Tag Archives: Climate change

Are we now just beginning to reap the dark side of the Industrial Revolution

17 Friday Oct 2014

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on Are we now just beginning to reap the dark side of the Industrial Revolution

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , ,

 

The Historiography of the first World War bear witness to destruction and death made possible by the Industrial revolution.

The present day turmoil that we see in the world has its roots created by man during this period.

So has the Industrial Revolution improved life or not? Is the world a better place? A safer place? Do most people have more material wealth than they did two centuries ago? Are we healthier? Are we happier? Is the world more socially and economically just? Is the world headed in the right direction?

It’s not possible to answer all these questions without an in-depth examination of the Industrial Revolution and its effects. There is no definitive answer, other than in short, we cannot hope to understand the modern world without understanding the Industrial Revolution as it resulted in the most profound, far-reaching changes in the history of humanity.

Perhaps it is adequate to say that its influence continues to sweep through our lives today. Just look at the last 250 years of industrialization.

It has altered our lives more than any event or development in the past 12,000 years: in where we live, how we work, what we wear, what we eat, what we do for fun, how we are educated, how long we live and how many children we have.

It greatest failure is that it has not spread wealth evenly across the globe, and the consequences have often been unjust.

For example, to-day in developing countries, where 85% of people in the world live, 16,000 children die each day from hunger-related causes—that’s one child every five seconds.

It did provided the countries that first adopted it with the technological and economic advantages necessary to eventually rule most of the world. In short, the Industrial Revolution is the “game changer” of modern world history. More than anything else, it’s what makes the modern world, well, “modern.”

But how has it come about that 10% of the world’s wealthiest people controlled 85% of the world’s wealth? Mostly because they were born into wealth that was made during the Industrial revolution.

So what exactly is the Industrial Revolution?

An Industrial Revolution at its core occurs when a society shifts from using tools to make products to using new sources of energy, such as coal, to power machines in factories, oil, electricity. nuclear power.

It began at the end of the 18th century, but it has yet to end.

It has transformed into much more complex global phenomena recently. Multi-national corporations design, build, and assemble products using resources and labor from around the world.

Proponents of the benefits of industrialization point to amazing inventions, technological advances, and increased global wealth. Global GDP per capita—the most common measurement of national wealth—has increased 800% over the past 200 years.

I would say to them that it also developed into a global economic system that seems exploitative and unsustainable, fueling unbridled capitalism that has led to exploitation of the weakest and most vulnerable on a global scale.

Giving Birth to multinational corporations that owe their loyalty not to any nation but to the profit motive.

So what happens in a country when free-market capitalism has no constraints.

The record of the last five thousand years of history clearly suggests that every single preceding civilization has perished, no matter where or how long it has been able to flourish, as a result of its sustained assault on the environment, usually ending in soil loss, flooding, and starvation, and a successive distension of all social strata, usually ending in rebellion, warfare, and dissolution.

They all seem unable to appreciate scale or limits, and in their growth and turgidity were unable maintain balance within or without.

Our Industrial civilization is no different only in that it is now much larger and more powerful than any known before, by geometric differences in all dimensions, and its collapse will be far more extensive and thorough going, far more calamitous.

We are now in the technology age and you might say that The Industrial age is water under the bridge.

No matter how you look at it we are staring down the barrel of a gun with many different bullets. Climate change,  Killer virus, World conflicts due to unadulterated Greed/ Rampant Inequality, Technology deserts and disfunctional non resourced World Organisations.

While demand for depleting resources are skyrocketing ,water, clear air and energy. By any biological gauge we moving beyond sustainability.

So is it time to abandon the concept of sustainability? altogether, or can we find an accurate way to measure it.  If so, how can we achieve it? And if not, how can we best prepare for the coming ecological decline?

The most important resources that drive current industrialization are finite. If billions of people replicate the same level of consumption, they will hasten? ecological and economical disaster.

So who or what will keep us from creating pollution or exploiting weak, desperate countries?

Who will stop global resource depletion?

Is there any point to the Technology Revolution, other than brain work instead of muscle work, if history is only going to repeating itself.

Now you don’t have to be a raw prawn to know that most of our all-powerful politicians and world organisations live in what I call a reactivate state.

By the time they have called a conference and blabbered on for days it’s too late. Now many times have you witnessed the pathetic sight of the UN and its world Organisations pleading for funds, equipment. Just look at the current Ebola outbreak. Growing the economy at all costs and keeping Wall Street happy seems to be their solution to all or woes.

Here are a few things that could be done.

Restore meaning to sustainability as more than just a marketing tool.

Share knowledge, share capital, and investments around the world.

Remove the Veto in the United nations and give all nations an equal standing.

Remove Carbon Credits. Set trading admission penalties for pollution.

And Make Greed contribute by,

Place a world Aid Commission of 0.05% on all High Frequency Trading, on all Foreign Exchange Transactions over £20,000, and Foreign Wealth Funds Acquisitions. This would create a perpetual fund removing the need to beg for funds every time there is a disaster. The funds could replace the World bank, the IMF, Save the Children, fund Conservation, and make enormous inroads into Inequality the scourge of our Technology Age.

For me there has be a greater willingness by our politicians to question conventional measures of economic growth in favor of more sustainable models with a greater emphasis on well-being.

Before you bombard me with all the good things the have come out of the Industrial Revolution I refer you to the title of this post.

Yes we would not have the Internet, Landed on the moon, developed drugs, and invented this and that, but there is no point in relying on all the answers coming from Google than experiencing it in reality.

