Arundhati Roy’s Incisive Revelation of the World’s Political and Economic Power Plays in LiveWire

Arundhati Roy has a profound breadth of insights into the political and economic power play reality of our world. She leaves no stone unturned in her bold ascertainment. Funny how she talks of the vulgarity of the theme of economics. Excerpts from this article in Livewire. It’s well worth one’s time to read and digest the entire article of essential information that needs to be shared. 

Arundhati Roy on Things that Can and Cannot be Said: The Dismantling of the World as We Know It

“Snowden, who warned us years ago that we were sleepwalking into a surveillance state, continues to live in exile in Moscow. And we have tumbled enthusiastically into the surveillance state he warned about, with our little phone-companions that have become as intimate and as indispensable as any vital organ in our bodies, spying on us, recording and transmitting our most personal information so that we can be tracked, controlled, standardised and domesticated. Not just by the state, but by each other too.”

“Both instances – strict hijab in Iran and the prohibition of hijab in India and other countries – may appear to be antagonistic, but they aren’t really. Forcing a woman into a hijab, or forcing her out of one, isn’t about the hijab. It’s about the coercion. Robe her. Disrobe her. The age-old preoccupation of controlling and policing women.”

“When the Cold War ended, demilitarisation and nuclear disarmament should have begun. Instead, NATO did the opposite. It amassed more weapons, fought more wars and used the territory of its allies and proxies for the aggressive and provocative forward deployment of troops and missiles. If Russia had done through proxies in Europe or the US what NATO is doing to it, there is little doubt that we would be seeing the moral arguments and western media coverage turned inside out.”

“Perhaps it’s hard for the rest of us to understand the mystery of the British people’s love and enthrallment with their monarchy. Perhaps it has to do with a national sense of identity and pride which cannot and certainly ought not to be reduced to vulgar economics. But allow me to indulge in some vulgarity for a minute or two.”

“A recent analysis in the Financial Times concludes that income inequality in the US and the UK is so great that they could be classed as “poor societies with some very rich people”. They’re like us ‘Third Worlders’ now, Banana Republics whose wealthy have seceded into outer space and whose poor are falling into the sea.”

“Capitalism is in its Endgame. Sadly, as it goes down, it’s taking our planet with it. Between nuclear hawks and mining corporations, it’s a race to the bottom.”

“…Meanwhile, for light entertainment, let’s all fight about what gods to pray to, what flags to wave, what songs to sing.”

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Carol Keiter the blogger

Thomas Berry’s – Twelve Principles | the Universe Story – a New Story

This video tape of his lecture to students about his Twelve Principles reveals how insightful he is. It caused me to seriously jump out of my seat, discovering with delight a completely new and unique way of seeing and interpreting a Christian and an altogether spiritually ecologically inclusive perspective. It is more Buddhist in a way.

When I first discovered the book The Universe Story written by Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme about 7 years ago attending a college consortium class, I was astounded. This was the first religious scholar to actually redefine the place of humans, according to – not ignoring – scientific discoveries about the cosmos and the quantum world.

I wrote about this in a former blog,

https://carolkeiter.wordpress.com/2015/06/11/what-humans-currently-do-excerpt-from-the-universe-story/

Thomas Berry indicates that humans are nothing without the community of the earth

“Humans must redefine themselves from a human-centric, to a biocentric, geocentric and cosmo–centric role that we play.”

Interestingly, he questions the Pope’s (at that time) encyclical, that talks of the importance of this or that human social thing, without representing or acknowledging whatsoever the human relationship to the community of the natural world. 

Berry says that humans can not be extracted from the natural world, that our whole relationship with the natural world can’t be ignored. That to separate humans from the importance of being caretakers to the entire community of the earth, is an abstraction. 

The work and information that these men espouse in The Universe Story is critical for the entire planetary community. 

“There is no human society in and of itself, there is only the community of the earth.“

Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook and music composition. The PayPal donation button functions in Safari and Firefox, however is broken in Chrome.

Exponential Climate Action Summit V ~ Earth Day April 22, 2022 14:00 CEST / 8:00am EDT online | Green – a film on the devastation of the rain forest by humans

Join the discussion! Earth Day April 22, 2022 8am EDT
Register here It’s Free

We Need to Restore We Need to Protect

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the treasures of rainforest biodiversity in Indonesia and the devastating impacts of logging and land clearing for the palm oil plantations and the pulp and paper industry.

