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Capitalism, Climate Change, Collapse of Industrial Civilization, Consumerism, Corporate State, Eco-Apocalypse, Ecological Overshoot, Empire, Environmental Collapse, Extinction of Man, Financial Elite, Gross Inequality, Homeland Security, Inverted Totalitarianism, Kathy D. Schick and Nicholas Toth, Mass Die Off, Military Industrial Complex, NSA Spying, Overpopulation, Patrice Ayme, Peak Oil, Peak Water, Police State, Resource Wars, Security and Surveillance State, Social Unrest, Tadeusz (Tad) Patzek, The Elite 1%, unwashed public, War for Profit, War on Terror
They were called ‘consumers’. Their every behavior became just another stream of data to be tracked, recorded, quantified, and analyzed by corporations for their vast, profit-seeking conveyor belt of production, distribution and marketing to a sea of mouths. The machine was global and its hungry tentacles wrapped the Earth. Wherever it turned its covetous eyes, the Earth shook and its creatures large and small fled for cover. Government and corporate rule were fully enmeshed and the birth of a worldwide surveillance state was born. All mass communication systems were controlled and grassroot uprisings within the Empire’s homeland could be cut off at the knees before they ever gained traction. Protection of the homeland from terrorism was the initial excuse by which the fascist state expanded its power. Knowledge is power; foreign countries and governments could be manipulated from a distance. Privacy was a quaint relic of a bygone era. With the awareness that Big Brother was watching, few voiced their true opinions. The charade of democracy played on as the consumers retreated into their fabricated world of digital screens and commercialization.
“[Citizens became] one-dimensional idiots; consuming pointlessly, obsessing about lifestyle, gawping at celebrities, gazing blankly at moronic TV game shows, forever grasping towards the next, vacuous, artificial ‘want’ created by Global Gobble Corporation.” ~ Philip Mirowski
The captains of industry were happy with their scheme of manipulating markets, printing fiat money, continuously uprooting industry to cheaper labor pools abroad, keeping well oiled the wheels of the military industrial complex by waging war-for-profit wherever possible, and ravaging the Earth for every last bit of ancient carbon and minerals. Vast sums of money were spent on public relations and greenwashing in order to ensure the unwashed masses would stay ignorant and subservient to the looting and destruction of society and the environment. The elite were quickly turning the Earth into a death trap for all living things, and few noticed or cared. As long as cheap, mass produced, nutrient-poor food was on tap to fill the stomachs of the teeming masses, revolt and bloodshed were averted. The elite, however, could see the writing on the wall. Plans were drawn up to use force when the inevitable time arose that fuel, food, and water became scarce. The heavy stick of Empire so often used to smash swarthy radicals abroad would, in due time, be turned inward on the homeland.
“The Will To Extermination is the very core of the Dark Side. It has been ignored at humanity’s own peril.” ~ Patrice Ayme
“Our technological abilities have made us tremendously successful animals, but also tremendously dangerous ones, glorified apes with nuclear capabilities. We tend to overexploit or destroy our resources, drastically modify or pollute our environments, overpopulate the planet, and wage war on our fellow inhabitants, all of which threaten our long-term viability as a species. Is self-induced extinction the ultimate fate of intelligent, tool-using organisms like ourselves? Are we smart, but not smart enough?”
~ Kathy D. Schick and Nicholas Toth
“This is what I recently learned from my friend, Professor Bill Rees:
During individual development, repeated sensory experiences and cultural norms literally shape the human brain’s synaptic circuitry in patterns that reflect and embed those experiences. Patterned thinking acquires a physical presence in the brain.
Subsequently, people seek out compatible experiences and, “when faced with information that does not agree with their [preformed] internal structures, they deny, discredit, reinterpret or forget that information.”
(Brain and Culture, Bruce E. Wexler, The MIT Press, 2006).
Most people are genuinely unable to face the truth. Based on this premise, most if not all human civilizations have been built.
“The masses have never thirsted after truth. They turn aside from evidence that is not to their taste, preferring to deify error…”
(Gustave le Bon, 1896).
~ Tadeusz (Tad) Patzek
Collapse of Industrial Civilization 
CASCADING EXTINCTION COLLAPSE
Some humans will survive in a hi-tech hell. Earth? No.
– China plans to build 500 nuclear reactors before 2050.
– China is building 1 new coal power plant per week.
– China now imports more oil than the U.S.!
– Half of all species may disappear before 2040.
– 200 species per day are going extinct.
– Land Animal populations down 28% since 1970.
– Marine Bird populations down 30% since 1995.
– Big Ocean Fish populations down 90% since 1950.
– Fresh Water Fish populations down 50% since 1987,
– All Marine Animal populations down 28% since 1970.
– Plankton populations down 40% since 1950.
– Bumblebee populations down 70% since 1970.
– Species extinction is 1,000 times faster than normal.
– Human sperm counts down 50% since 1950.
– Human population up to 9 billion by 2050.
– Ocean acidification to double by 2050.
– World temperature rise may triple by 2050.
http://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/play/7350/Call-of-Life–Facing-the-Mass-Extinction
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An ECOLOGICAL TIPPING POINT may be by 2025.
Nobody knows when we will pass this tipping point except in retrospect. Once passed, cascading extinction collapse becomes unstoppable and irreversible. This will result in the loss of basic planetary ecological services such as breathing and eating.
http://www.ecoshock.info/2012/06/planet-shift-no-return.html
http://calloflife.org/
http://arctic-news.blogspot.co.nz/2013/09/a-runaway-greenhouse-event.html
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/interactive/2013/oct/21/nuclear-power-growing-world-interactive
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THE BIGGEST PROBLEM IN THE NEXT TEN YEARS!
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THE BIGGEST PROBLEM RIGHT NOW IS ANYONE WHO MAKES OVER $50K PER ANNUM.
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The acidity of the oceans will more than double in the next 40 years. This rate is 10 times faster than 65 million years ago when when a mass extinction of marine life occurred. It is also faster than during 4 of earth’s biggest mass extinction events during the last 300 hundred million years — faster than even the great Permian mass extinction event where 95% of life on earth vanished 250 million years ago. The oceans are now 30% more acidic than in pre-industrial times.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_acidification
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/05/08/1976351/acidification-arctic/
http://www.earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2951
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When ice ages come and go the planet can change temperature 5°C in as little as 5,000 years. 50 times slower than what we are doing to earth now. In the past, a 5°C change normally takes 20,000 years, we are going to do 5°C in 50-100 years, 200 times faster than historical norms.
