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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc102xiah1M

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Corporate Social Responsibility: Real Impact or Greenwashing? (CSR 2026 Guide)

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeVITdHsY6I

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"The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice"

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Code of Hammurabi vs today's legal system

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Code of Hammurabi vs today's legal system

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk1HTX4NcxY&t=3s

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Compare and contrast the Code of Hammurabi and today's legal system

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB7Iu358agc

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Shari’ah, Fiqh and State Laws (English, with French subtitles)

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfXholnOS9E

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2ONJuaElNk

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df4R-xdKvpM

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“United States” to Imperial America: Our Hidden Empire

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Will Russia invade Ukraine? | Start Here

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LyzBoHo5EI

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Why the world population won’t exceed 11 billion | Hans Rosling | TGS.ORG

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVmAb8N5nQY

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Thomas Malthus (Malthusianism): Does Population Growth Lead to Food Shortages & Resource Depletion?

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMbGgtK51S0&t=5s

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UN Women Stories | The real-life tale of a migrant domestic worker

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https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-health-religion-new-zealand-fiji-27b40edd3d6e94c5b10185e49bbf182f

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WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - When the coronavirus began spreading around the world, the remote Pacific archipelago of Kiribati closed its borders, ensuring the disease didn't reach its shores for nearly two full years.

Kiribati finally began reopening this month, allowing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to charter a plane to bring home 54 of the island nation's citizens. Many of those aboard were missionaries who had left Kiribati before the border closure to spread the faith abroad for what is commonly known as the Mormon church.

Officials tested each returning passenger three times in nearby Fiji, required that they be vaccinated, and put them in quarantine with additional testing when they arrived home.

It wasn't enough.

More than half the passengers tested positive for the virus, which has now slipped out into the community and prompted the government to declare a state of disaster. An initial 36 positive cases from the flight had ballooned to 181 cases by Friday.

Kiribati and several other small Pacific nations were among the last places on the planet to have avoided any virus outbreaks, thanks to their remote locations and strict border controls. But their defenses appear no match against the highly contagious omicron variant.

"Generally speaking, it's inevitable. It will get to every corner of the world," said Helen Petousis-Harris, a vaccine expert at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. "It's a matter of buying enough time to prepare and getting as many people vaccinated as possible."

Only 33% of Kiribati's 113,000 people are fully vaccinated, while 59% have had at least one dose, according to the online scientific publication Our World in Data. And like many other Pacific nations, Kiribati offers only basic health services.

Dr. Api Talemaitoga, who chairs a network of Indigenous Pacific Island doctors in New Zealand, said Kiribati had only a couple of intensive care beds in the entire nation, and in the past relied on sending its sickest patients to Fiji or New Zealand for treatment.

He said that given the limitations of Kiribati's health system, his first reaction when he heard about the outbreak was, "Oh, my lord."

Kiribati has now opened multiple quarantine sites, declared a curfew and imposed lockdowns. President Taneti Maamau said on social media that the government is using all its resources to manage the situation, and urged people to get vaccinated.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, based in the U.S. state of Utah, has a strong presence in many Pacific nations, including Kiribati, where its 20,000 members make it the third-largest Christian denomination. The church has about 53,000 missionaries serving full time around the world, working to convert people.

The pandemic has presented challenges for their missionary work, which is considered a rite of passage for men as young as 18 and women as young as 19.

As the pandemic ebbed and flowed, the church responded. It recalled about 26,000 missionaries who were serving overseas in June 2020, reassigning them to proselytize online from home before sending some back out into the field five months later.

When COVID-19 vaccines became widely available in many countries in April 2021, church officials encouraged all missionaries to get inoculated and required it of those serving outside their home countries.

Church spokesperson Sam Penrod said the returning missionaries remained in quarantine, were cooperating with local health authorities and would be released from their service upon completion of their quarantine.

"With Kiribati's borders being closed since the onset of the pandemic, many of these individuals have continued as missionaries well beyond their 18 to 24 months of anticipated service, with some serving as long as 44 months," he said.

Before this month's outbreak, Kiribati had reported just two virus cases: crew members on an incoming cargo ship that ultimately wasn't permitted to dock.

But the Kiribati charter flight wasn't the first time missionaries returning home to a Pacific island nation tested positive for COVID-19.

In October, a missionary returning to Tonga from service in Africa was reported as the country's first - and so far only - positive case after flying home via New Zealand. Like those returning to Kiribati, he also was vaccinated and quarantined.

Tonga is desperately trying to prevent any outbreaks as it recovers from a devastating volcanic eruption and tsunami earlier this month. The nation of 105,000 has been receiving aid from around the world but has requested that crews from incoming military ships and planes drop their supplies and leave without having any contact with those on the ground.

"They've got enough on their hands without compounding it with the spread of COVID," said Petousis-Harris, the vaccine expert. "Anything they can do to keep it out is going to be important. COVID would be just compounding that disaster."

In the long term, however, it is going to be impossible to stop the virus from entering Tonga or any other community, Petousis-Harris said.

Nearby Samoa, with a population of 205,000, is also trying to prevent its first outbreak. It imposed a lockdown through until Friday evening after 15 passengers on an incoming flight from Australia last week tested positive.

By Thursday, that number had grown to 27, including five front-line nurses who had treated the passengers. Officials said all those infected had been isolated and there was no community outbreak so far.

While the incursion of the virus into the Pacific has prompted lockdowns and other restrictions, there were signs that not all traditional aspects of island life would be lost for long.

"Government has decided to allow fishing," Kiribati declared on Thursday, while listing certain restrictions on times and places. "Only four people will be allowed to be on a boat or part of a group fishing near shore."

___

Metz reported from Salt Lake City.

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COVID hits one of the last uninfected places on the planet

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WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - When the coronavirus began spreading around the world, the remote Pacific archipelago of Kiribati closed its borders, ensuring the disease didn't reach its shores for nearly two full years. Kiribati finally began reopening this month, allowing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to charter a plane to bring home 54 of the island nation's citizens.

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https://youtu.be/Mt8_mz-1ePU

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https://youtu.be/GvolPB4ygOU

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France overtakes US and UK as the world''s "soft power" leader!

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https://youtu.be/-But7VUveAc

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Islam is the world's fastest growing religion - BBC News

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https://www.vox.com/a/internet-maps

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The internet increasingly pervades our lives, delivering information to us no matter where we are. It takes a complex system of cables, servers, towers, and other infrastructure, developed over decades, to allow us to stay in touch with our friends and family so effortlessly. Here are 40 maps that will help you better understand the internet - where it came from, how it works, and how it's used by people around the world.

How the internet was created

The internet around the world

1. The internet conquers the world

The internet conquers the world

By 2000, almost half of Americans were on the internet, but ordinary people in most other countries had not yet joined the network. There were fewer than 400 million internet users worldwide. Since then, the internet has gone from an American network to a truly global one. This map illustrates how the internet came first to wealthy countries, then to middle-income countries, and finally to poor countries. Today, there are more than 2.5 billion internet users, and hundreds of millions of new users are joining each year.

Threats to the internet

The geography of online services

How America gets online

How we use the internet

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The internet increasingly pervades our lives, delivering information to us no matter where we are. It takes a complex system of cables, servers, towers, and other infrastructure, developed over decades, to allow us to stay in touch with our friends and family so effortlessly.

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Data on internet use - Our World in Data

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Data on internet use - Our World in Data

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https://ourworldindata.org/internet

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Many of us cannot imagine our lives without the Internet.

But the technology is still young; only 60% of the world's population was online in 2020.

The internet provides an almost endless list of services: it allows us to communicate and collaborate worldwide; send money internationally (including remittances); learn and educate others; form cross-border social connections; share news; and many others.

You can find all our data, visualizations, and writing on this page relating to the internet.

Research & Writing

Interactive charts on Internet

Cite this work

Our articles and data visualizations rely on work from many different people and organizations. When citing this topic page, please also cite the underlying data sources. This topic page can be cited as:

Hannah Ritchie, Edouard Mathieu, Max Roser and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina (2023) - "Internet". Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: 'https://ourworldindata.org/internet' [Online Resource]

BibTeX citation

@article{owidinternet, author = {Hannah Ritchie and Edouard Mathieu and Max Roser and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina}, title = {Internet}, journal = {Our World in Data}, year = {2023}, note = {https://ourworldindata.org/internet} }

Reuse this work freely

All visualizations, data, and code produced by Our World in Data are completely open access under the Creative Commons BY license. You have the permission to use, distribute, and reproduce these in any medium, provided the source and authors are credited.

The data produced by third parties and made available by Our World in Data is subject to the license terms from the original third-party authors. We will always indicate the original source of the data in our documentation, so you should always check the license of any such third-party data before use and redistribution.

All of our charts can be embedded in any site.

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More than half of the world is online. But the internet is still young.

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https://www.thoughtco.com/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs-4582571

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Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a theory by Abraham Maslow, which puts forward that people are motivated by five basic categories of needs: physiological, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization.

Key Takeaways: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

What Is Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs?

In order to better understand what motivates human beings, Maslow proposed that human needs can be organized into a hierarchy. This hierarchy ranges from more concrete needs such as food and water to abstract concepts such as self-fulfillment. According to Maslow, when a lower need is met, the next need on the hierarchy becomes our focus of attention.

These are the five categories of needs according to Maslow:

Physiological

These refer to basic physical needs like drinking when thirsty or eating when hungry. According to Maslow, some of these needs involve our efforts to meet the body's need for homeostasis; that is, maintaining consistent levels in different bodily systems (for example, maintaining a body temperature of 98.6°).

Maslow considered physiological needs to be the most essential of our needs. If someone is lacking in more than one need, they're likely to try to meet these physiological needs first. For example, if someone is extremely hungry, it's hard to focus on anything else besides food. Another example of a physiological need would be the need for adequate sleep.

Once people's physiological requirements are met, the next need that arises is a safe environment. Our safety needs are apparent even early in childhood, as children have a need for safe and predictable environments and typically react with fear or anxiety when these are not met. Maslow pointed out that in adults living in developed nations, safety needs are more apparent in emergency situations (e.g. war and disasters), but this need can also explain why we tend to prefer the familiar or why we do things like purchase insurance and contribute to a savings account.

Love and Belonging

According to Maslow, the next need in the hierarchy involves feeling loved and accepted. This need includes both romantic relationships as well as ties to friends and family members. It also includes our need to feel that we belong to a social group. Importantly, this need encompasses both feeling loved and feeling love towards others.

Since Maslow's time, researchers have continued to explore how love and belonging needs impact well-being. For example, having social connections is related to better physical health and, conversely, feeling isolated (i.e. having unmet belonging needs) has negative consequences for health and well-being.﻿﻿

Our esteem needs involve the desire to feel good about ourselves. According to Maslow, esteem needs include two components. The first involves feeling self-confidence and feeling good about oneself. The second component involves feeling valued by others; that is, feeling that our achievements and contributions have been recognized by other people. When people's esteem needs are met, they feel confident and see their contributions and achievements as valuable and important. However, when their esteem needs are not met, they may experience what psychologist Alfred Adler called "feelings of inferiority."

Self-Actualization

Self-actualization refers to feeling fulfilled, or feeling that we are living up to our potential. One unique feature of self-actualization is that it looks different for everyone. For one person, self-actualization might involve helping others; for another person, it might involve achievements in an artistic or creative field. Essentially, self-actualization means feeling that we are doing what we believe we are meant to do. According to Maslow, achieving self-actualization is relatively rare, and his examples of famous self-actualized individuals include Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, and Mother Teresa.

How People Progress Through the Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow postulated that there were several prerequisites to meeting these needs. For example, having freedom of speech and freedom of expression or living in a just and fair society aren't specifically mentioned within the hierarchy of needs, but Maslow believed that having these things makes it easier for people to achieve their needs.

In addition to these needs, Maslow also believed that we have a need to learn new information and to better understand the world around us. This is partially because learning more about our environment helps us meet our other needs; for example, learning more about the world can help us feel safer, and developing a better understanding of a topic one is passionate about can contribute to self-actualization. However, Maslow also believed that this call to understand the world around us is an innate need as well.

Although Maslow presented his needs in a hierarchy, he also acknowledged that meeting each need is not an all-or-nothing phenomenon. Consequently, people don't need to completely satisfy one need in order for the next need in the hierarchy to emerge. Maslow suggests that, at any given time, most people tend to have each of their needs partly met-and that needs lower on the hierarchy are typically the ones that people have made the most progress towards.

Additionally, Maslow pointed out that one behavior might meet two or more needs. For example, sharing a meal with someone meets the physiological need for food, but it might also meet the need of belonging. Similarly, working as a paid caregiver would provide someone with income (which allows them to pay for food and shelter), but can also provide them a sense of social connection and fulfillment.

Testing Maslow's Theory

In the time since Maslow published his original paper, his idea that we go through five specific stages hasn't always been supported by research. In a 2011 study of human needs across cultures, researchers Louis Tay and Ed Diener looked at data from over 60,000 participants in over 120 different countries. They assessed six needs similar to Maslow's: basic needs (similar to physiological needs), safety, love, pride and respect (similar to esteem needs), mastery, and autonomy. They found that meeting these needs was indeed linked to well-being. In particular, having basic needs met was linked to people's overall assessment of their lives, and feeling positive emotions was linked to meeting the needs of feeling loved and respected.﻿﻿

However, although Tay and Diener found support for some of Maslow's basic needs, the order that people go through these steps seems to be more of a rough guide than a strict rule. For example, people living in poverty might have had trouble meeting their needs for food and safety, but these individuals still sometimes reported feeling loved and supported by the people around them. Meeting the previous needs in the hierarchy wasn't always a prerequisite for people to meet their love and belonging needs.

Maslow's Impact on Other Researchers

Maslow's theory has had a strong influence on other researchers, who have sought to build on his theory. For example, psychologists Carol Ryff and Burton Singer drew on Maslow's theories when developing their theory of eudaimonic well-being. According to Ryff and Singer, eudaimonic well-being refers to feeling purpose and meaning-which is similar to Maslow's idea of self-actualization.﻿﻿

Psychologists Roy Baumeister and Mark Leary built on Maslow's idea of love and belonging needs. According to Baumeister and Leary, feeling that one belongs is a fundamental need, and they suggest that feeling isolated or left out can have negative consequences for mental and physical health.﻿﻿

Additional References

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Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory puts forward that people are motivated by five basic categories of needs.

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https://youtu.be/QL_3Qg-SADY

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SOFEX is where the world's leading generals come to buy everything from handguns to laser-guided missile systems. It stands for "Special Operations Forces Exhibition Conference" and it's essentially a trade-show where just about anyone with enough money can buy the most powerful weapons in the world.

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https://www.britannica.com/technology/Stuxnet

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This article was most recently revised and updated by

Stuxnet, a computer worm, discovered in June 2010, that was specifically written to take over certain programmable industrial control systems and cause the equipment run by those systems to malfunction, all the while feeding false data to the systems monitors indicating the equipment to be running as intended.

As analyzed by computer security experts around the world, Stuxnet targeted certain " supervisory control and data acquisition" (SCADA) systems manufactured by the German electrical company Siemens AG that control machinery employed in power plants and similar installations. More specifically, the worm targeted only Siemens SCADA systems that were used in conjunction with frequency-converter drives, devices that control the speed of industrial motors, and even then only drives that were made by certain manufacturers in Finland and Iran and were programmed to run motors at very specific high speeds. This combination indicated to analysts that the likely target of Stuxnet was nuclear installations in Iran-either a uranium-enrichment plant at Naṭanz or a nuclear reactor at Būshehr or both-a conclusion supported by data showing that, of the approximately 100,000 computers infected by Stuxnet by the end of 2010, more than 60 percent were located in Iran.

The worm was found to have been circulating since at least mid-2009, and indeed in the latter part of that year at the Naṭanz plant an unusually large number of centrifuges (machines that concentrate uranium by spinning at very high speeds) were taken out of operation and replaced. The Iranian nuclear program, which most foreign governments believed was working to produce nuclear weapons, continued to suffer technical difficulties even after discovery of the worm.

