Will China buy your land?

The world’s total land mass consists of 36.8 billion acres of inhabitable land. (Businessinsider.com)

A few people own a lot of our planet.

King Charles III or the Crown Estate owns 6.6 billion acres of land worldwide.

This includes Great Britain, Northern Ireland, Canada (90%), Australia (23 %) and a few other spots here and there. They also own the Falkland Islands.

With 6.6 billion acres, King Charles III or the Crown Estate, is far and away the world’s largest landowner, with the closest runner-up (King Salman, Saudi Arabia) who holds control over a mere 547 million acres and a net worth of over $18 billion.

Coming in number three on the list is Pope Francis with 110 acres owned by The Holy See constitute Vatican City. Also, roughly 17 million more acres of various lands are owned by the Catholic Church throughout the globe, including the hundreds of Vatican embassies legally titled to The Holy See as an independent nation.

Ted Turner ranks high in major world land owners with over 2 million acres of land owned in Georgia, Montana and Argentina. (Businessininsider. com)

Je Bezos owns about 400,000 acres with much of that being in Texas. (Payback.fm)

Letters to the Editor

How long?

EDITOR:

Bourbon lovers might be surprised to learn that a large number of Kentucky favorites are owned by Japanese companies. Way back in 2014 Japanbased Suntory bought Jim Beam ... for $16 billion.

Bill Gates owns about 242,000 acres of farmland according to celebrity.net.

According to the US Department of Agriculture, there are approximately 911 million acres of farmland in the United States.

There has been concern about China’s growing land purchases in the United States. Chinese purchases of U.S agricultural land has sparked concern in Congress among a bipartisan group of lawmakers — but 18 other countries own more American agricultural acres than China.

Here are some of the American landowners:

1. Canada (12,845,000 acres)

2. Netherlands (4,875,000 acres)

3. Italy (2,703,000 acres)

4. United Kingdom (2,538,000 acres)

5. Germany (2,269,000 acres)

6. Portugal (1,483,000 acres)

■ See MOLLETTE, page A5

How long will it take for:

1. The tangled mess of fallen trees and cables on the Highway 49 bridge between Diamond Springs and Placerville to be removed?

2. The same area’s dangerous trees and limbs to be removed and cleaned up?

3. The parking lot/creekside mess near the Tap House to be fixed?

4. Tunnel Street, Spring Street to the Placerville Senior Center driveway, to get a decent paving job?

5. County government o cials, boasting grand/ modern buildings plus a brand new ($68 million) sheri ’s facility, to realize the county Public Health Department is outdated with totally inadequate buildings and deplorable parking? This department probably provides more services to more people, employs more people and is more worthy of a beautiful new facility than many of your spending ventures. That whole building complex is an embarrassment to the community it serves so well.

6. Larry Weitzman and George Alger to discern the di erence between fact, fiction, fantasy and opinion?

KATHERINE ALLEN Diamond Springs

Questions

EDITOR:

Scott Taylor, an ardent high priest of the global warming church, wrote in his latest end-isnear rant that he has questions for me. Fine, I have some answers for him.

He asks why does the right dismiss what scientists say of global warming? To that I respond, why do those “scientists” excommunicate and basically cancel any scientists who disagree with them on this subject? This intimidation basically gives the impression that all scientists are of one mind on this, which they are not.

Mr. Taylor asks how we explain calamities if warming is not real. OK, Mr Taylor, how do you explain that according to Al Gore arctic ice would be gone during some months by 2013? And you failed to mention that the record for the world’s highest average temperature really only goes back to 1979 when they started keeping those records.

Then Mr. Taylor resorts to absurdity saying we should turn our lives upside down if there is even a microscopic chance of these grim forecasts. By that thinking, Mr. Taylor, you would leave your car in the garage in order to avoid the microscopic chance of an accident.

And, for the best part of all, even the leftwing New York Times printed an editorial pointing out that with what China, Vietnam and India are pumping into the air, our expensive and economy-damaging e orts are accomplishing absolutely nothing.

But as I have said before with alarmists like Mr. Taylor, climate is not a science; it’s a religion.

GEORGE ALGER Placerville

Be joyful

EDITOR:

Iam 83 now. It took about 80 years before

I concluded that attitudes and feelings are choices. I now believe that we are all co-creators of the reality we live in. I have decided to purposely shape my reality into joyfulness.

Take driving as an example. I used to be impatient when driving. I did not have a positive attitude toward drivers who cut me o in tra c.

Then I read an article about a driver who decided to believe he should bless whoever cut him o because that driver was in the midst of an emergency. So our kindly motorist would slow down and say, “Be blessed. I pray you arrive safely and everything will be OK when you get there.”

I decided to do this, reluctantly at first. But now I have changed into a more considerate driver and I react positively to the needs of other motorists. Similarly, I came to realize I cannot give love and kindness to others unless I first develop them within myself. This was the message delivered at Asbury College, Kentucky. The speaker challenged the senior class not to graduate without fully accepting the love

■ See LETTERS, page A5