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/GlobalWarming/page3.php
Click to access iscurrent.pdf
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Climate change is happening 100 times faster than in the past.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=todays-climate-change-proves-much-faster-than-changes-in-past-65-million-years
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Only 1% of methane needs to be released to cause total disaster.
Peter Wadhams interview
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Natalia Shakhova interview:
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Overstating The Obvious
http://guymcpherson.com/2013/01/climate-change-summary-and-update/
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It has been a dismal, unfulfilling, exasperating journey over the past 15 years; the fantasy of imagining that raising the crucial issues of the times with politicians, the media and the general public would result in implementation of sane policies is shattered.
A society that is as utterly determined to destroy itself as the one I live in will succeed [in destroying itself]; everything that matters is now in a far worse state than when I started pointing out the need for sane policies. But still ‘nobody’ cares.
I used to spend many hours a week, sometimes many hours a day, reading reports, news, and articles, thinking that they could be of value in generating culture change. Now It takes me a few seconds to scan headlines and dismiss most of what I see as irrelevant nonsense. I cannot remember the last time I watched the trivia and propaganda that is delivered via television channels as ‘news’.
Of course, lying to me, abusing me, and setting its ‘dogs’ on me did not help the cause of the empire.
Knowing when to stop banging one’s head against the walls of apathy and denial is important in short-term self-preservation. The prospect of preserving the genetic line that commenced 3 billion years ago and passed through me diminishes by the second. But there is no action I can take to alter that dismal scenario.
Pity the next generation, And pity even more the ones that follow. It is now abundantly clear that the maniacs who comprise TPTB are determined to exterminate all vertebrate life on Earth (including their own progeny) via the looting of the commons and combustion of coal and oil. Collapse is clearly underway, and the signs are visible to anyone who is prepared to recognise them ……maybe 1% of the populace.
Presumably, at some point in the not-too-distant future I will attempt to log on to ‘alternative’ websites and will be greeted with ‘error’ messages.
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Yeah Kevin
In the end I think it all proved we were the ones with false hope. Or maybe to much elogical logic? Humans are no better or worse than any bacteria, and like bacteria we will keep doing it till we hit the edge of the Petri dish.
Preventing a child from being born is about the only thing you can do to lessen suffering now, and that is the only thing that drives me to do or say anything. But alas having seen 10 – 20 children born by family and friends since I started my idiot campaign has convinced me how fucking stupid I’ve been. Should have stuck to motor bikes and having fun, bugger this internet and awareness.
MY STRUGGLE http://oilcrash.com/articles/struggle.htm
by Robert Atack
About 10 years ago I heard a website mentioned on the radio, the conversation went something like “Want to view a radical website? Have a look at this one http://www.vhemt.org”.
From there I went to http://www.dieoff.org also known as Brain Food, this is a description of the site: «I doubt it’s humanly possible to read every one of these outstanding works – at least not without suffering mental illness». This lead me to many many hours of reading and self education, as prior to then I hadn’t heard of things like peak oil, climate change, economic collapse, over population, or the many problems we now face.
I was deeply concerned about climate change and was convinced that to bring a child into a world so badly damaged and getting worse would be a mistake, like buying a flat on the top floor of a burning high rise, and that if my child was alive 40 years hence it would be having a hell of a time surviving. This thought made me have a vasectomy, and change my middle name to ‘Thankyoufornotbreeding’, as a publicity stunt and in the hope that I would get some value from the $96.00 it cost. Over the years I’ve had 1 radio interview and at least 2 newspaper articles about my name, so maybe value for money?
I wasn’t overly worried about my own situation until I started to understand peak oil.
I would drive around Lower Hutt thinking how dependent we were on oil and how it was hard to see anything wrong with life, with all the lawns mowed and everything in order.
I started writing to Politicians, which was a big stretch as I couldn’t type or spell to save myself. So maybe you can’t blame ‘them’ for ignoring this barely literate mad man. I got the normal idiot replies from the letter openers, except one from Jeanette Fitzsimons: «You’re quite right. Shell Oil International is working on the assumption that between 2005 and 2010 world oil demand will outstrip the capacity of the wells to supply.» March 23 2000, so Shell Oil knew it and a politician knew it also.
This amazed and frustrated me, the Government were saying 2037 at the earliest (http://www.oilcrash.com/articles/hodgson.htm), and planning accordingly while all I was reading said 2005–2010. Most of the authors were independent so maybe more free to write the truth?
I’ve pushed my comfort zone from then on, believing the only way to address these problems was educating society (http://www.oilcrash.com/articles/alerting.htm), with one of my first one man actions being handing out about 3,000 Running on Empty leaflets around Wellington. I eventually had 10,000 copies printed, I gave out all but 500, and some friends gave those out at a Green Party convention (love in or what ever they called them?) in Nelson in around 2001.
I’ve personally handed several Politicians copies of the Running on Empty leaflet (http://www.oilcrash.com/articles/running.htm) as well as posting 5 copies each to every Politician in the 2001 government. I am not the only person sending mass mailings to our Politicians, I know of several people who have sent a lot of similar information to all Politicians over the past ten years, if nothing else there must be a lot of secretaries and so called public servants who have been well informed. I’ve sent over 600 DVDs to Parliament, all individually addressed to Politicians. Others have given selected members several DVDs. The Maori Party have distributed about 150 DVDs within Parliament over the years, which I supplied them with, and have called for a cross party commission on peak oil and climate change, their request has been ignored 4 times.
I’ve never liked putting myself in the public view, I always hoped the so called leaders would have shown some backbone and started preparing New Zealand instead of carrying on this charade that we can continue to grow on a finite planet.
I’ve spent the best part of $25,000.00 on this campaign, along with giving away about 14,000 DVDs. I’ve asked several times for financial help from the Government, one such request – http://www.oilcrash.com/articles/concernd.htm.
Along with several friends we have had 2 meetings with the Ministry of Economic Development, I gave them enough information for them to hold a week long seminar, or at least give the Politicians a full and frank explanation of the facts, yet as is patently clear by the past 10 years of inactivity the MED has clearly under performed as a taxpayer funded entity, their advice and actions can only be described as treason.
