Tag Archives: Earth

We’re all gonna die!! Life on Earth has only 1.75 billion years left

08 Sunday Feb 2015

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Sorry for the over the top headline but Scientists have done the maths and according to their calculations, life on Earth has 1.75 to 3.25 billion years left to thrive.

Even short geologic time scales outrun our ability to project human history.

One common, frequently unconscious misconception is that history is linear, progressing toward an inevitable end point.

Our inability to see ourselves as part of a continuum of processes that will continue into the future is also directly linked to our shortsightedness in managing our environment. Human impacts already equal or surpass many natural processes. For example, human earth-moving processes exceed natural erosion in the volume of material moved (Hooke, 2000; Wilkinson, 2005).

Let’s peer into the future.  The reasons for disaster are not hard to conjecture.

Technology might become so advanced that humans will no longer need to modify the natural environment extensively, but any attempt to predict technology far in advance is bound to be almost pure speculation.

Space Weather (which includes any and all conditions and events on the sun, in the solar wind, in near-Earth space and in our upper atmosphere)  can affect space-borne and ground-based technological systems and through these, human life and endeavor.  Not to mention Yellowstone National Park that could decide to erupt.

Even if humans avoid causing a mass extinction, many species will have become naturally extinct and new ones will have evolved.

The truth is we don’t have a particularly detailed idea of what is going on inside out own planet never mind on the surface.

When the Earth’s molten core eventually cools and hardens to the point that there is little or no slip-sliding of different substances, it more than likely its magnetic field will die out as well. The Earth is thought to have begun this cooling sometime in the last billion years.

That’s good, since one way or the other we certainly have a lot of time left; while a magnetic flip is largely meaningless, magnetic death certainly would not be.

In all likelihood, the Sun will swallow the Earth long before then, as it convulses and expands as a part of its natural death throes and that’s if a giant asteroid or a nuclear war doesn’t finish us off first.

However the 92.9 million miles between us and our host star will not be enough to keep us comfortable.

For those of you that need to use Google the Sun is a magnetic variable star at the center of our solar system that drives the space environment of the planets, including the Earth. The distance of the Sun from the Earth is approximately 93 million miles. At this distance, light travels from the Sun to Earth in about 8 minutes and 19 seconds. The Sun has a diameter of about 865,000 miles, about 109 times that of Earth. Its mass, about 330,000 times that of Earth, accounts for about 99.86% of the total mass of the Solar System. About three-quarters of the Sun’s mass consists of hydrogen, while the rest is mostly helium. Less than 2% consists of heavier elements, including oxygen, carbon, neon, iron, and others. The Sun is neither a solid nor a gas but is actually plasma. This plasma is tenuous and gaseous near the surface, but gets denser down towards the Sun’s fusion core.

Where was I?  The earth will become inhospitable to humans long before the planet enters the hot zone ( Stars like our Sun shine for nine to ten billion years. The Sun is about 4.5 billion years old, judging by the age of moon rocks. Based on this information, current astrophysical theory predicts that the Sun will become a red giant in about five billion (5,000,000,000) years.  So there is not much to worry about.

However I am pushing on in years and I often wonder how my generation will survive the impending climate crisis never mind the future of our planet. There is a tragic alienation between us and nature.

There’s not much money in the end of civilization, and even less to be made in human extinction.” The destruction of the planet, on the other hand, is a good bet, because there is money in this, and as long as that’s the case, it is going to continue. The amount we consume each year already far outstrips what our planet can sustain, and the World Wildlife Fund estimates that by 2030 we will be consuming two planets’ worth of natural resources annually.

Over the course of this century, the relationship between the human world and the planet that sustains it has undergone a profound change. When the century began, neither human numbers nor technology had the power radically to alter planetary system.

We know that in two billion years or so, an expanding sun will boil away our oceans, leaving our home in the universe uninhabitable—unless, that is, we haven’t already been wiped out by the Andromeda galaxy, which is on a multi billion-year collision course with our Milky Way. Moreover, at least a third of the thousand mile-wide asteroids that hurtle across our orbital path will eventually crash into us, at a rate of about one every 300,000 years.

