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POSSIBLE TOPICS: HCAD Runoff Elections; Whitmire wants Montrose TIRZ to pay $11.5M for renovation of library outside of the zone; Millions more salaried workers will be eligible for overtime pay under final Biden administration rule; Immigration Measure Added to the Ballot in Arizona; A Chill Has Fallen Over Jews in Publishing; E-waste from trashed electric devices is piling up and recycling isn’t keeping pace, UN says; Our landfills are destroying the Earth, study shows; Extraction of raw materials to rise by 60% by 2060, says UN report; Confronting Another Axis? History, Humility, and Wishful Thinking (Part 3);

Welcome to Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig where we discuss local, state, national, and international stories. 

Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig (@ThinkwingRadio) is now on Wednesdays at 11AM (CT) or Thursdays at 6PM on KPFT 90.1 FM-HD2, Houston’s Community Media. You can also hear the show:

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Except for timely election info, the extensive list of voting resources will now be at the end.

1. MIKE: So there is one still one more runoff election to pay attention to. This is a runoff for two of the three HCAD positions in a reputedly non-partisan race.
   1. The Democrats who are running are Melissa Noriega and Pelumi Adeleke.
   2. To quote the Harris County Republican Party, “The Harris County GOP has endorsed two solid conservative candidates running for these HCAD board positions. Kyle Scott for At-Large, Place 2, and Ericka McCrutcheon for At-Large, Place 3. …”
   3. I can’t endorse anyone on air, but draw your own conclusions.
   4. Early voting is taking place right now, and will run until Tuesday, June 11^th. I know that’s unusual, so I double-checked.
   5. Early Polling places are open from 7am to 7pm, except Sunday June 9^th, when the hours are noon to 7PM.
   6. Actual election day is Saturday, June 15^th from 7am to 7pm. If you are on line by 7PM, you must be permitted to vote, but I’m not expecting lines.
   7. About mail-in ballots: Because so many folks aren’t even aware that this runoff election is happening, if you get a mail-in ballot, you may not have noticed it in the crush of mail. I have one neighbor for whom this is the case.
   8. Check to see if you have received your mail-in ballot. If you haven’t gotten it or cannot find it, you can still vote in person with a provisional ballot. This will be checked against voter rolls to make sure you haven’t mailed in your ballot and voted twice. If you have your mail-in ballot but would still prefer to vote in person, bring the unmailed ballot with you so it can be spoiled, and then vote as normal.
   9. In this post, I’m providing links to Harris Votes and where you can vote in Harris County.
   10. If you live outside of Harris County and can hear my voice, I encourage you to check with the clerk in your county to see if you have any runoff elections to vote in. I have links to those below this show post at ThinkgwingRadio [dot]Com.
2. Whitmire wants Montrose TIRZ to pay $11.5M for renovation of library outside of the zone; by Maggie Gordon and Matt Sledge | HOUSTONLANDING.ORG | June 3, 2024. TAGS: Houston Public Library, Montrose TIRZ, North Regional Library in Acres Home, Acres Homes. Shepard-Acres Homes Neighborhood Library Spaces, Midtown TIRZ, Mayor John Whitmire, Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ),
   1. At a recent city budget hearing, the Houston Public Library’s interim executive director said the Montrose Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone was stepping up to help fund renovations to the deteriorating Freed Library.
   2. Montrose TIRZ board members this week expressed doubts about the $11.5 million plan, noting the library is not even inside the special taxing district.
   3. The library, just north of the intersection of Montrose Boulevard and Richmond Avenue, is located within the Midtown TIRZ.
   4. The Montrose TIRZ still could approve the funding for the library renovations, but at least two board members this week expressed reservations about moving money from other projects to cover the upgrades when the city already had funded another plan for a new library on Westheimer Road.
   5. “I am deeply concerned about the impact of this $11.5 million,” board member Lisa Hunt said. “Mayors come and mayors go, and citizens and homeowners remain. …”
   6. The Montrose TIRZ is one of many such special taxing districts that dot the city. Their goal is to collect property taxes above a designated baseline number that can be dedicated toward specific infrastructure projects within the districts’ boundaries.
   7. Aside from the library project, Mayor John Whitmire has been at odds with the district over a plan to remake Montrose Boulevard. Board members did not indicate Wednesday that funding the library project would affect the Montrose Boulevard plan.
   8. Hunt acknowledged that if Whitmire is intent upon using funds from the tax reinvestment zone, he likely could do so. TIRZ budgets and plans must be approved by the City Council, where the mayor wields great influence under Houston’s strong-mayor form of government. …
   9. Even as the city advances on the Montrose library renovation, it is pausing construction on the new North Regional Library in Acres Home — only months after its groundbreaking — freeing up more funding for the work in Montrose. …
   10. The existing Montrose library’s location inside the nearby Midtown TIRZ adds another twist to a saga that has seen plenty over the past three months.
   11. In March, the Houston Landing published an investigation into poor conditions at the historic building. One day later, Houston Public Library leaders surprised the mayor and City Council by announcing the building’s permanent closure, which later was walked back to a temporary closure.
   12. The library since has reopened. During a news conference about the city’s budget, Whitmire said he would block the planned relocation of the library to the Montrose Collective on Westheimer, which he said would position it “very close to adult entertainment, on the third story of a commercial building, behind the hamburger building.”
   13. The announcement surprised City Council and the developer of the new location, where the city already had invested a significant chunk of money. …
   14. Montrose TIRZ officials said some of them had discovered the Freed-Montrose Library actually was in the Midtown TIRZ only hours before their Wednesday board meeting. …
   15. The fast-changing plans could have a wide ripple of budget implications, affecting future library projects, as well as long-laid plans for the Montrose TIRZ. …
   16. [MIKE: Estimates range from as low as $5.1 million to address “life safety issues;” to $14.5 million for a total rehab. Continuing the story …]
   17. … The difference, according to Whitmire spokeswoman Mary Benton, is likely to come from pausing construction at the new $19 million North Regional Library — a pet project of former Mayor Sylvester Turner, who dug a ceremonial shovel into the ground at the library’s South Victory Drive site just six months ago. …
   18. The Houston Public Library has decided to pause the new library, freeing up $6 million for a variety of other projects across the library system, as well as up to $10 million that could be used in Montrose, according to Benton. …
   19. During Wednesday’s board meeting, Montrose TIRZ officials said the board would have to “zero out” planned projects including multi-million dollar safe street initiatives on West Dallas, Welch and Mandell Streets that include new sidewalks and bike lanes. 
