Hi friends,
Heat is punishing. It affects our moods, our muscles, our bodies’ ability to regulate temperature, and ultimately, organ function. We’re enjoying a lovely reprieve in New York, which is a good opportunity for thinking clearly.
Recent studies flesh out what this means in macroeconomic terms:
In 2021, more than 2.5 billion hours of labor in the U.S. agriculture, construction, manufacturing, and service sectors were lost to heat exposure, according to data compiled by The Lancet. Another report found that in 2020, the loss of labor as a result of heat exposure cost the economy about $100 billion, a figure projected to grow to $500 billion annually by 2050.
Corporations and lobbyists are actively fighting government efforts to introduce heat protection standards for workers, in an astonishing show of short-term thinking, self-sabotage, and callous disregard for people outside air-conditioned offices.
OSHA’s lengthy rule-making process is not equal to the moment. Republicans in the House will certainly block federal legislation. I’m determined to keep at the president for a climate emergency declaration.
This is not about a power-grab. (And besides, the candidate promising to consolidate power in a decidedly nefarious way is hugely popular with Republicans, so maybe this is a move they can respect.)
Tell the President that it’s past time to declare a climate emergency! This action has been updated again.
His long-term vision and the legislation he recently introduced, called the Food and Farm Act,
centers people, animals and the environment, rather than the large-scale, energy-intensive commodity crop farms that currently receive billions of dollars in subsidies.
[The bill] would redirect subsidies for commodity farms towards programs that support small farmers, climate-friendly agriculture and increasing healthy food access.
Blumenauer’s bill also contains provisions to reduce food waste and protect animal welfare, which generally do not figure in agricultural spending packages.
Legislators went on recess without a draft of the Farm Bill, which is
[t]he massive farm and food spending reauthorization package expected to top $1 trillion. Both the appropriations government spending fight and the farm bill have rapidly approaching deadlines of Sept. 30, which Congress is expected to miss.
Blumenauer’s bill is written and we should raise our voices to promote it.
Contact your Congressional representative to let them know that you support the Food and Farm Act.
Big Ag — the people who process and distribute commodities, livestock and crops — endangers us all.
In Iowa alone, according to state research, farmers apply about 2 billion pounds of commercial nitrogen annually to corn fields, and much of it is ending up in waterways that flow all the way to the Gulf of Mexico, worsening the conditions in a 6,500-square-mile “dead zone” where the waters are so oxygen-deprived that they can’t sustain marine life.
The EPA reports that the agricultural sector of the economy produces about 10 percent of US greenhouse gas emissions. Most of it is methane from cattle and other animals and nitrous oxide from synthetic fertilizers.
It’s likely that agricultural emissions underestimated because of fossil-fuel powered equipment. In addition, there is
the loss of carbon stored in soil when grasslands and native vegetation are converted to crops and the methane from manure deposited in lagoons and slurries in big animal feeding operations.
These practices are clearly unsustainable.
Tell Congress to stand up to Big Ag’s dangerous campaign to thwart climate mitigation efforts. This quick action is from Friends of the Earth.
If you live in NYS, you can also appeal to your federal legislators to expand federal nutrition programs under the likely (if as-yet-unwritten) omnibus Farm Bill:
Tell Congress to Support & Strengthen Federal Nutrition Programs. This quick action is from Feeding New York State.
Last week, I wrote about the dangers of living in an oligarchy. As Eeyore might say, “I’m having them.”
In the US, we know the score: At the intersection of wealth, political power, and corporate control, there are folks who seek to rule the rest of us. They are anti-democratic and dangerous to those of us who want to address the very real problems we face.
Big Oil, Big Ag, and the banking industry are three forces that we have to keep in view.
Chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, Sherrod Brown, noted in June that
“Americans have watched executives take their money, run banks into the ground, and get away with it too many times before. It’s time for CEOs to face consequences for their actions, just like everyone else.”
Tell your Congressional delegation to recover compensation from bank executives who lead banks that fail. This quick action is from Americans for Financial Reform.
Here’s a repeat from last week:
If you have enough wealth that you would be taxed by this law — a 2 percent tax kicks in for folks earning between 1000 and 10,000 times median household wealth, or roughly, at least $120 million in assets — you can afford to pay up.
Tell your Congressional representative to co-sponsor the OLIGARCH Act! This quick action is from Patriotic Millionaires.
with love,
L