Child Wellness Intervention Project Arkansas: Fill & Download for Free

No.They are just that -- stories, lore. It's interesting what the mind comes up with to protect the ego.Not unless the child has a learning disability or neurological quirk that makes it such that he has trouble concentrating (all of my friends are either ADD or ADHD...it's definitely a real disorder...I didn't believe in it myself before it was diagnosed in my sister and her upward academic/personal trajectory has been unbelievable since pharmacological intervention...she could hardly organize her thoughts in conversation).You will be the weird kid. You might not have friends your own age. But if anything that will press you to try to become friends with your teachers by doing well.If you're not the social type, then you might (if you have the emotional maturity/executive functioning) become self directed and into your own projects.It's not surprising to me that people who have trouble in school due to what they believe is their IQ have also had trouble functioning in other pro-social ways that would otherwise propel them forward (eg working at a higher academic level in university in a lab). Maybe they're too anxious to seek out those opportunities themselves after all or something along those lines...but anxiety is not the same thing as IQ.Maybe they lived in a Podunk town -- and I understand that because I grew up in a town right outside of Little Rock, Arkansas -- but there are libraries in small towns.There are doctors and lawyers to bug and question..poke and prod. I asked questions to adults..psychologists (including the one who tested me at 4 and lent me a book on the Holocaust), doctors, lawyers, you name it...they were my friend's parents and my own. I spent a lot of my time in the public or school library. If I didn't feel challenged in school I read more myself. I still did well in school.Maybe they live in a 3rd world country -- ok now that I kind of understand. But even my father, who was born and grew up in Vietnam, was awarded books for being the top of his class or near the top..whatever it was.Books. Books to read and to learn more from. No running water in the house, dirt floors too, but he had books to read. He took apart radios and bikes to rebuild them in order to understand how they worked.This says to me it's a cultural thing -- there was no option but to do well in school for him, and even when he did, the prize was more learning and more books.Hell, even when he didn't do well he got books because he was studying more. That would make our hypothetical bored, but smart, kid even happier. Learning and education was a privilege, and not a right.There was none of this animosity toward education, learning, or the hard work[1] of learning for him. It was honorable to be getting educated.It is honorable to be getting educated.Successful people in technical fields[3] are the ones who have the smarts and who also have cultivated things like grit, determination, etc.In order for you to succeed, people have to like you. Generally people don't like others who bop around using their "supah high IQ" as an excuse for not doing well in their chosen fields. Or using that as an internal narrative for themselves for their lack of results. It smacks of lack of insight, resourcefulness, and drive.I don't buy it though, this narrative, and (clearly) I call BS.So next time you're going to bemoan your station because of your IQ, consider the distinct and likely possibility that your decisions have been motivated by other treatable psychological causes divorced from your smarts (eg anxiety, depression). This considered, also understand that the lack of cultivating pro-social personality traits regarding your work and/or work ethic has landed you in your spot.Because let's be honest with ourselves...if you were such a smartypants, you'd either be teaching yourself new stuff and acing your classes or you'd be totally placed out of where you are and would be doing new and independent research eligible for peer review in an academic journal regardless of discipline. [2]But for god sakes don't blame it on your IQ. That kind of binary thinking is just, well, dumb. And that you're too smart for.[1] There's hard work in all learning, I don't care if your IQ is a bazillion[2] Terence Tao, John von Neumann, Per Enflo, Sheila Sri Prakash[3] Humanities too

Zimbabwe is faced with widespread hunger because the country lacks the hard currency needed to import basic food, and a new currency introduced in June has provided little relief.“Millions die needlessly every year, from countless diseases of energy and economic poverty.But under a Biden-Harris Administration, with John Kerry at the forefront, there is little hope that these African and other pleas will be heard.”Duggan Flanakin below.“For more than two decades, Zimbabwe has been trying to break ground on a giant coal-power complex near the world’s biggest man-made reservoir. Now, China has agreed to get the $4.2 billion project underway.”This is a most pressing question with implications far beyond coal in my opinion. Is the West being blind sided by China’s expansions of coal fired energy at “insane levels” around the world and at home? Does China privately understand from its scientists that natural forces not minute amounts of CO2 from coal are the driving forces of climate change giving China confidence to go it alone on coal power expansions? There is evidence that they do. See NATURE STUDY below.NOTE: the carbon reduction targets of the PARIS ACCORD sideline everyone else from competing with China coal on the false premise and unfounded science that minute amounts of non polluting fossil fuel CO2 emissions (0.117%) are dangerous to the climate ? The world has been wrongly convinced that not only is coal a dirty fuel but it is harming the climate. China may be seeing more clearly that this view is false.BUT: This just in from the Global Warming Policy Forum GWPF China is not alone as many countries are resuming consumption of coal power.Global coal demand to rebound as economy recoversDate: 19/12/20BloombergGlobal coal demand is poised to rebound next year as the economy recovers and the U.S. and Europe may see the first increase in consumption in several years, the International Energy Agency said.Despite the global shift toward economies based on renewable energy, the dirtiest fossil fuel looks set to keep its role as the world’s biggest power source although its share will slip to 35% in 2021 from 36.5% last year.Coal use in power generation globally is expected to increase by as much as 2.8% next year as electricity demand rebounds particularly in Asia, the IEA said in its 2020 coal report.Global Coal Demand to ReboundDemand for the fuel will return in 2021 but won’t reach 2019 levelsOver the next 5 years, global demand is forecast to “flatten out” at around 7.4 billion tons, as declines in Europe and the U.S. will offset any increased use in Asia. The main drivers of demand for the fuel will continue to be China and India, which both rely heavily on the fuel in their energy mix.While there are few signs that use of the fossil fuel will fade away any time soon, the IEA said that unless there are unforeseen developments that would significantly boost demand, it’s likely that consumption peaked in 2013.EU coal demand is expected to increase marginally for the first time since 2012, rising 3.5%. The U.S. rebound will be the first since 2014, increasing consumption by 11.1% next year.Full storyHere are the relevant points about China and coal.The world is awash in fossil fuels and coal reserves in particular that there is no end in sight. (US alone has more than 357 years waiting to be mined.)China coal production at 3242 tonnes dwarfs all countries by a large factor. (US is only 672 t.)More than 2 billion in the developing world live in the dark off grid and need coal power to see the light.Clean coal power technology is used by China buiding state of the art plants arouond the world and at home.Significant climate studies published by Chinese academics in Beijing debunk the shoddy science of the PARIS ACCORD and may help explain why China ignores the carbon targets.China is single handedly destroying any chance of the world meeting the PARIS ACCORD carbon targets now or in the future because of its massive coal fired expansion.