IF WE DON’T WANT THE LEGACY of the Industrial Revolution to be a divided world due to Inequality we must conquer Greed by harnessing it to contribute to all or there will be nothing left to be greedy about.

← Back

Thank you for your response. ✨

 

.

As anticipated – Our World Leaders Excelled themselves once more.

24 Wednesday Sep 2014

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on As anticipated – Our World Leaders Excelled themselves once more.

Tags

, , , ,

 

oil refinery moon

They say that Sarcasm is the lowest for of wit.

Well if so, we should all be showering large doses of it on the recent UN Climate Change Summit in New York the first such meeting on climate in five years.

The World leaders held back on making new commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions or to give significant climate finance to developing countries, leaving it to business, cities and campaign groups to produce the real action on climate.

Why?

Because our world leaders who were present at the Summit once again showed their in dept knowledge of the Defining problem facing the world. Climate Change.

Those who were not present obviously had more pressing engagements.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi India and Chinese President Xi Jinping, the heads of the world’s two most populous nations. In empirical terms, it’s hard to think of two more important leaders in the world right now: Together they lead more than 2.5 billion people, more than a third of the world’s population. They also were the first- and third-biggest producers of carbon dioxide emissions (the United States holds the No. 2 spot).

Wanted Poster.

 President Vladimir Putin the veto man. Russia is the 10th-most-populous country in the world and the fourth-largest producers of carbon dioxide emissions.

Wanted Poster.

 Both Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, two leaders known for their relative skepticism about climate change not in attendance.

Wanted Poster.

              

So what happened in response to thousands of world citizens marching. Not much according to reports I have read.

The oceans which cover 73% of the planet’s surface, was not on the agenda.

China, which has surpassed the US as the world’s biggest emitter, said it would also do its bit, by curbing emissions “as soon as possible”

The UK prime minister, David Cameron, also touted his government’s environmental policies. “As prime minister I pledged to lead the greenest government ever and I believe we have kept that promise.”

The president of France  François Hollande, who obviously need to go to speck savers told an investors’ event on the sidelines of the summit.

“We can’t just limit ourselves to words, expressions of regret and exercises in stock-taking,” “What will come out of Paris is a new economy,”

France went on to commit to providing $1bn to a climate change fund for poor countries – the first significant contribution since Germany threw in $1bn last July.

Sweden has also contributed.

South Korea and Switzerland went on to pledge $100m each.

Denmark pledged $70m.

Norway pledged $33m.

Mexico said it would give $10m.

But the total of $2.3bn pledged for the Green Climate Fund so far fell short of the $10bn to $15bn that UN officials and developing country said was needed to show rich countries were committed to acting on climate change.

It also was unclear whether Tuesday’s pledges represented new money. A lot of “climate financing” is just existing aid repackaged under a new name.

More than 400 companies from 60 countries all signed on to support putting a price on carbon.Some of the world’s biggest palm oil and paper producers committed to stop destructive logging by 2030, and restore an area of forest equivalent to the size of India.

But Brazil, despite its critical role protecting the Amazon rain forest, said it had been left out of the negotiations. It refused to sign an anti-deforestation pledge, dealing a blow to the Climate Change summit in New York.

“The lungs of the planet”

A number of campaign groups did not sign the agreement, saying it did not go far enough to protect the rights of indigenous people who rely on the forest, or to hold the big forestry companies to account.

So where are we?

This Summit was not a formal negotiation on climate change but an “extraordinary meeting to try to jump-start the whole thing and get it back on the rails.” to lay the groundwork ahead of a UN climate conference in Lima, Peru, this December.

Does that sound drearily familiar? It should. The world’s leaders have been hammering out various climate agreements for decades now.

There was the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

The 2009 Copenhagen Accord.

But despite all these talks, global greenhouse-gas emissions have kept rising, putting the world on track for more warming in the years ahead.

So why should this newest round of climate diplomacy be any different?

UNDER THE 1992 CLIMATE TREATY, COUNTRIES AGREED TO TAKE ACTION — BUT NEVER SPECIFIED WHAT, EXACTLY.

They certainly haven’t achieved the goal of stabilizing greenhouse-gas emissions in the atmosphere. The world is burning more fossil fuels than ever, and carbon-dioxide emissions keep rising each year: THE CURRENT PLEDGES ARE INADEQUATE TO PREVENT 2°C OF WARMING.

THE US AND EUROPE HAVE HAD THEIR FOSSIL FUEL PARTY, NOW INDIA AND CHINA WANT THEIRS EMISSIONS.

Why are emissions FROM WEALTHY NATIONS DECLINING.

Because rich nations are “outsourcing” their carbon

By the end of 2015, they hope to hammer out an agreement with “legal force”

Believe that, you believe anything.

Here are two suggestions that would make a difference. One world wide the other Country wide.

1. If the earth is going to fry why not convert the sun-rich deserts of the world into energy producing and storage Units. 90 percent of the world’s population lives within 3,000 km of deserts.

Think of the employment it would create, not to mention the Energy and the resulting reduction in Co2.

2) Create tax cuts of the use of clean Energy.

← Back

Thank you for your response. ✨

 

 

The universe can only be observed through a brain.

15 Monday Sep 2014

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , ,

 

Have you got one ?

You would be right to say that we are all endow with one, but fuck me, just look around the World at the moment and you would be lead to believe that we are all using some prototypes.

It is a no Brainer when it comes to understanding what the future will holds if we don’t cop on to ourselves soon.

