It’s All Good DOT [16/7/20]

16/7/20 Hannibal 35

There’s a saying that bad news sells papers. And I guess that’s true because you have to actively hunt for good stories. To save you some time I’ve put together some positive environmental/agricultural articles for you.

Fertility rates are dropping “These forecasts suggest good news for the environment, with less stress on food production systems and lower carbon emissions“. However, there could be serious economic repercussions unless the world adopts more immigrant friendly attitudes. So maybe not all good.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/07/population-20-countries-halve-2100-study-200715061706992.html

In Colombia, ex guerillas are being trained as citizen scientist. Win-win, giving new purpose to the former soldiers and protecting one of the most biodiverse countries in the world.

https://www.worldatlarge.news/environment-policy/colombian-guerillas-fight-for-biodiversity

Burger King addresses climate change. I don’t know if fast food can ever really be good news but if the research is solid this could be big. And the video is great.

https://time.com/5866741/burger-king-cows-menu/

And finally, great news if you’re sick of banana bread. This recipe for Bourbon Peach Bread sounds easy and delicious.

https://www.salon.com/2020/07/12/peach-bourbon-bread-recipe/

It’s an open thread, talk about anything you want, good or bad.

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35 Comments

  2. This news is not really good or bad, but I thought it was interesting. This is from Newsweek, and contains a (sic) from me:
     
    In a Wednesday tweet, Trump said both Perscale [sic; Parscale, and even Trump spelled his name right] and Stepien had been “heavily involved in our historic 2016 win, and I look forward to having a big and very important second win together.” [Don’t know why the ital formatting went crazy, but that’s the Newsweek quote.]
     
    Parscale is going to hang around as digital and social media guru, which is good news, because he’s the one who brayed that 1,000,000 were going to show up in Tulsa. Stepien was Governor Chris Christie’s clown implicated, but sadly not indicted, in “Bridgegate.” Too tired to recap.
     
    What’s interesting is Trump considered 2016 to be a historic win. I wonder in what sense? It wasn’t an Electoral College blowout. He lost the popular vote but that’s happened before. He’s probably the least qualified and most mentally unhinged of all our presidents but I wouldn’t dwell on that. He did defeat the first woman presidential candidate but HRC had a lot of headwinds against her. I wonder if anyone in the media will ask him or Keiaughlayeigh McAnnanny or however she spells her name what was so historic about it?

  3. It’s historic in that it’s the first time America elected an almost sentient clementine to the highest office in the land. But I don’t think that’s what he meant. Or historic in the sense that Russia put a president in the Oval Office. Again, I’m sure that’s not what he is referring to. He just has to talk about himself in superlatives, he can’t help it. The media almost never holds him accountable for it, he gets a pass because it’s part of his persona. I shout at the TV all the damn time during press briefings, there are so many opportunities to try and nail him down and they rarely take them.

  4. I’m all for good news these days, so thanks for that, Hannibal.  Unfortunately, I’m super fixated on this:
    https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/07/15/891351706/white-house-strips-cdc-of-data-collection-role-for-covid-19-hospitalizations
    The only reason for doing this is to fuck with the data so they can lie more easily without getting called out by their own health experts.  As with most other things, this is only a political issue because Republicans made it a political issue.

    • This and the bounties on American soldiers are the worst things he’s done during an almost unbelievably corrupt presidency. My hope is that the governors, Dem at least, will release their own data to the media. trump thinks if he can convince voters that people aren’t dying in shockingly high numbers he’ll get re-elected. He’s letting people die so he can stay in office. How can the GOP sit back and allow this to happen? They all need to go. If we don’t win the senate and White House back in Nov I don’t know what will happen.

  5. Biden’s climate change plan calls for $2 trillion over four years to push renewables and achieve non-CO2 electricity in 15 years.
     
    Which, to be honest sounds both too modest and too hard to achieve, but it’s a serious move in the right direction. If the Dems manage to win Senate seats in Montana and Colorado that is going to be a really hard sell. But we have to try, and at least I’m a bit more optimistic than I was. This country is starved for infrastructure investment, and I think a lot of pundits are blind to how smart programs can take off, if they are not just dropping a billion dollars on another highway interchange expansion project.

    • I’m okay with a modest start, some people need to be eased into change. Maybe when they see it working they’ll get on board for greater change.

      • One big risk is that modern American contracting has gotten so good at lining their own pockets that the money will disappear with little to show for it.
         
        European countries can build major new high speed rail lines while dealing with complex environmental and archaelogical regulations at a fraction of what it costs in the US. They can build giant offshore wind farms in responsible ways while it takes years here just to get plans drawn up.
         
        The American engineering complex has gotten incredibly cynical, and that has to change fast. It’s a close parallel to the military contracting disaster we’re in now.

  7. There have been a couple of deer hanging out at our hay barn.  They don’t seem to be doing any damage or anything, just relaxing in some soft spots.  I should just leave them alone, right?  I also saw my first black bear up around the edge of the farm where it borders on Jefferson National Forest.  I am a city person with a city wife who has moved to a sheep farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains.  Every day I learn something big.

    • I’m no country girl but I think you’d want to discourage the deer if you’re growing crops. They can do a lot of damage. If you are a strictly livestock farm then let them be. 

      • I live in a big city but my neighborhood gets deer sometimes. The bottom line is the only thing that works to keep out deer is either tall fencing or short fencing with dogs.
         
        Tall fences of any serious length need a lot of repair jobs, and dogs can get bored or sleepy after a while, or age out of chasing, so you really need ones like Border Collies that are kind of nutty. I think most people settle for fencing what they care about the most and letting the rest just go. Hunting only works if an entire region does it — deer will easily move five miles in a night if they feel the need, so shooting often just encourages new ones to take over.
         
        At least until we get wolves to move in.

      • No crops, we just grow sheep and donkeys and flowers.  And some mystery plant out back that the wife keeps from flowering.  I thought our giant lazy sheepdog would dissuade the deer, but she ignores them completely.
         

  10. Since it is almost Wed Steel, here is something good.  I wish my daughter would rock out with me like Leo’s.  Although my daughter does love this song…hmmm.  
     

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