   20. MIKE: A major question left by the story that was never addressed is the Midtown TIRZ; their disinterest or inability to pay for rehabbing the Freed Library was not discussed. That seems a major question that definitely needed more exploration.
   21. MIKE: Perhaps there will be a follow-up story that can discuss that?
   22. MIKE: I think there’s also a significant story about the related delay in construction of the North Regional Library in Acres Homes. Referring to the story I’m linking to there, I note that the term “Acres” is only mentioned once in a story about an Acres Home-area library, which I find odd. How severe is the need for this library in this location? How important is this new location for access by families and students in the Acres Homes area, who are typically working class and may not be able to afford many of the resources available from a new, modern public library?
   23. MIKE: Also, no mention is made of the address of the future North Regional Library aside from it being on South Victory Drive, so no comparison can be made about the difference in access that this will afford prospective users as compared to the Shepard-Acres Homes Neighborhood Library Spaces at 8501 West Montgomery. Are these libraries relatively close together? Is the plan for the new library to replace the old one or to supplement it?
   24. MIKE: I emailed the reporters for this story with some of these questions and Maggie Gordon was kind enough to get back to me very promptly. She said in her reply: “We are working on follow up stories. The first-day story included all the information we were able to gather as of press time.”
   25. MIKE: I responded that I appreciated her response and that I would be looking forward to any follow-ups.
3. Millions more salaried workers will be eligible for overtime pay under final Biden administration rule; By Tami Luhby, CNN | CNN.COM | Updated 5:15 PM EDT, Tue April 23, 2024. TAGS: Salaried Workers, Overtime Pay, US Department of Labor, Labor Secretary Julie Su,
   1. Millions of salaried workers will soon qualify for overtime pay under a final rule released by the US Department of Labor on Tuesday.
   2. The new rule raises the salary threshold under which salaried employees are eligible for overtime in two stages. The threshold will increase to the equivalent of an annual salary of $43,888, or $844 a week, starting July 1, and then to $58,656, or $1,128 a week, on January 1, 2025.
   3. About 4 million more workers will qualify for overtime when the rule is fully implemented in January, the agency estimates. In its first year, the rule is expected to result in an income transfer of about $1.5 billion from employers to workers, mainly from new overtime premiums or from pay raises to maintain the exempt status of some affected employees.
   4. “This rule will restore the promise to workers that if you work more than 40 hours in a week, you should be paid more for that time,” acting Labor Secretary Julie Su said in a statement. “Too often, lower-paid salaried workers are doing the same job as their hourly counterparts but are spending more time away from their families for no additional pay. That is unacceptable.” …
   5. The salary threshold will be updated every three years, starting July 1, 2027, the agency said.
   6. Business groups are expected to fight the effort, as they successfully did when the Obama administration attempted to significantly hike the threshold. Trade associations quickly pushed back on the latest proposed rule when it was released in August, saying it would raise their members’ costs and hurt their operations.
   7. “I suspect that such substantial increases may be a particular burden for many smaller businesses, forcing some to choose between cutting jobs and raising prices,” said Ted Hollis, a partner at Quarles & Brady, a law firm. “Some businesses that cannot do either may be forced to close, resulting in unintended but predictable side effects of this government action.” …
   8. [MIKE: The article then delineates some of the — let’s say, “predictable” —complaints from various business groups. Continuing …]
   9. … In 2016, then-President Barack Obama asked the Labor Department to overhaul federal overtime rules … [t]hat would have roughly doubled the level that was in place at the time.
   10. But business groups and 21 states sued, and later that year, a federal judge in Texas issued an injunction. The Trump administration said in 2017 that it would not defend the ruleand later lifted the threshold to the current level.
   11. MIKE: If prices have to be increased somewhat to cover these costs, I certainly understand that consumers will be unhappy where these increases are encountered, but the fact is that ultimately, higher wages create more economic activity which ultimately benefits all workers and even most businesses. Wage increases and the increased spending that accompanies them are even good for local, state, and the federal government, because tax revenues are increased.
   12. MIKE: Remember when Papa John threatened to fire workers because Obamacare might raise the price of his pizzas by a nickel? Labor is not the only cost to a business, and sometimes not even the largest cost, but labor is the only cost that isn’t ‘fixed’.
   13. MIKE: So in spite of the reflexive griping of business interests and Conservative Republicans, wage increases are ultimately a win-win, and historical stats prove it.
4. Immigration Measure Added to the Ballot in Arizona; Republicans are hoping a proposal revisiting some of the tough immigration policies of a decade ago will turn out their voters. By Jack Healy, Reporting from Phoenix | NYTIMES.COM | June 4, 2024 / Updated 5:45 p.m. ET. TAGS: S. Politics, 2024 Elections, Republican Party, Arizona,
   1. Republican lawmakers in Arizona voted on Tuesday to put a ballot measure before voters in November that would make unlawfully crossing the border from Mexico a state crime. The proposal would give local police officers the power to arrest and jail unauthorized migrants, and would allow state judges to order deportations.
   2. While immigration is the focus of campaigns across the country, the measure in Arizona is significant because it places the border crisis directly onto the ballot in a swing state that is seen as crucial in the presidential race.
   3. Republicans are betting it will fire up anti-immigration conservatives and draw in otherwise unenthusiastic independents. And it could sit on a potentially crowded ballot, along with another measure protecting abortion rights, which Democrats hope will draw out more voters on their side.
