Now, a new study from the University of Pennsylvania has finally confirmed what we’ve all probably known was true all along somewhere deep down: that excessive time spent on Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat really does cause depression and loneliness.
Most previous research has only been able to show a correlation between time spent on social media sites and these negative mental health consequences, but there’s always been an asterisk on the results: What if lonely, depressed people are simply more likely to use social media more?
Researchers monitored 143 people’s daily social media use for a week, as well as their levels of a range of mental health factors like depression and loneliness. “Using less social media than you normally would leads to significant decreases in both depression and loneliness.
Not a temple for the phone but a temple for your spirit, which will have a lighter load upon using the phone box.
Put the phone in the phone box.
Now go do something: work, write, walk, all of the above.
Whatever makes you feel alive.”
Are you following ego-driven people who constantly post body shots that make you feel bad about yours?
—Britt Martin, holistic nutritionist and yoga instructor “When you find yourself checking likes (we all do this!

Loss of forest cover jumped almost 50% during the election campaign, in anticipation of looser environmental regulations Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon jumped almost 50% during the three month electoral season that brought Jair Bolsonaro to power, according to preliminary official figures.
Deforestation usually increases in Brazil’s electoral years, amid promises from local politicians they will open up protected land or make environmental legislation more flexible if elected.
As a result Bolsonaro, collected landslide victories in Amazon regions with higher deforestation rates.
There were three attacks against federal agents during the campaign.
The most serious one took place on October 19 in Pará state.
The new figures on forest loss come from Deter B, a satellite monitoring system developed by Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) in order to monitor deforestation in almost real time for surveillance purposes.
The data is publicly available and the calculation of the rate over the electoral season was made by Inpe at Climate Home News’ request.
But, he said the almost 48.8% difference with last year indicated the deforestation rate was unmistakably higher.
The 2018 deforestation rate is expected to be published in the next weeks and will most likely show a small increase from 2017.
You can read some of the great reporting Fabiano has already done for us here.

A joint venture comprising Fluor Corp., the Kazakh Institute of Oil and Gas (KING), KazGiproNefteTrans Engineering Co. (KGNT EC) and WorleyParsons has developed one of the world’s largest single 3D intelligent plant design models for a Tengizchevroil LLP megaproject, Fluor reported Tuesday.
“One of the largest oil and gas projects in the world, the engineering effort is providing the design and tools to enable the delivery of the project in a safe and efficient manner,” Al Collins, president of Fluor’s Energy & Chemicals unit in Europe, Africa and Middle East, said in a written statement.
“We have worked with Tengizchevroil and our joint venture partners in Kazakhstan for more than 20 years.” Fluor and others in the JV created a model for Tengizchevroil’s Future Growth Project – Wellhead Pressure Management Project (FGP-WPMP), which is the next expansion of the Tengiz oil field in western Kazakhstan.
In July 2016 Tengizchevroil sanctioned KPJV to provide detailed engineering, procurement and construction management support services for FGP-WPMP.
When it announced the contract award at the time, Fluor noted that the project will entail: The FGP component, which will use sour gas injection technology to maximize Tengiz production capacity to approximately 39 million tons of oil per year The WPMP component, which will keep existing Tengiz plants full by lowering the flowing wellhead pressure and boost the pressure to Tengiz’s six processing trains The single 3D plant model that the JV created enables project engineers worldwide to see real-time developments in the design, Fluor noted Tuesday.
In addition, it pointed out that the data-centric model integrates 2D and 3D information to allow 3D visualization of the plant.
Moreover, the company stated that the model allows sequencing tools to optimize construction and produce advanced engineering, construction and installation work packages.
“Spanning multiple time zones, work is taking place around the clock.
The project’s 3D model provides the latest integrated design and data management system using millions of pieces of verified data to deliver construction-driven execution.” Fluor reported in 2016 that the project, which is expected to require approximately 20,000 construction workers at its peak, could achieve first oil in 2022.
Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone.

The grove on the Tongue Mountain Range was half that height, but it had been there a while.
Only mature shagbark hickory trees have shaggy bark, and these were laden with unripe nuts.
Shagbark hickory nuts are edible and sweet tasting.
Even though individual trees don’t produce annually, there’s always nuts in the forest each fall.
Wild pecans taste the same as cultivated ones but are smaller and easier to remove from the shell.
Forest foragers can find two types of wild walnuts, black and white.
Butternuts have a high oil content, which is nutritious but also causes them to spoil quickly.
The nut must come from native American beech trees (Fagus grandifolia), not European beech trees (Fagus sylvatica) which are also called “common beech.” American beechnuts are sweet.
European beechnuts are bitter like acorns.
Beechnuts spoil quickly, so either eat them or roast them shortly after harvesting them.

