https://www.ecowatch.com/plastic-bag-bans-uk-2556456601.html?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=1f900bdfd2-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-1f900bdfd2-85946369

Plastic Bag Bans Actually Work, Study of European Waters Shows

Plastic bag or jellyfish? Sea turtles looking for food can have trouble telling the difference. Saving The Waves / Instagram

If you ever feel like the world's plastic nightmare might never end, a new study shows proof that plastic pollution legislation actually works.

There are significantly fewer plastic bags on the seafloor ever since a number of European countries introduced fees on the items, according to a 25-year study from the UK government's Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS).

Researchers found an estimated 30 percent drop in the number of plastic bags in waters around Norway, Germany, northern France and Ireland.

"It is encouraging to see that efforts by all of society, whether the public, industry, NGOs or government to reduce plastic bags are having an effect," Thomas Maes, Marine Litter Scientist at CEFAS, said in a statement.

"We observed sharp declines in the percentage of plastic bags as captured by fishing nets trawling the seafloor around the UK compared to 2010 and this research suggests that by working together we can reduce, reuse and recycle to tackle the marine litter problem."

Ireland and Denmark were the first two countries to introduce levies for single-use plastic bags in 2003. A number of European countries followed. In 2015, England became the last country in the UK to introduce a fee.

The study, published in the journal Science of The Total Environment, was based on 39 independent scientific surveys of the distribution and abundance of marine litter on seabeds of the North Sea, English Channel, Celtic Sea and Irish Sea between 1992 and 2017.

Plastic trash such as bags, bottles and fishing debris were commonly observed over the entire 25-year period, with 63 percent of the 2,461 trawls containing at least one plastic litter item.

In a statement, Richard Harrington from the Marine Conservation Society said the decrease in the number of plastic bags recorded in the surveys is "very encouraging."

"It shows that fiscal measures can work—charging for what was once a free item, often used just once and thrown away, has had a real influence on consumer behavior without genuinely hurting people in the pocket," Harrington said.

However, even though fewer plastic bags were recorded, the researchers found widespread distribution of other plastic items on the seafloor. They also noted a significant upward trend of fishing debris.

This means plastic bag legislation is merely a start in reducing the 8 million tons of plastic waste that gets dumped into our oceans every year.

As WWF UK tweeted, "Great to see less plastic bags in our oceans, but we need the government to put an end to the use of all avoidable single-use plastic by 2025."

In March, the UK government released a startling report warning that plastic pollution in the world's oceans is projected to increase three-fold within seven years unless action is taken.

The Future of the Sea report found that human beings across the globe produce more than 300 million metric tons of plastic per year. Unfortunately, a lot of that material ends up in our waters, with the total amount of plastic debris in the sea predicted to increase from 50 million metric tons in 2015 to 150 million metric tons by 2025.

To solve this plastic epidemic, the authors suggested solutions that range from preventing plastic from entering the sea, introducing new biodegradable plastics, and campaigns that raise public awareness about marine protection.

https://www.ecowatch.com/plastic-consumption-food-dust-2556502607.html?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=1f900bdfd2-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-1f900bdfd2-85946369

Humans Eat More Than 100 Plastic Fibers With Each Meal

Health Apr. 05, 2018 03:22PM EST

The proliferation of microplastics in the ocean has led to concerns that they might work their way up the food chain to us.

But when researchers at Heriot-Watt University set out to investigate that concern, they found that plastics in our own homes pose a much greater threat to humans.

The results of the study, published March 29 in Environmental Pollution, found that humans likely consume about 114 plastic microfibers each meal simply from household dust that settles on their plates.

Researchers gathered mussels from around the coast of Scotland in order to assess how many microplastics humans might ingest by eating the mussels.

As a control, they also set Petri dishes filled with sticky dust traps next to dinner plates at three separate homes.