Speculation then centred on where the worm may have originated. Many analysts pointed to the United States and Israel as two countries whose assessments of the threat of Iranian nuclear weapons had long been particularly severe and whose expertise in engineering and computer science would certainly have enabled them to plan and launch such a cyber attack. Officials of both countries refused to discuss the issue. Meanwhile, the Iranian government declared that a foreign virus had infected computers at certain nuclear facilities but had caused only minor problems. The consensus among experts was that Iran's problems were far from minor; some speculated that the country's nuclear program may have suffered a serious setback.

Though it was impossible to verify that the Stuxnet worm had caused those difficulties, it became clear to cybersecurity experts that Iran had suffered an attack by what may have been the most sophisticated piece of malware ever written. By taking over and disrupting industrial processes in a significant sector of a sovereign state, Stuxnet was a truly offensive cyber weapon, a significant escalation in the growing capability and willingness of states and state-sponsored groups to engage in cyber war.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Erik Gregersen.

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Stuxnet | Definition, Origin, Attack, & Facts

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Stuxnet, a computer worm, discovered in June 2010, that was specifically written to take over certain programmable industrial control systems and cause the equipment run by those systems to malfunction, while feeding false data to systems monitors indicating the equipment to be running as intended.

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https://www.investopedia.com/insights/worlds-top-economies/

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1. United States

The United States' economy is the largest in the world as measured by nominal GDP. The biggest contributor to that GDP is the economy's service sector, which includes finance, real estate, insurance, professional and business services, and healthcare.

The United States has a relatively open economy, facilitating flexible business investment and foreign direct investment in the country. It is the world's dominant geopolitical power and is able to maintain a large external national debt as the producer of the world's primary reserve currency.

The U.S. economy is at the forefront of technology in many industries, but it faces rising threats in the form of economic inequality, rising healthcare and social safety net costs, and deteriorating infrastructure.

China has the world's second-largest nominal GDP in current dollars and the largest in terms of PPP. With annual growth that consistently outpaces that of the United States, China may be on track to become the largest economy in the world by nominal GDP in the years to come.

As China has progressively opened its economy over the past four decades, economic development and living standards have greatly improved. As the government has gradually phased out collectivized agriculture and industry, allowed greater flexibility for market prices, and increased the autonomy of businesses, foreign and domestic trade and investment have taken off.

Coupled with an industrial policy that encourages domestic manufacturing, this has made China the world's number one exporter. Despite these advantages, China faces some significant challenges, such as a rapidly aging population and severe environmental degradation.

Japan is the third-largest economy in the world. Its GDP crossed the $5 trillion mark in 2018. Strong cooperation between government and industry and advanced technological know-how have built Japan's manufacturing and export-oriented economy. Many major Japanese businesses are organized as networks of interlinked companies known as keiretsu.

After the Lost Decade of the 1990s and the impact of the global Great Recession, Japan has seen an uptick in growth in recent years under the policies of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe; however, Japan is poor in natural resources and dependent on energy imports, especially after the general shutdown of its nuclear power industry following the 2011 Fukushima disaster. Japan has also struggled with a rapidly aging population.

Fourth among world economies is Germany. Germany is also Europe's largest economy.

Germany is a top exporter of vehicles, machinery, chemicals, and other manufactured goods and has a highly skilled workforce. Germany, however, faces some demographic challenges to its economic growth. Its low fertility rate makes replacing its aging workforce more difficult, and its high levels of net immigration strain its social welfare system.

5. The United Kingdom

The United Kingdom has the fifth-largest economy in the world.

The U.K. economy is driven by its large service sector, particularly in finance, insurance, and business services. The nation's extensive trading relationship with continental Europe has been greatly complicated by the resolution of Brexit subsequent to the 2016 vote to leave the European Union (EU). As of Jan. 31, 2020, the U.K. is officially not a member of the EU, but contentious negotiations over trade relations between the two are ongoing.

India is the sixth-largest economy in the world. Because of its large population, India has the lowest per-capita GDP on this list.

India's economy is a mixture of traditional village farming and handicrafts alongside booming modern industry and mechanized agriculture. India is a major exporter of technology services and business outsourcing, and the service sector makes up a large share of its economic output.

Liberalization of India's economy since the 1990s has boosted economic growth, but inflexible business regulation, widespread corruption, and persistent poverty pose challenges to ongoing expansion.

France has the seventh-largest GDP in the world. Tourism is an important industry, and France receives the most visitors of any country each year.

France is a mixed economy that has many private and semi-private businesses across a diverse range of industries. However, there is still heavy government involvement in certain key sectors, such as defense and electrical power generation.

The French government's commitment to economic intervention in favor of social equality also creates some challenges for the economy, such as a rigid labor market with high unemployment and a large public debt relative to other advanced economies.

The world's eighth-largest GDP belongs to Italy. It is also the eurozone's third-largest economy.

Italy's economy and level of development vary notably by region, with a more developed, industrial economy in the north and underdeveloped southern regions. Italy faces persistently sluggish economic growth due to a very high public debt, an inefficient court system, a weak banking sector, an inefficient labor market with chronically high youth unemployment, and a large underground economy.

Canada is the world's ninth-largest economy. Canada has a well-developed energy extraction sector, with the world's third-largest proven oil reserves. Canada also has impressive manufacturing and service sectors, based mostly in urban areas near the U.S. border.

Canada's free trade relationship with the United States means that three-quarters of Canadian exports head to the U.S. market each year. Canada's close ties to the United States mean that it has developed largely in parallel to the world's largest economy.

10. South Korea

Rounding out the top 10 economies in the world by GDP is South Korea.

South Korea's economy is a 20th-century success story that is today firmly established as an advanced, industrial economy. Known for its strategy of export-led growth and the dominance of its chaebols (large business conglomerates), South Korea in recent decades has built a network of free trade agreements covering 58 countries that account for more than three-quarters of the world's GDP. It is a major producer and exporter of electronics, telecommunications equipment, and motor vehicles.

With this progress, however, South Korea also now faces some of the same challenges that many other advanced economies are dealing with, including slower growth and an aging workforce.

Russia is the world's 11th largest economy.

Russia has moved toward a more market-based economy over the 30 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, but government ownership of and intervention in business is still common. As a leading exporter of oil and gas, as well as other minerals and metals, Russia's economy is highly sensitive to swings in world commodity prices.

In 2022, Russia launched an invasion against its neighbor, Ukraine. As a result of its actions, the country was hit by many sanctions and other economic punishments, which are expected to greatly hurt its economy in 2022 and beyond.

Brazil is the 12th largest economy in the world and the largest in South America. Brazil's diversified economy runs the gamut from heavy industries, such as aircraft and automotive production, to mineral and energy resource extraction. It also has a large agricultural sector that makes it a major exporter of coffee and soybeans.

Brazil emerged from a severe recession in 2017 and suffered a series of high-level corruption scandals along the way. In the wake of these events, Brazil instituted a series of major economic reforms intended to rein in public spending and debt, invest in energy infrastructure, lower barriers to foreign investment, and improve labor market conditions.

13. Australia

Australia is the 13th largest economy in the world

Australia combines a relatively open domestic economy with an extensive network of free trade agreements with trading partners all around the Asia-Pacific Rim. This works to the advantage of Australia's abundant natural resources and agricultural export industries; however, it has also left Australia vulnerable to swings in world commodity demand and prices in energy (coal and natural gas), metals (iron ore and gold), and agricultural products (beef and sheep products).

Spain's GDP makes it the 14th largest economy in the world.

Spain's economy suffered severely during the Great Recession, with unemployment soaring above 25% and a rising national debt despite attempts at fiscal austerity. It has recovered in recent years as moderating inflation and labor costs have encouraged foreign investment and increased the competitiveness of Spain's exports, including manufactured machinery and foodstuffs. However, political instability has hindered the government's ability to sustain further economic reforms.

Mexico is the 15th largest economy in the world.

Over the past three decades, Mexico has emerged as a manufacturing economy under a series of free trade agreements with the United States, Canada, and 44 other countries. Many major U.S. manufacturers have integrated supply chains with counterparts or operations in Mexico. Mexico supports a variety of exports, including consumer electronics, vehicles, and auto parts, as well as petroleum and agricultural products.

The international drug trade constitutes an ongoing challenge to Mexico's development, contributing directly to violence and corruption in the country. Weak legal institutions have made it difficult to regulate and integrate the large informal economy that employs more than half of Mexico's workforce.

16. Indonesia

Indonesia is the world's 16th largest economy.

Indonesia's economy is the largest economy in Southeast Asia and is based largely on commodity export industries. Major exports include coal and petroleum products, in addition to agricultural commodities suitable for industrial use, such as rubber and palm oil. Indonesia's budget deficit for 2023 is targeted at 2.81% to 2.95% of GDP; however, regional inequality, lack of infrastructure, and governmental corruption remain problems for Indonesia's rising economy.

17. Netherlands

The Netherlands stands as the 17th largest economy in the world.

The Netherlands is a major commercial transportation hub, with some industrial manufacturing as well as petroleum extraction and processing. It has a highly developed agricultural sector and is the second-largest agricultural exporter in the world. The Netherlands has a large financial services sector, with assets four times the size of Dutch GDP.

18. Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is the 18th largest economy in the world.

The Saudi economy is heavily based on oil and is the world's largest oil exporter. The Saudi government owns and operates much of the country's major industry through its oil company, Aramco; however, with global environmental concerns driving increasing interest in developing non-fossil fuel energy sources, the Saudis are looking to diversify their economy by encouraging more private investment in healthcare and other service industries.

The Saudi government has also begun to at least partially privatize Aramco, listing the company on the Saudi Stock Exchange through an initial public offering (IPO) in December 2019.

Turkey is the 19th largest economy in the world.

Turkey has a largely open economy, with large industrial and service sectors. Major industries include electronics, petrochemicals, and automotive production. Political turmoil and involvement in regional armed conflicts have led to some financial and currency market instability and uncertainty about Turkey's economic future in recent years.

20. Switzerland

The Alpine nation of Switzerland is the 20th largest economy in the world.

Switzerland has a large service sector, including financial services, and a high-tech manufacturing sector served by a highly skilled labor force. High-quality legal, political, and economic institutions and solid physical infrastructure set the stage for a productive economy with one of the highest per-capita GDPs in the world.

Poland is the 21st largest economy in the world. Heavy industry, including iron and steel production, machinery manufacturing, shipbuilding, and coal mining, is an important part of Poland's economy.

Poland's business-friendly climate and sound macroeconomic policies allowed it to be the only EU country to avoid recession in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. However, inefficient legal and regulatory structures and an aging population are challenges for Poland's ongoing growth in the future.

Sweden is the 22nd largest economy in the world. Sweden is a competitive economy, with a high standard of living and a mix of free enterprise alongside a generous social welfare state. Sweden's manufacturing economy relies heavily on foreign exports, including machinery, motor vehicles, and telecommunications.

Sweden has taken in a large number of new immigrants and thus faces a short- to medium-term challenge with integrating them into Swedish society and its labor market.

Belgium is the 23rd largest world economy. Belgium is a trade and transport hub that has a diversified economy with a mix of services, manufacturing, and high-tech industry.

Because of its deep integration with the rest of the European economy, Belgium is highly sensitive to swings in the overall economic performance of its neighbors. Belgium faces a high public debt burden relative to its GDP, which can constitute an obstacle to growth.

24. Thailand

Thailand is the 24th largest economy in the world.

The Thai economy enjoys relatively high-quality infrastructure, in addition to pro-free-enterprise and pro-investment policies. Thailand is highly dependent on exports, which account for about two-thirds of its GDP. Its main exports include electronics, agricultural products, motor vehicles and parts, and food products. Thailand also has a substantial international tourism industry. Its agricultural sector makes up approximately 10% of its economy but employs about 30% of its workers.

Last but certainly not least is Ireland, the 25th largest world economy.

A strong component of Ireland's economy is its export sector from foreign multinational corporations. Ireland has a low corporate tax of 12.5% and a pool of high-tech workers, making it an appealing place for foreign companies to set up shop and attractive for business investment. Due to international pressure, Ireland will implement more stringent tax laws. Its economy is supported by a strong export sector and job growth.

How Do You Calculate GDP?

What Are the Top 5 Largest Economies?

What Country Has the Strongest Economy?

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The United States' economy is the largest in the world as measured by nominal GDP. The biggest contributor to that GDP is the economy's service sector, which includes finance, real estate, insurance, professional and business services, and healthcare. The United States has a relatively open economy, facilitating flexible business investment and foreign direct investment in the country.

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https://www.military-quotes.com/william-sherman.htm

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Military Related William T. Sherman Quotes

"WAR IS HELL"
"There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but boys, it is all hell."
or
"Some of you young men think that war is all glamour and glory, but let me tell you, boys, it is all hell!"
-General William T. Sherman,
speech 1880 from which we derive the phrase "War is hell"

I've also found this version

"I am sick and tired of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell."
From "On Killing" by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman

"An Army is a collection of armed men obliged to obey one man. Every change in the rules which impairs the principle weakens the army"
- William Tecumseh Sherman

"War is cruelty. There's no use trying to reform it, the crueler it is the sooner it will be over."
- William Tecumseh Sherman

"War is the remedy that our enemies have chosen, and I say let us give them all they want."
- General William T. Sherman

"A battery of field artillery is worth a thousand muskets."
- General William Tecumseh Sherman Quotes

"I will accept no commission that would tend to create a rivalry with Grant.
I want him to hold what he has earned and got.
I have all the rank I want"
- General of the Army William Tecumseh Sherman Quotes
in a letter to his brother in 1865

I can't guarantee that these quotations are correct or true, but I have tried to verify as many of the quotes by William T. Sherman as possible. Please contact me if you find any errors in the William T. Sherman quotes, have some additional information about them or if you know any quotations from William T. Sherman that are not listed here.
Submit your own quotes/quotations in our quotes forum

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"WAR IS HELL" "There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but boys, it is all hell." or "Some of you young men think that war is all glamour and glory, but let me tell you, boys, it is all hell!" -General William T.

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https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/chinas-massive-belt-and-road-initiative

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Introduction

China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), sometimes referred to as the New Silk Road, is one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects ever conceived. Launched in 2013 by President Xi Jinping, the vast collection of development and investment initiatives was originally devised to link East Asia and Europe through physical infrastructure. In the decade since, the project has expanded to Africa, Oceania, and Latin America, significantly broadening China's economic and political influence.

Some analysts see the project as an unsettling extension of China's rising power, and as the costs of many of the projects have skyrocketed, opposition has grown in some countries. Meanwhile, the United States shares the concern of some in Asia that the BRI could be a Trojan horse for China-led regional development and military expansion. President Joe Biden has maintained his predecessors' skeptical stance towards Beijing's actions, but Washington has struggled to offer participating governments a more appealing economic vision.

What was the original Silk Road?

The original Silk Road arose during the westward expansion of China's Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE), which forged trade networks throughout what are today the Central Asian countries of Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, as well as modern-day India and Pakistan to the south. Those routes extended more than four thousand miles to Europe.

Central Asia was thus the epicenter of one of the first waves of globalization, connecting eastern and western markets, spurring immense wealth, and intermixing cultural and religious traditions. Valuable Chinese silk, spices, jade, and other goods moved west while China received gold and other precious metals, ivory, and glass products. Use of the route peaked during the first millennium, under the leadership of first the Roman and then Byzantine Empires, and the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE) in China.

But the Crusades, as well as advances by the Mongols in Central Asia, dampened trade, and today Central Asian countries are economically isolated from each other, with intra-regional trademaking up a small percentage of all cross-border commerce. They are also heavily dependent on Russia, particularly for remittances, which made up nearly one-third of the gross domestic product (GDP) of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan before the Russian war in Ukraine scattered remittance-sending migrant laborers.

What are China's plans for its New Silk Road?