The process of recycling our paper and plastic materials is familiar to most of us.
Despite the fact that 92 percent of consumers surveyed by the Carton Council of North America said they expect their food packaging to be recycled, many municipal recycling programs do not accept plastic/paper hybrid cartons, including juice containers and ice cream cartons.
On average, a product sold in a shelf stable carton is 94 percent product and 6 percent packaging.
Paper, plastic, and aluminum are layered together to make cartons: A typical shelf-stable carton averages 74 percent paper, 22 percent plastic, and 4 percent aluminum.
Why Should I Recycle Cartons?
The Carton Council worked with key players in the recycling industry, from the recycling facilities to paper mills, to ensure that cartons are handled properly at recycling facilities.
When recycled, removing that layer leaves behind valuable paper fibers that are used to make new paper products.
This process separates the paper from the plastic and aluminum.
The plastic, when re-purposed separately, is often used for shipping crates and building materials.
What Do I Need to Know About Recycling Cartons?

The Spanish government is considering a slew of new climate-regulations in order to slash its greenhouse gas emissions, including a ban on sale of gasoline and diesel cars beginning in 2040.
If enacted, the law would bring major changes to Spain, which is Europe’s second-largest carmaker after Germany, and the ninth-largest globally.
Brands such as Daimler, Ford, Nissan, Peugeot Citroen, Renault and Volkswagen have manufacturing plants in the country. “Some of the most important necessary changes affect transport,” the document said, per Reuters.
This the nation’s first law on emissions reduction and clean energy, according to Climate Home News. “Our proposal is to reduce Spain’s current greenhouse gas emissions by a third in just a decade, which we consider an international milestone and a sign of our firm commitment to the fight against climate change,” Spain’s ecological transition minister Teresa Ribera told the publication.
Spain’s minority government is led by Socialist Pedro Sánchez, who has served as prime minister since June.
His party holds less than one-quarter of the seats in parliament.
The climate legislation will need the support of other parliamentary parties in order for it to pass.
Wildfires Rage Through Portugal and Spain, Kill at Least 39 https://t.co/Ym9f9mo23j @wattsupwiththat @climateinstitut — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch) 1508284206.0

Rising 1.4 miles off the abyssal plains, Davidson Seamount, nearly 26 miles long and 8 miles wide, is one of the largest known seamounts in U.S. waters.
Davidson contains an abundance of life including massive groves of large bubblegum corals and reefs of glass sponges.
Life is so abundant at the seamount, we proposed nearly a decade ago that Davidson Seamount with its dense aggregations of invertebrates may serve as source of many species to nearby canyons and rocky outcrops off the California coast.
This Davidson Seamount cradle then may serve as source of migrating individuals into other less perfect habitats nearby.
This idea of Davidson as a biodiversity source was instrumental in getting Davidson added to the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS) in 2009.
A recent expedition by NOAA, MBNMS, and Nautilus, returned to Davidson Seamount.
And is typical of Davidson delivered with a spectacular display of life.
Over 1,000 individuals of the small sized octopus Muusoctopus robustus were caught on video hugging the rocks in a brooding position.
It is unclear why these octopuses are using the seamount as a nursery.
The dense aggregations of other animals may provide abundant prey.

