Everyone has opinions about student-loan forgiveness - btbirkett@gmail.com - Gmail

Everyone has opinions about student-loan forgiveness - btbirkett@gmail.com - Gmail

FOLLOW US    GET THE NEWSLETTER

About five centuries ago in the year 2015, you may recall a raging debate about a photo of a dress. Viewers of the image were ferociously split as to whether the garment was colored black and blue, or white and gold. It became a virtual Hunger Games overnight, with everyone from families at the dinner table to politicians in Congress taking a side. Not much has quite divided the internet like that since the era of The Dress, but this past week, student-loan relief became a solid contender. And it’s no wonder why: About 1 in 5 Americans have student loans. Jonathan Bernstein says the “fever-pitch rhetoric” surrounding President Joe Biden’s decision to forgive up to $20,000 in student loans is a lawmaking lesson in disguise. Legislators are constantly sleuthing around on the interwebs, looking for something — anything! — to excite their supporters. Biden’s campaign promise on student-loan relief was one such thing, and the debate surrounding the decision has gotten heated, chaotic and extremely intense. Although we all have Very Strong Opinions about whether student-loan forgiveness is a wise move, not everyone has the data to back up their stance. So let’s start with the basics. In 2015, the year of The Dress, total student-loan debt in the US was sitting pretty at $1.2 trillion. Today, that figure has risen by a handsome amount: More than 90% of the 45 million Americans who are burdened with federal student-loan debt will see some form of relief with Biden’s plan, and an estimated 20 million borrowers will be free of student debt once the policy is put into action. But Bloomberg’s editorial board argues that any iteration of student-loan forgiveness is regressive, because: It hurts the 60% of Americans who didn’t graduate college. It helps the wealthiest two-fifths of Americans. It will cost taxpayers gazillions of dollars. It adds flames to the inflation fire. It will encourage people to take out MOAR loans. It sounds bad. But what’s the alternative? Millions of Americans have long relied on federal loans to cover the costs of higher education, and the breakdown in sums they owe might surprise you: The Great American Debt Landscape has evolved rapidly over the past decade, with student loans taking the lead around 2010, toppling other forms of debt like auto loans and credit-card bills: Overall, the debt load is somehow more uneven than your pandemic haircut (which was bad!!!), with some states clocking in way higher loan amounts than others: But geographic divides aren’t the only ones when it comes to who owes student loans. “A 2016 study found that four years after earning a bachelor’s degree, the average Black graduate had about $53,000 in debt, nearly twice the level of the average White graduate,” Carl Romer and Andre Perry wrote earlier this year — a consequence of what they call “federally engineered inequality.” Decades of redlining prevented Black families from accumulating wealth in the housing market, while White families had no trouble doing so and ascending the path of upward mobility. This inequality seeps directly into higher education, Romer and Perry argue, because similarly qualified students end up graduating with very different debt loads depending on their race and family circumstances: Another factor to consider is age, with older Americans uniquely hard-hit. Alexis Leondis writes that retirees are often “smothered by student debt in their senior years” because they have fixed incomes with little financial wiggle-room. Sometimes the student debt they owe is their own — if they took out loans for extra schooling to earn more money later in life, for example. But often it’s loans they took out to help their children or grandchildren. Americans age 62 and older are the fastest-growing segment of student debtors, and a ton of them are currently stuck in a never-ending student-debt doom spiral: Some of them are forced to resort to dip into their Social Security benefits if they default — a practice that Alexis says Biden should end ASAP. As it stands, the government’s plan doesn’t provide enough of a lifeline to alleviate these struggling seniors’ financial burdens. Unlike other forms of debt, people can’t simply discharge their federal or private student loans in bankruptcy. If graduate students were able to drop their loans in that manner, Allison Schrager says it would force lenders to actually look at the risks involved when making these loans in the first place. “In no other industry would a debt-financed investment that’s the equivalent of going to medical school be considered the same as a film-studies degree,” she writes. The average debt load for students getting a master’s degree is about $75,000, which is well over double the average sum that undergrads borrow: Clive Crook argues that professionals in their 20s can be in a solid financial position despite having student debt: “Future doctors and lawyers might be making nothing at that point. This doesn’t mean they’re poor,” he writes. Perhaps measuring the loan relief by predicted lifetime earnings would have been a more appropriate route for the White House. Over the past two years, nearly everyone took advantage of the student-loan moratorium, even households in the highest income quartile (earning over $121,317), which carry 34% of total federal student loan debt. But come 2023, student-loan payments will come roaring back, with Biden calling the latest extension the seventh and final one. Now is a great time to start rejiggering your budget plans ahead of the restart. No matter which way you slice or dice the data, there’s an overwhelming and undeniable amount of froth in higher education. In the same way that everyone agrees that The Dress was in fact, a dress, everyone understands that the student-debt doom cycle is a beast that needs to be tamed, one way or another.

