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mostlysignssomeportents · 2 months

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General Mills and cheaply bought "dietitians" co-opted the anti-diet movement

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Steve Bannon isn't wrong: for his brand of nihilistic politics to win, all he has to do is "flood the zone with shit," demoralizing people to the point where they no longer even try to learn the truth.

This is really just a more refined, more potent version of the tactical doubt sown by Big Tobacco about whether smoking caused cancer, a playbook later adopted by the fossil fuel industry to sell climate denial. You know Darrell Huff's 1954 classic How To Lie With Statistics? Huff was a Big Tobacco shill (his next book, which wasn't ever published, was How To Lie With Cancer Statistics). His mission wasn't to help you spot statistical malpractice – an actual thing that is an actual problem that you should actually learn to spot. It was to turn you into a nihilist who didn't believe anything could be known:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/04/how-to-truth/#harford

Corporations don't need you to believe that their products are beneficial or even non-harmful. They just need you to believe nothing. If you don't know what's true, then why not just do whatever feels good, man? #YOLO!

These bannonfloods of shit are a favored tactic of strongmen and dictators. Their grip on power doesn't depend on their citizens trusting them – it's enough that they trust no one:

http://jonathanstray.com/networked-propaganda-and-counter-propaganda

Bannonflooding is especially beloved of the food industry. Food is essential, monopolized, and incredibly complicated, and many of the most profitable strategies for growing, processing and preparing food are very bad for the people who eat that food. Rather than sacrificing profits, the food industry floods the zone with shit, making it impossible to know what's true, in hopes that we will just eat whatever they're serving:

https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.2003460

Now, the "nothing can be known" gambit only works if it's really hard to get at the truth. So it helps that nutrition and diet are very complex subjects, but it helps even more that the nutrition and diet industry are a cesspool of quacks and junk science. This is a "scientific discipline" whose prestigious annual meetings are sponsored (and catered) by McDonald's:

https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/05/my-trip-mcdonalds-sponsored-nutritionist-convention/

It's a "science" whose most prominent pitchmen peddle quack nostrums and sue the critics who point out (correctly) that eating foods high in chlorophyll will not "oxygenate your blood" (hint, chlorophyll only makes oxygen in the presence of light, which is notably lacking in your colon):

https://www.badscience.net/2007/02/ms-gillian-mckeith-banned-from-calling-herself-a-doctor/

When the quack-heavy world of nutrition combines with the socially stigmatized world of weight-loss, you get a zone ripe for shitflooding. The majority of Americans are "overweight" (according to a definition that relies on the unscientific idea of BMI) and nearly half of Americans are "obese." These numbers have been climbing steadily since the 1970s, and every diet turns out to be basically bullshit:

https://headgum.com/factually-with-adam-conover/what-does-ozepmic-actually-do-with-dr-dhruv-khullar

Notwithstanding the new blockbuster post-Ozempic drugs, we're been through an unbroken 50-year run of more and more of us being fatter and fatter, even as fat stigma increased. Fat people are treated as weak-willed and fundamentally unhealthy, while the most prominent health-risks of being fat are roundly neglected: the mental health effects of being shamed, and the physical risks of having doctors ignore your health complaints, no matter how serious they sound, and blame them on your weight:

https://maintenancephase.buzzsprout.com/1411126/11968083-glorifying-obesity-and-other-myths-about-fat-people

Fat people and their allies have banded together to address these real, urgent harms. The "body acceptance" movement isn't merely about feeling good in your own skin: it's also about fighting discrimination, demanding medical care (beyond "lose some weight") and warning people away from getting on the diet treadmill, which can lead to dangerous eating disorders and permanent weight gain:

https://www.beacon.org/You-Just-Need-to-Lose-Weight-P1853.aspx

Fat stigma is real. The mental health risks of fat-shaming are real. Eating disorders are real. Discrimination against fat people is real. The fact that these things are real doesn't mean that the food industry can't flood the zone with shit, though. On the contrary: the urgency of these issues, combined with the poor regulation of dietitians, makes the "what should you eat" zone perfect for flooding with endless quantities of highly profitable shit.

Perhaps you've gotten some of this shit on you. Have you found yourself watching a video from a dietitian influencer like Cara Harbstreet, Colleen Christensen or Lauren Smith, promoting "health at any size" with hashtags like #DerailTheShame and #AntiDiet? These were paid campaigns sponsored by General Mills, Pepsi, and other multinational, multibillion-dollar corporations.

Writing for The Examination, Sasha Chavkin, Anjali Tsui, Caitlin Gilbert and Anahad O'Connor describe the way that some of the world's largest and most profitable corporations have hijacked a movement where fat people and their allies fight stigma and shame and used it to peddle the lie that their heavily processed, high-calorie food is good for you:

https://www.theexamination.org/articles/as-obesity-rises-big-food-and-dietitians-push-anti-diet-advice

It's a surreal tale. They describe a speech by Amy Cohn, General Mills’ senior manager for nutrition, to an audience at a dietitian's conference, where Cohn "denounced the media for 'pointing the finger at processed foods' and making consumers feel ashamed of their choices." This is some next-level nihilism: rather than railing against the harmful stigma against fat people, Cohn wants us to fight the stigma against Cocoa Puffs.

This message isn't confined to industry conferences. Dietitians with large Tiktok followings like Cara Harbstreet then carry the message out to the public. In Harbstreet's video promoting Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cocoa Puffs and Trix, she says, "I will always advocate for fearlessly nourishing meals, including cereal…Because everyone deserves to enjoy food without judgment, especially kids":

https://www.tiktok.com/@streetsmart.rd/video/7298403730989436206

Dietitians, nutritionists and the food industry have always had an uncomfortably close relationship, but the industry's shitflooding kicked into high gear when the FDA proposed rules limiting which foods the industry can promote as "healthy." General Mills, Kelloggs and Post have threatened a First Amendment suit against such a regulation, arguing that they have a free speech right to describe manifestly unhealthy food as "healthy."

The anti-diet movement – again, a legitimate movement aimed at fighting the dangerous junk science behind dieting – has been co-opted by the food industry, who are paying dietitian influencers to say things like "all foods have value" while brandishing packages of Twix and Reese's. In their Examination article, the authors profile people who struggled with their weight, then, after encountering the food industry's paid disinformation, believed that "healthy at any size" meant that it would be unhealthy to avoid highly processed, high calorie food. These people gained large amounts of weight, and found their lives constrained and their health severely compromised.

I've been overweight all my life. I went to my first Weight Watchers meeting when I was 12. I come from a family of overweight people with the chronic illnesses often associated with being fat. This is a subject that's always on my mind. I even wrote a whole novel about the promise and peril of a weight-loss miracle:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781429969284/makers

I think the anti-diet movement, and its associated ideas like body acceptance and healthy at every size, are enormously positive developments and hugely important. It's because I value these ideas that I'm so disgusted with Big Food and its cynical decision to flood the zone with shit. It's also why I'm so furious with dietitians and nutritionists for failing to self-regulate and become a real profession, the kind that censures and denounces quacks and shills.

I have complicated feelings about Ozempic and its successors, but even if these prove to be effective and safe in the long term, and even if we rein in the rapacious pharma companies so that they no longer sell a $5 product for $1000, I would still want dietary science to clean up its act:

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2816824

I'm not a nihilist. I think we can use science to discover truths – about ourselves and our world. I want to know those truths, and I think they can be known. The only people who benefit from convincing you that the truth is unknowable are the people who want to lie to you.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/05/corrupt-for-cocoa-puffs/#flood-the-zone-with-shit

#pluralistic #corruption #nutrition #food #diets #dieticians #nutritionists #junk science #junk food #astroturf #fat acceptance #fatphobia #health #nihilism #steve bannon #flood the zone with shit #general mills #dietitians

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sixty-silver-wishes · 10 months

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Important announcement- PragerU videos could be taught in Florida schools

So I just read this article from Politico, which states that the Florida Department of Education and Ron DeSantis have approved of a series of videos to be taught in Florida elementary schools created by PragerU, a far-right organization. The videos mainly focus on dismissing concerns of climate change and pushing a climate denialist agenda, with false claims that wind and solar power cause pollution and that climate change isn't a big deal because "the climate is always changing." Not only is this rhetoric harmful, Florida is a state where climate education is incredibly important. We regularly experience hurricanes and flooding, and much of our economy relies on the environment, such as beach tourism, the bottled water industry, and agriculture. Irresponsible climate policies anywhere in the world could lead to disastrous consequences, but Florida in particular is in a precarious position, as we have the lowest elevation of any state. Oceanographer John Englander notes that while Florida may not be in danger of sinking underwater anytime soon, some highly-populated areas, including Miami and Fort Lauderdale, are in high-risk areas to flooding, and rising sea levels and over-extraction are damaging our aquifers. Even for a state that leans red, Florida has historically invested in environmental protections, as no matter the political party, many people here understand just how vital they are to the state.