This from Harry Duynhoven September 2001: I understand from Caroline Parlane in the Ministry of Economic Development that you are in regular communication with her and have sent her a wealth of information? Articles, CDs and tapes on the issue of oil supplies. She has undertaken to let me know if she finds anything in that information of which I am not currently aware or of which she thinks I should be informed. (http://www.oilcrash.com/articles/duynhovn.htm)
I have also had 2 x 30 minute meetings with Darren Hughes, at our last meeting he showed a glimmer of acceptance that such things as Kiwi Saver were a joke and that most ‘investors’ will get zero return on their deposits. Also at our first meeting he stated that the global economy was cyclical and New Zealand would see a reverse of it’s abysmal balance of payments some time soon, well 7 years later it is looking worse … funny that?
Nathan Guy has also received a lot of information, but holds to the idea that having children is one of his life’s ambitions, feeding them and watching them grow old is secondary it seems? Nathan is a big supporter of Transmission Gully, the Western Link Road, and any other project his masters want him to push. Nathan has also received many DVDs from me.
John Key (along with many of New Zealand’s so called top decision makers) was at the Al Gore ‘Inconvenient Truth’ presentation in Auckland on November 14th 2006, where I gave him (and 99 others, including Tipper Gore) 16 documentaries on 4 DVDs (http://www.oilcrash.com/articles/algore01.htm – this cost me $900.00).
I handed Bill English a folder full of information when he was leader of the opposition, at a meeting in Waikanae, asking him to view the information through the eyes of his youngest child. This was at the same hall that Nathan Guy’s campaign manager threatened to shoot me and my dogs a few years later (http://www.oilcrash.com/articles/natnl_01.htm).
This is an incomplete list of some of the people I’ve informed: http://www.oilcrash.com/articles/whatinfo.htm.
In one act of insanity (http://www.oilcrash.com/articles/natnl_01.htm) I attacked 2 of the National Parties billboards and spray painted “www.oilcrash.com” across the billboard and “traitor” across Helen and Don’s chests, this ended up costing me $1,600 paid to Steven Joyce as the then National campaign manager, (so yes the current man responsible for building fool hardy structures, such as these new mega roads has also had the opportunity to look into peak oil). I also had to do 50 hours community service. On my way out of town I saw another National Party billboard, I nailed about 5 small oilcrash.com signs near, but not on, the bill board. This cost me another $100.00 (to cover the cost of removal of my signs) and another 100 hours community work …. With this comment from the fool judge “Mr. Atack this might teach you how to help the community” … kind of what I’d been putting my heart and sole into the past 5-6 years (at the time).
I then fell off a ladder and fractured my back, I was left unable to work for about 8-10 weeks so, in desperation to bring some reality to the political debate, I ran in the 2005 Elections. Another opportunity the other candidates missed to become informed, and again I ran in the Kapiti local body Elections for Mayor or Local Body Councilor, I was never interested in an elected position and was only using the election system to push the real issues we face, not the petty things, like will we get Transmission Gully this side of 2100? I find it a shame that KCDC can’t accept the truth and start to prepare this community, as a true leader should do?
Jenny Rowan, who claims to understand a few things about the environment, has shown no change from the previous mayor Alan Milne, whom I spent over 30 minutes discussing the issues back in 2003 (ish) and whom I gave maybe 15 to 20 DVDs to while he was Mayor. Once I even lent him a DVD player and offered to hire him (handing his secretary a $50.00 note for his time), she gave me the money back and I collected the DVD player a few weeks later. Did it do any good? Well as an Orwellian joke he became an Environmental Adviser to the Waikanae North mega (environment killing) subdivision, after leaving his mayoral position. He thanked me for the loan of Jeremy Leggett’s book Half Gone «This was my bed time reading for December. I found it very illuminating. Thank you for the loan» (Alan 24/01/07).
During the election period for Mayor I handed most candidates peak oil information, and many DVDs. At the first public meeting I gave each Mayoral candidate a copy of the September 8-14 issue of the Listener with an article subtitled ‘The global oil crisis will hit home in just five years. How will New Zealand cope?’ This article highlighted the IEA’s 2007 energy report which stated ‘oil production had stagnated and in many regions, declined’ …. That is long hand for peak oil.
Within the first 2 weeks of becoming Mayor, Jenny Rowan turned the first sod on a new stop bank in Otaki, which coincidentally will allow the building of 5,000 new houses adding 20,000 more water users to the drought affected ‘Nature Coast’.
And at her very first Council meeting, KCDC approved the construction of a burnout pad for the Lawton memorial burnout competition, this involves using lots of fuel to make car tyres spin fast to in effect cause them to burn, even though it is against regional council bylaws to burn tyres or anything that causes excessive pollution.
Jenny has since stated New Zealand needs a change of leadership at all levels of Government due to the abysmal actions she and her peers have taken on environmental issues.
I finished school at the end of the forth form, I was bottom of the class in nearly every topic. For most of my life I’ve looked up to politicians, teachers, police, and the older generations. It has been extremely frustrating to see my so called superiors so closed minded, when it only took me a few weeks to work out how dependent we are on oil and all resources and how we needed to prepare for this moment. Yet even friends of mine have made the ultimate gamble and had children. I am not against children, I just think there is a good chance most born today will be facing very different lives than what we have had, and I am not talking better. I think not having children is the best way to reduce future suffering; this is where our leaders and teachers need to be helping to educate the country, all the information is available, to those with a mind to look. Our future looks bleak, and ignoring this message will only make it worse.
I don’t know my HT from my ML and have had a lot of help from friends with my website, specifically Aldo in Italy, without whom my site would have never turned out so well. In the beginning I just took things from another site and as I improved my meager skills, I (via Aldo) started filling the site with letters to and from our Members of Parliament, also highlighting mine and others actions of trying to inform the general public and the politicians, as long as the internet survives (which is dependent on the power grid), there is a record of who knew what and when.
«If you see a problem in the world and you have the ability to do something about it – then it’s your duty to take action». [Don Brash – National Party leader 2005]
Unfortunately the people do not want to know, our so called leaders know this also, or are part of the happy ignorant, so my efforts and those of many others has been pointless. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlYTJ9JHY4A)
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Kevin, I think you and I and a few others were prepared to understand the dire predictions and information about collapse when we were first hearing of it all. For me that was when The Limits of Growth first was published…..and then I slept for a few decades. Eventually I could not ignore the signs that collapse was inevitable.
But for most people, none of this makes any sense. They learned long ago, growing up, that civilization was just going to get better and better. There was a preordained greatness for humanity, even with all the ups and downs and disappointments.
I don’t know why I am different from them. I was raised quite conventionally in the US. But my ears and eyes were always open to the destruction mankind was doing to the earth.
So, since I don’t know why they are different from me, I don’t know how to connect to them to make them understand. I’ve given up, even though I may still be a hesitant activist. I do that mostly for me.
