Tag Archives: italy

One more way the world wasn’t prepared for coronavirus: Air pollution

by DegaLockyer Posted on March 19, 2020

The coronavirus pandemic is changing everything — including the quality of the air we breathe.

In three coronavirus hotspots, satellite imagery revealed a dramatic decline in air pollution in recent weeks as China, Italy, and Iran were brought to a standstill. One Stanford scientist estimated that China’s coronavirus lockdown could have saved 77,000 lives by curbing emissions from factories and vehicles — nearly 10 times the number of deaths worldwide from the virus so far.

But the blue skies are unlikely to last. Just as the temporary dip in global carbon dioxide emissions could be reversed when companies eventually increase production to make up for lost time, air pollution could rebound with a vengeance when factories and traffic spring back to life. On Tuesday, the Chinese government said it plans to relax environmental standards so factories can speed up production.

Air pollution and the virus have a close relationship. Breathing unclean air is linked to high blood pressure, diabetes, and respiratory disease, conditions that doctors are starting to associate with higher death rates for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Physicians say that people with these chronic conditions may be less able to fight off infections and more likely to die of the disease.

“The air may be clearing in Italy, but the damage has already been done to human health and people’s ability to fight off infection,” said Sascha Marschang, acting secretary general of the European Public Health Alliance, in a statement.

Evidence suggests that bad air quality may have increased the death toll of a previous coronavirus outbreak, the SARS pandemic of 2003. One study of SARS patients found that people living in regions with a moderate amount of air pollution were 84 percent more likely to die than those in regions with cleaner air.

And now, health officials are warning that people who live in polluted places anywhere may be at greater risk again. “I can’t help but think of the many communities where residents breathe polluted air that can lead to chronic respiratory problems, cancer, and disease, which could make them more vulnerable to the worst impacts of COVID-19,” wrote Gina McCarthy, the president and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council, in a post this week about how the organization is responding to the coronavirus.

Clearing the air could help vulnerable people fight off the threat of deadly disease — during this pandemic as well as any future ones — and save millions of lives in the meantime. Governments already have a pretty good idea of how to clean up air pollution, and it doesn’t involve a global pandemic.

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One more way the world wasn’t prepared for coronavirus: Air pollution

Posted in Accent, alo, FF, G & F, GE, ONA, Uncategorized | Tagged Accent, blue, china, chinese, g & f, health, italy, justice, news, novel, number, sars | Comments Off

The Order of Time – Carlo Rovelli

by Myrna Posted on April 15, 2018

READ GREEN WITH E-BOOKS

The Order of Time

Carlo Rovelli

Genre: Science & Nature

Price: $10.99

Expected Publish Date: May 8, 2018

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group

Seller: Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

From the bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics , a concise, elegant exploration of time. Why do we remember the past and not the future? What does it mean for time to "flow"? Do we exist in time or does time exist in us? In lyric, accessible prose, Carlo Rovelli invites us to consider questions about the nature of time that continue to puzzle physicists and philosophers alike. For most readers this is unfamiliar terrain. We all experience time, but the more scientists learn about it, the more mysterious it remains. We think of it as uniform and universal, moving steadily from past to future, measured by clocks. Rovelli tears down these assumptions one by one, revealing a strange universe where at the most fundamental level time disappears. He explains how the theory of quantum gravity attempts to understand and give meaning to the resulting extreme landscape of this timeless world. Weaving together ideas from philosophy, science and literature, he suggests that our perception of the flow of time depends on our perspective, better understood starting from the structure of our brain and emotions than from the physical universe. Already a bestseller in Italy, and written with the poetic vitality that made Seven Brief Lessons on Physics so appealing, The Order of Time offers a profoundly intelligent, culturally rich, novel appreciation of the mysteries of time.

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The Order of Time – Carlo Rovelli

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, ONA, PUR, Uncategorized | Tagged alo, brief, ideas, italy, lessons, order, pur, quantum, science & nature, seven-brief | Comments Off

Some massive hands are propping up Venice because climate change.

by AguedaBunn Posted on May 16, 2017

In early May, laborers harvesting cabbage in a field near Bakersfield, California, caught a whiff of an odor. Some suddenly felt nauseated.

A local news station reported that winds blew the pesticide Vulcan — which was being sprayed on a mandarin orchard owned by the produce company Sun Pacific — into Dan Andrews Farms’ cabbage patch.

