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just remember, “poverty” is a social construct. when the economy collapses, the farms don’t disappear. goods don’t vanish from the stores. poverty is created through exclusion. it is violence. so when you see articles about how the pandemic could “plunge billions into poverty,” please remember that it’s not the virus that’s creating poverty.

if i have a warehouse stored full of grain, and a drought wipes out your crops, it’s not the climate that’s making you starve, it’s me with my refusal to share my stockpile.

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jeff bezos being set to become the world's first trillionaire because of everyone online shopping during lockdown

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COVID-19 LOCKDOWNS SIGNIFICANTLY IMPACTING GLOBAL AIR QUALITY!

Levels of two major air pollutants have been drastically reduced since lockdowns began in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but a secondary pollutant – ground-level ozone – has increased in China, according to new research.

Two new studies in AGU’s journal Geophysical Research Letters find nitrogen dioxide pollution over northern China, Western Europe and the U.S. decreased by as much as 60 percent in early 2020 as compared to the same time last year. Nitrogen dioxide is a highly reactive gas produced during combustion that has many harmful effects on the lungs. The gas typically enters the atmosphere through emissions from vehicles, power plants, and industrial activities.

In addition to nitrogen dioxide, one of the new studies finds particulate matter pollution (particles smaller than 2.5 microns) has decreased by 35 percent in northern China. Particulate matter is composed of solid particles and liquid droplets that are small enough to penetrate deep into the lungs and cause damage.

The two new papers are part of an ongoing special collection of research in AGU journals related to the current pandemic.

Such a significant drop in emissions is unprecedented since air quality monitoring from satellites began in the 1990s, said Jenny Stavrakou, an atmospheric scientist at the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy in Brussels and co-author of one of the papers. The only other comparable events are short-term reductions in China’s emissions due to strict regulations during events like the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

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Sowing seeds of happiness: Emotional well-being while home gardening similar to other popular activities, study finds

The researchers found that, across the study’s population, the level of emotional well-being, or happiness, reported while gardening was similar to what people reported while biking, walking or dining out, according to a study published in the journal Landscape and Urban Planning. Home gardening was the only activity out of the 15 studied for which women and people with low incomes reported higher emotional well-being than men and medium- and high-income participants, respectively.

“This has implications for equity in food action planning considering that people with lower incomes tend to have less access to healthy food options,” said corresponding author Anu Ramaswami, Princeton’s Sanjay Swani ’87 Professor of India Studies, professor of civil and environmental engineering and the Princeton Environmental Institute (PEI). “Gardening could provide the health benefits of fresh fruits and vegetables, promote physical activity, and support emotional well-being, which can reinforce this healthy behavior.”

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Great News! Icelandic Whales Will Be Safe In 2020 As Iceland Stops Whaling For Second Year In A Row!

International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) welcomes the announcement of two Icelandic whaling companies that have decided to no longer hunt whales this summer. This means that Iceland will see its second year in a row without whaling.

“It is now clear that what we are seeing is the end of Icelandic whaling, which is good news for whales, good news for Iceland and good news for marine conservation worldwide,” said Patrick Ramage, IFAW’s Marine Conservation Program Director in a statement.

“IFAW salutes and commends our longtime partners and friends in Iceland who have been working to end the cruel and wasteful killing of fin whales and minke whales in Icelandic waters and to finally end consumption of whale meat by international tourists,” continued Ramage.

In a media interview, Kristjan Loftsson, Hvalur’s Chief Executive – the only company involved in Iceland fin whaling – said he would not whale this year due to Japan’s competition and the current COVID-19 related restrictions.

Gunnar Bergmann Jonsson, Managing Director of the minke whaling company IP-Utgerd told AFP he was putting an end to his whaling activities for good.

Fin whales – the second largest animal on Earth – are only killed in Iceland for exportation to Japan, while minke whales are killed mainly to feed tourists in the country.

Over 1,500 fin and minke whales have been killed in Iceland since 2003 – the year the country resumed commercial whaling.

The ‘Meet Us Don’t Eat Us’ Campaign was launched by IFAW and IceWhale, the Icelandic Whale Watching Association in Reykjavik, Iceland, in the summer of 2011. So far over 500 volunteers from 30 countries have participated in the project which runs mainly through the summer months in Reykjavik.

To date, they have collected more than 135,000 signatures from visitors and Icelanders pledging to not eat whale meat, and calling for the cruel and unnecessary whale hunt to end. The organizations regularly deliver these signatures to the Minister of Fisheries to underline international and Icelandic opposition to commercial whaling.