Perhaps Google is a good idea after all to prepare a copy of our civilization and move it into outer space and out of harm’s way—a backup of our cultural achievements and traditions.

There is hope on the horizon during my Nuclear Warheads reading ( See The Series of Posts) I learned that a regional nuclear war between India and Pakistan could decrease global surface temperature by 1°C–2°C for 5–10 years and have major impacts on precipitation and solar radiation reaching Earth’s surface. No much help. We will hit the average of 400 ppm…within the next couple of years.  Arctic permafrost soils have accumulated vast stores of organic carbon—an estimated 1,400 to 1,850 pentagrams of it (a pentagram is 2.2 trillion pounds, or 1 billion metric tons). That’s about half of all the estimated organic carbon stored in Earth’s soils.

In the short-term, we need to make it in the economic interests of people to do the right thing. The chances of that happening in a Capitalist world I will leave up to yourself to decide. 

Here is what is happening.

The signs of a worsening climate crisis are all around us, whether we allow ourselves to see them or not.

Unintended changes are occurring in the atmosphere, in soils, in waters, among plants and animals, and in the relationships among all of these.

Life-threatening challenges of desertification, deforestation, and pollution, of toxic chemicals, toxic wastes, and acidification of carbon dioxide and of gases that react with the ozone layer, and from any future war fought with the nuclear arsenals including increasingly powerful floods, droughts, wildfires, heat waves, and storms are underway.  Evacuations from low-lying South Pacific islands have already begun.

The onslaught of droughts, earthquakes, epic rains and floods over the past decade is triple the number from the 1980s and nearly 54 times that of 1901, when this data was first collected.

Yet we are aware that such a re-orientation on a continuing basis is simply beyond the reach of present decision-making structures and institutional arrangements, both national and international and endure most of the poverty associated with environmental degradation.

The rate of change is outstripping the ability of scientific disciplines and our current capabilities to access and advise. It is frustrating the attempts of political and economic institutions, which evolved in a different, more fragmented world, to adapt and cope.

This planet has not experienced an ice-free Arctic for at least the last three million years. Guy McPherson, professor emeritus of evolutionary biology, natural resources, and ecology at the University of Arizona ” the implications are truly dire and profound for our species and the rest of the living planet.”

We are currently in the midst of what scientists consider the sixth mass extinction in planetary history, with between 150 and 200 species going extinct daily, a pace 1,000 times greater than the “natural” or “background” extinction rate.

The ability of the human psyche to take in and grasp such information is being tested. And while that is happening, yet more data continues to pour in—and the news is not good.

Thanks to climate change oceans have already lost 40 percent of their phyto plankton, the base of the global oceanic food chain, because of climate-change-induced acidification and atmospheric temperature variations.

So you might well ask if some version of extinction or near-extinction will overcome humanity.

It deeply worries many people who are seeking ways to place those concerns on the political agendas. 

Climate-change-related deaths are already estimated at five million annually,

We’ve still got plenty of time left to enjoy planet Earth but we need to know how to respond, to changes that are already happening—and to those coming in the near future. It’ll happen very fast. 

It appears that there is not much hope for the future, nor for a governmental willingness to make anything close to the radical changes that would be necessary to quickly ease the flow of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere; nor can we expect the mainstream media to put much effort into reporting on all of this because we are all more interested in leaving a legacy of material wealth that will be totally worthless.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-08-scientists-earth-deep-future-effects.html#jCp

Climate change and other human influences are altering Earth’s living systems in big ways, such as changes in and the spread of ,”

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-08-scientists-earth-deep-future-effects.html#jCp

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Knock, Knock, Who there? 2015

24 Wednesday Dec 2014

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Happy New Year to one and all.

As a species, we are social beings who live out our lives in the company of other humans. We organize ourselves into various kinds of social groupings, such as nomadic bands, villages, cities, and countries, in which we work, trade, play, reproduce, and interact in many other ways. Unlike other species, we combine socialization with deliberate changes in social behavior and organization over time.