“In one sense, China's push for coal is not surprising: China knows how to build coal plants. It is the world's largest coal consumer, drawing more than 70 percent of its electricity from coal, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.”Why Is China Placing A Global Bet On Coal?WRITTEN BY DUGGAN FLANAKIN, GUEST POST ONDEC 24, 2020. POSTED IN LATEST NEWSHow China Is Conquering Africa One Coal Plant At A Time“Joe Biden has pledged that one of his first acts as President will be rejoining the Paris Climate Treaty – which gives China a complete pass on reducing emissions until at least 2030.Even Biden’s designated “climate envoy,” former Secretary of State John Kerry, says the existing treaty “has to be stronger,” but then claims China will somehow become an active partner, instead of the competitor and adversary it clearly is. His rationale: “Climate is imperative, it’s as imperative for China as it is for us.”As to China employing more Green technology and abiding by (much less strengthening) the Paris agreement, the evidence is at best spotty, at worst completely the opposite.President Trump pulled the United States out of Paris, but between January 2017 and May 2019, the US had shuttered 50 coal-fired power plants, with 51 more shutdowns announced, bringing the total shutdowns to 289 (330 once announced shutdowns also take place) since 2010, soon leaving under 200 still operating.Meanwhile, as of 2019, China had 2,363 active coal-fired power plants and was building another 1,171 in the Middle Kingdom – plus hundreds more in Africa, Asia, and elsewhere.A CO2 Coalition white paper by Kathleen Hartnett White and Caleb Rossiter reveals that China now has modern pollutant-scrubbing technology on over 80% of its coal-fired power plants, but no scrubbers at any Chinese-built coal-fired power plants in Africa (or likely anywhere else) – and none anywhere that remove carbon dioxide.Harvard University China specialist Edward Cunningham says China is building, planning, or financing more than 300 coal plants, in places as widespread as Turkey, Egypt, Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and the Philippines.India, South Korea, Japan, South Africa, and even Germany are also building hundreds of coal-fired power plants. No matter how many the USA closes down, it won’t make any global difference.Boston University data indicate that China has invested over $50 billion in building new coal plants overseas in recent years, and over a quarter of new coal plants outside the Middle Kingdom have some commitment or offer of funds from Chinese financial institutions.“Why is China placing a global bet on coal?” NPR wonders. That’s a 40 or even 50-year commitment, the life span of coal-fired units.The NPR authors even quote the Stinson Center think tank’s Southeast Asia analyst, who says “it’s not clear when you look at the actual projects China is funding that they are truly Green.” They’re obviously not green, and more is obviously going on than their poor eyesight can perceive.China knows it and the world will need oil, natural gas, and coal for decades to come. It sees “green” as the color of money and is happy to extend credit under terms very favorable to China.Communist Party leaders seek global military and economic power – and global control of electricity generation, raw materials extraction, and manufacturing of wind turbines, solar panels, and battery modules they will sell to address the West’s obsession with the “manmade climate crisis” and “renewable, sustainable” energy.Party leaders also know its production of “green” technologies is a good smokescreen for all this coal power – and few Western governments will dare to criticize China sharply over this or Covid.A recent Global Warming Policy Foundation report lambasts environmentalists (like John Kerry) as “useful idiots” who “praise the scale of Chinese ambition on climate change while paying lip service in criticizing China’s massive coal expansion.”It notes that China rarely honors its international agreements and has no intention of reducing fossil fuel consumption.But what are Africa and other developing nations to do? The West will not fund even clean coal projects that would eliminate pollution from dung and wood fires, while providing reliable, affordable electricity for lights, refrigerators, schools, shops, hospitals, factories, and much more.China will – and despite the heavy price, their demand for energy requires that they get electricity by any means necessary.With 1.1 billion people, Sub-Saharan Africa remains the world’s poorest region, despite massive mineral resources and a young, energetic population with an affinity for entrepreneurship.Dutch economist Wim Naudé says Africa must industrialize, which means it must have affordable, reliable electricity if it is to overcome poverty and disease, create jobs and discourage terrorism.Unfortunately, outrageously, US, EU, UN, and World Bank policies have stymied African energy resource development.As White and Rossiter note, US policies since the Obama era oppose Africans using the continent’s abundant coal and gas to fuel power plants, on the ground that carbon dioxide from fossil fuels might exacerbate climate change.African Energy Chamber executive chairman NJ Ayuk recently reported that the United Kingdom has also decided it will stop funding new oil, gas, and coal projects as of November 4, 2021, the fifth anniversary of the Paris treaty.The decision kowtows to Green opposition to UK Export Finance support for a Mozambique terminal to export low-CO2 emissions liquefied natural gas.Ayuk had been touting natural gas as an increasing option for African power plants, boasting that Africa is home to four of the world’s top 20 crude oil producers (Nigeria, Angola, Algeria, and Libya); Algeria and Nigeria are among the top 20 natural gas producers, and Mozambique also has huge gas reserves.