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Employers seem to be the last ones to get this…

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Roy Horn, part of iconic magician duo, dies with coronavirus

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With world distracted, the Amazon rainforest continues to burn 😞

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon hit a new high in the first four months of this year, with 1,202 square kilometres of forest wiped out.

That was a 55 per cent increase from the same period last year, and the highest figure for the first four months of the year since records began.

Read More Here!

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Trump’s 4-Step Plan for Reopening the Economy Will Be Lethal

Donald Trump is getting nervous. Internal polls show him losing in November unless the economy comes roaring back.

But much of the American economy remains closed because of the pandemic. The number of infections and deaths continue to climb. Almost 3,000 Americans died last Friday alone, the deadliest day since the pandemic began.

So what is Trump’s reelection strategy? Reopen the economy anyway.

Step 1: Remove income support, so people have no choice but to return to work.    

Trump’s Labor Department has decided that furloughed employees “must accept” an employer’s offer to return to work and therefore forfeit unemployment benefits, regardless of Covid-19.

Trump’s ally, Iowa Republican governor Kim Reynolds, says employees cannot refuse to return to work for fear of contracting the disease. “That’s a voluntary quit,” making someone ineligible for benefits.  

GOP officials in Oklahoma are even threatening to withhold the $600 per week of extra unemployment benefits Congress has provided workers if an employer wants to hire them. Safety is irrelevant.

“If the employer will contact us … we will cut off their benefits,” says Teresa Thomas Keller of the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission.

Forcing people to choose between getting Covid-19 or losing their livelihood is inhumane. It’s also nonsensical. Public health still depends on as many workers as possible staying home. That’s a big reason why Congress provided the extra benefits.

Step 2: Hide the facts.

No one knows how many Americans are infected because the Trump administration continues to drag its heels on testing. To date only 6.5 million tests have been completed in a population of over 200 million adults.

Florida, one of the first states to reopen, has stopped releasing medical examiners’ statistics on numbers of Covid-19 victims because the numbers are higher than the state’s official count.

But it’s impossible to fight the virus without adequate data. Anthony Fauci, the administration’s leading infectious degree expert, warns that reopening poses “a really significant risk” without more testing.

Not surprisingly, the White House has blocked Fauci from testifying before the House.

Step 3: Pretend it’s about “freedom.”

Weeks ago, Trump called on citizens to “LIBERATE” states like Michigan, whose Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, imposed strict stay-at-home rules.

Michigan has the third-highest number of Covid-19 deaths in America, although tenth in population. When on Thursday Whitmer extended the rules to May 28, gun-toting protesters rushed the state house chanting “Lock her up!”

Rather than condemn their behavior, Trump suggested Whitmer “make a deal” with them.

“The Governor of Michigan should give a little, and put out the fire,” he tweeted. “These are very good people, but they are angry. They want their lives back again, safely!”

Meanwhile, the Attorney General, William Barr, has directed the Justice Department to take legal action against any state or local authorities imposing lockdown measures that “could be violating the constitutional rights and civil liberties of individual citizens.”

Making this about “freedom” is absurd. Freedom is meaningless for people who have no choice but to accept a job that risks their health.

Step 4: Shield businesses against lawsuits for spreading the infection.

Trump is pushing to give businesses that reopen a “liability shield” against legal action by workers or customers who get infected by the virus.

Last week he announced he would use the Defense Production Act to force meat processing plants to remain open, despite high rates of Covid-19 infections and deaths among meatpackers.

“We’re going to sign an executive order today, I believe, and that’ll solve any liability problems,” Trump said.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell insists that proposed legislation giving state and local governments funding they desperately need must include legal immunity for corporations that cause workers or consumers to become infected.

“We have a red line on liability,” McConnell said. “It won’t pass the Senate without it.”

But how can the economy safely reopen if companies don’t have an incentive to keep people safe? Promises to provide protective gear and other safeguards are worthless absent the threat of damages if workers or customers become infected.  

The truth: The biggest obstacle to reopening the economy is the pandemic itself.

Any rush to reopen without adequate testing and tracing – far more than now underway – will cause even more deaths, and a longer economic crisis.

Maybe Trump is betting that the worst of the Covid destruction will occur after election, when the economy appears to be on the road to recovery.

The first responsibility of a president is to keep the public safe. But Donald Trump couldn’t care less. He was slow to respond to the threat, then he lied about it, then made it hard for states – especially those with Democratic governors – to get the equipment they need.

Now he’s trying to force the economy to reopen in order to boost his electoral chances this November, and he’s selling out Americans’ health to seal the deal. This is beyond contemptible.  

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