Worldwide, some 827.6 million people live in urban slums.

By 2020, it is estimated the world slum population will reach almost 1 billion.

About 50 percent of the world’s population now live in urban areas. Every day millions of people world-wide call our streets their home.

Lack of clean water and sanitation claim the lives of more than 1.8 million young children every year.

In the United States, 48.5 million people are living in poverty. One third of Londoners using Food banks.

A child dies of poverty in the world every minute.

Now while I appreciate that with seven billion human beings in the world, it generate’s diverse problems in different social areas and that the entirety of the human populous does not express the same comprehension of morals. It is beyond me that we are all in the process of building a world worse than hell.

We might be perplexed and disoriented by the Higgs boson

and a life in the shadows of science and technology.

But let’s face the facts. If asked, 99.9% of us could not give a dogs bollix whether the Higgs boson matters or not.  An Inconvenient Truth.

At the current rate of births in fifty years ( most of you will be still living) there will be around 12 billion people. Hopefully Five billion more with brains asking where was our common sense and compassion when it was needed.

You think, humans are capable of heart-breaking compassion and, on rare occasion, will sacrifice their own sense of self to reach out to another in a time of need..selfish genes, tried to eliminate the “soul” from our professional vocabularies.

The mundaneness of our daily lives cause us take our existence for granted — but every once in a while we’re cajoled out of that complacency and enter into a profound state of existential awareness.

The media influences the public by broadcasting starving children, misrepresenting poverty showing us only the worst cases of poverty that have led to the formation of the “haves” and “have-nots”. “Those poor people! I need to call and donate.” Reluctantly, you never pick up the phone to pledge your money.

Instead we have come to accept that we are entering a world where all truth is relative. Where power struggles are assassins with an insatiable appetite for destruction, where beggar thy neighbor banking, misery merchants ruin lives for the sake of profit, where inequalities are creating terrorist groups such as ISIS, NATO, where greed is king, where making sense of humanity is a measure of madness.

So how do we find meaning? through experiential values, that is, by experiencing something – or someone – we value. To choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.

Just look at Kashmir if you don’t believe what I am saying. 76000 people displaced by recent  flooding, 13 year after 9/11, 50 years after partition, thousands disappeared, mass graves, a scar on the conscious of Humanity.

Are we all insane?

Our world right now is being shaped by water not by the like of ISIS, not by ethnic or religious differences, not be the Higgs Boson, or anything else.

Game, set match is coming.

By not tackling Climate change, Inequality, and unadulterated greed, which those with brains are crying out to do so the coming Tragedy is our home Earth not the observable universe.( see previous postings)

← Back

Thank you for your response. ✨

 

 

 

 

 

What Sovereign Wealth Funds Think Now: Its Land.

03 Wednesday Sep 2014

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on What Sovereign Wealth Funds Think Now: Its Land.

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

From the beginning of capitalism the drive for profits has been the major force in dispossession peasant and small-scale farmers from the land and water.

While we are all consumed by our daily lives the armies of our greatest enemy Greed in the form of money never sleeps.

Now there are many ways to acquire land as Mr Putin see it and you might think that he is the greatest current threat with nuclear power.

You would be wrong in my opinion.

In more stressful times, expect these land deals to lead to unrest and lay the groundwork for wars and national boundary or ownership changes. Any nation faced with civil disobedience or unrest, for whatever reason, might be subject to regime changes which might quickly change foreign land ownership policy. Moreover, political instability elsewhere in the region is pushing oil prices up, thereby increasing and guaranteeing the main source of income of the oil-rich Persian Gulf states.

The greatest threat is the Privatization of our world resources for the sake of profit which is in the not so distant future is going to come back to haunt us all.

It is an existential struggle for the future of humanity.

Unless the resources of the earth can be utilized in an equitable and sustainable way, then civilization itself is under threat.

The main threat are called Sovereign Wealth Funds that are currently plundering the world. There are about 52 sovereign investors who collectively manage $5.7 trillion in assets

( I have addressed the problem in past posted if your are interested.)

Here I want to highlight two aspects of their current activities that we should all be made aware of.

The first is Land and water.

Land grabbing is directly intertwined with the growing scarcity of fresh water resources around the world.

More than 463 projects covering 116 million acres, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa were acquired in eight months during 2008-9.

Perhaps the most famous example of such privatization of water was the infamous purchase of Bolivia’s water supply by Bechtel and the Abengoa Corporation of Spain in the late 1990s

If one needed more evidence that financial and political elites were consolidating their ownership of global water resources, one needs look no further than the Guarani Aquifer in Paraguay.

One of the world’s largest fresh water aquifers, Guarani is estimated as being larger than the US states of Texas and California combined. Researchers have calculated that Guarani could provide fresh water for the world’s population for at least 200 years. It is precisely atop this aquifer that George Bush and the Bush family have purchased more than 100,000 acres, though many believe the purchase to in fact be much larger.

If ownership of water and the farmland of a nation doesn’t define a nation tell me what does.

It is difficult to obtain accurate figures for the amount of land in the global South that is under the control of foreign and local private capital as well as foreign sovereign wealth funds.

Sovereign wealth funds–charged with preserving the accumulated fortunes of their home nations–are well known for their opaque, tightly guarded investment decisions.

Sovereign wealth funds hold about $5 trillion in assets globally, and many, are food challenged, such as Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, South Korea, and China.