   4. The measure passed 31-29 along party lines. In floor speeches, Democrats called it an ineffective and racially biased measure that would break up immigrant families and hurt the state’s economy and reputation. Republicans focused on overdose deaths and migrants accused of murders, and called the ballot measure a necessary response to an unchecked “invasion.” …
   5. MIKE: I went to see what else is going to be among Arizona Ballot Measures for the 2024 general election.
   6. MIKE: As of June 2^nd, there is potentially an Abortion Access Act Amendment that may go on the ballot. I don’t know enough about Arizona state politics to even guess what the odds are of getting an abortion rights Amendment proposition on the ballot, but if that’s included, there will be dueling turnout prods for both sides.
   7. MIKE: Time will tell. The year is still relatively young.
5. OPINION — A Chill Has Fallen Over Jews in Publishing; By James Kirchick | NYTIMES.COM | May 27, 2024. Kirchick is a contributing writer to Tablet magazine, a writer at large for Air Mail and the author of “Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington.” TAGS: Zionist, Israel, Jewish, Gaza, Antisemitism
   1. This month, an account on X with the handle @moyurireads and 360 followers published a link to a color-coded spreadsheet classifying nearly 200 writers according to their views on the “genocide” in Gaza. Titled “Is Your Fav Author a Zionist?,” it reads like a cross between Tiger Beat and “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” …
   2. The spreadsheet is but the crudest example of the virulently anti-Israel — and increasingly antisemitic — sentiment that has been coursing through the literary world since the Hamas massacre of Oct. 7. Much of it revolves around the charge of genocide and seeks to punish Zionists and anyone else who refuses to explicitly denounce the Jewish state for allegedly committing said crime. Since a large majority of American Jews (80 percent of whom, according to a 2020 poll, said that caring about Israel is an important or essential part of their Judaism) are Zionists, to accuse all Zionists of complicity in genocide is to anathematize a core component of Jewish identity.
   3. Over the past several months, a litmus test has emerged across wide swaths of the literary world effectively excluding Jews from full participation unless they denounce Israel. This phenomenon has been unfolding in progressive spaces (academia, politics, cultural organizations) for quite some time. That it has now hit the rarefied, highbrow realm of publishing — where Jewish Americans have made enormous contributions and the vitality of which depends on intellectual pluralism and free expression — is particularly alarming.
   4. As is always and everywhere the case, this burgeoning antisemitism is concomitant with a rising illiberalism. Rarely, if ever, do writers express unanimity on a contentious political issue. We’re a naturally argumentative bunch who — at least in theory — answer only to our own consciences.
   5. To compel them to express support or disapproval for a cause is one of the cruelest things a society can do to writers, whose role is to tell society what they believe, regardless of how popular the message may be. The drawing up of lists, in particular, is a tactic with a long and ignominious history, employed by the enemies of literature — and liberty — on both the left and the right. But the problem goes much deeper than a tyro blacklist targeting “Zionists.”
   6. One of the greatest mass delusions of the 21st century is the belief that Israel is committing a genocide against Palestinians. This grotesque moral inversion — in which a genocidal terrorist organization that instigated a war with Israel by committing the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust is absolved of responsibility while the victim of Hamas’s attack is charged with perpetrating the worst crime known to man — began taking shape before Israel  even launched its ground invasion of Gaza.
   7. A charitable description of those imputing genocidal motivations to Israel is that they are ignorant, essentially believing the word to mean “large numbers of civilian casualties.” (Here it’s worth noting that the United Nations, to little notice, has significantly lowered its estimate of the number of women and children killed in Gaza.)
   8. For others, accusing Israel of genocide is an emotional outlet for expressing outrage at such a horrific loss of life. A third, more pessimistic, characterization of the ubiquitous genocide canard is that it is only the latest iteration of the ancient antisemitic blood libel, which held that Jews murdered gentile children in order to use their blood for religious rituals. …
   9. Whereas antisemitism in the literary world used to lurk in the shadows, according to the Jewish Book Council’s chief executive, Naomi Firestone-Teeter, since Oct. 7, it has become increasingly overt. “The fact that people have felt so proud and open about it is a different beast entirely,” she said. One of the most disturbing developments in this regard has been the frequency and contempt with which the word “Zionist” is now spit from people’s mouths in the United States.
   10. Until relatively recently, the use of “Zionist” as a slur was most commonly confined to Soviet and Arab propagandists, who spent decades trying to render the word the moral equivalent of “Nazi.” Today many progressives use the word in similar fashion, making no distinction between a Zionist who supports a two-state solution (which, presumably, most Jews in the overwhelmingly liberal literary world do) and one who believes in a “Greater Israel” encompassing the entirety of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. And while anyone can be a Zionist, I’ve found in my 20 years of reporting on antisemitism that many Jews essentially hear “Jew” when someone shouts “Zionist” at them.
   11. The corruption of the words “genocide” and “Zionist” lies at the root of the controversy threatening to unravel PEN America, the storied writers’ organization. …
   12. In February a missive that gained almost 1,500 signatures was published demanding that PEN “wake up from its own silent, tepid, neither-here-nor-there, self-congratulatory middle of the road and take an actual stand against an actual genocide.” The dozens of statements PEN had issued by that time calling attention to the plight of writers in Gaza (whom the letter, without citing evidence, claimed had been “targeted” by Israel for assassination)were insufficient. “We demand PEN America release an official statement” about the writers killed in Gaza the letter read, “and name their murderer: Israel, a Zionist colonial state funded by the U.S. government.”
   13. On March 20, PEN acceded to the ultimatum that it endorse the call for a cease-fire. But that did not satiate its critics.
   14. Last month, in advance of PEN’s annual literary awards ceremony, nearly half of the nominated writers withdrew from the competition. A subset of those writers then released another open letter, declaring, “Among writers of conscience, there is no disagreement. There is fact and fiction. The fact is that Israel is leading a genocide of the Palestinian people.” They accused PEN of “normalizing genocide,” denounced PEN for its “platforming of Zionists” and, most shamefully, called for the resignation of its Jewish chief executive, Suzanne Nossel, on account of her “longstanding commitments to Zionism.”
