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solar profits, with help of subsidies, deductions, incentives, make this investment in alternative power generation a safer investment. Keynesianism? Mercantilism? Just plain good long-term planning.

This article reviews an ad run in Australia advocating a no vote on the marriage equality postal survey. I think it is interesting because I've never seen an ad like this before. Perhaps this is because I live in a liberal environment, but I was still interested to see such an ad and also their take on the issue.

Though any short-term relief to the environment provided by the pandemic won't have any meaningful impact in mitigating climate change, I still believe that the 'nature is healing' narrative was helpful in allowing people to see the benefits of slowing down and being more conscientious, and how that can benefit the environment.

This was a really interesting article because it both proved and disproved some of the environmental news we were told at the beginning of the pandemic. I think it would be interesting to compare the greenhouse gas emissions of countries during the pandemic that were tough on lockdowns versus those that were not and see if there is any correlation.

There is public hesitancy to the vaccine and resistance to the vaccine mandate in Europe, but backlash has been stronger in the USA due to a more partisan environment fueling more staunch and extreme opinions. The author contends that blame against unvaccinated people and backlash against anti-vaxx sentiments is actually making people more resistant to getting vaccinated.

In Europe there is hesitancy to get vaccinated and resistance to vaccine mandates, but in the USA it is stronger because the partisan environment is making people have stronger opinions. The author also contends that blame against anti-vaxxers and backlash against anti-vaxx sentiments is actually making people more staunch in their opinions and hesitant to get vaccinated.

This goes over some of the pledges made by countries during Cop26 so far. Such topics include forest, methane, coal, and future warming.

Climate change is affecting many countries gravely, especially developing nations. Leaders of those countries are pleading other nations to supply financial aid to help them. They believe richer nations owe them because they became rich off of fossil fuels.

It's very interesting when you reflect on how far back this problem goes. Especially when considering the effects of colonization on the environments within regions of Africa and South America. It is going to be a very long and difficult road to fully compensate and prepare poorer countries for climate change after how hard we have screwed them over.

Uncover and compare facts about different countries (the link I put up compares 3, and you can change them to whatever countries you want). Discover in-depth information about the government, the state of the economy, and much more.

Check this out! So topical!

Look what's happening with solar power in CA

Really cool ideas being shared on how a modern city-state can develop its economy.

Interesting to see how just the geography of a country can shape its economic growth and international trades importance. Also how improving internal infrastructures affect international trade and domestic econmies.

BEIJING - White House officials have lauded President Xi Jinping's anticipated promise of a national market for China in greenhouse gas quotas as a breakthrough in environmental cooperation and reform. But to work well, Mr. Xi's plan, expected to be announced in Washington on Friday, will demand big changes from a government accustomed to heavy-handed intervention and skewed statistics.

I really like the cap and trade idea because it ensures that the every firm is paying the maximum amount each is willing to spend to pollute the air. Firms that don't value being able to pollute as much can sell their permits and use the money to become more environmentally friendly. The cap and trade method encourages technological change that reduces the harm from each unit of a firm's product. As the article says, "The intended result is a competitive market that induces companies to devise ways to reduce emissions." The cap and trade method will hopefully relieve China of some of its pollution.

The national environmental quota set by the cap and trade announced by President Xi shows that there is some possibility of environmental cooperation from China, one of the world's most heavy polluters. The article voices the well founded skepticism of critics, who doubt that this new system will work well when it hasn't exactly taken off among the nations of the European Union; however, China's state is very different from its western counterparts. Comparatively, it can exact more control over its countries' businesses and factories, so this system just may be successful.

This is video evidence on the toxic pollution caused by Texaco, bought by Chevron, which now refuses to take responsibility to clean it up. A family friend used to be a geologist and work examining soil quality. The company she worked at got most of their business from (I think) Chevron. Chevron (or some other company) would finish with well sites and then neglect to clean them up/ make them safe. When environmental agencies requested that Chevron examine and clean up their left over sites, Chevron made our friend's company file a report saying that they were "monitoring" the site to see what happens. Basically, instead of working to help the environment, they were helping a big petroleum company squirm out of taking responsibility. She eventually quit her job because 1) it wasn't what she had hoped it would be, and 2) there was nothing to do all day, since one of their only jobs was to report that sites were being "monitored" and meanwhile do nothing. NOTE: take this story with a grain of salt, because I don't remember the conversation perfectly, nor do I know the details of her job, the company, the situation, etc... this is just my general recollection.

Yeah I sort of feel ignorant right now because i honestly had no idea that that was going on. I am shocked at how blatant that is. When i first saw the oil on the ground i was like wow that horrible but then i was even further horrified with i realized that it was so blatant they even put a pipe connecting it to the rest of the forest for drainage purposes. It is unbelievable what huge corporations do to the world and make a huge profit by polluting someone else's backyard. :( awesome video though Heather. Thank you for educating me

Last year Latino Club went to see "Crude" (Heather, I think you went too) and it only built off of what you see in this video here. The rivers that he was saying would get contaminated are used by different villages and many people developed cancer and other health problems from the oil in their water. It's appalling what Chevron did and, as you all said, how few people know about it.

"The Story of Catherine's iPod"

The disconnect here is so weird. It begins with people digging in the mountainside with sticks, and ends with a tiny, sleek, lightweight computer that makes images flick past at the swipe of your finger and makes music. It's like magic, except instead of the instead of using "toe of newt and eye of frog" the world is making these products by allowing people to be greatly mistreated. Beyond educating people, as Arshia and Alison said, it seems we must either: find other materials to make electronics out of (although that doesn't strike me as very likely?) or pressure companies (who have the money and the leverage) to enforce better regulation. To follow up on Catherine's video, I put three t's into google and got an article about an investigation into the mining in the Congo (maybe Catherine has already seen this): http://africarising2010.blogspot.com/2009/11/tracing-3-ts-from-congo.html. It says: "Even though they found that it is relatively easy to determine the source of minerals based on different coloration and texture based on the source mine, there is insufficient regulation to make this work....Export companies are required to register with the government, but their method of determining the source of minerals they buy is to merely ask the seller whether their goods are from conflict mines. There is no system of confirming what the seller says."

This presentation kept shocking me. I was surprised to hear that basic parts of the iPod (the Three Ts) originate in the Congo rather than China. I was then shocked (and horrified) by the rape statistics. I had heard the statistics before, but not in relation to the acquisition of the Three Ts and production of products that we use. The story about the woman whose brother was ordered to rape her and then stabbed to death when he refused was particularly awful. I was also In summary, I was appalled at all the crimes that took place in the Congo- before the Three Ts even got to the factories in China that Catherine talked about. When Catherine started talking about the factories in China, I was again shocked at the working conditions- 100 workers sleeping to a room and clothes locked in a bucket with no visitors allowed (to protect the secrecy of Apple's product plans) while workers worked 15 hour days. The suicide reports from the FoxCon (spelling) factories were also shocking, as was the revelation that workers make just half of what they did in the 1800s. It was sad that the factory earns only $4 per iPod sold- while Apple earns $80. This presentation was very thought provoking- I had never assumed that Apple would be one of the "bad" companies with very questionable labor and humanitarian practices (a la Wal-Mart). Thanks for bringing it up, Catherine. I'm now thinking about it in a whole new light.