With Climate change the rush for agricultural and water gold is in fully flight. Water “the petroleum for the next century” Future agricultural production will be stressed by climate change and competition for remaining oil and water supplies while population numbers grow will become more intensive.  

A disturbing trend in the water sector is accelerating worldwide. The new “water barons”  — are buying up water all over the world at unprecedented pace. Not only are the mega-banks investing heavily in water, the multimillionaire tycoons are also buying water. 

Unfortunately, the global water and infrastructure-privatization fever is unstoppable:

Here are a few facts that might make you think twice.

There is currently a consolidation of land and resources in ever fewer hands, while the mass of workers and peasants are made dependent on corporations and governments.

Hedge funds, big banks, sovereign wealth funds, are gobbling up the most fertile land around the world, leading many to wonder what the future of food production and land distribution will look like.

By 2020 more that 50 million people will be pushed into poverty because of high food prices, and this speculation will be if not already one of the main causes.

”Today’s emerging new farm owners are private equity fund managers, specialized farmland fund operators, hedge funds, pension funds,big banks and Sovereignty Wealth Funds.”

In Australia more than 800,000ha of prime and fertile land, from Moree in the north to Deniliquin in the south, is foreign owned, with Korea’s Ho Myoung Farm company the largest stakeholder with 500,000ha.  Hassad Australian, a company wholly owned by the Arab state of Qatar, has acquired 730,000ha of farm land in Australia, including 25,245ha in NSW.

There has been more than $1.5 billion in direct investment in Australian agricultural land over the last three years by GLOBAL fund managers and some of the world’s largest pension funds and of course Sovereign Wealth Funds.

The sovereign state of Qatari are on track to acquire a larger area more than the entire Arab state with plans to spend over $350 million on acquisitions. The Qatari government has leased large amounts of land in Kenya. They also have or are working on deals in Brazil, Argentina, Australia, Sudan, and the Ukraine.

They include: Two Swedish pension funds, Första AP-fonden and the Second Swedish National Pension Fund/AP2; the Dutch pension fund Algemene Pensioen Groep; Danish pension fund Danske; Swiss fund Adveq Real Assets Harvested Resources; Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund; and several from Canada including the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation, BNY Mellon, the Ontario Municipal Employee Retirement System, and Quebec’s CDPQ fund, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec.

As of May 2012, it was estimated that between 32 and 82 million hectares (between approximately 80 and 200 million acres) of global farmland had been brought under foreign control, with the amount constantly increasing.Table A6: Top foreign investors in primary production land in regional NSW

Top Ten Land Grab Targets and Investor Countries

Target Countries
(millions of hectares)

Investor Countries
(millions of hectares)

South Sudan

4.1

United States

8.0

Papua New Guinea

3.9

Malaysia

3.5

Indonesia

3.5

Arab Emirates

2.8

DRC

2.7

UK

2.1

Mozambique

2.2

Singapore

1.9

Sudan

2.0

China

1.6

Liberia

1.4

Saudi Arabia

1.5

Argentina

1.3

South Sudan

1.4

Sierra Leone

1.2

China, Hong Kong

1.3

Madagascar

1.1

India

1.3

It is estimated that the amount of global farmland that has been acquired by foreign entities equals about 198 million acres.

In July 2013 the Colombian ambassador to the United States resigned over his participation in a legally questionable effort to help the U.S. corporation Cargill use shell companies to amass 130,000 acres of land.

Sovereign funds loaded with new capital will continue to pour into real estate and are actively seeking out foreign farmland to purchase.

In this age of global uncertainty in the area of food-producing and wealth preservation, productive farmland around the world has been placed into the spotlight by “guru investors,” wealth management funds, growing mega agri-industries, wealthy sovereign wealth funds.

The Saudi Kingdom is behind a seven-year project of acquiring 1.7 million irrigated rice acres in Senegal and Mali, enough to produce 7 million tonnes of rice. Proposals would allow Saudi business groups to take control of 70% of the rice-growing area of Senegal.

Saudi Arabia has farming interests in Egypt, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Syria, Turkey and the Ukraine.

South Koreans want to produce rice, corn, sugar, fish, and livestock in the Philippines.

Japan is believed to hold three times the amount of its own farmable land outside of its borders.

Argentina and Brazil have acquired land in Uruguay.

South Korea and Russia agreed to create a $500 million joint fund with their sovereign wealth funds, aimed at increasing cross-border investments in various companies and projects.

Egypt leases land in Uganda to produce rice, wheat and beef.

Nigeria is appealing to the Gulf nations to utilize its land. It has 175 million acres and is only farming half of that. It desires investment in that land, it desires employment opportunities, and it claims that it could provide 100% of the Gulf’s food needs.

Chinese investment in Kazakhstan reached $5 billion by the end of last year, slightly less than 4 percent of the country’s total foreign direct investment. They are buying land in Brazil for soybean cultivation, as part of a $3.4 billion plan to build oilseed and rice production bases overseas including bases for rapeseed in Canada and Australia, palm oil in Malaysia and rice in Cambodia. China is by far the largest investor, buying or leasing twice as much as anyone else.

In January 2012, China Investment Corporation has bought 8.68% stakes in Thames Water, the largest water utility in England, which serves parts of the Greater London area, Thames Valley, and Surrey, among other areas.

Foreign firms have invested in dairies, meat processing, crops and others areas in Serbia and other non-European Union members of the Balkans.

67% of Mideast SWFs plan to allocate more funds to Latin America, while half will do the same to Africa and 60% to India.

