the eve of destruction...
Steve Connor, writing for The Independent (UK), March 30, 2005:
(Link compliments of DS)
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Planet Earth stands on the cusp of disaster and people should no longer take it for granted that their children and grandchildren will survive in the environmentally degraded world of the 21st century. This is not the doom-laden talk of green activists but the considered opinion of 1,300 leading scientists from 95 countries who will today publish a detailed assessment of the state of the world at the start of the new millennium.read the complete article >>>
(Link compliments of DS)
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posted by The Editor at
11:52 PM
16 Comments:
I watched a fascinating doco on ABC recently about global dimming and global warming.
We are surprisingly enough slowly reducing air pollution, thus Global Dimming is 'decreasing' and I say that word ever so carefully because we obviously still have an enormous amount of progress to make. However, because this is happening scientists are now seeing the real threat of Global Warming. Global Dimming was creating a layer of thick air pollution in between the ozone layer and us, so all the while we thought the threat of Global Warming was not a serious threat for generations to come. How wrong we were. Without air pollution 'blocking' out much of the greenhouse effect, predictions of disaster in the very near future (as in 30-40 years from now!)
I will try and find an article on the internet discussing it more clearly than i have attempted and paste it here if you're interested.
Here is the link I mentioned earlier. You must excuse my 'crappy' explanation on Global Dimming and Global Warming
a) I'm tired and need sleep
b) I'm not real smart :)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/dimming_prog_summary.shtml
This will tell you everything you need to know. It is an excellent article, I recommend it for everyone. That is all.
Yeah, Billie, I saw that doco too. Truly frightening.
What frightens me is that the marketing and advertising people aren't going to tell us to stop buying stuff we don't really need.
The push is always to buy more and consume more. The global economy would crash if we cut our rates of consumption to the degree required to correct things ecologically and an economic crash would starve billions.
Also, I fear that it all needed to happen yesterday. The lefties and greenies have been warning us for ages but the greedy, selfish capitalists' propaganda dismisses them as idiots and the masses buy it every time. Bloody sheep!
I think it's way too late to stop the shit from tipping us over the edge ecologically. Economically, the capitalist juggernaut is way too huge to slow down and go into reverse. All indications are that the capitalist productivity thing is about to really take off with China and India cranking up production mega-time.
No, no one's going to slow this thing down enough to save the environment. We all want the things we've become dependent on far too much to let them go and it's the need for these things that's going to turn the planet into a desert.
The sort of temperatures predicted for 2100, would mean ths a lot of places in Australia would get temps of over 50 deg C in summer and these are temps at which all sorts of living things die. Dead wildlife and dead humans. Lots of dead things.
And people had better understand that 2100 will be a year their children and grandchildren will be around for, so it's not really that far away...
So, in summary, if we act with enough restraint to save the environment, the global economy will crash and billions (and I mean billions) will die of starvation and the violecne of a dog-eat dog world of starving people (don't think for a minute that Australia will somehow escape this).
If we keep going in a way that keeps the economy afloat, we cause a planetary eclological disaster that will probably wipe out about 90% of two-legged and four-legged warm-blooded life on the planet within the lifetimes of our children or grandchildren.
Wish I had some good news, but the more I look into things, the more desperate our situation appears.
Only liars and fools seem to think otherwise.
Do this quiz to calculate how much our wonderful lifestyle is destroying the world. the go and join the Greens and get active. Do it yesterday.
Well done.
Now that I see new cordless drills being sold for less than twenty dollars I know that there'll be wars, and more wars.
Once again Gerry, you've expressed my opinion better than I could. Thank you. Since history does repeat itself and the 'only thing new in the world is the history you haven't read,' may I suggest your very wise readership beg, borrow or steal a copy of "Collapse - How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed" by Jared Diamond.
DS
RH, is that you of Ranting Human fame?
Yes, perpetual war is what the US has in fact been waging since 1945 against socialist and communist regimes (because those are regimes in which The Corporation cannot make a buck). Any regime that stood in the way of Big Bucks Business was given a dose of "liberating" war. But we all kow this, I'm just ranting to those well-informed enough to already know all this shit. Those who still don't understand are not reading this kind of blog. Here in Sydney they're reading the Daily Telegraph or watching Channel 9 for their daily dose of "truth". Fucking sheep!
Nah, more dangerousl than mere sheep, because they support and empower the fucking lunatics destrying the planet. Stupid, greedy and selfish is what they are.