Fourteen pieces of plastic settled on the dishes after 20 minutes, about the length of a meal. Given the difference in size, scientists calculated 114 such pieces would settle on a plate during the same time.

That adds up to 13,731 to 68,415 pieces per year.

In comparison, researchers calculated that eating mussels would only lead humans to ingest 100 microplastics yearly. Each mussel they studied contained about two plastic particles.

"These results may be surprising to some people who may expect the plastic fibres in seafood to be higher than those in household dust," senior study author Dr. Ted Henry said in a Heriot-Watt University press release.

The study's authors did not think that the plastics came from the home-cooked meals used in the study or the kitchens where they were prepared.

"We do not know where these fibres come from, but it is likely to be inside the home and the wider environment," Henry said in the release.

Friends of the Earth member Julian Kirby provided the university with insight into how plastic particles end up in dust.

"Plastic microfibers found in the dust in our homes and the air we breathe can come from car tyres, carpets and soft furnishings, as well as clothes such as fleece jackets. These are regularly shedding tiny bits of plastic into the environment as they are worn away," he said in the Heriot-Watt release.

According to a study published in Lancet Planetary Health in October, 2017, the proliferation of microplastics in the environment is a concern in part because the impact on human health is still not well-known.

However, even if marine microplastics are not the main source for human consumption, they are still a major problem for marine life. The study also marked the first time microplastics were found in the protected mussel species Modiolus modiolus.

https://www.ecowatch.com/trudeau-brown-climate-change-hypocrites-2559708922.html?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=1f900bdfd2-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-1f900bdfd2-85946369

Jerry Brown and Justin Trudeau: Climate Advocates, or Hypocrites?

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Governor Jerry Brown at the United Nations Paris agreement signing ceremony dinner. Mike Bloomberg / Flickr

By Andy Rowell

Two leading political figures from the U.S. and Canada, who have boasted about the need to fight climate change, are now under fire for being climate change hypocrites: saying they care about the climate, but allowing drilling and fossil fuel infrastructure to be built anyway.

On Wednesday, more than 750 public interest groups from California and around the world, including Oil Change International, started a campaign urging the governor of California, Jerry Brown, to stop building fossil fuel infrastructure, including no new exploration permits offshore.

The letter told Brown to "take immediate action to protect those most vulnerable to climate change or lose their support for the global climate action summit that he will host five months from now in San Francisco."

The campaign has sponsored billboards in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Sacramento, placed adverts in local newspapers, and launched a thermal airship over San Francisco Bay to challenge Brown for falling short on plans to limit fossil fuels in the state.

The letter urged Brown, who has stated on numerous times that time is running out to solve climate change and who has stated that fighting the issue will be one of his signature acts, to "champion a vision for California that looks beyond the oil and gas industry to a future that is safe and healthy for everyone," the letter says.

It continues by urging Brown to "set a global precedent by becoming the first oil producing state to announce a phase-out of existing production in line with the Paris climate goals, with a just and equitable transition that protects workers, communities, and economies, starting in places that are suffering most from the impacts of fossil fuel extraction."

But Brown is not the only politician who has promoted their green credentials who is now under fire for failing to adequately act on climate.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is due to fly back from an overseas trip over the weekend to convene a meeting concerning the controversial Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline that will triple production of dirty tar sands going from Alberta to British Columbia.

The pipeline has been subject to sustained protests and legal action by the local community and BC government, led by John Horgan. Earlier this week, Kinder Morgan announced that it was stopping work until the end of May until political and legal opposition is sorted. Many people now see the pipeline as being on "life support."

Even the Economist argues that the pipeline is now likely to become "another flop," and noted that last week David McKay, head of RBC, Canada's largest bank, was concerned that investment was flowing out of the Canadian energy sector "in real time."

Trudeau continues to support the pipeline. Yesterday he tweeted that "I wouldn't approve major pipeline projects if I wasn't confident they could be done safely. And they can be done safely because we've made a massive investment in protecting our oceans and coastlines—in BC and across the country."

