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The idea here of promoting biodioversity by turning backyard lawns into places of biodiversity. Bringing back natural backyards where biodiversity takes root. A movement to encourage private owners of backyard plots and lawns to corporate campuses to create homegrown national parks. It envisions turning over 40 million acres of lawns in the US to imperiled native plants and trees. The idea is that of a land ethic- we abuse land because we think of it as something we own, not something we share with the rest of humanity just for a while. This way we treat it with the love and respect the land deserves. One way to do this is to design native landscapes as formal gardens so that they do not look so biodiversity plots not look messy. Intentionaly designed elements delineate larger messy wilderness in such biodiversity inclined garden spaces. Do this one small patch of land at a time.

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After hurricane Helene only about 10% of FEMA workers are available for Hurricane Milton headed towards the Tampa Bay Area at 175 miles per hour.

Christopher Flavelle of NYT  points out FEMA desperately needs more funding and staff as it is responding simultaneously to many disasters. The full effects of climate change in more and more natural disasters all across the US have not been taken into account for the added funding and staffing needed. In this situation FEMA is spread thin causing other problems such as attrition and burnout and unfilled positions.

The Government Accountability Office report found in 2023 that 35% of FEMA's positions were unfilled, because of “rising disaster activity during the year, which increased burnout and employee attrition.”

There are also lot of people who are out of work in disaster areas who can be pulled in for disaster work.  

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Cities including London, New York, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Melbourne, Milan, Caracas, Cape Town, Copenhagen, Vancouver, have pledged to become carbon neutral by 2050.

Reducing transport emissions is a big challenge. London has Ultra low Emission Zone which encourages people to switch to low emission vehicles.  Paris is creating 650 kilometres of cycling paths and plans to open up the whole city to bicycles by 2026. Buildings have a large carbon footprint - producing 38% of global carbon emissions. Of this 11% are in the construction materials of steel and concrete, Wood is an alternative material that is being tried in buildings. Passive heating is a way to heat or cool buildings by building underground canals around a building and using the natural temperatures of the earth to cool or heat the air above. This is seen in the Energon building in Ulm, Germany.

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The failure of the new administration of Pena Nieto to implement public spending programs during the transition period added to other problems leading to a decline in growth in Mexico. GDP growth was 1.1% for 2013. Construction spending and exports to the U.S. were also weak. Lack of natural gas supplies in some regions also played a part.

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See these pictures of the Yangtze River and the Poyang Lake in BBC to understand how the decades of hyper growth in China with use of coal and fossil fuels unprecedented in history were not good for China and the world. The Yangtze river has never recorded less rainfall than this year since records began in 1961. That hyper growth is being followed by slight or flat growth both situations China and the world could have avoided if a steady growth pattern was put in its place. Common sense and wisdom would have done better than economists and business  in the US and local governments in China that dictated a self-interested pattern of hyper growth that led to ravaging communities in the US and the EU by shipping all manufacturing to China, then starting to reverse this process as the same ravaged communities in the US and EU responded in elections in the US and EU. None of the participants in this now take responsibility for their role in the changing climate and natural disasters one sees in 2022. China now faces the task of rebuilding its entire fossil fuel driven industry along renewable energy lines, when it is at the end of a property driven, land sale driven boom, with local governments finances precarious.   ...

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With the strong jobs growth report in September the US Federal Reserve, America's central bank, is expected to increase interest rates by 0.75% at its meeting on Nov. 1-2. That will be the fourth interest rate increase in 4 consecutive meetings of the Fed. It is designed to tackle inflation yet it also reverses the period of low interest rates for savers that extended from 2000 to 2020. This period covered two crises one created by irresponsible behaviour of banks in the financial crisis of 2000 and the second a natural health disaster from the pandemic when interest rates were brought down to zero as a policy response. During that period savers who suffered decline in savings with little interest income and lower income groups were hit by both the financial crises, employment gaps that hurt income and savings, and the shift of jobs overseas as jobs were shifted to China and American manufacturing declined. Economic policy was determined in that period by economists who failed to grasp the dangers to American manufacturing, to American communities with loss of jobs from offshoring, rising inequality that fragmented society.   This has changed under the Fed run by Mr. Powell first appointed by Mr. Trump and now renominated by Mr. Trump, who is not an economist and brings a very different mindset to central banking, going with common sense about what works for average Americans. a sense of humility, and down to earth about American workers and American manufacturing and its place in America. ...