President Xi announced the initiative during official visits to Kazakhstan and Indonesia in 2013. The plan was two-pronged: the overland Silk Road Economic Belt and the Maritime Silk Road. The two were collectively referred to first as the One Belt, One Road initiative but eventually became the Belt and Road Initiative.

Xi's vision included creating a vast network of railways, energy pipelines, highways, and streamlined border crossings, both westward-through the mountainous former Soviet republics-and southward, to Pakistan, India, and the rest of Southeast Asia. Such a network would expand the international use of Chinese currency, the renminbi, and " break the bottleneck in Asian connectivity," according to Xi. (In 2018, the Asian Development Bank estimated that the continent faces a yearly infrastructure financing shortfall of over $900 billion.) In addition to physical infrastructure, China has funded hundreds of special economic zones, or industrial areas designed to create jobs, and encouraged countries to embrace its tech offerings, such as the 5G network powered by telecommunications giant Huawei.

Xi subsequently announced plans for the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road at the 2013 summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Indonesia. To accommodate expanding maritime trade traffic, China would invest in port development along the Indian Ocean, from Southeast Asia all the way to East Africa and parts of Europe.

China's overall ambition for the BRI is staggering. To date, 147 countries-accounting for two-thirds of the world's population and 40 percent of global GDP- have signed on to projects or indicated an interest in doing so.

Analysts estimate the largest so far to be the estimated $62 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a collection of projects connecting China to Pakistan's Gwadar Port on the Arabian Sea. In total, China has already spent an estimated $1 trillion on such efforts. Experts have predicted that China's expenses over the life of the BRI could reach as much as $8 trillion, though estimates vary.

What does China hope to achieve?

China has both geopolitical and economic motivations behind the initiative. Xi has promoted a vision of a more assertive China, even as the country's outstanding loans have grown to the equivalent of over a quarter of its GDP.

To date, 147 countries-accounting for two-thirds of the world's population and 40 percent of global GDP-have signed on to projects or indicated an interest in doing so.

Experts see the BRI as one of the main planks of a bolder Chinese statecraft under Xi, alongside the Made in China 2025 economic development strategy. For Xi, the BRI serves as pushback against the much-touted U.S. " pivot to Asia," as well as a way for China to develop new trade linkages, cultivate export markets, boost Chinese incomes, and export China's excess productive capacity. "China has had a fair amount of success in redrawing trade maps around the world, in ways that put China at the center and not the U.S. or Europe," says CFR's David Sacks, an expert on U.S.-China relations.

At the same time, China is motivated to boost global economic links to its western regions, which historically have been neglected. Promoting economic development in the western province of Xinjiang, where separatist violence has been on the upswing, is a major priority, as is securing long-term energy supplies from Central Asia and the Middle East, especially via routes the U.S. military cannot disrupt.

More broadly, Chinese leaders are determined to restructure the economy to avoid the so-called middle-income trap. In this scenario, which has plagued close to 90 percent of middle-income countries since 1960, wages go up and quality of life improves as low-skilled manufacturing rises, but countries struggle to then shift to producing higher-value goods and services.

Finally, Beijing could seek geopolitical leverage over BRI countries. A 2021 study [PDF] analyzed over one hundred debt financing contracts China signed with foreign governments and found that the contracts often contain clauses that restrict restructuring with the group of twenty-two major creditor nations known as the "Paris Club." China also frequently retains the right to demand repayment at any time, giving Beijing the ability to use funding as a tool to enforce Chinese hot button issues such as Taiwan or the treatment of Uyghurs. In January 2022, Nicaragua officially joined BRI, one month after severing diplomatic ties with Taiwan.

What are the potential roadblocks?

The Belt and Road Initiative has also stoked opposition. For some countries that take on large amounts of debt to fund infrastructure upgrades, BRI money is seen as a potential poisoned chalice. China views BRI projects as a commercial endeavor [PDF], with loans close to a market interest rate that it expects to be fully repaid. Some BRI investments have involved opaque bidding processes and required the use of Chinese firms. As a result, contractors have inflated costs, leading to canceled projects and political backlash.

Examples of such criticisms abound. In Malaysia, former prime minister Mahathir bin Mohamad campaigned against overpriced BRI initiatives and canceled $22 billion worth of BRI projects, although he later announced his " full support" for the initiative. CFR's Belt and Road Tracker shows overall debt to China has soared since 2013, surpassing 20 percent of GDP in some countries.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine roiled global markets, a climbing number of low-income BRI countries have struggled to repay loans associated with the initiative, spurring a wave of debt crises and new criticism for BRI. In Pakistan, for example, imports required to build CPEC infrastructure contributed to a widening budget deficit, ultimately resulting in a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). And in Ghana and Zambia, high debt loads that partly consisted of BRI loans led to sovereign default. However, many countries that sign on to BRI have few alternatives, Sacks says.

"If loans that you know are charging an exorbitant interest rate are the only way [to get infrastructure financing], you still have to weigh that trade off and probably proceed with that," he says.

Other skeptics connect the BRI with climate change. Though China committed to stop building coal-fired power plants abroad in 2021, nonrenewable energy investment has made up nearly half of all BRI spending; ambiguity remains about whether the commitment applies to projects already in progress or only to new projects, and if it restricts coal-fired power plant financing in addition to construction.

How has the United States responded to China-led regional integration?

The United States has shared other countries' concernsabout China's intentions. Since the Obama administration's Pivot to Asia, the United States has spent billions of dollars and flexed diplomatic muscle to build infrastructure and foster cooperation between low-income countries. President Donald Trump passed the BUILD act, which consolidated Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), a U.S. government agency for development finance, with components of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) into a separate agency (the Development Finance Corporation) with a $60 billion investment portfolio.

In 2021, President Joe Biden, in collaboration with the Group of Seven (G7), launched the Build Back Better World Initiative ("B3W") an infrastructure investment program conceived to compete with BRI. Though some supporters say B3W acts as a complement to BRI, many acknowledge that its lack of financing prevents it from acting as a serious challenger to China's initiative. One year after B3W was announced, commitments under the initiative totaled only $6 million, and it had been renamed the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment. Rather than investing in infrastructure, where China holds an economic advantage (China won more than eight times as many World Bank-funded infrastructure contracts as the United States in 2020), critics say Washington should boost its aid-based lending through existing multilateral institutions, such as the World Bank and IMF.

Others have argued that the United States might find a silver lining in the BRI. Jonathan E. Hillman, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says the United States could use BRI projects as a way to have China pay for infrastructure initiatives in Central Asia that are also in the U.S. interest.

What is the role for third countries?

Some countries have sought to balance their concerns about China's ambitions against the BRI's potential benefits.

India. India has tried to convince countries that the BRI is a plan to dominate Asia, warning of what some analysts have called a " String of Pearls" geoeconomic strategy whereby China creates unsustainable debt burdens for its Indian Ocean neighbors in order to seize control of regional choke points. In particular, New Delhi has long been unsettled by China's decades-long embrace of its traditional rival, Pakistan. Meanwhile, India has provided its own development assistance to neighbors, most notably Afghanistan, where it has spent $3 billion on infrastructure projects.

Although India was a founding member of China's Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Indian and Chinese officials have since diverged on trade policy. Accordingly, the United States views India as a counterweight to a China-dominated Asia and has sought to knit together its strategic relationships in the region, most recently via the 2022 Indo-Pacific Economic Framework.

Japan. Tokyo has a similar strategy to New Delhi's, balancing its interest in regional infrastructure development with long-standing suspicions about China's intentions. Japan has committed over $300 billion in public and private financing to infrastructure projects throughout Asia. Together with India, Japan has also agreed to cultivate the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor (AAGC), a plan to develop and connect ports from Myanmar to East Africa, though little progress has been made on the initiative since it was announced in 2017.

Europe. Over two-thirds of European Union (EU) member countries have formally signed on to BRI with large Chinese infrastructure investment responsible for projects such as the renovated port of Piraeus in Greece and the Budapest-Belgrade railway in Hungary. Beijing has also funded a number of projects on the continent in non-EU countries. These investments have "made it harder for the EU to craft a united approach to China," and Greece and Hungary have obstructed bloc-wide efforts to criticize China, CFR's Jennifer Hillman and Alex Tippett write.

Some European countries have been more critical. French President Emmanuel Macron has urged prudence, suggesting during a 2018 trip to China that the BRI could make partner countries "vassal states." In December 2021, the EU announced Global Gateway, a $300 billion infrastructure investment program explicitly meant to rival BRI, which critics say is a " drop in the ocean" compared to BRI. Others worry that China is using BRI funds to gain influence in Balkan countries hoping to become EU members such as Serbia, thereby providing China access to the heart of the EU's common market.

Russia. Moscow has become one of the BRI's most enthusiastic partners, though it responded to Xi's announcement at first with reticence, worried that Beijing's plans would outshine Moscow's vision for a "Eurasian Economic Union" and impinge on its traditional sphere of influence.

As Russia's relationship with the West has deteriorated, however, President Vladimir Putin has pledged to link his Eurasian vision with the BRI. Some experts are skeptical of such an alliance, which they argue would be economically asymmetrical. Russia's economy and its total trade volume are both roughly one-eighth the size of China's-a gulf that the BRI could widen in the coming years. And in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, some analysts have said that Beijing's refusal to condemn Russia has alienated Eastern European countries that are viewed as targets of BRI.

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China's Massive Belt and Road Initiative

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China's colossal infrastructure investments may usher in a new era of trade and growth for economies in Asia and beyond. But skeptics worry that China is laying a debt trap for borrowing governments.

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https://youtu.be/CpCKkWMbmXU

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https://youtu.be/8VfdRbIVaBQ

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https://www.reuters.com/business/us-supreme-court-rules-nestle-cargill-over-slavery-lawsuit-2021-06-17/

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WASHINGTON, June 17 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday threw out a lawsuit accusing Cargill Inc and a Nestle SA (NESN.S) subsidiary of knowingly helping perpetuate slavery at Ivory Coast cocoa farms, but sidestepped a broader ruling on the permissibility of suits accusing American companies of human rights violations abroad.

The 8-1 ruling authored by Justice Clarence Thomas reversed a lower court decision that had allowed the lawsuit, brought on behalf of former child slaves from Mali who worked at the farms, filed against the companies in 2005 to proceed.

The court ruled the claim could not be brought under the Alien Tort Statute, which lets non-U.S. citizens seek damages in American courts in certain instances, because the plaintiffs did not show that any of the relevant conduct took place within the United States.

"Nearly all the conduct that they say aided and abetted forced labor - providing training, fertilizer tools, and cash to overseas farms - occurred in Ivory Coast," Thomas wrote.

The business community has long sought to limit corporate liability under this law.

"Nestle never engaged in the egregious child labor alleged in this suit, and we remain unwavering in our dedication to combating child labor in the cocoa industry," a Nestle spokesperson said.

A Cargill spokesperson said the company is committed to keeping child labor out of the cocoa supply chain.

"We do not tolerate the use of child labor in our operations or supply chains and we are working every day to prevent it," the spokesperson said.

Paul Hoffman, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said the ruling "has delayed our clients' long quest for justice." But Hoffman added that he intends to refile the lawsuit with more detailed allegations on conduct that he said took place in the United States.

"It is significant that the court's ruling rejected the most extreme arguments for limiting human rights cases," Hoffman said.

The justices stopped short of definitively deciding the question of whether U.S. companies can ever be sued under the 1789 law. Cargill and Nestle had asked the court to bar such lawsuits in all circumstances.

The lawsuits targeted the U.S. subsidiary of Swiss-based Nestle, the world's biggest food producer, and commodities trader Cargill, one of the largest privately held U.S. companies.

The plaintiffs accused the companies of aiding and abetting human rights violations through their active involvement in purchasing Ivory Coast cocoa and turning a blind eye to the use of slave labor on the farms despite being aware of the practice in order to keep cocoa prices low.

A federal district court in Los Angeles dismissed the lawsuit twice, most recently in 2017. That court found that the claims were barred by recent Supreme Court decisions that made it harder for plaintiffs to sue corporations in U.S. courts for alleged violations overseas.

The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2018 revived the claims, citing the allegations that the companies provided "personal spending money" to local farmers to guarantee the cheapest source of cocoa. The 9th Circuit found that the payments were akin to kickbacks and that the low price of cocoa was dependant upon the child slave labor.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business interests backed the two companies in the case.

The Supreme Court in 2013 and 2018 cases limited the ability of plaintiffs to sue corporations in U.S. courts under the Alien Tort Statute for overseas human rights violations. The court said in those rulings that there needed to be a strong connection between the alleged conduct and actions that took place in the United States.

Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will Dunham

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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U.S. Supreme Court rules for Nestle, Cargill over slavery lawsuit

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The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday threw out a lawsuit accusing Cargill Inc and a Nestle SA (NESN.S) subsidiary of knowingly helping perpetuate slavery at Ivory Coast cocoa farms, but sidestepped a broader ruling on the permissibility of suits accusing American companies of human rights violations abroad.

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https://www.unodc.org/documents/southeastasiaandpacific/2010/06/tocta/TOCTA_Report_2010_low_res.pdf

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rg6xCRemYw4

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I was sex trafficked for years. Brothels are hidden in plain sight. | Casandra Diamond | TEDxToronto

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2xOe22dwi4

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x76-Qn0NsuY

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Life with less than $2 per day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAGjuRwx_Y8&t=325s

2:06   What was your happiest day?

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https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/10/06/opinion/income-tax-rate-wealthy.html

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Opinion | The Rich Really Do Pay Lower Taxes Than You (Published 2019)

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The 400 wealthiest Americans now pay a lower rate than the middle class.

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https://www.businessinsider.com/the-worlds-best-charity-can-save-a-life-for-333706-and-thats-a-steal-2015-7

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Spencer Platt/Getty Images
This isn't a melodramatic TV commercial: For $3,340, you can save a life right now.

That's how much it costs to save one life if you donate to the Against Malaria Foundation (AMF), non-profit charity evaluator and advocate for the top charity in the world - as judged by GiveWell, a effective altruism.

While other charity evaluators tend only to look at where money is going, GiveWell's research seeks to understand how much gets there, who needs it most, and, perhaps most important, what that money can do.

AMF rises above the rest.

In the developed world, mosquitoes are pesky insects. But in underdeveloped countries in Africa, mosquitoes carry a raft of diseases. Easily the most deadly of those is malaria, which is responsible for approximately 600,000 deaths annually.

Rather than invest millions in finding a vaccine, AMF tries to avoid infection through insecticide-treated bed nets, which have loads of research behind them supporting their effectiveness.

GiveWell has three major requirements when selecting its top charities, and AMF fulfills all of them. The solution is proven to work, it successfully passes a vetting process (in this case, figuring out if AMF makes good on delivering the bed nets to people in need), and it's underfunded, which means there is a real need for outside donation.

AMF is one of only a handful of charities that meet the organization's strict criteria, says Catherine Hollander, an outreach associate at GiveWell. That means it can then be put under heavy scrutiny from the non-profit's research arm to root out how far a dollar actually goes. The final number after copious number crunching: $3,337.06.

That total is a rough guideline, GiveWell stipulates. It's meant to be a helpful placeholder that can guide people's donation. With myriad overhead costs, including manufacturing and delivery costs, there are always unknowns.

That's why GiveWell argues it's a tad disingenuous when charities purport to save lives on the cheap.

A bed net may cost $5 to manufacture, but a $5 donation won't necessarily save a life.

CDC

As the effective altruist Peter Singer noted in "The Life You Can Save," not every child who uses a bed net would necessarily have died from malaria - only a fraction would meet that fate. Likewise, not every donated net will save a life, as some will inevitably be misused.

Charities that make such claims typically refer to the "cost per child treated" as the relevant metric in deciding whether to donate. But as GiveWell's research shows, that approaches a solution from the wrong direction: Donors need to account for all the other costs that make the charity work. For AMF, GiveWell uses the "cost per life saved."