The tweet was accompanied by a glossy video, which was posted on Twitter and Facebook.

The reason for the meeting over the weekend, according to press reports, is that Trudeau wants to strong-arm BC Premier "John Horgan to reverse his stance." Horgan responded that he was going to "represent BC, our coast and economy."

Yesterday, 40 civil society groups sent a letter to Trudeau on behalf of their Quebec members, urging the federal government to "immediately cease supporting Kinder Morgan's pipeline. Do not turn this pipeline into your political legacy."

The letter continues:

"We remind you in particular of your government's commitment to end fossil fuel subsidies. The Trudeau government, in supporting a 20th-century sector of the economy, is failing to live up to its responsibility.

The national interest of Canada does not rest in the construction of The Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline, but in the inevitable energy transition that is so urgently needed in order to counter climate change.

The support that you continue to provide to the pipeline project casts a serious cloud on your credibility as a leader in the fight against climate change.

We repeat: Do not turn this pipeline into your political legacy."

Reposted with permission from our media associate Oil Change International.

https://www.ecowatch.com/glyphosate-wine-beer-testing-2553632957.html?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=1f900bdfd2-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-1f900bdfd2-85946369

Popular Beer and Wine Brands Contaminated With Monsanto's Weedkiller, Tests Reveal

Health Mar. 27, 2018 10:09AM EST

By Zen Honeycutt

The past few years have revealed some disturbing news for the alcohol industry. In 2015, CBS news broke the announcement of a lawsuit against 31 brands of wines for high levels of inorganic arsenic. In 2016, beer testing in Germany also revealed residues of glyphosate in every single sample tested, even independent beers.

Moms Across America released test results of 12 California wines that were all found to be positive for glyphosate in 2016. We tested further and released new findings last week of glyphosate in all of the most popular brands of wines in the world, the majority of which are from the U.S. and in batch test results in American beer.

What do these events all have in common? Monsanto's Roundup.

French molecular biologist Gilles-Éric Séralini released shocking findings in January of 2018 that of all the Roundup products they tested, over a dozen had high levels of arsenic—over five times the allowable limit along with dangerous levels of heavy metals.

Roundup is commonly sprayed in vineyards to keep the rows looking tidy and free of so-called weeds and on grain crops (used in beer) as a drying agent just before harvest. Glyphosate herbicides do not dry, wash or cook off and they have been proven to be neurotoxic, carcinogenic, endocrine disruptors and a cause of liver disease at very low levels.

The wine brands tested included Gallo, Beringer, Mondavi, Barefoot and Sutter Home. Beer brands tested included Budweiser, Busch, Coors, Michelob, Miller Lite, Sam Adams, Samuel Smith, Peak Organic and Sierra Nevada.

Some of the test results were at first confusing. One would expect the organic wines and beers, and the carefully crafted independent beer brands to be free of glyphosate, as the herbicides are not allowed or used in organic farming. Instead, it appears that they are contaminated. Previous testing did show that some organic wines were contaminated, and in this round, one of the organic brands was as low as 0.38 ppb, but conventional wines had glyphosate residues 61 times higher, at 23.30 ppb. Studies have shown only 1 part per trillion to stimulate the growth of breast cancer cells, so any amount is concerning.

Regarding beer, further testing would need to be done (we hope by the brands themselves), but it appears that the batch tests (equal amounts of multiple brands tested in one batch) of independent beer brands had higher levels: up to 13.60 ppb more than conventional beers. The organic batch tested at 2.57. Batch tests of large conventional brands such as Budweiser, Coors and Michelob showed 2.11 ppb collectively.

Inquiries into the big beer company manufacturing process revealed a possible explanation. Conventional beer producers tend to use cheaper ingredients which include rice, instead of barley, oats, rye and wheat, which are more expensive and tend to be used by independent and organic beer companies who prefer a richer flavor. Cheaper, hulled white rice is expected to have far lower levels of glyphosate residues than whole barley, oats and malt. If they are not organic, these are crops which are commonly sprayed with glyphosate as a drying agent just before harvest.