In November 2012, One of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), also purchased 9.9% stake in Thames Water.

Food insecure nations such as the Gulf States, China, Japan, South Korea and Western Europe are all interested in increasing their farmland holdings.

Countries need to take control of their agriculture away from international and market forces and support the development of national food sovereignty based on family size farms.

And if all of that is not enough sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East expect to receive more funding this year, providing them with extra financial firepower to raise their investments into emerging markets and asset classes such as private equity and real estate. Slightly Ironically, with instability in the region, the oil prices go up and that gives the governments sometimes a little bit more room to maneuver,” 54% of Middle East SWFs expect an increase in new funding in 2014, higher than the 46% average for all funds.

As much as US$70 billion is up for grabs for global hedge funds looking to raise money in Asia over the next few years.

So the next time you walk into any Sainsbury’s across the UK, remember that Qatar is a major investor.

It owns 20 per cent of the London Stock Exchange and, at the other end of the scale, it owns  20 per cent of Camden market, the biggest grunge emporium in the country. Qatari LNG accounted for 85 per cent of Britain’s liquefied natural gas imports, providing power to homes across the land.

QATAR’S STAKE IN BRITAIN

The tiny Gulf state has snapped up a range of famous British assets, which include:

1. Harrods, the upmarket department store former owned by Mohamed al-Fayed.

2. The Shard, soon-to-be Europe’s tallest building.

3. No 1 Hyde Park, the world’s most expensive block of flats.

4. The London Stock Exchange, which they own a 20 per cent stake.

5. Camden Market, which they own a 20 per cent stake.

6. The Olympic Village, once the games are over.

7. Sainsbury’s and Barclays banks – major investors.

8. Liquefield Natural Gas, Britain’s biggest supplier.

It’s no wonder Scotland wants Independence before the Dragon comes.

ALT

The greater their investment, the greater our dependency. The greater the dependency, the greater the risks.

 

 

← Back

Thank you for your response. ✨

GOD HELP THE ARCTIC.

27 Wednesday Aug 2014

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on GOD HELP THE ARCTIC.

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

 

You would be ever so wrong to think that with all the present problems we have in the world that there could not be another in the melting pot.

The worlds present problems seem all but unsolvable until we learn to share wealth and remove inequalities that plague the earth. ( see previous posts)

For more than 800,000 years, ice reigns over the Arctic Ocean. Forming a layer of reflective protection, sea ice is one of the main earths regulators of our climate and our livelihoods.

Now the melting ice of the Arctic which has the potential to transform global climate and ecosystems as well as global shipping, energy markets, and other commercial interests is at this very moment shaping up to be the next hot spot for conflict.

Arctic permafrost is also melting, changing tundra to wetlands and shrub lands. All of these changes have profound effects on wildlife, and the human communities.

The benefits and pitfalls of the Arctic will have a global impact.

High Arctic sea belongs to no one and should remain the common property of mankind.

Fat chance of this happening.

With oil and gas companies consistently pressure politicians to open the Arctic Refuge to drilling. She is in the cross-hairs of the industrialists who covet her basement rich in oil, one of the dirtiest fuels.

Retreating sea ice is not only restructuring Arctic ecosystems, it is also permitting new industrial access for commercial fishing, offshore energy and commercial shipping on a scale never seen before.

Five countries are already seeking to annex territory that until now were under the authority of any state.

If tomorrow they come to an end, there would be only 9% of open water across the Arctic!

In addition, riparian countries are mobilizing their military capabilities on site, which could threaten peace in the region.

In preserving the Arctic, it is ourselves that we preserve.

In September 2012, the Arctic Ocean ice pack shrank to its lowest extent on record—49 percent below the average over the past 35 years.

The problems to come can only be addressed through a deep horizontal and vertical effort, in order to preserve the sustainability of the Arctic.

We should all be seeking an Arctic region that is stable and free of conflict.

Where all nations act responsibly in a spirit of trust and cooperation, and where economic and energy resources which are going to be developed are done so in a sustainable manner that also respects the fragile environment and the interests and cultures of indigenous people.

It’s rather remorse that Bill Gates is investing millions in the doomsday seed vault in Svalbard. A barren piece of rock claimed by Norway and ceded in 1925 by international treaty which is 1,100 kilometers from the North Pole in the Barents Sea near the Arctic Ocean.

Since early in 2007 Monsanto holds world patent rights together with the United States Government for plant so-called ‘Terminator’ or Genetic Use Restriction Technology (GURT).

Terminator is an ominous technology by which a patented commercial seed commits ‘suicide’ after one harvest. Control by private seed companies is total.

Such control and power over the food chain has never existed before in the history of mankind existed. 

I diverse, back to the subject.

The EU’s primary interest in the region is economic, as 90% of its trade  happens via maritime routes.

Green Peace is currently looking for 6 million signatures to lobby the United Nations to pass a resolution to Declare Arctic international waters “preserved natural area. ( See Their Web Site)

As they say ” the common and immutable commitment to preserving the planet we leave to our children. This desire transcends all boundaries and makes us stronger than all the armies or petrodollars.” “We will send a clear message to world peace and respect for the planet depend on the preservation of the Arctic.”

“We will resound loudly our appeal to political leaders around the world and when we are millions to stand together, we will ask the UN to adopt a global treaty to protect the Arctic Nations”

“We want to create a” natural preservation zone “around the North Pole, and banning destructive industries in the Arctic.

THE PETITION now has more than 5 million signatures! 