So while the total of $3,340 may seem high, it's only because other numbers have been artificially low. GiveWell's research into AMF takes into account all the surrounding costs and statistical likelihoods that could prevent a lesser donation from reaching its ultimate goal: the prevention of fatal malaria.

But according to Sean Conley, a research analyst at GiveWell, you don't need to give thousands of dollars to make a difference.

"On an intuitive level, giving people additional money who are among the poorest in the world - even small amounts of money - will make a big difference in their lives," Conley says.

And if you give to a charity like AMF, you know the money is going to the right places.

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The world's best charity can save a life for $3,337.06

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This isn't a melodramatic TV commercial: For $3,340, you can save a life right now. That's how much it costs to save one life if you donate to the Against Malaria Foundation (AMF), non-profit charity evaluator and advocate for the top charity in the world - as judged by GiveWell, a effective altruism.

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https://www.gatesnotes.com/Development/Life-on-less-than-2-dollars-a-day

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It's the lack of shoes that I remember most.

It was 1993. Melinda and I were traveling through Kenya, Tanzania, and Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). During our visit, we were struck again and again by seeing people walking along the side of the road. Nearly all of them were barefoot.

This was the first time either one of us had seen extreme poverty up close. While I was aware of the vast inequalities in the world, I had never come face to face with people living on the bottom rungs of the income ladder-people so poor they didn't have shoes.

Of course, they lacked much more than that: health care, education, better seeds and tools to grow more food, and, above all, opportunity. Seeing this with our own eyes was life changing. We asked ourselves why the world had to be like this and what we could do to help. Our search for answers altered the course of our lives and led us to start our foundation.

In the years since we took that trip, the world has made huge progress in the fight against poverty. More than one billion people have lifted themselves out of extreme poverty, driven by improvements in health, agriculture, and education. Still, the number of people living on less than $2 a day-$1.90 is the World Bank's international poverty line -is over 700 million. And much more work needs to be done to keep up this progress, so everyone, no matter where they live, will have the opportunity to lead healthy, productive lives.

What's life like on less than $2 a day? While I can quote many statistics about trends in poverty, it's difficult for most of us-especially those living in the wealthiest countries-to answer that question. It's hard to appreciate the uncertainties of life with so little income or imagine the day to day hardships.

That's why I'd like to invite you to listen to the voices of some of the world's poorest people answer that question for themselves. Here are six short videos about living on less than $2 day, as told by a Rwandan fisherman; an Ethiopian farmer; a rickshaw puller in Kolkata, India; a Kenyan grandmother; a food hawker in Nigeria; and a day laborer in Rajasthan, India.

Walk for a moment in their shoes, or in some cases, imagine life without shoes at all.

I hope you will be touched by their stories, their challenges, and their dreams for better lives. I also hope that you'll ask yourself what you can do to help the millions of people like them.

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What's it like to live on less than $2 a day?

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It's the lack of shoes that I remember most. It was 1993. Melinda and I were traveling through Kenya, Tanzania, and Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). During our visit, we were struck again and again by seeing people walking along the side of the road.

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https://lifewater.org/blog/9-world-poverty-statistics-to-know-today/

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Efforts to alleviate world poverty in the last few decades have proven hugely successful. Today, just 10 percent of the world is living in extreme poverty, a huge improvement from 29 in 1995 and a third of the percentage. But, there is still much to be done.

Below are the most up-to-date, quantifiable poverty statistics from the world's top data gathering and humanitarian organizations. The information below compares high income to low income and rural to urban populations on topics such as child mortality, sanitation and hygiene, life-expectancy, malnutrition, and extreme poverty.

Behind every statistic is a real person facing challenges. In addition to economic strains, poverty affects feelings of worth and mutes the voices of the poor. These nine world poverty statistics can seem overwhelming, but real change is happening in some of the most remote parts of our world.

World Poverty Statistics: Global Poverty Report 2020

#1. Globally, 10 percent of the world is living on less than $2 a day.

That's just over 700 million people living on less than $1.90 a day, the World Bank's international line for extreme poverty.

A third of the entire urban population is living in a slum, which are unsafe or unhealthy homes in a crowded city.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, 41 percent of the population is living at less than $1.90. Those experiencing poverty to this extent can often feel a lack of control over their own outcomes and circumstances. However, in the year 1996, 59 percent of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa was living in extreme poverty. Although the region is still facing conflict, natural disasters, and more, they are steadily progressing.

#2. For every 1,000 children born, 39 will die before they turn five years old.

Although tragic, this is remarkable progress when compared to UNICEF's 1990 report of 93 deaths per 1,000 births.

The 2017 UNICEF Child Mortality report claims, "1 child in 36 dies in the first month" in poorer areas like Sub-Saharan Africa, "while in the world's high-income countries the ratio is 1 in 333."

Most under-five deaths are caused by preventable diseases like the following:

The most common contributors to these diseases? Malnutrition, contaminated water, and poor sanitation and hygiene.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, 1 in 3 children will experience stunted growth because they are not getting enough food, or not getting the vitamins they need in their food. Stunted growth also affects cognitive ability, making it more difficult for children to excel in class. Up to 50 percent of all cases of stunted growth are caused by inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene.

#3. Globally in 2016, over 63 million children ages 6-11 years old were not attending school.

That's tens of millions of young children in the world who miss out on their education. In total for children under the age of 17 years, the number increases to 263 million ( 1 in 5 children).

According to the World Bank, Africa has experienced rapid increases in school enrollments, with total net enrollment of children in primary school expanding from just 55 percent in 1995 to 74 percent by 2012. Still, literacy rates are lowest among young women in South Asia and in West and Central Africa.

#4. Of all the children living in extreme poverty, 75 percent live in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

Children are disproportionately affected by poverty. According to World Bank Data, half of the population living in extreme poverty are children. Of those children, three-quarters live in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

#5. Today, approximately 8.9 percent of the world's total population is still practicing open defecation.

Open defecation means people are defecating outside, whether that be in a field or behind a home or a bush. When people defecate outside, human feces find their way into food and water sources, polluting and causing disease among people in those communities.

These illnesses are entirely preventable with access to a toilet to keep feces separate from communities.

#6. Rural populations around the world are seven times as likely as urban populations to be drinking contaminated water.

The discrepancy among rural and urban populations is striking, with rural populations experiencing extreme poverty at much higher rates than their urban neighbors.

Access to safe water is a major marker of socioeconomic classes globally. Families who are drinking contaminated water fall sick much more often. This causes the following:

missed work

absences from school

more money spent on health clinic fees

The World Health Organization found that rural families are three times as likely to walk far distances for safe water. In developing countries, walking long distances for water almost always falls on the shoulders of young girls or women; the travelers are vulnerable to assaults on these daily journeys, and the time investment often results in girls missing school.

Download the Free 2019 World Poverty Report here.

#7. Less than half of rural populations (45 percent) have the knowledge and resources to manage their own health by washing their hands with soap and water.

UNICEF reports that the simple practice of washing your hands can reduce preventable (and in many cases, deadly) diseases by 40 percent. The behavior is the most effective and affordable hygiene practice that a community can undertake.

But, those experiencing extreme poverty often lack this knowledge and the clean water to effectively practice hand washing.

#8. People in the United States are expected to live 18 years longer, on average, than those born in Sub- Saharan Africa.

Life expectancy at birth is an important measure of the overall health of a country. It's influenced by the following and more:

employment rates

quality of education

access to health care

While the average person in the United States lives to be 78, the average person is Sub-Saharan Africa lives to be 60. But, while other countries climb higher, the United States has dropped in life expectancy from 78.84 years in 2014 to 78.53 years in 2017.

The divide in life expectancy is the greatest between Monaco, Europe and the Republic of Chad in Central Africa. While someone born in Monaco can expect to live to 89 years, someone born in Chad will, on average, see 54 years of life.

#9. About a third of the UN's Least Developed Countries are also the least churched countries in the world.

As a matter of correlation, 1 in every 3 countries listed by the UN as those with the least socioeconomic development are also those that have had little Christian influence.

Poverty Alleviation in the Past

Overcoming global poverty is a complex endeavor that the world isn't finished with yet. Rural populations still disproportionately live with the hardships of extreme poverty, and thousands of children are lost each day due to preventable illnesses.

Poverty alleviation efforts in the past have been guilty of exacerbating the problem-providing aid when development and/or rehabilitation programs would be more apt a solution, and failing to listen to the needs of communities. This disempowers and invokes feelings of inability among the poor.
As governments and organizations everywhere begin to correct good-intentioned but damaging poverty alleviation efforts, global progress out of poverty will only continue to grow.
Water's Role in Global Poverty Alleviation

Clean water lays the foundation for poor communities everywhere. It frees people from waterborne illnesses that inhibit work, costs communities in health clinic fees, and prevents children from attending school. It is essential to stepping out of poverty. Clean water, however, is not maintainable without water access, sanitation, and hygiene practices (WASH) that keep water safe.

There are many incredible organizations working to end extreme poverty through the implementation of WASH programs and the construction of safe water points. At Lifewater International, our programs focus on sustainable community development.

Lifewater exists to provide safe water and improved health in such a way that the strengths already present in a community are realized, and community members take ownership of their own futures.

Learn about how Lifewater is helping rural communities realize their own God-given potential through our Vision of a Healthy Village approach, and download last year's 2019 World Poverty Report to share with others.

Download the Free 2019 World Poverty Report here.
Lifewater International is a Christian non-profit clean water and community health organization committed to helping children and families living in extreme poverty thrive. Learn more about Lifewater's Vision of a Healthy Village program and the unique contributions local churches, governments, leaders, and families make to build a healthier and more productive future for their children at lifewater.org.

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9 World Poverty Statistics that Everyone Should Know - Lifewater International

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Efforts to alleviate world poverty in the last few decades have proven hugely successful. Today, just 10 percent of the world is living in extreme poverty, a huge improvement from 29 in 1995 and a third of the percentage. But, there is still much to be done.

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John Snow and the London Cholera outbreak

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John Snow and the London Cholera outbreak

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq32LB8j2K8

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John Snow and the cholera outbreak of 1854 with Mike Jay | Medical London

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https://youtu.be/TNQfpAPG_Mc

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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOE5QDDKDlY

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Why eating healthy is so expensive in America

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSguDQRjZv0

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHksVwOrpbE&t=2s

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jOpNF2uc2M

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Pollution: a global public health crisis

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https://www.ted.com/talks/michael_green_how_we_can_make_the_world_a_better_place_by_2030

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Michael Green: How we can make the world a better place by 2030

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Can we end hunger and poverty, halt climate change and achieve gender equality in the next 15 years? The governments of the world think we can. Meeting at the UN in September 2015, they agreed to a new set of Global Goals for the development of the world to 2030.

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https://www.sabin.org/updates/blog/how-outhouse-helped-save-south-and-what-it-can-do-worlds-bottom-billion

Radiolab audio story with Dickson Despommier - https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/segments/91691-sculptors-of-monumental-narrative

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Last century, the invention of the outhouse helped to eliminate hookworm and other parasites in the United States. Now new research shows that the lowly latrine could be a powerful tool in controlling these diseases, which remain widespread among the world's poorest people.

It's pretty simple. Whether people use it or just have access to it, the latrine could help save hundreds of millions of people from disabling disease. So concludes researchers from the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, who found that in study sites, latrines halved the risk of infection from three common intestinal parasites- hookworm, roundworm and whipworm. Their research was published earlier this week in PLoS Medicine.

Hookworm, roundworm and whipworm- known collectively as the soil-transmitted helminthes or STH's- are transferred from person to person through contact with feces-contaminated soil. It makes sense then that latrines or toilets would have a major impact on reducing transmission. This isn't exactly a new idea. Today STH's are most common in developing countries where there is limited access to clean water and basic sanitation. It wasn't that long ago though that STH's were a major problem here in the US, especially in the American South. It was the invention of the outhouse, in combination with anti-helminthic treatments, that helped eradicate these diseases.
The "germ of laziness"
The colorful story of STH elimination in the US is told quite well by Dr. Dickson Despommier on an episode of NPR's Radiolab. As Despommier tells it, in the early part of the 20 th century, millionaire John D. Rockefeller set out to profit from southern industry, but was stymied by the lack of productivity from an unenergetic workforce. Rockefeller funded studies that discovered the cause: a microscopic hookworm which could travel up to 4 feet in soil from a site of defecation. The "germ of laziness," as they called it, infected a new host through their bare feet and migrated to the intestine, resulting in anemia, malnutrition and poor worker performance.

Rockefeller spearheaded a public health campaign in the South to "unhook the hookworm," which included the widespread installation of outhouses that buried waste well past 4 feet. Treatment and health education were also major components of the campaign. The educational video below was produced by the International Health Division of the Rockefeller Foundation in 1920.

The success of the campaign could be observed throughout the South. One Virginian school observed, "Children who were listless and dull are now active and alert; children who could not study a year ago are not only studying now, but are finding joy in learning...for the first time in their lives their cheeks show the glow of health."
Half a billion children still infected
The US and most developed countries have eliminated STH's, but these diseases still represent a major burden on global health. 576 million, 807 million and 604 million people worldwide suffer from hookworm, roundworm and whipworm respectively, most of which are part of the "bottom billion" or the world's poorest people. Left untreated, these diseases cause internal blood loss leading to iron-deficiency anemia and protein malnutrition. Chronic infection in children contributes to physical and intellectual impairment, learning difficulties and poor school performance.

The cost of these diseases is enormous, but luckily the solution is simple. Like in the US, improvements to sanitation could be a major force in preventing STH's. Until water and sanitation issues can be addressed though, effective and affordable medicine is available to stop the cycle of disease and poverty. For just 50 cents, we can provide one person with treatment and protection against not just the STH's, but seven common diseases of poverty for one whole year.

Want to learn more? Visit the WHO site for more information on Water and Sanitation Health (WASH).

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How the outhouse helped save the South and what it can do for the world's bottom billion

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Last century, the invention of the outhouse helped to eliminate hookworm and other parasites in the United States. Now new research shows that the lowly latrine could be a powerful tool in controlling these diseases, which remain widespread among the world's poorest people.It's pretty simple.

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https://blackhistoryintwominutes.com/the-tuskegee-study/

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Podcast: Play in new window | Embed

Be Woke Presents Black History in Two Minutes (or so)

In 1932 the United States Public Health Service commissioned a study on the effects of untreated syphilis. 600 poor black men from Alabama were selected to be a part of the study and were told that they were being reviewed for "bad blood." From there, the Tuskegee Study took a turn for the worst.

Medical professionals were able to successfully diagnose two-thirds of the men in the study, and by 1940, a known treatment was available. But, instead of offering treatment, medical professionals opted to chart the course of the disease versus offer the known cure to the black men. In would take over 40 years before this study officially ended, and even longer before an official apology came from the United States government.

In this episode of Black History in Two Minutes or So hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr. - with additional commentary from Imani Perry of Princeton University and Hasan Jeffries of Ohio State University - we relive a horrific moment of unethical treatment and deceptive practices that still haunts African-Americans today.

Black History in Two Minutes (or so) is a 2x Webby Award winning series.

If you haven't already, please review us on Apple Podcasts! It's a helpful way to for new listeners to discover what we are doing here: Podcast.Apple.com/Black-History-in-Two-Minutes/

Archival Materials Courtesy of:
Alamy Images
Getty Images
Library of Congress
National Archives and Records Administration

Additional Archival by:
The New York Times

Executive Producers:
Robert F. Smith
Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Dyllan McGee
Deon Taylor

Produced by:
William Ventura
Romilla Karnick

Music By:
Oovra Music

Follow Black History in Two Minutes on Facebook

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Subscribe to Black History in Two Minutes Youtube Channel

'Black History in Two Minutes' is also available on Apple and Google podcasts.

Distributed by aone.la
Powered by hyperengine.ai

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The Tuskegee Study | Black History in Two Minutes (or so)

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In 1932 the United States Public Health Service commissioned a study on the effects of untreated syphilis. 600 poor black men from Alabama were selected to be a part of the study and were told that they were being reviewed for "bad blood." From there, the Tuskegee Study took a turn for the worst.