Filmmaker says ”Hoping to promote change in our consumer choices and the way we behave toward animals and nature.”

Inger Anderson Executive Director UN Environment Programme 

“Let’s commit to a planet where people, animals and nature flourish together.”

Dino Talks #1 Everyone says it’s Crazy — Why Do We Still Subsidize Fossil Fuels?

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“12 Steps to Climate Sobriety” by Erik Molvar

12 Steps to Climate Sobriety by Erik Molvar 12/17/15 

“The nations of the world have unanimously agreed, 195 to zero, that climate change is a major problem, that human activities are a major cause and that it’s high time to do something about it. Those debates are now over globally, although some American politicians have yet to notice.

This signals the arrival of a new era, an era in which the catastrophic consequences of our global fossil fuel addiction have become so obvious that they can no longer be ignored. Recognizing that the world has a problem — and that human activities caused it — is the first step on the long and uncertain path to finding solutions. The Paris summit should put to rest the last of the climate deniers in our own nation.

A new Yale University study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science demonstrates that for past two decades, corporate funding has served as the underpinning of a unified network of “contrarian” lobbying firms, politicians and think tanks dedicated to polarizing the issue of climate change and creating the appearance of scientific doubt that human activities are the source of global climate problems. In short, we’ve been taken for a ride. Now that the tie between corporate funding and specific language and thematic content of climate deniers has been demonstrated scientifically with robust data, political leaders should dispense with the charades and start seeking solutions instead.

Solving the world’s climate crisis probably won’t involve digging up Canadian boreal forests to extract tar sands, and then spending more fossil fuels refining them into a usable product to burn. They probably don’t involve strip mining the American West in a quest for low-grade kerogen trapped in “oil shale,” a primitive oil precursor, or digging up the even more primitive deposits of coal. Drilling and fracking the Sagebrush Sea for natural gas and oil will only set progress back. Deforestation, either in remaining old-growth pockets in the Pacific Northwest that still support spotted owls, or in the tropical rainforests so amazing in their biodiversity, will need to be reversed, not accelerated.Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) has developed a famously successful 12-step pathway to help people beat their addictions to alcohol. Modern society’s addiction to fossil fuels is disastrous on a global scale, disrupting the family of nations and visiting calamity on individuals and communities, in a macrocosm of the problems caused by alcoholism. So presented below is a 12-step pathway to climate sobriety, adapted from the blueprint invented by AA (while honoring our Constitution, which requires separation of church and state) to put us all on a path to a more fruitful and sustainable human future:

1. Recognize that burning fossil fuels has altered our global climate by radically increasing the concentration of carbon dioxide and methane in the air, that deforestation is crippling the planet’s natural ability to absorb this extra carbon and that animal agriculture (especially ruminants like cattle that belch climactically potent methane) plays a significant role in accelerating the aboveground carbon cycle.

2. Recognize that there is a higher authority that can help solve these problems and help restore us to sanity, and it’s called “science.”

3. Make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of the planet, without which there is no survival for our interdependent web of life, humans included.

4. Make a searching inventory of our own energy uses to increase our own efficiency and reduce our energy footprint as individuals, corporations, governments and nations.

5. Admit to the world that throughout our development as a nation, these United States have, more than any other nation, contributed to the changing global climate through our conspicuous consumption of fossil fuels and have profited from this problematic behavior through the enrichment of a privileged few exploiting mineral resources, both here in the United States and around the world.

6. Make it a priority at all levels of government to remove our own defects of energy use, through ending fossil fuel subsidies of all kinds, keeping publicly owned fossil fuels in the ground, incentivizing renewable energy sources, developing a smarter electrical grid to handle complexities in powering our nation from renewable sources, and empowering individual citizens to become renewable energy producers at the household scale.

7. Humbly ask scientific researchers and engineers, with the support of ample research and development funding, to invent more energy-efficient instruments for our daily lives, and to provide new solutions to global transportation, electrical generation and agricultural practices that eliminate fossil fuel consumption.

8. Make a list of all human communities and natural ecosystems harmed by fossil fuel extraction, combustion and resulting climate disruptions, to gain a complete understanding of the harm we have caused.

