Toma nota.../Take note...

When it comes to the environment, American Christians remain divided along political lines.  Christian doctrine teaches to respect  Creation as a whole, but most Christians do not seem to follow the rule.

Being religious does not make you greener

Jan. 26.– Are religious leaders convincing their followers to care more about the fate of the earth? Catholic, mainstream Protestant and Orthodox Christian shepherds are trying hard to interest believers in environmental questions. But a new study suggests that among Christians in America, concern about the environment is somewhere between static and declining.

David Konisky, an associate professor at the University of Indiana, wanted to find out if there has been a “greening of Christianity” over time. As he notes in his article in the Journal of Environmental Politics, there have been many snapshot studies of religious and ecological sentiment. But little effort has gone into examining long-term trends.

El esperado plan de reforma fiscal del Presidente de EEUU, Donald Trump, incluye importantes recortes de impuestos para las empresas y reducción de tramos para los trabajadores. Hace algunos meses el Secretario del Tesoro, Steven Mnuchin, declaró en rueda de prensa en la Casa Blanca que: "Se trata de uno de los mayores recortes de impuestos de la historia". Y precisó que: "Esperamos que billones de dólares en el extranjero regresen y sean reinvertidos aquí en EEUU en bienes de capital y creación de empleo". En anticipación de su entrada en vigor y, finalmente, una vez aprobado por el Congreso, la Bolsa de Valores ha registrado alzas constantes y ha roto todos los records anteriores. Varias empresas multinacionales han expresado ya sus planes de volver a establecer sus sedes en Estados Unidos para acogerse al sistema fiscal del país. Esta noticia de Apple es uno de tantos casos de empresas que se sienten atraídas a volver a operar desde ese gigantesco mercado.

Apple acepta pagar 31.000 millones en EE UU tras la reforma fiscal de Trump

La repatriación de hasta 252.000 millones de dólares en beneficios supondrá el mayor pago impositivo de la historia

New York, Ene.18.– Apple, la mayor compañía cotizada del mundo, anunció el miércoles que planea pagar en Estados Unidos alrededor de 38.000 millones de dólares en impuestos (equivalentes a 31.000 millones de euros) por los beneficios acumulados en el extranjero. La compañía presidida por Tim Cook tiene embolsados algo más de 252.000 millones de dólares fuera de EE UU por sus ganancias globales y la rebaja fiscal contemplada en la reforma de Trump le permite repatriar buena parte de este dinero.

La tecnológica anunció al mismo tiempo un plan de inversión para los próximos cinco años con el que espera crear hasta 20.000 nuevos empleos en EE UU. Estima que así generará el equivalente a 350.000 millones en actividad económica.

Ecological Consequences of Deforestation The primary ecological consequences of deforestation are decline in biodiversity, invasion of exotic species, destruction of hydrological cycle, increase in water runoff and decrease in water quality, and acceleration of soil erosion. Tropical forests contain between 70% and 90% of all world species and because of deforestation the planet loses between 50 and 130 animal and plant species each day!

10% Of World's Wilderness Has Been Lost In Past 25 Years, Study Finds

The ecological consequences are critical   

“If this rate continues, we will have lost all wilderness within the next 50 years.” – James Watson

Dec. 21.– The world’s last great wildernesses are shrinking at an alarming rate, The Guardian reports.

In the past two decades, 10 percent of the earth’s wilderness has been lost due to human pressure, a mapping study by Australia’s University of Queensland (UQ) has found.

Las autoridades mexicanas están alertandoa la población porque los jóvenes empiezan a consumir la droga en algunos casos a partir de los 10 y los 11 años de edad. Informan que entre 2016 y 2017 se registró un aumento del 100%, al pasar de 1.3% a 2.6%, de acuerdo con la Encuesta Nacional de Consumo de Drogas, Alcohol y Tabaco. Todos los indicios confirman que la legalización estimula y facilita el vicio.  

El consumo de marihuana en México se duplica entre los menores de edad

Mexico DF, Dic.4.– La marihuana es la droga ilegal más consumida en México. Más de siete millones de mexicanos, un 8,6% de los adultos entre los 18 y los 65 años de edad, aseguran que la han probado al menos una vez. Este porcentaje se duplicó entre 2011 y 2015, lo que hace a la mariguana la droga que más crece en el país. Los consumidores que la utilizaron en los últimos 12 meses pasaron del 1,2% al 2,1% en cinco años, según datos oficiales. 

We may learn from recent history that globalization has not been a smooth process. The rapid trade volume increase and initial ourput growth caused by the fast and wide globalization trend during the last 70 years went often together with major shifts in the relative size of the economies involved. According to a World Trade Organization report, the "structure and size of international capital flows has varied greatly over the last 60 years. In the aftermath of WWII, the economies of Europe and Japan suffered large trade deficits and could generate only limited savings for rebuilding their capital stock. The Marshall Plan, the European Payments Union and at a later stage United States’ foreign direct investment (FDI) provided the necessary liquidity for the expansion of international trade." Those remedies are no longer available. The facts in recent years prove that the gap in incomes between the 20% of the world's population in the richest and poorest countries has grown considerably and per capita incomes have fallen in more than 70 countries over the past 20 years. A reassessment of this trend is essential. The Economist offers its own point of view on this issue:

Globalisation’s losers – The right way to help declining places

Time for fresh thinking about the changing economics of geography   

Oct.21.– Populism's wave has yet to crest. That is the sobering lesson of recent elections in Germany and Austria, where the success of anti-immigrant, anti-globalisation parties showed that a message of hostility to elites and outsiders resonates as strongly as ever among those fed up with the status quo. It is also the lesson from America, where Donald Trump is doubling down on gestures to his angry base, most recently by adopting a negotiating position on NAFTA that is more likely to wreck than remake the trade agreement (see article). 

These remedies will not work. The demise of NAFTA will disproportionately hurt the blue-collar workers who back Mr Trump. Getting tough on immigrants will do nothing to improve economic conditions in eastern Germany, where 20% of voters backed the far-right Alternative for Germany. But the self-defeating nature of populist policies will not blunt their appeal. Mainstream parties must offer voters who feel left behind a better vision of the future, one that takes greater account of the geographical reality behind the politics of anger.