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Thanks for the Savages track Mike, really enjoyed that.
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Great song and video images, aren’t they.
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@ Robert Atack
That’s quite a record ! Nobody can say you didn’t try.
Thing is, even if you succeeded in NZ, we still get the catastrophe, – NTE, or whatever else you want to call it, I prefer mass extinction event – because any solution would have to be global, because unless USA, China, India, Europe, Brazil, Russia, etc, all co-operate, nothing will work, and that is not going to happen, or certainly not in time to be effective.
Because we have another problem which is global capitalism, which is intent upon escaping from any sort of regulatory framework that international state authorities might come up with.
You see, in the past, when a ruler became tyrannical, the peasants could march on the capital and besiege the palace and demand reform, sort of thing. There was a geographical terrain, and there were palace guards to fight with, and there was always the vague hope that if the old structure could be broken, some new better structure could be put in its place.
But now, all of that is long out of date. The new tyrants – well, where are they ? nobody knows. They see the nation state with it’s laws as an obstacle, because it hinders them when they want to loot and pillage resources, and exploit the peasants.
So, they have a strategy to outflank and neutralise all national governments.
If you think things have been bad over the previous decades, and are bad now, look at what comes next. Because there will not be any elected officials to go to with your complaints and concerns, who have any power or control at all. Everything will be imposed from afar by trans-national corporations without any accountability whatsoever.
The national governments will agree to these international treaties because the top politicians will be corrupted or coerced or blackmailed or seduced or whatever it takes to get them to sign up. None of them ever care, they know they are only in power for a few years, and they’ll get as rich as they can whilst the going is good and then get out. Fuck the people and the long term. If they don’t accept the money, there’s always other options. The silver or the lead.
And that will be that. All your human rights and environmental protection laws and any structures that interfere with corporate ambitions will be swept away, at the stroke of a pen.
Because, if a government tries to limit any corporations plans to, say, mine or build or clear a forest or plant GMOs, then that corporation will be able to sue the State for loss of profits that it would, theoretically, have made.
So, the tax payers get fined, as it were, for trying to preserve what is, essentially, their own legal property, against destruction by an invading corporation. And if they cannot pay, or their politicians are unwilling to pay, then they have to concede and the corporation has full legal right to build the dam to the road or cut the forest or plant the GMOs or whatever it is that they wish to do.
So, what this amounts to, is that it means attempting to be ‘sustainable’ or attempting to ‘protect the environment’ becomes illegal, if it conflicts with what a corporation wants. And Governments will not help, or even be able to help.
So, what can people do about this ?
Does anybody even know it’s happening ? It’s all being done in secret.
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/11/the-global-corporatocracy-is-almost-fully-operational.html
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U,
New Zealand had a reputation of sorts for standing up to the bullying of the big guys, e.g. opposing atmospheric nuclear testing in the Pacific by the French.
Robert and I thought there was still leadership and compassion in NZ when we individually commenced our crusades. ( Later we worked together.)
Although the dilemma has always been global, we thought it possible that NZ could show global leadership. And we thought people cared about their progeny’s futures.
We now know none of that is the case.
You said:
“But now, all of that is long out of date. The new tyrants – well, where are they ? nobody knows. They see the nation state with it’s laws as an obstacle, because it hinders them when they want to loot and pillage resources, and exploit the peasants.”
I disagree on that point. It took me a while to work it out, but retrospectively, I recognise that governments present no real obstacles to looting by opportunists and corporations, and in most cases bend over backwards to facilitate such looting. Governments are synonymous with corporations.
The ‘Think Big’ projects of the Muldoon era (late 1970s to early 1980s) present a classic example. Mobil wanted a grossly inefficient experimental gas-to-petroleum facility constructed in NZ. When there was massive opposition Bill Birch, minister in charge and chief facilitator for looting and polluting, brought in ‘fast-track legislation to nullify opposition. He was subsequently awarded a knighthood for facilitating that looting and polluting.
Charlatans and rogues, corruption and ineptitude are the norm throughout national and local government. Having opened every available door and having discovered something very ugly behind all of them, we now know for certain there is no hope.
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Yes, kevin, but in theory, you know where to go, and who the individual is who is responsible. In that case it was Muldoon / Birch, and, in theory, the peasants could force accountability if they got angry enough, which, occasionally, in history, they have.
What these new so called ‘trade’ treaties will mean is, that even if you or Robert Atack got to be elected, your country will have been stripped of its sovereignty, and will have no power to resist at all, so when Mobil or its equivalents appear, they can just walk straight in and grab whatever they want, and if the local country doesn’t like it, they have to COMPENSATE the corporation for it’s LOST profits !
I mean, this is outrageous and insane beyond belief, because a corporation doesn’t even have to seriously want to invest in a gas-to-petroleum facility, or whatever, it can just threaten the intention, and if you don’t want it in your neighbourhood, you have to pay THEM protection money, a TAX, to stop them from building it.
So, what they can do, is, say they want to build a nuclear power station in the most beautiful unspoiled national park, and they have the RIGHT, legally, to do that, because your government has signed an international treaty giving them that right, which over-rides national laws.
And if they are denied that RIGHT, they are entitled to COMPENSATION for the loss that they have suffered… to be paid to them by your government, from the taxes raised from the population.
Which means that, either taxes go UP, or government gives in, and concedes to whatever the corporation desires.
And if the people don’t like it, and protest, the government says ‘We are powerless, it’s written in the treaty, and we cannot change it’ and the head office of the corporation is where ? Thousands of miles away, and it’s just a holding company belonging to some other corporation owned by a consortium of investment bankers and hedge funds and whatnot, nobody can find anybody that they can actually catch and string up from a lamp post, there is no accountability at all, nobody who is elected or any name that can be pinned down.
See what I mean ?
In the Reagan/Thatcher era, Milton Friedman following the ideas of Milton Friedman, Hayek, Leo Strauss, the CIA, and all those neoliberal and neoconservative lunatics smashed the democratic Allende reforms in Chile by murdering and torturing thousands of people and installed the extreme right wing Pinochet regime and in UK and elsewhere rolled back all the workers rights that the trade unions had achieved, by forcing unemployment, so people had to accept reduced working conditions, etc.
So, this is another similar strategic roll out, to remove all environmental protection laws, so that corporations are not hampered by restrictions on pollution and damage to the environment when they extract resources, etc, by national laws. They’ve been planning it for years and they hope to slip it through quickly with minimal public awareness.