“It is troubling,” Ayuk said, “that an aggressive foreign-funded anti-African energy campaign continues to undermine the potential of making Mozambique an oasis for gas monetization and meeting our increasing energy demands.”Despite this setback, he continued: “We must continue to be unwavering in our commitment to stand up for Africa’s energy sector, its workers, reducing energy poverty, and those free-market values that will make our continent attractive to committed energy investors.”In much of Africa, electricity demand far outstrips supply. “In factories, businesses, government buildings, and wealthy neighborhoods in every African country,” White and Rossiter observe, “a cacophonous symphony of soot-spewing backup diesel engines erupts when the grid goes down, which is usually every day.”In fact, says the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation, many African countries spend more on dirty backup power than on electricity for the grid itself; in West Africa, backup kilowatts equal 40% of total grid kilowatts.In Sudan, which gets 30% of its energy from dams on the Nile River, diesel-based pumps run constantly to lift river water for irrigation, even at the confluence of the Blue and White Niles.In Nigeria, hotels ban guests from jogging because of health dangers from breathing soot from their diesel backup generators, which kick in repeatedly as neighborhoods go dark.In Southern Africa, construction sites simply run generators all day, filling nearby streets with noxious clouds. Universities rely on diesel to run old, inefficient air conditioning units.White and Rossiter note that American clean coal technology, exemplified by the Turk power plant in Arkansas, virtually eliminates health hazards from sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulates.They urge the U.S. to support proposals by African governments to import this technology, noting that electricity is “the central nervous system of a modern economy and modern life expectancy. Africa’s electricity deficit translates directly into its life-expectancy deficit of 15 years per person.”Millions die needlessly every year, from countless diseases of energy and economic poverty.But under a Biden-Harris Administration, with John Kerry at the forefront, there is little hope that these African and other pleas will be heard.With European allies in myopic puritanical lockstep, China will continue to get a total pass on complying with Green demands – and will have free rein to turn sub-Saharan Africa into a giant Chinese colony, despite the environmental damage, monstrous debt, slave and child labor under horrific workplace conditions, and likely modest benefits to Africans.It is eco-imperialism and eco-manslaughter at its worst. Where are the vaunted guardians of climate and environmental justice?”Duggan Flanakin is Director of Policy Research at the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (www.CFACT.org)How China Is Conquering Africa One Coal Plant At A TimeCHINA INDUSTRY DEMANDS INCREASED COAL POWERThe industry group for China’s power sector giants, China Electricity Council, has argued that coal-power capacity “will” reach 1,300GW by 2030, up from 1,050GW today. This target is based on its projections for annual electricity demand and the need for capacity to meet peak loads.A cap of 1,300GW in 2030 would imply the addition of well over 300GW of new coal-fired capacity this decade, after accounting for the retirement of older plants.China Electric Power Planning and Engineering Institute (EPPEI), the authoritative consultancy that has designed most of China’s coal power units and grid infrastructure, warned in June 2019 that 16 provinces in the country should increase new capacity and start working on a new batch of thermal power plants to avoid the possibility of shortages in the next two to three years.The thinktank affiliated with China’s giant grid utility company, State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC), stressed the need to maintain coal-power capacity in a July 2019 intervention:“[China] should not close coal power plants at a large scale too soon or too fast and, by around 2030, we should maintain around 1,200GW of coal power to ensure the reliability of the power system, and key power generating regions should retain some backup and reserve capacity.”Analysis: Will China build hundreds of new coal plants in the 2020s?“For awhile it looked like China was moving away from coal toward clean energy, but coal is still a pretty big part of the country’s economy,” says Christine Shearer, the coal program director at the Global Energy Monitor. “We don’t have a lot of time in terms of emission reduction, but clean energy development is happening alongside coal plant construction rather than displacing it.”BUTDANIEL OBERHAUSSCIENCE11.27.2019 07:00 AMChina Is Still Building an Insane Number of New Coal PlantsWhile the rest of the world turns away from the fossil fuel, China is investing big in coal-powered electricity.China Building Hundreds Of Coal-Fired Power Plants Abroad ...www.npr.org › why-is-china-placing-a-global-bet-on-coalApr 29, 2019 — But now it plans to build hundreds of coal plants abroad. ... Forum in Beijing over the weekend, promoting his signature foreign policy of building massive ... But within the past four years, all four stopped burning coal. ... China has made more than $244 billion in energy investments abroad since 2000, much ...Hassyan Clean Coal Project, DubaiThe 2,400MW Hassyan clean coal power station is an ultra-supercritical (USC) power plant being developed in Saih Shuaib, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.Plant TypeCoal-fired power plant Location DubaiCapacity 2,400MWEstimated Investment $3.4bnHassyan Energy Company is developing the 2,400MW ultra-supercritical Hassyan clean coal power plant in Dubai. Credit: Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA).Construction of the Hassyan clean coal project began in November 2016 and is expected to be fully completed by 2023. Credit: Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA).The Hassyan power plant will be equipped with Alstom’s (now GE) ultra-supercritical boiler and steam turbine generators. Credit: Alstom.The 2,400MW Hassyan clean coal power station is an ultra-supercritical (USC) power plant being developed in Saih Shuaib, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Upon completion, the project is set to be the first coal-based power plant in the region.Construction of the $3.4bn power plant commenced in November 2016. It will comprise four units of 600MW each, which are expected to start operations in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 respectively, in March of those years.Hassyan Energy Company, which is a joint-venture (JV) between Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA, 51%) and the consortium of ACWA Power, Harbin Electric, and the Silk Road Fund (49%), is the project developer.The project supports the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050, which is aimed at producing environment-friendly energy. The programme aims to produce 25% of energy from solar power, 7% from nuclear power, 7% from clean coal, and the remaining 61% from gas by 2030.The power plant is expected to produce sufficient electricity to power approximately 250,000 households.https://www.power-technology.com/projects/hassyan-clean-coal-project-dubai/Dubai has also set the lofty goal of having the world's lowest carbon footprint in the world by 2050 - something that would be impacted by burning coal.Read more at:Dubai, oil-rich UAE sees a new wonder: A coal power plantLast Updated: Oct 22, 2020, 11:59 AM ISTCarbon dioxide emitted by coal power plants is clean without any pollution.COAL24 March 2020 8:00Analysis: Will China build hundreds of new coal