A couple notes on the PragerU videos- while many of you probably already know this, PragerU is not an actual university or academic institution; it is a conservative media organization. However, the videos, which push not only climate denialism, but also racist and anti-LGBT ideological viewpoints- are structured in a way to seem credible, both to adults and students. The Politico article notes this:

One of the videos the article mentions could be taught in schools also straight-up compares climate advocacy to oppression faced by Poland under the Nazis:

Not only is this climate denialism and consistent with the conservative persecution complex so often used to fuel their rhetoric, by conflating fascism with climate advocacy, this video is especially dangerous because it may also distort a young viewer's understanding of fascism. Fascism is not "people disagree with me, so I'm a victim." It is a conservative authoritarian ideology that, in the social sphere, relies on the systemic othering and erasure of marginalized groups, suppressing information, and creating a warped view of history that is consistent with its ideological goals- a "return to traditionalism," which often ignores the actual nuances of history in order to create the impression that fascism is the "natural order" of humanity.

The article also quotes these as PragerU CEO Marissa Streit's goals in implementing these videos in classrooms:

They may be starting with Florida, but it's not just Florida. If you're in another state, be aware of this as well.

We also get this, which uh. requires no comment:

From this article:

(Also note the phrase "Judeo-Christian," a controversial term contested by some Jewish people, who have criticized it due to Christianity's role in perpetrating anti-Semitism, as well as the fact that Judaism and Christianity differ in philosophy, culture, and religious beliefs in a number of areas. To critics of the term, "Judeo-Christian values" may wrongfully imply that Judaism is a "lesser" religion or "proto-Christianity". While the term is not always used in this context, and some Jewish people support its use, the phrasing "Judeo-Christian values" may be a dogwhistle for anti-Semitism in some situations.)

If you see this post, please spread the word, and inform any parents, teachers, or friends you may know who may be considering teaching this material, or have children or siblings who may be shown PragerU videos in the classroom. Even if you live outside of Florida, be aware and inform other people, as PragerU wants to expand their agenda to other states.

#important #politics #us politics #florida #current events #climate change #antisemitism #environmentalism

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kendrixtermina · 7 months

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It's very easy to buy the US government.

Some have said that blaming the complicity of the US govern on the Israel lobby is an "antisemitic conspiracy" (even though the campaign donations are plain for everyone to see & no one said anything about equating them with all Jews - indeed many of the lobbyist are evangelical Christians... who seem to care precious little about the Christian Palestinian minority.)

So I want to stress the following:

This isn't unique to Israel AT ALL.

Money in politics, lobbying & corruption has been a mounting problem in the US (and to a lesser extent, but still very significant extent, other western countries)

US Politicians are, frankly, easily bought. Biden's bought by Israel, the previous guy was likely bought by Russia.

Fossil Fuel Companies buy them. Big Pharma buy them. Anti-Union ppl buy them. The Military Industrial Complex buy them (and are as guilty here as the Israel lobby) - and each of these had their propaganda campaigns to rile up people against unions for example, or spread climate denialism.

This was an ongoing, unfixed problem for ages, and now it has lead to catastrophe.

Since the "money is speech" decision under Reagan, nearly everything in the US has gone to shit. That's when poverty began increasing. That's when wages and life expectancy stopped going up.

This is why Americans are so poor. Why they have poor healthcare. Why the USA keeps poluting. And yes, why foreign governments can just buy whatever policy they want if they offer, say, oil in return.

This is a corruption problem. Some may term it a capitalism problem, too, but even if you don't want to go so far, it's just plain corruption. No conspiracy required.

It's just chaos. The throne is empty. There is no great mastermind behind anything. No one's in charge but market forces and inertia. Like many disastrous events in history, it's a clusterfuck.

Notice also how when I say, "Trump had financial ties to Russia", I'm not accused of wanting to kill all Slavs or anti-slavic prejudice? You immediately realize I mean the government, not Russians in general including average joe russians living in foreign countries?

#gaza #palestine #israel #free gaza #free palestine #israel-hamas war #israel-palestine war #money in politics #campaign finance reform #citizens united

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joy-haver · 1 year

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“Science is a tool of oppression”

and

“science has saved many lives and is necessary for species survival”

Are not contradicting statements.

And this is (partially) due to the fact that scientific production is often goal oriented. And that the products of science can be repurposed to reinforce power structures whether that was the initial goal or not.

The creation of insulin: one of humanities great accomplishments. Now insulin prices are being used to extract as much money as possible from diabetics before inevitably letting them die of neglect and lack of access. Because it’s not about saving you. It’s about taking every last drop of money from you.

Vaccines: genuinely one of the most helpful changes in how humans live is that we can now get vaccinated against many diseases. Many of the people you love are only alive because of vaccines. However, because they are so effective, they can be used as bait to do experiments on marginalized people, like the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. Who has access to vaccines can also be a form of eugenics. Diseases that effect majority White nations are far more likely to get vaccines made. even when vaccines already exist for diseases effecting majority POC nations, those vaccines are not distributed. Even a tool as effective at saving human life can be a tool of destruction, because you get to choose who not to save. Because the goal is eugenics, not preservation of life.

Climate change: climate change is real. It is human caused. But more so, it is caused by science and industry. By the accumulation of power. Humans are not inevitably some blight upon the earth. Those in power have chosen for us to be. They have spent several hundred years using every resource at their disposal to strip the earth of all life sustaining resources. They have advanced science to make areas on this planet uninhabitable. They have advanced science to make it impossible to live off the land, to live outside their power. In order to subjugate the world, they have to destroy any alternative way of survival. They must extract every resource possible. They have to lock it away and sell it to you. But you know what, it doesn’t have to be that way. We can use science to increase ecosystem complexity. To build food forests. To manage invasive species and encourage native ones. To mitigate so many of the harms we have caused. But that has not been the goal of science as an institution. Subjugation has.

Neither rigid belief in science nor science-denial will save us.

Only we can save us.

We have to comb thru and find what’s useful. We have to create our own uses. We must make our own medicines. We must not let them use these tools against us. We must provide for each other. We must orient our goals at actually helping the world, not controlling it.

#text post #disabled #anarcho disability #anarchism #disability #science #vaccines #anti science #permaculture #rose baker

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if-you-fan-a-fire · 2 years

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[This is a fantastic and sympathetic piece about an important struggle in downtown Kingston, Ontario, that cuts right to the heart of conflicts over land use, housing, capitalism and those it harms, and wetlands - with a vile local capitalist developer as the villain of the piece. It’s long but read it, please.]

“On a sunny December afternoon in Kingston, Ont., about a dozen people gather by a massive white oak tree a few metres from the shore of the Great Cataraqui River. Poems and other written messages are attached to a fence in front of the oak. “She sits among friends/The targets of their stupid greed/Let their beauty be,” proclaims one message sealed in a Ziploc bag.

Laurel Claus-Johnson, a Mohawk elder, has organized a gratitude ceremony for the 220-year-old tree. The developer who owns the vacant property on which it stands won’t let anyone on the site, so Claus-Johnson and her friends have tied a length of yellow ribbon to the fence, signifying their solidarity.

Midway through the ceremony, Claus-Johnson asks a woman lingering nearby if she’d like to speak. She is Latoya Powder, a planner and de facto spokesperson for the developer, who says she has come as a private citizen but seems eager to defend her employer. “Man has scarred this site for years, I agree,” she says. “It should be protected, and it deserves to be cleaned up.”

“Man does not know how to clean up,” Claus-Johnson retorts. “Man knows how to destroy.”

The sparring that ensues reflects years of discord over the future of the site, a 15-hectare parcel known locally as the Davis Tannery, after a leather-making factory that was located there. It closed and was abandoned in the mid-1970s, leaving a legacy of grievously poisoned soil and sediment. The wrangling has intensified since 2017, when a local developer submitted a proposal to the city that includes decontaminating the site and constructing more than 1,500 housing units in medium-rise buildings near the riverfront. In recent years, formal and informal groups have sprung up around the health of the river, the protection of trees and wildlife, gentrification and homelessness.

But it’s more than a local flashpoint: the debate over the future of the Davis Tannery echoes existential issues facing communities globally. Depending on your vantage point, it’s a story about economic inequality, the climate emergency, resource exploitation, environmental degradation, species bias and the denial of fundamental human rights. It’s a reminder that sometimes you don’t need to look any further than your own backyard to see the forces that shape our world, for better or for worse. ///

Over the years since it was abandoned, the former tannery lands have mutated into a site of contradictions and complexities. Atop the wretched, toxic soil and sediment, a thicket of vegetation, rushes and trees has sprouted alongside the faithful old oak. Squirrels, rabbits and birds scurry under felled limbs, and in the warmer months, turtles lay their eggs nearby and share the shoreline with huddling ducks and herons. More recently, they’ve been joined by unhoused people who’ve been evicted from community encampments and have made temporary homes on the tannery lands.

