Author Archives: Adam Clare

Taxing the Ultra Wealthy Can Save the Planet

A wealth tax could be a way to not only address inequality, it’s also a way to reduce the damage done to the planet by greedy billionaires. Oxfam looked into the investments that the ultra rich hold and found that their investments alone do more damage to the planet than the entire nation of France. By introducing a wealth tax it would force the ultra wealthy to streamline their holdings and force them to think better about where they put their money. Let’s tax their obscene wealth and ban their private jets!

Researchers made the calculations by starting with a list of the 220 richest people in the world, according to the Bloomberg billionaire list from August 2022. They worked with a data provider to identify what percentage of each company was held by the billionaires and the scope 1 and 2 emissions of these corporations. The researchers used analysis by Bloomberg for detailed breakdowns of the sources of billionaire wealth to calculate what percentage of each company was owned by the billionaires. They excluded billionaires with less than a 10% share in a business. The research was limited because it was reliant on data that companies publish themselves, which is often not externally verified.

“Each of these billionaires would each have to circumnavigate the world almost 16m times in a private jet to create the same emissions,” the report said – adding that almost four million people would have to go vegan to offset the emissions of each of the billionaires.

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Philosophers Argue Men Don’t See Domestic Duties

AI generated image of philosophers arguing about domestic duties

The age old debate about who does more around the house will never be settled, thanks to some philosophers may at least understand why it won’t be settled. Using affordance theory (which is about objects, situations, and actions being related) philosophers argue that the way the world is interpreted fundamentally defines how we react, or not, to an implication of a chore. For example, a man might see a room as being disorganized and leave it at that whereas a woman sees the same room and thinks about the necessary action of having to organize it, meaning that the woman in this example has more of a mental burden than the man. Of course, it’s a very gendered conversation and there’s no clarity of any of this being innate or learned behaviour.

Regardless, you should tidy up after yourself.

“Many point to the performance of traditional gender roles, along with various economic factors such as women taking flexible work for childcare reasons,” said Dr Tom McClelland, from Cambridge University’s Department of History and Philosophy of Science.

“Yet the fact that stark inequalities in domestic tasks persisted during the pandemic, when most couples were trapped inside, and that many men continued to be oblivious of this imbalance, means this is not the full story.”

McClelland and co-author Prof Paulina Sliwa argue that unequal divisions of labour in the home – and the inability of men to identify said labour – is best explained through the psychological notion of “affordances”: the idea that we perceive things as inviting or “affording” particular actions.

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Lentils Instead of Meat Saves Money, Health Costs, and the Planet

beans

Lentils (and other pulses) are a fantastic way to save money, but did you know it’s good for your health and the planet? Researchers have concluded that if people who currently eat meat cut out just red meat it can make a big, positive, difference in their lives and communities. A simple diet change by a lot of people can make a big difference in addressing the climate crisis. Start eating lentils today to save money, protect your health, and to help save the planet.

New Zealand researchers investigated five diets which replace some or all red meat, finding they all could provide the recommended amount of nutrition, save the health system thousands of dollars per person, and cut diet-related greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 35%. The greatest benefits for all of the above were seen for a diet which replaces all meat with minimally-processed plant-based alternatives such as legumes – which also had a 7% lower average grocery cost.

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Canada Starts Single Use Plastic Ban

Plastic in a lake, AI generated

Canada joins other nations in the banning of wasteful single use plastics starting at the end of this month. Canada’s plastic ban is being rolled out in an incremental fashion with the manufacture and importation of certain plastic items banned first, so what’s in stock now can still be used. Over the following couple of years items will get banned, first plastic bans and by 2024 plastic rings. Other countries have taken a more stringent approach than Canada, but at least the country is moving forward on the ban. When it comes to ending the climate crisis any win is a win!

“There is a clear linkage between a world free of plastic pollution and a sustainable world, rich in biodiversity—a world that also best supports the health and economic security of Canadians, protects our environment, and helps in the fight against climate change.”

The announcement highlights Canada’s ongoing commitment towards zero plastic waste goal.

By June next year, the country will ban manufacturing and importing of ring carriers, followed by a ban on its sale in June 2024.

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Futuristic Fusion Finally Fires Up

Fusion power has been just a decade away for decades, or at least that was the joke. Yesterday it became outdated because it was revealed that nuclear fusion was ignited, stabilized, and proven to work reliably. Fusion energy is carbon-free energy production which has the potential to revolutionize how we use electricity. Hopefully we will be able to replace major power plants with this carbon free fusion solution.

To be clear, there’s still a lot to do to get fusion energy connected to the grid. We still need to focus first and foremost on renewable energy sources.

“The pursuit of fusion ignition in the laboratory is one of the most significant scientific challenges ever tackled by humanity, and achieving it is a triumph of science, engineering, and most of all, people,” LLNL Director Dr. Kim Budil said. “Crossing this threshold is the vision that has driven 60 years of dedicated pursuit—a continual process of learning, building, expanding knowledge and capability, and then finding ways to overcome the new challenges that emerged. These are the problems that the U.S. national laboratories were created to solve.”

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