Everything is fine. There is no cause for concern.
"But don't worry. The economy is strong."
Why do people say that? What are they doing? If things are fine, then there is no need to say it. So what's going on?
This is some bald questioning about what's happening to the world. The real world - the biological context, not the affairs of men. Thinking about what's in the air and the dirt and the water.
Looking beyond climate change there seem to be some other things that could make it a bit awkward for life on earth. For example: there are chemicals in the oceans and our consumer goods that are already stuffing up the capability of living things to reproduce. Then I thought of more stuff. Then I thought of making a list.
The world used to be made up of countries who governed life. Action by a country usually is so slow, because of bureaucratic processes, but a corporation can decide instantly what it wants to do ... and just do it. Government regulations have some effect in a certain country, but what do they do when a corporations are global. And what happens with smaller countries?
The cynicism of business can be questioned. Microsoft gives millions away to important causes. Each dollar a corporation gives is a dollar less for them. What ultimately matters to them? You and I? Or their profit? What are their interests versus general good.
Can Microsoft run rings around the US government? Is Wall Mart more powerful than Brazil or France? Has any country been harmed by getting in the way of a large corporation? Could GM have engineered the decline of public transport, which spread around the "western" world? (cities are clogged with cars). Such power is just staggering. And how relevant were governments? Was that for our benifit?
Where are General Motors' factories? In the US? Corporations are global in power, extent and influence. What are their interests? Do you think they would not engineer societies to their interests? Look at kids values, then look at ourselves and our lifestyle values. Who is Bush working for?
The Future Eaters.
What do you think of supermarked chains subtly teaching kids to nag their parents for their products? Is that reasonable and good?
Is the purpose of a corporation to act for the common good? ... to act according to the genuine needs of people as opposed to the things they don't really need?
The aim of a corporation is to make money for investors. In fact, investment styles probably should have been the title of this section. The crucial thing here is to realise that there is no other aim of a corporation. It's to make money any way they can, regardless of the consequences to the outside world.
What's the main need of a corporation? A market. Beyond the legitimate ways of building a market there come the devious strategies of social engineering, like MacDonnalds making child entertainment a big feature of their food business.
What qualities do they need society to have? Would they want us to know the drawbacks of subscribing to them? Would they prefer their market to remain dumb consumers?
Could a dumb society possibly result from any of their strategies? Do corporations want the masses to think open mindedly about things, and to find out things? Especially the things they aren't supposed to know? What would that do to them?
I am thinking of the public being dumb to their very undoing. I'm participating in this dumbness through my lifestyle, but at least I know it.
In the realities of the relationship of governments to their people, where do corporations fit in? A powerful politician in Australia said of another "He treats big businesses like customers, and he looks after them very well." This wasn't said in criticism. (I'm not sure of the exact words, but the meaning is correct)
In recent history things wouldn't have changed would they? Governments wouldn't be working for corporations would they? They wouldn't be responsible for mankind being ignorant of their own undoing would they?
In the western world it's reluctantly accepted by government as being true, but do you think big business likes the idea? What are their interests.
Global warming is obviously in progress. It's too obvious (it's getting too difficult to argue against it). I don't know about your neighbourhood, but ours has definitly dried in the last several years, and that's not to even touching on recent history. A lot of trees have died around our house. That is conspicous. To claim that there are more dead trees further from our house I'd need statistics (it's not obvious there). But the drying out of our locality in the last several years is conspicuous.
Heavy rain was common. We would get one or two downpours a month.
Sometimes no downpours for two or three months but they would return.
Now it's a rare and abnormal event. They are separated by years now,
not months. And I haven't mentioned all the other signs of our climate
drying out and warming.
For decades some scientists were suspicious but
no-one would listen. The scientific community now realises that global
warming should be very much worse. Something like 10 times worse.
Global warming is now well accepted, but now it appears that we have
been shielded from it's full effect by a side effect of our pollution
called global dimming. There is more particulate matter in the
atmosphere leading to more clouding, and therefore less sun penetrating
to the earth's surface.
