- More proof that China can get away with environmental policies that no other country could countenance: it’s shutting down 111 golf courses because they use too much water and land, and only rich people can play.
- Peter Leyden rises up my little list of ‘people I hope are right’ with his suggestion that Donald Trump is the last gasp of an old order, not a new beginning.
- So many pedestrians are putting themselves at risk by looking down at their phones that a city in Germany has put traffic lights in the floor.
- Transparency International released the Corruption Perception Index for 2016 this week if you’re curious to see where your country falls.
The Earthbound Report 
china is never given enough credit. the public needs to understand their situation, including how primitive most of their population is. ignoring this, their progress is second to none. taking it into account, their progress cannot be compared.
Well said Jennon. Over the past twenty or so years China has lifted about 700 million people out of desperate poverty – it’s an extraordinary and, as you indicate, unprecedented achievement enabling the UN to meet one of its Millennium goals several years early. It has to be noted however that, in the process, China has become the most heavily industrialised country on earth, responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than the US and EU combined.
I think Peter Leyden makes the age old mistake of thinking the future is mapped out following current (selected) trends, one that happens to favour what you want. A classic error is the idea the millennial generation won’t change their views as they get older, unlike every generation in political history.
This isn’t to say the future will not be that but the idea California is the future is an old and not very successful one.
Quite so, which is why I only say I hope he’s right.