This story was originally published by Mother Jones and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
Former Texas Rep. Ralph Hall was chair for two years before Lamar Smith (R-Texas) took over in 2013.
Hall was like a warm-up for Smith’s reign, telling the National Journal in 2011,“I don’t think we can control what God controls” when it comes to climate and accusing scientists of manipulating their evidence.
Smith took his chairmanship to new lengths, using subpoena power against scientists in an attempt to uncover a smoking gun in what he referred to as the “extreme climate agenda.” The committee would have been in for major changes next year no matter what party controlled the House, because the 70-year-old Smith announced his plans to retire earlier this year.
There will be radical changes coming, according to Eddie Bernice Johnson, a Texas Democrat who is a ranking member of the committee and likely to become the next chair.
Johnson has already laid out her priorities for the future of the committee should she become chair.
Smith regularly called hearings to investigate a debunked “pause” in global warming, a myth manufactured by skeptics, and laid the rubric for the EPA’s radical science overhaul that would have effectively stripped scientific reports from being considered in rulemaking.
I wrote a year ago about how Smith and his committee had become a polarizing force in the scientific world: A change in House rules gave Smith new subpoena powers in 2015, unusual for the House science committee, and he has since issued 24 subpoenas, more than any other chair in the House during that time, with some going beyond the committee’s traditional jurisdiction over federal science research.
He helped to popularize the myth that global warming had paused, holding a hearing during which he demanded NOAA documents and redactions on its study refuting the idea.
Eighteen candidates with STEM backgrounds also won seats Tuesday, some of whom will bolster the House’s new ranks of science advocates.

The grove on the Tongue Mountain Range was half that height, but it had been there a while.
Only mature shagbark hickory trees have shaggy bark, and these were laden with unripe nuts.
Shagbark hickory nuts are edible and sweet tasting.
Even though individual trees don’t produce annually, there’s always nuts in the forest each fall.
Wild pecans taste the same as cultivated ones but are smaller and easier to remove from the shell.
Forest foragers can find two types of wild walnuts, black and white.
Butternuts have a high oil content, which is nutritious but also causes them to spoil quickly.
The nut must come from native American beech trees (Fagus grandifolia), not European beech trees (Fagus sylvatica) which are also called “common beech.” American beechnuts are sweet.
European beechnuts are bitter like acorns.
Beechnuts spoil quickly, so either eat them or roast them shortly after harvesting them.

This story was originally published by Mother Jones and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
Former Texas Rep. Ralph Hall was chair for two years before Lamar Smith (R-Texas) took over in 2013.
Hall was like a warm-up for Smith’s reign, telling the National Journal in 2011,“I don’t think we can control what God controls” when it comes to climate and accusing scientists of manipulating their evidence.
Smith took his chairmanship to new lengths, using subpoena power against scientists in an attempt to uncover a smoking gun in what he referred to as the “extreme climate agenda.” The committee would have been in for major changes next year no matter what party controlled the House, because the 70-year-old Smith announced his plans to retire earlier this year.
There will be radical changes coming, according to Eddie Bernice Johnson, a Texas Democrat who is a ranking member of the committee and likely to become the next chair.
Johnson has already laid out her priorities for the future of the committee should she become chair.
Smith regularly called hearings to investigate a debunked “pause” in global warming, a myth manufactured by skeptics, and laid the rubric for the EPA’s radical science overhaul that would have effectively stripped scientific reports from being considered in rulemaking.
I wrote a year ago about how Smith and his committee had become a polarizing force in the scientific world: A change in House rules gave Smith new subpoena powers in 2015, unusual for the House science committee, and he has since issued 24 subpoenas, more than any other chair in the House during that time, with some going beyond the committee’s traditional jurisdiction over federal science research.
He helped to popularize the myth that global warming had paused, holding a hearing during which he demanded NOAA documents and redactions on its study refuting the idea.
Eighteen candidates with STEM backgrounds also won seats Tuesday, some of whom will bolster the House’s new ranks of science advocates.

A kilometre-long zip wire will be erected in the Lake District following a seven-year planning battle.
Conservationists have long opposed the plan by Honister slate mine to erect the aerial runway on the remote mountain pass between Borrowdale and Buttermere.
Those in favour reasoned that the landscape was already industrialised because of its mining heritage and therefore a zip wire would not spoil the environment.
They also thought it would provide much-needed jobs.
The project had previously been refused permission for a zip wire in 2011 and 2012.
Its latest incarnation will involve a wire from high up on Honister Crag running to an “intermediate” landing point further down the mountainside.
From there, a shorter run would take users down to the mine car park – to be used by organisations working with disabled people.
Jan Wilkinson, widow of the late Mark Weir, who came up with the original zip wire idea but never saw it come to fruition after he was killed in a helicopter crash, told the local News and Star newspaper: “I am elated, absolutely elated.
I am so pleased for the Lake District and Cumbria.
He told the Times he was delighted it had finally been given the green light.