But one thing that is clear is that the beer and wine industries must—and in many cases are—moving away from Monsanto's Roundup in order to avoid contamination by this harmful chemical herbicide.

Pam Strayer of Viewpoint-Wines & Vines pointed out that, "In 2016, organic wine grew 11 percent by volume; imported organic wines grew 14 percent, double that of American organic producers at 7 percent."

"I haven't used Roundup since 1977," said Phil Coturri, the Sonoma vineyard manager who was recognized by the Golden Gate Salmon Association earlier this year for his environmentally sound viticulture. "You can't constantly use a product and think that it's not going to have an effect. Glyphosate is something that's made to kill."

More than 1,000 plaintiffs, most of them farmers, have filed lawsuits against Monsanto, a leading manufacturer of glyphosate, for Roundup exposure leading to non-Hodgkin Lymphoma.

Even big beer brands are seeing the benefit of organic. Anheuser-Busch announced last week that its brand Michelob has launched a new beer made with organic wheat called Ultra Pure Gold.

The Brewers Association, which certifies small independent and craft beers, gave this statement regarding the new MAA glyphosate test results:

"Brewers do not want glyphosate used on barley or any raw brewing material, and the barley grower organizations have also come out strongly against glyphosate. It is clear that the malting and brewing industries are aligned in their opposition to the use of glyphosate on malting barley."

So how does glyphosate contaminate organic wines and beers? Drift, polluted irrigation water, soil and through a new phenomena: pesticide rains. Glyphosate and other toxic chemical particles remain in evaporated water or dust clouds which form into rain and can contaminate vineyards and grain crops thousands of miles away.

In America, one out of two males and one out of three females are expected to get cancer, one out of five have mental illness, many struggle with infertility, sterility and infant death, and our healthcare costs are crippling. Just last week, a new study revealed that maternal exposure to glyphosate showed significantly higher rates of shortened gestation. Prematurely born babies are at significant risk of infant death.

According to a Save the Children 2013 report, the U.S. has 50 percent more infant deaths on day one of life than all other developed countries combined. Could this be due to the widespread use, drift and contamination of pesticides and herbicides like Roundup? These studies may suggest so. If American policymakers want to lower healthcare costs, eliminating the use of glyphosate herbicides could be one reasonable step to take.

Concerned consumers who don't want to drink wine and beer contaminated with harmful chemical pesticides and herbicides such as glyphosate have a chance to be heard. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is currently accepting comments until April 30, 2018, on the re-registration or denial of the license for glyphosate. Leave a comment, cite a scientific study found in this article, and protect grape growers and grain farmers, too. Then, when glyphosate is no longer used in farming, we can truly collectively say, "Cheers, to good health!"

Full results, brand names, and lab report links can be found here.

Reposted with permission from our media associate AlterNet.

Troubled Times for Alternatives to Einstein’s Theory of Gravity | Quanta Magazine

https://www.quantamagazine.org/troubled-times-for-alternatives-to-einsteins-theory-of-gravity-20180430/?mc_cid=6fb49d111c&mc_eid=abdd9bde6f

Troubled Times for Alternatives to Einstein's Theory of Gravity

ByKatia Moskvitch

April 30, 2018

Miguel Zumalacárregui knows what it feels like when theories die. In September 2017, he was at the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Saclay, near Paris, to speak at a meeting about dark energy and modified gravity. The official news had not yet broken about an epochal astronomical measurement — the detection, by gravitational wave detectors as well as many other telescopes, of a collision between two neutron stars — but a controversial tweet had lit a firestorm of rumor in the astronomical community, and excited researchers were discussing the discovery in hushed tones.