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https://www.visualcapitalist.com/history-of-pandemics-deadliest/

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https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/behind-the-bastards/id1373812661

Listen to episodes on Henry: 1, 2, 3

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There's a reason the History Channel has produced hundreds of documentaries about Hitler but only a few about Dwight D. Eisenhower. Bad guys (and gals) are eternally fascinating. Behind the Bastards dives in past the Cliffs Notes of the worst humans in history and exposes the bizarre realities of their lives. Listeners will learn about the young adult novels that helped Hitler form his monstrous ideology, the founder of Blackwater's insane quest to build his own Air Force, the bizarre lives of the sons and daughters of dictators and Saddam Hussein's side career as a trashy romance novelist.

There's a reason the History Channel has produced hundreds of documentaries about Hitler but only a few about Dwight D. Eisenhower. Bad guys (and gals) are eternally fascinating. Behind the Bastards dives in past the Cliffs Notes of the worst humans in history and exposes the bizarre realities of their lives. Listeners will learn about the young adult novels that helped Hitler form his monstrous ideology, the founder of Blackwater's insane quest to build his own Air Force, the bizarre lives of the sons and daughters of dictators and Saddam Hussein's side career as a trashy romance novelist.

Bastard sponsor

They should do an episode on Pearson.

delightful

love the right wingers getting mad in the comments. also, i quite like sophie.

but yeah, interesting topic and a great pod.

Latent antisemitism that will be dismissed

Honestly, this is a very entertaining show and a fun listen. I still listen. The host is entirely honest about his perspective, and one of his opinions is Israel is ethnically cleansing Palestinians. I disagree, and that's not what's antisemitic. What is, though, are strange comments sprinkled increasingly in newer episodes. During the Protocols of the Elders of Zion episode, Robert expressly explains the popularity of PEZ as related to Israel's actions. People don't read and spread antisemitic frauds "because of" Israel. They read them because they are buying into antisemitic ideas.

Like that there's always a connection between Jews and Israel - the most recent Thalidomide episode had a fun little aside while talking about Nazi experiments on Jews where the guest explained how "people" "excuse" Israel because it's a technology hub. Entirely unrelated to the topic at hand, entirely supported by Robert.

I like the show. I'll continue to listen when it's interesting, and it's always good to hear other perspectives. But this podcast is pumping out low-grade antisemitic apologia alongside his personal analysis of the situation. You can sympathize with the Palestinians, even side with them, without feeding conspiracies that equate Jews with Israel and how hate is understandable. This podcast doesn't choose that path, unfortunately

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‎There's a reason the History Channel has produced hundreds of documentaries about Hitler but only a few about Dwight D. Eisenhower. Bad guys (and gals) are eternally fascinating. Behind the Bastards dives in past the Cliffs Notes of the worst humans in history and exposes the bizarre realities of th...

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https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/international-law-is-a-meaningless?s=r

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❖

Australian whistleblower David McBride just made the following statement on Twitter:

"I've been asked if I think the invasion of Ukraine is illegal. My answer is: If we don't hold our own leaders to account, we can't hold other leaders to account. If the law is not applied consistently, it is not the law. It is simply an excuse we use to target our enemies. We will pay a heavy price for our hubris of 2003 in the future. We didn't just fail to punish Bush and Blair: we rewarded them. We re-elected them. We knighted them. If you want to see Putin in his true light imagine him landing a jet and then saying 'Mission Accomplished'."

As far as I can tell this point is logically unassailable. International law is a meaningless concept when it only applies to people the US power alliance doesn't like. This point is driven home by the life of McBride himself, whose own government responded to his publicizing suppressed information about war crimes committed by Australian forces in Afghanistan by charging him as a criminal.

Neither George W Bush nor Tony Blair are in prison cells at The Hague where international law says they ought to be. Bush is still painting away from the comfort of his home, issuing proclamations comparing Putin to Hitler and platforming arguments for more interventionism in Ukraine. Blair is still merily warmongering his charred little heart out, saying NATO should not rule out directly attacking Russian forces in what amounts to a call for a thermonuclear world war.

They are free as birds, singing their same old demonic songs from the rooftops.

When you point out this obvious plot hole in discussions about the legality of Vladimir Putin's invasion you'll often get accused of "whataboutism", which is a noise that empire loyalists like to make when you have just highlighted damning evidence that their government's behaviors entirely invalidate their position on an issue. This is not a "whataboutism"; it's a direct accusation that is completely devastating to the argument being made, because there really is no counter-argument.

The Iraq invasion bypassed the laws and protocols for military action laid out in the founding charter of the United Nations. The current US military occupation of Syria violates international law. International law only exists to the extent to which the nations of the world are willing and able to enforce it, and because of the US empire's military power - and more importantly because of its narrative control power - this means international law is only ever enforced with the approval of that empire.

This is why the people indicted and detained by the International Criminal Court (ICC) are always from weaker nations - overwhelmingly African - while the USA can get away with actually sanctioning ICC personnel if they so much as talk about investigating American war crimes and suffer no consequences for it whatsoever. It is also why in 2002 the Bush administration instituted what became known as the " Hague Invasion Act", saying military force will be used to liberate any US or US-allied military personnel from any ICC attempt to prosecute them for war crimes. It is also why Noam Chomsky famously said that if the Nuremberg laws had continued to be applied with fairness and consistency, then every post-WWII U.S. president would have been hanged.

This is also why former US National Security Advisor John Bolton once said that the US war machine is "dealing in the anarchic environment internationally where different rules apply," which "does require actions that in a normal business environment in the United States we would find unprofessional."

Bolton would certainly know. In his bloodthirsty push to manufacture consent for the Iraq invasion he spearheaded the removal of the director-general of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), a crucial institution for the enforcement of international law, using measures which included threatening the director-general's children. The OPCW is now subject to the dictates of the US government, as evidenced by the organisation's coverup of a 2018 false flag incident in Syria which resulted in airstrikes by the US, UK and France during Bolton's tenure as a senior Trump advisor.

The US continually works to subvert international law enforcement institutions to advance its own interests. When the US was seeking UN authorization for the Gulf War in 1991, Yemen dared to vote against it, after which a member of the US delegation told Yemen's ambassador, "That's the most expensive vote you ever cast." Yemen lost not just 70 million dollars in US foreign aid but also a valuable labor contract with Saudi Arabia, and a million Yemeni immigrants were sent home by America's Gulf state allies.

Simple observation of who is subject to international law enforcement and who is not makes it clear that the very concept of international law is now functionally nothing more than a narrative construct that's used to bludgeon and undermine governments who disobey the US-centralized empire. That's why in the lead-up to this confrontation with Russia we saw a push among empire managers to swap out the term "international law" with "rules-based international order", which can mean anything and is entirely up to the interpretation of the world's dominant power structure.

It is entirely possible that we may see Putin ousted and brought before a war crimes tribunal one day, but that won't make it valid. You can argue with logical consistency that Putin's invasion of Ukraine is wrong and will have disastrous consequences far beyond the bloodshed it has already inflicted, but what you can't do with any logical consistency whatsoever is claim that it is illegal. Because there is no authentically enforced framework for such a concept to apply.

As US law professor Dale Carpenter has said, "If citizens cannot trust that laws will be enforced in an evenhanded and honest fashion, they cannot be said to live under the rule of law. Instead, they live under the rule of men corrupted by the law." This is all the more true of laws which would exist between nations.

You don't get to make international law meaningless and then claim that an invasion is "illegal". That's not a legitimate thing to do. As long as we are living in a Wild West environment created by a murderous globe-spanning empire which benefits from it, claims about the legality of foreign invasions are just empty sounds.

____________________
My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following me on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud or YouTube, or throwing some money into my tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy my books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I've written) in any way they like free of charge. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I'm trying to do with this platform, click here.
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International Law Is A Meaningless Concept When It Only Applies To US Enemies

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Listen to a reading of this article: ❖ Australian whistleblower David McBride just made the following statement on Twitter: "I've been asked if I think the invasion of Ukraine is illegal. My answer is: If we don't hold our own leaders to account, we can't hold other leaders to account.

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Data on global COVID response differences 

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Data on global COVID response differences 

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https://ourworldindata.org/policy-responses-covid

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COVID-19 is a disease that has affected most, if not all, countries in the world.

But, the magnitude of these impacts has varied a lot between countries - some have been very successful in limiting the spread of the disease, and in preventing deaths.

There are many reasons why some countries might have been worse-hit than others. Differences in governmental policy responses may explain some differences.

To understand which policies might be effective in controlling the outbreak - especially as countries move towards easing restrictions - it's essential that we have a good dataset on the timing and stringency of responses across the world.

In this article, we present data and research from the Coronavirus Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT), published and managed by researchers at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford.

The research we provide on policy responses is sourced from the Oxford Coronavirus Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT). This resource is published by researchers at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford: Thomas Hale, Anna Petherik, Beatriz Kira, Noam Angrist, Toby Phillips and Samuel Webster.

The tracker presents data collected from public sources by a team of over one hundred Oxford University students and staff from every part of the world.

OxCGRT collects publicly available information on 17 indicators of government responses, spanning containment and closure policies (such as such as school closures and restrictions in movement); economic policies; and health system policies (such as testing regimes). Further details on how these metrics are measured and collected is available in the project's working paper.

The data presented here is taken directly from the OxCGRT project; Our World in Data do not track policy responses ourselves, and do not make additions to the tracker dataset.

These charts are regularly updated based on the latest version of the response tracker.

OxCGRT is an ongoing collation project of live data. If you see any inaccuracies in the underlying data, or for specific feedback on the analysis or another aspect of the project please contact OxCGRT team. See the tracker's notes and guidance on data quality.

The OxCGRT project calculate a Government Stringency Index, a composite measure of nine of the response metrics.

The nine metrics used to calculate the Government Stringency Index are: school closures; workplace closures; cancellation of public events; restrictions on public gatherings; closures of public transport; stay-at-home requirements; public information campaigns; restrictions on internal movements; and international travel controls.

You can explore changes in these individual metrics across the world in the sections which follow in this article.

The index on any given day is calculated as the mean score of the nine metrics, each taking a value between 0 and 100. See the authors' full description of how this index is calculated.

A higher score indicates a stricter government response (i.e. 100 = strictest response). If policies vary at the subnational level, the index is shown as the response level of the strictest sub-region.

Since government policies may differ by vaccination status, a stringency index is calculated for three categories: those who are vaccinated; those who are non-vaccinated; and a national average which is weighted based on the share of people that are vaccinated.

It's important to note that this index simply records the strictness of government policies. It does not measure or imply the appropriateness or effectiveness of a country's response. A higher score does not necessarily mean that a country's response is 'better' than others lower on the index.

The OxCGRT project also calculate a Containment and Health Index, a composite measure of thirteen of the response metrics.

This index builds on the Government Stringency Index, using its nine indicators plus testing policy, the extent of contact tracing, requirements to wear face coverings, and policies around vaccine rollout. It's therefore calculated on the basis of the following thirteen metrics: school closures; workplace closures; cancellation of public events; restrictions on public gatherings; closures of public transport; stay-at-home requirements; public information campaigns; restrictions on internal movements; international travel controls; testing policy; extent of contact tracing; face coverings; and vaccine policy.

You can explore changes in these individual metrics across the world in the sections which follow in this article.

The index on any given day is calculated as the mean score of the eleven metrics, each taking a value between 0 and 100. See the authors' full description of how this index is calculated.

A higher score indicates a stricter response (i.e. 100 = strictest response). If policies vary at the subnational level, the index is shown as the response level of the strictest sub-region.

It's important to note that this index simply records the strictness of government policies. It does not measure or imply the appropriateness or effectiveness of a country's response. A higher score does not necessarily mean that a country's response is 'better' than others lower on the index.

Schools closures

This interactive chart maps government policies on school closures.

Note that there may be sub-national or regional differences in policies on school closures. The policy categories shown may not apply at all sub-national levels. A country is coded as 'required closures' if at least some sub-national regions have required closures.

Workplaces closures

Cancellation of public events

Restrictions on public gatherings

This interactive chart maps public information campaigns on COVID-19.

The OxCGRT is missing data for many countries at level 1 "public officials urging caution about COVID-19", and so most countries only have data for levels 0 and 2.

Public transport

Restrictions on internal movement

International travel controls

Testing policy

This interactive chart maps government policies on COVID-19 vaccination. Note that this only tracks policies on the availability of vaccinations. It does not track the number of people who have been vaccinated.

Countries are grouped into six categories:

No availability

Availability for ONE of following: key workers/ clinically vulnerable groups / elderly groups

Availability for TWO of following: key workers/ clinically vulnerable groups / elderly groups

Availability for ALL of following: key workers/ clinically vulnerable groups / elderly groups

Availability for all three plus partial additional availability (select broad groups/ages)

Universal availability

Income support

Debt and contract relief

Google Mobility Trends: How has the pandemic changed the movement of people around the world?

To tackle the Coronavirus pandemic, countries across the world have implemented a range of stringent policies, including stay-at-home 'lockdowns'; school and workplace closures; cancellation of events and public gatherings; and restrictions on public transport.

These measures were implemented to slow the spread of the virus by enforcing physical distance between people.

How effective have these policies been in reducing human movement? What impact has it had on how people across the world work; live; and where they visit?

We can get some insights on this from the data that Google presents in its COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports. Using anonymized data provided by apps such as Google Maps, the company has produced a regularly updated dataset that shows how peoples' movements have changed throughout the pandemic.

This dataset from Google measures visitor numbers to specific categories of location (e.g. grocery stores; parks; train stations) every day and compares this change relative to baseline days before the pandemic outbreak. Baseline days represent a normal value for that day of the week and are given as the median value over the five‑week period from January 3rd to February 6th 2020. Measuring it relative to a normal value for that day of the week is helpful because people obviously often have different routines on weekends versus weekdays.

On Google's website the data is only visualized in pdfs - one for each country. We present Google's data in interactive charts below to make it easier to see changes over time in a given country; and how specific policies may have affected (or not) behavior across communities. Google notes that we should avoid comparing across regions or countries; this is because there may be local differences in categories which could be misleading.

We should also emphasise that change in visitors is measured relative to the baseline period between January and February 2020. This means changes in movement do not take account of seasonal variation - for example, we might expect visitors to parks or outdoor spaces to be higher during the summer. The data may therefore reflect some changes in seasonal movements, rather than being fully explained by changes due to the pandemic.

The amount of day-to-day variability in the raw data can make it difficult to understand how overall movements are changing over time. To make this easier to understand, we have converted the raw data into the seven-day rolling average. This is what is shown in the data in the following charts.

Change in visitors by category

This interactive chart shows how the number of visitors (or time spent) in categorized places has changed compared to baseline days (the median value for the 5‑week period from January 3 to February 6, 2020).

The 'Residential' category shows a change in duration of time spent at home-the other categories measure a change in total visitors.

This index is smoothed to the rolling 7-day average.

With the Change country option in the bottom left corner you can switch to another country.

To keep in mind when trying to understand these trends

Retail and recreation

This interactive chart shows how the number of visitors to places of retail and recreation has changed compared to baseline days (the median value for the 5‑week period from January 3 to February 6, 2020).

This includes places like restaurants, cafes, shopping centers, theme parks, museums, libraries, and movie theaters.

This index is smoothed to the rolling 7-day average.

Three tips on how to interact with this map

Grocery and pharmacy stores

This interactive chart shows how the number of visitors to grocery and pharmacy stores has changed compared to baseline days (the median value for the 5‑week period from January 3 to February 6, 2020).

This includes places like grocery markets, food warehouses, farmers markets, specialty food shops, drug stores, and pharmacies.

This index is smoothed to the rolling 7-day average.

Public transport stations

This interactive chart shows how the number of visitors to transit stations has changed compared to baseline days (the median value for the 5‑week period from January 3 to February 6, 2020).

