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The apparent call by the US Chamber of Commerce for a Scopes type monkey trial cited in a Los Angeles times article -like that of the 1920' for evolutionists and creationists- to test the science of climate change, has led to vigorous protest from Exelon, autility company that manages most of the nuclear plants in the country. PG&M and PNM are other companies that vigorously protested these theatrics as they call it. The US Chamber of Commerce has opposed environmental legislation and is vocally opposing the EPA's use of an existing law, the Clean Air Act, to set limits on greenhouse gases. Exelon, PG&E, and PNM have withdrawn from the US Chamber of Commerce to protest. Other companies opposing the chamber's statements on climate change are Nike, J&J, Duke Energy.

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Joe Manchin, (Democrat) is using his one vote in a 50-50 split US Senate to holdup president Biden's domestic agenda and on climate change. Democrats tried over the last year to negotiate with him. Now they say they have had enough after the latest disappointment with Mr. Manchin.

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EU energy ministers approve a windfall tax of $140 billion as solidarity contribution of fossil fuel producers. This follows action taken by president Biden in the $369 billion US Climate bill to generate the funds for social solidarity and for climate change action for brighter future in US and Europe.

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The kids go off one by one to college, only then do parents actively raising their children realize that its all over. Parents are the ones needing help seeing how empty nest parents feel. It is a sudden change after over twenty years of being conditioned to something else.

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The Swiss form of government with a permanent Unity government and one that steers to the moderate and centre is shown here in France 24 report. The recent elections showed immigration an important issue. Yet climate change has not receded as an issue after progress in passing a climate bill.

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Shell Oil's higher hurdles for investments in low carbon alternatives even as it stabilizes oil and gas production are called into question in this report in WSJ. In addition Shell will distribute 40% of cash flow back to investors. This poses risks for responsible action on climate change.

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US trade with Germany now exceeds China's trade with Germany. With the change in supply chains, slower German economy leading to lower imports and a slowing Chinese economy, this is likely to lead to US and Germany having increasing trade relations and two way trade from now on.

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Barmer, Rajasthan hits 48 degrees centigrade. The heat wave affects election turnout in Rajasthan state of India and in other parts of India.Delhi sees temperatures of 45 degrees centigrade. Floods in Brazilian state Rio Grande do Sul, heat wave in India, a new set of challenges from climate change in 2024.

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Did you know that SUV's are the second largest source of emissions after Power. We hear a lot about aviation which is much smaller but little about SUV's in the impact on climate change. SUV's make up about 40% of cars in Britain, and higher in the U.S. at 43%, 40% worldwide an astounding sixfold increase from 32 million to 200 million since 2010. People may even be driving an SUV and talking a lot about climate change.

Any savings from electric cars expected to grow from 2 million to 20 million by 2030  will be offset by more SUV's on the road. This is the view of the International Energy Agency in its recent report. Again all the talk about electric cars as a way to address climate change misses what is really happening in automobiles. Even in China the SUV's make up 42% of sales, and in India 30%. It is more profitable to make SUV's and they are harder to electrify adding 25% to energy consumed compared to cars. 

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The lack of a comprehensive rainfall database and current flood maps for the US affects the ability to take climate change action and tackle floods says this report in NYT.