As if humans weren’t already doing enough to destroy the planet and harm our fellow creatures, a new study has revealed that human-caused noise is hindering the ability of dolphins to communicate with one another.
Dolphins ― highly intelligent and social animals ― use a complex array of whistle calls to talk to each other that some scientists have compared to human speech.
But in a study published this week in the journal Biology Letters, researchers found that bottlenose dolphins in an area off the Maryland coast made their calls less complicated when noise created by shipping lanes and recreational boats was present.
Wild Horizon via Getty Images “It’s kind of like trying to answer a question in a noisy bar and after repeated attempts to be heard, you just give the shortest answer possible,” marine biologist Helen Bailey of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science said in a news release.
“Dolphins simplified their calls to counter the masking effects of vessel noise.” Bailey’s assistant, Leila Fouda, added, “The simplification of these whistles could reduce the information in these acoustic signals and make it more difficult for dolphins to communicate.” The researchers, who gathered data by putting microphones on the ocean floor, noted in the study that while it’s possible for ambient noise to occur naturally, the noise they recorded underwater was “mainly” caused by ships.
Their findings echo another study also published this week.
Japanese scientists found that humpback whales around the country’s Ogasawara Islands are reducing their famous whale songs in response to noise caused by passing ships.
And, as the site Inverse notes, a 2016 study on orcas also found that sound from ships hindered their communication abilities.
Bailey said in the statement on the dolphin study that people designing ships need to start taking the environmental impact of sound more seriously.
“We need to be working to engineer quieter boats,” she said.

A female African lion killed her long-time mate and the father of her three cubs early this week at the Indianapolis Zoo, officials said.
Nyack died of suffocation from his neck injuries.
They lived together for eight years, according to officials.
Zuri and the cubs — Sukari and the males Mushaka and Enzi — were not injured in the fight.
“Detailed daily logs maintained by the animal care staff did not report any unusual aggression, injuries or wounds between Zuri and Nyack prior to Monday’s incident,” said the statement by the zoo.
“We don’t know what the precursor to the fight was,” zoo curator David Hagen told WIBC-TV.
The staff is devastated by the loss,” he added.
“He was a friendly, playful lion.” The zoo is launching an investigation.
A zoo Facebook post said that Nyack “was a magnificent lion and he will be greatly missed.” He was described on the zoo’s web page as “very vocal and laid back,” while Zuri was described as a “protective mother.” There was an outpouring of grief and support for zookeepers over the death of the big cat, clearly a favorite of zoo visitors.
Several Facebook comments were posted by people who cared for Nyack as a cub in San Diego.

In a resignation letter to Idaho Gov.
C. L. “Butch” Otter, state Fish and Game Commissioner Blake Fischer cited poor judgment in posting the images.
Otter, who first appointed Fischer to the seven-member commission in 2014, said he asked for and received Fischer’s resignation on Monday.
“I have high expectations and standards for every appointee in state government.
Every member of my administration is expected to exercise good judgment.
Commissioner Fischer did not,” Otter said in a statement.
Fischer did not respond to an emailed request for comment Monday.
Some animals on the verge of being declared endangered (and he knows this).
pic.twitter.com/WwGIWvfAAp — Daniel Schneider (@BiologistDan) October 13, 2018 Among the pictures is one of Fischer smiling while propping up the heads of bloodied baboon carcasses, including that of a baby in its mother’s embrace.
“The photo of him and the baboons, a family, it’s absolutely deplorable and totally contradicts everything that game management is about,” retired Fish and Game Commissioner Gary Power told Reuters on Monday.

Loss of forest cover jumped almost 50% during the election campaign, in anticipation of looser environmental regulations Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon jumped almost 50% during the three month electoral season that brought Jair Bolsonaro to power, according to preliminary official figures.
Deforestation usually increases in Brazil’s electoral years, amid promises from local politicians they will open up protected land or make environmental legislation more flexible if elected.
As a result Bolsonaro, collected landslide victories in Amazon regions with higher deforestation rates.
There were three attacks against federal agents during the campaign.
The most serious one took place on October 19 in Pará state.
The new figures on forest loss come from Deter B, a satellite monitoring system developed by Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) in order to monitor deforestation in almost real time for surveillance purposes.
The data is publicly available and the calculation of the rate over the electoral season was made by Inpe at Climate Home News’ request.
But, he said the almost 48.8% difference with last year indicated the deforestation rate was unmistakably higher.
The 2018 deforestation rate is expected to be published in the next weeks and will most likely show a small increase from 2017.
You can read some of the great reporting Fabiano has already done for us here.