To the north, the site is bordered by Belle Park, which was a landfill and later a golf course before being turned into a public park. To the south are residential, commercial and recreational centres, including rowing facilities. Its eastern edge is located along the widening of the river known as Inner Harbour, while a mix of small businesses, light industry and housing borders its western perimeter.

The site has been closed off since the 1980s, but the damage to its soil and groundwater had been done decades earlier. Tannery operations on the property date back to the mid-19th century. Its proximity to Lake Ontario, the Rideau Canal and rail transportation caught the attention of A. Davis and Son, which purchased an existing tannery operation on the site after a fire destroyed one of the company’s other plants in 1903. It was one of Kingston’s largest employers and one of the biggest tanneries in Canada. A lead smelter also operated on the site.

The tannery shut down in 1973 and was eventually demolished. The land was subsequently declared a brownfield site — a provincial designation for properties that are “vacant or underutilized places where past industrial or commercial activities may have left contamination (chemical pollution) behind.” Dangerous levels of chromium, lead, mercury and PCBs have been detected at the site. A 2019 report to Kingston City Council described it as “arguably the largest and most contaminated brownfield property within the city of Kingston.”

The Davis Tannery lands were the subject of numerous studies, consultations and community initiatives as they sat derelict and in tax arrears for decades. An attempt to clean up and redevelop the site failed in the 1980s. In 2004, the province passed legislation that allows potential developers to purchase brownfield lands and write off municipal taxes and other expenses against the cost of cleanups. The legislation breathed new life into efforts to rehabilitate the site. A developer purchased the property from the city in 2006 and spent several years trying to cobble together a redevelopment scheme. It failed to materialize, and in 2017 the site was sold to Patry Inc. Developments.

///

Owner Jay Patry is well known in Kingston as a multi-unit residential developer and property manager. In 2013, his company made national headlines when a student housing complex under construction near Kingston’s downtown caught fire and burned to the ground, stranding a crane operator high above the flames. The operator clambered out onto the crane boom and suffered burns to his legs, buttocks and hands before being rescued by a military helicopter. Patry’s company and three individuals including company owners later pleaded guilty to numerous workplace safety infractions and were hit with fines totalling $74,000. Patry made news again in 2018 when he climbed to the summit of Mount Everest, then less than 24 hours later, scaled nearby Mount Lhotse, the fourth-highest peak in the world. Patry, who was 39 at the time, claimed he was the first Canadian, and one of only 30 climbers worldwide, to have climbed both mountains in a 24-hour period.

His plans for the tannery lands are no less ambitious. To build the housing he proposes, he wants to clear the site of vegetation — including the oak tree that was the focus of last December’s gratitude ceremony — grub the ground of debris and remediate an estimated 550,000 tonnes of soil by disposing of it off-site, stabilizing it on-site or reusing it. One of the more contentious aspects of Patry’s plan involves capping a marsh area on the north end of the property — part of a provincially designated “significant wetland” — with a layer of clean soil, which could result in a redrawing of the wetland’s boundary and a revision of its zoning status. The price tag for the cleanup is estimated to be a staggering $70 million, with Patry eventually recouping up to nearly $64 million in tax rebates and other concessions under the city’s Brownfields Community Improvement Plan.

Kingston City Council unanimously approved the financial component of the cleanup plan in 2020. Patry’s development proposal, including adjustments to a number of local bylaws, is currently under review by city staff. Rob Hutchison, the councillor for the ward that includes the tannery site, thinks Patry’s asks are too grand. But he says the approvals process has to play out. “Staff would say it’s a new development application and we, under the Planning Act, have to consider it as such.…By law, we have to take this application on its face value.”

///

Requests for comment from Patry were directed to his staffperson Latoya Powder, who declined to be interviewed for this story.

Nearly everyone agrees that the site would be better off decontaminated. The devil is in the details — when you unpack them, you see a multitude of global struggles creeping into a local concern.

Case in point: Mary Farrar and her turtles. The president of a community group called Friends of Inner Harbour, the 81-year-old Farrar was at the December oak tree ceremony. A week earlier, she told me how she came to be known as Kingston’s “turtle lady.” For more than a decade, the city considered extending a street through a park next door to the tannery. Farrar, concerned about the impact of paving over part of a waterfront park, was looking for allies to help stop the extension. She found turtles.

Turtles are threatened almost everywhere you look on the planet. The northern map turtle — so named because the lines on their upper shells resemble the contours on a topographical map — was included on the list of species at risk in Ontario in 2008 and again in 2013. About 100 of them nest on lands that would have been decimated by the street extension project. Farrar dedicated years to studying the turtles and protecting their nesting grounds. Walking through the area, I noticed small wooden structures topped with chicken wire, testimony to her efforts to protect turtle nests from predators and stomping.

Farrar’s advocacy work eventually won out; the street extension is all but dead, and the turtles are beloved local fixtures. But they’re still threatened. Decontaminating and developing the tannery shoreline would uproot a favoured basking place. “If the development goes ahead, the turtle habitat will be obliterated,” says Farrar. Her group’s Facebook page urges residents to register their concerns with local politicians. “The shoreline should be left to Nature to remediate,” it declares. “It is arrogant to think that humans know better.”

Farrar also belongs to a group called No Clearcuts Kingston, which opposes the removal of an estimated 1,800 trees from the Davis Tannery site as part of the decontamination project, and which rebukes the city for allowing the site to be deforested when expanding the urban tree canopy is part of Kingston’s official response to the climate emergency. No Clearcuts shares common cause with another recently formed organization, River First YGK, an advocacy group focused on the impact on the river and wetlands of the tannery proposal as well as a proposed cleanup of lands owned by Transport Canada adjacent to the tannery site.

On a late November afternoon whipped by wind and wet snow, historian Jeremy Milloy, River First YGK’s co-ordinator, gestures past the chain-link fence along the tannery’s marshy northern side. “We live in a climate emergency, and what is this?” he says. “This is a wetland. It’s a river running through a wetland into a lake, and it’s extremely at risk of flooding as our weather becomes wetter and wilder over the next 50 to 100 years.”

Like his counterparts in No Clearcuts, Milloy worries that removing trees on the site will encourage erosion and increase the risk of flooding on the catastrophic scale experienced in British Columbia last fall. The challenge, he says, is to convince civic leaders and the local population that Kingston is a frontline community in the climate emergency. “There’s not a pipeline. But people here are river people. This is a watershed community.” Just as grasping the scope of the climate emergency demands a holistic appreciation of the planet and its natural systems, the city and developers need to shift from a top-down view of the local ecosystem, Milloy says. “We’re trying to take the river in all its complexity and contingency and conflict, between being a very beautiful, vibrant space and a toxic, compromised space, and have it dealt with on its own terms rather than just another parcel of land.”

///

A rendering of Patry’s proposed project in its finished form imagines four mid-rise buildings arrayed in the sunshine along the riverfront, with a green belt and walkway separating the structures from the shoreline. The development application calls for a total of 1,509 apartment and condominium units and about 5,000 square metres of ground-floor commercial space. It also includes private and public park space and a boathouse for a local rowing club.

Prices for the townhouse-style units envisaged in Patry’s plan jumped locally by more than 30 percent last year. Add to this the development’s prime waterfront location, and it’s a safe bet that the units Patry hopes to sell won’t come cheaply. Same with the units earmarked for rental. And that’s before the cost of decontaminating the site is factored in. “He has to be able to make so much money off the property in order to pay for the cleanup costs,” says Coun. Rob Hutchison. “Honestly, I don’t know why he bought the property.”

Housing — or lack of it — is a major issue in Kingston. In part due to large student populations at Queen’s University and St. Lawrence College, the city has historically registered one of the lowest rental vacancy rates in Ontario. A recent surge in housing starts has improved the outlook, but the increase in vacancy rates has been accompanied by a spike in rents.

Tim Park, Kingston’s director of planning services, says almost 4,000 new housing units are currently slated for construction in the city, but “like any commodity, it’s up to the owner to adjust rental rates.” While Park says the city has requested that the tannery development include affordable housing, he cautions that “right now, the city just has a statement that a certain percentage should be affordable units, but there’s no way to enforce or implement it.”

The tannery lands could eventually be home to several thousand people. At present, the only residents are people like Donnie. In late December, Donnie (who asked to be identified by a nickname as he’s camping on private property) spent his 28th birthday alone near the banks of the frozen Cataraqui River, in a green pop-up tent and some blue tarps set up among fallen trees. He’s been camped out for a few weeks after leaving a homeless shelter. A couple he knows is camping nearby, and he’s envious of the companionship. “I’d give my f—king legs to have someone to talk to and stay warm with in my tent,” he says. “Even just the heat from their body.”

Donnie was born on a First Nations reserve in northern Ontario but grew up in group and foster homes. After he was arrested and incarcerated in 2020, his marriage fell apart and he lost his kids. When he was released last fall, he had nowhere to go and no money. He stayed at the shelter for a while, but it wasn’t a great fit. In the woods, no one harasses him except the animals who also live there. A few nights after Christmas, Donnie skirmished with a fisher and raccoons who wanted his leftovers.

