Tags
2012 Mayan Prophecy, Addiction to Fossil Fuels, Austerity for the Poor, Capitalism, Climate Change, Collapse of Industrial Civilization, Corporate State, Dumpster Diving, Ecological Overshoot, End of the World, Endocrine Disruptors, Environmental Collapse, Financial Elite, Fiscal Cliff, Fossil-Fuel Based Economy, Gross Inequality, Inverted Totalitarianism, Overpopulation, Peak Oil, Poverty, Social Unrest, The Elite 1%, unwashed public, Vladimir Putin, Wall Street Fraud
As I’ve explained in the past, my peculiar work routine really makes this site a sort of biweekly affair. So in keeping with that loose schedule, I’ll be taking the next several days off and will post again in earnest after Christmas. In the meantime, I’ll be partaking in the traditional family yuletide activities such as drinking funky-tasting eggnog and cruising through the neighborhood to take in all the lit up decorations like inflatable Walmart snowmen and Santas. Notwithstanding everything I’ve blogged about here, the world’s not coming to an end, right? Putin apparently had a 4 hour news conference which included this very subject:
So all these observable facts that we’ve been documenting here are just our own personal viewpoint of the world and certainly not the perspective held by the vast majority of the population, including world dictators leaders. We should just take a ‘glass is half full’ point of view, shouldn’t we?:
1.) Peak Oil? Not a problem… We’ve got more fossil fuels to exploit as revealed by the melting Arctic. And of course we can always fall back on our seemingly endless supply of coal:
2.) Overpopulation? Not a problem. Endocrine disrupting chemicals and other stressors of industrial civilization are decimating the sperm count of the global male population:
3.) Climate Change? The top minds of science are right on top of this one. Who said you can’t put Humpty Dumpty back together again:
4.) And the most dire threat of all… The Fiscal Cliff. Are you kidding? The bankers and corporate elite already have that one solved. Three for them and none for you:
…Over 20 million Americans live in extreme poverty – with cash incomes as low as $10,000 a year for a family of four. Is it any wonder that the US has the third highest poverty rate out of 30 leading industrial nations?
The problem is exacerbated by decades of economic and political policies that have resulted in a massive shift of national wealth from working people to the corporate boardrooms and the yacht owners. One result: real wage growth for workers has stagnated for 30 years; median household income has steadily fallen since the Wall Street produced economic crash of 2008. Much of the limited job growth since then has been in the lowest wage sectors, primarily food service and retail.
Sadly, the issue remained almost as invisible on the 2012 campaign trail as it was when Harrington shocked the nation in 1962. But it is not a surprise to nurses who, every day, see the faces of poverty and the suffering of families left behind – even as corporate profits once again soar and the parties and good times are back on Wall Street…
Well, we can always take up dumpster diving in the wealthy neighborhoods. I hear they “throw a lot of good shit away.”
Have a merry Christmas and don’t let the bastards wear you down!!!
Over the holidays, check out: http://howtosavetheworld.ca/
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From your link…
– Even the doomers are wishful thinkers.
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i don’t know who made that comment but he clearly thinks there’ll be enough time to decommission all the nuclear power plants. i doubt we have ten years before the electrical grid fails and, even though this too is only an opinion it’s probably more realistic.
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And there are many who actually see the problems we face.with global warming and feel the perfect fix for global warming is a massive move toward nuclear energy. There are some 400-500 nuclear plants now, I think. I figured out one time that it would take more than 10.000 nukes to replace all of the fossil fuel based electricity generating plants. That didn’t count all of the new coal plants that have been built or are being built by China these last ten years.
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Translated from a comment by John Christian Lønningdal
From the Illusion of Democracy:
Folks, the sad truth is that humans will not survive climate change and it will take millions of years to mend the damage to Earth that industrial civilization has wrought, …that is if we have not already put the Earth on track to permanently becoming another Venus.
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Interesting from LATimes:
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-ed-end-of-world-20121221,0,5700553.story
“EDITORIAL
The world didn’t end — yet
It may be more fun to consider Maya doomsday scenarios, but shouldn’t we be focused on fixing actual threats to Earth like climate change?”
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Die-hard addicts don’t change their behavior, even when faced with certain death:
– November 2012 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
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Yes, I agree.
But the interesting point of the article, surprising to see in a msm newspaper, was that people are so intrigued with end of world stuff when they really know it is not for real, and the media and entertainment industry is so willing to supply all the information and stories it can. And yet real and provable predictions and scenarios of the end of the world are ignored or denied completely.
Just a note: we may not see even these few examples of honest analyses from the LATimes much longer because Ruppert Murdoch, the great global warming denying media conglomerate owner, is trying all he can to change the regulations regarding media monopolies so he can buy the NYTimes and Chicago Tribune.
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And in other news of journalist suppression and control of public opinion:
“Imprisonment of journalists worldwide reached a record high in 2012, driven in part by the widespread use of charges of terrorism and other anti-state offenses against critical reporters and editors, the Committee to Protect Journalists has found. In its annual census of imprisoned journalists, CPJ identified 232 individuals behind bars on December 1, an increase of 53 over its 2011 tally.”
– lnk
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Here’s some reading…….about progress traps and the failings of the environmental movement.
http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/7277
“In the short term, the future belongs to the neo-environmentalists, and it is going to be painful to watch. In the long term, though, I’d guess they will fail, for two reasons. Firstly, that bubbles always burst. Our civilization is beginning to break down. We are at the start of an unfolding economic and social collapse, which may take decades or longer to play out—and which is playing out against the background of a planetary ecocide that nobody seems able to prevent. We are not gods, and our machines will not get us off this hook, however clever they are and however much we would like to believe it.”
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