This includes public transport hubs such as subway, bus, and train stations.

This index is smoothed to the rolling 7-day average.

Parks and outdoor spaces

This interactive chart shows how the number of visitors to parks and outdoor spaces has changed compared to baseline days (the median value for the 5‑week period from January 3 to February 6, 2020).

This includes places like local parks, national parks, public beaches, marinas, dog parks, plazas, and public gardens.

This index is smoothed to the rolling 7-day average.

To keep in mind when interpreting this data:

Workplace visitors

This interactive chart shows how the number of visitors to workplaces has changed compared to baseline days (the median value for the 5‑week period from January 3 to February 6, 2020).

This index is smoothed to the rolling 7-day average.

Time spent at home

This interactive chart shows how the number of visitors to residential areas has changed compared to baseline days (the median value for the 5‑week period from January 3 to February 6, 2020).

This index is smoothed to the rolling 7-day average.

To keep in mind when interpreting this data:

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Policy Responses to the Coronavirus Pandemic

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The Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT) plans to stop updating its global database on policy responses to COVID-19 at the end of 2022

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https://grist.org/fix/how-quickly-do-we-need-to-ramp-up-renewables-look-to-the-narwhal/

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Professor (and 2020 Grist 50 Fixer) Leah Stokes breaks down how the U.S. can meet ambitious clean-energy goals in the fastest way possible - with the help of the humble narwhal. Adapted from Stokes' Short Circuiting Policy, out now.

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How quickly do we need to ramp up renewables? Look to the narwhal.

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Professor (and 2020 Grist 50 Fixer) Leah Stokes breaks down how the U.S. can meet ambitious clean-energy goals in the fastest way possible - with the help of the humble narwhal. Adapted from Stokes' Short Circuiting Policy , out now.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOaS2vTLeeA

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Sustainable Development - video4 - Human impact: The IPAT equation

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1haK55QKJ8

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Human Population and Environmental Impact

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http://www.worldmapper.org 015 - Human Population Impacts In this video Paul Andersen talks about the impacts of human growth on the environment and on themselves. The population, affluence, and destructive technology of a population impact the environment according to the IPAT equation. An analogous model is the ecological footprint which increases with development of a nation.

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https://www.khanacademy.org/economics-finance-domain/ap-microeconomics/ap-consumer-producer-surplus/public-and-private-goods/v/tragedy-of-the-commons

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https://www.chicagobooth.edu/review/cost-benefit-analysis-environmental-disaster

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The University of Chicago Booth School of Business

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In response to the documentary film "The Devil We Know," Chicago Booth's Luigi Zingales discusses DuPont's decision-making regarding the toxic chemical PFOA, used in the production of Teflon. The case, he says, provides an unfortunate study in what happens when companies' incentives don't align with society's best interests.

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The Cost-Benefit Analysis of an Environmental Disaster

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In response to the documentary film "The Devil We Know," Chicago Booth's Luigi Zingales discusses DuPont's decision-making regarding the toxic chemical PFOA, used in the production of Teflon. The case, he says, provides an unfortunate study in what happens when companies' incentives don't align with society's best interests.

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Ecobomic Environmentalism - benefits vs costs

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Ecobomic Environmentalism - benefits vs costs

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https://opentextbc.ca/principlesofeconomics/chapter/12-4-the-benefits-and-costs-of-u-s-environmental-laws/

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By the end of this section, you will be able to: Evaluate the benefits and costs of environmental protection Explain the effects of ecotourism Apply marginal analysis to illustrate the marginal costs and marginal benefits of reducing pollution The benefits of a cleaner environment can be divided into four areas:

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https://scoop.me/doughnut-model-kate-raworth-amsterdam/

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For the first time in history, Kate Raworth's "doughnut model" for sustainable economy is to be implemented. The city of Amsterdam announces that it will drastically reduce its consumption of resources and materials. And thus revive the economy after the Covid-19 outbreak. The EU Commission is also showing interest.
The deputy mayor of Amsterdam, Marieke van Doorninck, announces her plans for post-Covid-Amsterdam. The city wants to reduce the consumption of new materials by 50% over the next decade. The doughnut model should help to get out of the recession. It has been developed by economist Kate Raworth at Oxford University.

As a concrete measure, products with longer shelf lives will be promoted. The focus will also be on repairs - a concept that is currently being re introduced into everyday life everywhere. Just think of the "repair cafés" that can now be found in all the hip cities from Vienna to Berlin.

Doughnut model is implemented in Amsterdam

But back to Amsterdam: Restaurants and hotels in the city will be obliged to donate discarded food. In construction industry, there will be special "passports" to document which materials can be reused. In addition, the use of sustainable materials is further encouraged.

Our current behaviour is sometimes destructive: At the moment we throw away products, burn them - even though they contain valuable raw materials, says Doorninck. "Given the fact that materials in the world are limited and scarce, this is inexcusable."

Future problems will be multidimensional

"I think [the doughnut model] can help us overcome the effects of the crisis," says deputy mayor van Doorninck. Given the current health-crisis it may seem strange, but the city government has already to think about the time after Corona.

Future problems will be multidimensional: "When suddenly we have to care about climate, health, and jobs and housing and care and communities, is there a framework around that can help us with all of that?", economist Raworth asks, answering herself: "Yes there is, and it is ready to go."

The central premise of the theory is simple: The goal of economic activity should be to meet the core needs of all, but within the means of the planet.

Doughnut model to end capitalism

Since the 80s we have been living in abundance. At the latest since the financial and economic crisis of 2008 it has been clear to everyone that things cannot go on like this. Based on that, Raworth has developed a theory to radically turn away from the current economic theory.

Her model is based on a very simple picture: Imagine humanity living in a doughnut. In the middle you find the social foundation - the basic needs: Food and drinking water, a decent wage, health, gender equality and political freedom. Around that, there is a circle of ecology, politics and economy.

The area outside the Donut represents the so-called ecological tipping points. These have been identified by science as threats to life on the planet - from the ozone layer to the acidification of the oceans. And in between, we find the ideal space: safe, just and sustainable. According to the doughnut model, we must act within this space to ensure benefit of all.

Doughnut against housing shortage

One example of the application of the doughnut theory is the housing shortage in Amsterdam. The rents are too high - what is the reason for this? What can be done? And just building new homes is out of the question due to the high CO2 emissions.

Sustainable solution with the doughnut: Doughnut-analysis allows you to embed this local problem into an international system, include all variables and thus analyse the problem. After all, from an international point of view, there is capital in abundance. In order to tie up capital profitably, a lot is currently being invested in real estate. Real estate speculation is driving rents into the unaffordable for the normal population - and not only in Amsterdam. But what now?

Kate Raworth explains: "The doughnut does not bring us the answers but a way of looking at it, so that we don't keep on going on in the same structures as we used to." With the donut theory, global interdependence can be understood. And only when one is aware of that, it can be questioned and overcome.

Amsterdam as an example for the whole EU

Amsterdam's deputy major van Doorninck and economist Kate Raworth agree - together they can fight post-corona recession in Amsterdam. But global change can only succeed if national governments and supranational authorities are brought on board. Raworth keeps holding on: Her last meeting before the Covid-shutdown was with the European Commission in Brussels. And the Commission expressed great interest in the model, the economist says:

"The world is experiencing a series of shocks and surprise impacts which are enabling us to shift away from the idea of growth to 'thriving'. Thriving means our wellbeing lies in balance. We know it so well in the level of our body. This is the moment we are going to connect bodily health to planetary health."

To read more about a radical economic change: People before profit - the Degrowth movement

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System change: Amsterdam counts on food recycling and repairs

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For the first time in history, Kate Raworth's "doughnut model" for sustainable economy is to be implemented. The city of Amsterdam announces that it will drastically reduce its consumption of resources and materials. And thus revive the economy after the Covid-19 outbreak. The EU Commission is also showing interest.

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https://mashable.com/feature/carbon-footprint-pr-campaign-sham

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A 'successful, deceptive' PR campaign
by Mark Kaufman(opens in a new tab)

Moving forward requires focus. Mashable's Social Good Series(opens in a new tab) is dedicated to exploring pathways to a greater good by spotlighting issues that are essential to making the world a better place.

In a dark TV ad aired in 1971, a jerk tosses a bag of trash from a moving car. The garbage spills onto the moccasins of a buckskin-clad Native American, played by Italian American actor Espera Oscar de Corti. He sheds a tear on camera(opens in a new tab) , because his world has been defiled, uglied, and corrupted by trash. The poignant ad, which won awards for excellence in advertising(opens in a new tab) , promotes the catchline "People Start Pollution. People can stop it." What's lesser known is the nonprofit group Keep America Beautiful, funded by the very beverage and packaging juggernauts(opens in a new tab) pumping out billions of plastic bottles(opens in a new tab) each year (the likes of The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo, and Anheuser-Busch Companies), created the PSA.

The real message, underlying the staged tear and feather headdress, is that pollution is your problem, not the fault of the industry mass-producing cheap bottles.

Another heralded environmental advertising campaign, launched three decades later in 2000, also won a laudatory advertising award(opens in a new tab) , a "Gold Effie." The campaign impressed upon the American public that a different type of pollution, heat-trapping carbon pollution(opens in a new tab) , is also your problem, not the problem of companies drilling deep into the Earth for, and then selling, carbonaceous fuels refined from ancient, decomposed creatures. British Petroleum, the second largest non-state owned oil company in the world, with 18,700 gas and service stations worldwide(opens in a new tab) , hired the public relations professionals Ogilvy & Mather to promote the slant that climate change is not the fault of an oil giant, but that of individuals.

It's here that British Petroleum, or BP, first promoted and soon successfully popularized the term "carbon footprint" in the early aughts. The company unveiled its "carbon footprint calculator" in 2004 so one could assess how their normal daily life - going to work, buying food, and (gasp) traveling - is largely responsible for heating the globe. A decade and a half later, "carbon footprint" is everywhere. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has a carbon calculator(opens in a new tab) . The New York Times has a guide on "How to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint."(opens in a new tab) Mashable published a story in 2019 entitled "How to shrink your carbon footprint when you travel."(opens in a new tab) Outdoorsy brands love the term(opens in a new tab) .

"This is one of the most successful, deceptive PR campaigns maybe ever," said Benjamin Franta, who researches law and history of science as a J.D.-Ph.D. student at Stanford Law School.

Of course, no one should be shamed for declaring an intention to "reduce their carbon footprint." That's because BP's advertising campaign proved brilliant. The oil giant infused the term into our normal, everyday lexicon. (And the sentiment is not totally wrong - some personal efforts to strive for a cleaner world do matter.) But there's now powerful, plain evidence that the term "carbon footprint" was always a sham, and should be considered in a new light - not the way a giant oil conglomerate, who just a decade ago leaked hundreds of millions of gallons of oil(opens in a new tab) into the Gulf of Mexico, wants to frame your climate impact.

The evidence, unfortunately, comes in the form of the worst pandemic to hit humanity in a century(opens in a new tab) . We were confined. We were quarantined, and in many places still are. Forced by an insidious parasite(opens in a new tab) , many of us dramatically slashed our individual carbon footprints(opens in a new tab) by not driving to work and flying on planes. Yet, critically, the true number global warming cares about - the amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide saturating the atmosphere - won't be impacted much by an unprecedented drop in carbon emissions(opens in a new tab) in 2020 (a drop the International Energy Agency estimates at nearly eight percent(opens in a new tab) compared to 2019). This means bounties of carbon from civilization's cars, power plants, and industries will still be added (like a bank deposit) to a swelling atmospheric bank account of carbon dioxide(opens in a new tab) . But 2020's deposit will just be slightly less than last year's. In fact, the levels of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere peaked at an all-time high in May(opens in a new tab) - because we're still making big carbon deposits.

So when BP tweets an ad(opens in a new tab) encouraging you to "Find out your #carbonfootprint" with their "new calculator," it's time to rethink the use of the term. While superficially innocuous, "carbon footprint" is intended to manipulate your thinking about one of the greatest environmental threats of our time. (The threat of nuclear warfare(opens in a new tab) with the potential for both the harrowing spread of radioactive material and the development of a nuclear winter are in the running, too.)

"This industry has a proven track record of communicating strategically to confuse the public and undermine action, so we should avoid falling into their rhetorical traps," said Geoffrey Supran, a science historian at Harvard University who investigates the tactics of fossil fuel interests.

"You have to admit it's very compelling. It's sticky," said Susan Joy Hassol, a climate change communicator who worked as a senior science writer on three congressionally mandated National Climate Assessments. "It's effective propaganda."

"It's time to go on a low-carbon diet," BP wrote in bold letters(opens in a new tab) on its website in 2006, with its "carbon footprint calculator" just a click away. (In 2004 alone, 278,000 people calculated their footprints(opens in a new tab) .) The site was part of BP's ad campaign, "Beyond Petroleum."

Fast forward, and BP is still producing bounties of oil and gas every day ( 4 million barrels a day in 2005(opens in a new tab) versus 3.8 million barrels today(opens in a new tab) ). In 2019, BP purchased its "biggest acquisition in 20 years,"(opens in a new tab) new oil and gas reserves in West Texas(opens in a new tab) that gave the oil giant "a strong position in one of the world's hottest oil patches," according to the company. Today, BP touts its foray into lower-carbon fuels(opens in a new tab) , but these are limited in scope. In 2018, BP invested 2.3 percent of its budget(opens in a new tab) on renewable energies. Its bread and butter is still black oil and gas. What low-carbon diet?

It's evident that BP didn't expect to slash its carbon footprint. But the company certainly wanted the public - who commuted to work in gas-powered cars and stored their groceries in refrigerators largely powered by coal and gas generated electricity - to attempt, futilely, to significantly shrink their carbon footprint. In 14-year-old web pages no longer accessible online but documented by Julie Doyle(opens in a new tab) , a professor of media and communication at the University of Brighton, BP published ads asking "What on earth is a carbon footprint?", "Reducing our footprint. Here's where we stand," and "What size is your carbon footprint?"

Doyle concludes BP sought to explain what a carbon footprint is "in a way which assigns responsibility for climate impact to the individual, while BP registers its own concerns by appearing already to be doing something about it."

Yet in a society largely powered by fossil fuels, even someone without a car, home, or job will still carry a sizable carbon footprint. A few years after BP began promoting the "carbon footprint," MIT researchers calculated the carbon emissions(opens in a new tab) for "a homeless person who ate in soup kitchens and slept in homeless shelters" in the U.S. That destitute individual will still indirectly emit some 8.5 tons of carbon dioxide each year.

"Even a homeless person living in a fossil fuel powered society has an unsustainably high carbon footprint," said Stanford's Franta. "As long as fossil fuels are the basis for the energy system, you could never have a sustainable carbon footprint. You simply can't do it."

It's effective propaganda.

The genius of the "carbon footprint" is that it gives us something to ostensibly do about the climate problem. No ordinary person can slash 1 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions. But we can toss a plastic bottle into a recycling bin, carpool to work, or eat fewer cheeseburgers. "Psychologically we're not built for big global transformations," said John Cook, a cognitive scientist at the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University. "It's hard to wrap our head around it."

Ogilvy & Mather, the marketers hired by British Petroleum, wove the overwhelming challenges inherent in transforming the dominant global energy system with manipulative tactics that made something intangible (carbon dioxide and methane - both potent greenhouse gases - are invisible), tangible. A footprint. Your footprint.

"It's a perfect storm of industry, culture, and psychology," said Cook.

British Petroleum didn't just deploy the "Beyond Petroleum" ad campaign in the U.S. In the UK, the marketing firm filmed regular people on the streets of London(opens in a new tab) for a TV ad. The marketers asked questions like "Do you worry about global climate change?" so people would naturally reply with "I" or "We" when responding to a weighty question about global warming. This allowed BP "linguistically to remove itself as a contributor to the problem of climate change," explained Doyle.