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The European Union's trade relations with China, and the trade and industry relationship between Germany and China built during the Merkel years is a part of the overall trade setup of the Free World that is likely to be questioned by Habeck, Baerbock of the Greens and chancellor Scholz after Mr. Biden's launch of the IPEF economic alliance for Asia. During her period in office Merkel also built the German trade relationship with Russia leading to Germany being dependent on Russia for 51% of its oil and natural gas supplies. The German dependence on Russia for energy is now being reversed by the efforts of Economy Minister Habeck of the Greens party in the Scholz coalition. The supply chain renewal and redesign by president Biden is likely to be followed by Germany and France and the EU. With it more investments will be shifted back to the US and the EU and allies in Asia such as India that offer a large pool of well trained workers similar to China's. In this sense the IPEF arrangement will be repeated in European Union's new relationships with Asia under the Greens SPD German coalition's leadership. ...

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Research shows that some countries will benefit more than others through climate change action for net zero emissions by 2050. India, Argentina, Britain and European Union, Japan and South Korea will be able to reduce imports of fossil fuels and invest in infrastructure, renewable energy, and create jobs in new sectors. Countries that depend on fossil fuel exports Australia, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Gulf states, will see much of their coal, oil and natural gas assets, left in the ground. The US and Canadian shale oil producers will also be affected, along with Chinese producers but with a broadly diversified economy the US and China will continue to grow. This paper with lead author from University of Exeter, in Nature, shows $11 trillion in stranded fossil fuel assets left in the ground by 2036 for major oil producing countries under the most probable scenario.  This means the transition will have to be carefully handled as some states such as Texas, Alberta will be hit hard in North America. The paper also shows that countries that are major oil and gas exporters such as Russia and Saudi Arabia will not be pioneers or push aggressively for climate change in the way the European Union, Britain, and India are doing at COP26 because of this problem of stranded fossil fuel assets left in the ground. China and the US have strong renewable energy sectors and will join the EU, Britain and India. ...

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The world would need 3 Germanys to provide the resources that one Germany consumes today. Earth Overshoot Day looks at the sustainable resources and how much each country consumes of resources. By July 28 planet earth had already consumed all the natural resources it could sustainably regenerate for the year. Experts say Earth would need three quarters of another Earth to provide the amount of resources consumed by our planet today. Everything makes a difference as European Union plans to cut energy use by 15%. Drying clothes on a line instead of in the dryer, shorter hot water baths, turning off lighting for monuments in cities, changing household lights to LED's, lowering the thermostats by a few degrees in winter, cutting out meat for just one or two days a week. The way Overshoot Day works out the arithmetic 1970 was the year when Earth passed the line where sustainable resources that could be regenerated and the consumption of these resources were equal. From then on it was a wild spree in places like Germany and then China, and it is how countries like India take up the work of renewable energy and limiting use of valuable resources that will affect the future. ...

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The Labor Dept. consumer price index was up 0.1% in Jan 2014 over the prior month. Compared to prior year it was up 1.6%. Part of this is the cold weather with natural gas prices up 3.6% and electricity prices up 1.8% in Jan. 2014. The Commerce Dept. Personal Consumption Expenditures Index (PCE) which better reflects rising health care costs was up 1.1% in Dec. 2013 over the prior year.