Consequently, the patterns of human society differ from place to place and era to era and across cultures, making the social world a very complex and dynamic environment.

The ways in which people develop are shaped by social experience and circumstances within the context of their inherited genetic potential.

We are increasingly dependent on one another through international economic systems and shared environmental problems. The growing interdependence of world social, economic, and ecological systems makes it difficult to predict the consequences of social decisions. Changes anywhere in the world can have amplified effects elsewhere, with increased benefits to some people and increased costs to others.

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All year I have advocated that Greed is the curse of Capitalism. It is at the root cause of Inequality.

One hundred and six billion of us have being born since the dawn of the human species. Making the current population 6% of all the people who ever lived on the planet. ( 7,283,314749)  With 2.8 Billion of us living on less than two dollar a day, with over a billion not having access to healthy water, with 876 million of adults illiterate, with ½ a million murders a year, with 30,000 children under 5 die every day from avoidable diseases it’s no wonder we have terrorists.

Currently we have 20% of the global population with 90% of the wealth.

Christmas is over and all the words of peace to mankind have been sung once more, but the canvas of the World remains weeping. It is time to return dignity to the world. Which can only be achieved by capping greed to create a perpetual fund. ( see previous postings)

Here is the current painting.

A round revolving ball in the vastness of space teaming with life, with 1.35 billion of us spending 20 minutes each day of Facebook each month. The new slavery of our age leading us to the globalization of indifference, born out of ego selfishness, removing our sense of compassion and dignity.

A world on which we have 26 countries in a state of conflict , with 170 Militias, Guerrillas, Separatist, Anarchic, are all represented by a world of 31% Christians, 23% Muslims, 15% Hindus, 7% Buddhists, 6% Folk religionists, 1% Others and 0,02% Jews.

A Disposable world full of Ego Centrism in which man was probably happiest when he was swinging from tree to tree.

A world with 20/30 million in modern-day slavery ( A slave in 1850 in America cost the equivalent of $40,000 in to days money, to-day an average of $90.)

A world that has this much fresh water.  

Fresh groundwater and surface-water make up the bubble over Kentucky, which is about 252 miles in diameter. The sphere over Georgia reresents fresh-water lakes and rivers (about 34.9 miles in diameter).

This much gold. 171.300 tons.

Gold piled up on Wimbledon's centre court

Just enough oil to last the world 53.3 years at the current production rates.

Just enough gas in proven reserves to meet 58.6 years of global production at the end of 2010.

That will run out of phosphorus in 50 to 100 years unless new reserves of the element are found.

That has enough coal to meet 188 years of global production.

A world that when you take a deep breath the chances are, the air filling your lungs is far from pure. Even if you live in a clean, ecologically conscious area, you may be inhaling pollutants from faraway, less-pristine locales. Your hometown air may contain microscopic particles of mercury-coated coal dust from China, diesel from Europe, ozone from Los Angeles, or carbon monoxide from India—or possibly a cocktail of all of the above.

Where 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.

Where we are told by the Artists not to don’t worry,( the Artists being our World Leaders places in power by us the people with black x’s in square boxes) because the Economy and World Trade, is turning people into merchandise for trade while depriving its victims of all dignity.

Where there is 75 trillion dollars in circulation. A billion Cars. With roughly 10/11 million standing soldiers between 10 countries.  While 86%-91% of the 8.7 million(± 1.3 million) species that we share the world with still await description before we are all swimming.
Photo: Woman wading through flooded Venice plaza

Where Scientific research indicates sea levels worldwide have been rising at a rate of 0.14 inches (3.5 millimeters) per year since the early 1990s.  The trend, linked to global warming, puts thousands of coastal cities, like Venice, Italy, (seen here during a historic flood in 2008), and even whole islands at risk of being claimed by the ocean.

A world where we now need more than ever to apply different brush strokes if the painting for 2015 is to have any chance of been appreciated in the future.