plants in the 2020s?Signs of stimulusMany experts and industry bodies argue for a move away from top-down targets and controls, to investment driven by market forces. However, the spending needed to fuel a new stimulus program can only be mobilized if investment is directed at the behest of the state, rather than the market – as a rule, China does not fund stimulus with on-budget spending, but by directing state-owned enterprises and commercial banks to spend more. In these circumstances, lack of controls on capacity additions runs a high risk of over-investment.For example, efforts to control overcapacity might be vulnerable to the political priority of boosting investment spending to reach economic targets. An indication of this was the loosening of “traffic lights” for new coal-plant approvals, published by the National Energy Administration in February.The traffic light policy was first introduced in January 2017 to prevent provinces with overcapacity from permitting new projects. A year ago, however, 21 of China’s 31 provincial grids included in the policy were given a “green light”. Last month this increased to 25, as the figure below shows.Locations and sizes (megawatts, shown by the size of each circle) of new coal-fired power capacity in the pipeline in China. The maps are colour coded according to the “traffic light” status of the relevant provincial grid, with red meaning new capacity cannot receive permits to move ahead towards construction. Source: Global Energy Monitor and NEA. Figure: Authors.The change is significant, as the four additional greenlighted grid regions have a total of 34GW of coal-fired capacity in the pipeline.According to data from Global Energy Monitor, the traffic light loosening is already apparent in new project activity in 2019, with construction started or restarted on another 18GW of capacity, while 37GW of previously inactive projects have been revived.Furthermore, the past weeks have seen the announcement of major infrastructure programmes and other stimulus to offset the economic impacts from the coronavirus, but so far no mention of initiatives prioritising clean energy or other green investment.The focus on stimulating the economy with major investment – and a recent shift of emphasis towards energy security (below) – appear to cast aside concerns about overcapacity and financial viability.Some have interpreted Chinese premier Li Keqiang’s remarks at an October 2019 event as a signal of support for coal-power expansion. At the conference a “new energy security strategy” was formulated, in which the core role of coal was emphasised more strongly than renewable energy.This was widely interpreted as a retreat to coal in the face of energy security concerns, following the trade war with the US. However, China’s energy security fears mainly relate to oil – and, to a lesser degree, gas.Analysis: Will China build hundreds of new coal plants in the 2020s?China virtually alone in backing Africa’s dirty coal projectsWorkers unload imported coal at a port in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, China, in December. A retreat from financial institutions in developed countries has paved the way for Chinese companies to invest in the coal industry in Africa. | VIA REUTERSBLOOMBERGSHAREMay 7, 2020For more than two decades, Zimbabwe has been trying to break ground on a giant coal-power complex near the world’s biggest man-made reservoir. Now, China has agreed to get the $4.2 billion project underway.The development, near the southern shore of Lake Kariba, is good news for Zimbabwe, where a collapsing economy and erratic policies have deterred foreign investment for the past 20 years.But it flies in the face of a growing global consensus that has seen financial institutions from Japan to the U.S. and Europe shun investments in coal projects. That retreat leaves the way open for Chinese companies — many with state backing — even at the risk of undermining the spirit of China’s international commitments to fight climate change.“We are very pleased that the project is going ahead, especially as major banks in the world are forced to stop financing coal-fired power stations,” Caleb Dengu, chairman of RioZim Energy, the company that owns the project, said in a response to questions. “This is testimony of Chinese commitment to development projects in Africa. The Chinese are interested in joining hands.”China is certainly in need of friends: A global backlash is building over Beijing’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak first identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan — evidence of a deficit of trust that was compounded by incidents of racism toward Africans in the southern city of Guangzhou last month.RELATED STORIESSumitomo Mitsui and Mizuho to end lending for new coal-fired plantsNearly half of global coal plants will be unprofitable this year, study showsYet pumping money into coal just underlines China’s creeping isolation in backing plants that generate large quantities of greenhouse gases and other pollutants.For financial institutions, “the ever-increasing reputational risk of funding a project like this, and the high likelihood that it would end up as a stranded asset, should make them very wary of getting involved,” said Tracey Davies, director of Cape Town-based shareholder activist organization, Just Share.In fact, the Chinese government promised back in 2017 to green its Belt and Road Initiative overseas construction plan, to promote environment-friendly development in line with United Nations goals. President Xi Jinping pledged last year that the program must be green and sustainable.Nonetheless, Chinese companies and banks are involved in financing at least 13 coal projects across the continent with another nine in the pipeline, according to data compiled by Greenpeace. Since 2000, the China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China alone have supplied $51.8 billion of finance for coal projects globally, according to the Boston University Global Development Policy Center.“Despite promises to shift support to green and low-carbon energy, Chinese banks have continued to bankroll coal power projects,” said Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst for the Centre for Energy Research and Clean Air, an independent research body. “China has enormous state-owned thermal-power manufacturing and engineering firms that rely on overseas deals to stay in business.”President Xi regularly mentions China’s commitment to multilateralism through fighting climate change as a signatory of the Paris Agreement. China, however, is unlikely to divest from coal anytime soon. Despite hefty investment in renewable energy over the past decade, China still mines and burns about half the world’s coal.China has undoubtedly made progress domestically. By 2018, China had exceeded its target for reducing CO2 emissions, Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the U.N. climate action summit in New York in September. He touted increases in non-fossil fuel use and in forestation along with sales of some 1.25 million electric cars that year. But now, as it claws its way out of the pandemic-induced slump, Beijing has started to roll back restrictions on industrial pollution and slash subsidies for cleaner energy.There shouldn’t be a “one-size-fits-all approach” for green development in poorer nations, but rather the decision should be based on a host country’s natural resources, according to Yu Zirong, a vice director at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, a think tank affiliated with the Ministry of Commerce.