Donnie bristles when he hears about the proposed re-development of the tannery lands — and the suggestion that it could help with Kingston’s housing and affordability crisis. “Who’s it affordable for? It’s not going to be affordable for poor people and homeless people,” he says.

He even speaks up for his raccoon neighbours, asleep in a tree near his tent. Shouldn’t they be considered in this, too? “People already live here,” he says indignantly. “It’s where I live.”

Beyond the fences marking the edge of the tannery lie once-thriving working-class communities that slid into decline in the 1970s as industry closed or relocated. For years, the district was regarded as Kingston’s poorest, but like similar districts in countless Canadian cities, it’s now undergoing gentrification as house hunters and small businesses are lured by lower real estate prices.

In spite of the recent changes, the district is still where you’ll find most of Kingston’s unhoused population, many of whom gather and camp around the nearby Integrated Care Hub, a facility that offers food, safety, shelter and counselling services to the vulnerable. Only one adult emergency shelter remains in Kingston. In September 2020, after unhoused people set up an encampment in a park, the city evicted the residents and removed their belongings. Since then, the city has done little to address systemic housing issues, aside from funding a non-profit’s pilot project to provide 10 sleeping cabins and a warming centre during the winter months.

People who work with Kingston’s poor take a dim view of the time, energy and resources the city mobilizes in the name of private, for-profit developments like the Davis Tannery lands, but not for issues like the affordable housing crisis. An Inner Harbour man, who wants to be known only as Jordan because he fears for his job with a local shelter service, says arguments that laud the tannery development as a solution to Kingston’s housing problems ring false. “The people who are affected by the housing crisis are people who would never be able to even consider living [there],” he says.

In fact, he continues, it’s more likely that the plan would worsen the city’s already considerable wealth gap. “Building a luxury development in a traditionally low-income area is going to actually amplify the housing crisis when thousands of people with more money move into this neighbourhood,” he says. “It’s always the low-income areas near a downtown core that start to get more and more development until the people who have lived there for decades eventually have to move out.”

Canada and other nations recognize access to adequate shelter as a fundamental human right. But here as elsewhere, it often seems that it’s more of a right for some than it is for others.

///

A week before we met at the edge of the Davis Tannery lands, Jeremy Milloy of River First YGK had listened to a talk by journalist Andrew Nikiforuk. Something Nikiforuk said stuck with him: “The study of ecology is the study of consequences,” Milloy recalls. He continues, “The tannery is a really good example because of the legacies of colonialism and capitalism in this space, and how consequential each piece is to the other.”

On a map of the planet, the Davis Tannery is a tiny pinpoint. But it is a site of immense importance because it embodies such a wide spectrum of distinct struggles. It can feel overwhelming to parse through the site’s complexities, but that’s not a reason to avoid addressing them. “We’re not being called upon to solve,” says Milloy. “We’re being called upon to respond.”

Just as there’s no neat and tidy solution to global ills like climate change and economic inequality, there’s likely no silver bullet that will fix the problems of the Davis Tannery or scores of other hot spots across the country. But one thing is indisputable: failing to confront the ghosts of the past with a more just and ethical world in mind risks creating new ghosts for the future. The Davis Tannery can be a turning point or a point of no return.

The battle rages on. Meanwhile, the turtles lie dormant, hibernating in the riverbed while waterfowl go about their business along the shoreline. The rabbits and squirrels scamper through the bullrushes and around the trunk of the great white oak as it groans and creaks in the raw December wind, as if it’s trying to say something.

- Luke Ottenhoff, “Wetlands vs. developers: A small-town battle with national ramifications.” Broadview. March 17, 2022.

Notes left by land defenders on the tannery's fence. (Photo courtesy of Kathleen O'Hara)

#kingston ontario #davis tannery #wetlands #development #condo developers #housing crisis #homelessness #wildlife sanctuary #brownfield site #local politics #canadian politics #city council #residential capitalism #social crisis #tannery grounds

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wanderlustwhims · 20 days

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Navigating the Power Management System Market: Key Insights

Introduction

In today's rapidly evolving global landscape, the efficient management of power has become a paramount concern for businesses, governments, and individuals alike. The power management system market, encompassing a wide array of technologies and solutions aimed at optimizing energy usage, stands at the forefront of this endeavor. In this comprehensive exploration, we delve into the intricate facets of the power management system market, examining the trends, challenges, and opportunities that shape its trajectory.

According to the study by Next Move Strategy Consulting, the global Power Management System Market size is predicted to reach USD 6.88 billion with a CAGR of 5.6% by 2030.

Request for a sample, here: https://www.nextmsc.com/power-management-system-market/request-sample

Understanding the Dynamics

At its core, the power management system market revolves around the efficient utilization of energy resources to meet the diverse needs of consumers while minimizing waste and environmental impact. This entails the integration of various technologies, including smart grids, energy storage systems, demand response mechanisms, and advanced analytics, to optimize the generation, distribution, and consumption of electricity.

Trends Driving Market Growth

The power management system market is propelled by several overarching trends that reflect the evolving needs and priorities of stakeholders across industries. One such trend is the increasing emphasis on sustainability and environmental stewardship. As concerns about climate change escalate and regulatory frameworks become more stringent, organizations are under mounting pressure to reduce their carbon footprint and embrace cleaner, more efficient energy practices. This has spurred a growing demand for power management systems that enable the integration of renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and hydroelectric power into the grid while maintaining reliability and stability.

Inquire before buying, here: https://www.nextmsc.com/power-management-system-market/inquire-before-buying

Another key trend shaping the power management system market is the rise of smart grid technology. Smart grids leverage advanced communication and control capabilities to enhance the efficiency, resilience, and flexibility of power distribution networks. By enabling real-time monitoring, predictive analytics, and automated response mechanisms, smart grids empower utilities and consumers alike to optimize energy usage, mitigate outages, and manage peak demand more effectively. This trend is further fueled by the proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and sensors, which enable granular data collection and analysis across the grid infrastructure.

Challenges to Overcome

Despite the promising growth prospects, the power management system market is not without its share of challenges. One of the primary hurdles facing industry stakeholders is the complexity of integrating diverse energy sources and technologies into existing infrastructure. As the energy landscape becomes increasingly decentralized and diversified, with distributed generation sources such as rooftop solar panels and wind turbines gaining prominence, the task of orchestrating these disparate elements to ensure grid stability and reliability becomes increasingly daunting.

Moreover, cybersecurity emerges as a pressing concern in the landscape of power management systems. With the proliferation of interconnected devices and digital platforms, the power grid becomes increasingly vulnerable to cyber threats such as ransomware, phishing attacks, and denial-of-service attacks. A successful cyberattack on critical infrastructure could have devastating consequences, ranging from widespread power outages to compromised data integrity and privacy breaches. As such, safeguarding the integrity and security of power management systems against malicious actors remains a paramount priority for industry stakeholders.

Opportunities on the Horizon

Amidst these challenges, a myriad of opportunities awaits those who dare to innovate and adapt. One such opportunity lies in the landscape of energy storage technology. Energy storage systems, encompassing batteries, flywheels, pumped hydro storage, and other emerging technologies, hold the key to unlocking greater flexibility and resilience in power management systems. By storing surplus energy during periods of low demand and discharging it during peak hours, energy storage systems enable utilities to balance supply and demand more effectively, reduce reliance on fossil fuels, and integrate intermittent renewable energy sources into the grid.

Another promising opportunity lies in the landscape of demand response programs. Demand response initiatives empower consumers to adjust their electricity usage in response to price signals, grid conditions, or environmental factors. By incentivizing consumers to shift their energy consumption to off-peak hours or curtail usage during times of grid stress, demand response programs help alleviate strain on the grid, reduce the need for costly infrastructure upgrades, and enhance overall system reliability. Furthermore, demand response initiatives can enable greater integration of renewable energy resources by providing a means to manage variability and intermittency in generation output.

Grid Modernization Initiatives: Governments and utilities worldwide are investing heavily in grid modernization efforts aimed at enhancing the efficiency, reliability, and resilience of power infrastructure. These initiatives encompass the deployment of advanced sensors, communication networks, and control systems to enable real-time monitoring and management of grid operations. By participating in grid modernization projects, technology providers can position themselves as key enablers of the smart grid revolution, offering solutions that optimize energy flow, reduce losses, and enhance grid stability.

Electrification of Transportation: The electrification of transportation, driven by environmental concerns and regulatory mandates, presents a significant growth opportunity for the power management system market. As electric vehicles (EVs) gain traction, the demand for charging infrastructure and smart charging solutions is expected to surge. Power management systems play a critical role in optimizing EV charging patterns, managing grid impact, and maximizing the use of renewable energy sources for vehicle charging. By developing innovative solutions tailored to the needs of the electric mobility ecosystem, companies can capitalize on this burgeoning market segment.