Vulcan’s active ingredient, chlorpyrifos, has been banned for residential use for more than 15 years. It was scheduled to be off-limits to agriculture this year — until the EPA gave it a reprieve in March. Kern County officials are still confirming whether Sun Pacific’s insecticide contained chlorpyrifos.

More than 50 farmworkers were exposed, and 12 reported symptoms, including vomiting and fainting. One was hospitalized. “Whether it’s nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, seek medical attention immediately,” a Kern County Public Health official warned.

If chlorpyrifos’ presence is confirmed, the EPA may have some explaining to do. The Dow Chemical compound is a known neurotoxin, and several studies connect exposure to it with lower IQ in children and other neurological deficits.

The Scott Pruitt–led agency, however, decided that — and stop me if you’ve heard this one before — the science wasn’t conclusive.

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Some massive hands are propping up Venice because climate change.

Posted in alo, ALPHA, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, green energy, LAI, LG, ONA, ProPublica, Ringer, solar, solar panels, solar power, Thermos, Uncategorized, wind power | Tagged california, climate art, italy, living, Ona, public, scott pruitt, Thermos, venice biennale, wind power | Comments Off

What is ‘Glamping’?

by LillianaLlewell Posted on August 7, 2016

I grew up camping, but as I get older, “glamping” is definitely taking on more appeal. Don’t know the difference?

Camping is the no-frills way to get out and experience the wild. You might sleep in sleeping bags on a mat on the ground, in a tent you’ve pitched after perhaps hiking into a campsite on a trail that could be challenging to traverse. You’ll builda fire in a fire pit or power up your cookstove and make a meal that, while delicious, might also be pretty basic. Your “bathroom” could be an outhouse or a spot away from camp that you dig yourself. You may have to purify water to drink and cook and clean with; there may not be showering or bathing facilities.

“Glamping” combines the experience of the wildwith a bit more glamour and comfort. In fact, Glamping.com says glamping offers travelers a way to “experience the positive aspects of camping without the ‘uncomfortable’ negatives….to experience the great outdoors without sacrificing luxury.”

I love traditional stylecamping precisely because it IS so basic. Just head out somewhere, throw up a tent, roll out a bag, and look up at the sky. That can be pretty perfect.

But I’ve had a few glamping trips, too, and they were pretty great. For example, on my first trip to Africa, I went on a camping safari in Kenya. With two guides and some other campers, a few of usdrove into the bush, threw up tents, slept in sleeping bags, and cooked over a fire. Our camp was surrounded by barbed wire to keep out big game like lions and cheetahs, but that was it. When we went to the outhouse, our guide came with us in case some animals were on the prowl.

The second time I went to Africa, it was definitely glamping. My family slept in clean spacious tents on actual beds that were really comfortable. In one camp, showers were attached to our tents and though they weren’t filled with hot water, the water was definitely warm enough to provide a comfortable cleanse. Our food was cookedin an outdoor kitchen and was bothabundant and gourmet. Though elephants did roam around the camp, we didn’t have to worry about lions or rhinos because the compound was so well protected.

The camping trip was thrilling because it felt so edgy and dangerous. Who cares if it was grimy and the food, while filling, was a little on the plain side?

The glamping trip was wonderful because it was socomfortable but still exotic. We got very close to lots of animals and probably learned more about local cultures because we had more time to stop in villages and talk with people rather than have to scurryto find a campsite before sunset.

If you like the idea of glamping, you’ll have two major considerations: where to do it, and how to do it.

Pretty much every continent offers glamping options, and at prices that can range from less than a hundred dollars a night to ten times that much. For example, in South America, Ypora in Argentina, offers tents, solar power,safari style tents and running water, all with meals included, for $40 a night. On the other hand, the Inkaterra Reserva Amazonica in Peru starts at $542 a night, along with more upscale amenities. You can see a list of glamping facilities by continent here.GoGlamping.net focuses specifically on glamping in England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain.

As for accommodations, you’ll find a variety of exotic ways to put a roof over your head. In addition to fancy safari trips, glamping lodging includes:

Airstream trailers
Treehouses
Teepees
Huts and Cottages
Yurts
Cubes, Pods and Domes

Glamping doesn’t only have to be for you. Many locations are pet friendly. These options listed on GlampingHub.com partner with PETA and The Humane Society to make sure they offer safe and health accommodations if you want to bring your dog on your trip.