   15. Along with eight other past presidents of PEN, Salman Rushdie signed a letter in defense of the organization, an intervention that earned him an “unclear” rating on the anti-Zionist blacklist. (He has braved far worse from Islamist zealots and their Western apologists.) PEN ultimately canceled both the awards ceremony and subsequent World Voices Festival. …
   16. The real objectives behind the cynical weaponization of the word “genocide” and the authoritarian insistence that anyone who disagrees with it is an enabler of one are to shut down debate, defame dissenters and impose a rigid orthodoxy throughout the publishing world. It is a naked attempt to impose an ideological litmus test on anyone hoping to join the republic of letters — a litmus test that the vast majority of Jews would fail. …
   17. Compelling speech — which is ultimately what PEN’s critics are demanding of it — is the tactic of commissars, not writers in a free society. Censorship, thought policing and bullying are antithetical to the spirit of literature, which is best understood as an intimate conversation between the author and individual readers. …
   18. No longer is being on the receiving end of a review bomb the worst fate that can befall a Jewish writer exploring Jewish themes; even getting such a book published is becoming increasingly difficult. “It’s very clear you have to have real courage to acquire and publish proudly Jewish voices and books about being Jewish,” a prominent literary agent told me. “When you are seen as genocidal, a moral insult to humanity because you believe in Israel’s right to exist, you are now seen as deserving of being canceled.”
   19. There’s a distasteful irony in a literary community that has gone to the barricades fighting book “bans” now rallying to boycott authors based on their ethnoreligious identity. For a growing set of writers, declaring one’s belief that the world’s only Jewish state is a genocidal entity whose dismantlement is necessary for the advancement of humankind is a political fashion statement, a bauble one parades around in order to signify being on the right team. As was Stalinism for an earlier generation of left-wing literary intellectuals, so is antisemitism becoming the avant-garde. …
   20. MIKE: We’re experiencing an example of how anti-Zionism is often, if not usually, inextricably intertwined with antisemitism. This is another war hysteria mixed in with latent antisemitism, not so different from the anti-Japanese hysteria mixed in with racism during World War 2, except minus the concentration camps.
   21. MIKE: My father, who was born in 1917 and whose parents were immigrants from eastern Europe, once told me that he only spoke Yiddish until he was 5 years old when he started school, and there were kids in his neighborhood who used to bully him and hit him because he was Jewish.
   22. MIKE: Almost forty years later, around 1959, I would’ve been 8. The interstate highway system was still largely incomplete, and we were driving down to Florida to visit my mother’s parents. Our route often took us through rural county roads. I remember one sign we passed mounted on a fence gate. It said, “No dogs, Jews, or N-word allowed.” I didn’t understand what it meant, so I asked my dad. I don’t remember his answer, so I suspect that it wasn’t informative to me.
   23. MIKE: When I moved to Houston in 1977, I was 26. I got a job in a photo lab, and it turned out that I was the first Jew that almost anyone there had ever met. This was a novel state of affairs coming from New York City, which at the time had almost as many Jews as the state of Israel, but I was informed enough to know what the Jewish population of Houston at the time was about 1-3%.
   24. MIKE: When my “Jewishness” came up in conversation and they expressed curiosity, I welcomed their questions without judgment. I found myself dispelling antisemitic myths that I had only read about in books, but I felt privileged to be able to do so. I answered as best I could, and I respected them for being willing to ask and learn.
   25. MIKE: An early and ongoing battle in Houston is when people use the negotiating expression, “Jew you down,” an inherently antisemitic expression which many people use in all innocence, never having thought about what they’re actually saying.
   26. MIKE: As a window covering installer in the 1980s and 90s, I worked for a decorator who admitted that she was an antisemite, but she liked my work, so she made an exception for me.
   27. MIKE: So antisemitism in the United States is not new. It’s recent enough that I’ve seen and felt it in small ways in my lifetime and in some ways still occasionally do, but I’ve been fortunate that they were small ways.
   28. MIKE: As late as the 1990s, there were still exclusive golf clubs that forbade membership to Jews and Blacks and presumably other minorities. There may be a few that still do. The term “exclusive” kind of says it all.
   29. MIKE: If anyone has doubts about how recently antisemitism pervaded American life, they should look not only at current US history, but at US history of not so long ago. In 1947, the movie, “Gentleman’s Agreement (1947)” was released. IMDb synopsizes it thusly: “A reporter pretends to be Jewish in order to cover a story on anti-Semitism, and personally discovers the true depths of bigotry and hatred.” There were Jewish studio heads who declined to produce the film because they were afraid to “stir things up.”
   30. MIKE: I of course recommend the movie, but also you might read the trivia for “Gentleman’s Agreement (1947)”. The movie, and the trivia recorded about the circumstances around the making and showing of the movie, say a lot about the antisemitism of the time, and possibly about our time as well.
6. Now, moving on … Regular listeners may have noticed that I sometimes report on stories that are weeks or even months old. Andrew has named that “the Thinkwing backlog”. I do that with some stories for one or two reasons. One, the story may not be necessary as a particularly timely story, but it may be a story I’d like to find time for at a future date because it’s interesting. Another reason is that sometimes a story seems somehow incomplete to me, and there may be a future story that ties into it or expands on it in a useful and interesting way. I now have what I think is an interesting and interconnected quadruplet of stories, two of which are from March. First, from March 20^th … — E-waste from trashed electric devices is piling up and recycling isn’t keeping pace, UN says; By MOSES NDUNGU and JAMEY KEATEN | APNEWS.COM | Updated 8:20 PM CDT, March 20, 2024. TAGS: E-Waste, Electronics, Recycling,
   1. N. agencies have warned that waste from electronics is piling up worldwide while recycling rates remain low and are likely to fall even further.
   2. The agencies were referring to “e-waste,” which is defined as discarded devices with a plug or battery, including cellphones, electronic toys, TVs, microwave ovens, e-cigarettes, laptop computers and solar panels. It does not include waste from electronic vehicles, which fall into a separate category.