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This editorial in the WSJ says the resignation and downfall of Boris Johnson in Britain comes from the dissembling that resulted in loss of confidence in his Conservative party, but also in a larger sense from the failure of his agenda to revive Britain.  Not much has happened in the promise to invest in and revive the failing economy and social setting in the north of England. Inflation was hitting British households hard with inflation at close to 9% in 2022. Home electricity and natural gas prices spiked 54% in April and are expected to go up 40% in October. Johnson raised the payroll tax 2.5% to fund the NHS. Corporate tax rate was to go up to 26% from 19%. Green taxes helped energy prices go up, and Johnson did not cut the consumption tax or green taxes on gasoline or diesel or household energy says the WSJ, and kept the household income tax brackets the same even with inflation so households would see a large tax increase. In this sense Boris Johnson with his exuberant personal style and enthusiasm promised a lot after taking Britain out of the European Union with Brexit. Yet as the months dragged on and after the worst of the pandemic found there was little he could show that would convince Britons of a brighter future. Not for the North of England, not for Britons in other parts of England and in London, and with high inflation and lacking the investment that could change Britain, not much to show for infrastructure improvement or plans for the future. The dissembling and eroding credibility led to the situation that only half way through his term in office his absolute majority in the 2019 election could not keep Boris Johnson in office, and the Conservative party was losing the confidence of the British people.  ...

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UK's energy company, BG Group PLC is offering 12.9 billion Australian dollars for Origin Energy. Origin Energy Australia's biggest gas producer is also the owner of large coalbed methane assets, known as coal-seam. Trillions of cubic metres of natural gas are trapped in Australia's coal seams. Extracting this methane has been considered too costly until now as natural gas prices have risen significantly. There are environmental benefits as coal seam gas does not produce any sulfur dioxide or particulates, and emits only 50% of the carbon dioxide emitted when coal is burned.BG already has plans to spend A$8 billion on one LNG plant with capacity for 4 million metric tons a year of LNG. LNG is natural gas, mostly methane cooled to liquid form for transport by ship. This would use the coal-seam assets purchased from Queensland Gas Company for A$664 million as part of plans to start the LNG plant near the port town of Gladstone, in the state of Queensland. The Origin coal seam assets could provide gas for a second plant at the Queensland site. BG has an LNG supply deal to provide 3 million tons a year to Singapore from 2012. BG has prior focus in the Atlantic region with operations in Brazil, the UK, North Sea, and Trinidad and Tobago, the Queensland deal and acquisition of Origin gives BG an entry in Asian LNG markets. This will be the second biggest takeover of an Australian company after Mexican cement maker Cemex's acquisition of Rinker Group for A$16.7 billion....

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The Turkish example is proving how difficult it is to get effective international sanctions against the development of nuclear weapons without the cooperation of the international community. A recent surge in gold exports from Turkey to Iran, or to Iran through the U.A.E., is the result of Turkey using a loophole in sanctions against Iran to pay for natural gas and oil imports from Iran with Turkish lira. The lira is is then converted to gold to be sent to Iran. Under sanctions Iran is frozen out of the international SWIFT banking transactions system. Turkey imports 51% of its oil and 18% of its natural gas from Iran.Turkey's deputy prime minister tells a parliamentary budget commttee- "in essence gold exports to Iran end up like payments for our natural gas purchases. Turkey is depositing the payment for the gas we purchase from Iran to Iran's account in Turkey. I don't know exactly how they then transfer it." Turkish state run bank, Turkiye Halk Bankasi AS, is in charge of processing payments. Halkbank raised 4.5 billion lira ($2.5 billion)in Nov. 2012 in a secondary share sale of a 2.8% stake, according to the Istanbul Stock Exchange. Turkey's gold exports to Iran in the first 9 months of 2012 increased from $54 millon in 2011 to $6.4 billion. This is helping Turkey's problems with its high current account deficit from an unsustainable 10% at the end of 2011 to 7% 0f GDP. This helped Turkey with short term external financing needs by getting Turkey its first investment grade credit rating in twenty years. Two way trade with Iran for the first 9 months is at $18.8 billion, up from $16 billion in 2011, the $16 billion was an increase of 50% over 2010....