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Ford. will still make $8 billion to $11 billion this year even after losses of $3 billion in electric cars. By 2026 Ford says it will earn 8 to 9 percentage points in profit from EV's. Ford is basically investing in the EV industry now for the long run. It is also part of the effort to move away from fossil fuels. Government incentives and subsidies will help companies and buyers of vehicles make the transition to EV's to fight climate change.  Companies that have not invested in EV's such as Toyota risk falling behind in EV's at a time when climate change is a major priority for buyers and governments around the world. Toyota is moving to a new CEO who can better take up the challenge of EV's. Under the previous CEO Mr. Toyoda Toyota clung to a mistaken belief that hybrid cars were all that is needed to reduce use of fossil fuels. German, Chinese and US manufacturers are taking the lead in EV's and Japan has fallen behind.  WSJ has never favored government subsidies and is critical for this reason. Yet it is clear that in some situations such as fighting climate change, building infrastructure, and redesigning the supply chain, government has to take the lead. Eisenhower in the 1950's with a government led effort helped build the national highway system, the first in the world. Biden is making a similar effort on multiple fronts. The redesign of the supply chain comes after private industry without proper direction from the government over concentrated manufacturing in China with Japan as a supplier into China. Presidents Bush and Obama wasted time and resources better devoted to national priorities at home on wars in remote places such as Afghanistan and Iraq. President Biden wrapped up the war in Afghanistan and completely disengaged from an area that is of no constructive interest to America. Resources are now concentrated in the right way on real national priorities from manufacturing at home to fighting climate change, fighting the cost of living crisis and building better infrastructure for workers and families. ...

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This WSJ editorial looks beyond Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan. It says for decades during which China modernized its economy with US investment and technology, Chinese policy remained peaceful reunification and no set date. The US under this agreement for peaceful reunification agreed that it would follow One China policy and not follow the earlier policy during the Cold War of close defense ties with Taiwan. Now it appears from Chinese policy under Xi Jinping that Chinese plans are for reunification of Taiwan by any means and with a date of the next decade or even in the next 18 months, says WSJ. This is a change of previous Chinese policy says WSJ and the US response should be to act with a change in its policy to provide Taiwan with the ability to defend itself during an invasion of the islands around Taiwan or other invasion.

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Potash a potassium based fertilizer mined from the earth is environmentally friendly unlike nitrogen and phosporous based fertilizers. When Belarus and Russia which make 40% of world supply of potash could not supply the world market because of the war in Ukraine, Canadian producers which make 30% of potash stepped in to increase market share. Two Canadian producers will increase production to meet demand after a 28% increase in the price of potash. Potash has the added advantage of being good for the environment and for climate change action. The use of potash needs to double to meet climate change action goals. Nutrien, the world's largest producer of potash in Saskatchewan, Canada will increase production by 2026 from 15 million tons to 18 million tons a year. BHP has a new plant coming up in Saskatchewan in 2026 for 4.35 million metric tons of potash. 

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Changes in the management board at  VW that will lead to an accelerated investment in electric vehicles. Labor leaders had sought to oust CEO Herbert Diess. Mr. Diess will no longer oversee the VW brand or the company's business in China. The management board is expanded to 11 from seven previously. Three new board positions were created two filled by women. The result is that Mr. Diess will now be working with overall guidance from the board and other members that seeks to accelerate VW's conversion into an electric car company. About $180 billion in investment was approved half of this going into digitization and electric cars.

These changes are happening as Germany goes in a new direction under the leadership of Mr Scholz of the SPD and the Greens vice chancellor, Mr Habeck, who is also in charge of an expanded economy ministry including climate change, with large investments planned to combat climate change.

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The Wash. Post says the former president's speech as it wore on for 90 minutes rambling on without clarity on discussion of issues and policies for the future was a missed opportunity. Nothing was said about bringing down the cost of living when so many actions on multiple fronts are needed. Nothing on climate change or climate change action but leaving it out out of denial it exists during the worst heat waves and floods in a century. It is now Biden's turn to spell out the details of policies for cost of living action step after step of action, says the Post. Post readers say so far the Post titles and phrases it uses are more out of social media and ask ominously is it itself turning into social media as shown by the post of Letters it has received on coverage of Biden and the future 2024-2028 on this Lyrarc page.

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Across the US a high percentage of people have seasonal allergies- over 25% in adults and 19% in children. A research institute at University of Utah found that higher temperatures from climate change leads to higher pollen counts. A warmer winter and warmer temperatures earlier than usual have worsened allergies in 2023.

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A democratic delegate from California says she is "awestruck"  by how quickly people rallied behind Harris. Another from Pittsburgh says there is energy behind the change, as we are going to go back to an election conversation that will debate ideas and what is the vision of the United States.