In all previous outbreaks, most of which took place in remote areas, the disease was contained before it spread widely.
… Read more (paywalled): https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2018/11/05/cdc-director-warns-that-congos-ebola-outbreak-may-not-be-containable/ As far as I can tell, and I’m not an expert, Ebola currently has three of the four traits it requires to become a global threat.
People who survive the lethal infection sometimes become symptomless carriers, shedding large numbers of virus particles for months, even years after their own personal encounter with Ebola.
Ebola is NOT YET airborne – although there are concerns from time to time that Ebola is marginally airborne in humans, at least via aerosol transmission, this assertion is vigorously denied by health authorities.
There are concerns that Ebola could mutate into an airborne strain, if an outbreak remains active for long enough in human populations.
However, Chiappelli et al. [33] stated that there is a distinct possibility for EBOV to become airborne because of the customary and high mutation rates of negative sense RNA viruses.
Besides, none of the 23 viruses that cause serious disease in humans have been known to mutate in a way that changed their mode of infection … Read more: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4885103/ Obviously there is every chance the latest outbreak will fizzle like all the previous outbreaks.
At any moment, an unknowing Ebola carrier, the sole survivor of an outbreak which killed their family and friends, a carrier with no visible signs of illness, might decide to build a new life in another country.
My recent paper presented a simple heuristic approach to climate science which plausibly proposed that a Millennial Turning Point (MTP)… Guest essay by Eric Worrall Multi-billionaire Bill Gates is apparently OK with the idea of his domestic energy bills rising a little, if Washington State votes to approve a new carbon tax.
[1] below) claims that even if the CO2 emission reductions called for in the Paris Agreement are met, our Earth may still enter what they call “Hothouse Earth” conditions, a long-term stabilization… Despite climate alarmists saying deaths and damages from hurricanes are getting worse, the fact of the matter is that both are in decline.

Every president since JFK was warned about climate change Benjamin Hulac, E&E News reporter Climatewire: Tuesday, November 6, 2018 John F. Kennedy was warned about “climate control” in February 1961, becoming perhaps the first American president to learn about people’s impact on planetary temperatures.
President John F. Kennedy Was Not Warned About Climate Change Senator Clinton Anderson (D-NM) “warned” JFK that Godless Red Hordes might attack these tangentially United States with ice ages and hurricanes.
CARBON DIOXIDE FROM FOSSIL
Marine plants obtain carbon from the dissolved carbon dioxide in sea water, which depends for its concentration on an equilibrium with the carbon dioxide of the atmosphere.
The known amounts of limestone and organic carbon in the sediments indicate that the atmospheric carbon dioxide has been changed forty thousand times during the past four billion years, consequently the residence time of carbon in the atmosphere, relative to sedimentary rocks, must be of the order of a hundred thousand years.
The part that remains in the atmosphere may have a significant effect on climate: carbon dioxide is nearly transparent to visible light, but it is a. strong absorber and back radiator of infrared radiation, particularly in the wave from 12 to 18 microns; consequently, an increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide could act, much like the glass in a greenhouse, to raise the temperature of the lower air.
Even today, we cannot make a useful prediction concerning the magnitude or nature of the possible climatic effects.But we are able to say a good deal more than formerly about the change in the quantity of atmospheric carbon dioxide, and about the partition of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel combustion among the atmosphere, the ocean, and the biosphere.
The effect of an increase in CO2 from 300 to 330 ppm can be compensated for completely by a change in the water vapor content of 3 per cent or by a change in the cloudiness of 1 per cent of its value without the occurrence of temperature changes at all.
It is not too difficult to infer from these numbers that the variation in the radiation budget from a changed CO2 concentration can be compensated for completely without any variation in the surface temperature when the cloudiness is increased by +0.006 or the water vapor content is decreased by -0.07 cm l.e.
[…] These are variations in the cloudiness by 1 per cent of its value or in the water vapor content by 3 per cent of its value.