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Report on Climate Science put out by the US Energy Department in 2025 questioning the severity and impending nature of climate change effects. It is challenged by scientists who believe in the severity and impending nature of climate change, quite the opposite. Koonin, a Fellow at the Hoover Instituion at Stanford describes the work and its conclusions. He says the research is peer reviewed and looks at 200 years of climate research. Some of the conclusions- That climate change models claiming catastrophic situations are ultra sensitive and lead to extreme scenarios.  It talks about climate variability, and model deficiencies, data limitations. And says data for climate over continental US show no long term trends for extreme weather events. Global sea level rise of 8 inches since 1800 is not disputed but it says US tide gauge data shows no long term acceleration in warming globe.  On one point there has been agreement even in the Biden administration- what the US does to cut emissions will little effect the global changes in warming- because of coal use by China and India defended as needed for electricity for two billion people, an essential need. Thus the desire for a calculated tradeoff which lets the US take advantage of its abundance of oil and gas to reduce the cost of living for ordinary Americans, also an essential need. Because of the declining cost of natural gas vs coal, coal is in gradual phase out, and declining cost of solar means Germany, China, India are making the shift to solar, and nuclear energy provides another option. The difference is that the DJT administration is taking government out of the effort and letting the private sector work out building of renewable sources. Government is not always the answer as electric cars are likely to make more gains in 2026 than under the Biden administration because of VW, Mercedes, BYD, Ford and GM coming up with cars that can do close to 500 miles on one charge and the cost of an EV down to about $30,000 to $40,000. ...

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Australia is seeing strong results from apickup in CHinese demand, the stimulus of 67 billion Australian dollars ($60.58 billion US), and investment including A$43 billion natural-gas project of Chevron Corporation. As a result the unemployment rate fell to 5.7% in September from 5.8% in August 2009. Australia has the third highest fiscal stimulus package 2008-2010 as a percent of GDP at 4.6%, after the US at 5.6%, S. Korea at 4.9%. As aresult Australia's central bank is the first of the G-20 to raise interest rates lifting it to 3.25%.

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The Biden administration policy is similar to the Trump administration. The response is to send migrants back to their home countries. One of the lessons for the European Union and for the US of the last few years is that the US and EU cannot have migrants issue create discord within public opinion, when so much needs to be done for infrastructure, competition with Asian countries such as China, and the needs for recovery from the pandemic. With wars, natural disasters, smuggling of migrants, new waves of migrants required a different approach. Promoting development and providing help to the economies of these countries is seen as a more effective approach, and the best way to do this is to help strengthen America and the European Union by building a consensus on development and infrastructure investment.

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Shell's natural gas strategies and how it affects its share price.

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Matt Damon takes time off for a year to devote time to a movie project of his own about how fracking to produce natural gas comes to a small town in rural northeastern America. The film is directed by Gus Van Sant and has Damon as the representative of the drilling company and Krasinski as the environmental activist, and shows the conflicting demands for development and the environment.