9. Make direct amends to such communities and ecosystems through reparations by the fossil fuel industry that fund active restoration of damaged ecosystems, build resilience into communities battered by climate disruption and especially provide subsidies for developing nations to develop their energy technologies along clean, renewable lines.

10. Continue to take an inventory of energy consumption and production here in the United States in an energy audit every five years, and take corrective actions as needed to ensure that we are meeting or exceeding targets to keep the rise in global temperature below 1.5 degrees Celsius.

11. Seek through continued scientific research to improve our conscious contact with the planet that supports us, developing methods to move from a culture of exploitation to a culture of stewardship that respects the health of the planet and all living beings, and thereby safeguards the future well-being of humanity for all time.

12. Having achieved our climate awakening and developed sustainable, renewable ways to power our society while protecting our environment as a result of these steps, carry this message and these technologies and innovations to other nations throughout the world so that they might also thrive, and practice these principles in all our affairs.

The fossil fuel industry’s public relations teams would like us all to believe that we are powerless to control our energy habits. Now is our big opportunity to prove that we are not slaves. Step one is to banish the doubts (and doubters) of human-caused climate change to the dustbin of history. The Paris accord has done just that.

Molvar is the Sagebrush Sea Campaign Director for WildEarth Guardians, a nonprofit environmental group working to protect wildlife, wild places, wild rivers and the health of the American West.”

Global Heating Feedback Loops – Dalai Lama – Greta Thunberg | Mass Extinction | Last Rhino

The Earth is Warming the Earth. Series of five short films.

Now that our swamp of denial is going to be drained and replenished in the White House with a semblance of normality that instead promotes honesty and directed effort, we can also establish an epic new road as citizens to participate in the health of the globe and its inhabitants. The opposite of nationalism, of waving a flag that is only showing devotion to a particular place, we can extend our love and care to the world. Not just our little family, our 30 mile radius of our town or county, but actually showing interest in the health of the planet, every creature that happens to be share our planet, before they are all wiped out. Godliness is not worshiping in a massive building on Sundays, it is extending empathy and care and love to the fate of our entire home. We have had an economy driven by this promise of security through ‘jobs’ and ‘finance’, but this means NOTHING, if the planet and all of the species around us in the ‘Garden of Eden’ are dead or diseased.

Wake up World. Listen to the Dalai Lama,

https://carolkeiter.wordpress.com/2017/08/25/dalai-lama-on-war-war-is-criminal-abominable-despicable-legalized-terrorism-through-brainwashing

Listen to the pure intuitive instinct of a young unpolluted, unjaded girl who connected the dots of information and saw the complete and brutal denial that the citizens of the world have been swept into, this lopsided prioritization of ‘work and earning money’, that actually contributes to the destruction of the earth and spoiling of all habitats.

The Last Two Northern White Rhinos On Earth written By Sam Anderson.

Published Jan. 6, 2021/Updated Jan. 14, 2021. As a journalist, he journeyed to go spend time with the 2 last remaining White Rhino’s, where he came to love them. And in the process of spending time with them and contemplating their fate, he realized that the problem that the human species has contributed to their demise – the cornerstone problem of mass extinction – besides habitat loss, pollution of air, water, soil, the heating globe, wars, poaching (rhino horns worth more than gold)…is that ‘Love among humans seems to have a range of thirty (30) yards. People love and cherish their own families, what they come into contact with personally, yet don’t seem to have the imagination or abstract thinking to extend ‘love’ and empathy to all creatures, and therefore, humanity will never act with the collective urgency that is required to stop the massive climate disruption and mass extinction. In the USA, we don’t even seem to be able to grasp when we are robbed by the government and laws are passed to give charity to billionaires and corporations, but deny it to the people. As long as we are distracted by busily working to pay exorbitant rents all across the nation and drooling into complacency watching a TV show. nobody seems to be paying attention. 

Top scientists warn of ‘ghastly future of mass extinction‘ and climate disruption. Sobering new report says world is failing to grasp the extent of threats posed by biodiversity loss and the climate crisis.

https://digesthis.wordpress.com/2016/05/26/on-positive-transformation-to-health-and-sustainability-through-food-sovereignty-joe-brewer-working-for-billionaires-vandana-shiva-soil-not-oil-dahlia-wasfi-md-on-monsantos-seed-te/

I sit in a new apartment, having driven across the country after searching where I may be able to afford to live. The tap water smells and is toxic, it is cockroach infested and a housemate smokes inside, the area is a ‘food desert’, Walmart has the monopoly on grocery stores. However, I can not presently afford to live anywhere else. I cringe, as a person who is extremely focused on cleanliness and fresh air, yet I need to persist and do all that I can with my own efforts to endure. Why, because I can not as an artist, writer and intellect who cares deeply about the fate of all of the creatures of the world and have cast blame at the laziness and incognizance of humans to how their actions affect everything, everywhere, do anything but continue to do what I believe is right and just.

