Links - 21st August 2019 (3)

Big Green, Inc. : The Money Fueling the Environmental Left - "Today’s environmental movement is fueled by a group of interconnected, left-leaning foundations that are seeking to disrupt the development of America’s energy resources. In order to understand how these groups work together and where the environmental movement’s funding originates, IER developed Big Green, Inc., a database that tracks environmental grants stemming from 14 foundations and directed to over 1,900 grassroots activists groups and totaling more than $4.2 billion. Our key findings include:
• The “David vs. Goliath” narrative surrounding environmental activism is false. Environmental organizations outpace conservative and free-market groups in terms of funding and organizational capacity.
• As evidenced by the emergence of the “Keep it in the Ground” Movement, this money plays a major role in shaping public opinion, which translates to economically destructive policy initiatives that emanate from all levels of government.
• A key strategy of the environmental movement is to target key institutions that drive the ideas that animate our society.
• Environmental funding has been tied to foreign actors, which raises concerns over the role geopolitics plays in environmental advocacy."
Of course, money only disqualifies arguments from the "right wing"

Higher temperatures increase suicide rates in the United States and Mexico - "Linkages between climate and mental health are often theorized but remain poorly quantified. In particular, it is unknown whether the rate of suicide, a leading cause of death globally, is systematically affected by climatic conditions. Using comprehensive data from multiple decades for both the United States and Mexico, we find that suicide rates rise 0.7% in US counties and 2.1% in Mexican municipalities for a 1 °C increase in monthly average temperature. This effect is similar in hotter versus cooler regions and has not diminished over time, indicating limited historical adaptation. Analysis of depressive language in >600 million social media updates further suggests that mental well-being deteriorates during warmer periods"

Reasons for Attempting Suicide among a Community Sample of Adolescents - "The motives of suicide attempts among a community sample of 99 U.S. high school students were explored. Participants completed an in‐depth computer‐assisted self interview about their most recent attempts as well as additional psychosocial measures. Results indicated that nearly 75% of the adolescents engaged in suicide attempts for reasons other than killing themselves and that depressive symptoms and premeditation prior to the attempt were significantly associated with increased risk for engaging in the attempts with death as a clear motive. Linking motive for an attempt (death, interpersonal communication, emotion regulation) and treatment approach may improve prevention of subsequent attempts and completed suicides."
This suggests that many suicide attempts are just to get attention

Decriminalization of Suicide in Seven Nations and Suicide Rates - David Lester, 2002 - "In a study of seven nations, suicide rates were higher in the years after decriminalization of suicide than before...
The present study examined the inf‌luence of decriminalization in seven nations, namely, Canada in 1972, England and Wales in 1961, Finland in 1910, Hong Kong in 1967, Ireland in 1993, New Zealand in 1961, and Sweden in 1864"

In Singapore, a Shocking Rise in Suicides from an Unexpected Age Group - "Although persons aged 60 and above account for just a tenth of Singapore's population according to government numbers, the number of persons from this demographic who committed suicide in 2017 was 129 out of the 361 cases across all age groups. That number was a record high in that age group since the government started tracking suicides in 1991... accumulated debt from habitual gambling, medical fees or living expenses are prevalent push factors. Brandishing a constantly changing skyline peppered with skyscrapers of banks and the iconic Marina Bay Sands casino and hotel, “the Switzerland of Asia” is also known to be one of the most expensive and most stressful cities in the world... Instead of spending the holidays alone in their nursing homes or one-room apartments, they will don Eugene’s VR headsets to enjoy a traditional Lion Dance or visit China together.One of the few developers in the world granted access to Facebook’s cutting-edge proprietary technology, Eugene has worked on other projects involving the elderly too, which include using VR to bring dementia patients to their old homes and help them remember their loved ones. Eugene told VICE that the trial run of his Chinese New Year VR sequence yielded generally positive reactions: many of the seniors were in good spirits afterward and seen chatting excitedly about the experience"

Elderly suicides: Why euthanasia is not the solution - "Is euthanasia or assisted suicide a solution we should consider, especially in light of the recent news that elderly suicides in Singapore have reached an all-time high last year? Some have indeed suggested so.Personal autonomy is one reason given, while for others, euthanasia is a compassionate way of ending suffering. The alternative to not providing euthanasia, it is argued, are the suicides that are already happening... in 2015, two British scholars published a ground-breaking study in the Southern Medical Journal of US states that have legalised assisted suicide... The study found that far from reducing suicides, legalising assisted suicide is associated with a 6.3 per cent increase in the total suicide rate – including both assisted and non-assisted suicides. For the over-65 age group, the increase is 14.5 per cent. This is alarming, especially considering that US-style assisted suicide is sometimes held up as a more moderate and well-regulated model, compared with the excesses of the Belgian euthanasia regime, for example. In Belgium, up to 50 per cent of euthanasia goes unreported, doctors end over 1,000 patients’ lives a year without request, and euthanasia is performed on children... Not only does legalising euthanasia or assisted suicide give the impression, as Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon observed in 2013, that society has “no (or at least low) collective interest in fighting to preserve the lives of those” who are eligible for such life-ending provision, such as the elderly or the terminally ill, such persons become more at risk of viewing their own lives as less worth living or protecting.And we might also ask, is there not a double standard in seeking to allow some people assistance in suicide, even as we do all we can to prevent young people and others from committing suicide?... support for euthanasia also often begins with the worrying assumption that certain people like the elderly and the sick would kill themselves anyway. But is this a truly compassionate outlook?For one, research has found that just as hearing about others’ suicides can increase suicidal behaviour, stories about individuals who consider suicide but decide against it can also lead to reduced suicide rates.This suggests that suicide is less inevitable than some might think... Offering euthanasia, on the other hand, validates the person’s belief that his life is lacking in dignity, or altogether worthless.This is not true compassion, but a failure to find alternative pathways out of those negative feelings. Autonomy then becomes a form of abandonment from the community."
So much for the "myth" of the slippery slope

