Health

A Walking Revolution

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The next big health care breakthrough — which could cut rates of heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer, and Alzheimer’s by at least 40 percent and save Americans $100 billion a year — comes from a place you’d least expect. On your block. At the park. Everywhere.

Fracking – 1 Mar

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•Shale Gas and Tight Oil: Boom? Bust? Or Just a Petering Out? •ENERGY: Overdevelopment and the Delusion of Endless Growth, Part 3 – The Bad Idea of Fracking, with Sandra Steingraber (audio) •Germany moves to allow controversial shale gas drilling •Colorado Will Sue Fort Collins Over Fracking Ban •Shale falls short for US energy security •"Frackademia" – MIT’s Ernest Moniz, Obama’s Top Candidate for Energy Secretary, Oversees Pro-Industry-Funded Research

Natural gas & fracking

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•Report questions long-term productivity of gas wells in Barnett Shale•Town Sued After Barring Debate on Gas Extraction at Meetings•PwC: Shale oil surge poses threat to renewables•Gas company targets protected Manú park in Peruvian Amazon•NY fracking decision faces further delay on health study

Shale gas – Oct 8

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-Cabot’s Methodology Links Tainted Water Wells to Gas Fracking
-Shale gas report by health officer may remain secret
-Experts: Despite China’s efforts, technology constraints could curb shale gas development
-Water problem in shale is drawing a flood of capital
-Penn State Faculty Snub of Fracking Study Ends Research

A healthy (and profitable) oasis in Philly’s food deserts

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Want proof that the goals of business and the needs of the most vulnerable can align? Meet Jeff Brown, fourth-generation grocer and owner of the 10-store ShopRite regional chain based in Philadelphia. By mixing old-fashioned customer service with innovative new approaches, Brown is chipping away at the nation’s jobs challenge, starting in the communities hardest-hit by the financial crisis.

Neoliberalism, degrowth and the fate of health systems

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There are unprecedented and widely unappreciated dangers posed to public health, nursing, medicine and allied health professions by the ongoing global economic contraction. This is a multilayered and, frankly, emotionally difficult topic to digest. Before discussing how health systems are affected we first lay out the larger social-ecological context of modern society’s predicament. This includes a brief overview of the idea of degrowth.

Sustainable healthcare

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Sustainable healthcare is achievable now, at (relatively) little cost and with existing knowledge. It is being demonstrated all over the world currently and has been demonstrated historically. Is it easy? No, it is challenging, but why would that be a reason not to do it? What we have is unsustainable, and more importantly, does not generate health.

Can we talk? In a meaningful way, that is…

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Sometimes conversations get competitive and unpleasant. Everyone is trying to prove they’re right — that they’re smarter than everyone else. This drains our spirit, and we lose our energy to work for change. So we need to remember, in any kind of conversation, that it’s not a contest. Think of it as a barn-raising: You’re helping each other build something.

The Affordable Care Act’s Fatal Omission?

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The proverbial elephant in the room (and perhaps the ACA’s fatal flaw) from my in-the-trenches standpoint is the sustainability question, How on earth is this health care system going to survive? The question has two components: First, the billions of dollars required to implement and sustain the ACA. Second, and most important, I’m talking about the viability of a system that is inextricably dependent on a ready supply of resources that are being consumed faster than they can be replaced.