BEFORE IT TOO LATE SIGN UP . I SUPPORT IT. 

FOR IT TO WORK IT MUST BE ADOPTED ALONGSIDE A WORLD AID COMMISSION OF 0.05%. ON ALL FOREIGN EXCHANGE TRANSACTIONS OVER $20,000, ON ALL HIGH FREQUENCY  STOCK EXCHANGE TRANSACTIONS AND ON ALL SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUNDS ACQUISITIONS. ( see previous posts)  

NO FUNDS NO FREE ARCTIC.

THE DEATH OF THE SEA.

25 Monday Aug 2014

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

, ,

 

This post is for my brother a fisherman.

The other day I was standing at a fish counter in the market, and I thought to myself I am not looking at a display of the ocean’s bounty, it’s a Museum – by the end of this century many of these animals may be history, due to man’s reckless abuse of the planet.

I counted ten types of bivalves – creatures like clams, oysters and mussels that use calcium carbonate to make their endlessly varied shells that will be in twenty years in some parts of the world, entirely gone.

Luckily prawns, shrimp, and crabs make their shell out of polymer called chitin, so the rapidly acidifying waters of our oceans won’t dissolve them as it does the bivalves. however the fastest change in the ocean chemistry in 300 million years will change them.

As my brother will tell you the Spaniards eat more fish than anyone else in Europe, monk-fish, hake,sardines,tuna, all of which are on the at-risk list, because of over-fishing or change in the food that supply them, or is it more likely that they will be replaced by the bigger threat of the changing ocean bio-geochemistry.

We now have dead zones that have being multiplying. The emptiest places on the planet. These places have little or no life other than bacteria.

They are caused by one of the worlds must pressing problems climate change.

Our oceans are gobbling up carbon dioxide that is reducing the Ph in their waters. In pre-industrial times the pH was in the region of 8.2 and it is now estimated by the year 2100 it will be as low as 7.7 the lowest in 55 million years.

You might think so what I won’t be around. You would be wrong.

This acidification of the Oceans is already effecting Coral reef which are vital to 25% of all marine life not to mention the 4,000 species of fish that start out from such reefs.

This February 10 million scallops were wiped out of the coast of British Columbia.

All forms of Plankton the base food for every animal living in the sea is already on the way out. Their death produces toxins that kill fish, creating dead zones with over 400 recorded around the world to date. For example the Mississippi Delta, and large sections of the Baltic Sea ( A third of the sea life is dead in the Baltic) is now like the Black Sea a hypoxic area.

If we don’t stop the pollution of our Oceans and Seas there will be only Jelly Fish that enjoy acidification on the tables of Fish Markets of the not so distant future.

Lets hope the Spaniards don’t like them.

. What elements need to be considered in setting conservation objectives?

17 Thursday Jul 2014

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on . What elements need to be considered in setting conservation objectives?

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

 

 

It is vital to all of us that we fully understand the complex relationship between the atmosphere and the earth.

The water you drink, the food you eat, the land you live on, and the air you pollute were all obtained at the expense of other creatures.

So what is your understanding of the term Conservation?

These days the consumer conservation ethic is sometimes expressed by the four R’s: ” Reduce, Recycle, Reuse, Rethink.”

This social ethic primarily relates to local purchasing, moral purchasing, the sustained and efficient use of renewable resources, the moderation of destructive use of finite resources, and the prevention of harm to common resources such as air and water quality, the natural functions of a living earth, and cultural values in a built environment.

This is admiral Social Ethic, however it is my contention that most people these days have not got a bulls notion what is meant by Conservation.

They think it has something to do with recycling.

Ultimately, people want to help the planet survive naturally and with no negative impact from the human race.

Helping keep the planet safe and healthy is called “conservation.”

The historic environment is constantly changing, but each significant part of it represents a finite resource.

The question is, – is the historic environment a social and economic asset and a cultural resource for learning and enjoyment?

If it is not sustained, not only are its heritage values eroded or lost, but so is its potential to give distinctiveness, meaning and quality to the places in which people live, and provide people with a sense of continuity and a source of identity.

We need a clear, over-arching philosophical framework of what conservation means for the 21st century. 

Does it mean giving up all the things that make life comfortable and being taxed for that pleasure.. No.

Environmental conservation is the broad term for anything that furthers the goal of making life more sustainable for the planet. It is the sustainable use and management of natural resources including wildlife, water, air, and earth deposits.

Conservation agreements are voluntary agreements and this is why (in my view  even with all the good work they do) they are banging their heads up against a brick wall.

Two months ago or so I posted two blogs under the headings : The Scrabble has begun. Is sustainability still possible and If we want it we must pay for it.

The current form of globalization has been criticized for ignoring sustainable development and environmental concerns.

For many years, critics, NGOs, activists and affected people s have been accusing large corporations for being major sources of environmental problems.

In some respects, many corporations are also victims of the ideologies that are prevalent in current mainstream economics that treat the environment in certain regards. Some corporations might wish to be more environmentally friendly but are unable to do so due to fears that their competitors will get away with it (sort of seen in the fiasco of the politics behind global warming issues). Corporations are major entities in the world and thus have an enormous impact (negative and positive) on all our lives.

Concerns of overly corporate-led globalization contributing to environmental problems are increasing, as reported and documented by countless environmental and social justice groups around the world.

The earth is getting warmer. the changes are small, so far, but they are expected to grow and speed up.