One of the creators of BP's ad campaign who approached Londoners on the street, the PR professional John Kenney, later acknowledged it was all a marketing scheme, not a sincere effort to promote BP's low-carbon or renewable energy transformation. "I guess, looking at it now, 'beyond petroleum' is just advertising," Kenney wrote in a New York Times Op-Ed(opens in a new tab) in 2006. "It's become mere marketing - perhaps it always was - instead of a genuine attempt to engage the public in the debate or a corporate rallying cry to change the paradigm."

BP, powerful and wealthy, signaled it would wean itself from oil. "Only they didn't go beyond petroleum," wrote Kenney. "They are petroleum."

The term "carbon footprint" isn't going anywhere. "I think it would be hard to undo that phrase or to change it," said Jennifer Marlon, a researcher at the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.

Some people certainly might want to jettison the term. "I apply the general rule of thumb that climate advocates shouldn't amplify fossil fuel industry propaganda," said Harvard University's Supran. Rather than perpetuating "carbon footprint," Supran suggested instead "fossil fuel emissions," "fossil fuel pollution," or "fossil fuel footprint."

But because the phrase is here to stay, climate communication researchers emphasize that the meaning behind "carbon footprint" can be expanded, far beyond what BP wants it to mean. Lowering your carbon footprint should include being an engaged citizen who recognizes how to actually curb the planet's warming, explained Hassol. It's critical to talk about climate change with people so it's consistently a matter of concern. It's not enough for the issue to pop up as a viral news story during a disaster exacerbated by climate change(opens in a new tab) , before fading into a chaotic ether of vitriolic politics, celebrity gossip, and a grim pandemic.

And then there's an individual's most potent tool: "Voting is the number one action," said Hassol. Voting for what?

It's (relatively) simple. Voting for leaders who, among other things, have plans or strategies to slash the rampant flow of fossil fuels through the economy, mandate buildings that use less energy, and accelerate the electrification of America's cars and trucks (transportation is the leading U.S. contributor of greenhouse gas emissions(opens in a new tab) ). In the U.S., the choice is clear. Democrats have a new, comprehensive 547-page climate plan(opens in a new tab) that includes bold legislation to create a national electric vehicle charging system(opens in a new tab) . To boot, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, has a climate task force(opens in a new tab) that recommends transitioning to 100 percent renewable electricity (wind, solar, geothermal) in 15 years.

On the other hand, Republicans have a plan that hinges on planting a trillion trees(opens in a new tab) over the next 30 years. Yes, plants do soak up carbon from the atmosphere(opens in a new tab) , but even 1 trillion trees will make only a dent(opens in a new tab) in civilization's burgeoning carbon problem (not to mention that trees are more susceptible to wildfires(opens in a new tab) in a warming world, and this burning pumps loads of carbon dioxide into the air(opens in a new tab) ).

While the pandemic has laid bare that our personal actions alone won't stabilize the planet's disrupted climate, some voluntary decisions beyond voting can still be important, and influential. Here's a poignant example: When someone installs solar panels on their roof, their neighbors are more likely to install the panels(opens in a new tab) too, a trend that's shown in multiple studies(opens in a new tab) . "It's the effect of social contagion," said Hassol.

Critically, our voluntary, independent choices will pack a bigger climate punch if we have options to make significantly better choices. Perhaps the greatest deterrent to Americans buying electric cars (electric vehicles only make up about 1.8 percent of cars(opens in a new tab) purchased in the U.S. today) is people's understandable concern about running out of power on long trips(opens in a new tab) . The U.S has some 111,000 gas stations(opens in a new tab) . What if there were 100,000 electric filling stations? Beyond cars, a survey of both city and suburban bikers said they would bike more(opens in a new tab) if there were safe, accessible bike paths and easy parking (cars get their own lots and multi-story parking garages!).

It's true that each time we fill up at the pump and drive off we're inevitably emitting heat-trapping carbon into the atmosphere. That's technically a "carbon footprint." But we're given no other choice. "The strategy is to put as much blame on the consumer as possible, knowing the consumer is not in a good place to control the situation," said Franta. "It basically ensures that nothing changes."

And as ambitious changes are stymied, Earth relentlessly warms. Globally, nineteen of the last 20 years(opens in a new tab) are now the warmest on record. Forests in the Arctic Circle are aflame(opens in a new tab) , the Southwestern U.S. is mired in a megadrought(opens in a new tab) , storms are becoming more intense(opens in a new tab) , glaciers are fast receding(opens in a new tab) , and a colossal Antarctic ice shelf has destabilized and threatens to redraw maps all over the globe(opens in a new tab) . The ocean is warming, rising, acidifying, and losing oxygen(opens in a new tab) . Climate change is here, even if half of Americans don't think climate change will harm them(opens in a new tab) personally, but a majority acknowledge the globe is warming.

"It reveals how we think this is something that is far away," said Yale's Marlon.

BP wants you to accept responsibility for the globally disrupted climate. Just like beverage industrialists wanted people to feel bad about the amassing pollution created by their plastics and cans, or more sinisterly, tobacco companies blamed smokers for becoming addicted to addictive carcinogenic products(opens in a new tab) . We've seen this manipulative playbook before, and BP played it well.
What's your carbon footprint?
"They were brilliant," said Marlon. "They had good marketers."

Written by

Mark Kaufman

Edited by

Nandita Raghuram

Top illustration by

Vicky Leta

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The devious fossil fuel propaganda we all use

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"This is one of the most successful, deceptive PR campaigns maybe ever."

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https://thecorrespondent.com/539/why-climate-change-is-a-civil-rights-battle/71356398421-19aef637

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On 20 May, Cyclone Amphan made landfall in India near the border of Bangladesh, in a low-lying region called the Sundarbans. In a matter of hours, the future of the whole region was rewritten.

Did you hear about it? If so, probably not much.

Cyclone Amphan wasn't merely a "natural" disaster, it was a human-made disaster as well: an overlapping tempest of racism, a pandemic, and the climate emergency.

Racism brought us the climate crisis,

How the climate movement is becoming a movement for justice

When did the climate emergency start? Was it 250 years ago with the first coal plants in Britain that fuelled industrialisation and colonialism? Was it 400 years ago with the invention of private property rights and the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade? Was it 500 years ago with the genocide and dispossession of Indigenous people in the Americas?

It is impossible to separate the climate emergency from its embeddedness in the long struggle for social and economic justice. We've known for several decades that climate change makes inequality worse - and the mainstream climate movement is now reckoning with the idea that tackling inequality directly could be a primary tactic to effectively fight climate change.

How can places like the Sundarbans have justice before they are forced to abandon their homes yet again? How can the climate movement win its fight to abolish the fossil fuel industry, while working against some of the richest and most powerful men who have ever lived? And how can all of this happen in just the next few years, the timescale that the climate scientists say is necessary for us to preserve our planet's critical ecosystems relatively intact?

One important answer to these questions may be emerging in the broadening of the climate movement from a purely environmental one to a movement for justice. Events this year are proving that the climate movement increasingly sees itself as a civil rights struggle instead of merely preserving the environment, saving polar bears or getting rid of plastic bottles in our seas.

Events this year are proving that the climate movement increasingly sees itself as a civil rights struggle instead of merely preserving the environment

This year, though, this phenomenon is going global.

If people really matter, and especially if Black and marginalised people really matter, then everything changes. Confronting that truth can feel like a personal attack, but it can also feel liberating. Our job, if we care about the climate and our future, is to make it feel liberating.

Whether it's the toll of the pandemic, the inhuman excesses of late capitalism, or the climate emergency, all of it can be traced back to the unfair distribution of power and resources in all of our societies. The key to solving all these crises lies in a far reaching reduction of social and economic inequality.

What climate change has to do with inequality

Looking at the climate problem as primarily a justice issue helps to clarify it and opens up pathways for real solutions. The focus on endangered species and end-of-the-century temperature targets have made the climate crisis unnecessarily abstract. If, instead, the climate movement becomes a subset of a broader movement for justice in all forms, its urgency comes roaring back.

Major climate organisations are already shifting to the struggle for justice as a primary way of thinking about climate action. Varshini Prakash, the executive director of the influential Sunrise Movement, issued a statement last week saying that they will be diverting their resources explicitly to the Movement for Black Lives, and that if this revolutionary moment fails, "our chances of taking the kind of action we need on climate are essentially zero". Since 1 June, the Sunrise Movement's Twitter account has mentioned the phrase "defund the police" as often as the word "climate".

Looking at the climate problem as primarily a justice issue helps to clarify it and opens up pathways for real solutions

But the real harm is more insidious than that. Writing in the Washington Post, climate scientist Ayana Johnson made a powerful case for racial justice at the core of climate justice. "Even at its most benign," Johnson wrote, "racism is incredibly time consuming. Black people don't want to be protesting for our basic rights to live and breathe. We don't want to constantly justify our existence."

Inequality is not by accident - it's by design

The policies of the Green New Deal tilt strongly toward a total restructuring of the social contract in the US, providing housing, jobs, and public safety as a human right - policies that are popular across the political spectrum. That they are low-carbon is almost inherent, because their primary goal is to initiate a sharp transition away from an economic system built on extraction and waste toward a fairer and more equal world where people don't have to earn the right to survive.

Inequality is not only a human rights violation, it's also a very ineffective environment for solving climate change

Julia Steinberger, an economist at Leeds University, is in the process of compiling a scenario of a world economy in the year 2050 that would be able to provide a decent living to everyone on Earth with the carbon budget of the 1960s, a 75% reduction from today's levels.

Steinberger says there are any number of ways this utopia could come about, and some of them are already becoming more mainstream, like wealth taxes, reparations and economic policies aimed at To be sure, radical carbon-cutting lifestyle changes borne by the world's wealthiest people for the benefit of improving the quality of life (and, in the short-term at least, raising the emissions of) But when taken in the context of a of the forces that have been driving the growth of emissions over the past two centuries, there's every reason to believe that climate action would surge in priority in a more equal world.

Viewed through this lens, the most effective climate policies may not look like traditional climate policies at all. Expanding low-carbon access to food, healthcare, and housing become cornerstone climate policies. And being actively anti-racist is perhaps the most important climate policy because the new system can't come from the failures of the past.

A climate movement focused on anti-inequality will lift up art, flowers, and joy - the core of what makes us human.

What future will win?

What future will win?

In this remarkable year, at this remarkable moment, that future is being rewritten every day and every hour.

The shift from curbing emissions to social justice isn't about having less of what some have in abundance now - luxury consumption, business class flying - it's about having more of what we all need: equal opportunities, racial justice, and global solidarity.

We are in a liminal space as a civilisation. It's time to ensure everyone has a say in what comes next.

About the images Unequal Scenes is a photographic project that uses drones to illustrate what people normally wouldn't be able to see: the land from above. This higher point-of-view also allows the viewer to see something else that would normally go unnoticed: inequality. Consciously or not, we live within neighbourhoods and participate in economies that reinforce inequality. We follow routines and take for granted the built environment of our cities. From Cape Town to Mexico City, from Detroit to San Francisco, by observing places from above, the systemic nature of inequality becomes clear: it is planned and intentional disenfranchisement.

Unequal Scenes began as a project by photographer Johnny Miller, then became a platform for multimedia storytelling, workshops and a meeting place for activists and creatives interested in enacting positive social change. (Veronica Daltri, image editor) See more here

Dig deeper

We aren't just stopping coronavirus. We're building a new world We must pressure our leaders to take the long view in any coronavirus economic recovery package, even if this feels like a short-term emergency. Read more here

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Why climate change is a civil rights battle

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On 20 May, Cyclone Amphan made landfall in India near the border of Bangladesh, in a low-lying region called the Sundarbans. In a matter of hours, the future of the whole region was rewritten. Did you hear about it? If so, probably not much.

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https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/08/06/climate/climate-change-inequality-heat.html

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This Is Inequity at the Boiling Point

It was a record 125 degrees Fahrenheit in Baghdad in July, and 100 degrees above the Arctic Circle this June. Australia shattered its summer heat records as wildfires, fueled by prolonged drought, turned the sky fever red.

For 150 years of industrialization, the combustion of coal, oil and gas has steadily released heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere, driving up average global temperatures and setting heat records. Nearly everywhere around the world, heat waves are more frequent and longer lasting than they were 70 years ago.

But a hotter planet does not hurt equally. If you’re poor and marginalized, you’re likely to be much more vulnerable to extreme heat. You might be unable to afford an air-conditioner, and you might not even have electricity when you need it. You may have no choice but to work outdoors under a sun so blistering that first your knees feel weak and then delirium sets in. Or the heat might bring a drought so punishing that, no matter how hard you work under the sun, your corn withers and your children turn to you in hunger.

It’s not like you can just pack up and leave. So you plant your corn higher up the mountain. You bathe several times a day if you can afford the water. You powder your baby to prevent heat rash. You sleep outdoors when the power goes out, slapping mosquitoes. You sit in front of a fan by yourself, cursed by the twin dangers of isolation and heat.

Extreme heat is not a future risk. It’s now. It endangers human health, food production and the fate of entire economies. And it’s worst for those at the bottom of the economic ladder in their societies. See what it’s like to live with one of the most dangerous and stealthiest hazards of the modern era.

Photographs by Myrto Papadopoulos in Athens, Ilana Panich-Linsman in Houston, KC Nwakalor in the Niger Delta, Nigeria, Daniele Volpe in Jocotán, Guatemala, Saumya Khandelwal in Lucknow, India, and Juan Arredondo in New York City.

Heat waves are becoming more frequent in Athens. It’s toughest in the city’s treeless, concrete neighborhoods.

Photographs by
Myrto Papadopoulos

Hasib Hotak, 21, has been sleeping on a rooftop in Athens. To be precise, he has been sleeping on a carpet, under the stars, on a rooftop in Athens. There’s a small room on the roof, with a sheet of corrugated tin on top and a curtain for a door. The heat of the day turns it into an oven. It is suffocatingly hot to sleep inside. It belongs to a friend who, like Mr. Hotak, is a homeless Afghan refugee, and who sleeps on a bed on the roof, draped with a mosquito net.

In late July, peak summer in Athens, the sun burned the rooftop by midday. Mr. Hotak walked through the city to one of Athens’s largest public parks, Pedion Areos. Some days, he volunteered with an aid group that gives out sandwiches to homeless refugees like him. Other days, he sat under a wide-armed tree and scrolled through his phone. There aren’t a lot of places where a young Afghan man feels welcome in Athens, he said. Once, he and a friend went to a cafe, hoping to chat over a cup of coffee, only to be thrown out. The owner said Greeks wouldn’t patronize his establishment if they saw refugees at a table.

Mr. Hotak was 16 when he left his home in the Sholgara district of Afghanistan, the only one among his 11 brothers and sisters to do so. After one failed attempt to enter Europe and two years in a refugee camp, he was granted asylum in Greece. That’s when he arrived on the rooftop refuge with a friend, in the crowded warrens of Kolonos, a working class Athens neighborhood where many migrants have settled.

The city has grown hotter by the decade. According to temperature records kept by the National Observatory of Athens, there were fewer than 20 hot days (with temperatures over 99 degrees Fahrenheit, or 37 Celsius) from 1897 until 1906. By the mid-1980s, there were still fewer than 50 hot days per decade. From 2007 to 2016, though, the number had risen to 120 hot days.

Mr. Hotak cooled down at an Athens beach. Heat waves have increased fivefold in the city over the last century.

“I don’t feel welcome in the country. Whenever I go out people look at me like I’m a refugee. I don’t want that. I’m human.”

Houston is getting hotter, fast. Staying cool is an unaffordable luxury for the Rodriguez family.

Photographs by
Ilana Panich-Linsman

The air conditioner in her room gives Norma Rodriguez some breathing space at the end of a long day.

At 18, just out of high school, Ms. Rodriguez is working two jobs to help her family. One at a shoe store, the other at a restaurant. Her father, Candelario Rodriguez, a roofer by profession, is unemployed. The family’s truck has broken down, so she has to hustle for rides. Her mother, Dominga, is a part-time housekeeper in a nearby hotel where business is slow. Her brother, Noe, 9, is on summer vacation from school. Money is tight. Bills are juggled. Windows are covered during the day to keep out the sun. Air-conditioners are turned on only at night. Showers are limited to every other day.

