- The UK government plans to block out the sun - 

 

 

The UK government has announced a £50 million investment in researching solar geoengineering techniques aimed at mitigating global warming by reflecting sunlight away from Earth. This initiative, led by the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA), includes small-scale outdoor experiments to test methods such as stratospheric aerosol injection and marine cloud brightening. An additional £11 million from the National Environment Research Council (NERC) will support computer modeling and studies of natural analogs to better understand the potential impacts of these interventions.

 

Effectively, these will lower the amount of sunlight that will reach the ground. In a  country that gets some of the lowest amounts of sunlight hours per year in the whole world! Is this a good idea? Is it worth researching? Who would control this kind of technology?

 

- Japanese government considering cash handouts and/or consumption tax reduction -

 

The Japanese government is in discussions on whether or not to give everyone a cash handout (likely to be around 50,000 yen) and/or reducing consumption tax on food items to 0%. 

The reason for these plans is the ongoing financial crisis and economic situation affecting the world. Japanese salaries are notoriously low compared to other countries, and while the cost of living in Japan is comparatively lower than other countries, the salaries are not increasing in line with the price increases. 

 

So is giving everyone a cash handout a good idea? What benefits will this bring? Will this help poorer people? From what I can find online, it seems there will be no requirements to getting this money, so both rich and poor people will all get the same amount. 

On the other hand, is reducing consumption tax on food items a good plan? How long would this reduction need to be in place to be beneficial? 

 

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