“For countries with rich coal resources, it is impossible to completely forbid them using coal,” said Yu, who spoke at a forum on sustainable Belt and Road Initiative in October in Beijing. “The key is how to use them more reasonably.”China’s agreement to invest is a rare win for Zimbabwe, which is currently subject to power cuts of as long as 18 hours a day as it doesn’t produce enough electricity to meet demand and can’t afford to pay for adequate imports.The project was initially owned by London-based miner Rio Tinto Group, the one-time parent of RioZim Ltd, which in turn owns Riozim Energy. It was set aside as Zimbabwe’s relations with the U.K., its former colonizer, deteriorated. After the project was revived in 2016, General Electric Co. and a unit of Blackstone Group LP didn’t pursue initial inquiries, according to Dengu, the company’s chairman.Power Construction Corp. of China, the state-owned company known as PowerChina, has been contracted to build the first phase of the plant known as Sengwa, which includes a 700 megawatt generation unit, as well as a pipeline from Kariba Dam to bring the water needed and power lines at a total cost of $1.2 billion. Funding is likely to come from Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, while China Export and Credit Insurance Corp., or Sinosure, may provide the country risk cover needed, according to Dengu. Both are owned by the Chinese government.Repeated calls to ICBC and Sinosure went unanswered. PowerChina said it didn’t have information on the Zimbabwe project at the moment. It had no comment on the possible climate impact of its involvement in overseas coal-related projects.Last month a deal was signed for the rest of the project, which will add a further 2,100 megawatts at a cost of $3 billion. China Gezhouba Group, which is partly state-owned, will develop the project and lead fund raising, Dengu said. The company didn’t respond to calls or an email request for comment.“The Chinese are looking at the business opportunity,” said Dengu. “We bring the market knowledge and management capacity, they bring the finance and the technology.”Rio Energy had few other options. European banks no longer fund coal projects and over the last year the biggest banks in South Africa have committed to reducing their coal funding under pressure from shareholders. Morgan Stanley and Citigroup Inc. are also among those looking to curb or halt project financing for coal-related projects.While the Zimbabwean project is sizable among those being considered by Chinese companies, it is not the biggest. PowerChina has signed a memorandum of agreement with South Africa’s Limpopo provincial government to build a power plant of at least 3,000 megawatts at a cost of $4.5 billion.Not all are welcomed by local communities.Sengwa would draw water from Kariba, a reservoir already so depleted by recurrent droughts attributed to climate change that its hydropower turbines operate at a fraction of their capacity. The South African government is facing a lawsuit because coal-fired power plants there cause some of the world’s worst air pollution.“It’s a fading industry,” said Han Chen, who manages the international energy policy program at the New York-based National Resources Defense Council. “So they are going places where the environmental standards are low so they can use more polluting equipment that is cheaper to operate.”Of 11 coal projects in Africa she tracks that are likely to get foreign support, 10 involve Chinese state-owned entities.As banks in other countries, including Japan and South Korea, snub coal, those projects will increasingly rely on China.“Chinese banks will find themselves increasingly alone in funding new coal plants, both at home and around the world,” said Christine Shearer, director of the coal program at Global Energy Monitor.China virtually alone in backing Africa’s dirty coal projectsIdentification of the driving forces of climate change using the longest instrumental temperature record.Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, Beijing, China 中国气象科学研究院New research confirms the view of leading climate scientists and scholars that trace amounts of Co2 emissions are not destabilizing the planet. Co2 is essential plant food and therefore green energy.The authors Geli Wang & Peicai Yang and Xiuji Zhou are scientists at the CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE and Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, Beijing, China 中国气象科学研究院ANTHROPOGENIC (human activity). The driving forces are“the El Niño–Southern Oscillation cycle and the Hale sunspot cycle, respectively.”The title of the study published in the prestigious NATURE Journal is: Identification of the driving forces of climate change using the longest instrumental temperature recordhttps://www.nature.com/articles/...Their study confirms THE DRIVING FORCES OF GLOBAL WARMING AND CLIMATE CHANGE ARE NATURALThe “driving forces” of climate change are natural and not Co2 plant food emissions. A new Chinese study confirms climate change comes from natural cycles. This research is based on the longest actual temperature data of more than 400 years from 1659 to 2013, including the period of anthropogenic warming.AbstractThe identification of causal effects is a fundamental problem in climate change research. Here, a new perspective on climate change causality is presented using the central England temperature (CET) dataset, the longest instrumental temperature record, and a combination of slow feature analysis and wavelet analysis. The driving forces of climate change were investigated and the results showed two independent degrees of freedom —a 3.36-year cycle and a 22.6-year cycle, which seem to be connected to the El Niño–Southern Oscillation cycle and the Hale sunspot cycle, respectively. [Emphasis added]. Moreover, these driving forces were modulated in amplitude by signals with millennial timescales.James Matkin 
This research is very relevant and should make climate alarmists pause in their crusade against Co2 emissions from fossil fuels. Far too much focus on Co2 like a one trick pony in a big tent circus where solar radiation is a more compelling show. The thrust of recent research has demonstrated that climate changes continually and is determined by natural forces that humans have no significant control over. Many leading scientists have presented research of other "driving forces" and cautioned against the arrogance of many that "the science is settled." See Judith Curry of the Georgia Institute of Technology and blogger at Climate Etc. talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about climate change. Curry argues that climate change is a "wicked problem" with a great deal of uncertainty surrounding the expected damage as well as the political and technical challenges of dealing with the phenomenon. She emphasizes the complexity of the climate and how much of the basic science remains incomplete. The conversation closes with a discussion of how concerned citizens can improve their understanding of climate change and climate change policy.
