Showing posts with label Biden on climate change. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Biden on climate change. Show all posts

Saturday, January 30, 2021

Vaccine uncertainties

News blues…

Contradictory information about vaccines:
New research suggesting that several Covid-19 vaccines are less effective against a variant first found in South Africa has increased pressure on President Joe Biden’s administration to speed inoculations and enforce basic public health measures like wearing masks.

Healthy planet, anyone?

Will Joe Biden come through on climate change?
The vision laid out in the actions signed by Biden on Wednesday was transformative. A pathway for oil and gas drilling to be banned from public lands. A third of America’s land and ocean protected. The government ditching the combustion engine from its entire vehicle fleet, offering up a future where battery-powered trucks deliver America’s mail and electric tanks are operated by the US military. 
... Biden’s administration will spur new climate-friendly policies for farmers while also devoting resources to the urban communities, typically low-income people of color, disproportionally blighted by pollution from nearby highways and power plants. In all, 21 federal agencies will be part of a new, overarching climate body. “This isn’t time for small measures,” Biden said. “We need to be bold.”

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I called a local politician with the reputation of getting this done – an anomaly in this country. He said he’d come to the house at 4:00pm.
He did! Right at 4pm he pulled up at the gate and honked/hooted.
I handed him the letters and photos I’ve carried to the local roads department office, showed him the culverts on both sides of the road, and explained the history of lack of service.
One thing he mentioned that I’d be on board with: a rates/property tax boycott. If enough property owners stop paying monthly rates/property taxes if may get enough attention on the lack of service delivery (culverts, extravagant potholes in every local road, overgrown vegetation, etc.
On the other hand, it may not. This, after all, is South Africa: always expect the unexpected….
***
Monday sees us free of the 3-month contract with one real estate agent to sell the property – the “sole mandate.” Suddenly, other agents are interested in seeing the property and bringing potential buyers. Too bad it’s also when the garden, lawns, stream and fishponds are flooded – and the gardener is ill with Covid.
I brought in the neighbor’s gardener to mow. At least the grass will look less unkempt when realtors come over.
***
My daily visit with my mother was sad. The Care Center sprays the facility once or twice a week to prevent coronavirus. Residents enjoy morning tea on the lovely verandahs during this time.
My mother was slumped in her wheelchair when I arrived. Other than slumping further, she barely moved. I dribbled tea into her mouth using a syringe.
After this “outing” she was wheeled back in to her room and laid out on her bed. To prevent pressure sores, aka bedsores, she was placed on her side and propped up with pillows.
My proud mother would HATE to be seen like this.
I hate to see her like this.