainable materials in toilet paper is having a devastating impact on forests and climate. About 28m acres of Canadian boreal forest is cut down each year, an area the size of Pennsylvania. Virgin pulp, the key ingredient in toilet paper, accounted for 23% of Canada’s forest product exports.
Americans are particularly to blame for this crisis. They make up just over 4% of the world’s population, yet account for more than 20% of global tissue consumption. The average four-person household in the US uses over 100lb of toilet paper a year. Major toilet paper brands have refused to use more sustainable materials, the report says, because Americans tend to more concerned than the rest of the world about ideal toilet paper texture in their homes, largely due to decades of marketing around toilet paper softness. Previous reports into the environmental impact of toilet paper have found American desire for super-soft multi-ply toilet paper to be “worse than Hummers” for the environment.
Personal disclosure. I have not used toilet paper for years. Here, we have attached to the toilet, hoses to clean your arse. In poorer homes, water bowl and the hand is used. More hygenic than smearing faeces around your arse-hole with paper.
Chuka Umunna on his politics. Make of it as you wish
Washington State’s Democratic Governor Jay Inslee has announced his 2020 bid for the US presidential nomination, joining a lengthy list of contenders.
Mr Inslee, 68, will make climate change his number one issue, calling it “the most urgent challenge of our time” in his first campaign video.
He is the first governor to throw his hat into the ring, joining 12 other Democrats, including six senators.Inslee said his national mission would focus on powering the economy with 100% clean energy, creating jobs, and focusing on “justice and inclusion…so no group is left to bear the cost of transition”.
“We are going to build electric cars in Michigan, we are going to build and install wind turbines in Iowa, we are going to install solar right here in Washington State,” Inslee said.Just another example of what we are up against in America. Anti-vaxxer politician from Arizona
“I read yesterday that the idea is being floated that if not enough people get vaccinated, then we are going to force them to. The idea that we force someone to give up their liberty for the sake of the collective is not based on American values but rather, Communist.”
