Extractive cf. regenerative fuels

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, the marine biologist and activist, now living in down east Maine, offered the commencement address at my college, Middlebury, in the spring of 2023, and a week later Time magazine reprinted her address in full—a wise choice, I think, as it lays out a serious case for a certain kind of hope. “To address the climate crisis, the all-encompassing challenge that will touch whatever life and work you will go on to, requires that we not just change or adapt, but that we transform society, from extractive to regenerative,” she said. “This is a monumental task. And it requires that we focus not on endless analysis of the problem, but on summoning an expansive sense of possibility, on harnessing our imaginations and our creativity.” 

McKibben, Bill; Green, Jaime. The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2024: A Thought-Provoking Anthology with Award-Winning Environmental Insights (p. xxiv). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition. 

Words matter. What we call things matters. Vocabulary becomes expert jargon unique to a specialized discourse. Things can’t be managed if they can’t be named so naming things accurately, validly, meaningful has a tremendous power. So choose your words carefully.

In discussing our choice of fuel to meet our energy needs, Ayana, Elizabeth Johnson suggests that we categorize those fuels into two categories: extractive and regenerative. Extractive fuels would be coal, oil, gas, peat. Regenerative would be wind, solar, hydro.

Extractive fuels contribute CO2 to the atmosphere and contribute to climate warming. Regenerative fuels don’t. 

1. In this age of climate change endangering the health and well being of living things on the planet which should humans use?

2. What kinds of policies would contribute to the transformation of the Earth’s societies from extractive to regenerative fuels? 

3. Which political parties in the US favors which types of fuels? Which kind do you favor and support?

Hottest day on record on July 22, 2024 on planet Earth

In 2023 it got hotter on this earth than it’s gotten in at least 125,000 years, roughly the same time as the first evidence of humans etching symbols onto bone. As 2024 began, the researchers were predicting that this year could quite possibly break last year’s record.

McKibben, Bill; Green, Jaime. The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2024: A Thought-Provoking Anthology with Award-Winning Environmental Insights (p. xviii). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition. 

From Gemini AI on 08/04/25:

Yes, the heat record set in 2023 was beaten in 2024. 2024 was confirmed by multiple climate agencies, including NASA and NOAA, to be the warmest year on record. This makes 2024 the first calendar year to have a global average temperature of more than 1.5∘C above pre-industrial levels, a critical threshold established by the Paris Agreement.

Key 2024 Heat Records

• Global Average Temperature: The average global temperature in 2024 was approximately 1.29∘C (2.32∘F) above the 20th-century average. This surpassed the previous record set in 2023 by about 0.10∘C (0.18∘F).

• Consecutive Record-Breaking Months: The period from June 2023 to August 2024 saw an unprecedented streak of 15 consecutive months of monthly temperature records.

• Hottest Day Ever Recorded: On July 22, 2024, the world experienced its hottest day on record, with the global average temperature reaching 17.16∘C (62.9∘F).

• Regional and Ocean Heat: Africa, Europe, North America, Oceania, and South America all had their warmest years on record. Additionally, the upper ocean heat content—the amount of heat stored in the top 2,000 meters of the ocean—was the highest ever recorded.

How do you think humans will adapt to the consequences of these record setting hot records? How have you been affected where you live? Why don't these facts get more news coverage? The implications of this climate warming are hugely significant.

Vulture cf. predatory venture capitalism and science.

 As of 2019, Alden was running over a hundred newspapers, and they’d cut two of every three jobs. It’s a model known as “vulture capitalism,” though a former Chicago Tribune reporter who’d seen Alden’s impact firsthand told Coppins the name didn’t quite fit. “A vulture doesn’t hold a wounded animal’s head underwater. This is predatory.”

McKibben, Bill; Green, Jaime. The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2024: A Thought-Provoking Anthology with Award-Winning Environmental Insights (p. xi). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition. 

Jamie Green bemoans the fact that science journalism is being cut from periodicals and science writers are being laid off. Given this change in the media business Jaimie encourages people to support science periodicals. I asked in a previous post whether anyone on the list subscribed to any science periodicals?

I subscribe to three: Science News, Scientific American, and Nautilus.

The Republican policies are driving scientists out of the Federal government and have cut grants to Universities and colleges leading to scientists leaving the US for other countries where they can find employment and support for their research. Autocracies are anti-scientific because expert knowledge and skill undermines their power unless the experts can be controlled by the politicians. It’s not only the predatory venture capitalists who are a threat to science and accurate science reporting but the autocratic politicians as well. Trump’s answer to the Covid-19 was that it would just go away in the Spring with nicer weather and people could drink bleach.

The person is not the problem, the problem is the problem.

The most important thing I learned in my MSW program at SUNY Albany 1970-1972 was from Dr. Maureen Didier who repeatedly told us "You have to take the client where they're at, not where you think they should be, where they ought to be, where they must be, you have to take the client where they're at."  I always laugh when I share this nugget of wisdom because it was 53 years ago now when she taught me this. Her wisdom has stood me in such good stead both professionally and personally.