Gavecal (1) The gates of hell???—Global Macro Update - YouTube

(1) The gates of hell???—Global Macro Update - YouTube

geothermal energy - How to build a geothermal treasure map - btbirkett@gmail.com - Gmail

How to build a geothermal treasure map - btbirkett@gmail.com - Gmail

A Utah startup is making a ‘treasure map’ for geothermal energy

Carl Hoiland grew up in a rural Oregon, taking trips into the Sierra Mountains with his grandfather to prospect gold and uranium. In grad school, Hoiland studied geothermal energy, the complex science of converting heat sources buried within the earth into electricity. He quickly learned how little the field had advanced. Geothermal developers sometimes gets lucky with a geyser or natural hot spring, but otherwise the operations know as much about the risks and rewards of terrain as gold prospectors or oil explorers did decades ago. “You just have to go by instincts,” Hoiland says. “That’s how my grandfather worked.” In 2019, Hoiland co-founded Zanskar, a data-analysis company intent on solving that problem. Technical progress has renewed interest in geothermal as a clean method for heating homes and providing utility-grade power. Hoiland’s startup, based in Utah, constructs a software model of wells—with insight on reservoir volume, rock density and magnetic fields—to give a snapshot of potential energy output. It then sells this data to developers, giving them a clearer sense of where to dig and the risks for certain locations. Hoiland calls it “a treasure map” for a renewable sector getting a sudden resurgence of attention. “There’s enough energy in the Earth’s crust to power billions of electric vehicles, heat pumps, and data centers, if only we could locate it,” says Chris Sacca, managing partner for Lowercarbon Capital, an investor. “Enter Zanskar.” Calling all podcast lovers. Yes to a world with zero emissions… but how do we get there? On Zero, a new podcast from Bloomberg Green, we’re introducing listeners to the people making that world possible — from scientists building physics-defying batteries to politicians passing successful climate laws. Subscribe now on Spotify and Apple to get the first episode in September. Geothermal power was fashionable a few decades ago but investment dried up since solar and wind energy required far less upfront capital. The method, as a one energy analyst put it last year, has “oil and gas risk but with utility returns.”  New methods for drilling into deeper, hotter resources has made investors more optimistic about returns. Fervo, a geothermal startup that’s working with Google, announced a $138 million funding round earlier this week. Oil majors have invested in the field.  The US Department of Energy has unleashed funds for geothermal. And the new Inflation Reduction Act puts geothermal on an equal footing with wind and solar for tax credits on projects that commence construction through 2024, according to BloombergNEF.  “The potential win looks so much larger,” says Michael Sachse, chief executive officer of Dandelion Energy, a company working on geothermal for residential heating. “Now there are just many more dollars available.”  Zanskar is targeting grid-scale developers, not startups or residential operations, although Hoiland declined to share customers. His startup recently wrapped a $12 million investment from Lowercarbon, Union Square Ventures and the venture arm of Munich Re, the German insurer. Albert Wenger, a managing partner with Union Square Ventures, says Zanskar is “far ahead of anybody else” with its offering. A 2019 report from the Energy Department calculated the success rate of geothermal wells during exploration at around 50 percent. Some estimates put the rate of productive wells even lower.  Hoiland sees his edge from data. During a videoconference call, he flips his camera around to show piles of boxes sitting across from his desk. They are filled with surveying material Zanskar purchased from a geologist who once worked for a geothermal company that went bankrupt decades ago. (Hoiland declines to name the company.) The files, gathering dust in an attic, are now being uploaded digitally and plotted onto Zanskar’s treasure map. By crunching this historical data with machine learning software, the startup promises a stronger forecast of the energy available in geothermal sites. Hoiland says his company has mapped hundreds of geothermal sites and can measure seismic signals that conventional modeling from the oil and gas sector typically ignores. “We’ve been able to find anomalies that no one else has,” he says. Today, geothermal accounts for a meager 0.2% of the world’s power generation capacity, around 16 gigawatts, according to BNEF. As costs drop and investment grows, however, the research firm expects that output to reach 27 gigawatts by 2030.  “It’s a totally under-leveraged resource,” says Wenger, the investor. “It’s right under our feet.”