Some trips are a hybrid of camping and glamping. That’s what I got when I did a 10-day rafting trip through the Grand Canyon on the Colorado River. Wehad to pitch our own tents, roll out our sleeping bags, and pack everything up in the morning. Only the bravest among us dared take a bath in the fridge Colorado waters. On the other hand, we had three gourmet meals cooked for us every day, were handily and safely transported down the river, guided on fascinating canyon hikes, and concluded the trip in a lovely hotel.

In many respects, it was the best of both worlds.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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What is ‘Glamping’?

Posted in alo, Everyone, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, PUR, Radius, solar, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged america, camping, food, france, green, italy, radius, solar, solar power, technology, travel | Comments Off

Italy Is Next In Line For a Banking Crisis

by ArmandoMcAllist Posted on July 5, 2016

Mother Jones

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The Wall Street Journal reports that Italy could be ground zero for the next European economic crisis:

In Italy, 17% of banks’ loans are sour. That is nearly 10 times the level in the U.S., where, even at the worst of the 2008-09 financial crisis, it was only 5%. Among publicly traded banks in the eurozone, Italian lenders account for nearly half of total bad loans.

….The U.K. vote to exit the European Union has compounded the strains on Europe’s banks in general and Italy’s in particular…. Brexit has many executives concerned that central banks will keep interest rates lower for longer than they might otherwise, in an attempt to counteract the slower growth—in the eurozone as well as Britain. European banks’ stocks slid after the vote, with those in Italy especially hurt.

….“Brexit could lead to a full-blown banking crisis in Italy,” said Lorenzo Codogno, former director general at the Italian Treasury. “The risk of a eurozone meltdown is clearly there if Brexit concerns are not immediately addressed.”

It’s not clear to me just how bad things really are in Italy, since the Journal compares their level of nonperforming loans to the US, not to peer countries like Portugal or Spain. Even better would be to tell us how Italy’s current NPL level compares to past levels. It it really way out of whack historically? Or just mildly worse than usual during this phase of an economic cycle?

That said, it’s apparent that Europe’s banking sector continues to have problems thanks to the endless can kicking done between 2010 and 2014. The hope that everything would just spontaneously get better if structural problems were ignored long enough was never a great plan, and it still isn’t. However, a standard bank bailout isn’t possible, thanks to new rules adopted by the EU two years ago. Philipp Hildebrand suggests instead something simpler:

As Angela Merkel, German chancellor, has pointed out, the rules as they stand…permit the temporary shoring-up of banks with public money to make up for a capital shortfall revealed by a regulatory stress test, if raising private capital is not feasible. It is a fortunate coincidence that the 2016 European Banking Authority’s stress test campaign is under way. And it is clear, with most European banks trading far below book value, that raising private capital at this juncture is not a practical option. At the same time, most European banks are perfectly viable, and so resolution is not the way to go.

The European Commission should therefore allow those governments that wish to do so to take temporary equity stakes in banks that need a capital boost. Importantly, state aid rules apply, so this should not be a free handout. Rather, it should be conditional on banks committing to significant steps to address the structural difficulties they face and diversifying income sources. This would be similar to the US Tarp process in 2008 that ended up returning money to taxpayers.

Perhaps so. “Temporary,” of course, has a tendency to last a long time in some countries. Still, this might be the best and easiest solution. If Italy thinks it best to rescue its own banks with an equity infusion, they should probably be allowed to do so. Ditto for Portugal, Spain, and other countries with continuing bank sector weakness. I don’t know if it would work as well as TARP did—and TARP did work, despite the bad rap it’s gotten—since Italy’s economy is fundamentally weaker than the US economy ever was. But it’s worth a try.

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Italy Is Next In Line For a Banking Crisis

Posted in Brita, FF, GE, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged european, italy, journal, king, public, tarp, temporary, venta | Comments Off

Donald Trump vs. the World

by EmiliaPenrod Posted on June 30, 2016

Mother Jones

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Via Pew Research, here’s what the world thinks of Donald Trump:

Trump does poorly pretty much everywhere. His top ratings come from China, where authoritarian bullies are taken for granted, and Italy, which probably figures Trump looks positively presidential compared to Silvio Berlusconi. Question: Is this good or bad for Trump? Is it bad because he’ll have a hard time getting things done if everyone hates him? Or good because this just proves that everyone knows he’ll put America first?