Then we have Preservation, in contrast to conservation, attempts to maintain in their present condition areas of the Earth that are so far untouched by humans. The distinction between the terms “preservation” and “conservation” is somewhat unclear, as the use of these terms (along with “restoration”) has varied over time, depending in part on the context of their use.

The two views (conservation and preservation) have been at the center of many historical environmental debates.

  • Preservation—The protection of cultural property through activities that minimize chemical and physical deterioration and damage and that prevent loss of informational content. The primary goal of preservation is to prolong the existence of cultural property.
  • Conservation—The profession devoted to the preservation of cultural property for the future. Conservation activities include examination, documentation, treatment, and preventive care, supported by research and education.
  • Restoration—Treatment procedures intended to return cultural property to a known or assumed state, often through the addition of non-original material.

If you have a look at how many Conservation Organisation are in the world to-day you would wonder what is left to Conserve.

Everything from Polar Bears to you name it has a conservation Organisation.

Now I am not saying that they are all not needed but are they taking the decisions how we are going to share the world resources and determine which species will inhabit Earth for the indefinite future.

No they are not.

It is money and profit that is determining those values for present and future generations. Not Any Conservationist.

Global Warming-  Human kind has entered a brand new relationship with the earth. They the conservationist cannot get out-of-the-way of human “progress” and will be beaten to extinction unless we actively protect them with funds.

This is why we should place a World Aid Commission of 0.05% on all Foreign Exchange Transactions over $20,000, on all High Frequency Trading and on all Sovereign Wealth Funds Acquisitions. (See previous postings) 

Along with the integration of social and environmental factors into business decisions might also help.

Greed has no boundaries, no limitations, no moral obligations, no self – esteem, no conscious, it is concave.

Around 300,000 tonnes of chemical warfare agents were dumped in oceans from 1946 to 1965.

Upwards of 400,000 gas filled-bombs and rockets float in U.S. waters. 40,000 tonnes of Conventional Weapons (CW) are in the Baltic Sea.

21,000 tonnes of CW agents float in Australian waters, and more than 6,600 tonnes off the coast of Japan.

Its time to get real. If we want it we must all pay for it.

If you have any opinions on the subject I would like to hear them. 

← Back

Thank you for your response. ✨

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ON WE MARCH LEAVING FUTURE GENERATIONS THE PROBLEMS OF INEQUILITY

30 Monday Jun 2014

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on ON WE MARCH LEAVING FUTURE GENERATIONS THE PROBLEMS OF INEQUILITY

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

 

This is a vast subject on which millions of knowledgeable words have been written down the centuries with little or no effect.

I am sure you will agree however no matter who was writing it is the people who are in pursuit of social change, and constantly bring attention to issues of equal rights and privileges, are often the people who do not have them. The ones who suffer daily from different levels of multidimensional inequality are the ones that see it is impossible to be politically equal.

The source of present day conflicts. 

The majorities at the bottom of the apex, with very limited power, are unable to make choices that would bring them to their ends. 

It is easy for us to say what should be done, but few of us can carry out what needs to be done.

ALL THOSE WORDS AND VOILA! WHERE ARE WE TO DAY?

With a Capitalist market which is earthly constructed that can only dole out earthly rewards.

If we continue to have so many social and economic inequalities our standard of living seems to be declining because we aren’t economically equal.

Some say in order to remove inequalities we must increase the minimum wage to a living wage. This will indeed save the middle classes and in doing so could reduce the need for food banks, social welfare benefits, and the like. In my view it would be a mistake to focus on growth and let inequality take care of itself, not only because inequality may be ethically undesirable but also because the resulting growth may be low and unsustainable.

Equality will not stop inequality of opportunity, education, health nor will it take people out of poverty. It will only move the reasons for inequality to a higher plane.

The drive to higher and more sustainable growth does not in itself support efforts to the redistribute of wealth.

There is an argument that a re-distributive system will slow innovation on quality of life improvements. Further, re distributive policies rely on the wisdom of the ‘redistributor.’ Freedom to choose those resources has been moved to the bureaucrat and politician and will ultimately lead us down the path of financial protectionism.

Now you might not agreed with the content of the above Paragraph but it is already in progress with more and more countries turning to Sovereign Wealth Funds’ (SWF) to protects their futures.  ( See Previous blogs)

These Funds have no outside beneficiaries or liabilities (beyond the government or the citizenry in abstract) they invest their assets, either in the short or long-term, according to the interests and objectives of the sovereign sponsor.

More and more Governments around the world see SWFs as an insurance policy for a potential future problem.

Political equality the most value of democratic theory. The idea that all have the capacity to make political and moral decisions and that we are equally qualified to rule is a long way off, if ever has long gone out the window.

What are the chances now that we have the start of Climate change that we can act as one. Fat chance of that coming about as the Climate is a salable product- CO2 carbon credits ( not worth the paper they are written on)

There is much work to be done Globally in a tight time frame if we don’t want mass immigration.

Development is about people: either poor people have ways to become richer where they are now, or they can become rich by moving somewhere else.

Rest assured that with CLIMATE CHANGE THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN.

With this in mind, it seems that most of these theories about re distribution of wealth come from fairly elite class perspectives and, in turn, tend to be more pessimistic about bringing change to the inequalities they are evaluating.

When in fact what will happen is that these SWFs will reach out to each other taking advantage of the forthcoming crisis forming partners or in “clubs.”capital.

These funds that Sovereignty Wealth Funds bring to the table are committed to improving their investment capabilities not reducing income inequality. They have taken advantage of the financial crisis by acquiring valuable human resources which has nothing to do with improving the quality of living for the masses.