Day after day I follow news reports of the enormous suffering endured by many people in the Middle East. It is not enough to contain wars, or international terrorism, which displays deep disdain for human life and indiscriminately reaps innocent victims we must stop the bankrolling of these conflicts by the unchecked traffic in weapons.

There seem little point to continue to catalog the illnesses that are plaguing the world. You could continue to list all the shortcomings till the end of the earth.

Communications is about informing people – not collecting “hits.” In order to progress towards the future we need the past. However in doing so we need to move away from the present World model that is more prone to make demands than to serve humanity. 

We all know that the human family, must be grounded on respect, cooperation, solidarity and compassion. That it must be built on justice, socio-economic development, freedom, respect for fundamental human rights, and the participation of all in public affairs and the building of trust between people’s.

None of our present political systems are coming up to the mark ( Democracy, Republic , Monarchy, Communism , Dictatorship) because of Greed.

If we are to break out of the structures that hold us back from a recognition, we must share and share a like. Update our out of date World Organisations that are unable to function due to lack of funds, United Nations, the World Bank, the IMF, the World Health Organisation,that are run by our of date Government Systems (see post: Is Democracies outdated and Disfunctional)

If we are to reduce the Inequalities of the future a Global ethic is needed.

We all deserve a peaceful world order based on unity of purpose. Their dignity is your dignity.

As Pope said. ” It (the earth) is the greatest resource which God has given us and is at our disposal not to be disfigured, exploited, and degraded, but so that, in the enjoyment of its boundless beauty, we can live in this world with dignity.”

We need profound roots, sustainability, not a disposable society, which can only be achieved if we use the power of social media to effect change (see previous posts)

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So there you have it a master piece deserving of to be hung in the Louvre, beside the Mona Lisa.

If your have by any chance read this post, I am not interested in receiving your like tick. I am Interested in any suggestions as to how we might go about setting up a grass roots Organisation to apply pressurize where needed by using the power of Social Media ( Not a Petition site.) more a name and shame site.    Happy New Year.

 

 

Capitalism vs The Climate: This Changes Nothing;

19 Friday Sep 2014

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You hear these day cry’s from lots of different quarter for the need of an ideological change if we are to tackle the numerous problems the world currently faces.

In Naomi Klein new book titled – This Changes Everything; Capitalism vs. the Climate. She advocates exactly this.  http://youtu.be/WPQI1Lui42c

While I admire her efforts with every thing these days we are bombarded with so much information that the hard facts disappear in a haze of communication resulting in a quagmire of confusion as to what is true or what is not true.

The bare fact is that if Humanity was faced with a Meteorite that was going to hit the earth and extinguish all known life we would not be able even if it wanted to change our ideology to save ourselves because of GREED.

There can be no Ideology change without equality of opportunity.

To create a world of equal opportunity for all requires unfortunately more than just aspirations.

It requires Money lots of money.

With the unbridled Privatization/ Consumerism of the world natural resources forging ahead unopposed for the sake of profit for profit sake by Sovereign Wealth Funds it’s no wonder that it is impossible to have any Ideology change that will make a difference.

The disillusion that we have some privileged position on earth are challenged every day.

ISIS is already in Europe, Alibaba is on the New York Stock Exchange, Climate change is already effecting world poverty, world economics, migration, and YOU.

” We can’t see the wood from the trees,” as the saying goes.

What we have done in the past gives has given rise to what is happening now.

There is only one solution:  The people of the world must find a way of getting Greed to contribute to the planets survival without greed’s awareness. ( See previous posts)

The planet will have 11bn people by 2100 according to a new study.

Traditional methods for fighting for change have proved fruitless. We must put people before Capitalism and Politics.

In short, there are so many cars in the world today that the fuel burnt on the world’s roads by those many cars emits 1.73 billion metric tons (equivalent to 3.81 trillion pounds) of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year. As of 2012, there are 1.1 billion automobiles on the earth. The 1.1 billion automobiles in 2012 already average a set of new tires about every 2 years, or 2.2 billion tires annually, and those 2.2 billion tires consume over half of the earth’s rubber production, which of course burns even more fuel.