How do we Create an Economy that Nourishes the Natural World – which keeps us Alive? Dr. David Suzuki

The Canadian scientist Dr. David Suzuki says that the primary driver of this climate catastrophe and mass extinction that we face has been the economy. It’s urgent that humanity act now – go all out to maintain the temperature of our heating earth. It is how we will be defined as a species. He has the academic understanding as well as emotional connection to the natural world that has built his tremendous breadth of understanding and clarity in expressing these truths. Why it’s time to think about human extinction | Dr David Suzuki”

Does your MP Representative Recognize you Environmental Rights

The economy – the corporate agenda – is driving us on the path that we’re on.

Why its time to think about human extinction Dr David Suzuki

Suzuki has a wide breadth of understanding of many subjects. He was raised in an environment in which he had a very close relationship to the natural world. He learned to love and respect all different species and to recognize our integral connection to all of nature. His understanding of the importance of protecting the natural world fed his lifelong environmental activism and lead to the co-founding of the David Suzuki Foundation in 1990, to “to find ways for society to live in balance with the natural world that does sustain us.

A genetic scientist, his academic background and expertise on the various subjects lends to his eloquence. Dr. David Suzuki has an enlightened manner. He smiles continuously as he speaks about these subjects, without contempt or anger in his voice or eyes. He is penetratingly clear and concise about what is important in life and what it is that all human beings should be aware of, educated in and what we need to do.

There are some things we can’t change – gravity, speed of light – other things like capitalism, the market, the economy, are human inventions that we can change.

Clean air is sacred – we can’t go 3 minutes without air. If the air is polluted, we become ill. Humans have a responsibility to protect this.

Clean water is sacred – we can’t go for 4 to 6 days without water. Our bodies are 60 to 70 % water. If the water is dirty, we become ill.

Clean soil (earth and fire) is sacred – we can’t go without food for 4 to 6 weeks, or we will die.

Every bit of the food we eat was once alive. All of the energy that our bodies use is derived from sunlight that has been captured and converted through photosynthesis. All the plants take in carbon out of the air and put oxygen back.

I feel that this should be mandatory viewing, However, I’m not the secretary of education nor am I living in a dictatorship which could mandate this. Suzuki mentions that we need to maintain a thread of hope. He recalls how President John F. Kennedy stated that America will put someone on the moon within a decade, in response to the successful Soviet space projects. At the time, the USA didn’t know how they would do this, but had the intention. We need to embrace this intention now. Who we vote in to office, as well as educating the voting public, is essential. What we buy and how we live is also critical.

Listening to this man could be a mind-bending and emotionally awakening experience. Suzuki understands and articulates why human beings should recognize our place and responsibility.

We are the only animals on the planet capable of destroying it, and perhaps the only ones who do not recognize that as we negatively impact our balance with nature, we will destroy ourselves.

This balance concerns human over-population, chemical pollution and damage to our air, water and soil, the destruction of life within an entire food chain in our biosphere, plastic pollution and the adverse effect of releasing carbon dioxide and methane into our atmosphere – warming the planet – and the destruction of habitats of creatures on land, sea and air, driving them to extinction. This includes the human beings.

He mentions Rachel Carson as a huge influence with the publication of her book in 1962, “Silent Spring“.

Rachel Carson wrote in Silent Spring about the deadly effects of the use of powerful chemicals in pesticides, specifically DDT. “Carson was a former marine biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Utilizing her many sources in federal science and in private research, she spent over six years documenting her analysis that humans were misusing powerful, persistent, chemical pesticides before knowing the full extent of their potential harm to the whole biota.”

