Billionaires should not exist.
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It is impossible to *earn* a billion dollars. Take any exorbitant salary you like — let’s say $500,000 per year — and calculate how many years you would have to work, spending nothing, to earn your first billion. At $500k/year, it would take 2,000 years. Or, if you simply steal $3 from every single American, you can make a billion in a single year.

Billionaires’ wealth comes only from wage theft from workers. It is never earned. It is estimated that ~5% of deaths in the US are attributable to poverty, making every billionaire a de-facto mass murderer. No one becomes a billionaire because they are intelligent or talented; people become billionaires because they are able to rob millions of other people into poverty, destitution, and early death — and still sleep soundly at night.

These are the people determining our future. They are brain-damaged by power. [See https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/07/power-causes-brain-damage/528711/] Billionaires are, by definition, psychopaths. They believe they are chosen by the universe to live as gods. If you are counting on billionaires to save the planet because “it’s in their best interest,” you misunderstand their interests.
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That's an excerpt from a long and very informative piece by Sam Hall (@SamYourEyes).

FULL ARTICLE -- https://medium.com/@samyoureyes/the-busy-workers-handbook-to-the-apocalypse-7790666afde7

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateJustice #Capitalism

Gates, Bezos, Buffet, Musk, et al... how do they define their success?

"I earned every dollar I inherited. I worked hard for the billions I stole."

#EatTheRich #Billionaires

Electric cars are better, on balance, than ICE cars. But...

Well, take a look at this first. Then we can talk more about my But down below.
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The urgency of climate change requires electrifying the 278 million personal vehicles plying American roadways as quickly as we can. After all, EVs are far more climate-friendly than equivalent gas-powered models because they eliminate the tailpipe emissions that warm the planet and pollute the air. Better yet, EVs are simply fun to drive: Most models are quicker and quieter than your average gas car.

However, that is not the full story.

EVs also produce emissions beyond what spews from their tailpipe. Like all cars, their tires are constantly rubbing against pavement, releasing particulates that float through the air and leach into waterways, damaging human health and wildlife. New EV models tend to be heavier and quicker — generating more particulates and deepening the danger.

In other words, EVs have a tire-pollution problem, and one that is poised to get worse as America begins to adopt electric cars en masse. None of this is inevitable. EVs don’t need to be so massive and lightning-fast — these are choices that the auto industry has made. All of us will pay the price.

As a form of microplastics, tire pollution hits wildlife hard: Compounds that settle on the ground gradually leach toxic chemicals into the soil and water. One study concluded that tires could be responsible for as much as 28% of the microplastics in global oceans.

The smallest tire particles, measured in mere nanometers, can enter our lungs and spread to our organs. Various tire components have been linked to chronic conditions including respiratory problems, kidney damage, neurological damage, and birth defects — a particular concern in neighborhoods adjacent to highways, whose residents skew low-income and minority.
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FULL ARTICLE -- https://archive.li/jrMWK

Anyway, so we agree, EVs basically are better than ICE cars.

BUT — as you've seen, they have their own problems. And do we really need to still have 300+ million cars clogging our roads, posing a threat to cyclists and pedestrians and basic sanity?

For me, the answer is No.

I say public transit is better. Bicycles are better. Walking is better.

Because the very BEST car is no car at all!

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #Pollution #WarOnCars #BanCars

I try not to exaggerate or engage in hyperbole. I’m not attempting to scare anyone just for fun. I’m simply presenting what I have learned and telling you what some very smart people think about it.

Climate scientists are terrified. So am I, and you should be too.

As Greta Thunberg said, in 2019: “I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to ACT.”

It’s time for action. We need immediate system change. No more half measures, no more Business As Usual.

Dreams of futuristic technologies are irrelevant at this point, and voting can't make enough of a difference.

The solution? Organize a massive long-term general strike and demand an end to fossil fuels. If the capitalist governments won't agree to that, then they must be removed. We can offer them an easy way out — if they're willing to take it — or we can do it the hard way.

SEE ALSO — https://climatejustice.social/@breadandcircuses/110543144632118488

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency #ClimateAction #ClimateJustice

"The era of global warming has ended. The era of global boiling has arrived.

The air is unbreathable, the heat is unbearable, and the level of fossil fuel profits and climate inaction is unacceptable.

Humanity has unleashed destruction. This must not inspire despair, but action."

— United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres

"A straight line can be readily drawn among each of the two series of points corresponding to maxima and minima, thus showing that there is a simple relation between the brightness of the Cepheid variables and their periods."

Henrietta Swan Leavitt was born #OTD in 1868. Her discovery of how to effectively measure vast distances to remote galaxies led to a shift in the understanding of the nature of the universe. via @Wikipedia

#books #science #astronomy