The fight of our time has begun. The Scramble for Sustainability is still possible. Our immune systems need re-education. We need to heed the Language of Money.

If we want it we must pay for it.

There is no point in saving a Tiger, a forest, a river, or anything for that matter,even a child if they or it have no where to a full and sustainable live.

We must make the things we value more valuable than the things we don’t value by paying for them with money.

I agree with Naomi that Capitalism is on the way out but life exists in individual moments and it is up to us to make sure those moments are vital. Sharing wealth is the Mechanism. Cap Greed.

(See previous posts; 01/9/2014,23/08/2014.16/08/2014,14/08/2014, 22/07/2014, 03/07/2014)

Have a look at the below.

The universe can only be observed through a brain.

15 Monday Sep 2014

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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)

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WHY NATO ?

06 Saturday Sep 2014

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Is NATO a nuclear-armed alliance that since the end of the Cold War has been in search of a mission.

This might seem like an innocent question.

However we are now faces a world marked by accelerating change, in which everyone is connected but nobody is in charge.

The end of the Cold War, the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, and the collapse of the Soviet Union led the Allies to establish the North Atlantic Cooperation Council in 1991 and the Partnership for Peace in 1994.

Since then the  Alliance has been unable to formulate a concerted strategy of engagement with other international organizations owing in large part to disagreements among the NATO Allies. Intractable obstacles to cooperation rooted in national policies have generally been surmounted only under the compulsion of events like now.

This situation cannot be expected to change owing to their perceptions of the Alliance as a Cold War military organization composed of wealthy “northern” countries and dominated by the United States. It may be impossible to depoliticize firmly held national differences or to avoid stalemate.

According to the UN Charter, the UN Security Council has, primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. But as we all know it is an organisation now paralyzed by lack of funds, handcuffed by its permanent members, turned into a  gossip shop for its 192 members and god knows how many attracted specialized Agencies.

So knowing that NATO is primarily composed of American muscle, is Putin correctly reading their signals not to do anything of great significance.

The strategy of “kicking Putin in the cronies” is not causing many Russians to reach for the vodka bottle so far.

NATO in its recent meeting agreed in principle to a rapid reaction force and agree to reverse the trend of declining defense budgets and aim to increase defense expenditure in real terms as GDP grows;  ” we will direct our defense budgets as efficiently and effectively as possible; we will aim to move towards the existing NATO guideline of spending 2% of GDP on defense within a decade.”   Wow !

The Crimea crisis reveals the complete failure of NATO, the EU and Russia to find a path toward defense and security cooperation in the post-Cold War era.

IS’s successive victories in northern Iraq and their unchecked brutality continue to draw fighters to their ranks from throughout the Middle East, as well as from Western countries like Britain and the U.S.

There is no longer a clear enemy.

The overstepping of any mandate received by NATO may have a negative effect on the credibility of the responsibility to protect in future gross human rights violations.

There is no doubt that prior to Russia’s annexation of Crimea the Wales Summit would have been little more than a glorified photo-op.

It appears reactive, a kind of military tit-for-tat, that in the long run does nothing to reverse Ukraine’s dismemberment.

NATO remains a self destructing nuclear-armed alliance in which all states must accept the principle of nuclear deterrence and being part of the NATO nuclear command and control system.

In light of this the Alliance poses no threat to any country is blowing hot and cold air,  “should the security of any Ally be threatened we will act together and decisively. ”

What it is doing is helping the creation of the Islamic State on NATO’s strategic doorstep and the steady march of the Islamist anti-state, Iran and its nuclear ambitions will continue. It was not just a question of changing weapons, but also changing bureaucracies.

NATO has to work out how it needs to be restructured for the current world.

Nations today use computer network operations to defend sovereignty
and to project power, and cyber conflicts may soon become the rule rather than
the exception. Cyber security will require an international solution.

With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the rapid rise of strategic China, proliferation of destructive technologies across the world and a range of other potential threats it is clear that such self-deluding dogma of NATO must be challenged.