Her book introduced the world for the first time the recognition that these chemicals are harmful, and the need for humans to be cautions, to educate ourselves and to act responsibly as stewards of the living earth. “Unlike most pesticides whose effectiveness is limited to destroying one or two types of insects, DDT was capable of killing hundreds of different kinds at once.” Because she specifically talked about the effects of DDT which was produced by powerful agricultural chemical corporations like Monsanto, with strong ties to the government, she was immediately attacked and discredited by several major media outlets.”The Deafening Criticism Against Silent Spring” mentions that she “wrote this before the Exxon Valdez oil spill, Love Canal, Three Mile Island, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the West Virginia chemical spill, and numerous other environmental disasters brought about by apparent corporate malfeasance.”

Yet her book published in 1962 spoke such a momentous truth that it was widely read. It lead to the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 and the banning of DDT in 1972.

The multinational agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation Monsanto was the first to manufacture DDT. They have produced a slew of very harmful chemicals since. Monsanto, a seed company as well, was recently bought by Bayer. They probably realized that it was to their advantage to have their name less public and publicized since they’ve been involved in numerous law suits. In fact, I just listened to Vandana Shiva interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now who said just that, Monsanto wished to hide its name. Vandana Shiva: We Must Fight Back Against the 1 Percent to Stop the Sixth Mass Extinction

Monsanto’s Dirty Dozen: The 12 Most Awful Products Made By Monsanto.”

Like everything else, the agrochemical companies have also consolidated their power. The Biggest Pesticide Companies in the World.

On the 50th anniversary of its publication, this article was published in the Smithsonian. “Crazy Lies Haters Threw at Rachel Carson“.

Suzuki talks of the impact of the eco philosopher and writer Clive Hamilton, his non-fiction book “Requiem for a Species: Why We Resist the Truth about Climate Change” written in 2010. Hamilton is an Australian academic who explores the reasons for climate change denial and its implications. Hamilton argues that questioning unfettered growth, challenges the conception of progress according to the mentality of the people who align themselves with the approach of the status quo market. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/apr/16/requiem-for-a-species-clive-hamilton

Suzuki mentions that we can’t change the laws of nature, however we can change our human institutions. It is economics that is driving the warming of our environment, specifically through industries that are polluting and warming the atmosphere.

I had learned about Dr. David Suzuki several years ago, and was so tremendously impressed with what he expresses that I wrote a blog about him in 2016.

https://digesthis.wordpress.com/2016/03/08/sustainability-david-suzuki-creative-consciousness-same-name-but-different/

I learned of his daughter Severn Suzuki’s concern for the natural world and precocious eloquence in her presentation for the Rio climate summit in 1962. Not surprising, given the household she was raised in. I put together this blog about her also in 2016.

Servern Suzuki Rio 1992

https://carolkeiter.wordpress.com/2016/03/08/future-generations-sorry-prince-ea-stand-for-trees-severn-suzuki-anjali-appadurai/

It is my passion to share this information, because to me, it’s essential.

Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook & music composition

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Carol Keiter the blogger 2019-02-22.

Tears of Delight PM of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern’s Well-Being Budget & Maori Guardianship | Friendship Bench

I am in tears of delight as I listen to the statements of the Prime Minister of New Zealand and leader of the Labour Party, Jacinda Ardern, speaking of well-being as the measuring stick at the Davos, Switzerland World Economic Forum. She speaks honestly and earnestly – brilliantly revealing to the other diplomats a lens through which to look that is not measuring the quantity of profits through the GDP, but the quality of life and well-being of the people.

New Zealand politics of kindness, empathy and well-being

Among the leaders of the prohibitively expensive and exclusive Davos World Economic Forum, here is yet another example of a leader stepping outside of the dictates of the norm, to instead be a spokesperson for the quality of life. She states that numbers mean nothing, if people are homeless, if the teen suicide rate is high, if people are emotionally and physically ill. It’s another great step for humanity to have an excellent female leader with the bravery to speak the truth. She’s naturally a tremendous advocate for making changes to avert climate catastrophe.

We all know what disasters continue to strike due to industrial practices that are bent on wielding the highest profits, at the cost of health and life of human and species loss and environmental degradation.

Instead of complete lies, such as what comes from the USA present reality-show-muppet-leader, everything that she says speaks truth, conviction and dignity, from the content of her words to her tone and mannerisms. She speaks honestly, as do a number of recently elected female congresswomen in the US. Hurray for the people who are electing these women leaders throughout the world. It is great news.