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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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Abe's new team in Japan. Yasuhisa Shiozaki one of the more aggressive appointments signalling change balanced by appointments of older men from his faction in the LDP. Hiroko Ota, a protege of Mr. Takenanka becomes economy minister in charge of the council on Economic and Fiscal Policy. Aso continues as foreign minister and will try to smooth Japan-China relations.

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With a win in the Kingswood byelection, a Tory stronghold, Britain's Labor party is now seeing a real shift of voter sentiment for a large majority in parliament in the coming general election. Britain entered a recession in Feb 2024 and the Conservatives have no solutions for the economy after many years in power, and 4 prime ministers in a constant change of leadership. Britain also lacks the resources that make it possible to have the kind of investment and scale of investment in the US that president Biden has launched.

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As the national unemployment rate rebounds and people get back to work around the the U.S. New York city is seeing a profound change. Many jobs are being lost and the unemployment rate in New York City hovers around 20%. This is worse even than Michigan.

The lockdown in March put a million people out of work. Then federal aid kicked in and there were furloughs. As the crisis dragged on after 4 months the employers ran out of federal aid and began to layoff employees.

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In extended diplomacy Carney visits Beijing, China and says middle powers are seeking ways to interact and trade in a world of big power rivalry. His visit is followed by visits by UK's Starmer and Germany's Merz, and preceded by Macron. At the same time Merz visits Ahmedabad for a kite festival and signs a new trade agreement with India, followed by Leyen and Costa of the EU who sign a EU-India trade agreement for 27 countries of the European Union. All this suggests carefully planned effort in Europe to create new channels of trade and reorient existing trade relationships that will be more resilient with the US shifting to focus on Monroe Doctrine idea of the Western hemisphere as its region of influence and security. This report shows pictures of Starmer and Xi meeting at the Plough Pub in UK in 2015 and reflects on how this has changed 11 years later with China now  a dominant power with the world's 3rd largest economy and a third of world's manufacturing and logistics. How does this change the relationship with China in 2026 for UK and Canada, and the EU? At the same time Germany-India and EU-India relationship creates a 2 billion people market with capital, technology and labor potential to create the largest potential driven economic group in the world, combining EU's 20 trillion to India's $4 trillion economy and mutually complementing, which has potential to rival the US at $30 trillion by 2030 as India grows rapidly in the new EU/Germany/India market and the EU gets a new boost with the complementarity of the two regions by 2035. This suggests that something new is happening and Germany after a lot of soul searching have hit on something we should see blossom by 2030 in the way China has grown since that picture with Cameron of Xi at the Plough Pub in UK. A problem China faces as it continues to push exports is that EU/ India and US will take in less exports and there is only so much it can put in Latin American and African market, UK/Canada market leading to industries with massive oversupply. Major economic redirection may result from the Merz/Leyen/Costa visit and firming up trade agreements with India if the EU, Germany and India have the determination to seize this opportunity in the 21st Century. As Leyen said it has the potential to create a stable world with values of the Bible, the Bhagavad Gita, and Mahajima Nikaya of the Buddha supporting the industrial states that emerged from the Industrial Revolutions. ...

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Starting in May 2023 one could catch a Eurostar sleeper train from London's Kings Cross St Pancras to Berlin with a change in Brussels for 109 euros. This gets you into Berlin for breakfast after a nights sleep on the sleeper train. The service will extend to Dresden and Prague by Dec 2023.

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The suddenness and severity of floods in Germany are just one more indication of climate change crisis that is happening much faster than campaigners or scientists expected. The Times looks at this from events of the last 2 years with drought conditions, wild fires, in places that range from the western US to Australia. 

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The new Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese has visited India as a backpacker in his younger days and led a parliamentary delegation to India. He is committed to deepen economic, strategic, and people to people links between India and Australia. Albanese is also committed to fighting climate change and moving aggressively on renewable energy.