http://www.econtalk.org/arc...https://www.nature.com/articles/...JAMES MATKIN•2017-08-23 10:03 PMThe great failure of the Paris accord is the failure to accept that the IPCC Al Gore hypothesis of anthropogenic warming is not settled science. Indeed, none of the predictions of doom have occurred. New research confirms the view of leading climate scientists and scholars that trace amounts of Co2 emissions are not destabilizing the planet. Co2 is essential plant food and therefore green energy. The “driving force” of climate change is natural and not Co2 plant food emissions. A new Chinese study confirms climate change comes from natural cycles. This research is based on the longest actual temperature data of more than 400 years from 1659 to 2013, including the period of anthropogenic warming. The authors Geli Wang & Peicai Yang and Xiuji Zhou are scientists at the CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE and Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, Beijing, China 中国气象科学研究院 Their study confirms THE DRIVING FORCES OF GLOBAL WARMING AND CLIMATE CHANGE ARE NOT ANTHROPOGENIC (human activity). The driving forces are “the El Niño–Southern Oscillation cycle and the Hale sunspot cycle, respectively.” The title of the study published in the prestigious NATURE Journal is: Identification of the driving forces of climate change using the longest instrumental temperature record Identification of the driving forces of climate change using the longest instrumental temperature record This means that climate change cannot be stopped as Paris attendees believed. Co2 is very beneficial plant food and we need more not less. Why climate change is good for the world | The Spectator It is good news for civilization that the Paris targets are not being met around thttps://www.nature.com/news/prov...29 Apr 2020China to Help Build $3 Billion Coal Plant in ZimbabweCategoryStoriesCountryZimbabweTagsEnergy Access, Finance and Investment, Fossil FuelsSourcehttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-28/riozim-seals-3-billion-zimba…Zimbabwe’s Rio Energy Ltd., a unit of RioZim Ltd., will build a 2,100 megawatt thermal power plant with China Gezhouba Group Corp in northern Zimbabwe at a projected cost of $3 billion, Rio Energy said Monday.“CGGC will develop the project and assist with the fund raising,” Caleb Dengu, chairman of Rio Energy Ltd said last week. The power plant at Sengwa will be constructed in four phases of about 700 megawatts each, bringing total capacity to 2,800 megawatts.“We have coal reserves to support a 10,000 megawatt plant at Sengwa,” Dengu said.A 250 kilometer (155-mile) pipeline will carry water from Lake Kariba to Sengwa. The pipeline, and a 420 kilovolt-ampere power line, will be built by PowerChina, said Dengu. The first phase of the project will cost about $1.2 billion, he added.The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China has given a formal expression of interest in the project and is negotiating with Sinosure, also known as the China Export and Credit Insurance Corp, to cover country risk insurance costs, Dengu told Bloomberg.Zimbabwe generates and imports about 1,300 megawatts of electricity, short of its 2,200 megawatt demand. Daily power outages have hampered industrial capacity for almost two decades.A two-year drought blighted the country’s Kariba thermal power plant by draining the reservoir, while aging equipment at its main Hwange thermal plant causes incessant breakdowns and outages that see many consumers receiving only eight hours of power a day.RioZim was spun off from Rio Tinto Plc in 2004. London-based Rio initially retained a stake in diamond mines and Sengwa before selling those to RioZim in 2015.China to Help Build $3 Billion Coal Plant in ZimbabweCHINA HAS BLIND SIDED THE WEST AND THE WEST IS CAUSING DEVASTATING ECONOMIC DAMAGE TO PREVENT A FAKE CLIMATE PROBLEM.I affirm this QUORA answer by Dr. John Walker.John WalkerNovember 28I have written a 500+ page treatise skeptical of CAGWQUORA QUESTION“Is China's carbon neutrality pledge by 2060 nonsense? Are they simply trying to buy decades worth of time to ignore the complaints of the rest of the world during this period, if so, are they in the right since the US also depends on fossil fuels?“Yes, of course.Anyone who believes anything the Communist Chinese pledge is a fool.But I doubt the Chinese have bought into the scam being promoted by climate alarmists using the unproven hypothesis that human emissions of CO2 are leading to catastrophic global warming. So, indeed, they are taking the logical approach to energy, continuing to increase their wealth and prosperity by utilizing cheap fossil fuels to power their enormous growth. They no doubt laugh at Western nations which are wasting $trillions on unproven dangers of future climate change while they build up their massive military, buy up mineral rights and mines around the world, infiltrate Western nations to steal crucial industrial and military secrets, etc.it’s also likely that the Chinese superficially and deceitfully promote CAGW and renewables to help ensure that Western nations continue to waste their wealth on this scam.Unfortunately, if the Democrats gain control of both Houses of Congress and the White House, then the US will join these other ignorant nations, wasting even more limited resources on an unproven future problem while watching numerous known current existential problems (hunger, violence, pollution and over-fishing of our oceans, infectious and other diseases, inadequate housing, sanitation and clean water, decaying infrastructure, etc.) go unsolved.You may want to learn to speak Chinese.”