Death by donation: Euthanizing patients for organs gaining acceptance - "At international medical conferences in 2018 and 2019, I listened as hundreds of transplant and critical care physicians discussed “donation after death.” This refers to the rapidly expanding scenario in Canada and some Western European countries whereby a person dies by euthanasia, with a legalized lethal injection that she or he requested, and the body is then operated on to retrieve organs for donation.At each meeting, the conversation unexpectedly shifted to an emerging question of“death by donation” — in other words, ending a people’s lives with their informed consent by taking them to the operating room and, under general anesthesia, opening their chest and abdomen surgically while they are still alive to remove vital organs for transplantation into other people...
While literally “giving yourself” to others might seem commendable at first glance, let’s discuss three downstream considerations to abandoning the dead donor rule.
►People with physical and mental disabilities have expressed that they feel stigmatized and that society devalues their lives. Would this send them a not-so-subtle message to get out of the way and do something noble with their healthy organs?
►How quickly would we see expansion whereby those who can’t speak for themselves are included as donors?
►What does it mean for all of us when our healers — physicians — are in a position that directly overrides nearly 2,500 year-long prohibitions against taking life?
Consider the case of Ben Mattlin, who suffers from spinal muscular atrophy. In a 2012 column for the New York Times, he wrote of the “thin and porous border between coercion and free choice” for those who feel devalued. On the subtle erosion of his autonomy, he wrote: “You also can’t truly conceive of the many subtle forces (to die) — invariably well meaning, kindhearted, even gentle, yet as persuasive as a tsunami — that emerge when your physical autonomy is hopelessly compromised.”... According to a 2015 article in the NEJM, of the 3,882 deaths due to physician-assisted suicide or euthanasia in Flanders, Belgium, in the year 2013 alone, 1,047 (27%) were due to medication dosages to hasten death without patients’ consent. Such patients are generally unconscious and may or may not have family members around.In 2014, a statement on end-of-life decisions by the Belgian Society of Intensive Care Medicine asserts that "shortening the dying process" should be permissible "with use of medication ... even in absence of discomfort.” When discussing these facts, two prominent physicians, one from the Netherlands and another from Harvard, told me that where they come from, they call that murder. When physicians are participating in a procedure designed to take a person’s life, will patients feel 100% certain that their physician is firmly on the side of healing? What message does it send about the value of every human life when physicians endorse the exchange of one life for another? What affect has it already had on physicians complicit in such death-causing procedures?"
Very soon euthanasia will become like abortion - just a healthcare procedure. And doctors who refuse to practise it will be slammed like those who refuse abortions are condemned today

The war within Islam. - "All over the non-Muslim world, we hear incessant demands that those who believe in the literal truth of the Quran be granted “respect.” We are supposed to watch what we say about Islam, lest by any chance we be considered “offensive.” A fair number of authors and academics in the West now have to live under police protection or endure prosecution in the courts for not observing this taboo with sufficient care... this idiotic masochism has to be dropped. There may have been a handful of ugly incidents, provoked by lumpen elements, after certain episodes of Muslim terrorism. But no true secularist or even Christian has been involved in anything like the torching of a mosque. (The last time that such a thing did happen on any scale—in Bosnia—the United States and Britain intervened militarily to put a stop to it. We also overthrew the Taliban, which was slaughtering the Hazara Shiite minority in Afghanistan.) But where are the denunciations from centers of Sunni and Shiite authority of the daily murder and torture of Islamic co-religionists? Of the regular desecration of holy sites and holy books? Of the paranoid insults thrown so carelessly and callously by one Muslim group at another? This mounting ghastliness is a bit more worthy of condemnation, surely, than a few Danish cartoons or a false rumor about a profaned copy of the Quran in Guantanamo"
Slate was so different in 2007

RuPaul's show proves that identity politics is a drag - "I leaned over to my girlfriend and asked what the big deal was with Trinity Taylor. Why did no one want her to win?“She’s the only white queen left, so people don’t really want her to win.”Man, oh man. That is rich. The host of the show, RuPaul, is ultimately the one who decides who wins the title of All-Star. RuPaul, a gay black man, actively selecting white queens over black queens because she doesn’t like them was such a perplexing idea to me.Apparently, this was the issue. Trinity Taylor, the only white queen left, had a very strong season from the start and hadn’t really faltered at any point. From many people’s perspective, she was the most well-rounded queen and deserved the title.But her winning would again suggest to the Drag Race fans that RuPaul and her show perpetuate white supremacy... After 10 episodes and fierce competition, a draw. Both were inducted into the Drag Race Hall of Fame. The crowd went wild, and most in the bar were generally pleased.But that was the problem with a tie. A black Queen won, yes. But it kind of felt like she HAD to win, or the fanbase would throw a tantrum... It’s a type of pandering that we now keep seeing over and over in award shows and events of that nature."