The Pacific version and the Atlantic version, and they are both equally evil, will then mean that US corporations have effectively extended their way of trashing the environment, that we see in e.g. fracking and Monsanto gmo’s, out into their imperial domain, which will include everywhere that signs up. Just another cunning ruse to screw everybody so the psychopathic elite get even fatter, and the planet goes down the pan even faster.
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So what can be done about it? Part of me wants to fight, spread the word about it, try to get the masses to stand up to all of this. But, really, I know it is hopeless now. The public will be misinformed about it all by corporate media, or completely kept in the dark. Most people hearing about it from any other source will be bored to death by the issue. Those out protesting will be made to look like crackpots, communists, terrorists.
Even if this is defeated somehow, which is very unlikely, more schemes will come along, corporations will become more powerful anyway, and the international surveillance and oppression of groups opposing this will increase, and finally corporations will get what they want…….meanwhile the climate and environment will be going to shit on a trajectory to total extinction, completely unimpressed.
So what is the use of fighting? I may just fight a bit because it makes me feel better.
(Did that with 9/11 truth with no success at all).
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Hmmm. I think the US corporations will treat all of the countries they explot they way Union Carbide treated the people of Bhopal, the way they Appalachian mountain tops get treated with the toxic waste dumped into the nearest valley…
It’s not for me to tell anybody what to do. As I’ve tried to explain, my position is that I believe we get NTE, and I’ve given up arguing, except here and on NBL, because it’s a waste of time. It’s impossible to change people’s basic beliefs.
Well, a few will change, but even if many change, it’s still not enough, and there isn’t enough time, because of the feedbacks and the CO2 time lag and all the other problems.
So each person has to come to terms with this in their own way. If you take serious determined action and resist you’ll probably be labelled an extremist and a terrorist and when things get really nasty, they’ll pick on people like that and make examples of them, as they did for Bradley Manning and many others who get punishments that are completely disproportionate, but intended to frighten any others who might dare to follow their lead.
Who wants to be a martyr for a lost cause ? Only very strong people who are deeply committed as a matter of principle, are going to put their life and liberty on the line for a moral and ethical case. Socrates, Jesus, Jean of Arc, Sir Thomas More, plenty of other examples from history. But if you believe, as I do, that we get NTE anyway, then I don’t see what choice there is, really.
I think these filthy ‘trade’ agreements – they have nothing to do with ‘trade’, that’s just a false label to make the PR sound acceptable – have to be fought by people who know the legal stuff, which I don’t, and I doubt that they will win, because every prime minister is open to corruption. The NSA will have the dirt on every single one of them and if they can’t be bought, they’ll be caught with kiddie porn on their computer or some other scandal to push them out of the way, and put in someone who can be corrupted and who will sign.
There will only be Russia and China left out, and they are not exactly environmentally friendly.
I mean, personally, I fight to the last breath, in so far as I can do anything, even if it is only commenting and trying ti explain to people what I understand to be happening, and trying to look after my little patch where I have some control. It doesn’t count for anything at all, really. I’ve accepted the horror, and learned to be happy in the moment. I do whatever I can to assist other species.
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I think I agree with your way of thinking, although I change from day to day. Some days i feel in a fighting mood, some days I accept our fate…NTE. It helps to hear the rest of you and your thoughts about all this. For somebody who is very busy, with lots of friends and associates, patients, etc., I am completely alone here in these issues of collapse and NTE.
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pfgetty sez: For somebody who is very busy, with lots of friends and associates, patients, etc., I am completely alone here in these issues of collapse and NTE.
There may be more than a few in your circle still in the closet, who are unable to witness aloud and honestly about collapse and NTE. In my small circle, there are perhaps six of us who admit what we believe, but the consensus seems to be that we’re just getting on with (the rest of) our lives because, after all, whatcha gonna do? I, too, appreciate that opportunity to commiserate online for the modest reality check it represents. Can’t we expect participants to swell in number as time wears on? So you’re not completely alone, thought it may feel that way.
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Recent news bites:
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Driving Cadillacs in our dreams.. there are no Cadillacs in New Zealand. Citroen, yes. BTW stopping the production of cars ought to put the world back on its feet.
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No better website on the subject of cars than this one:
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Via Politico this morning
SPEAKING OF GLOOMY OUTLOOKS: Via Bloomberg: “The only three living diplomats who have led the United Nations global warming talks said there’s little chance the next climate treaty will prevent the world from overheating. … ‘There is nothing that can be agreed in 2015 that would be consistent with the 2 degrees,’ said Yvo de Boer, who was UNFCCC executive secretary in 2009, when attempts to reach a deal at a summit in Copenhagen crumbled with a rift between industrialized and developing nations. ‘The only way that a 2015 agreement can achieve a 2-degree goal is to shut down the whole global economy.’” Bloomberg:http://bloom.bg/183WLJr
Also…
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I was blithely burning coal to watch the video “Fukushima Nuclear Reactor Unit 4…”
until the man said “Japan was a maternal culture who used to… blahblah… harmony and solidarity…blahblahblah” !
That is where i stopped burning coal for that movie and decided instead to post a comment. Japan was no more an harmony and solidarity culture than any other human tribe, ever. Exceptions confirm the rule.
Life in Japan was generally rude, short and cruel. Maternal? Women were things. And it will be much worse when WE loose power for a couple of weeks. Millions in the cities up to our necks in shit, piss, carbage and cadavers, with no water, no food, no meds, no gaz.
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My next post… a dystopian tale of too many people.
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U said:
“I mean, personally, I fight to the last breath, in so far as I can do anything, even if it is only commenting and trying ti explain to people what I understand to be happening, and trying to look after my little patch where I have some control. It doesn’t count for anything at all, really.”
I am not saying anything new but it is worth noting that maniacal behaviour is not restricted to global corporations or national governments; maniacal behaviour is pervasive at the local government level, in churches, clubs and societies, and at the individual level. It has been my experience (and I have an awful lot of experience of talking to people and organisations, at least five times what Robert listed) that even when you sit down with people and go over it all in considerable detail, and they agree with you, they still persist with actions that are both globally destructive and are self-destructive. It is like nothing i had said actually sunk in. For a while, having given up on central government, I focused on local government -people I could repeatedly interact with face to face. That turned out to be yet another lesson in futility. Hence, me saying that people are ignorant, stupid and stubborn. It sounds elitist but it is true. Better add greedy to that list.
