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Created
Wed, 09/10/2024 - 19:00
Gabija Zemaityte The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, among others, has argued that long-term fixed-rate mortgages (LTFRMs) could increase home ownership in the UK. The share of mortgages with longer fixes increased in the UK and internationally over the last decade. Persistently low interest rates over that period have supported demand for longer-fix products, … Continue reading Long-term fixed-rate mortgages through an international lens: could they lead to higher home ownership?
Created
Wed, 09/10/2024 - 18:04
Why do the mass killers of the fossil fuel industry walk free while the heroes trying to stop them are imprisoned? By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian  1st October 2024 The sentences were handed down just as Hurricane Helene hit North Carolina. As homes were smashed, trucks swept down roads that had turned into […]
Created
Wed, 09/10/2024 - 00:27

No one wants a nuclear reactor in their backyard. It’s an eyesore and a health hazard, not to mention the hit to your property values. And don’t forget the existential danger. One small miscalculation and boom, there goes the neighborhood! In the 1970s, in the southwest corner of Germany, the tiny community of Wyhl was bracing for the construction of just such a nuclear reactor in its backyard. Something even worse loomed on the horizon: a vast industrial zone with new chemical plants and eight nuclear energy complexes that would transform the entire region around that town and stretch into nearby France and Switzerland. The governments of the three countries and the energy industry were all behind the project. Even... Read more

Source: Ask (Not) What You Can Do for Your Planet appeared first on TomDispatch.com.

Created
Tue, 08/10/2024 - 23:25
“”My Lords, I was not on the committee and therefore would like to allow myself a few mild criticisms of a very thought-provoking report. I will touch on three aspects of its central problem: “Who watches the watchdogs?” First, a bit of history might be helpful. In its present form, this challenge was created by … Continue reading Speech in the House of Lords on Watchdogs 9th of September
Created
Tue, 08/10/2024 - 23:00

Oh no, everyone’s done eating, and the lady hosting this dinner party wants us to “retire” to the living room. Retire? There’s a turkey leg dangling from my mouth. I’m not done eating. Can I bring it with me? Because I don’t see any other food in the living room, just paintings of cylinders and National Geographics and a coffee table you definitely can’t put your feet on.

If I give up this real estate now, I will never get it back. The momentum will move from the living room to the coat room and then outside where there are no garlic mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy and bread I didn’t bring. Cannot be cast out of this culinary garden of Eden to have work by the sweat of my brow.

They’re moving. And they’re only bringing their drinks with them, not plates of food or the entire roast beef tray. What if the roast beef wants to retire to the living room as well? Who speaks for him? Must think fast, pretending to tie my shoes is not going to work much longer.