On a related note, the Greeks really dislike the United States on a whole range of issues. What’s the deal with this? What have we done to Greece lately?

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Donald Trump vs. the World

Posted in Everyone, FF, GE, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged america, donald, donald-trump, good-or-bad, italy, silvio-berlusconi, states, transitional, trump, united-states, world | Comments Off

Is Russia About to Shoot Its Future in the Foot?

by StellaAudet Posted on March 26, 2016

Mother Jones

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A few days ago I read a piece about a proposed new oil tax in Russia, and it sounded vaguely important. But other stuff happened and I never wrote about it. Max Fisher says that was a mistake:

The most consequential development in international affairs this week may have come, believe it or not, in a proposed change to Russian tax policy….When oil was selling for $100 a barrel, about $74 of that went to the state in taxes…leaving oil companies with about $11 a barrel in profit….Now, oil is selling at $35 a barrel, and taxes only take $17 a barrel….Oil companies only take $3 a barrel in profit.

….While we think of oil companies as taking profits just to shower on themselves — and indeed, there is some of that — they also spend heavily on finding and developing new oil sources….The new tax would make it much harder for Russian oil firms to develop new oil sources. Over time, as current oil wells dry up, new ones would not come online to replace them….Even if oil prices go back up, Russian oil output will decline so drastically that its economy might never recover.

….The potential consequences here — of Russia so cannibalizing its own oil industry that its current economic decline becomes more or less permanent — are really difficult to overstate. Sooner or later, the Kremlin would have to do one of two things (or even both): cutting back the Russian military, which is wildly expensive but gives Moscow the geopolitical muscle it believes is so crucial, or cutting back already weak social services, which does risk political instability.

Read the whole thing for more details. This is still just a proposal, and even if it goes through it might well get modified before it does serious damage. Still, much of Russia’s foreign policy is driven by the brutal fact that it has an economy about the size of Italy’s and demographic problems even worse than Italy’s, but still wants to be thought of as a great world power. As this becomes ever harder to pull off, Russia’s leaders may feel the need to somehow prove that they still matter. This would be bad.

This tax may or may not go anywhere, but it’s something to keep an eye on.

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Is Russia About to Shoot Its Future in the Foot?

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This “Peace Troubadour” Wanted to Perform in ISIS Territory

by VictoriGentile Posted on January 15, 2016

Mother Jones

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James Twyman wants you to know that he’s not going to just wander into ISIS-controlled territory with a guitar slung on his back for his upcoming “peace prayer concert” inside Syria. He isn’t crazy, he tells me over the phone from his houseboat in Oregon. “I have no intention of being a martyr.”

The 53-year-old “Peace Troubadour” first announced his plan to venture into Syria in a blog post last month:

Performing the peace prayers in ISIS Controlled Syria will be the most important and dangerous peace mission of my life…Every peace mission I’ve been on has been dangerous, but this journey is without question the most perilous, and in my opinion—the most important. People everywhere are concerned about the escalating violence in the Middle East, especially with the rise of ISIS, but they don’t feel empowered to be part of the solution. That is what we are about to change.

Twyman’s original idea was to enter Syria through Turkey, travel through Kurdish-controlled areas, and then into ISIS territory, where he would perform wherever he could get to. “But now things have really escalated,” he says. The State Department made it clear that it would have little ability to help him should anything go awry. “People have been writing me, begging me not to go. You know, just the most fearful things you could imagine.” Things like the kidnappings, beheadings, and the chaos that have become ISIS’ trademark. Twyman’s well aware of it all, but says, “I try not to put too much energy in it, but I do need to be responsible about it. I think the most important thing we all need today is courage.”

Now, his plan has changed—phew!—from a really horrible one to a less horrible one. Twyman leaves on the 20th for Italy, where he’ll spend a week preparing for the performance. Then he flies to Tel Aviv to meet with a collection of supporters and a group of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish leaders who will join him as he crosses the Israel-Syria border to Majdal Shams, an Israeli-occupied town in the Golan Heights that overlooks ISIS-held territory several miles away.

This isn’t Twyman’s first musical peace mission. He performed in the Balkans during the region’s wars in the ’90s and sang in Baghdad in 1998—at the behest of Saddam Hussein, he claims.