International relations in cyberspace seem closer to Pandemonium than Paradise. European Union and NATO, as the largest and most cohesive political and military alliances in the world, might be the best places to start.

Perhaps bring back the notation of a new European peace force would fit into NATO’S command structure and not the other way around.

At least the image could reflect Peace rather than seeing world leaders on a golf course craning their necks to watch Fighter jets surrounded by Military vehicles.

The US invests roughly €76,000 per soldier per annum, Europeans on average invest only €18,000.

The Disillusionment that we have some privileged position on Earth are challenged by such Alliances.

If you don’t believe me have a look at the below video.

http://www.upworthy.com/it-might-be-the-most-mind-boggling-photograph-humanity-has-ever-taken?c=gasan1

What Sovereign Wealth Funds Think Now: Its Land.

03 Wednesday Sep 2014

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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.

 

 

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THERE IS GOING TO BE A NEW WORLD ORDER.

31 Sunday Aug 2014

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WHY?

Not because there are numerous nuttier’s or religions organizations that say so.

But because of power, which is a zero-sum game that takes no account of past or future history.

While the world is choking in the dust of Iraq International agreements are being robbed of their meaning by Russia takeover of Crimea while sitting on the Security Council of the United Nations vetoing all resolutions.

Throughout the twentieth century, the list of the world’s great powers was predictably short: the United States, the Soviet Union, Japan, and northwestern Europe.

Decades of unchallenged supremacy for the United States is now coming to an end. America now has no stomach to get involved in world policing.

China holds over a trillion dollars in hard currency reserves, India’s high-tech sector is growing by leaps and bounds, and both countries, already recognized nuclear powers, are developing blue-water navies.

While the European Union discusses new sanctions on Russia France is selling it Navy War ships, England is welcoming Russian oligarchs money which is permeating the upper reaches of society buying up London Property and football clubs, all before Russia turns off the gas to the European Economy.

You don’t have to look far to see other signs of change.

The Oceans of the world are in a critical state of health.

The death of the Aral Sea has become a never-ending nightmare.

The Arctic — a once pristine wilderness is under siege.

Google had 2,161,530,000 searches.

More than 3 trillion has being wiped off global share prices since the start of January.

Climate change is the biggest single threat.

More than two decades after the Cold War ended, the world’s combined inventory of nuclear warheads remains at a very high level: more than 16,000.

More than a billion people don’t have access to safe drinking water. 2.6 billion people, almost half the world’s population doesn’t have access to adequate sanitation services.

More than 130 million children who are under the age of five will still remain malnourished by 2020.

More than 130 million children who are under the age of five will still remain malnourished by 2020.

If current trends continue, by 2050 something on the order of a third or 40% of all species will either have become extinct or will be on the threshold of going extinct.

The Earth has been sending us distress signals and the distress signals have to do with the pressures of human population and the pressures of the human economy on the ecosystems.

Incredibly, the world’s population grew more in the past fifty years than in the preceding 4 million years .Today our numbers have surged to nearly six and half billion and our population is increasing by nearly 80 million people each year – 220,000 each day.

In the face of poverty people will tend to utilize whatever they can to survive.

The State of the World Finances is in disarray.

world debt infographic

In the mean time Sovereignty Wealth Funds blunder the earth for profit.

Disregarding the current conflicts there are I am sure hundreds of additional indicators that a New World Order is needed.

We can only hope that Social media is not turning us all into morons blindly asking Google for answers.

We need a new world order that has at its heart the concept of ‘needs’, in particular the essential needs of the world’s poor, to which overriding priority should be given;

That understands the requirement for there to be a re orientation of technology the key link between humans and nature.

That understands in broadest sense, the strategy for sustainable development.

That aims to promote harmony among human beings and between humanity and nature.