Zumalacárregui, a theoretical physicist at the Berkeley Center for Cosmological Physics, had been studying how the discovery of a neutron-star collision would affect so-called "alternative" theories of gravity. These theories attempt to overcome what many researchers consider to be two enormous problems with our understanding of the universe. Observations going back decades have shown that the universe appears to be filled with unseen particles — dark matter — as well as an anti-gravitational force called dark energy. Alternative theories of gravity attempt to eliminate the need for these phantasms by modifying the force of gravity in such a way that it properly describes all known observations — no dark stuff required.

At the meeting, Zumalacárregui joked to his audience about the perils of combining science and Twitter, and then explained what the consequences would be if the rumors were true. Many researchers knew that the merger would be a big deal, but a lot of them simply "hadn't understood their theories were on the brink of demise," he later wrote in an email. In Saclay, he read them the last rites. "That conference was like a funeral where we were breaking the news to some attendees."

The neutron-star collision was just the beginning. New data in the months since that discovery have made life increasingly difficult for the proponents of many of the modified-gravity theories that remain. Astronomers have analyzed extreme astronomical systems that contain spinning neutron stars, or pulsars, to look for discrepancies between their motion and the predictions of general relativity — discrepancies that some theories of alternative gravity anticipate. These pulsar systems let astronomers probe gravity on a new scale and with new precision. And with each new observation, these alternative theories of gravity are having an increasingly hard time solving the problems they were invented for. Researchers "have to sweat some more trying to get new physics," said Anne Archibald, an astrophysicist at the University of Amsterdam.

Searching for Vulcan

Confounding observations have a way of leading astronomers to desperate explanations. On the afternoon of March 26, 1859, Edmond Lescarbault, a young doctor and amateur astronomer in Orgères-en-Beauce, a small village south of Paris, had a break between patients. He rushed to a tiny homemade observatory on the roof of his stone barn. With the help of his telescope, he spotted an unknown round object moving across the face of the sun.

He quickly sent news of this discovery to Urbain Le Verrier, the world's leading astronomer at the time. Le Verrier had been trying to account for an oddity in the movement of the planet Mercury. All other planets orbit the sun in perfect accord with Isaac Newton's laws of motion and gravitation, but Mercury appeared to advance a tiny amount with each orbit, a phenomenon known as perihelion precession. Le Verrier was certain that there had to be an invisible "dark" planet tugging on Mercury. Lescarbault's observation of a dark spot transiting the sun appeared to show that the planet, which Le Verrier named Vulcan, was real.

It was not. Lescarbault's sightings were never confirmed, and the perihelion precession of Mercury remained a puzzle for nearly six more decades. Then Einstein developed his theory of general relativity, which straightforwardly predicted that Mercury should behave the way it does.

It’s Political Media vs. Comedians as White House Press Association Disavows Michelle Wolf | Vanity Fair

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/04/michelle-wolf-white-house-correspondents-dinner-sarah-huckabee-sanders-smokey-eye

It's Political Media vs. Comedians as White House Press Association Disavows Michelle Wolf

The White House Correspondents' Association has disavowed Wolf's Correspondents' dinner address, amid a non-controversy that sprang from an innocuous joke about eye makeup.

Laura BradleyApril 30, 2018 9:30 am

By Aaron P. Bernstein/REUTERS.

On Saturday night, Michelle Wolf roasted the current presidential administration and the media at the White House Correspondents' dinner, as per annual tradition. But it appears that the people who hired her for that roast had been hoping she'd do . . . something else.

Following criticism from some of the elite journalists in the room—along with conservative politicians and pundits targeted by Wolf—the White House Correspondents' Association released a statement disavowing Wolf's speech, saying it did not reflect the "spirit" of the night. What, precisely, the organization meant by this is unclear, since Wolf gave a performance that was very much in keeping with the tradition set by comics before her, at least tracing back to Stephen Colbert scorching George W. Bush in 2006. If Wolf's roast—which worked in swipes at just about everyone imaginable, including left- and right-wing media, Democrats and Republicans, Donald Trump, Mike Pence and, yes, Sarah Huckabee Sanders—did not reflect, as the Association put it, the "spirit" of the night, it's worth asking if any true roast could.

