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China Aims to Spend at Least $360 Billion on Renewable Energy by 2020

Michael L Forsythe The New York Times
The investment commitment made by the Chinese, combined with Mr. Trump’s moves, means jobs that would have been created in the United States may instead go to Chinese workers... Greenpeace estimates that China installed an average of more than one wind turbine every hour of every day in 2015, and covered the equivalent of one soccer field every hour with solar panels.

The Nature of Mass Demonstrations

John Berger Red Wedge
The recreation of the world must be daring, bold, avant-garde even, but it must also be collective. When we speak of "rekindling the revolutionary imagination," that is what we intend to communicate. John Berger was essential in teaching this to us. And for that we are forever in his debt.

The Volunteer Army and What We Really Mean When We Salute the Troops

Barrett Swanson The Guardian
The U.S. has now effectively traded a universal military draft for the far more insidious policy of economic conscription. And while it has become something of a ritual for civilians to address veterans with: “Thank you for your service,” to commend those who have voluntarily put themselves in harm’s way, the ritual also betrays a more profound reality. We are thankful we ourselves aren’t economically desperate enough to have to enlist in this country’s endless wars.

Nurses in Several Chinese Cities Strike over Low Pay and Benefits

Australia Asia Worker Links China Labour Bulletin
Despite a crackdown on labor activists there, Chinese workers continue to strike. The strike wave continues to grow, and strikes are not only in the private sector or in companies that manufacture for export. Last year saw a large wave of teacher strikes, and as this article shows, nurses in public hospitals are also striking.

Sustainability through local food

Rose Hayden-Smith UC Food Observer
A farmland mapping project by a UC Merced professor indicates that most areas of the country could feed between 80 percent and 100 percent of their populations with food grown or raised within 50 miles. The study immediately generated comment, including positive accolades from author and influencer Michael Pollan (also a UC professor). Many have noted the importance of the study in filling a research gap about local food.

What Sparked the Cambrian Explosion?

Douglas Fox Nature
An evolutionary burst 540 million years ago filled the seas with an astonishing diversity of animals. The trigger behind that revolution is finally coming into focus.

Poorest Areas Have Missed Out on Boons of Recovery

Nelson D. Schwartz The New York Times
While some communities are currently enjoying the fruits of the recovery, others have sunk further into poverty. According to the authors, this pattern of distress vs. prosperity not only “diverges between cities and states but even more starkly within cities at the neighborhood level." In the period of recovery following the Great Recession, the authors find, jobs in the median U.S. ZIP code grew at less than half the national rate.