Not unprecedented in her ideas, the government of Bhutan conceived of the model of Gross National Happiness as a more real measuring stick than the GDP. You can have a high GDP with great numbers, sales and profits that are off the charts…and as you focus the lens in close, you see that the Amazons and Walmarts that are employing high numbers of stressed people, have paved all of the pristine land; expanded their enterprises along with their parking lots stinking of tar and asphalt and wiped out swaths of land that are habitat to creatures who share the planet.

Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness Index

The construction of the GNH Index includes nine domains

Psychological wellbeing
Health
Education
Time use
Cultural diversity and resilience
Good governance
Community vitality
Ecological diversity and resilience
Living standards

We no longer need an economy bent on profit, so that the computer that I’m using has to be replaced every x amount of years, because of it being built to become obsolete in that short amount of time, as the Superfund sites where the minerals are harvested or skeletons of older models of trash accumulate, to litter and poison water and air. There is absolutely a different paradigm waiting for us around the corner.

Jacinda Ardern aims to to bring the New Zealand Maori philosophy of ‘guardianship’ of the environment into politics.

nothing to fear jacinda ardern urges world leaders

weforum Prince William aka HRH Duke of Cambridge, Prime Minister of New Zealand and Labor Party leader
Jacinda Ardern, Dr. Dixon Chibanda of Zimbabwe discuss mental health and friendship bench

One of the panelists was Dr. Dixon Chibanda of Zimbabwe. He is one of a total of 12 psychiatrists in the country of Zimbabwe, to serve a population of more than 16 million. He conceived of the idea of training grandmothers to essentially – listen – and the program has been wildly successful. HE created and implemented the ‘practice’ called a Friendship Bench. He talks of the Friendship Bench in this TED talk. Grandmothers in Zimbabwe are trained in cognitive behavioral evidence based talk-therapy; empowering them with the skills to listen, show empathy and provide emotional support.

The grandmothers have actually been more effective than doctors, in treating depression, anxiety, addictions and for patients’ overall success rates.

Grandmother Jack in Zimbabwe helped to pioneer the Friendship Bench program

Grandmother Jack was one of the first grandmothers in Zimbabwe, empowered to provide evidence-based talk therapy. She saw 256 clients whose lives were improved dramatically. She is now deceased.

The Friendship Bench has since been adopted worldwide.

It has morphed to not be simply Grandmothers, but for peers to sit with each other to listen and show their support.  Certainly it helps dramatically the people who are suffering from physical or mental illness, or addiction and emotional trauma. And most brilliantly it also empowers the person who is trained as the listener, who can provide emotional support and empathy.

The Friendship Bench looks to get peers talking to each other about depression, suicide and mental health

friendship bench london for peers to talk to each other openly

Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook & music composition

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bicycle before sunflowers

Our House is on Fire – Greta Thunberg WEForum | It is Worse Than That – Mark Doll

Greta Thunberg’s Special Address, Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum 2019

Greta Thunberg | Special Address, Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum 2019

Greta’s speech, among each that she has made to the public, is remarkable.

The words of this man, Mark Doll, are equally noteworthy and important.

Each are the reason that I decided to take time from the writing of my book to put out another blog.

Mark Doll posted the following comments today and it was chilling and heart-wrenching. But it deserves to be read in the context of this little girl’s courage at Davos.

I hope that for a change, people who do not have the time or patience to read, read this.

“…I realize there is something I have known for some time but have never said, and, since I have just spent another 4 hours of my life in climate change academia I have to get this out of my system.

Please understand that many you reading this won’t live to an old age… and likely will start scrolling after one or 2 more paragraphs… (edit…Ok I was wrong on this point. This is now my 2nd most shared post of all time)

The IPCC report and Paris accord are incredibly overly optimistic and that commits the world to a target that means the death of hundreds of millions if not more.

But it is worse than that.

Even the commitments made by countries in the Paris accord don’t get us to a 2 degree world.

But it is worse than that.

The 2 degree target is now unattainable (unless the entire civilization of the world doesn’t do a 180 today…) target is based on geo-engineering the climate of the earth as well as the sequestering of every molecule of carbon we produced over the last number of years and every molecule we are producing today and every molecule we produce tomorrow…. these technologies that don’t exist wont exist and even if they did would likely cause as many if not more problems than they fix.

But it is worse than that.

