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Living within a living, loving planet
Archive for May 26, 2019
Rob the Poor to help the Poorer
May 26th
Rob the Poor to help the Poorer
Fairness to young people is fine, but to rob the poor to help the poorer is ridiculous.
Surely this is a both/and rather than an either/or. Whereas young people are eligible and have the opportunity to obtain a better, higher paying job, the over 75’s are watching their purchasing power diminish as they notice food and other essential products steadily increase in price seemingly just because they can. State pensioners, as everyone knows, have made national insurance contributions for up to 35 years. Pensioners should not suffer financially because the government did not invest those contributions so the interest and/or profits could help pay the future outlay.
Scrap ‘outdated’ free TV licences for over-75s, peers say
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48046595
It is calling for other universal pensioner benefits, such as the winter fuel allowance and free bus passes for the over-65s, to be cut and for the triple lock guarantee for the state pension – which ensures the weekly allowance rises by a minimum of 2.5% every year – to be reconsidered.
“We are calling for some of the outdated benefits based purely on age to be removed,” said Lord True, the Conservative peer who chairs the committee.
“Policies such as the state pension triple lock and free TV licences for the over-75s were justified when pensioner households were at the bottom of the income scale, but that is no longer the case.”
Sky: Of course, those without an income at all are at the bottom of the scale.
A New Way to Slash CO2 Emissions
May 26th
A New Way to Slash CO2 Emissions
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/a-new-way-to-slash-co2-emissions/
“Carbon farming depends on the activity of microbes in the soil, says E2.” “The group, the US-based Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2), describes itself as ‘a national, nonpartisan group of business leaders, investors, and professionals from every sector of the economy who advocate … smart policies that are good for the economy and good for the environment’”
“Depositing four tons of carbon per acre in just 10% of California’s agricultural land, it is estimated, would be the equivalent of taking 4.3 million cars off the road.”
Increased carbon in the soil around trees increases the amount of sugars available to feed the microbes who live in a symbiotic relationship with tree roots in that the roots provide sugars which enliven the microbes that in turn feed the tree.
“The microbes help the plants take up nutrients, retain water and tolerate stress, functioning as a key part of the process by which plants produce the roots and leaves that end up as carbon in the soil.”
America’s Reproductive Slaves
May 26th
America’s Reproductive Slaves
MAY 20, 2019
Chris Hedges
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/americas-reproductive-slaves/
As Chris Hedges points out, the new Alabama law is draconian. It is disgraceful and an insult to women in Alabama and thus to all American women. Further, it is shameful and by implication, threatens women’s constitutional rights.
“Raising children is not a lifestyle choice. It is labor-intensive work that demands of parents, and especially women, huge physical, emotional, financial and time commitments. The wider society reaps the benefits of this work. It has a social and moral responsibility to compensate and assist those who raise children.”
A new diet for gassy cows is helping the environment
May 26th
A new diet for gassy cows is helping the environment
Cattle farming is responsible for almost 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization.
So some farmers in Colombia have been piloting a different way of raising cows that has proved better for the environment.
A film by Daniel Gordon for People Fixing the World.
Far better to invest in something like this than space travel. When it comes down to it, nobody knows whether humans or any Earthly animal or plant can survive out of the cloak of Earth energy.