wine - Keeping the lights on in Europe will be very hard this winter - btbirkett@gmail.com - Gmail

Keeping the lights on in Europe will be very hard this winter - btbirkett@gmail.com - Gmail

The Heat Is on Winemakers

Surging temperatures pose a particular risk to the world’s winemakers. The climate crisis could destroy production in much of Europe in the coming decades, including central Italy and southern France. Yields in California may plunge by as much as 70%. So one California-based winery is fighting back with aggressive strategies to protect its vineyards, writes Amanda Little.

Jackson Family Wines has a stable of brands including Kendall Jackson and La Crema. It’s using a combination of old-school techniques and modern technology to maintain production across its 10,000 acres. It plans to control pests using owls and falcons, introduce cover crops such as rye and barley between vine rows, and help the soil retain moisture and absorb carbon dioxide using compost made from waste including grape skins. Data from satellites and drones will monitor droughts, while sanitizing fermentation tanks with ultraviolet light instead of water will save millions of gallons of water a year. 

“All wineries will have to adapt,” Amanda says. “Agricultural ministers in every wine-producing country will need to help fund both traditional and technological solutions to support the transition.”

China's worst heat wave on record is crippling power supplies. How it reacts will impact us all - btbirkett@gmail.com - Gmail

China's worst heat wave on record is crippling power supplies. How it reacts will impact us all - btbirkett@gmail.com - Gmail

Nectar Gan   China's worst heat wave on record is crippling power supplies. How it reacts will impact us all

