Month: December 2016

This scam is a disgrace

Posted on by hk80u

The quote?

For years, the US – and the rest of the Western world—has afforded a climate in which Attorneys General and Senators and Secretaries of State and even Presidents can conspire with university professors and heads of government science institutions and environmental PR companies and green NGOs can exploit green issues in which to wage continual war on both the economy and the consumer, often enriching themselves in the process while the rest of us get poorer and more constrained by needless taxes and regulations.     …….

This scam is a disgrace and has gone on far too long.

 

The source?

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/12/23/trump-versus-the-green-blob-the-biggest-science-scam-in-history

 

My observations?

  • There are strong differences of opinion on all sorts of things.  They persist, regardless of educational level or intellect.
  • What we espouse, is affected both by what we believe personally, and by what we perceive that others around us believe.
  • To speak of ‘the science of climate change’  as if it’s unambiguous, stable, complete, or unanimous, is to reflect an ignorance of science itself.
  • All life forms, plant and animal, respire.  They take in oxygen and glucose;  and they give out carbon dioxide and water (and energy).  Plants also photosynthesise (while there is daylight).  Photosynthesis is respiration in reverse.  Plants take in carbon dioxide and water (and energy), and they give out oxygen and glucose.  Without carbon dioxide, there’d be no oxygen.  Sort of takes your breath away, doesn’t it.
  • There is a tide in the affairs of men.  James Delingpole, the author of this piece, refers to a ‘tipping point’, and to ‘a dramatic shift’.  Time will tell.  The challenge for the strategists is whether to move ‘against the tide’, or to wait until the run is obvious.
  • We are talking big business.  Huge.  According to Delingbole, ‘the global decarbonisation industry alone is worth at least $1.5 trillion a year.’  For some it’s a conscience issue, and a policy issue.  For some it’s an expense.   For some others it’s a revenue line.  And for others again, it is all of the above.

Life expectancy in the US is now falling.

Posted on by hk80u

The quote?

  • For the first time in two decades, life expectancy has declined in the U.S. — a consequence of obesity and rising rates of eight leading causes of death, including heart disease, diabetes, dementia and opioid addiction
  • The decline in life expectancy is primarily caused by a rise in several categories of preventable deaths, highlighting the failure of the American health care system to properly address the root causes of chronic disease
  • Half of Americans are living with chronic illness, and the cost of health care now accounts for 17 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product


The sources?

  • http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2016/12/21/obesity-opioid-role-american-declining-lifespan.aspx?utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20161221Z3&et_cid=DM128906&et_rid=1806330573
  • https://www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-budget-101/spending


My observations?

  • At 17% of GDP, health care is a big ticket item.  Huge.
  • My perspective about that big ticket item will reflect whether I am a consumer of those services, a provider, or a funder.  Each of us is probably at least the first and the last.  We might well be all three.
  • If we believe (to quote Ralph Waldo Emerson) that “The first wealth is health”, we personally will be making appropriate lifestyle choices that foster health, and these will have the effect of reducing our consumption of health care.  The majority however appear to be making other personal choices.
  • If I am a tax payer, or legislating on their behalf, I will be looking at both the cost of relevant public health initiatives, and their effectiveness.  The US federal budget for fiscal 2015 was $3.8 trillion.  Of that total, 27.4% was Medicare and health – putting it ahead of Military, and second only to Social security.
  • The evidence suggests ‘the failure of the American health care system to properly address the root causes of chronic disease’.  Think What we eat, What we drink, How we think, Whether we exercise.
  • If I am a provider of health care products or services, or what some have termed the illness industry, I might think of that 17% as a revenue line rather than a cost.