Posts From Jessica Goldberg
17 Porridge Recipes to Make While Hibernating This Winter
That’s where porridge comes in.
These 17 healthy porridge recipes will keep you warm, full, and anything but bored.
But bananas aren’t the only ingredient to get excited about.
If you’re one of those people who runs out the door in the morning, often forgetting to even eat, baked porridge is the way to go.
Baking the oats the night before allows the flavors to fully combine, meaning you get that much more out of every bite.
This recipe is full of all kinds of secret ingredients.
Using canned coconut means it’s pretty darn sweet, so feel free to use your nut milk of choice for something more moderate.
Carb-free porridge?
Add spinach or kale for extra greens and do not—we repeat—do not skip topping it with a runny egg.
(The chopped nuts don’t hurt either.)
Expect A Kindler, Gentler OPEC To Support Oil Prices At Its Meeting Tomorrow
Unlike the stock and bond markets the oil futures pits are open for trading today.
OPEC’s economic advisory panel–the JMMC–last week recommended a production cut of 1.3 million barrels per day (mmbpd) from the cartel.
That January 2019 WTI crude oil futures contract has had a wild existence, but is informative to look at where it stood one year ago today.
Oil producers focus on “the strip,” the curve of future months’ contract prices, not the current month’s futures price as oil wells take months to drill and turn to sales.
One year ago today, the January 2019 contract was trading at $54.80.
Fast forward twelve months and adjust to the relevant contract and we see that today the January 2020 contract is trading at $54.89.
U.S production last week was 11.7 million barrels per day, and increase of 2 million barrels per day over the figure for the same week in 2017.
The bears were telling us at this time last year that such a production increase would crash the oil markets and send crude to $40 a barrel.
Really we’re just back where we started, and that shows the market was able to absorb that incremental 2 million barrels per day.
The bulls would have had you think that such robust U.S production growth would have brought a new prosperity to the U.S oil industry, and that has not happened either.
The point of no return – inside the 7 December issue of The Guardian Weekly
Two months ago, the UN’s climate change panel warned that unless humanity takes drastic action, we will only have 12 years to save the planet from disaster.
Representatives from almost 200 nations are currently meeting in the Polish coal-mining town of Katowice to try to turn the pledges made in Paris in 2015 into a political reality.
There are, with children in Australia walking out of school to protest the climate inaction, signs of generational optimism.
On the other hand, we have Donald Trump dismissing his own government’s climate report, while the incoming Bolsonaro administration is refusing to host next year’s climate talks in Brazil.
There is still time to save the world but at the moment, Robin McKie writes, a climate catastrophe looks inevitable – and everywhere will be affected.
With the White House actively uninterested in the process in Poland, a key role will fall to Obama’s “climate diaspora” – a group of former state department climate officials now working in the private sector who are doing all they can to protect the goals agreed in Paris.
In a fascinating piece, Karl Mathiesen profiles the likes of Sue Biniaz and Todd Stern, who are trying to save the Paris accord from their own president.
As Emmanuel Macron sat with other G20 leaders in Buenos Aires, the group of tax protesters known as the gilets jaunes held a third weekend of demonstrations.
The violence in France brought the government to crisis point.
The battle with the “yellow vests” is the biggest challenge to Macron since he took office last May, writes our Paris correspondent Angelique Chrisafis.
Another 2 billion people are coming to dinner. How do we feed them?
Future shock How do we feed the world’s growing population without wrecking the earth?
It’s a question that looks especially urgent given estimates that some 9.8 billion people will inhabit the planet by 2050, up from 7.6 billion now.
Without improving techniques and technology, feeding all of them would require putting an area twice the size of India under plow and pasture while emitting as much carbon as 13,000 coal plants running nonstop for a year, according to a report published on Wednesday by the World Resources Institute.
The Washington D.C.-based think tank has been working on this report for the last six years, looking for a solution to our existential triple challenge: feed everyone and shrink agricultural emissions to keep the world from heating more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, all without clearing more land for farming.