The statement, written by Association president Margaret Talev and released late Sunday, noted that some members of the group expressed "dismay with [Wolf's] monologue and concerns about how it reflects on our mission." Talev ultimately agreed with their dismay: "Last night's program was meant to offer a unifying message about our common commitment to a vigorous and free press while honoring civility, great reporting and scholarship winners, not to divide people. Unfortunately the entertainer's monologue was not in the spirit of that mission."

Unsurprisingly, President Trump himself—who, like last year, skipped the dinner in favor of throwing himself a rally on the same night—has also chimed in, tweeting, "The White House Correspondents' Dinner was a failure last year, but this year was an embarrassment to everyone associated with it. The filthy 'comedian' totally bombed (couldn't even deliver her lines-much like the Seth Meyers weak performance). Put Dinner to rest, or start over!" Such ire is to be expected from the president—but several prominent journalists scolded Wolf's address as well, including NBC News's Andrea Mitchell, who said Wolf should apologize. In particular, Wolf's joke, that Sanders "burns facts and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smoky eye," stirred backlash. "Maybe she's born with it," Wolf had said Saturday night, referencing the Maybelline slogan. "Maybe it's lies. It's probably lies." Star New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman complimented Sanders for her fortitude: she "sat and absorbed intense criticism of her physical appearance, her job performance, and so forth, instead of walking out," Haberman wrote.

The gist from those who disliked the roast is that Wolf was simply too mean. But plenty of people have come to Wolf's defense as well—including several prominent comedians. Wolf's former Late Night colleague Seth Meyers—who hosted the Correspondents' dinner in 2011—wrote, "Few people go to DC and accomplish what they set out to do while staying true to themselves. @michelleisawolf is one of those people." Kumail Nanjiani was among those who questioned if a joke about Sanders' eye makeup really constituted a knock against her looks. (In Wolf's own opinion, as expressed after the fact, it did not.) And Kathy Griffin—who also faced a firestorm of controversy after making a joke against the Trump administration that some said went too far—offered a thorough defense in a lengthy thread, in which she asked why the offended journalists are holding Wolf, a comedian, to a higher standard of integrity than the president of the United States.

Wolf, Griffin noted, "was hired to do a roast. That was her job. She wasn't hired to offer media analysis or be fair and balanced. She was hired to poke fun at powerful people. Not once did she punch down. She focused on the people/institutions that are powerful beyond measure. . . Comics by their nature are anti-establishment. They are charged with the often unenviable task of going after people in power. It's a lot easier to tell jokes about the difference between LA and NYC or cats and dogs."

Perhaps, then, it wasn't the Sanders line that riled the media, but this one instead: "I think what no one in this room wants to admit is that Trump has helped all of you," Wolf said as she began to wrap up. "He couldn't sell steaks or vodka or water or college or ties or Eric—but he has helped you. He's helped you sell your papers and your books and your TV. You helped create this monster, and now you're profiting off of him." If the Association wasn't pleased with her performance, perhaps they should take Jimmy Kimmel's advice: "Hire a juggler next year."

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Westworld (Season 2)

HBO is once again hoping you'll ignore the big Game of Thrones-shaped hole in its schedule and turn your attention back to the sci-fi mind game that is Westworld. The Emmy-nominated series, starring Evan Rachel Wood and Thandie Newton, is ready to confound you once again in its second season. Until its spring 2018 premiere, take a trip back in time and revisit nine burning questions we still have about the finale.

Photo: By John P. Johnson/HBO.

Laura Bradley is a Hollywood writer for VanityFair.com.