Microgrid Deployment: Microgrids, localized energy systems that can operate independently or in conjunction with the main grid, offer a compelling solution for enhancing energy resilience and reliability. In remote or underserved areas, microgrids provide a reliable source of electricity, often powered by renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, or biomass. Additionally, microgrids can enhance grid stability and mitigate the impacts of extreme weather events or grid disturbances. By offering integrated solutions for microgrid design, deployment, and management, companies can tap into a growing market for decentralized energy solutions.

Energy Management Software: The proliferation of data analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence has paved the way for the development of sophisticated energy management software platforms. These platforms enable utilities, businesses, and consumers to monitor, analyze, and optimize their energy usage in real time, leading to cost savings, carbon emissions reductions, and improved operational efficiency. By developing intuitive, user-friendly software solutions that empower customers to make data-driven decisions about their energy consumption, companies can differentiate themselves in the competitive landscape and unlock new revenue streams.

Cross-Sector Collaborations: As the boundaries between energy, transportation, and other sectors blur, there is growing recognition of the value of cross-sector collaborations in driving innovation and unlocking synergies. By partnering with stakeholders from complementary industries such as telecommunications, automotive, and building management, power management system providers can leverage their expertise to develop holistic solutions that address complex challenges spanning multiple domains. Whether it's integrating energy management capabilities into smart buildings, optimizing charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, or enabling grid-to-vehicle communication, cross-sector collaborations offer immense potential for value creation and market differentiation.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the power management system market represents a dynamic and rapidly evolving landscape characterized by a convergence of technological innovation, regulatory imperatives, and shifting consumer preferences. As stakeholders navigate this complex terrain, they must remain vigilant to emerging trends, proactive in addressing challenges, and agile in seizing opportunities for growth and differentiation. By embracing sustainability, resilience, and innovation as guiding principles, the power management system market stands poised to usher in a new era of energy efficiency, reliability, and sustainability for generations to come.

#marketinsights #marketstrategy #markettrends #globaltrends #marketgrowth #globalinsights #market trends #marketresearch

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zenruption · 1 month

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Expert Help Is A Must: Why Navigating The Customs Process Alone Is Ill-Advised

Navigating through the intricate maze of customs regulations and procedures can feel like trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube blindfolded. It's complex, often frustrating, and if done incorrectly, can lead to costly delays or penalties. That's why seeking expert help isn’t just advisable; it’s essential. Below, we’ll explore the reasons why going it alone in the customs process can leave you in a precarious position, and how professional guidance and someone dealing with the customs process for you can save you time, money, and headaches.

Understanding the Complexity of Customs

The Ever-Changing Landscape of Regulations

Customs regulations are not static. They change frequently, responding to new security measures, trade agreements, or political climates. Each country has its own set of rules and tariffs, which can be bewildering to navigate without deep expertise.

Key Points:

Regulatory Changes: Staying updated on international trade laws requires constant vigilance.

Country-Specific Requirements: Each destination has unique requirements and documentation.

Why Mistakes Are Costly

A small error in paperwork or misclassification of goods can result in delays, fines, or even seizure of goods. These mistakes can cost businesses valuable time and money, impacting operational efficiency and profitability.

The Benefits of Hiring a Customs Broker

Streamlined Efficiency

Customs brokers are professionals who specialize in the rules and regulations of cross-border transactions. They work as your advocate, ensuring that your shipments meet all legal requirements to pass through customs as smoothly and quickly as possible.

Advantages of Using a Customs Broker:

Expert Guidance on Tariffs and Taxes: Brokers provide valuable advice on the most cost-effective methods of shipment and tax implications.

Reduced Risk of Delays: Their expertise minimizes the chances of costly hold-ups at borders.

Case in Point: Simplifying Complexity

Imagine you’re shipping goods from the United States to a country in the European Union. Each step of the way involves different regulatory bodies and paperwork. A customs broker acts as a central point of coordination among various agencies, ensuring compliance and timely processing.

DIY Customs Handling: A Risky Endeavor

When Things Go Wrong

Handling customs yourself can be tempting, especially for smaller businesses looking to cut costs. However, this decision can backfire if you're not fully prepared for the regulatory hurdles. This section highlights common pitfalls and how they can derail your shipping plans.

Q&A: Common Concerns in Customs

Q: Can I handle customs paperwork myself? A: Yes, but it requires a deep understanding of complex regulations. Mistakes can be costly, both in terms of fines and delays.

Q: What happens if I misclassify a product? A: Misclassification can lead to severe penalties, including fines or denial of goods entry.

How to Choose the Right Customs Broker

Essential Criteria for Selection

Choosing the right customs broker is critical. Here are some factors to consider:

Credentials: Ensure they are licensed and have a good standing with relevant authorities.

Experience: Look for brokers with experience handling goods in your specific industry.

Reputation: Check reviews and ask for references to gauge their reliability and service quality.

Steps to Engaging a Customs Broker

Identify Your Needs: Understand what specific services you require.

Research: Look for brokers who specialize in your type of shipment and destination.

Interview: Discuss your needs and ask how they would handle your shipments.

Evaluate: Consider their expertise, fees, and the level of service they offer.

Decide: Choose the broker that best matches your needs and budget.

Leveraging Technology in Customs Management

Embracing Digital Solutions

In today’s trade environment, leveraging technology is key to streamlining the customs clearance process. Many customs brokers integrate advanced software solutions that can automate data entry, track shipments in real-time, and ensure that all documentation is compliant and up-to-date.

Technological Benefits:

Automation: Reduces the risk of human error in paperwork and speeds up the processing time.

Real-Time Tracking: Allows businesses and brokers to monitor the status of shipments at every stage, enhancing transparency and accountability.

Data Analytics: Provides insights into shipping patterns and potential bottlenecks, helping businesses to optimize their logistics strategies.

Final Thoughts: Why Expert Help Is Non-Negotiable

Navigating customs without expert help is not advised. The risk of making costly mistakes is high, and the consequences can be severe. By engaging a customs broker, you ensure that your shipments are compliant, efficient, and less prone to delays.

Remember, in the world of international shipping, what you don’t know can hurt you financially and operationally. Expertise in customs matters isn’t just a luxury; it’s a fundamental necessity. So, before you ship your next order, consider this: Is going it alone worth the risk?

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thecpdiary · 2 months

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Attenborough's Climate Change

It would be devastating to have to consider a scenario, where Sir David Attenborough fails to convince the world about nature and climate change, given his unparalleled reputation as a naturalist, broadcaster and advocate for environmental causes.

Sir David Attenborough

Sir David Attenborough, the renowned naturalist and broadcaster, has been a vocal advocate for addressing climate change for decades. Through his documentaries and public appearances, he has raised awareness about the urgent need to take action to protect the planet and its ecosystems.

One of David Attenborough's biggest successes in raising awareness about climate change was his 2019 documentary series "Our Planet," which highlighted the impact of human activities on the environment and the urgency of taking action to combat climate change. The series received widespread acclaim for its stunning visuals and compelling storytelling, reaching a global audience and sparking conversations about conservation and sustainability.

However, there are situations where his efforts might not bring the desired outcome:

From information overload to entrenched denialism, from cultural differences to economic interests, each factor represents a complex obstacle that requires meticulous strategies to overcome.

Information Overload to Generational divides

From information overload to entrenched denialism, from cultural differences to economic interests, each factor represents a complex obstacle that requires nuanced strategies to overcome.

The failure to sufficiently engage younger generations could have particularly profound implications, given that they represent the future stewards of the planet. Finding ways to bridge generational divides and make the urgency of climate action resonate with younger demographics is vital for sustained progress.

Polarisation and denialism

Climate change has unfortunately become politicised in some countries. There are entrenched interests and ideologies that actively deny or downplay the severity of climate change. Despite David Attenborough's credibility, he may struggle to sway those who are deeply entrenched in denialism or climate change skepticism. Economic interests

Powerful industries with vested interests in maintaining the status quo, may actively work against efforts to address climate change. They might use their resources to undermine David Attenborough's message or to promote counter-narratives that prioritise short-term economic gains over long-term environmental sustainability. Lack of political will

Even with widespread public support, meaningful action on climate change often requires political will and co-operation at the highest levels. If governments fail to prioritise environmental policies, or if they prioritise short-term economic gains over long-term sustainability, Attenborough's efforts can struggle to effect systemic change. It is important to recognise Attenborough's work But despite these challenges, it is important to recognise that David Attenborough's work has had a profound impact on raising awareness about environmental issues and inspiring actions around the world. While addressing climate change is daunting, the continued efforts of individuals like David Attenborough remain crucial, in driving his message and progress towards a more sustainable future.

Failings in the fight against climate change

However, despite David Attenborough's efforts, there have been failures in the fight against climate change. Despite growing awareness and international agreements such as the Paris Agreement, greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise and the impacts of climate change are becoming increasingly severe. Political leaders and powerful industries have been slow to implement meaningful changes and there is still a long way to go to limit global warming to safe levels.