The WRI’s report lays out a way that everyone could get enough to eat in 2050, even as we turn farmland into forest and allow carbon-sucking trees to spread their leaves over an area larger than Australia.
By eating less meat, leveling off population growth, reducing waste, and phasing out biofuels, we could reduce the amount of additional food needed by half: But diminishing demand for meat by getting more people to go vegan just isn’t enough.
“We wanted to focus on things that were realistic and achievable.” If we also develop better seeds and animal breeds and use existing farm and pasture-land more intensively, we could shrink our agricultural footprint by 800 million hectares, an area bigger than Texas.
That’s important, because the world needs to cover at least one Texas with trees to keep temperatures below 1.5 degrees of warming.
Pulling all this off seems daunting, but the researchers divided the action needed into a 22-item “menu” with discrete recommendations like eating less beef and lamb, and breeding crops that can withstand higher temperatures.
The report says if those funds were diverted to programs that reduce food waste, squeeze more food from the ground, and study how to improve soil health, the world could solve this three-headed monster of a problem.
Planning revolution in Wales to enrich lives – and fracking unlikely under new rules
A REVOLUTION in planning – with the needs of people who will use buildings and communities of the future at the heart of the development process – is launched in Wales today.
Enriching people’s lives and prioritising wellbeing in future development are key aims of a revamped Planning Policy Wales (PPW), which will underpin future planning decisions in Wales, with a strong low carbon emissions, ‘green’ focus.
Extraction and use of fossil fuels, including by fracking, will be restricted in Wales, placed at the bottom of a new ‘energy hierarchy’ that promotes renewable energy developments.
The 27-year-old was told by Judge Patrick Curran QC: “You should be utterly ashamed of yourself for getting involved in violence against women.” Woods, of Church Street, Ebbw Vale, admitted committing common assault against an ex-girlfriend and threatening her nephew with an offensive weapon in a public place – a screwdriver – in the town on the evening of Friday, October 19.
Later that evening, Woods confronted a group of people in Church Street, the prosecutor told the court.
Miss Lewis said Woods had 18 previous convictions for 36 offences, including custodial sentences for aggravated vehicle taking in 2011 and 22 months for robbery two years ago.
A PUBLIC inquiry will be held into the plans to quarry stone from a beauty spot in Torfaen.
Residents will be able to express their opinions on the planning application before the inspector compiles his report for Welsh Ministers.
Villagers say this traffic will worsen the already poor air quality in the area. “Hafodyrynys is one of the most polluted areas in Wales,” said Andrew Lewis, chairman of the village’s community association.
A Recipe For Plastic? Here’s What Could Be On Your Plate
The year 2018 has been all about plastic.
We reported on the Starbucks announcement to phase out plastic straws by 2020 and talked about everything from SC Johnson’s commitment to eliminate plastic by 2025 to the negative health effects of plastic straws.
The study, published in Environmental Science & Technology, found that billions of microplastics made their way into scallops’ organs in under six hours.
When removed from the tank, it took 14 days for the microplastics (20 nanometers) to leave their system, whereas the larger particles (250 nanometers) lasted for up to 48 days.
Recent research suggests that marine organisms are ingesting microplastics, which is not surprising as the study reported that the surfaces of our oceans have around 51 trillion microplastic particles.
What is unexpected is the speed at which the microplastics made their way through the organs of the scallops.
While more research is needed to determine the health risks for those who eat scallops, this study sparks further questions such as what are the effects of long-term exposure to plastic, and is it possible we are ingesting plastic?
There is no question that our plastic consumption needs to be reduced as it could have negative effects on the health of our environment, living organisms, and our health.
Here are some quick and simple steps you can take to reduce plastic consumption in your life, starting today.
Want to learn how to unlock the power of food to heal your body, prevent disease & achieve optimal health?
The Paris Agreement rulebook explained
Vastly more complex than the Paris Agreement itself are the set of rules that will make it work After three years of talking, delegates have arrived in Katowice, Poland, to make a deal on the so-called rulebook of the Paris Agreement.
