Strained Economy, Video Virality, Amazon Subpoena, Ocean Challenges, MAID Delays

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Originally published at: Strained Economy, Video Virality, Amazon Subpoena, Ocean Challenges, MAID Delays – Peak Prosperity

The global economy is showing signs of strain, with crude oil markets and German trade statistics indicating potential downturns. Despite the perceived strength of the US economy, oil prices have been negatively impacted by global economic fundamentals, with a significant selloff in late 2023 due to a slowdown in oil demand. Geopolitical concerns, such as the Red Sea conflict, have further complicated the situation. Meanwhile, Germany, often seen as a bellwether for global economic conditions, reported a significant decline in exports and imports in December 2023, suggesting a worsening global trade recession.

In the realm of social media, a video by Australian influencers Josh and Jeraldine Blackman has gone viral, highlighting the decay of urban life in New York City. The video, which captures their daughter’s disappointment with the city’s cleanliness, underscores the complexity of managing urbanized societies. The New York City subway system, despite its large budget, is plagued with issues such as derailments, delays, and mental health-related incidents, reflecting the fragility of modern societies.

Meanwhile, Amazon is under scrutiny following the subpoena of internal documents by the House Judiciary Committee and Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. The documents suggest that the company may have censored books under pressure from the Biden Administration, raising concerns about access to information and the influence of the government on businesses. This situation echoes previous instances involving Twitter and Facebook, where government pressure led to content removal. The issue is currently before the Supreme Court, which is set to clarify the extent to which federal officials can communicate with social media companies.

In environmental news, the global oceans are facing significant challenges, including ocean warming, changes in circulation, and a decrease in oxygen concentration. A study focusing on the North Atlantic Ocean shows significant increases in temperature, salinity, and carbon levels, with ocean acidification posing a significant threat to marine ecosystems. The study underscores the need to understand the interactions between different factors and the importance of synthesizing data for climate trend analysis.

Finally, Canada’s Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) program is facing delays in its expansion due to a shortage of doctors willing to participate. The program, which saw over 13,500 Canadians legally undergo euthanasia in 2022, is expected to see further increases once expanded. However, concerns have been raised about the ethical implications of the program, with allegations of MAID teams pressuring vulnerable individuals to choose death. The expansion of the program’s criteria to include poverty and the inclusion of children, termed “mature minors,” have also sparked controversy.

Sources

Canada’s MAID Program Delayed Due to Lack of Doctors Willing to Perform Non-Terminal Euthanasia

Canada is delaying the expansion of its MAID (Medical Aid in Dying) program as they cannot find enough doctors willing to kill people who do not have terminal illnesses.

Source | Submitted by bcoop

Study Reveals Increasing Ocean Acidification Threat in North Atlantic

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2023.1289931/full

Source | Submitted by 0007

Amazon Allegedly Censored Books Under Pressure from Biden Administration

So do we think the White House wants us to ban those books or just limit those books? How can we make them happy?

Source | Submitted by AaronMcKeon

The Slow Decay of American Cities: A Toddler’s Eye View

The vision most people have of societal collapse looks a lot like those post-apocalyptic horror films — say, something like I Am Legend. But in reality, collapse is a very slow, gradual chipping away at quality of life.

Source | Submitted by Slin

Crude Oil Weakens as Global Economic Fundamentals Worsen

Crude oil is suddenly weak and looking to get a lot weaker after a brief detour higher right into the Red Sea conflict.

Source | Submitted by rhollenb

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Interesting selection of topics - do you have an RSS you’re summarising? I would write this with sub-headings in caps: EG: OCEAN: xxxxxxx xxxxxxx

Anyway, I’m now convinced that a major new front is opening up in our understanding of climate change. It’s like a war where a whole new front just opened up. Dirty energy is one front, but the next front where climate change could be won or lost is in our oceans.

We started to make climate change worse when we started industrial scale whaling and fishing. The whale population today is 1% of what it was. It’s a similar story with the larger fish. Why does this matter? Water turnover. Larger sea life swam up and down through the water column, dragging nutrients with them. When we killed so many whales, we killed the turnover. The surface waters are starving. The lack of surface nutrients today is killing the world’s kelp forests. Whales used to poo huge volumes of nutrients out at the top of the water column - fertilising the ocean there. This and their movement stimulated the ocean food chain, increasing CO2 uptake. Those natural mechanisms are almost dead.

Add to this the fact that climate change warms the surface waters so much that the thermocline (warmer waters) are now a thicker floating layer on top, making even the physics of water turnover harder. The wind has to be much stronger to turn the water over and bring up fresh nutrients from much deeper. Ocean nutrients are trapped too deep. Worldwide we see that the kelp forests are simply starving to death. But there is hope. This 8 minute summary from the BBC covers revolutions in Australian kelp farming and what we have learned.

To go deeper, watch the presentation that starts with Dr Brian Von Herzen from Cambridge University which starts at 28 minutes in: it’s keyframed to the right spot. The threats from an overheated ocean with fixed water layers are almost incomprehensible - but the potential to fix this problem and benefit from it are also exponential. The problem is the solution - if the water layers are stuck - then let’s mix them! This may also help feed the human race all the protein we could need while stimulating the ocean ecosystems! How? Giant seaweed farms.
We can float solar or wave-powered seaweed platforms out in the deep ocean. These pump nutrients up from 500m below, growing kelp. This can be dried and powdered to feed a world of 10 billion people from just 2% of our oceans. They can also supply fertiliser for crops, food, medicine, plastics, artificial skin for medicine, and ultimately fund GIGATONS of carbon sequestration. And they’re on the way! Let’s demand our super funds invest in these rigs to both save the climate and our super.

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