The summer air is steamy in Houston. Even when you move slowly, you drip with sweat. When you’re working outdoors, in construction, as Norma’s father used to before the pandemic, sweat pools in your work boots. Three of his co-workers have collapsed from heat exhaustion over the years.

The perils of the past haunt them. Their East Houston neighborhood, home to mainly Latinos like the Rodriguez family, was hit particularly hard by Hurricane Harvey. The heat packed into the atmosphere brought exceptionally heavy rains, flooding the Rodriguez’s two-bedroom trailer and a car. They waded through floodwaters to be rescued by an 18-wheeler truck, Norma carrying a pet chicken and a cat in her backpack, and Dominga, who can’t swim, wearing a life jacket. “This year,” Dominga said, “we just hope there isn’t another hurricane.” Hurricane Hanna came close in July, but spared the city.

Houston is one of the country’s fastest warming cities. Average temperatures have risen by more than 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit since 1970. In mid-July, the city’s heat index peaked above 110 degrees. It offered a glimpse of the future. If emissions of greenhouse gases continue to rise at their current pace, Houston could see 109 days each year, on average, where the heat index tops 100 degrees.

Norma worked on her college orientation one evening in July when the air-conditioner was turned on. She plans to begin as a freshman in the fall.

Her younger brother, Noe, had his own idea to keep the family cool: a squirt gun mounted on his bike.

Ms. Rodriguez, who plans to attend community college this fall, has more immediate concerns. A co-worker at the restaurant where she works complained of symptoms of the coronavirus in late July. He said he would get tested, and she hasn’t heard from him since. She needs the job, but she worries about getting sick — and even more about infecting her family.

“If I bring it home to my family, it’s something else for me to worry about,” Ms. Rodriguez said over the weekend. “If we’re all going to be sick, who’s going to take care of us?”

In Nigeria, rising temperatures are supercharged by nonstop gas flares. You can feel them singe the skin.

Photographs by
KC Nwakalor

Darkness never falls on Faith Osi’s village.

Five tall methane gas flares loom over Obrikom, in the heart of the oil-rich delta in southeastern Nigeria. They are part of the huge petrochemicals operations of the Italian multinational Agip, and they burn 24 hours a day, like blowtorches through the steamy tropical air.

It’s normally hot here. Temperatures reach 91 degrees Fahrenheit on average in the hot season and drop only slightly in the rainy months. The flares make it even hotter, even at night, and particularly if you’re too poor to live anywhere other than within a few hundred meters of the flares, where land is cheaper. One study found that temperatures were 22 degrees Fahrenheit higher around homes closest to the gas flares.

For decades, oil extraction has poisoned the air, land and water of the Niger Delta region, while its people have reaped little by way of jobs or development in the area.

Heat is arguably the least understood of these threats. It’s everyday. It’s invisible. And, for Ms. Osi, who is in her mid-30s, it’s exhausting.

It saps her. She can barely work for three hours a day on her cassava farm, and even then, she feels like she can hardly breathe. Headaches torment her often. Relief comes only from a bucket of cold water over her head.

It was worse when she was pregnant. She would pat her belly with a wet cloth. At night she would lay on the bare floor. The bed was too hot. She would barely sleep.

The other day, with the air clammy from the rains, she bathed the youngest of her eight children, Miracle, who is 1 year old. In minutes, Miracle was glistening with sweat and screaming from discomfort. Ms. Osi worried about heat rash. She emptied nearly a can of talcum powder on the baby.

Her husband, Azubuike Osi, 42, turned to cigarettes for relief. The kids flapped their clothes to air their bodies. They all try to sleep under the fan, at least until the electricity goes out, which it sometimes does on the hottest nights, and then some of the children sleep outside on the balcony, battling mosquitoes. Malaria is rampant.

The dangerous extremes of climate change are already affecting Nigeria’s poorest people. Hotter days and hotter nights are more frequent, while the number of cool days and nights has decreased, a trend that studies have observed throughout West Africa.

A bath gave Miracle a moment of cool comfort.

When the power goes out, some of Ms. Osi’s children sleep on the balcony.

The dry season is getting longer and drier in Guatemala. Indigenous farmers could see crop yields fall sharply.

Photographs by
Daniele Volpe

Eduardo Roque, 38, is among Guatemala’s original people, part of the Ch’orti Mayan community living in one of the poorest and driest corners of the Americas, known as the Dry Corridor.

Rising temperatures are ravaging the land.

The early summer rains that nourish his small fields have diminished measurably in recent years, according to scientists, and five long and harsh late summer droughts have cursed this region in the last decade. The country as a whole is warmer by about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit since 1960, with far more frequent hot days and nights. The rains don’t come when he needs them for his crop, Mr. Roque says. “When we need the sun, suddenly, we are receiving water.”

Mr. Roque’s harvests of corn and beans, staple foods, failed three years in a row. Desperate, he hustled for work in the capital, Guatemala City, bought a patch of land near a small creek, planted rows of corn there. On his old corn fields, he has planted trees, and in their shade, he is trying coffee.

Malnutrition runs higher in the largely indigenous region, called Chiquimula, where Mr. Roque lives with his wife and nine children. Water has to be rationed.

The amount of greenhouse gases emitted by the average Guatemalan each year is tiny — 1.1 metric tons, compared with 16.5 tons per person in the United States — and Mr. Roque’s carbon footprint is, very likely, smaller still. Electricity came to his village only recently. The family doesn’t have a car, motorcycle or tractor. He built his house by hand, from mud, with only a few pillars of concrete.

But Guatemala is poised to feel the effect of a hotter planet acutely. Yields of maize and beans could fall by around 14 percent by 2050, according to a recent study; coffee grown in lower elevations is unlikely to be “economically viable.”

Climate models project longer dry periods in the future.

“The models show that this should happen in the next decades,” said Edwin Castellanos, director of the center for environmental studies at the University of the Valley of Guatemala and a co-author of the study, “but it’s already happening.”

Eduardo’s grandparents, Magdaleno Roque, 78, and Eulofia Aldana, 64, live near his home.

A small but solid defender: Eduardo Roque, left, filmed his son Eddy, 2, on a parched soccer field.

India is already hot. An increase of just a few degrees can be dangerous for people who work outdoors.

Photographs by
Saumya Khandelwal

Rabita bends down, fills a bowl with sand, lifts it atop her head, climbs up and down the stairs. Up and down, countless times each day, even as the heat rises through the morning and the air gets sticky. Her legs ache from the climbing. Her head spins sometimes. Breaks can’t be longer than five minutes, or she’ll get a hectoring from the foreman on the construction site. Occasionally, she comes down with a fever and has to take a day off. When she’s on her period, it’s the worst.

The other day, she tried to shake the sand off herself, to no avail. The sweat had glued the sand to her skin.

Rabita, who does not use a surname, is helping to build a government housing project. She and her husband, Ashok Kumar, are Dalits, at the bottom of the Hindu caste ladder. They own no land in their village in Bihar, which has long been one of the most terrifying places to be a Dalit. They work on other people’s lands, when there is work, and Rabita gets paid less than half what a man makes.

And then there’s the extreme vagaries of the rain. It rains when it’s not supposed to, she says, and washes away the crops. People like her have to leave home to put food in their stomachs.

For years, Mr. Kumar had been working hauling sacks of vegetables at a city market, sending home money. The pandemic changed all that. Mr. Kumar came back home, borrowed money to make ends meet. Now he and Rabita work to pay off those debts. Their oldest son, Guddu, 15, works alongside them. Their 3-year-old, Sumari, hangs around.

Episodes of extreme humid heat at levels the human body cannot tolerate for many hours at a time have more than doubled in frequency since 1979, according to a recent scientific paper. South Asia and the Gulf Coast of the United States are among the places hardest hit. Sweat can’t evaporate as fast. The body can’t cool down.

The International Labor Organization calls heat an occupational health hazard, with construction workers like Rabita especially vulnerable. Most people can work only at half their capacity when temperatures exceed 91 degrees Fahrenheit, and exposure to many hours of heat can be fatal, the group warns.

Economic losses from heat stress are projected to increase to $2.4 trillion in 2030. But this cost, too, is expected to be unequally spread.

South Asia and West Africa are expected to be the worst affected, not just because of high heat and humidity, but because of how vulnerable laborers like Rabita are to begin with.

Watching sports on a phone on a day when the humidity made it feel like 107 Fahrenheit.

Rabita slept on a day off. The high for the day was 95 Fahrenheit.

Heat is the deadliest form of extreme weather for older Americans. In New York City, isolation is its sly accomplice.

Photographs by
Juan Arrendondo

On a sweltering Sunday in July, with temperatures soaring to 93 Fahrenheit, Rafael Velasquez, 66, sat in the courtyard of his apartment complex with a cold bottle of water pressed to his face. He liked sitting outside on a bench, feeding the pigeons. He kept a hand towel to wipe the sweat.

There wasn’t much to do inside. He’s lived alone since his wife died a couple of years ago. He can’t afford to buy an air-conditioner, and he said he had no idea how to get a free one from a city program designed to help seniors stay cool during the pandemic, when cooling centers are mostly closed.

He had a window fan in the living room, and one standing fan that he dragged from the bedroom to the living room every morning. Mostly, he watched stuff on his phone. He can’t afford cable.

In the United States, heat kills older people more than any other extreme weather event, including hurricanes, and the problem is part of an ignominious national pattern: Black people and Latinos like Mr. Velasquez are far more likely to live in the hottest parts of American cities.

His neighborhood is exceptionally vulnerable to heat extremes. According to the most recent available data, from 2018, Brownsville was among New York City’s hottest, with average daytime highs around two degrees Fahrenheit higher than the city as a whole.

Those neighborhoods are often the same areas that have faced some of the highest rates of coronavirus deaths. This spring, around 10 residents of Mr. Velasquez’s senior housing complex died from the virus.

“Inequality exacerbates climate and environmental risks,” said Kizzy Charles-Guzman, a deputy director for resilience efforts in the New York City Mayor’s office.

Isolation makes it worse.

With no one to check in on you, even a mild case of dehydration can take a quick turn for the worse if you’re frail or suffer from other ailments, like heart disease. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 600 Americans die each year from extreme heat. A recent academic study, though, estimated that as many as 12,000 people may be dying of heat-related ailments; 80 percent of them, the researchers said, are over the age of 60.

Mr. Velasquez, a retired hospital cook, spent most of his life in the Bronx.

When he applied for senior housing, he was offered an apartment in the Ocean Hill-Brownsville area of Brooklyn.

Mr. Velasquez’s five daughters live in the Bronx. He said he hadn’t seen them in months because of the pandemic.

The other day, when the city issued a heat alert and the senior center on the ground floor opened for the first time in months as a cooling center, he went to pick up two plastic bags of groceries: black beans, breakfast cereal, peanut butter and other provisions that would last.

He won a round of bingo, and a roll of paper towels as a prize.

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Here’s What Extreme Heat Looks Like: Profoundly Unequal (Published 2020)

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Earth is overheating. This year is poised to be one of the hottest ever. Millions are already feeling the pain, but the agony of extreme heat is profoundly unequal across the globe.

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https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/

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Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet

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The rate of change since the mid-20th century is unprecedented over millennia.

Earth's climate has changed throughout history. Just in the last 800,000 years, there have been eight cycles of ice ages and warmer periods, with the end of the last ice age about 11,700 years ago marking the beginning of the modern climate era - and of human civilization. Most of these climate changes are attributed to very small variations in Earth's orbit that change the amount of solar energy our planet receives.

This graph, based on the comparison of atmospheric samples contained in ice cores and more recent direct measurements, provides evidence that atmospheric CO2 has increased since the Industrial Revolution. (Credit: Luthi, D., et al.. 2008; Etheridge, D.M., et al. 2010; Vostok ice core data/J.R. Petit et al.; NOAA Mauna Loa CO2 record.) Find out more about ice cores (external site).

The current warming trend is different because it is clearly the result of human activities since the mid-1800s, and is proceeding at a rate not seen over many recent millennia. It is undeniable that human activities have produced the atmospheric gases that have trapped more of the Sun's energy in the Earth system. This extra energy has warmed the atmosphere, ocean, and land, and widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, and biosphere have occurred.

Do scientists agree on climate change?

Yes, the vast majority of actively publishing climate scientists - 97 percent - agree that humans are causing global warming and climate change.

detailed answer

Earth-orbiting satellites and new technologies have helped scientists see the big picture, collecting many different types of information about our planet and its climate all over the world. These data, collected over many years, reveal the signs and patterns of a changing climate.

Scientists demonstrated the heat-trapping nature of carbon dioxide and other gases in the mid-19th century. Many of the science instruments NASA uses to study our climate focus on how these gases affect the movement of infrared radiation through the atmosphere. From the measured impacts of increases in these gases, there is no question that increased greenhouse gas levels warm Earth in response.

"Scientific evidence for warming of the climate system is unequivocal."

- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Ice cores drawn from Greenland, Antarctica, and tropical mountain glaciers show that Earth's climate responds to changes in greenhouse gas levels. Ancient evidence can also be found in tree rings, ocean sediments, coral reefs, and layers of sedimentary rocks. This ancient, or paleoclimate, evidence reveals that current warming is occurring roughly 10 times faster than the average rate of warming after an ice age. Carbon dioxide from human activities is increasing about 250 times faster than it did from natural sources after the last Ice Age.

References

References
Header image shows clouds imitating mountains as the sun sets after midnight as seen from Denali's backcountry Unit 13 on June 14, 2019. Credit: NPS/Emily Mesner

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Climate Change Evidence: How Do We Know?

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Vital Signs of the Planet: Global Climate Change and Global Warming. How do we know it's happening? Here's the evidence.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_6n-ROdL3g

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University of California Television (UCTV)

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What is Geoengineering and Can It Save the Planet

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Connection Between Climate Change & Human Rights

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Connection Between Climate Change & Human Rights

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=20&v=3Sxm6Pr73Ws

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMIUglBligI

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCAx3TG8LkI

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Introducing 'The Doughnut' of social and planetary boundaries for development

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Kate Raworth, Senior Researcher at Oxfam Great Britain introduces her discussion paper "A Safe and Just Space for Humanity: can we live within the doughnut?" Join the debate at www.oxfamblogs.org/doughnut This discussion paper is an exploration of what such a model of prosperity might look like.

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https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22408556/save-planet-shrink-economy-degrowth

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Can we save the planet by shrinking the economy?

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The “degrowth” movement to fight the climate crisis offers a romantic, utopian vision. But it’s not a policy agenda.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKHl__BEsD0

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How does immigration impact the economy? | CNBC Explains

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12FT7cOLaZ4

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWcV94G4rRI

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America's cocaine habit fueled its migrant crisis

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opbSFGlAefQ

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Italy's Mediterranean Mass Grave: Europe or Die

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wlf9jlYR3Yg

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKwJnZi_oEA

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How the UN is helping refugees from Ukraine

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3WZSrW4Vbc

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Why rich countries are so dependent on migrant workers | CNBC Explains

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Why Are There So Many Filipino Nurses In The U.S.? | AJ+

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https://youtu.be/y7YPTD7QwR4

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https://youtu.be/7ucF2IeJTfE

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Innovation and market forces, selfish altruism

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Innovation and market forces, selfish altruism

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https://youtu.be/rvskMHn0sqQ

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4DMMYKNZKs

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Essential Reading - Bowling Alone  by Robert D Putnam

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Movie trailer :
https://youtu.be/WzUVeuX1u04

See Canvas for specifics on the essay

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https://youtu.be/FHPbjGvH4bg

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4viXOGvvu0Y

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Progress on UN Development Goals 2021: Gender

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Progress on UN Development Goals 2021: Gender

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https://youtu.be/ZKeqwBOAfOU

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Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Gender Snapshot 2021