Why are they still negotiating?
These include guidelines on how to articulate and track national climate pledges or, in UN jargon, nationally determined contributions or NDCs; how to meet a national target by helping other countries to reduce their emissions, or how to communicate national efforts to adapt to climate change.
Also on the table will be rules on how to report on finance for climate action and equip developing countries with technology to combat climate change.
Finally, there’s already a copious section dedicated to making the reporting actions more transparent and defining reviewing procedures, such as the global stocktake or the compliance committee.
Country A, for example, may give economy-wide targets for cutting carbon, while others will focus on bringing down emissions per sector.
This will help to make the implementation of the Paris agreement more transparent over time, and foster countries’ trust in each other’s efforts.
In return for greater accountability, developing countries will be expecting financial help from rich countries.
Many of the debates over the rulebook will focus on how climate action is reviewed.
Are the rules going to be the same for every country?
War of Words
And I really don’t want to fight with them.
In wartime, not taking sides is almost as bad as betrayal.
With a shared sense of national purpose, people made sacrifices for the common good.
This approach has worked in towns and cities where people are deeply concerned about climate change.
That may have been the point when we stopped talking politics with the extended family — or at least, when I did.
I wondered whether the act of picking an enemy — even an abstract one, like climate change — inevitably made enemies of other people.
They were simply handed a narrative toolkit that emphasized conflict, and voilà enemies appeared.
My point was that we had been pitted against one another by outside forces, and we really weren’t different from the supposed “enemy.” (My other point was that I didn’t like sports.)
As the journalist Amanda Ripley wrote, the key is not to avoid conflict, but to complicate it.
Others read a more nuanced version that focused on the complexity of the debate and considered several points of view.
Recycling Mystery: Emergency Flares
While you may want to consider a roadside emergency kit in case your car breaks down at night, many of the flares in these kits are light-emitting diode (LED) lights instead of incendiary flares (meaning they light up instead of burn).
The Coast Guard requires all boats of 16 feet or larger to carry three hand-held flares and/or an orange flag for daytime and electric distress light for nights.
Some communities (especially ones located on coasts where you are more likely to have a boat) will accept unused flares as household hazardous waste (HHW).
If HHW disposal isn’t an option in your community, your local police department may be able to help.
You can also ask your local Coast Guard station if they have a flare disposal program.
A few other things to consider with unused flares: You might want to keep your expired flares in the boat as a backup option.
It’s not against the law to use expired flares, but they are less likely to produce the light you need.
So you could try shooting these first in an emergency.
You shouldn’t need to dispose of a flare gun.
Never dispose of flares by soaking them in water overnight and placing them in the trash.
Trump Wants to Cut Subsidies for Electric Cars, Renewables
Government subsidies for electric vehicles and solar panels are an important tool to help accelerate a clean energy economy.
However, a top White House economic advisor said on Monday that the Trump administration is looking to end such federal incentives, Reuters reported.
His comments echoed President Donald Trump’s tweet last week that threatened to cut all subsidies for GM, including ones for electric vehicles, in order to punish the automaker.
General Motors made a big China bet years ago when they built plants there (and in Mexico) -… https://t.co/0U7lwZ3pfy — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 1543345539.0 When asked for a timeline, Kudlow added: “It’s just all going to end in the near future.
I don’t know whether it will end in 2020 or 2021.”
The federal government currently offers $7,500 in tax credits for purchases of new electric vehicles under a 2009 federal law.
The only U.S. carmaker to hit this threshold is Elon Musk’s Tesla, although GM is said to be close to losing this credit.
This means the timeline suggested by Kudlow wouldn’t really hurt GM since their tax credits could soon phase out anyway, as Electrek pointed out.
Kudlow did not provide exact details on how the White House would eliminate the tax credits, as it would require an act of Congress.
However, federal subsidies for the renewable energy sector have declined significantly from about $15.5 billion in 2013 to $6.7 billion in 2016, according an April analysis by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