The 2 degree target of the IPCC does not factor in the feedback loops that such as the increased albedo effect caused by the 70% loss of ice in the arctic, The release of methane from a thawing arctic. (there is more energy stored in the arctic methane than there is in coal in the world). This is called the methane dragon. If the process of the release of the methane, currently frozen in the soil and ocean beds of the arctic, which has already begun, spins out of control we are looking a an 8 degree rise in temperature. (this ignores the scientists that don’t see this feedback stopping and ends up resulting in the world oceans boiling off and earth becomes Venus…but I digress.

But it is worse than that

The report which give us 12 years to get our head’s out of our arses underestimated the amount of heat stored in the world’s oceans by 40%… so no , we don’t have 12 years.

But it is worse than that.

The IPCC report ignores the effects of humans messing up the Nitrogen cycle through agricultural fertilizers and more… Don’t go down this rabbit hole if you want to sleep at night.

But it is worse than that.

Sea level rise will not be gradual. Even assuming that the billions of tons of water that is currently being dumped down to the ground level of Greenland isn’t creating a lubricant which eventually will allow the ice to free-flow into the northern oceans as it is only the friction to the islands surface that is currently holding the ice back coupled with the same process is happening in Antarctica but is also coupled with the disappearance of the ice shelves which act as buttresses holding the glaciers from free flowing into the southern ocean we are not looking at maintaining the 3.4mm/yr increase in sea level rise (which incidentally is terrifying when you multiply it out over decades and centuries. We will be looking at major calving events that will result in much bigger yearly increases coupled with an exponential increase in glacial melting. FYI Alberta is going to need a pipeline… just not for oil. More likely for desalinated water from tidewater…

But it is worse than that… We can no longer save the society that we live in and many of us are going to be dead long before our life expectancy would suggest.

If your idea of hope is having some slightly modified Standard of living going forward and live to ripe old age… there is no hope. This civilization is over…

… but there is hope.. There is a way for some to come through this and have an enjoyable life on the other side. Every day we delay can be measured in human lives. There will come a day of inaction when that number includes someone you love, yourself or myself.
So we have 2 options. Wake the fuck up. If we do we will only have to experience the end of our society as we know it aka…the inevitable economic collapse which is now unavoidable, but be able to save and rebuild something new on the other side. This would require a deep adaptation. Words like sustainability would need to be seen as toxic and our focus needs be on regeneration. Regeneration of soil, forest ocean etc…. This is all possible.
Option 2 is the path we are on. Think we can slowly adapt to change. This not only ensures we experience collapse but also condemns humanity to not just economic and social collapse but in a 8 degree world… extinction.

I am sick of pipeline discussions. I am sick of any argument that is predicated on the defeatist assumption that we will continue to burn oil at an ever increasing rate. Fact is if we do we are not just fucked, we are dead. I am sick of people who don’t understand how their food is produced, and its effect on the climate.(both carnivores who eat feed lot meat and vegans who eat industrially produced mono cropped veggies as they are equally guilty here as the consumption of either is devastating).

I am sick of the argument that our oil is less poisonous than someone else’s. Firstly, no it isn’t and secondly, It doesn’t fucking matter. I am sick of people that can’t even handle the ridiculously small only the tip of the iceberg of the changes we need to accept; the carbon tax. I am sick of my own hypocrisy that allows me to still use fossil fuels for transportation. I am sick of those who use hypocrisy as an argument against action.

I am sick of the Leadership of my country that argues we can have economic growth and survivable environment… we can’t.

I am sickened by the normalizing of the leadership of our Southern neighbour who as the most polluting nation in the world officially ignores even the tragedy that is the Paris accord. I am sick of the politicians I worked to get elected being impotent on this subject…

I am sick that the next image I put up of my kids, cheese, pets or bread is going to garner immeasurably more attention than a post such as this which actually has meaning… I am sick about the fact that all the information I referenced here is easily discoverable in scientific journals but will be characterized by many as hyperbolic.
I am especially sick that my future and the future of my children is dependent on the dozens of people that saw this post, said there goes Marc off the deep end again and chose to remain ignorant of the basic facts about our near future.

There is a path forward. But every day we delay the path forward includes fewer of us.