We need to continue to take collective action

The challenges to addressing climate change are significant, but they are not insurmountable. But by continuing to support voices like Sir David Attenborough's and by taking individual and collective action, we can make a difference in the fight against climate change. It is crucial that we all do our part to protect the planet and ensure a sustainable future for generations to come.

There have been notable shortcomings in the broader fight against climate change. Failing to act, will change the face of the future, for generations to come. Let us not consider a scenario where Sir David Attenborough fails to convince the world about nature and climate change, but instead, use his legacy and message as a rallying cry for action and change.

For more inspirational, lifestyle blogs, please check out my site https://www.thecpdiary.com

#thecpdiary #blog #david attenborough #climate change #globalwarming

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changeling6 · 6 months

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Album/EP/Singles Masterpost

Albums

Purified Tyrannical Destiny

About masking, unrealistic expectations, and parents projecting their personalities and wishes onto their children

Idiolect - Idiolect is a word to describe the speech habits particular to one person. This song refers to neurotypical people expecting neurodivergent people to conform fully to neurotypical standards instead accommodating people and meeting others halfway in interactions.

The Spiraling State Fair

About corporations prioritizing profit over safety, militarization, the prison industrial complex, and other related concepts.

Ferris Wheel - about how corporate greed and lack of safety leads to injury and death using amusement park accidents to represent that.

Violence - about how systemic issues lead to crime.

Radium Girls - About the young girls and women who worked for the United States Radium Corporation and developed severe medical problems due to their unprotected work with radium.

Monarch Butterfly

About oppression built into systems of power and the damage of a system built on survival of the fittest and punishment.

Kill Your Darlings: About recognizing privilege.

There are no kings: About rebuilding after oppressive systems are removed

Mother Nature: About climate change

Pocket Apocalypse

A superhero album that discusses disability and the American Healthcare system

Vigilante - About having to be your own advocate when no one believes you.

Save the World - About the pressure put on younger generations to fix the problems created by older generations.

Post-Credits - An allusion to post-credit scenes that hint at a sequel. It's about how you can give your all as a disabled person to try and prove that you deserve space in the world but people just don't give a shit and will take advantage of you for it.

EPs

The Evers

Introductory EP about the Arloverse. Album follows Erikson's Stages of Development.

Everbe - (Trust vs. Mistrust)

Eversee - (Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt, Initiative vs. Guilt)

Everthink - (Industry, vs. Inferiority, Identity vs. Role Confusion)

Everknow - (Intimacy vs. Isolation)

Everchange - (Generativity vs. Stagnation, Integrity vs. Despair)

Child of the Universe

About childhood trauma

Child of the Universe: About wanting to express yourself and devoting time to be yourself but also the lingering thoughts in the back of your mind about how much pain is in the world

Child of the Darkness: About living with a family member who is manipulative and abusive and how they cause you so much pain but it's also painful to try and leave.

Child of Mercy: About parenting your inner child who is suffering from rejection of loved ones.

Safezone

About domestic and sexual abuse told in the theme of a zombie apocalypse.

Zombie - The perspective of two different people who don't know each other but experienced abuse by the same person. An analysis of different reactions to trauma and abuse.

Fallen Angel - About sexual abuse trauma and not being believed

Save a Life - About one of the struggles of leaving a dangerous relationship where you have this mentality that the person you love will change but realistically they won't so you finally take the steps to leave that relationship.

Singles

Dream Demons - About losing a mentor figure. Written about a former faculty member from my high school who died.

Moondog - Idk. It just came out of my brain.

Everything is Fine - Childhood trauma and denial. Emotional suppression for the integrity of a perfect image.

Immortal Meets Mortality - A spin on Rapunzel discussing suffocating family dynamics but also people who believe they are indestructible and also about people trying to act like they know what's best for you.

False Prophet - Another one that idk what I means but it just came out of my brain. It felt important.

Democracy isn't real - A song about hopelessness that your vote actually does something where Americans are drowning in debt while the government funds Israel's genocide against Palestine.

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nando161mando · 9 months

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"The #GOPDebate proved yet again that the Gas & Oil Party are owned by the energy-industrial complex ... STOP the #ClimateCrisis by NOT voting Republican.

America is under the Deep State of Denial ... more coming December 4th‼️"

🌍🔥 #ClimateBrawl 🔥🌍

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howwelldoyouknowyourmoon · 11 months

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A Global Warming Book for the Streaming Age

New York Times

In “The Parrot and the Igloo: Climate And The Science Of Denial,” the novelist and journalist David Lipsky spins top-flight climate literature into cliffhanger entertainment ... Otherwise dry proceedings of back-room history are given a juicy injection of drama and humor. We get tales of vanity, fame and money — and at least one God complex. In 1982, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the leader of the Unification Church and a self-described messiah, founded The Washington Times, a newspaper that soon became a vehicle for right-wing talking points and climate denialism. (“Climate Claims Wither Under the Luminous Lights of Science,” one headline blared.) The Washington Times was Ronald Reagan’s favorite morning read. “Without knowing it,” Moon reportedly said, “even President Reagan is being guided by Father.” ...

Eventually, Lipsky’s narrative, leaning on Oreskes and Conway and others, detours to Big Tobacco and its quest to suppress evidence that cigarettes cause cancer. The reader is left to wonder why, until the same characters paid by Philip Morris to scuttle bans on cigarettes become the ones shilling for Big Oil. By the time we hear about a scheme in the 1980s to deny ... we know where this is going. Denial is a cottage industry of the few but talented.

LINK

______________________________

From the book cover:

In 1956, the New York Times prophesied that once global warming really kicked in, we could see parrots in the Antarctic. ...

With narrative sweep and a superb eye for character, Lipsky unfolds the dramatic narrative of the long, strange march of climate science. The story begins with a tale of three inventors―Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, and Nikola Tesla―who made our technological world, not knowing what they had set into motion. Then there are the scientists who sounded the alarm once they identified carbon dioxide as the culprit of our warming planet. And we meet the hucksters, zealots, and crackpots who lied about that science and misled the public in ever more outrageous ways. Lipsky masterfully traces the evolution of climate denial, exposing how it grew out of early efforts to build a network of untruth about products like aspirin and cigarettes.

Featuring an indelible cast of heroes and villains, mavericks and swindlers, The Parrot and the Igloo delivers a real-life tragicomedy―one that captures the extraordinary dance of science, money, and the American character.

______________________________

Review:

"Where can a person living on a melting planet turn, at least before the spaceship fleet is ready, for enlightenment? I’d start, and finish, with David Lipsky’s brilliant epic The Parrot and the Igloo, which I devoured in a single, feverish, page-turning sitting, a perspective-altering dream, a story told in language as sharp and clear as the spring air we knew before all the carbon was released.… You will stare out the same windows when you've finished, but nothing will look the same." ― Rich Cohen, New York Times best-selling author of Sweet and Low and Monsters

______________________________

We knew about climate change in the ’50s. Why an author tracked the history of denial

‘Every alarm bell in the planet is ringing right now’ – but political reporters aren’t listening

#The Parrot and the Igloo #David Lipsky #climate change #global warming #climate denial #Washington Times

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mostlysignssomeportents · 3 years

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Oregon's carbon offsets go up in smoke

The theory behind carbon offsets is that markets created the climate emergency, so markets will solve it. It’s a kind of high-stakes denialism, like a lifelong smoker switching to “light” cigarettes after learning they have stage four lung-cancer.

The climate emergency owes its existence to market doctrine: that firms should manage their affairs to maximize shareholder value, irrespective of the costs that maximization imposes on everyone else.

By that logic, all corporate crime is the result of “poor incentives” — maimed workers, ruined neighborhoods and toxic spills are the results of underpriced insurance, or fines that are set too low.

Rather than criminalizing the conduct that leads to these outcomes — shutting down companies that engage in the conduct, holding managers and shareholders personally liable for it — market doctrine insists that we should “rebalance the incentives.”

Enter carbon offsets: rather than prohibiting the pollution that will render our planet permanently uninhabitable by our species, we make that pollution economically disfavorable, by offering bribes to companies that promise not to pollute.

Buy a forest, promise not to cut it down, get a tradeable credit. If the credits pay more than clearcutting, the incentives net out in favor of not committing genocide. As the Climate Ad Project puts it, this amounts to a “murder offset.”