Effects of Acid Deposition on the Forests of Europe and North America by George H TOMLINSON - Hardcover - 1990 - from Librairie la bonne occasion and Biblio.com

https://www.biblio.com/book/effects-acid-deposition-forests-europe-north/d/252236479

The Telegraph: Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu says he has 'conclusive proof' Iran lied about its nuclear weapons programme

Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu says he has 'conclusive proof' Iran lied about its nuclear weapons programme
The Telegraph

Israel has accused Iran of lying to the world about its nuclear weapons programme both before and since the 2015 nuclear deal after Israeli intelligence stole 100,000 files from a secret "atomic archive" in Tehran. Read the full story

Shared from Apple News

The Frightening Truth About a German Diary from the Nazi Era | Alternet

https://www.alternet.org/frightening-truth-about-german-diary-nazi-era

The Frightening Truth About a German Diary from the Nazi Era

Friedrich Kellner, a courthouse administrator in a small town in central Germany, began his diary on the day Adolf Hitler sent the German Wehrmacht into Poland. He knew the risks in such an undertaking, but as a former Social Democrat who had campaigned against the Nazis before they came to power, Kellner deeply felt the necessity to expose Nazi crimes, record the public's approval of their Führer and the Nazi Party, unmask the truth cloaked by Joseph Goebbels's propaganda, and also lay bare the Allies' many lost chances to prevent the war. Above all else, Kellner wanted to be sure future generations would know the terrible consequences of not defending their individual liberties against totalitarian ideologues with anti-democratic agendas. 

Called a Jahrhundert-Dokumentby the German press when it was published in its original language in 2011—a vital historical document that helps to interpret a particular era—Kellner's observations shine an uncompromising light on our own era as well. It is impossible to avoid the disturbing parallels between then and now: the resurgence of a menacing totalitarianism; the use of terror to bring political change; the bombing of residential areas; the indiscriminate murder of women and children; obliterating historical buildings and monuments; declaring that their victims were responsible for the attacks against them; and resorting to the age-old stratagem of blaming the Jews for everything. To forge their master race and master nation, the Nazis placed young boys and girls into pre-military youth organizations. "At ten they feel the breath of militarism and are not released from its claws until the mass grave," wrote Kellner in April 1943. Seventy years later similar iniquities are with us in the child-soldiers in the Central African Republic and children fitted for suicide vests in the Hamas camps in Gaza.

What amazed Kellner was how the educated and cultural elite of Germany embraced Hitler's vision of a Greater Germany, though they knew from Hitler's Mein Kampfonly an iron fist and war could attain it. "The vast majority of intellectual leaders—with university professors in the forefront—shoved aside everything they had previously stood up for and taught, and devoted themselves entirely to the new political direction," Kellner wrote in June 1941. "They exalted in a servile and spineless way everything the Party prescribed for them."

But the blame was not the Germans' alone, Kellner knew, and he railed against the leaders of the democratic nations, particularly in France and England, who could have stopped Hitler long before the war. He considered Neville Chamberlain a "pathetic nincompoop" for believing Hitler's artful pledges of peace while building up a massive array of armaments in violation of the Versailles Treaty. In May 1940 he wrote: "The Western powers will carry the historical guilt for not promptly providing the most intensive preventative measures against Germany's incessant politics of aggression." 

Compounding their negligence before the war was England and France's year-long inertia after they declared war on Germany, their "Phoney War" that allowed the German Luftwaffe to control the skies and let panzer divisions roll unhindered through one European nation after another. "By the time these Englishmen wake up, the greater part of Europe will be a heap of rubble," declared Kellner on May 29, 1940. He lambasted Americans as "idiots" for thinking they could remain neutral and talk Hitler out of his thirst for territory. The day after Pearl Harbor, Kellner asked: "Will the isolationists in the U.S.A. now open their eyes? What a delusion these cowardly people were under. How can you stand on the sidelines claiming neutrality during this gigantic fight for human dignity and freedom—when in actuality that places you on the side of the terrorist nations?"