If not Capped they will along with Climate Change they will rewrite the map of global.

There is only one solution. Make Greed Contribute. ( See previous Blogs)

 

 

We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive.”

23 Monday Jun 2014

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

 

Stupidity has been around since the dinosaurs.

As Albert Einstein said  “Surely there is no-show that can possibly equate to the amount of mental diarrhea that is presented in every single microsecond.”

YOU MIGHT WELL ASK   “Why does applied science, which saves work and makes life easier, bring us so little happiness? The simple answer runs: Because we have not yet learned to make sensible use of it.”

Here is an Idea that might make a difference.

These days we carry cool devices that let us carry the world in our pockets, so why not use them to spread wealth, health, food aid and the like.

Its time we set a price on nature.

The people of the world can be asked whether and how much they prize the two values of nature – use value and non-use value.

This can be done WITH AN UNITED NATIONS APP that rewards the user by issuing a United Nations Food voucher to the deprived.

We would soon know what is valued and what is not.

Nature provides ecosystem services, and we trash it at our peril.

Our activities have put and are putting priceless resources – fresh water, clean air, oceans, and our climate at risk.

Man tries to make for himself in the fashion that suits him best a simplified and intelligible picture of the world; he then tries to some extent to substitute this cosmos of his for the world of experience, and thus to overcome it.

This is what the painter, the poet, the speculative philosopher, and the natural scientists do, each in his own fashion. Each makes this cosmos and its construction the pivot of his emotional life, in order to find in this way peace and security which he can not find in the narrow whirlpool of personal experience.  Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.

We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive.

A critical landmark in the sage of global climate change is occurring right in front of our eyes. If you are a non believer try Googling the Carteret Islanders of Papua New Guinea. They have become the world’s first entire community to be displaced by climate change.

Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world so why not use it.

Not one statesman in a position of responsibility has dared to pursue the only course that holds out any promise of peace, the course of sharing wealth since for a statesman to follow such a course would be tantamount to political suicide. This is why we must cap greed. ( See previous blogs)

Only a life lived for others is a life worth while .

A human being is part of the whole, called by us ‘Universe,’ a part limited
in time and space.

← Back

Thank you for your response. ✨

 

 

The image which man has of himself and his environment.

15 Sunday Jun 2014

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on The image which man has of himself and his environment.

Tags

, , , , , , ,

The earth is the foundation of all life, so taking care of the earth and its resources should be a responsibility shared by all .

We are now in the middle of a long process of transition in the nature of the image which man has of himself and his environment.

Primitive men, and to a large extent also men of the early civilizations, imagined themselves to be living on a virtually illimitable plane. There was almost always somewhere beyond the known limits of human habitation, and over a very large part of the time that man has been on earth, there has been something like a frontier. That is, there was always some place else to go when things got too difficult, either by reason of the deterioration of the natural environment or a deterioration of the social structure in places where people happened to live.

The image of the frontier is probably one of the oldest images of mankind, and it is not surprising that we find it hard to get rid of.

All resources are interconnected, so a deficiency in one area puts pressure on all others.

People are putting increasing demands on the earth’s resources in many ways – the need for more food puts pressure on the land and fishing resources, power, fuel and building resources are over-used, our technology demands all sorts of new raw materials, even space for living can be in short supply.

With 7 billion people on the planet – theoretically from today – there will be an inevitable increase in the demand on the world’s natural resources.

Here are six already under severe pressure from current rates of consumption:

The six natural resources most drained by our 7 billion people

1. Water

Freshwater only makes 2.5% of the total volume of the world’s water, which is about 35 million km3. But considering 70% of that freshwater is in the form of ice and permanent snow cover and that we only have access to 200,000km3 of freshwater overall, it isn’t surprising that demand for water could soon exceed supply. The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations is predicting that by 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity.

2. Oil

The fear of reaching peak oil continues to haunt the oil industry. The BP Statistical Review of World Energy in June measured total global oil at 188.8 million tonnes, from proved oil resources at the end of 2010. This is only enough to oil for the next 46.2 years, should global production remain at the current rate.

3. Natural gas

A similar picture to oil exists for natural gas, with enough gas in proven reserves to meet 58.6 years of global production at the end of 2010.

4. Phosphorus

Without this element, plants cannot grow. Essential for fertilizer, phosphate rock is only found in a handful of countries, including the US, China and Morocco. With the need to feed 7 billion people, scientists from the Global Phosphorus Research Initiative predict we could run out of phosphorus in 50 to 100 years unless new reserves of the element are found.

5. Coal

This has the largest reserves left of all the fossil fuels, but as China and other developing countries continue to increase their appetite for coal, demand could finally outstrip supply. As it is, we have enough coal to meet 188 years of global production.

6. Rare earth elements

Scandium and terbium are just two of the 17 rare earth minerals that are used in everything from the powerful magnets in wind turbines to the electronic circuits in smartphones. The elements are not as rare as their name suggests but currently 97% of the world’s supply comes from China and they can restrict supplies at will. Exact reserves are not known.

MAN IS DESTINED TO FIND AND CONSUME MORE ENERGY, AND STILL MORE FOREVER.

Our ever-rising ability to do more things faster, and impose more order of our own choosing anywhere we like is bad for the rest of the planet.

It will not have escaped your notice that doomsday-est are never listens to.

At the risk of being called a doomsday spoil sport there is only one solution and that is to tap into mans greed. ( See previous posts)