Big companies pay significant sums to "offset" their CO2 emissions by protecting trees from being cut down. Except that those trees were not going to be cut down. The fees are for greenwashing.

By contrast, projects that directly extract CO2 from the air are valid. But "offsets" meant to provide benefit in the future are chickens that might hatch some day.

Such "offsets" are used as a substitute for real cuts in emissions, and we should not trust them. Likewise, we should distrust commitments stated in terms of "net" emissions. We should demand commitments to reduce emissions.

*'Grossly Insufficient': ExxonMobil Lambasted Over Emissions Reduction Plan That Pledges No Reduction in Absolute Emissions.*

I think Exxon is counting the emissions from its own use of energy, and not the emissions that will result when the fossil fuels it extracts get burned by customers. If so, it is sidestepping the issue.

There may soon be a bipartisan relief bill that does not shield businesses from liability.

That is good news, because it means the bill will not do long-term legal harm. The only remaining question is how much good it does for the rich, and how much to the non-rich.

The bill does not provide aid to states, which need aid desperately to cover what some states have spent protecting the public from Covid-19. States cannot even afford to operate vaccination. But they can hold out till Jan 20 for that aid, and if the Georgia runoff elections go well, we can give states the aid then without shielding business from liability.

Regarding liability, businesses should be liable for failing to do what was possible. In April, when masks were in short supply, it would have been unfair to punish a business for not finding masks. Now that masks are available, businesses have no excuse for not providing masks, and likewise other PPE, enhanced air ventilation, and every other thing that ought to be done for worker's safety.

One thing that stores must do, for the safety of workers and customers alike, is make anyone leave immediately who has entered without a mask.

The US has let business control its laws and institutions, and business could not profit by saving the people from Covid-19, so the US did not really try.

The result has been a disproportionate rate of fatalities per population, now reaching 300,000 people killed by Covid-19.

New York medics are paid less than a living wage, so Lauren Kwei models nude to make up the difference. Some old fashioned prudes found this scandalous and tried to ruin her life. AOC defends her, saying, "The Actual Scandalous Headline Is Medics Need Two Jobs to Survive."

Sad to say, the site on which she sells her photos practices an injustice on the customers: it requires nonfree Javascript to access it. I have not tried that site, but I know that it takes special effort to accept credit card payments over the net without sending nonfree JS, and I think only the Free Software Foundation does this.

Perhaps in a few years that site will accept Taler payments, and be accessible from the Free World.

Scientific research increasingly shows that fracking harms the health of people living nearby, especially children.

This is in addition to contributing greatly to short-term global heating due to leaks of methane.

Fracking is taking humanity to frack and fruin, so we need to stop it completely.