Slavery still exists in the US in the 2010s.Slaves today are cheap. In 1850, a slave in the American South cost $40,000 (in today’s money). Today, a slave costs $90 on average worldwide.Modern slaves are not considered investments worth maintaining. In the 19th century it was difficult to capture slaves and transport them to the United States. But today, when someone in slavery gets sick or injured, they are simply dumped or killed.I first heard about 1970s US slavery just after college in a late-1980s 4-part expose in the Washington Post - by a brave author who learned about the situation even though relatives would not tell him what they were hiding.Unfortunately the situation is/was much worse than what that one expose described, and there is lot more information on the 2016 internet (30 years later).Excerpts from 5 links:(1) Neo-slavery in the American SouthMs. Harrell, a genealogist, became aware of modern manifestations of slavery while exploring the issue of reparations. Based on conversations with workers, Ms. Harrell says she found many did not know they could actually leave.Ms. Harrell is unsure of how many people may be in this condition inside the United States. She has been able to access these areas by networking, researching plantation histories and locations and through the story of Mae Miller.Ms. Miller, whose life as a modern slave in Mississippi and Louisiana has been documented, escaped captivity in 1961.The problem exists today, she declares. Ms. Miller, who says she was raped by a slave master beginning at age five, told The Final Call her family and others who moved from one plantation to another where they worked and were kept in horrible conditions and weren't regularly fed. We were beaten and barely fed table scraps, she recalls.Ms. Miller says she didn't realize she had been kept illegally as a slave until 2001. She recalls that her father, her mother, her siblings, her grandfather were with her. She says she didn't know anything about other family members or what was happening in the outside world.Ms. Miller says she knows people that are still on these plantations—and who still live under the fear and conditions that she suffered from. Her story was told in 2007 in People magazine, as well on ABC Nightline and CNN. She declines to talk about her family's experience—it brings up painful memories loved ones would like to forget. Her family's plight was called peonage in the People article.----“There is real slavery in the fields of Florida. This is not about lousy jobs, but violent control, vicious exploitation, and the potential for serious harm and even death,” adds Dr. Kevin Bales, of Free the Slaves, an international organization.The coalition is kicking off a July 25-Aug. 14 tour of its Modern-Day Slavery Museum, which will visit the northeast. The exhibit consists of a cargo truck designed as a replica of trucks involved in a 2008 slave operation in Florida.Dozens of farm workers from Mexico and Guatemala were kept in trucks and shacks, beaten, forced to pay for food and showers, and plied with alcohol. Some of victims suffered in bondage for years and were forced to work fields in Florida and other locations in North Carolina and South Carolina.Since 1997, the coalition says it has helped the Justice Dept. prosecute seven farm slavery operations and helped free over 1,000 people.The sixteen states that Ms. Harrell's research has shown were once involved in post-Emancipation slavery included Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, Florida, Alabama, Missouri, Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Arizona, New York, Illinois and Georgia. Today the problem exists in Louisiana and Mississippi, she says.“The documents are there from the slave holders; companies that insured our family members, our ancestors and once you start to look into records, you find something a little bit deeper,” Ms. Harrell says.She says she met people in St. Johns and St. Charles parish in Louisiana who were on sugar cane plantations well into the 1960s and 1970s.According to Ms. Harrell, letters appealing for investigations into the claims, filed at the National Archives expose that no fewer than three U.S. presidents knew of post-Emancipation slavery during their terms—Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge and Franklin D. Roosevelt.Digging through U.S. Department of Justice records in Washington, D.C., Dr. Walters, who is also director of the African American Leadership Institute at the University of Maryland, found the extent to which the federal government was aware of post-Emancipation slavery and its challenges with addressing the problem.Glendora, Miss., Mayor Johnny Thomas agrees bogus debt schemes like peonage and sharecropping were used to exploit Black people well into the 20th century. This was his experience growing up as a sharecropper in the late 1950s.“It's pre-meditated,” Mayor Thomas explains. “You were kept indebted to the point where you couldn't leave.” In these cases the plantation owner pays the debt, then the “debtor” and—in most instances—his entire family work the plantation to repay the money. Only the debt is never caught up.(2) The Last Slaves of Mississippi? – Vol. 67 No. 12By the 1940s, according to records in the National Archives, only rare cases of long-term peonage survived, mostly in rural areas and small towns. That places the Wall family—who say they lived in drafty shacks with grass-filled pallets for beds on white-owned farms until 1961—among a tiny minority.The family’s story might not be known at all if it weren’t for the work of a New Jersey lawyer, Deadria Farmer-Paellmann. In 2001 she began a national effort to claim reparations from corporations that long ago profited from slavery. She scoured the country for descendants of slaves and learned about the Wall family from Louisiana genealogist Antoinette Harrell.Farmer-Paellmann still marvels that the end of slavery had made no practical difference in their lives, even after the advent of TV and jet travel. “They didn’t know blacks were free, that’s what’s so incredible about their story,” says Farmer-Paellmann. “They thought freedom was for whites only.”Mostly out of fear, but also of shame, Mae Miller says she never breathed a word of her family’s history, even to her own children, until 2001.Mae’s father, Cain Wall Sr., she