  • a political system that secures effective citizen participation in decision-making. Democracy as it stands is now a rhetorical device.
  • an economic system that is able to generate surpluses and technical knowledge on a self-reliant and sustained basis.
  • a social system that provides for solutions for the tensions arising from disharmonious development.
  • a production system that respects the obligation to preserve the ecological base for development.
  • a technological system that can search continuously for new solutions.
  • an international system that fosters sustainable patterns of trade and finance.
  • an administrative system that is flexible and has the capacity for self-correction.
  • a new United Nations with all participants on equal terms.
  • a Cap on Capitalist Greed.
  • a watertight ban on trading of arms.
  • a transitioning to clean energy.
  • a move away from the Production and consumer society which cannot be sustained by the planet.

GOD HELP THE ARCTIC.

27 Wednesday Aug 2014

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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.

LET ME ASK YOU A QUESTION THAT WE SHOULD ALL BE ASKING ?

14 Thursday Aug 2014

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Where do the problems of modern existence lie?

WHEN YOU LOOK AROUND THE WORLD CAN ANY OF US HONESTLY SAY WE HAVE WON THE BATTLE FOR LIBERTY ?

It seemed to me that these days the enemies of our collective flourishing are more likely to lie in the troubles of unrestrained corporate and individual appetites and the unlimited pressure to generate immediate profit without regard for human and earthly costs.

Another words the fundamental problem facing us all is Inequality of Education, Health, Wealth, combined with unequal control over assets. These include natural resources such as land, water, minerals and other fruits of nature, as well as produced productive and financial assets.

Things have reached such a pass that incremental measures are not likely to be enough: “trans-formative changes” are required, with the ultimate aim of zero discrimination.

So measures to reduce inequality have to be part of a wider economic and social policy framework to control financial activity and direct it towards socially desired goals. ( These include natural resources such as land, water, minerals and other fruits of nature, as well as produced productive and financial assets.)

Even business leaders in Davos recently identified Inequality as one of the biggest threats to the world.

But what have we got?  Sovereignty Wealth Funds buying up the lot.

For hundreds of years now, humans have tended to believe that the best sort of government is one which leaves its citizens maximally ‘free’.

We’ve all come to associate good government directly and complicatedly with the promotion of ‘freedom’: freedom to worship as one pleases, to publish what one wants, to dress as one likes, to love whomever one desires.

In the meantime, those who have opposed ‘freedom’ have been presented in horrifying terms: They have been the wicked priests, the murderous Communists, demented Nazis, and Terrorists.

The painful fact is that the pursuit of what matters to us in the long-term and collectively may at times be in sharp conflict with our short-term and individual pleasures.

Promoting freedom above all other values may now be turning out to be deeply unhelpful to the long-term and collective interests of a nation and the earth as a whole.

It has grown too easy for corrupt and venal organisations to operate under the banner of ‘freedom’ in order to get away with activities that covertly run sharply counter to the public good.

Freedom is evidently not a virtue when it involves the freedom of bankers to offload ruinous financial instruments on an uneducated public, just as censorship – that bogeyman of contemporary politics – is evidently far from a vice when it prevents corporations from pushing alcohol on children or denying affordable housing to the poor.

Freedom is not a baseless word, but it is in general simply too vague, ambiguous and emotive a term to guide policy or to be an ideal around which a nation or people can reasonably cohere.

Instead of being in favor of ever falling prices for consumer goods, government should promote the notion of a just price, a floor for prices reflecting the cost of humane and decent employment and production. To get all of us into the habit of paying the just price: a price that would allow high quality goods attuned to genuine needs to be put together by workers employed at an adequate wage.

Government is the institutionalization of our long-term and collective interests. It is not ultimately responsible just for freedom, but its highest calling is to act as the guardian of long-term collective prosperity of all its citizens.

The governments of the future will have to accept that two idiots cannot remove one genius. They will have to measured and in skillful ways constantly step in to say ‘no’ to certain vested interests, without this in any way meaning that it is systematically anti-capitalist.

So what am I saying here?

Although we bridle at folk memories of police states Governments of the future with greater intelligence and democratic accountability will have to often be interested in restricting freedom.