   3. In a report released Wednesday [March 20], the U.N.’s International Telecommunications Union and research arm UNITAR said some 62 million tons of “e-waste” was generated in 2022 … It’s on track to reach 82 million tons by 2030.
   4. Metals — including copper, gold and iron — made up half of the 62 million tons, worth a total of some $91 billion, the report said. Plastics accounted for 17 million tons and the remaining 14 million tons include substances like composite materials and glass.
   5. The U.N. says 22% of the e-waste mass was properly collected and recycled in 2022. It is expected to fall to 20% by the end of the decade because of “staggering growth” of such waste due to higher consumption, limited repair options, shorter product life cycles, growing “electronification” of society, and inadequate e-waste management infrastructure, the agencies said.
   6. They said some of the discarded electronic devices contained hazardous elements like mercury, as well as rare Earth metals coveted by tech industry manufacturers. Currently, only 1% of the demand for the 17 minerals that make up the rare metals is met through recycling.
   7. About half of all e-waste is generated in Asia, where few countries have laws on e-waste or collection targets, according to the report. Recycling and collection rates top 40% in Europe, where per-capita waste generation is highest: nearly 18 kilograms (39 pounds).
   8. In Africa, which generates the least of any of the five big global regions, recycling and collection rates hover at about 1%, it said.
   9. “The latest research shows that the global challenge posed by e-waste is only going to grow,” said Cosmas Luckyson Zavazava, head of the ITU telecommunication development bureau. “With less than half of the world implementing and enforcing approaches to manage the problem, this raises the alarm for sound regulations to boost collection and recycling.”
   10. For some, e-waste represents a way to earn cash by rummaging through trash in the developing world to find coveted commodities, despite the health risks.
   11. At the Dandora dumpsite where garbage collected from the Kenyan capital of Nairobi ends up — even though a court declared it full over a generation ago — scavengers try to earn a living by picking through rubbish for e-waste that can be sold to businesses as recycled material.
   12. Steve Okoth hopes the flow continues so he can eke out an income, but he knows the risks.
   13. “When the e-waste comes here, it contains some powder which affects my health,” he said, adding that when electronic devices heat up, they release gases and he “can’t come to work because of chest problems.”
   14. However, Okoth said they don’t have any other options: “We are now used to the smoke because if you don’t go to work you will not eat.”
   15. Recycling plants, like Nairobi’s WEEE center, have collection points across Kenya, where people can safely get rid of old electric equipment.
   16. “We take inventory of the items,” said Catherine Wasolia, WEEE’s chief operating officer, to check for data on submitted devices and wipe them clean. Then they test each to assess if “it can be reused or repurposed.”
   17. E-waste expert George Masila worries about the impact of electronic waste on soil.
   18. “When you have all this e-waste — either in the dumpsites or mercilessly deposited anywhere else — it could have major effects on the soil,” Masila said. “Every year it rains and water flows and attracts all these elements that are deposited into the environment. You have water getting contaminated.”
   19. He said greater recycling and re-use of such materials, “are some of the things we should be considering.”
   20. Report authors acknowledged that many people in the developing world pay their bills through harvesting such e-waste, and called for them to be trained and equipped to make such work safer.
   21. “We must try to support these people trying to find their niche,” said Ruediger Kuehr, senior manager of the sustainable cycles program at UNITAR.
   22. MIKE: This sort of brings us to our next story …
   23. REFERENCE: E-waste ‘drawers of doom’ growing, say campaigners —By Harriet Bradshaw,Climate and science reporter
7. … From March 29^th — Our landfills are destroying the Earth, study shows; By Joshua Hawkins | BGR.COM | Published Mar 29th, 2024 1:49PM EDT. TAGS: Climate Change, Landfills, Methane,
   1. Our landfills are much bigger climate change drivers than we previously believed, a new study has shown. In the paper, researchers argue that decades of buried trash is now releasing tons of methane emissions into the atmosphere, driving globally changing temperatures that could lead to more climate change issues.
   2. … It has been known for some time that open landfills are a perfect place for belches of methane to come bubbling up as old vegetables, appliances, and other household waste sit there and rot away.
   3. However, the new study argues that methane emissions from landfills are exponentially higher than was previously reported to federal regulators. Up to three times higher, in fact. The researchers involved say they measured around 20 percent of the roughly 1,200 large, operating landfills in the United States.
   4. [T]hey found evidence that landfills are indeed a significant driver for the release of methane and, thus, a huge drive for climate change as a whole. …
   5. [T]his new study provides very damning evidence that suggests the methane emissions from operating landfills is far beyond anything we might have imagined. This is, of course, disturbing because of the consequences the runaway greenhouse effect might have on Earth.
   6. While methane does last a shorter time in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, it is far more potent, the researchers say, with it causing a warming effect up to 80 times more potent than the same amount of CO2 over a 20-year period. That’s a huge issue as these landfills are constantly pumping methane into our atmosphere.
   7. The Environmental Protection Agency currently estimates that landfills are the third largest source of human-caused methane emissions, with them emitting as much greenhouse gas as 23 million gas-driven cars over the course of a year. However, these estimates have always been based on computer modeling as it is difficult and dangerous for workers with methane “sniffers” to properly measure the emissions at a landfill. (via The New York Times)
   8. That’s why this new study relied heavily on airplane flyovers and imaging spectrometers to help categorize the methane rising from landfills around the U.S. With multiple hotspots detected throughout the landfills, as well as sizeable methane plumes that can last months or even years, these emissions are certainly much higher than we were led to believe by computer modeling.
   9. Luckily, many landfills are actually equipped with pipes meant to carry the methane emitted from rotting garbage away from the area, where it can be burned off or used to generate electricity and heat. But, as with anything, pipes and wells are prone to leak, releasing some of that methane back into the atmosphere.
   10. The researchers argue that landfills will need to pinpoint those leaks and fix them, not only so we can get an even more accurate view of methane emissions from landfills but also so we can ensure the safety of any workers who must travel through those landfills for any reason.