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/14/for-sale-green-indulgences/#killer-analogy

From the start, offsets raised an obvious question: how do you know that someone who pledges not to pollute was planning to pollute? How do you keep the system from turning into a market for lemons? Here’s a 2010 article raising those questions:

https://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2010/0420/Buying-carbon-offsets-may-ease-eco-guilt-but-not-global-warming

Fast forward a decade. The answers to the questions remain elusive, but the market for lemons is in full swing. Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) funds are full of absolute garbage, stuff that doesn’t even pass the giggle-test:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/03/24/greenwashing/#bargaining

Offsets are the worst. Corrupt “charities” like Nature Conservancy make vast fortunes ($932m in 2019) helping the world’s worst polluters greenwash their fortunes by offering offsets for set-asides on lands that would never be logged anyway.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/12/12/fairy-use-tale/#greenwashing

The Conservancy has a history of boasting about its role in burnishing the credentials of sociopaths who want to watch the world burn:

“The only problem with tainted money is there tain’t enough of it” -Patrick Noonan, Conservancy President, 1973–80

Despite that, carbon offsets remain credible, but perhaps that’ll change. After all, Oregon’s 400,000-acre (and counting) Bootleg Fire is consuming vast of carbon offset forests, releasing the carbon the public paid logging companies not to release.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/22/weather/bootleg-oregon-fire-carbon-offsets/index.html

Once that public money was in private hands, it returned to public officials — regulators who oversee Oregon’s forests, who “sought to discredit climate scientists and operated as a de facto lobbying and public relations arm for the timber industry”

https://www.propublica.org/article/tax-funded-forest-institute-in-oregon-misled-public-may-have-broken-state-law-audit-finds

Offsets don’t just fail to mitigate the climate emergency — they have a business model: funneling lots of public money to rich people, like the millionaire residents of a gated Pennsylvania estate who got huge tax breaks for their private park.

https://www.inquirer.com/business/inq2/pennsylvania-main-line-estate-tax-breaks-20210716.html

Everything we do to fix offsets just makes them worse: adding complexity to a loophole-riddled system creates more loopholes. We can’t save the world and our species with improved murder offsets.

Image: Cristian Ibarra Santillan (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/cristian_ibarra_santillan/49595214931/

CC BY: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

#pluralistic

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rjzimmerman · 3 years

Link

This story kind of gets to a peeve I’ve had about the climate crisis for a long time: the lack of deliberation and thoughtful planning. For example: the idea of electric vehicles is terrific. Yes, we need to convert. But shouldn’t we plan first before implementing? How many chargers are needed around the US in order to avoid range anxiety for all potential consumers, thus removing that impediment to purchase and conversion? How much money will that take, and how long will it take to install them? Who should install and maintain them? Are they going to be public utilities in all places, some? How long will it take for the auto industry to convert its factories for electric vehicle production? How much money is required? Should the conversion be sudden or gradual, and if gradual, over what period of time? How long will it take to train workers to build, repair and maintain electric vehicles? How many people will it take? Are our educational institutions and trade schools ready? If not, how long will it take? And what I’ve been addressing are just cars. What about trucks and buses? And so on and so on. I suspect there has not been a coordinated and coordinating approach to the issue of how best to convert our transportation infrastructure to all-electric.

Excerpt from this story from Treehugger:

From Climeworks’ giant carbon sucking machine (that also happens to be way too small) to the fact that electric cars are still very much cars, we’ve become used to much-vaunted climate "solutions" that, on closer inspection, are not quite as game-changing as they appear. Yet we are also coming to realize there never was going to be one solution in the first place.

With a crisis as complex, multifaceted, and intractable as the one we are facing, the idea of a single solution—or even a relatively broad set of technological fixes—is an unlikely scenario once you really start to think about it.

This creates a tricky conundrum for folks in the climate space. On the one hand, we need to recognize that no single thing was ever going to save us. And we need to accept that solutions—even partial and imperfect ones—may be important in moving us in the right direction. That’s why, for example, I’ve been reluctant to join others in the wholesale rejection of concepts like net-zero—suggesting instead that we scrutinize the details, and learn to differentiate between credible and not-so-credible plans. And it’s why, when some pour cold water on soil-based solutions like regenerative agriculture, I prefer to talk about ways to measure their contributions—rather than rejecting them entirely.

On the other hand, (there is always another hand) we must avoid the trap of allowing imperfect or incremental solutions to curb our demands for more ambitious change. When Shell Oil starts talking about its net-zero ambitions, for example, we should all be painfully aware this is a tactic of delay and denial. It’s easy to promise radical change if that change is many decades away—especially if the timeframe allows for the timely retirement of current executives and the cashing out of major investors.

#climate solution #climate crisis

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back-and-totheleft · 3 years

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“I’m not sure I’ve modified my thinking”

“It’s a strange place, England,” Oliver Stone informs me at the start of our Zoom call. “You’ve managed to make it worse than it was,” he says, speaking from his home in Los Angeles. “You’ve turned it into World War Two with your attitudes over there. The English love punishment, it’s part of their make-up.”

You sure know how to break the ice, Mr Stone. It’s a slightly galling accusation, given that he has hitched his wagon to Russia, hardly a paragon of enlightenment. The New York-born writer-director has never shied from ruffling feathers, though. Stone has taken on the American establishment to thrilling effect in his movies, from Platoon to Born on the Fourth of July, JFK to W, Salvador to Snowden, and still emerged with three Oscars. And he has admiringly interviewed a string of figures whose relations with Uncle Sam have rarely been cosy, including Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez and Vladimir Putin. Those had more mixed receptions, as has his support for Julian Assange.

Yet at 74 he is still a thorn in the side of the military-industrial complex and is set to remain one for some time, having just had his second shot of Covid vaccine. This being Stone, he got his jab in Russia. A recent trial showed the Sputnik V vaccine he was given to have 92 per cent efficacy and he’s palpably delighted. Angry too, of course. “It’s strange how the US ignores that. It’s a strange bias they have against all things Russian,” he says. “I do believe it’s your best vaccine on the market, actually,” he adds, sounding weirdly Trump-like.

If his bullishness is still intact, Stone reveals a more vulnerable side in his recent memoir, Chasing the Light. The book, which he discusses in an online Q&A tonight, goes a long way to explaining his distrust of government, society and, well, pretty much everything. There are visceral accounts of him fighting in Vietnam, and fighting to get Salvador and Platoon made. “The war was lodged away in a compartment, and I made films about it,” he says. “Sometimes I have a dream that I’ve been drafted and sent back there.”

The crucial event in the book, though, is his parents’ divorce when he was 15. Stone realises now that his conservative Jewish-American father and glamorous French mother were ill-suited. Both had affairs. What really stung was the way he was told about their split: over the phone by a family friend while he was at boarding school. “It was very cold, very English,” he says. “I say English because everything about boarding school invokes the old England.” He’s really got it in for us today.

With no siblings, he says, “I had no family after that divorce. It was over. The three of us split up.” His world view stemmed from his parents being in denial about their incompatibility, he writes in the book: “Children like me are born out of that original lie. And nobody can ever be trusted again.”

That disillusionment took a few years to show itself. “All of a sudden, I just had a collapse,” Stone says. He had been admitted to Yale University but his father’s alma mater suddenly felt like part of the problem. He felt suicidal and sidestepped those thoughts by enlisting to fight in Vietnam, putting the choice of him dying into other hands.

The Stone in the book was described by one reviewer as his most sympathetic character. “It’s true probably because it’s a novel,” he says. Well, technically it’s an autobiography, but it’s a telling mistake. Fact and fiction can blur in his work, from the demonisation of Turks in Midnight Express (he wrote the screenplay) to the conspiracy theories in JFK.

Writing the book allowed him to put himself into the story, something he says he’s never been able to do in his films. He has tried. He wrote a screenplay, White Lies, in which a child of divorce repeats his parents’ mistakes, as Stone has. “I had two divorces in my life [from the Lebanese-born Najwa Sarkis and Elizabeth Burkit Cox, who worked as a “spiritual advisor” on his films] and I’m on my third marriage, which I’m very happy in.” He and Sun-jung Jung, who is from South Korea, have been together for more than 25 years. They have a grown-up daughter, Tara, and he has two sons, Sean and Michael, from his marriage to Cox.

White Lies is on ice for now. “It’s hard to get those kinds of things done,” Stone says wearily. Will he make another feature? It’s been documentaries recently, the last two on the Ukraine. “I don’t know. It’s a question of energy. In the old days, there would be a studio you’d have a relationship with, and they’d have to trust you to a certain degree. And that doesn’t exist any more.”

He thinks back to the big beasts of his early years. Alan Parker, who directed Midnight Express; John Daly, who produced Salvador and Platoon; Robert Bolt, who taught him about screenwriting. “Those three Englishmen had a lot to do with my successes,” he says. I think he feels bad about all the limey bashing. “John was a tough cockney, but I liked him a lot.” He liked him more than Parker, whom he describes as “cold” with a “serious chip on his shoulder.” He smiles. “Sure. Alan did a good job with Midnight Express, though.”

You wonder if Netflix could come to Stone’s rescue. They have given generous backing to big-name directors, from David Fincher to Martin Scorsese, Stone’s old tutor at NYU film school. Surely they would welcome him? “Well, that’s why you’re not in charge! Netflix is very engineering driven. Subject matter such as [White Lies] might register low on a demographic.”