But I rant.
DS, I'm a bit worried about allegedly expressing your opinion better than you can. When you say what you think without holding anything back because you're worried about what others might think, you'll be free to express your opinion. Blogging is a great thing... :-)
Yeah, I must get Diamond's book. But I fear I'll only rant more if I read it... :-)
Why are we letting them do it to us, DS? Ahh, but we need the car, we need the electricity, gas, heating oil, we need the supermarket, the hospital, the doctor, we've become so soft and dependent on these things we'd die if they suddenly ceased to be there. In fact, we don't want a lifestyle without these things. We don't want to live directly interactive with and dependent on bare nature (except for say two weeks a year when we go on an "adventure".)
It's too late. We now insist on a lifestyle which will kill us, and we will kill anyone who has a problem with our pursuit of this lifestyle.
Catch-22? You bet your sweet little patooties!
May as well turn to the Western Religion of your choice, becsue that's the only fairytale in which you will find ultimate happiness - after you die. But at you'll be a happy dead person. Oh what joy! I can hardly wait!
Any intelligent life forms observing humans would see us for what we are - a species that went mad as a result of failing to use it's capacity for rational thought.
But I rant.
The fact that 2100 is nearby, like you say, is what many people don't realise. The whole industrial system must be modified. Right now, that's not gonna happen, 'cause all man wants in money, money and more money.
Oh, that "R H" chap ain't me.
Ah Ranting Human. Good to see you commenting here.
Yes, it's money money money. But can you blame people, it's what they see as the thing most needed to have "security" and "freedom".
They have yet to see the evil this makes them dependent upon... A wise communist teacher called Jesus tried to tell them that 2000 years ago, but all they did was twist his teachings into an unrecognisable doctrine of crap and corruption...
Greetings.
I have never ranted. I've disagreed, that's all. But to some, that's ranting.
I have no fame, but I do have a bit of notoriety; to which I'm indifferent. I don't care.
Here's my point, stores are bursting with merchandise. There's just too much, and not enough people to buy it. Things have never been so cheap: toasters and elctric irons are throwaway items, who'd bother getting them repaired? Not long ago they had second hand value, not any more. I'd never pay $10,000 for a TV set, but plenty do. Others Pay $300, and get what would have cost them $1,000 a few years ago.
Too many goods, and not enough customers. Capitalism has outdone itself, become too slick, too efficient, too productive. Advertising is a desperate scream.
When I see all this stuff being sold at such dirt cheap prices I know there's going to be war. Terrible war.
You answered your own question and quite accurately I might add. I don't let my hair down very often because I seem to scare off your readership.
DS
Don't worry about scaring off the readership, DS. I'm much better at that than you are, trust me. :-)
RH, you have never ranted? What are you, a repressed anal retentive? Rant, damn you! There's no room on this blog for people who don't value the personal freedom ranting facilitates! Damn you, RH, you prissy person! Do you think you're too good to rant?!?! I've had it with you poeple!
You have no fame? What are you? Mad or something? You're on this blog for Chrst's sake! That's fame right there !!!
But seriously, yes, there will be endless war if we let those lunatics running America and Britain stay in power. Any suggestions about what should/could be done?
I've never said there'll be endless war. There'll be little wars, then a big one.
What to do? Well I don't care, because screaming voices saying go here, go there, do this, do that, and ring this number right now!- are wasted on me. TV delivers an audience to advertisers, that's all. Sometimes you can't pick the ads from the show. Sometimes the ads ARE the show. And at best, the show is a bait. Bite, and you've got a new car.
But I don't mind capitalism. My place is full of stuff. What I do mind is the trickery, the subterfuge: the mind control of advertising. People become Brand Names. As do sports arenas, art shows, and even horse races. A while back, a Geelong footballer became a can of cat food, by changing his name to 'Whiskas'. He got paid for it, of course.
As for insults, if someone calls me names, I'll call them names. Insults are the easiest thing. I make up my own.
You may want to change the world, but preaching (or ranting) gets you nowhere, unless you can make it funny. If you want people to listen, that's what you have to do.
So, RH, in reaching people, only comedy works? No one ever learned anything or was reached by a good rant? I don't think the world is quite so black and white.
These wars you speak of, why will they happen? And who will be fighting who in the big one?
The world's not black and white? Crikey, have you been to Footscray lately?
RH, I don't follow any contact sports or cricket. Now, GET BACK ON TOPIC or watch your comments disappear...
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