China has a Severe Energy Crisis.

[Trell]

I agree. How about the organization that hid it from the law and shuffled priests around for years to avoid prosecution while who knows how many more children were molested? It goes all the way to the top.

It seems this thread has deviated.

French Catholic Church inquiry uncovers thousands of pedophiles since 1950

Report due Tuesday to detail ‘institutional and cultural’ mechanisms that allowed offenders to stay in place, enquiry’s head says.

www.politico.eu

>>>
An independent enquiry into child abuse in the Catholic Church looks set to shake France as its head said the commission’s research uncovered thousands of pedophiles.

The commission found between 2,900 and 3,200 pedophile church members since 1950 — and that’s a “minimum estimate,” Jean-Marc Sauvé, the head of the enquiry, told AFP ahead of the publication of the findings Tuesday.
Earlier this year, he estimated there could be “at least 10,000” victims.

The Bishops’ Conference of France decided to launch the commission in 2018, following repeated scandals.
The 2,500-page report is the result of interviews with witnesses and the research of church, court and police archives. It will offer estimates of the number of offenders and victims and detail “institutional and cultural” mechanisms that allowed offenders to stay in place, Sauvé said.
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[highfigh]

One part of the solution is to reduce the need for cars. Better public transport and cities/suburbs planned around not needing a car for going to work, for instance.

Many jobs CAN'T be done without someone driving to a location- it's literally impossible but it's also difficult to implement public transport in smaller communities because the cost is prohibitive. Also, the US has become more of a service economy that a manufacturing economy- if it were still the latter, I think this would be much easier. OTOH, people like the freedom to go somewhere directly from their workplace, rather than riding to their car and leaving from a place that may cause its own traffic problems because of the time needed for that.

Many places could use more ride-sharing- it gets passengers to their destinations and they would/might meet new people- this is fairly common in Los Angeles, where traffic is a complete nightmare.

Having taken an urban planning class when I was in college, I can say with confidence that until recently, urban planners didn't care about energy use. They tend(ed) to care about how their vision will be seen by others.

This is very difficult to address in older, sprawling cities where existing buildings and roadways cover most of the ground.

Great idea, hard to do.

 

[TLS Guy]

Breaking news!

China's energy problems just got a lot worse.

A huge, Russian Gazprom plant in the Russian far East is on fire this morning. This plants sends a lot of natural gas to China.

This has come at a bad time. I will also further impact stressed European supplies.

 

[Trell]

Many jobs CAN'T be done without someone driving to a location- it's literally impossible but it's also difficult to implement public transport in smaller communities because the cost is prohibitive. Also, the US has become more of a service economy that a manufacturing economy- if it were still the latter, I think this would be much easier. OTOH, people like the freedom to go somewhere directly from their workplace, rather than riding to their car and leaving from a place that may cause its own traffic problems because of the time needed for that.

Many places could use more ride-sharing- it gets passengers to their destinations and they would/might meet new people- this is fairly common in Los Angeles, where traffic is a complete nightmare.

Having taken an urban planning class when I was in college, I can say with confidence that until recently, urban planners didn't care about energy use. They tend(ed) to care about how their vision will be seen by others.

This is very difficult to address in older, sprawling cities where existing buildings and roadways cover most of the ground.

Great idea, hard to do.

Changes have been going on for forever, or so; this is nothing new. The changes like these have a great personal cost, of course, so a functional social security net will help with that.

 

[highfigh]

Changes have been going on for forever, or so; this is nothing new. The changes like these have a great personal cost, of course, so a functional social security net will help with that.

Social Security, as a retirement fund? It wasn't supposed to be for that- it was for supporting women and children when the primary earner was disabled or died and at the beginning, people were used up by the time they retired, so they didn't live long. Some, like my uncle, lived almost 40 years after retiring but then, some never reach retirement age or die soon after, so their contribution is passed along. Personally, I think the high earner limit should be raised considerably- it's not going to have much impact on many of them and some won't notice at all. The employers will, though- they match the employee contribution and in some businesses, it could hurt. OTOH, I know someone who complained that the commissioned salespeople at their store were making too much money- THEY set up the commission structure, yet they complained. This happened because he listened to some advisors who were complete morons- the store made more BECAUSE the salespeople sold more, but the owner was too blind to see it. That company was about 105 years old when they shut down and the president ended up selling shoes at REI.

 

[Mr._Clark]

The UK has lots of coal mines, but I don't think it has had a working mine in years. It does have some coal reserves though, and was forced to start four moth balled coal power stations recently, when wind power was becalmed for four straight days.

This is a little obscure, but your comment reminded me of the quote attributed to Aneurin Bevan:

"This island is made mainly of coal and surrounded by fish. Only an organizing genius could produce a shortage of coal and fish at the same time."

It looks like India is also having serious energy problems due to limited coal supplies:

Why India is on the brink of an unprecedented power crisis

More than half of India's 135 coal-fired power plants are running on fumes - as coal stocks run low.

www.bbc.com