I have recognised for a long time the disgusting behaviour of most politicians. I used to say that I could not become a politician because I was not prepared to have the operation -the one that removes the sections of the brain relating to logical thinking and morality. In other words, most politicians are ‘lizard people’.
It is ironic that one has to have trod a path that most people are unwilling or incapable of treading and have opened doors that most people do not even know exist to discover the true nature of the system.
Whether knowing the nature of the system provides any advantage is debatable. Up till now it hasn’t for me. Indeed, knowing the nature of the system and recognising the coming collapse has been personally detrimental because I only saw part of the picture; I did not fully appreciate the level of ignorance and apathy of the general populace. I have embarked on several loss-making schemes I would not have attempted had I fully understood the ignorance and apathy factor.
The difference between me and some others who comment is that I have grandchildren (replacement level only, fortunately) and must witness their futures being actively destroyed by the maniacs that constitute governments, corporations and the masses of industrialised societies.
We are witnessing the triumph of ignorance, apathy and greed, and are powerless to alter the outcome.
Thanks again to Mike for providing an oasis of sanity
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‘people are ignorant, stupid and stubborn. It sounds elitist but it is true. Better add greedy to that list. ‘ -kevin
u forgot crazy. other than that omission, right on! most unfortunately. imo. sheeple are into dogmas. dogma abusers, addicts, and pushers. if only we could eliminate dogmas. if only sheeple as a whole weren’t so damned stupid/crazy. if only a competent loving god existed. if only life wasn’t such a perverse addiction…
‘most politicians are ‘lizard people’’ -k
ahh, but the very successful ones are very good at being charming ‘lizard sheeple’. only the most awake can see through the charm of a ronald reagan type. for a long time, although i hated his politics, i liked him. even i was hoodwinked. of course i used to be much more naive and misinformed. still… charisma’s a double edged sword. it’s much abused in the hands of the stupid/crazy. nothing crazier than a charismatic megalomaniac dogma abuser.
‘Thanks again to Mike for providing an oasis of sanity’
ditto. another great essay, xray. love this blog.
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Last news bites of the day…
Largest outbreak of a single insect in the history of the world:
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Monbiot has woken up to this obscenity
Remember that referendum about whether we should create a single market with the United States? You know, the one that asked whether corporations should have the power to strike down our laws? No, I don’t either. Mind you, I spent ten minutes looking for my watch the other day, before I realised I was wearing it. Forgetting about the referendum is another sign of ageing. Because there must have been one, mustn’t there? After all that agonising over whether or not we should stay in the European Union(1), the government wouldn’t cede our sovereignty to some shadowy, undemocratic body without consulting us. Would it?
http://www.monbiot.com/2013/11/04/a-global-ban-on-left-wing-politics/
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We was on a hunt…. for Big Foot:
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Overpopulation and the Collapse of Civilization
by Paul R. Ehrlich
_______________________________
Alan Weisman on overpopulation…
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I find it a little infuriating that Alan Weisman, for all his good intentions, is reporting news that’s already 50+ years old in the case of Paul Ehrlich and 200+ years old in the case of Robert Malthus. His book Countdown undoubtedly updates the issue and puts a human face on it, since we already know (cf. Kevin Moore) that the public is so scientifically and statistically illiterate that the be-fruitful-and-multiply dogma still holds sway. Weisman admits stumbling upon this issue at the end of his previous book, The World Without Us. This is what the media and journalists do: they package the message for sale. But for him to be so apparently ignorant only to launch into an investigation of the issue leaves me wondering why I should pay him any attention. I can go directly to the sources.
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Yes. I started watching the video and then thought: ‘What planet are these two people on?” I fast-forwarded and heard some more drivel, so quit the link.
The last time the global human population was at anything like a sustainable level compatible with biodiversity and stable geochemistry was long before I was born, arguably around 1850, but perhaps long before that.
We can conjecture that a human population of around 10% the current level may have been sustainable. As it is, industrialised humanity has already wrecked so much of the geochemistry that the time lag factors suggest even a population of 700 million de-industrialised humans is not sustainable.
Photosynthesis in the Northern Hemisphere stopped outpacing emissions a few weeks ago. We are on track for 402 to 403 ppm in April-May 2014.
There are still plenty of opportunities to make money by ‘burning babies’.
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Sorry to have gotten your panties in a twist. Boy, touchy people around here. Some people “know” it all already.
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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/the-toxic-monster-is-coming-texassized-floating-island-containing-one-million-tonnes-of-junk-from-japan-tsunami-drifting-towards-us-8922358.html
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(Reuters)
“The likelihood of limiting the world’s overall temperature to a 2 degree Celsius rise and avoiding the worst affects of climate change has become “ever more elusive” and will not be possible without immediate and drastic measures on a global scale, a new report by the United Nations Environmental Program warned Tuesday.”
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/11/05-11
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The “immediate and drastic measures” would be to shut down the entire industrialized economy yesterday.
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With the possibility of real havoc, civil strife, and the nuclear catastrophe of hundreds of nuclear plants exploding because of inability to maintain them safely.
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‘The 2013 United Nations Climate Change Conference will be held in Warsaw, Poland next week from 11 to 22 November, where countries are expected to devise a new plan to cut global emissions. The plan would be signed by 2015 but will not go into effect until 2020.’
Too surreal for words to adequately express.
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They’re humans for God’s sake. What do you expect? Must maintain the appearance of normalcy, for if the public grasped the true nature of how fucked we are, heads would roll.
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Amen
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For those who don’t already know, a nice synopsis of why We Are NOT in a Climate “Pause”.
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George Mobus’ list of actions required at this late stage to salvage any semblance of humanity:
“…I have put together a list of things that, from a systems perspective, seem to me to be necessary actions needed to minimize the negative impacts rapidly approaching. All of the items on this list interact in complex, nonlinear ways so that you can’t just pick and choose the one or ones you think will do the job. All will have to be done, together, for there to be any positive effect. Once you see the list, and ponder the likelihood that our population will do any of them, let alone all, you will understand my conviction.
The improbability of such actions being undertaken should solidify in your mind the horrible fate that awaits humanity in the coming decades. To get to the top of the capitalist pyramid requires less than Gandhi-like qualities; the financial elite will not consent to giving up their positions of wealth and privilege in this cutthroat social hierarchy. Thus famine, war, and disease will reign as the population is whittled down to the last greedy bastard on the planet.
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Plows ? Has he ever actually grown any food for himself ?
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Yes, he does.