Isn’t he also working on a JFK documentary, Destiny Betrayed? That could do better with the Netflix algorithms. “I’m having problems with that too. Americans were so concerned with Trump, I don’t know that they wanted to hear about some of the facts behind the Kennedy killing. They don’t recognise that there’s a connection between 1963 and now, that pretty much all the screws came loose when they did that in ’63.” He smiles. “I know you think I’m nuts.”

Well no, but you do wonder at his unwavering conviction that there was a conspiracy to murder Kennedy, probably involving the CIA. JFK is a big reason why a majority of Americans believe in a conspiracy and, according to Stone, led to the establishment of the Assassination Records Review Board, which he claims is “the only piece of legislation in this country that ever came out of a film.”

Yet several serious studies, including a 1,600-page book, Reclaiming History, by the former prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, conclude that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. That book accused Stone of committing a “cultural crime” by distorting facts in JFK. “I feel like I’m in the dock with Bugliosi. I didn’t like his book at all,” Stone says. “Believe me, you cannot walk out of [his forthcoming documentary] and say Oswald did it alone. If you do, I think you’re on mushrooms.”

Stone knows whereof he speaks regarding psychedelics. On returning from Vietnam he was “a little bit radical” in his behaviour, he says: drugs, womanising, hellraising. He recently took LSD for the first time in years. “It was wonderful,” he says. He hallucinated that he was “moving from island to island on a little boat”.

What was radical in the Seventies can be problematic now. He has been accused of inappropriate behaviour by the model Carrie Stevens and the actresses Patricia Arquette and Melissa Gilbert. “As far as I know I never forced anyone to do anything they didn’t want to do,” he says. Has he modified the way he behaves around women? “Oh sure, no question.”

At the same time, he is disturbed by “the scolding going on, the shaming culture. I don’t agree with any of that. It’s like the Chinese Cultural Revolution. It scares the shit out of me. I do think the politically correct point of view will never be mine.”

He’s not a slavish follower of conspiracy theories — QAnon “sounds like nonsense”, he says, as was the theory that Donald Trump was “a Manchurian candidate for the Russians. That was a horrible thing to do and it hurt that presidency a lot. I’m not an admirer of Trump by any means, but he was picked on from day one.”

What does he make of Joe Biden? “I voted for him, not because I liked him, but as an alternative to Trump’s disasters. He’s got a far more merciful humanitarian side. But he also has a history of warmongering.” Fake news, he says, has “always happened”, in the east and west, on the left and the right. “I mean, back in the Cold War, the US was saying Russia was lying and Russia was saying the US was lying. Each one of these wars the US has been involved in was based on lies.”

It sounds as if Stone has been on the Russian Kool-Aid himself. He is making a documentary, A Bright Future, about climate change that advocates pursuing nuclear power in the short term, and has visited some Russian nuclear plants. They are “very state-of-the-art,” he says. “The US is not really pursuing the big plants, the way Russia and China are. I believe in renewables, but they’re not going to be able to handle the capacity when India and Africa and all these countries come online wanting electricity.”

Putin liked the interviews Stone did with him in 2017, he says. “I think they contributed to his election numbers.” Wasn’t he too easy on the Russian leader? “That’s what some say. But I got his ire up. I did ask him some tough questions about succession. ‘I think you should leave’ — that kind of stuff. The pressure that Russia is under from both England and the US is enormous,” he adds. “Unless you’re there I don’t know that you understand that. Because you take the English point of view, and they have been very anti-Soviet since 1920. You talk about fake news — I feel that way about MI5 and MI6.”

You can’t help but admire Stone’s conviction. If he’s modified his behaviour that’s probably a good thing, but as he says, “I’m not so sure I’ve modified my thinking. I express myself freely. I don’t want to feel muzzled.” Whatever you think of him, be grateful he hasn’t been.

-Ed Potton, “You talk about fake news. I feel that way about MI5 and MI6,” The Times of London, Feb 8 2021 [x]

#oliver stone #chasing the light #the times of london #ptsd #the vietnam war #russia #Trump #joe biden #politics #vaccine

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wolfliving · 4 years

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The Revenge of the Real: Open Call

The Revenge of the Real: Open Call Submission deadline: April 24, 2020 Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design Bersenevskaya nab., 14, building 5A 119072 Moscow Russia strelkamag.com theterraforming.strelka.com Facebook / Twitter / Instagram

How can we address the core issues of establishing a viable planetarity through the lens of the COVID-19 pandemic and its urban realities?

The Terraforming program is an interdisciplinary design research think-tank convened to preemptively address issues of planetary urbanism.

With the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns, what began as speculative has become real-time. We are in “reality catches up” mode. We see this moment less as a “state of exception” than exposing multiple pre-existing conditions. We are all witnessing a massive experiment in comparative governance with the virus as the control variable. The results speak for themselves.

The rapid shift to urban lockdown and its cultures of quarantine, encapsulation, remoteness, virtuality, denial, and death have accelerated the urgency of the questions posed, which is why we are opening the project to new contributors.

Call for papers/projects The Revenge of the Real is an open call for papers, projects, and research related to these urgent topics and how they are now and will continue to affect urban life, systems, and futures. This joint initiative with Strelka Mag will feature ideas and projects that are surprising, pragmatic, unconventional, and honest—even if productively controversial. We presume that the work that most directly confronts the implications today is full of risk.

These themes below are prompts, not instructions or categories for potential submission. We invite departures from these starting points.

Epidemiological View of Society The pandemic has mainstreamed a different understanding of an individual organism as a medium of transmission—from ideas to viruses—and is defined by who/what each is connected to and disconnected from. What are the genres, variants, potentials, and contradictions of epidemiological epistemologies and techniques? 

Governing Simulations The renewed role of model simulations to map, plan, and intervene in complex biological and technical systems, including urban cultures, is at the fore. What are the critical similarities and differences between design models and scientific and financial simulations? How can the historical philosophy of simulation inform the integrity and enforceability of governing simulations?

Post-“Surveillance” The critical role of ubiquitous testing and tracking to understand the scope of the pandemic has altered how we evaluate sensing and indexing as political technologies. If conventional framings from both smart city and anti-surveillance discourses are inadequate, then what are the more productive and nuanced vocabularies needed to identify, map, evaluate, and compose broadly effective and appropriate approaches?

Resilient Automation As cities go on lockdown, automated urban platforms have become an emergency public sphere. Their successes suggest that we should see these systems not as a fragile virtual and supplemental layer, but rather as an essential social fabric. If so, how does this clarify and complicate issues of economics and equity? What are the longer-term implications for urban planning, zoning, and regulation?

Quarantine Cultures As we uncomfortably adapt to psychogeographies of isolation, we learn new vocabularies, activities, and thresholds of calm and distress. “Quarantine” means a kind of suspended indeterminate status. It is a limbo. What has changed and what will remain changed for the foreseeable future? What counts as essential industries, services, cultures, connections? Will simulations of the outside world of the immediate past suffice for longer than we realize? 

Artificial Anthropos Adaptation is also right at hand. We are remaking ourselves in relation to closures and openings around us. By embracing the artificiality of new masks and new skins, it may be possible to compose different urban interfaces directly. How have changes in a now “contactless” habitation, the micropolitics of the handshake and embrace, and dramatic shifts in urban biometrics made way for the rapid artificial evolution of the urban creatures who eventually emerge from their quarantine metamorphosis?

“Everyday Geoengineering” The challenges of climate change pose a similar confrontation with the artificial reality of our planetary condition as its starting point. Refusal to engage and embrace that artificiality, on behalf of a chastened return to “nature,” has led to catastrophic denial and neglect. How might terms like “geoengineering” be redefined to imply planetary-scale design effects, not just specific technological interventions?

Greener Newer Deals Planning needs to go beyond national works programs led by environmentalist traditions, and toward a renewed global focus on research, technology, economics, mobilization, and enforcement. How can planning for systemic maintenance and rationalization, negative emissions carbon chains, longer-term energy and waste cycles, frozen time, and/or lost and returned debts organize an infrastructural economics to meet the moment? 

Contested Planetarity At stake ultimately is how “we” are able to compose our habitation of this planetary perch, including who and what is enrolled in the composition. Planetarity itself has come into focus not only through reimagining cosmopolitanism, but also in the inhuman orbital perspectives of astronomic reckoning. How are the thresholds of what is and isn’t intractable about our species’ embedding in and on Earth a way of marking the scope of potential transformation?

Apply The Revenge of the Real open call is for essays, projects, and research.

Submit your proposal by sending an abstract (up to 250 words) and a brief bio by April 24 to: [email protected].

Submissions will be reviewed and selected on a rolling basis until the deadline. Selected participants will receive an honorarium of EUR 150 for their submitted pieces.

Read Benjamin H.Bratton’s essay "18 Lessons of Quarantine Urbanism," addressing the pandemic and how research themes of The Terraforming program relate to the crisis and the responses.

theterraforming.strelka.com

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