says, was born into peonage in St. Helena Parish, La. Census records place the date around 1902, though the family says he is even older. Now in frail health and bed-bound, he married when he was 17 (his wife died in 1984) and by the mid-1930s, the family says, was living across the Mississippi border in Gillsburg, working the fields for white families who lived near each other or attended the same church—the Walls (a common name in the region), the McDaniels and, mostly, the Gordons.While blacks in nearby towns like Liberty, Miss., attended school, owned businesses and protested Jim Crow laws that denied them civil rights, life in the countryside was a very different matter.The Walls had no electricity, phone or radio. Trips to town, to visit relatives, even to church, were forbidden. Once during World War II, according to the family, Cain Sr. escaped from the Gordon farm. Within two hours he was picked up by two white men; they said they were taking him to a military recruiting station in Jackson, but immediately returned him to the farm.(3) History of unfree labor in the United States - WikipediaAt least three U.S. presidents knew of post-Emancipation slavery during their terms—Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge and Franklin D. Roosevelt.Supreme Court heard peonage cases in Bailey v. Alabama (1911) and United States v. Reynolds (1914).The New Peonage - Wash. & Lee Law Review 1595 (2015)http://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4476&context=wlulrAlthough the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution formally abolished slavery and involuntary servitude in 1865, the text created an exception for the punishment of crimes “whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.”Two years later, Congress passed The Anti-Peonage Act in an attempt to prohibit the practice of coerced labor for debt. Yet, in the wake of the Civil War, Southern states innovated ways to impose peonage but avoid violations of the law, including criminal surety statutes that allowed employers to pay the court fines for indigent misdemeanants charged with minor offenses in exchange for a commitment to work. Surplus from these payments padded public coffers (as well as the pockets of court officials), and when workers’ debt records were subsequently “lost” or there was an allegation of breach, surety contracts were extended, and workers became further indebted to local planters and merchants.Several decades later in Bailey v. Alabama (1911) and United States v. Reynolds (1914), the Supreme Court invalidated laws criminalizing simple contractual breaches, which Southern states had used to skirt the general provisions of the Anti-Peonage Act. Yet, these decisions ultimately had little impact on the “ever-turning wheel of servitude,” and the practice persisted under alternative forms until after World War II.——-(4) http://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4476&context=wlulrThe New Peonage - Wash. & Lee Law Review 1595 (2015).This Article is the first to analyze the ways in which the contemporary justice tax has the same societal impact as post-Civil War peonage: Both function to maintain an economic caste system.This article posits that the reconfiguration of the South’s judicial system after the Civil War, which entrapped blacks in a perpetual cycle of coerced labor, has direct parallels to the two-tiered system of justice that exists in our juvenile and criminal courtrooms of today. Across the United States, even seemingly minor criminal charges trigger an array of fees, court costs, and assessments that can create insurmountable debt burdens for already struggling families.Likewise, parents who fall behind on their child support payments face the risk of incarceration, and upon release from jail, they must pay off the arrears that accrued, which hinders the process of reentry.Compounding such scenarios, criminal justice debt can lead to driver’s license suspension, bank account or wage garnishment, extended supervision until debts are paid, additional court appearances or warrants related to debt collection and nonpayment, and extra fines and interest for late payment.When low-income parents face such collateral consequences, the very act of meeting the most basic physical and emotional needs of their children becomes a formidable challenge, the failure of which can trigger the intervention of Child Protective Services, potential neglect allegations, and further court hearings and fees.For youth in the juvenile court system, mandatory fees impose a burden that increases the risk of recidivism.In short, for families caught within the state’s debt-enforcement regime, the threat of punishment is an ever-present specter, and incarceration always looms.Ironically, rather than having court fees serve as a straightforward revenue source for the state, this hidden regressive tax requires an extensive infrastructure to turn court and correctional officials into collection agents, burdening the system and interfering with the proper administration of justice.Moreover, states frequently divert court fees and assessments to projects that have little connection to the judicial system.(5) Free the Slaves (Organization)I'm glad "Free the Slaves" exists now. Since 1997, it has helped the Justice Dept. prosecute seven farm slavery operations and helped free over 1,000 people.----World-wide slavery today:Slaves today are cheaper than ever. In 1850, an average slave in the American South cost the equivalent of $40,000 in today’s money. Today a slave costs about $90 on average worldwide.Modern slaves are not considered investments worth maintaining. In the 19th century it was difficult to capture slaves and transport them to the United States. But today, when someone in slavery gets sick or injured, they are simply dumped or killed.Researchers estimate that 21 million are enslaved worldwide, generating $150 billion each year in illicit profits for traffickers.Labor Slavery. About 78 percent toil in forced labor slavery in industries where manual labor is needed—such as farming, ranching, logging, mining, fishing, and brick making—and in service industries working as dish washers, janitors, gardeners, and maids.Sex Slavery. About 22 percent are trapped in forced prostitution sex slavery.Child Slavery. About 26 percent of today’s slaves are children.