Another parallel for today is with the irrational anti-Semitism rampant in the Third Reich that led to the Holocaust. Threats to destroy modern Israel herald an even greater catastrophe. In his natural sympathy for Jews, Kellner displays an outstanding sense of fairness and justice and a unique moral character. At the beginning of his diary, in October 1939—when he already was aware Jews were marked for extermination—he wrote, "If the Jews, who over the centuries contributed demonstrable achievements in the economic life for the total development of the nation, can be made a people without rights, then that is an act unworthy of a cultured nation. The curse of this evil deed will indelibly rest on the entire German people." And in December 1941, when he learned Jews were being transported from Germany to concentration camps: "This cruel, despicable, and sadistic treatment against the Jews that has lasted now several years—with its final goal of extermination—is the biggest stain on the honor of Germany."

On more than one occasion Kellner came close to being sent to a concentration camp himself for speaking out against the regime. "Kellner's attitude exerts a bad influence on the population," a Nazi official named Ernst Mönnig wrote, "and he should be made to disappear." Kellner's wife, Pauline, who refused to join any of the Nazi women's organizations, would be imprisoned with him. To protect her, and to remain free to finish his self-imposed task, he restricted his thoughts to his diary. However, he collected leaflets dropped by Allied bombers and surreptitiously placed them around town and at the train station where he knew Nazi Party members would be. "I placed them where wavering Party members would find them," he explained. Among the hundreds of newspaper clippings pasted into his diary are several announcing court judgments against people caught with leaflets: they were all death sentences. Despite that, Kellner would not let the Nazis have the last word.

Wind and solar success shows spirit of Snowy resides with renewable energy | Tristan Edis | Opinion | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/25/wind-and-solar-success-shows-spirit-of-snowy-lies-with-renewables

7 Ways to Launch Your Own Anti-Plastics Movement

Common sense steps that are doable?

https://www.ecowatch.com/toward-a-plastic-free-future-2519406874.html

Trump's rudeness

SEEKING TO UNDERSTAND THIS MALFORMED INDIVIDUAL CALLED TRUMP, A VERY VERY RICH MAN

1. I cannot see the adult Trump, anywhere. Trump's revealed racism and child states of mind dominate his thinking and action and he can't do anything his deceased father might disapprove. Behaving like a spoiled brat most the the time, Trump is a psychopath of many orders. 

1. Its true that the state of mind of the child dominates his concious time. His dogma occurs when he acts like a drunk orcdogmatic parent. He rarely has moments when he behaves like an adult. His states of mind flip between child - parent without many adult tendencies. He is a boy that never matured into an adult because his brain is full of his father's thoughts about how the world works. His father never let him grow up. America has a bad combination of difficult leadership that is immature leading loads and loads of Americans that are immature and have not developed the ability to communicate or reason like an adult.   WE ARE IN FOR A ROUGH RIDE.

1. In contrast MERKEL is the consummate adult whose brain works extremely well even in crisis. MERKEL IS THE PARENT FIGURE TO TRUMP. she spares him of having to shake hands, smiling. She understands that her opponent never matured and that he behaves like a spoiled brat most of the time. He is certainly a difficult person, while she is very understanding and must feel very sad of this aberration of civilization. 

Bad luck America. You have a nut case for a leader.

Seeing:

George Orwell wrote, "To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle." 

Waldo Emerson wrote, "The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks. See the line from a sufficient distance, and it straightens itself to the average tendency."

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"The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks. See the line from a sufficient distance, and it straightens itself to the average tendency."
Waldo Emerson

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"The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks. See the line from a sufficient distance, and it straightens itself to the average tendency."
Waldo Emerson

A Low-Cost Solution for Storing Solar Energy > ENGINEERING.com

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"The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks. See the line from a sufficient distance, and it straightens itself to the average tendency."
Waldo Emerson