Monday, 18 May 2015

Fossil fuels subsidised by $10m every minute, says IMF | Environment | The Guardian


THE NUMBERS ARE PRETTY STAGGERING .... 

Fossil fuel companies are benefitting from global subsidies of $5.3tn (£3.4tn) a year, equivalent to $10m every minute of every day, according to a startling new estimate by the International Monetary Fund. 

The IMF calls the revelation "shocking" and says the figure is an "extremely robust" estimate of the true cost of fossil fuels. The $5.3tn subsidy estimated for 2015 is greater than the total health spending of all the world's governments.

The vast sum is largely due to polluters not paying the costs imposed on governments by the burning of coal, oil and gas. These include the harm caused to local populations by air pollution as well as to people across the globe affected by the floods, droughts and storms being driven by climate change.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/may/18/fossil-fuel-companies-getting-10m-a-minute-in-subsidies-says-imf




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Will the Biggest Cruise Ship Ever Built Change Cruising Forever? (45 Pictures)

http://www.placesyoullsee.com/45-stunning-photos-from-the-largest-cruise-ship-ever/?utm_source=Taboola&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=nationalreview&utm_campaign=Taboola-allure-of-the-seas-T
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France, Standing Up to Russia | National Review Online

"What's the big deal about helicopter carriers?" you might wonder. After all, Russia already has two real aircraft carriers, and a third under construction. The answer may appear in a wiki-leaked assessment of Russia's Baltic fleet written by an intelligence company called Stratfor. Like Ukraine, each of the three Baltic countries — Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia — has a large ethnic-Russian population. NATO, and any number of geopoliticos in the U.S. and Europe, believe that after East Ukraine joins Crimea and northern Georgia in Russia's new empire, Putin plans a pivot to the Baltics. Last September, Russia held an enormous war game along the Latvian and Lithuanian borders. About the same time, Russian spies crossed into Estonia, kidnapped an Estonian intelligence officer, and tossed him in prison. (Where he remains. Free Eston Kohver!)

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/418470/france-standing-russia-josh-gelernter

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/418470/france-standing-russia-josh-gelernter
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Spanish researchers are developing bladeless wind turbines - ScienceAlert

http://www.sciencealert.com/spanish-researchers-are-developing-bladeless-wind-turbines
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Living with Alzheimer's: A harmonica for Ronnie - BBC News

Ronnie Seymour died earlier this year from Alzheimer's Disease. His son Mark, who documented his father's decline through photographs, describes how playing a harmonica gave a brief reminder of the man they were losing.




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7 Facts That Prove the Renewable Energy Revolution Has Arrived

The global transition to clean, renewable energy and away from nuclear and fossil fuels is well under way with remarkable developments happening every day. The Great Transition by Lester Brown, Janet Larsen, Matt Roney and Emily Adams of Earth Policy Institute lays out a tremendous range of these developments. Here are seven that may surprise you:

http://ecowatch.com/2015/05/17/renewable-energy-revolution/




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Sunday, 17 May 2015

Coffee Party USA - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So what is this group ...

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_Party_USA
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Bible barons: How the GOP uses religion to keep voters captive to corporate ideology - Salon.com

http://www.salon.com/2014/03/04/bible_barons_how_the_gop_uses_religion_to_keep_voters_captive_to_corporate_ideology_partner/
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Avaaz - Help welcome Canada’s newest climate hero!

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/alberta_part_of_the_solution_3/?bBEuVbb&v=58522
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Electrical Sensitivity – What’s Going On In Your Body? | www.electricsense.com

http://www.electricsense.com/9538/electrical-sensitivity-body-radiation/
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Picasso Painting Shatters Record at Christie’s Blockbuster Auction | BLOUIN ARTINFO

http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/1155088/picasso-painting-shatters-record-at-christies-blockbuster#
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Why Greece is Different by Daniel Gros - Project Syndicate

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/greece-export-problem-by-daniel-gros-2015-05
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Russia’s Indefensible Military Budget by Sergei Guriev - Project Syndicate

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/russia-military-spending-by-sergei-guriev-2015-05
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Economic history: What was mercantilism? | The Economist

http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2013/08/economic-history
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Temin article

http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/79063/Temin13-11a.pdf?sequence=4
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Economics and history: Economic history is dead; long live economic history? | The Economist

http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2015/04/economics-and-history
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PriceStats ®

http://www.pricestats.com/
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The Billion Prices Project @ MIT

http://bpp.mit.edu/
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An Economics to Fit the Facts by Barry Eichengreen - Project Syndicate

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/big-data-economics-revolution-by-barry-eichengreen-2015-05
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The Secret Corporate Takeover by Joseph E. Stiglitz - Project Syndicate

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/us-secret-corporate-takeover-by-joseph-e--stiglitz-2015-05
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Sketches from scratches is a provocative blogspot that has grown out of the Wuh Lax experience. It is eclectic, which means that it might consider just about anything from the simple to the extremely difficult. A scratch can be something that is troubling me or a short line on paper. From a scratch comes a verbal sketch or image sketch of the issue or subject. Other sites have other stuff that should really be of interest to the broad reader. I try to develop themes, but variety often comes before depth. ... more!