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I wonder what he’s thinking of plowing/ploughing. I think there are plenty of sophisticated ways of growing food that don’t involve ploughing. Ploughing releases carbon from the soil, generally does a lot of harm. What’s supposed to pull the ploughs ? Tractors ? Horses ? Mules ? Oxen ? All kinds of additional problems.
The idea of moving people from Africa to Russia… that’s a recipe for an instant blood bath. I mean, I’m glad people are thinking radical plans, but… as I’ve written more than once ‘the future is impossible’. That’s an example of what I meant.
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“George tells us how generally he sees a sustainable living pattern–in communities of about 500 people, located in areas where the climate is favorable, and that soils are favorable, and there is a diversity of plant and animal life. His base case is a low tech society. He then tells us more about how he would envision such a new society to be organized.”
What is a Feasible Living Situation for Future Humans?
Also found here in two parts:
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I guess what he is really saying is that what needs to be done is so impossible, so difficult to even consider, and so radical, and even so ineffective, that we are set to burn up the planet and destroy the biosphere for sure, and it is silly to even make plans to try to mitigate the coming changes, disastrous changes.
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There is nothing I can think of that might save humanity and what little is left of the natural world from the ravages of industrialism and capitalism.
One woman I know is looking forward to a super-Carrington event, i.e. a series of ejections from the Sun of sufficient electromagnetic energy to melt electric grids, burn out transformers and motors, vaporise solar panels, incinerate satellite communication systems etc. That would leave 400+ nuclear power plants crippled and spewing radioisotopes into the atmosphere.
A succession of Tunguska events would also bring down civilisation, but would also result in nuclear reactor carnage.
However, industrial civilisation is in the process of destroying itself via depletion of resources and destabilisation of the global environment anyway, and that process will continue at an accelerating pace because those who obtain short-term benefits from the looting and polluting of the commons will not voluntarily desist. And the bulk of the rest of the populace do not even know anything is happening.
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“It means taking every drop of hydrocarbon out of the ground, whether it’s shale gas in New Brunswick or tar sands in Alberta and trying to destroy the environment as fast as possible, with barely a question raised about what the world will look like as a result,” Chomsky told the British paper, referring to Harper’s energy policies.
Yet there is resistance, he said, and “it is pretty ironic that the so-called ‘least advanced’ people are the ones taking the lead in trying to protect all of us, while the richest and most powerful among us are the ones who are trying to drive the society to destruction.”
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Mobus is not a dreamer:
“…I have to be blunt. Capitalism, corporatism, and profit taking are killing the planet, or large and growing swaths of it. Politics, governance, and the education system are acting as willing accomplices to assist. Of course, it is really the people who work within these institutions who are at fault, both for shaping them to their current embodiments, and for promoting them as good and worthwhile. Ultimately we humans are at fault for being just too ignorant and unwise to see what incredible damage we are doing to the Earth and even ourselves.
I won’t recapitulate what all of the various problems are that we are causing or even entertain a conversation about them since the evidence for them is so abundant, and a little simple connecting of the dots will lead to the understanding of how they are all interconnected and will collectively exacerbate our predicament. When the planet is significantly altered beyond recognition there is a very high likelihood that the vast majority of humanity will suffer the same fate. I and many aware writers have covered this before. Only, to what avail?
After watching this drama unfold for the last one and a half decades (and noting the accelerated pace with which it is doing so) I have drawn the conclusion that absolutely nothing can be done at this juncture to mitigate these problems. And even if it could no one with the ability to make a difference will endeavor to do so. I have given up completely on the political and business leadership in the developed world. I’ve given up on the scientific prowess of the US. I’ve given up on our education system. Put simply, there is, in my opinion, no institution or group of people who (have the power/effectiveness and) can or would make the effort to change anything that might make even a modicum of difference. There are many people who do see and do try to help, but just like me, have no influence that could conceivably reach the scale needed, at least, to lessen the pain about to be inflicted…”
http://questioneverything.typepad.com/question_everything/2013/08/either-profits-go-or-we-go.html
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After a long period since his last post, Scribbler has become much more somber in his latest post:
“…It’s amazing to think that humans have already set in effect levels of warmth unsurpassed in 44,000 years and, possibly, 120,000 years. This new information, in itself, is unprecedented. But don’t make the mistake of falling into the false and relative comfort of thinking we only need to worry about the climates of 120,000 years ago. We’re already passing that marker now. As mentioned above, we’ve already released enough greenhouse gasses to at least return Earth to climates not seen in 3.6 million years. In this respect, the Baffin Island study adds to research conducted at Lake El’gygytgyn showing that levels of CO2 comparable to those seen today resulted in Arctic temperatures 8 degrees Celsius hotter during the deep past.
Rapidly Changing Arctic to Liberate More Greenhouse Gasses
Sadly, it is Miller’s final statement, the one stating that all the ice on Baffin is bound to melt, no matter what, which bears the most weight in our current day. With coal plants still being constructed at a break-neck pace in India and China, and with human greenhouse gas emissions rising above 45 gigatons of CO2 equivalent each year, we would be lucky if the end level of melt only included the ice on Baffin combined with a large section of the ice over Greenland. Instead, we are rapidly forging along toward a CO2 level of 550 to 600 ppm which will almost certainly ensure a dangerous and rapid melting of all the remaining ice on Earth.
In addition, billions of tons of carbon in the form of methane and CO2 lay locked within the millions of square miles of thawing permafrost. Some of this methane and CO2 is already out-gassing, adding to the already dangerously high levels of human greenhouse gasses.
Over the past month, the Arctic saw major methane spikes in which atmospheric concentrations of this potent greenhouse gas reached nearly 2500 parts per billion, more than 650 parts per billion above the global average. And should the Arctic continue to warm we are more likely to see even larger spikes of both methane and CO2 further amplifying already unprecedented Arctic warmth.
Most likely, we are headed to at least the temperatures last seen during the Pliocene, in which global averages ranged 2-3 degrees Celsius hotter than the present and during which oceans were 25-75 feet higher. Unfortunately, these are the long-term consequences we have probably already locked in. But without rapid reductions in carbon emissions to near zero over the coming decades, we can expect far, far worse outcomes.”
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Yves Smith does a great job explaining the evil of these intended ‘trade agreements’
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/11/listen-to-your-humble-blogger-discuss-the-pending-trade-deals-and-jp-morgan-on-le-show.html
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There is not a snowball’s chance in hell that any action will be taken to mitigate climate change. Listen to this goon:
Former Prime Minister John Howard says he felt obliged to back emissions trading when standing for re-election in 2007. Photograph: Paul Miller/AAP
John Howard has told an audience of climate sceptics in London that Tony Abbott’s defiance on global warming in the face of left-wing zealotry was the foundation of his electoral victory in September.
