On the one hand: Grrrr! No internet!
On the other hand: Yay, no internet! No news on Trump craziness. No news on Covid-19 deaths and destruction. No news about our desperate planet and its desperate people.
Yet, the Covid news doesn’t end. Compare this week’s numbers with last week’s:
July 30 – 17,096,000 worldwide: confirmed infections; 668,590 deaths
July 22 – 15,240,000 worldwide confirmed infections; 623,660 deaths
July 30 - US: 4,451,000 confirmed infections; 151,270 deaths
July 22 - US: 3,971,000 confirmed infections; 143,200 deaths
July 30 - SA: 471,125 confirmed infections; 7,498 deaths
July 22 - SA: 395,000 confirmed infections; 5,940 deaths
News blues…
With more than 3,000 Covid-19 infections each day since last weekend, KwaZulu-Natal is emerging as South Africa’s latest epicenter.
Last Sunday, the number of cases in the province had risen to 60,532, with 3,405 new infections since the previous day. On Monday, the number of cases stood at 65,982, placing KwaZulu-Natal behind the Eastern Cape, Gauteng and the Western Cape in totals, but giving it the highest rate of increase in infections in the country.
Today, KZN has 71,240 cases.
***
Iceland has virtually beaten Covid-19 infections. The latest statistics show 1,823 recoveries of 1,861 cases with 10 deaths. Iceland never imposed a lockdown. Only a few types of businesses - night clubs and hair salons - were ordered closed. Hardly anyone in Reykjavík wears a mask. And yet, by mid-May…the tracing team had almost no one left to track. During the previous week, in all of Iceland, only two new coronavirus cases had been confirmed.
(Consider: Katrín Jakobsdóttir is Iceland’s prime minister
Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand's prime minister, announced stringent lockdown and quarantine measures and that country fares very well.
A similarly positive pattern occurred in Denmark, Norway and Finland, all ruled by women, as opposed to Sweden, ruled by a man, where economic considerations trumped health concerns, and ultimately resulted in the highest death toll per capita in Europe.
Not sexism. Just facts.
***
Healthy futures anyone?
Focus on Iceland.
With low levels of air pollution, stunning green forests, excellent water quality, and effective environmental policies, Iceland is one of the most environmentally friendly countries on the planet. According to PR Newswire, 72 percent of the country’s total energy consumption comes from hydro and geothermal resources. Moreover, Iceland is still reaping the benefits of the Nature Conservation Act (1999), which protects the land from construction, deforestation, and other damage.
When settled in the 9th century, Iceland had considerable forests which provided fuel for the population… and for the production of charcoal and, by extension, for iron working. Available] forests … almost disappeared in less than 400 years and, along with volcanic eruptions, climate changes, and wind erosion of grassland, caused serious desertification. Centuries of poverty followed when the population squeezed what we could out of peat and other low-grade combustibles. In other words, trees were harvested without foresight, not replaced, and the valuable forest asset was destroyed.
Around 1900, fossil fuels triggered a historical shift with the use of coal and oil in Iceland’s growing fishing fleet. This made possible trawler fishing and large-scale harvesting of productive fishing grounds. Fossil fuels also heated houses.
Fortunately, the country began harnessing hydropower resources to produce electricity to light streets. That worked until the 1970s, when oil prices dramatically climbed. The oil crisis forced Iceland to look at other energy sources. The success of a large project to produce electricity from geothermal steam has been followed by more technically advanced power plants.
Today, wind turbines, reclaimed forests, and hydropower and geothermal energy account for more than 99 per cent Iceland’s sustainable and clean electricity production.
On the other hand,
World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), predicts the world is on the brink of reaching temperatures the Paris agreement had hoped to avoid.
The study predicts that the global temperature is likely to be at least 1°C above pre-industrial levels in each of the coming five years. There is also a 20 percent chance that the Earth’s temperature will exceed 1.5°C in at least a year’s time.
As the United States under Trump is set to pull out of the Paris accord (see yesterday’s post ) South Africa’s government hopes to
…cushion the blow of the Covid-19 economic crisis [with] a three-month delay in first carbon tax payments. The implementation of the carbon tax, aimed at penalising large emitters of greenhouse gasses, has since been concluded. On March 27, the day the lockdown kicked in, Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries … lowered minimum air pollution standards for sulphur dioxide to reduce emissions by 58 percent.
The move was a compromise, achieved after public consultation [and] took into account the financial situations of big polluters Eskom and Sasol, which were seen as unable to invest in infrastructure that would lower their emissions to standards called for by environmental organisations. Since the beginning of the pandemic, stimulus directed at South Africa’s fossil fuel producers exceeds stimulus directed at clean energy.
***
Daily Maverick webinar, “Dirty Tobacco: Spies, lies and mega-profits.”
For decades, reputable tobacco companies have been complicit in cigarette smuggling. In a tell-all exposé, host Pauli van Wyk talks with Telita Snyckers, SARS insider [South African Revenue Service (US IRS)] about the illegal cigarette trade, why and how listed companies smuggle their own product, and other truths uncovered while writing her latest book, Dirty Tobacco.
***
The Lincoln Project: Trump Stooge
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
What would I do without online libraries?
I subscribe to and download e-books from both Berkeley Public Library and San Francisco Public Library.
Downloads allow me to read on my cell phone anytime I have Internet access (a bit tricky here). My regular sleep pattern includes awakening at 3:00 a.m. I’ve no heavy physical book or flashlight/torch to hold as I lie in bed and me. Just me, snug in my bed with my cell phone – happy as the proverbial clam.
After years of reading hard-topic non-fiction, I returned to fiction to escape reality. Well, almost: I read current non-fiction online, as it becomes available.
Recently I downloaded, and n the process of reading, the second edition of The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 35 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President, edited by Bandy Lee, M.D., M. Div.
It’s a disturbing read.
I pause frequently and read fiction to regenerate my mental constitution before diving back into The Dangerous Case…
For lovers of books and reading, online libraries are heaven sent.
I’m an online library evangelist.
Recently, as I purchased my usual weekly seed, nut, and whole grain loaf at the local bakery, I chatted with the store owner. He mentioned he’d not slept well and read a book in bed.
Did he read e-books, I asked.
He’d never heard of e-books.
I grabbed my moment to proselytize and explained how e-books work: one signs up for library membership, logs onto the library website, finds e-books, audio, and video (a filter system allows easy perusal of catalogs) and either downloads or “holds” items.
Most users process and track downloads through an Amazon account although I suspect there are alternatives to Amazon, too.
I suggested the bakery owner approach the local library and inquire about their e-book offerings.
Prior to finding a local Internet Services Provider, I frequented the local bricks-and-mortar library and used one of three computers there. Like most libraries, a user signs up for a computer and, once online, has 30 minutes of use, including accessing Internet. Not much time, but better than nothing.
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