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Leonhardt points out in the NYT that Hillary Clinton actually won in the popular vote by a substantial margin, by more than 2 million votes and more than 1.5 percentage points. He says that Democrats need to pay more attention to the working class in midwestern states- the job losses, crumbling infrastructure, and the plight of communities such as Detroit, Michigan which suffered through the bankruptcies of Chrysler and GM, and again with the foreclosure crisis, the financial crisis of the City of Detroit. With a similar situation in the neighboring states of Wisconsin and Ohio, in places like Toledo and other parts of communities facing industrial decline. While the Silicon Valley centred region powered the economy in California, and the financial industry and real estate powered New York, older midwestern communities never really recovered from a long decline stretching over 2 decades. The result was the loss of faith in Democrats among union workers and young people, leading to the loss of Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan. For most of its history the Democratic Party was based on its union and working class base including a large number of white voters. Only under Obama because of his unique candidacy was the coalition so dependent on the minorities vote. Before minorities were part of the Democratic coalition, but not in the way under the Obama candidacy. A return to its historic and normal base among whites in unions and working class communities, liberals, minorities, is a way to go back to the historic and natural base of Democratic support. In a sense dependence on tech communities for election funding and the tech booms, globalization, may have distorted Democrats sense of their historic role as champions of the working class and middle class communities throughout the country. There is now an opportunity to restore this lost mission of protecting the interests of the middle and working class who have seen huge drop in net worth as reported by Janet Yellen of the Federal Reserve at the Inequality Conference on October 17, 2014-"62 million households with a net worth of $11,000 for the year 2013." Poorly covered in the media and not made the utmost priority by Democrats (or Republicans). In the words of Janet Yellen, this was in the past several decades "the most sustained rise in inequality since the 19th century after more than 40 years of narrowing inequality since the Great Depression." She added the shocking words "by some estimates, income and wealth inequality near their highest levels in the past hundred years, and probably much higher than much of American history before then." Even discussion in the media goes back to the Obama coalition and treats it as a way forward for Democrats, when history shows it was different and the situation described by Yellen calls for a serious response. ...

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Norway's oil and gas industry companies like Statoil buried carbon dioxide deep in the seabed for natural gas extracted offshore. Sttoil's carbon dioxide emissions per ton of oil and gas extracted is 39% of the industry average as a result of technology and tax saving measures after Norway enacted laws taxing at the rate of $65 per ton of carbon emitted by the oil and gas industry. But overall because of the growth in Norway, more offshore production of oil and gas, and use in the transportation sector, Norway's emissions have gone up by 15% compared to 1991, when Norway was the first to put a tax on carbon dioxide emissions.

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Israelis and Palestinians enjoy access to the Dead Sea. An internet competition to vote the Dead Sea as one of the new seven natural wonders of the world.

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China's strategy for climate change action makes allowance for the need for coal as base energy, and insurance to prevent factory shutdowns from shortfalls of hydroelectric energy in drought seasons. It planned 80GW in 2024 for new coal powered plant construction. 

What should the US do? DJT and Republicans including North Dakota Governor Borghum say the US should also make some room for this in transition policy. DJT calls it "drill baby drill." Yet it is more nuanced than that, it means US will produce natural gas to supply Europe and keep gas and electricity prices down as a cost of living action. DJT knows industry has already put in plans for renewable energy production, it just won't be accelerated in ways that won't let the US economy grow. This is the rational for Alaska oil and gas and rare minerals policies shown alongside this article.

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A 850 megawatt solar project, the largest in the US outside of Las Vegas runs into opposition from environmentalists concerned about the effect on views and on tortoises other endangered species. The planned project on top of Mormon Mesa would put over 1 million solar panels 10 to 20 feet tall in the Nevada desert. Across the US 800 utility scale solar projects are under contract for generation of 70,000 megawatts of electricity, enough for 11 million homes, for more than Texas. Over half of this solar capacity is going into the southwestern US, with its sunshine and open land. For the first time the ardent advocates of renewable energy such as the Sierra Club are now opposing such projects. Solar made up one tenth of one percent of US energy in 2010, in 2020 it made up 4.5%. It is growing very rapidly because costs are going way down. Even before government subsidies solar is now below the cost of natural gas. Projects near Martha's Vineyard on the Massachusetts coast took 12 years to get sate and federal approval for wind energy. These battles are similar to ones being fought in Europe. The US is better positioned for solar because of vast desert spaces in the American southwest. President Joe Biden plans to use this advantage of solar and wind to get to 100% renewable energy by 2035. ...

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US expects arrival of the negotiating team from South Korea on April 9, 2025 led by Trade Minister Cheong In-kyo.

DJT says -“Their top TEAM is on a plane heading to the U.S., and things are looking good. We are likewise dealing with many other countries, all of whom want to make a deal with the United States.”