   11. Of course, there are also other ways to help cut down on the methane being produced in these landfills, and that’s to find new ways to get rid of waste, including composting organic waste.
   12. MIKE: This story made me think about where we can mine raw materials, and I kept coming back to landfills, particularly old landfills.
   13. MIKE: We live in an age when accessing raw materials is increasingly expensive, and when the environmental consequences of mining and other mineral access technologies raise serious environmental concerns.
   14. MIKE: We also live in an age when creating relatively safe landfill locations is increasingly challenging, so maybe we should start thinking about old landfills particularly as readily available mining sites. Gobs of steel, iron, tin, aluminum, copper, and other resources are waiting to be mined. I don’t understand how humans can extract pounds of metals from tons of ore, yet not see the value in extracting these materials from landfills.
   15. MIKE: Sure, it may be a matter of developing specialized technologies to extract these materials from trash, but think of the benefits if it can be done. We would reduce the size of existing landfills and make room for more of society’s detritus. At the same time, we’d be engaging in the ultimate recycling: Avoiding a certain amount of mining and environmental damage while simultaneously extracting important metals for reuse.
   16. MIKE: Another angle on effectively sort-of recycling would be extending the design life of the major items we buy. This was done with cars about 30 years ago. It’s now common to see a car on the road that’s well over 10 years old, when cars that age used to soon be destined for the junkyard.
   17. MIKE: So, one contribution to a solution would be to change the definitions of “Durable Goods” and “Non-Durable Goods”. “Durable Goods” are currently defined as products lasting 3-5 years. “Non-Durable Goods” are defined as products designed to last less than 30 days.
   18. MIKE: My recollection is that up through the 1970s, it seems to me that the definition of “Durable Goods” for the purposes of economic planning and reporting was 10 years. This would have been the standard for things like “major appliances, or what were called “white goods” because they never came in colors.
   19. MIKE: I think it was sometime in the 1980s that the definition became 5 years, and in the 2000s, it became 3 years.
   20. MIKE: I have been looking for quite some time for the evolution of DEFINITIONS OF DURABLE GOODS, but that topic and explanation/history seems to not exist. What were those definitions in the post-war period?
   21. MIKE: When and why did these changes in definition occur? I have been looking on the web on and off for literally years, and I see anecdotal evidence that my recollection is correct, but surprisingly, I can’t find an article or scholarly paper verifying my memory and explaining the reasons for the changes.
   22. MIKE: But this brings us to the third story in my quadruplet …
   23. REFERENCE: Durable vs. Non-Durable Goods: What’s the Difference? — RJOFUTURES.RJOBRIEN.COM (“Put simply, durable goods are products that do not need to be purchased often, whereas non-durable goods are products that expire more quickly. The rule of thumb for this is, if it lasts longer than 3 years, it is a durable good, and if it lasts less than 3 years, it is a non-durable good.”)
   24. REFERENCE: Has the definition of a “durable good” changed? — ASK.METAFILTER.COM
8. From May 26^th — A Looming Copper Bottleneck Could Derail the Energy Transition; By Haley Zaremba | OILPRICE.COM | May 26, 2024, 10:00 AM CDT. TAGS: Copper Mining, Energy Transition,
   1. A new report from the International Energy Forum warns that global copper production may soon be critically outpaced by soaring global demand for the metal, which is a key component of many clean energy technologies. As such, the metal could soon act as an acute bottleneck in the world’s feasible pathways to meeting key climate goals by mid-century. 
   2. Staying on a net-zero pathway by 2030 will require 12.8 million tons of additional copper supplies over the next five and a half years according to recent calculations from BloombergNEF. For comparison, just about 27 million tons last year. Achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 will require a whopping 460% increase in copper production, which will require 194 new large-scale mines to be brought online over the next 32 years. According to the International Energy Forum report, in a business-as-usual scenario, just 35 will be added by that time. Meeting net-zero goals will therefore require a leap from the baseline never before seen in human history. 
   3. Many renewable energy technologies require larger amounts of copper than their fossil fuel powered equivalents. “An EV requires 2.5 times as much copper as an internal combustion engine vehicle,” reports CNBC. “Meanwhile, solar and offshore wind need two times and five times, respectively, more copper per megawatt of installed capacity than power generated using natural gas or coal.” Copper will also be an essential ingredient for the truly gargantuan grid expansion that will be needed to support the broad electrification of our energy system.
   4. [MIKE: I’m not sure about that last part. I believe that long-haul transmission lines use almost exclusively aluminum. Not that availability of Aluminum may not be a problem in the long run. But continuing …]
   5. The looming copper shortage is not a sudden occurrence – experts have been warning about the coming bottleneck for years. “What the world needs – today’s world as well as the future, increasingly climate-threatened one – is a bigger emphasis and greater expenditures on copper discovery and exploration,” Oilprice.com reported back in 2022. Sound familiar?
   6. And if there isn’t a major economic and political shift in the way that copper markets are managed and regulated, we’ll probably be writing the same article for years, until the pathway to net-zero becomes completely unfeasible. “Despite a surge in mining exploration budgets,” Mercom recently wrote, “a mere 16 out of the 224 copper deposits unearthed after 1990 were discovered within the last decade.” 
   7. To be sure, it’s not that there isn’t interest and money behind developing new copper mines. After all, there’s plenty of money to be made from developing additional resources. As a result of high demand and speculation around coming shortages, the prices of copper are skyrocketing. On Monday they hit their highest level on record, reaching $11,104.50 a metric ton on the London Metal exchange. 
   8. A big part of the reason for the mismatch between copper demand and supply is the arduous and slow permitting processfor building new copper mines. According to Futurity, “the average time between discovering a new copper mineral deposit and getting a permit to build a mine is about 20 years.”
   9. But according to recent reportingfrom Bloomberg, there’s also another, more insidious reason for the copper shortage. The recent opinion piece contends that it’s because the world’s vital copper supply “is being hoarded by a group of little-known mining barons.” Many companies have tried – and failed – to make major deals to boost copper mining in recent years. The two biggest attempted deals in the global mining sector over the last ten years were driven by copper interests, and both fell through. 