In a lecture at the Global Warming Policy Foundation, established by former Thatcher minister and climate sceptic Nigel Lawson, the former Australian prime minister insisted that the high tide of public support for “overzealous action” on global warming has passed.
“I am very sceptical about the possibility of a global agreement ever being reached when you look at what happened in Copenhagen,” he told reporters before the speech, adding there was no real prospect of a deal between the major emitters Europe, the US and north Asia.
In the speech, titled One Religion is Enough, Howard described his own dalliances with an emissions trading scheme (ETS) as purely political and questioned the scientific consensus on climate change.
“Tony Abbott now has the great responsibility and honour of being prime minister of Australia because a little under four years ago he challenged what seemed to be a political consensus on global warming,” Howard said, describing Abbott’s stance as “courageous”.
Howard’s speech described the advocates of climate change mitigation as “alarmists” and “zealots” for whom “the cause has become a substitute religion”. He said “global warming is a quintessential public policy issue” and policymakers should not become subservient to the advice of scientists.
“Scientists are the experts in science, judges experts in interpreting the law and doctors skilled at keeping us healthy, provided we take their advice. But parliaments, composed of elected politicians, are the experts at policymaking and neither expressly or impliedly should they ever surrender that role to others.”
He added that he had grown up being told ulcers were caused by stress but it was later revealed a virus was to blame.
“You can never be absolutely certain that all the science is in.”
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“You can never be absolutely certain that all the science is in.”
— His children, if he has any, will thank him for his wisdom. (heavy sarcasm)
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John Howard has a well-documented history of lying. As PM he was not quite up to Tony B Liar’s standard but was not far behind.
Both those war criminals should be behind bars. But as major players in the international band of kleptomaniacs, they walk free and are encouraged to keep lying.
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“The purpose of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is to remove the regulatory differences between the US and European nations. I mentioned it a couple of weeks ago. But I left out the most important issue: the remarkable ability it would grant big business to sue the living daylights out of governments which try to defend their citizens. It would allow a secretive panel of corporate lawyers to overrule the will of parliament and destroy our legal protections. Yet the defenders of our sovereignty say nothing.
The mechanism through which this is achieved is known as investor-state dispute settlement. It’s already being used in many parts of the world to kill regulations protecting people and the living planet.”
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/11/05-3
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Ecocide is enforced and protected by the laws of the corporate state, the dictates of capitalism, and the DNA-encoded messages in all of us to grow our numbers and utilize energy.
Are we smarter than yeast? Not in terms of overriding inherent biological urges.
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That’s quotable.
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6 November 2013 Last updated at 05:07 ET
Concentrations of warming gases break record
The levels of gases in the atmosphere that drive global warming increased to a record high in 2012.
According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), atmospheric CO2 grew more rapidly last year than its average rise over the past decade.
Concentrations of methane and nitrous oxide also broke previous records.
Thanks to carbon dioxide and these other gases, the WMO says the warming effect on our climate has increased by almost a third since 1990.
The WMO’s annual greenhouse gas bulletin measures concentrations in the atmosphere, not emissions on the ground.
Carbon dioxide is the most important of the gases that they track, but only about half of the CO2 that’s emitted by human activities remains in the atmosphere, with the rest being absorbed by the plants, trees, the land and the oceans.
Upsetting the balance
Since 1750, global average levels of CO2 in the atmosphere have increased to 141% of the pre-industrial concentration of 278 parts per million (ppm).
According to the WMO there were 393.1ppm of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in 2012, an increase of 2.2ppm over 2011.
This was above the yearly average of 2.02ppm over the past decade.
“The observations highlight yet again how heat-trapping gases from human activities have upset the natural balance of our atmosphere and are a major contribution to climate change,” said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud.
“It is a worry. The more we delay action the bigger the risk we cannot stay under the 2 degree Celsius limit that countries have agreed,” he said.
While the daily measurement of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere exceeded the symbolic 400ppm mark in May this year, according to the WMO the global annual average CO2 concentration will cross this point in 2015 or 2016.
Levels of methane also reached record highs in 2012 of 1,819 parts per billion. Concentrations have been increasing since 2007 after a period when they appeared to be levelling off.
The WMO report says that it is not yet possible to attribute the methane increase to either human activities like cattle breeding and landfills or natural sources such as wetlands.
They believe that the rising emissions come from the tropical and mid-latitude northern hemisphere and not from the Arctic, where methane from the melting of permafrost and hydrates has long been a concern.
Emissions of nitrous oxide have also grown, with the atmospheric concentration in 2012 at 325.1 parts per billion, 120% above pre-industrial levels.
Nitrous oxide gas, although its concentrations are tiny compared to CO2, is 298 times more warming and also plays a role in the destruction of the ozone layer.
Recent research indicates that the rate of increase in emissions might be slowing down, but the gases can continue to concentrate in the atmosphere and exert a climate influence for hundreds if not thousands of years.
Scientists believe that the new data indicates that global warming will be back with a vengeance, after a slowdown in the rate of temperature increases over the past 14 years.
“The laws of physics and chemistry are not negotiable,” said Michel Jarraud.
“Greenhouse gases are what they are, the laws of physics show they can only contribute to warming the system, but parts of this heat may go in different places like the oceans for some periods of time,” he said.
This view was echoed by Prof Piers Forster from the University of Leeds.
“For the past decade or so the oceans have been sucking up this extra heat, meaning that surface temperatures have only increased slowly.
“Don’t expect this state of affairs to continue though, the extra heat will eventually come out and bite us, so expect strong warming over the coming decades.”
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Fukushima Debris “Island” The Size Of Texas Near US West Coast
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 11/06/2013 – 07:59
While it took Japan over two years to admit the Fukushima situation on the ground is “out of control”, a development many had predicted for years, a just as important topic is what are the implications of this uncontrolled radioactive disaster on not only the local environment and society but also globally, particularly Japan’s neighbor across the Pacific – the US. To be sure, there has been much speculation, much of it unjustified, in the past two years debating when, how substantial and how acute any potential debris from Fukushima would be on the US. Which is why it was somewhat surprising to see the NOAA come out with its own modeling effort, which shows that not only “some buoyant items first reached the Pacific Northwest coast during winter 2011-2012” but to openly confirm that a debris field weighing over 1 million tons, and larger than Texas is now on the verge of hitting the American coastline, just west off the state of California.
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