For weeks now, a power crunch caused by a record heat wave and accompanying drought has wreaked havoc across Sichuan, a province home to 80 million people in southwestern China.   It's dimmed skyscrapers, shut factories, darkened subways, and plunged homes and offices into rolling blackouts, forcing air conditioning to be unplugged — and killed thousands of poultry and fish at farms hit by electricity cuts.   The impact has been felt far and wide, from the neighboring mega city of Chongqing and the eastern provinces along the Yangtze River to the financial hub of Shanghai — where the iconic skyline went dark this week to save energy.   In a country that prides itself on economic growth and stability, the acute power shortage has come as a shock to residents who in recent decades have grown used to improved living conditions and infrastructure.   To many, extended power cuts revive memories of the distant past — a bygone era before China's economic rise ushered in its glitzy metropolises and lifted millions out of poverty.   And now, climate change is threatening to disrupt that sense of security and economic growth.   The ongoing heat wave is the worst China has seen since records began more than 60 years ago. It has stretched over 70 days, sweeping through large swathes of the country and smashing temperature records at hundreds of weather stations.   The sheer size of China's economy and population means any major disruption to its power supply can cause massive loss and suffering.   "These so-called extreme weather events will have more impact on our lives and electricity supply," said Li Shuo, climate adviser with Greenpeace in Beijing. "And perhaps we all need to reconsider whether these extreme events will become the new normal."   Experts say the Sichuan power crunch is an example that China's energy system is far less robust than it needs to be to face the growing challenges from climate change.   Some believe the industry is heading in the right direction toward reform, while others worry it will turn to building more coal-fired power plants to secure energy supply — and risk undermining China's pledges to reach peak carbon by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060.   How did the power crunch happen?   Located along the upper reaches of the Yangtze, China's longest and largest river, Sichuan is famous for its rich water resources and relies mostly on hydropower.   Amid scorching temperatures and a prolonged drought, reservoirs across Sichuan are drying up — crippling the hydropower stations that account for nearly 80% of the province's power generation capacity.   This month, Sichuan has seen its hydroelectricity capacity plunge by 50%, according to the state grid. Meanwhile, the unrelenting heat wave has pushed power demand to unprecedented highs, as residents and businesses blast their air conditioning to stay cool.   "China's electricity demand has been incredibly flat in the past, because so much of it has come from the industry, not from households or services. Now with air conditioning becoming more common, the demand is becoming higher," said Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air in Helsinki, Finland (CREA).   "At the same time, rains are becoming more errant. Heavy rains and periods of drought make hydropower much less reliable as a source of available capacity during those peaks."   To make matters worse, Sichuan is traditionally a huge exporter of power during the rainy season, sending about a third of its hydropower generation to provinces in eastern China, according to David Fishman, an analyst on Chinese energy at consultancy The Lantau Group.   Despite its crippled power generation capacity, Sichuan must still honor its export contracts with other provinces, which Fishman said could "be really hard to get out of."   "But even if they could, the generating facilities in Sichuan were built to export power to the east coast," he said. "They don't really have great connectivity to the rest of the Sichuan grid. They were never intended to serve Sichuan power consumption needs."   'Quenching a thirst with poison'   To ease the energy crunch, Sichuan is firing up its coal power plants, raising concerns among environmentalists about the potential increase in greenhouse gas emissions.   Sichuan Guang'an Power Generation, the region's biggest coal-fired power plant, has been operating at full capacity for 21 consecutive days. Its electricity generation for August is expected to jump 313% from a year earlier, the company said.   The province is also mining more coal. Sichuan Coal Industry Group, its largest coal miner, has more than doubled its thermal coal production since mid-August. And last week, Sichuan opened its first national coal reserve.   Nationwide, the daily consumption of coal at power plants was up 15% in the first two weeks of August compared with the same period last year, according to the National Development and Reform Commission.   Last week, Chinese vice-premier Han Zheng said the government would step up support for coal plants to ensure stable power supply.   While the jump in coal consumption is likely a temporary fix, Li, the Greenpeace adviser, feared the hydropower crisis could be used by coal interest groups to lobby for more coal plants.   "There is a possibility that power shortages caused by future extreme weather events might become a new motivation for China to approve more (coal-fired power) projects," he said.   Last year, after a coal shortage caused a series of power outages across China, the government began to signal a renewed focus on "energy security." By the last quarter of the year, new-approved coal capacity surged back, especially in state-owned enterprises, Greenpeace said in a report published last month.   In the first quarter of this year, provincial governments approved plans to add a total of 8.63 gigawatts of new coal power plants, nearly half the amount seen in all of 2021, according to the report.   "Energy security has become a sort of code word for coal, rather than for reliable supply of energy," the report said.   Yu Aiqun, China researcher at Global Energy Monitor, likened turning to coal — the largest cause of global warming — for energy security to "quenching a thirst with poison."   "China has an obsession with coal power — there is a very strong sense of dependence. Whenever an energy problem occurs, it always tries to seek answer from coal power ...This is running in the opposite direction from its climate goals," she said.   Read the full story here.

Nectar Gan is China Reporter for CNN International in Hong Kong. She covers the changes taking place in China, and their impact on the world.

Masked match China’s national women’s volleyball team sparked a social media storm Thursday for wearing face masks in their Asian Cup match against Iran. China lost the opening set while wearing the N95 masks. They then removed them — and won the three subsequent sets to claim victory. Many online posters accused authorities of sacrificing the players’ health in an overzealous pursuit of the country’s zero-Covid policy. Following the backlash, China’s volleyball association apologized Friday for “causing widespread attention and concern in society.” It said the team had required all players to wear masks while entering the court as a precaution against Covid-19. “Due to our lack of experience on the field, we did not remind the players to take off their masks in time,” it said in a statement.   “We realized wearing masks was bad for athletes’ health in the second half of the first set, and the team promptly reminded the players to take off their masks and finish the rest of the game,” the association said.