   10. “It’s a pattern we’re likely to see again, thanks to the way just four families have gained influence over some of the world’s richest mineral deposits,” Bloomberg wrote. “The families’ combined net worth is some $82 billion […]. Despite that wealth, their firms suffer from relatively high capital costs, making it harder for them to invest as aggressively as booming demand might dictate.” 
   11. In addition to loosening these copper baron’s grips from key global copper supplies and improving permitting delays, enhanced copper recycling will be key to keeping within a net-zero pathway. Copper recycling is already a strong and well-developed economic sector, yet in 2022, 40% of the whopping 2 million metric tons of copper present in e-waste alone went straight to landfills around the world. Closing this loop is therefore a critical component of the sweeping shift so direly needed in global copper industries.
   12. MIKE: This is still not the full story that I think will be covered somewhat in the next article I’ve saved. It does lead me to another question, however.
9. Now, the fourth story in my quadruplet from January 31^st — Extraction of raw materials to rise by 60% by 2060, says UN report; Exclusive: Report proposes action to reduce overall demand rather than simply increasing ‘green’ production. By Arthur Neslen | THEGUARDIAN.COM | Wed 31 Jan 2024 @ 01.00 EST / Last modified on Fri 2 Feb 2024 12.18 EST. TAGS: Mining, Climate crisis, United Nations,
   1. The global extraction of raw materials is expected to increase by 60% by 2060, with calamitous consequences for the climate and the environment, according an unpublished UN analysis seen by the Guardian.
   2. Natural resource extraction has soared by almost 400% since 1970 due to industrialisation, urbanisation and population growth, according to a presentation of the five-yearly UN Global Resource Outlook made to EU ministers last week.
   3. The stripping of Earth’s natural materials is already responsible for 60% of global heating impacts, including land use change, 40% of air pollution impact, and more than 90% of global water stress and land-related biodiversity loss, says the report, due to be released in February.
   4. Janez Potočnik, a former European commissioner and a co-chair of the UN panel that produced the analysis, said a gouging of raw materials on the scale predicted would almost certainly trigger more frequent and more severe storms, droughts and other climate disasters.
   5. “Higher figures mean higher impacts,” he said. “In essence, there are no more safe spaces on Earth. We are already out of our safe operating space and if these trends continue, things will get worse. Extreme weather events will simply become much more frequent and that will have ever more serious financial and human costs.”
   6. The report prioritises equity and human wellbeing measurements over GDP growth alone and proposes action to reduce overall demand rather than simply increasing “green” production.
   7. Electric vehicles, for example, use almost 10 times more “critical raw materials” than conventional cars, and reaching net zero transport emissions by 2050 would require increasing critical mineral extraction for them sixfold within 15 years.
   8. More remote working, better local services and low-carbon transport options such as bikes and trains could be as effective as ramped up vehicle production in meeting people’s mobility needs, with less harmful environmental impacts, the report says.
   9. “Decarbonisation without decoupling economic growth and wellbeing from resource use and environmental impacts is not a convincing answer and the currently prevailing focus on cleaning the supply side needs to be complemented with demand-side measures,” Potočnik said.
   10. Much of Europe’s housing crisis could be resolved by making better use of empty homes, under-utilised space and more community-focused living, rather than building more houses on virgin land, the paper argues.
   11. This sort of “systemic resource efficiency” could increase equity and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 80% by 2060, compared with current levels. Material and energy needs for mobility could be cut by more than 40% and for construction by about 30%, according to the report.
   12. Our relationship with nature “will be resolved either with collective wisdom and effort or in a hard and very painful way [with] conflicts, pandemics, [and] migration,” it says. “The future will be green or there will be no future.”
   13. Zakia Khattabi, the climate and environment minister for Belgium, which currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency, told the Guardian [in part]: … Future EU policies on the circular economy need a stronger focus on demand-side measures as well as on a just transition in order to address this.”
   14. Under the European Green Deal, EU countries’ material and waste footprints are monitored and logged online. The bloc has not so far moved to legislate for use reduction targets but the issue is expected to be discussed at a meeting of EU environment ministers in June.
   15. One EU presidency official said: “Over the years, indicators were elaborated to monitor progress on the circular economy in the EU, including on the footprint of our material consumption. What we lack in addition, however, is a common European understanding of what our aim is in terms of reducing this footprint.”
   16. Insiders say privately the EU is the most likely grouping of developed countries to support such a policy, with the US, Japan, Australia and Canada all opposed to a target. …
   17. MIKE: Recycling, re-sourcing, reclaiming, resource shortages, new mines and refining facilities, national security … It’s interesting how these four stories connect all these things.
   18. MIKE: So, stories from different weeks and months, and from different news sources, and yet for me, they form an important and coherent story. A form of narrative.
   19. MIKE: These four stories together give us something to think about.
10. MIKE: Last week, I read the second part of an opinion piece called — Confronting Another Axis? History, Humility, and Wishful Thinking; Philip Zelikow | TNSR.ORG (Texas National Security Review) | Vol 7, Issue 3 Summer 2024. TAGS: Geopolitics, History, Cold War, Axis Powers, World War 2, The World War 2 Allies,
    1. [From] The Texas National Security Review, an interdisciplinary journal committed to excellence, scholarly rigor, and big ideas.
    2. [The author,] Philip Zelikow is … [a]n attorney and former career diplomat [whose] federal service includes work across the government in … five administrations from President Ronald Reagan through President Barack Obama. [among many other qualifications].
    3. MIKE: Which brings us to the article I’ve been reading in installments about the lessons we might apply to today’s geopolitics by studying past scenarios, and how they ultimately resolved.
    4. MIKE: This week, I’ll be reading PART 3. TO RECAP … :
    5. Drawing on his extensive experience as a historian and diplomat, Philip Zelikow warns that the United States faces an exceptionally volatile time in global politics and that the period of maximum danger might be in the next one to three years. He highlights lessons from the anti-American partnerships developed by the Axis powers in World War II and [by]Moscow and Beijing during the early Cold War. Zelikow reminds decision-makers who face Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea today to remember that adversaries can miscalculate and recalculate and that it can be difficult to fully understand internal divisions within an adversary’s government, how rival states draw their own lessons from different interpretations of history, and how they might quickly react to a new event that appears to shift power dynamics.