Twyman hopes that millions of people from around the world will join him in focused prayer as he leads a peace vigil near Majdal Shams and sings an Islamic prayer for peace on February 1. (Watch his rendition in English below.) “There is definitely a correlation between massive numbers of people focusing their energy on a situation, and then a shift in the energy—or a crisis being averted—because of it.” Each of the religious leaders will offer prayers of peace from their own tradition, what Twyman calls “The Great Abrahamic Pulse.”

Twyman says the decision to scale back his Syrian trip is due to the spiritual leaders who are now involved. “I feel that it’s more important that they be there” than to go closer to ISIS territory, he says. “So we’re going to be as close as possible while remaining as safe as possible.” Will he have a security detail? “No,” he tells me. “I’m someone who believes on the power of prayer and positive energy.”

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This “Peace Troubadour” Wanted to Perform in ISIS Territory

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged energy, italy, jewish, majdal-shams, muslim, Ona, oregon, shams, state, syria, twyman | Comments Off

Sorry, But the Perfect Lego Brick May Never Be Eco-Friendly

by LorenaLuffman Posted on July 9, 2015

green4us

Everything isn’t awesome. simone mescolini/Shutterstock Legos just click. If you’ve ever played with a competing brand of “interlocking plastic bricks,” you know that Lego’s big advantage is their solidity, their seemingly infinitesimal tolerances that make sure every piece fits just so with every other. The seams turn invisible. The secret to that tight connection (and how painful Legos are to step on): plastic. Specifically, a very tough plastic called ABS, or acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene, three polymers derived from petroleum. So last month, Lego announced that it would launch, later this year or next, a Sustainable Materials Centre—100 engineers, chemical engineers, and materials experts all trying to find an eco-friendly replacement for ABS and other ingredients in the company’s toys. Finding those replacements will be tougher than getting a one-by-one piece off a wide base plate. (That’s hard.) ABS is great. It’s precisely moldable; every Lego block has to be identical to others of its type to within 4 microns, from batch to batch, year after year. ABS also takes color well, so a wall of red bricks looks the same across its entire surface. You can print on it, it’s durable—important for a toy that gets passed down through generations—and, most of all, ABS can create what Lego calls good “clutch” power, the ability to stick to other bricks until kids pull them apart. Plus, what does “sustainability” mean in this context? Right now, companies can define that word pretty much however they want. No carbon emissions cutoff exists to qualify a material—and even if one did, it’s notoriously difficult to tally up those emissions. A sustainable material could be renewable or recyclable or both (or neither). Read the rest at Wired.

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Sorry, But the Perfect Lego Brick May Never Be Eco-Friendly

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So now we have beautiful underwater greenhouses. Why? Why not!

by MadonnaMebane Posted on July 1, 2015

deep sea chive

So now we have beautiful underwater greenhouses. Why? Why not!

By Amelia Urryon 1 Jul 2015comments Share

What thrives at 79 degrees and 20 feet below sea level, and tastes like a strawberry?

Actually, it is a strawberry — a salty sea strawberry. OK, fine, it’s just a regular strawberry possessing no marine qualities that we know of, aside from being grown in a submersible greenhouse off the coast of Italy. This berry-infested Atlantis can be found alongside four other biospheres containing basil, lettuce, and beans. And while 20 feet isn’t quite 20,000 leagues, the improbable place is called Nemo’s Garden.

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So now we have beautiful underwater greenhouses. Why? Why not!

Posted in alo, Anchor, ATTRA, eco-friendly, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, PUR, Radius, Uncategorized | Tagged anchor, atlantis, beauty, coast, garden, gardennemo, italy, president, work, world | Comments Off

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Tag Archives: italy

One more way the world wasn’t prepared for coronavirus: Air pollution

The Order of Time – Carlo Rovelli

Some massive hands are propping up Venice because climate change.

What is ‘Glamping’?

Italy Is Next In Line For a Banking Crisis

Donald Trump vs. the World

Is Russia About to Shoot Its Future in the Foot?

This “Peace Troubadour” Wanted to Perform in ISIS Territory

Sorry, But the Perfect Lego Brick May Never Be Eco-Friendly

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So now we have beautiful underwater greenhouses. Why? Why not!

So now we have beautiful underwater greenhouses. Why? Why not!

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