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Happiest Americans are the oldest
Associated Press
… eye-opening research [has found that] the happiest Americans are the oldest, and older adults are more socially active than the stereotype of the lonely senior suggests.
… “The good news is that with age comes happiness,” said study author Yang Yang, a University of Chicago sociologist. “Life gets better in one’s perception as one ages.”
… But older people generally have learned to be more content with what they have than younger adults, Yang said.
This is partly because older people have learned to lower their expectations and accept their achievements, said Duke University aging expert Linda George.
… There were ups and downs in overall happiness levels during the study, generally corresponding with good and bad economic times. But at every stage, older Americans were the happiest.
While younger blacks and poor people tended to be less happy than whites and wealthier people, those differences faded as people aged.
In general, the odds of being happy increased 5 percent with every 10 years of age.
… Yang’s study also found that baby boomers were the least happy. They could end up living the unfortunate old-age stereotype if they can’t let go of their achievement-driven mind-set, said George, the Duke aging expert.
(18 April 2008)
The end is nigh
Helen Haravey, Taranaki Daily News
It’s probably true that people don’t want to hear things like “our current food system is totally unsustainable and on the point of collapse”. But it’s also true that Kevin Moore doesn’t present his message in a way that is easy to understand. He interrupts himself, he changes the subject half-way through a sentence and goes off on tangents.
Ask him to explain his theory in two or three sentences. He doesn’t. He doesn’t even answer the question. “It’s not a theory! Take out that word – it’s not a theory. I’m presenting facts.”
And news reports from around the world are telling a story similar to his. A shortage of food in Haiti has caused riots and deaths.
(19 April 2008)
Good description of the views of peak oil campaigner Kevin Moore. In an email, he reports frustration getting coverage, but adds:
I guess we must try to be magnanimous and acknowledge that the Daily News has done us a great service by publishing a fair portion of what I is said during the interview. I just would have liked to have seen a much greater emphaisis on the fact that our first option is an informed commnuity, our second option is a ‘fortress’ and our last option os ‘travelling light’.
There are two other significant observations I can offer. Rainfall from Septemeber 2007 to April 2008 was significantly below average throughout many districts of NZ, and that has resulted in severe disruption for the dairy industry. The exact situation with respect to winter feed is not clear yet, but it is evident that business as usual will not be possible. The other important consideration as far as Taranaki is concerned is that it is the energy capital of NZ: energy companies use their economic power and employment roles to manilupate local agendas.
Just one other thing: The 2008 version of book “The thinking person’s NZ Guide to Surviving the Future -or how to protect yourself from the worst effects of the collapse that has commenced” should be on the Instabook website shortly.
UPDATE (Apr 23): Kevin reports
‘The end is nigh’ has been the most viewed item in the TNL website for three days in a row, heading off more recent news.
War, peace, and surrender
Kyle Schuant, green with a gun
As usual, the media has got it backwards. War on drugs, war on crime, war on pollution, war on waste – it never ends. That’s because it’s backwards.
A war is destructive. Avoiding global warming is avoiding destruction, and is in fact constructive. Likewise, a “war on drugs”, and so on. We’re trying to improve lives, not blow things up and defeat an enemy.
It’s more accurate to think of things the other way around. We have been engaged in a war of aggression and conquest against the Earth. “Man must conquer nature,” said Mao. We have sought to subdue nature, to ignore its limits. We have cut down its forests, opened mountains for their coal, gouged its innards for minerals, and diverted great rivers for electricity.
And now the Earth fights back with climate change. So perhaps it is time to admit that we cannot conquer the Earth, and should surrender.
A better image than the Marines raising the flag-tree at Iwo Jima would have been the Japanese surrender. Because the US demanded an unconditional surrender, the Japanese feared utter destruction and oppression. Fortunately, nature does not demand an unconditional surrender, it only demands that we stop fighting it and work with rather than against it. Like Japan, by surrendering and trusting in the mercy of the one we made our foe, we may find it a generous ally.
Instead of a war against warming, let’s just make peace with nature.
(20 April 2008)