Build community, build resilience, work for food security, think regeneration, plant food producing trees, think perennial food production, eat food that does not mine the soil and is locally produced, eat meat that is grass fed that is used to provide nutrients to vegetation, get to know a farmer or become one yourself, park your car, do not vote for anyone who either ignores climate change or says we can have our cake and eat it too, quit your job if it is fossil fuel related, stop buying shit, Stop buying things that are designed to break and be disposed of, let go of this society slowly and by your own volition (its better than being forced to do it quickly), rip up your lawn and plant a garden with veggies, fruit bushes, fruit trees and nut trees, learn to compost your own poop, get a smaller house on a bigger lot and regenerate that land, plant a guerrilla garden on a city road allowance, return to the multi-generational house, realize that growth has only been a thing in human civilization for 250 years and it is about to end and make preparations for this change, teach this to your children, buy only the necessities, don’t buy new clothes-go to the thrift store, don’t use single use plastic or if you do re-purpose it, unplug your garberator and compost everything, don’t let yourself get away with the argument that the plane is going there anyway when you book a holiday, understand that there is no such thing as the new normal because next year will be worse, understand before you make the argument that we need to reduce human population … meaning the population elsewhere… that it is not overpopulation in China or India that is causing the current problem… It is us and our lifestyle.

Understand that those that are currently arguing against refugees and climate change are both increasing the effects of climate change and causing millions on climate refugees… which will be arriving on Canada’s doorstep because Canada will, on the whole, be one of the last countries affected, understand that the densification of cities is condemning those in that density to a food-less future.

Stop tolerating the middle ground on climate change. there is no middle ground on gravity, the earth is round, and we are on the verge of collapse.”

Care for the Natural World – Treat it with Respect and Reverence | The Duke of Cambridge interviews Sir David | WEForum

Sir David Attenborough interviewed by Prince William aka the Duke of Cambridge, at the World Economic Forum, in Davos – the 22nd to 25th of January. Prince William has very thoughtful and prescient questions. It’s evident that Princess Diana’s son is very in touch with what is essential, and is bringing these points out in his interview to the esteemed Sir David Attenborough, who has a great deal of wisdom to share (working 70 years bringing the natural world to people’s homes through television and documentaries).

Sir David Attenborough interviewed by Prince William, HRH Duke of Cambridge

I think this should be required listening, required in schools and by world leaders, especially the bimbo in the Whitehouse and any Republican climate science deniers. Sir David Attenborough says,”presently we’re living in the paradox, in which there have never been so many people out of touch with the natural world (more than half of the worlds population live in metropolitan areas), and yet every breath of air and every mouthful of food that we take comes from the natural world. if we damage it, we damage ourselves. The essential part of human life is a healthy planet. We are in danger of wrecking that.”

Asking what he wishes to communicate to the audience of global leaders, Sir David Attenborough responded.

“Care for the natural world. Treat it with respect and reverence. The natural world is the source of all wonder. The future of the natural world is in our hands. We have never been more powerful or populated. We can wreck it with ease, and without even realizing that we’re doing it.

We wreck it, we wreck ourselves. DO NOT WASTE THE RICHES OF THE NATURAL WORLD ON WHICH WE DEPEND. Do not throw food away, do not use energy wastefully. THIS DISASTER OVERTAKING THE WORLD STARTED IN BRITAIN IN THE 18TH CENTURY, THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION. > THE AIM WAS TO CONQUER THE NATURAL WORLD, SHOW OUR MASTERY, WHICH WAS TO DESTROY IT. We know better now. It is time to act.

True Leaders Discuss Climate Change Solutions | Invest Your Time in this Critical Town Hall Discussion

I have not been writing any blogs because I am diving into completing my book. However I found this discovery of a town hall meeting that took place December 3rd, to be critical to share.

Town Hall Discussion on Climate Change

“U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) hosted a national town hall on Monday, Dec. 3, aimed at addressing the global threat of climate change and exploring solutions that can protect the planet from devastation and create tens of millions of good-paying jobs.

Sanders was joined by 350.org founder and author Bill McKibben; actress, activist and Our Revolution board member Shailene Woodley; CNN host and author Van Jones; Earth Guardians Youth Director Xiuhtezcatl Martinez; Congresswoman-Elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; Union of Concerned Scientists Director of Climate Science Dr. Brenda Ekwurzel; Dr. Camilla Bausch, President of Ecologic Institute; and Dale Ross, mayor of Georgetown, Texas