Guest essay by Eric Worrall h/t Dr. Willie Soon – According to Guardian Climate Change Columnist Dana Nuccitelli, the Guardian has decided to “discontinue” its science and environment blogging networks, a policy shift which seems to involve a significant cut to their climate change blogging (see the bottom of the quote for the Guardian announcement).
Canada passed a carbon tax that will give most Canadians more money Dana Nuccitelli Fri 26 Oct 2018 18.15 AEDT By rebating the revenue to households, disposable income rises, which can be a boon for the Canadian economy Last week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that under the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, Canada will implement a revenue-neutral carbon tax starting in 2019, fulfilling a campaign pledge he made in 2015.
More on our plan to cut pollution, grow the economy & create jobs: https://t.co/VjCNOOKLVB #EnvironmentEconomy pic.twitter.com/b4wFc17Qte — Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) October 23, 2018 The federal carbon pollution price will start low at $20 per ton in 2019, rising at $10 per ton per year until reaching $50 per ton in 2022.
This is a somewhat modest carbon tax – after all, the social cost of carbon is many times higher – but it’s a higher carbon price than has been implemented in most countries.
Moreover, a carbon tax doesn’t necessarily have to reflect the social cost of carbon.
The question is whether it will be sufficiently high to meet the country’s climate targets.
… Energy prices will rise A $20/ton carbon tax translates into a 16.6 cent per gallon surcharge on gasoline.
So, in 2022, the $50/ton carbon tax will increase Canadian gasoline prices by about 42 cents per gallon (11 cents per liter).
… Note: this will be our final entry on Climate Consensus – the 97%.
Obviously at this stage it is difficult to know where The Guardian will go next with its climate change reporting.

When queried about the most recent IPCC report, Republican lawmakers delivered a consistent, false message – that climate scientists are still debating whether humans are responsible.
As Nasa atmospheric scientist Kate Marvel recently put it, “We are more sure that greenhouse gas is causing climate change than we are that smoking causes cancer.” Donald Trump articulated the incorrect Republican position in an interview on 60 Minutes: We have scientists that disagree with [human-caused global warming] … You’d have to show me the [mainstream] scientists because they have a very big political agenda To paraphrase, ‘I know scientists.
I have the best scientists.’ And of course Trump thinks he has “a natural instinct for science” which, as astrophysicist Katie Mack noted, is not a thing: Katie Mack (@AstroKatie) There is no “natural instinct for science.”
Believing in a “natural instinct for science” is anathema to everything science is October 17, 2018 Americans badly underestimate the expert climate consensus Numerous papers have shown that over 90% of climate science experts agree that humans are the main cause of global warming since 1950, and when considering peer-reviewed papers, the consensus exceeds 97%.
Three other Americas – the Cautious, the Disengaged, and the Doubtful – represent different stages of understanding and acceptance of the problem, and none are actively involved.
However, the important finding in the Yale and George Mason survey is that even Americans who are Alarmed and Concerned about climate change badly underestimate the level of expert agreement on its human cause.
However, numerous social science papers have found that the perceived consensus acts as a “gateway belief,” meaning that when people are aware of the high level of expert agreement on human-caused global warming, they’re more likely to accept that reality and support policies to address the problem.
The Yale and George Mason data also support the notion that political polarization isn’t the only problem here.
If it were, the Alarmed and Concerned would realize there’s a 97% expert consensus on human-caused global warming.
And in a follow-up study, the scientists showed that consensus messaging also increased acceptance of human-caused global warming, even among conservatives.

Guest essay by Eric Worrall h/t Dr Willie Soon – according to GQ, Climate Change is the fault of the individuals whose efforts provided us with all with our modern abundance of consumer choice.
This week, the United Nations released a damning report.
That is, not to prevent climate change—we’re well past that point—but to prevent the worst, most catastrophic elements of it from wreaking havoc on the world’s population.
To do that, the governments of Earth need to look seriously at the forces driving it.
And an honest assessment of how we got here lays the blame squarely at the feet of the 1 percent.
Contrary to a lot of guilt-tripping pleas for us all to take the bus more often to save the world, your individual choices are probably doing very little to the world’s climate.
The real impact comes on the industrial level, as more than 70 percent of global emissions come from just 100 companies.
So you, a random American consumer, exert very little pressure here.
… Even when Republican lawmakers show flashes of willingness to get something done, they’re swiftly swatted down.
There are myriad examples, but one example comes via Dark Money, where Mayer describes an incident in April 2010 when Lindsey Graham briefly tried to support a cap-and-trade bill: A political group called American Solutions promptly launched a negative PR campaign against him, and Graham folded after just a few days.