Freedom = good/restriction = bad, has blinded us to a vital nuance with a grave potential to derail and corrupt public life:

An others words there will have to be a more important and ambitious view of what government is for than merely freedom. We are all threatened by aggressive and uncontrolled commercial interests determined to quash our peace of mind and confuse us about our real needs and we’ve overlooked that there are better and worse kinds of freedom.

The first step in the right direction is to cap Greed. ( See Previous Postings)

 

 

AUSTRALIA-ECONOMY-UNEMPLOYMENT-JOBS

 

 

ALL WE ARE IS OUR MEMORIES.

15 Tuesday Jul 2014

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OK!

Before we all become just a memory in 6.5 billion years from now it might be a good idea ( assuming we haven’t destroyed the planet and ourselves along before its demise) to put our collective memories somewhere other than on Face Book as our collective memories will be our cosmic tombstone.

Everyone we know, and everyone that anyone we know will ever know, will be dead. So it will take a special, lonely kind of madness to consider,and plan for, a future thousands of years beyond the boundaries of our own graves.

The question is will our collective memories be a fitting legacy for a civilization both unfailingly aspirational and perpetually self-sabotaging.

None of us have to go to far back to remember – Two World Wars, (the technological developments of the century are directly connected to these wars, mobile phones and internet, for example) the Holocaust, Hiroshima, Slavery , Apartheid, Rwanda.

Thomas Mann and Albert Einstein, who detailed their century’s technological innovations along with their socioeconomic repercussions, concluding,

“I trust that posterity will read these statements with a feeling of proud and justified superiority.

It’s impossible to know what future iterations of the human race—living, if we have survived, in a radically different world—might find interesting.

At some point there will be no evidence of human civilization on Earth’s surface, but there will be a collection of dead spacecraft from an ancient civilization in Earth’s orbit . For alien archaeologists that might come along before our sun turns into a red giant, these dead spacecraft will be like the Pyramids of Giza, the slabs of Stonehenge: monolithic records of the distant human past.

But who are we to get to speak for Earth?

I would say everyone.

The human capacity for abstract thought and symbolic expression knows no bounds.  A time capsule is an object with one foot in the present and the other in the reaches of the distant future.

Its makers must judiciously cull from the artistic, literary, industrial, technological, and scientific output of the world, selecting only the most salient and representative elements.

So who will select – Google, Face Book, Twitter, or the Cloud.

Would you trust any of them.

There, this bobbin, this seed, this magazine, this list of world leaders—this is who we are. This of course would be a folly to allow any of them represent us.  Archaeologists, after all, learn a great deal from garbage, from things ancient civilizations didn’t think important enough to preserve.

An orbiting space-time capsule, built with enough storage capacity to contain an uncensored “Fresco of Messages” from every living man, woman, and child on Earth would be the solution. Not that it particularly matters.

Half the joy of a time capsule is the idea, the sheer hubris of conquering time. Like packing a suitcase before a long journey, building a time capsule is a way to parse the horrific randomness of the world and repackage it, sensible and self-contained, to oneself.

So how would we pack this last century of murders by states and non-state actors—death squads, party paramilitaries, guerrillas, terrorists—but mainly by states. 

One scholar, R. J. Rummel, has estimated that purposeful state killings of civilians, which he calls democide, have taken the lives of 169 million people in this century. Almost one-fourth of them (38.6 million or 22.8%) were victims of genocide. Others were victims of politicize, mass killing of political groups, indiscriminate state massacres, forced labor and concentration camps, of bombing of civilians, and of starvation imposed and reinforced by the state. The number of victims in this century surpasses the population of all but the five largest states in the world today.

So on a political level, we would have to wrestle with doctrines of realpolitik—the notion that the state is merely a self-interested organization to preserve its political and economic resources—and realize that our most lasting resource is our values.

Material resources, such as oil, are depleted by drawing on them.

But values can be replenished by drawing on them.

If all of this is potentially incomprehensible—gift from ancestors as distant from us as we are from Neolithic cave-painters have changed all of our lives.

While we need an affirmation of hope, what we do not need is empty rhetoric of poverty, inequality, corruption, religion,

It is too late to say “Never again” again. For it has happened again and again and again.