The magnitude of this dimming effect is stupendous. A documentary
has been made that explains all this so well (one of the BBC Horizon
series of documentaries). It's something
like 10% to 20% ... but the world hasn't gotten much warmer. What this
means is that if there was no polution then all climates would be
several degrees hotter (I think it's actually more). That doesn't
sound like much, but it's actually devastating, globally.
This is not being recognised by the vast majority of the world. I
have only heard it mentioned by "New Scientist" and that was probably
due only to their honesty and freedom from corporate and political
influence. But even they are not saying anything about it any more.
Who would listen? Their revelations usually produce some reaction from
the outside world, but on this great matter ... nothing, not even
letters from readers. To me it is like a deadly silence). As for the rest of
the world - we still hear many people still playing down global warming and
the majority just don't mention it - and nobody at all speaks of global
dimming. Small wonder - it's just too grim.
The direct effects of global dimming are just emerging. Heat waves
in Europe and the UK are becomming quite severe because of their
efforts to clean up air pollution. In Australia droughts are becomming
the standard feature of the climates here, including in Tasmania, a
comparatively damp state. This is just scratching the surface
of what the world is in for.
Surely it's just a matter of controlling cloud creation and the worlds
climates will be alright. What really happens with the grand schemes of
mankind? Can you imagine the horrific mess we will get into in trying to manage
climate? .... and the horrific consequences, starting with the whithering of
half of the worlds agriculture (and that's just the start).
Global warming has allready been with us for quite a while and we've been
shielded from it by a global haze caused by atmospheric pollution. The true
severity of global warming has been disguised. It's actually about 10 times
stronger than we thought.
It's important to appreciate that the global warming that the planet is
experiencing is not the result of a balance of forces. Global dimming is not
offsetting global heating because of some natural balance. It is sheer luck for
us that the world is suffering no more than it is. It's just a terrible
co-incidence. Those stupendous forces of dimming and heating have apparently already
started to go their own ways and there is no reason to think they will stop, or even slow
down. World leaders in climatology have proposed plenty of mechanisms that result in
global climate being unstable.
Global warming should not be called that. It's missleading. It should be
called "gobal heating" and we should appreicate that global dimming happens to be shielding
us from it's full effects. I notice how each winter is warmer than the last,
and summers are noticably milder. This is global dimming making it's presence felt.
It is a tragedy that the public is unaware of
the truth behind gobal warming and that governments and the corporate world are
pretending it won't be an unmittigated disaster of biblical proportions.
We all know about pollution ... rubbish on the sea shores, beaches we can't
swim at etc. But that's the benign stuff. There are some quite insidious
chemicals that are now having their worldwide effect.
Endocrin disruption - reducing reproductive capability. I think I remember
research results from the Netherlands revealing their average male sperm count
is half of what it used to be in World War II. Girls are reaching pubity
quicker and males are looking effeminate not only in facial features but general
build. Chemicals which affect sexual development are in many shampoos.
Sexual abnormalities in fish are getting too frequent. What do fish matter?
We eat them and it also indicates the quantity of biologically destructive
chemicals out there. There's a hell of a lot of water out there, but the fish
are still getting affected, so how much of these chemicals have we churned out?
Where else have they gone? What else is out there?
What future does mankind have if they can't make babies? It's so strange
that great, spectacular disasters await life on earth and it comes unstuck
because of an undetectable thing.
I remember that one country made it clear to it's neighbouring country
a decade or two ago that it will go to war if it isn't happy with the
flow of water that comes down the river from the border.
It's not mentioned much in the media but water is becomming more of a
serious problem for more countries.
Besides getting the right food, water is the key to the cycle of
disease, debillitation and poverty.
So far I have assumed that this water shortage is caused by the demands for water -
the increased need, not the amount of water that's about ... but I didn't think of global
dimming. There has been a drastic drop in the global water cycle. There is less rain.
This is less rain all over the world. The evaporation of water has dropped by about 10% I
think. This is in line with the decreased solar energy reaching the Earth's surface which
sounds about right. The change in evaporation is influenced mostly by the photons from the
sun, which has decreased by about 10%.
Thank christ I don't have children.
Global dimming.
Pollution
Water.
My address: theloser "at" tassie.net.au
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Last update: February 14th