    6. [Now, picking up where I left off last week] — By 1933, there were four major powers who resented the prevailing world order. Japan had launched a limited war against China in 1931, expanded it in 1932–33, and expanded it to all-out war in 1937.
    7. It was Italy that then followed Japan’s lead in starting a war for new empire. …
    8. Late to rearm, the Germans were latecomers to the fight against the prevailing world powers. The Soviets, who shared such grievances, bided their time and, in 1939, put their support up for bids.
    9. Back then, common resentments did not necessarily cement the core. The old Axis was slow to come together tightly … though the German-Soviet industrial partnership was important while it lasted.
    10. By contrast, today in 2024, key countries in the anti-American partnership have been working quite closely together in defense-industrial cooperation — extending across Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea. They have now been cooperating for a longer time, and in more ways, than was the case among any of the future Axis countries of the 1930s.
    11. In the old Axis, there was plenty of distrust. … Italy had its own aspirations, both in Africa and in the Adriatic/Mediterranean world. Mussolini remained neutral when European war began in 1939. Japan was neutral too.
    12. When Germany invaded Poland, that plan had been hatched exclusively in Berlin. … Poland had been friendly toward Hitler in 1938. But it would not become a German satellite. Hitler settled on an invasion plan against Poland in the spring of 1939.
    13. That same spring, Italy had its own plans. It moved across the Adriatic to invade Albania.
    14. Just before Germany invaded Poland, Hitler told his Italian friends he would do this. He thought Britain and France would stay out, deterred by Germany’s partnership with the Soviet Union. Italy had just concluded a “Pact of Steel” with Hitler in May 1939. But Mussolini vacillated about joining in Hitler’s war and in the last week of August, appalled that Hitler was really going through with his plans, he told Hitler he was not ready to join a war.⁹
    15. For their part, it was Britain and France who thought Germany would be deterred. They had evidence that the German high command thought it would lose a new war against Britain and France. Their evidence was accurate. Some top generals even plotted to kill Hitler to prevent such a suicidal war. Yet, though he paused for a few days after getting the news from Italy and realizing that the British and French were determined, Hitler was not deterred.
    16. As the Axis was taking shape and war loomed in 1939, Britain and France did maneuver to try to win the Soviet Union over to their side. The French were serious. But the British were not. The Soviets were not. And the Poles, with their history, wanted nothing to do with the Soviet Union or the Red Army.
    17. The British of 1939 … hoped Hitler would accept their invitation to send Hermann Goering to London to make this deal with Neville Chamberlain. Instead, Hitler sent Joachim von Ribbentrop to Moscow.
    18. So, London and Paris saw “the game” in 1939 as “one of pressure and counter-pressure, as a ‘war of nerves’ in which steadfastness and tenacity would prevail … The Poles shared this view…,” wrote Donald Cameron Watt. “The notion that Hitler was intent not on winning the diplomatic game so much as on knocking the table over, drawing his gun and shooting it out, was one they understood intellectually but not in their hearts.”¹⁰
    19. When Germany invaded Poland, its closest partner was the Soviet Union. Moscow had a more active partnership with Hitler, economically and militarily, than Rome or Tokyo did. The Soviet Union supplied vital raw materials. Germany, in return, provided a wish list of advanced military designs and manufactured goods.
    20. In the second German-Soviet agreement, in September 1939, they agreed on the extinction of Poland. … In July 1940, Stalin bluntly told the British ambassador, “We must change the old balance of power in Europe, for it has acted to the USSR’s disadvantage.”¹¹
    21. … Stalin explained to his colleagues at the time [that] he was coming to regard the Nazi leader as a strategic partner …
    22. Stalin felt he also had to oppose the Japanese imperialists. The Soviet Union fought two border wars with Japan in 1938 and 1939 and was a key arms supplier for Nationalist China. Until 1938, Nationalist China’s other key arms supplier was Nazi Germany. This made sense to both the Soviets and the Germans. After all, Nationalist China then regarded itself as a kindred revolutionary and anti-imperialist state, opposing predations from Japanese and British imperial interests.
    23. The other revisionist powers, Italy and Japan, remained carefully neutral until June 1940, when France fell. That event reshaped the emergent Axis. It is when Italy fully joined Germany. Italy then took a piece of France and turned its attentions to Greece. Italy did this without Germany’s interest or approval. Germany then had to conquer all the Balkan countries who were not already its allies, and intervene in north Africa, as Italy got in trouble and German oil in Romania seemed threatened by British moves toward the Balkans.
    24. Japan joined what had become an “Axis,” but it did not join the war. Stalin used his partnership with Hitler to neutralize the Japanese threat to the Soviet Union. In exchange for a treaty of neutrality with Japan, Stalin cut off his assistance to China.
    25. Thus, in the autumn of 1940, it appeared that the Axis might coalesce to include all four of these major powers. In November 1940, Stalin agreed to Germany’s proposal that the Soviet Union become the fourth major Axis power. [Stalin] had conditions in Europe … the Middle East … and Japan. … Japan and Italy were generally supportive.
    26. The last two concessions were a good fit for German plans, but Hitler would not make further concessions in Europe. … Hitler’s high command, particularly the Army staff, had offered him plans that promised a rapid defeat of the Soviet Union. Hitler endorsed them.
    27. So, the final form of the “Axis” crystallized only in 1941. The potential Axis had split. …
    28. REFERENCE: Two-Theatre War — BRITANNICA.COM (Also refers to the shift to a “1½-War strategy, and the evolution back to a 2-War or 2½-War posture.)
    29. REFERENCE: Sakhalin — From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    30. REFERENCE: S. Navy Destroyer Conducts Freedom of Navigation Operation in the South China Sea — NAVY.MIL (US Navy)

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