From the Climate Nexus Newsletter:
"22 Billion-Dollar Disasters In 2020 Breaks Record: A record-smashing 22 weather disasters inflicted at least $1billion of damage on the U.S. in 2020, according to NOAA, as the toll of human-caused climate change mounts in real time. The 22 disasters blew away the previous record of 16, killed 262 people, and inflicted $95 billion in damages in 2020, which European scientists say is tied for the hottest year on record. Climate change, caused by burning fossil fuels, makes wildfires more extreme, hurricanes more intense and intensify more quickly, and extreme rainfall more severe as warmer air holds more moisture that can then be dumped in overwhelming volumes. The fact that more people are living in areas vulnerable to climate disasters also contributed to the record number of billion-dollar events. Weather disasters ravaged areas across the Lower 48 states, as wildfires incinerated more than 10 million acres across the West, thunderstorms deluged the Midwest, and hurricanes repeatedly pummeled the Gulf Coast. (Disasters: CNN, Politico Pro $, The Guardian, E&E $, The Hill, Bloomberg $; Hottest year: Axios, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Earther; Both: CNN, Washington Post $, Buzzfeed; Climate Signals background: 2020 Western wildfire season, 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, Extreme precipitation)
Racism A Barrier For Energy Efficiency Improvements: Improving energy efficiency could have dramatic benefits for businesses owned by people of color, but systemic racism and the exclusivity of the old boys' club bar many from accessing the capital required to invest, the Energy News Network reports. Energy efficiency improvements can cut operating costs without putting downward pressure on wages. Small business owners of color, however, are often blocked from obtaining the up-front capital required to make those improvements — especially if businesses are in areas of concentrated poverty, which is often the product of decades of racist, redining-based lending practices. “Capital has become an issue for almost every Black-owned business, small and midsize businesses especially,” Carla Walker-Miller, the founder and CEO of Walker-Miller Energy Services, an energy efficiency company in Detroit, Michigan, told EEN. (Energy News Network)"
This Video I mostly agree with: https://youtu.be/PtVSXXR219E
It would be nice to have my student loan debt cancelled, sure. Is it fair though for everyone in American society though? No, I don't believe so. People who are raised in poor areas and without great mentors and who may have acted badly as teens and didn't do great in school for whatever reason, may not have ever went to college, or have gone but were never comfortable taking on thousands and thousands of dollars in debt. I think it would be more fair to have some of that money go towards infrastructure for renewable energy in the poorest of areas, helping allievate stresses and systematic racism, and also upping FAFSA aid for those who qualify for people who want to go to more college (along with ending some FAFSA restrictions such as how many years a person can use the aid), and possibly giving a credit to those who do have student loan debt. That is a more fair way of going about it, in my opinion.
Other than that...just been learning and getting better. Starting to learn some data science. Edx.org is a great site among others.
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