Another important moral platitude is "love the sinner, hate the sin." In Narrative Therapy this way of perceiving the situation is called "externalization." The problem is externalized from the person. The platitude about externalization is "the person is not the problem, the problem is the problem" so what's the problem? We give people identifying names, based on the problem that has invaded their life, like "alcoholic" and "diabetic" and "schizophrenia" and "depressive" and "borderline". It is usually much more accurate  to say things like "the person for whom alcohol is creating problems," etc. This small reframe can facilitate an "externalized conversation" which is much more helpful and productive in figuring out ways to manage the problem.

The problem we are facing as a society might be stated as "how is autocracy undermining democratic processes and contributing to increased inequality and injustice?" If you have another word for "autocracy" labeling the problem what might it be? Once we have agreement on what to call this thing that is negatively impacting us we have a better chance of minimizing or eliminating its impact on us.

The Republican America - Cuts at the VA

 NOTES/COMMENTS about this article:

1). According to the VA’s workforce dashboards, since the Trump administration took office in January the VA has recorded a net loss of thousands of health care positions, the only net loss in the last five years. 

2). The losses include, among others:

        *** 688 physicians, 

        *** 1,882 registered nurses, 

        *** 365 licensed practical nurses, 

        *** 316 nurse assistants,

        *** 511 social workers, 

        *** 201 psychologists 

        *** 766 medical support assistants. 

3). In June 2025 alone, VA health system staffing fell by 2,096. 

4). Department-wide job announcements have plummeted by 30 percent and applications by 44 percent since last year, while new employee onboarding has sunk by 52 percent. 

5). These figures paint a stark picture of an agency diminishing its capacity to provide direct health care, while pretending that its  services remain unchanged.

6). The 2024 “Red Team” assessment by independent experts issued a dire warning: The swelling volume of private-sector referrals has created an “existential crisis” for VA health care. 

7). Excessive utilization of private providers threatens to close VA units and facilities nationwide, destabilizing the direct care system and undermining its long-term sustainability.

Peace,

            Doug Stephenson, LCSW, BCD

            Gainesville, Florida

For more click here.

Secular Americans more politically engaged than evangelicals

 

For more click here 

Gratitude for governmental service

There are many things a person can learn from reading Who Is Government? Edited by Michael Lewis. The government is often described in disparaging terms such as the “bureaucracy”, the “deep state”, and the “swamp.” In an effort to privatize the commons the Republican Party has constantly advocated for less government since the time of Ronald Reagn who declared in his inaugural address in January 1981 that government was not a solution but a problem. And yet Americans are very dependent on governmental services at all levels from the Federal, to the State, to the county, to the local.

Who Is Government? goes beyond the typical headlines and political drama to showcase the crucial work performed by dedicated civil servants. It illustrates how government functions, often quietly and effectively, in areas like mine safety, cybersecurity, veteran affairs, and scientific research. By providing concrete examples of essential public services, it helps readers understand the vital role government plays in their daily lives, from protecting national security to ensuring public health and safety.

What are some of the important government services that have contributed most significantly to your quality of life that you are most grateful for? Will you say thank you to a public servant today to recognize and acknowledge their service? Just as it has become common for us to thank military veterans by saying “Thank you for your service”, shouldn’t we be saying that to all our public employees who strive to make our society more effective, efficient, and satisfying?

Better government service from merit based civil servants or political appointees?

What if there was a person who was running for president who said that on their first day they were going to fire 50,000 government employees? Is that a good idea?

Lewis, Michael. Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service (p. 208). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

We actually had a spoil system in the 19th century. We had a president that was assassinated by a disgruntled job seeker, President Garfield. And that assassination led to the reform of our government and a movement away from the spoils system to a merit-based professional civil service. And unfortunately, well, for 130 some odd years, that model of our government that we seek out those with merit, experts that can actually do the business of government on behalf of the public in a better way, that’s now been challenged for the first time. And we have former president Trump—I will say the name—who has proposed, and frankly, tried in his first term to implement a process of changing that civil service, upending it and converting it into a political process. So we already have 4,000 political appointees in every administration. That’s many, many, many multiples more than any other democracy in the world. And this would create tens of thousands, if not more, political appointees rather than, again, the selection of people on the basis of their merit and their ability to best serve the public.”

Lewis, Michael. Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service (p. 210). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

Do we as Americans get better governmental services from a merit based civil service system or a spoil system made up of political appointees?

DACA recipients to lose ACA health coverage in August 2025.

The change is nationwide. As of mid-July, about 538,000 people in the DACA program across the U.S. are ineligible to enroll in any state-based insurance marketplace and are unable to access premium subsidies or cost-sharing assistance. (Public News Service 07/29/25)

For more click here.

The consumer price index

The chapter about the CPI (Consumer Price Index) in Who Is Government? edited by Michael Lewis,  was interesting and helped me understand what we read and hear about all the time.

I had a general idea of what the CPI means but John Lanchester's explanation of it in the chapter, The Number, made it much more understandable,. As he points out the CPI is an imperfect indicator but gives us a rough idea of how the economy is functioning. Most Americans though have no idea about this concept and its use. 

The economy under Biden was doing great, one of the best in the world, but people focused, supposedly, on the "price of eggs" if you believe the pundits, and elected Trump who has trashed the economy with his tariff nonsense. We are in for some very dark days in the coming couple of years due to his and his administration's incompetence.

So the CPI is only as good as our understanding of it and the use we make of it.