Long-awaited report It's been four years since a committee of United Nations experts called attention to "credible reports" that more than 1 million Uyghur and other Muslim minority peoples were interned in extrajudicial camps in Xinjiang in northwestern China for "re-education" and indoctrination.   But since that moment in August 2018, the international community has done little on the basis of those reports within the UN: Countries in the UN's main human rights body have not agreed to any formal call for a probe, while appeals from UN experts for China to allow for rights monitoring have been met with fierce denials of wrongdoing from Beijing and no invite for free access to come see for themselves.   Now, a report by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet could bolster the push for accountability and elevate the voices of survivors and their families in a way the UN system has not previously done — creating the potential for a turning point for how the international community, and top UN officials, have handled these accounts.   But the report itself appears to be bogged down in review, following what's already been months of delay, with Bachelet on Thursday saying her office was "trying" to release it before the end of her term on August 31 as promised in June, but they were still reviewing "substantial input" from China, which she said was granted access to make "factual comments" as per standard procedure.   How impactful that report will be also depends on its contents. Bachelet has already been accused by human rights groups and academic experts of being soft on Beijing after a controversial visit to China earlier this year.   Releasing a strong report — and acting on it — would mean going up against China, which has amassed what multiple UN insiders and experts call significant power among countries within the UN system, built by leveraging its economic might and championing an alternative vision of human rights — as well as systematically pushing back on any effort, however small, to challenge its human rights record, including the High Commissioner's report.   Earlier in her term, Bachelet said she sought "full access to carry out an independent assessment of the continuing reports pointing to wide patterns of enforced disappearances and arbitrary detentions," but while she did not gain unfettered access in her eventual trip this past May, she has said the report was updated following that trip.   China's Foreign Ministry has already publicly decried the report, with a spokesman late last month calling on the High Commissioner's office to "respect the serious concern of the Chinese people and everyone speaking for justice in the world, stand on the right side of history and reject publishing an assessment on Xinjiang based on false information and false accusations."   The spokesman did not confirm if Beijing had seen the forthcoming report at that time or elaborate on which parts he believed would be "false," though China has denied all rights abuses. Bachelet on Thursday said the report "looks in depth" at allegations of "serious human rights violations."   Read the full story here.   — From CNN's Simone McCarthy

China has unveiled 19 new measures to shore up its economy and "secure drinking water" supply as the country struggles with its worst heat wave in 60 years and rigid Covld lockdowns.   The new measures announced by China's cabinet on Wednesday amount to more than $146 billion in funding to improve infrastructure, ease power shortages, and tackle drought, including money to secure rice production.   "The current economic recovery has a weak foundation," the statement said, adding that the new funding was aimed at stabilizing the economy. Premier Li Keqiang hosted the cabinet meeting.   Beijing has tried to boost investment and consumption in the world's second-largest economy more than once this year. In May, the government announced 33 measures to revive growth.   Despite these interventions, the Chinese economy has deteriorated in recent months because of Covid lockdowns and a deepening property downturn. Analysts are also concerned about the impact China's record heat wave and drought will have on growth. Already, several international businesses, including Tesla and Toyota, have faced disruption at factories due to power outages.   Several major investment banks, including Goldman Sachs and Nomura, downgraded China's economic growth forecasts for 2022 to 3% or under, as the heat wave hit industrial heartlands. That's way below the 5.5% growth target set by the Chinese government earlier this year.   China's biggest focus remains infrastructure growth.   With the central bank's support, state development banks can lend $44 billion to finance infrastructure projects, the statement said. That's on top of $161 billion already committed in June.   Local governments will also be permitted to issue $73 billion in debt to fund the building of roads, railways, airports, affordable housing and energy projects. That's in addition to $511 billion of bonds they were given permission to issue for the same purposes earlier this year.   Li also urged all government departments to "do a better job" in battling the drought and mitigating its impacts. He called for more wells to be drilled, and more drought-resistant water sources to be developed, in addition to seeding clouds, which China resorted to earlier this month to bring more rainfall to the Yangtze River.   "Priority should be given to ensuring people's drinking water, and to transport and deliver the water when necessary," Li added.