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September 13, 2023 at 8:02 am (This post was last modified: September 13, 2023 at 8:02 am by Leonardo17.)
I’m on Chapter 5.13 of “The Climate Book” and I’m going to share some of my notes. The article belong to the Canadian Academic Seth Klein who discusses how a genuine emergency Climate response should look like:
The author notes that we are still in the “blah, blah, blah” phase of the problem and are failing to address the climate emergency like a real emergency. He notes how during WWII Canada had mobilized all its resources for a period of 6 years to ramp up military production during the war and return to a normal economy when the war was over. He says there are six signs that a government has switched to an emergency mode in the face of an existential crisis:
1) The governments will spend whatever is necessary: during WWII the general approach was “If we lose this war, nothing will matter. If we win this war, no cost will appear to be too high”. That was the approach during COVID. Canadian debt is said to have moved from 30% to 50% of GDP during the pandemic. Canada spend 5 Billion every week during the pandemic to tackle this crisis. The money it currently spends on the energy transition is 7 Billion / Year. The World Bank wants all governments to spend 2% of their GDP on climate change. If Canada did that that would be 40 Billion $ / year.
2) New institutions are Created: In WWII all of the Canadian economy was reshaped to produce the maximum possible amount of planes, vehicles, bombs, munition etc. 28 Public corporations were established to do that. During and after the Covid Pandemic there were similar government programs to tackle the issue. All the non-essential part of the economy was completely shut down for instance.
So if we were in a similar situation now. Governments around the world would have had programs like “How many wind and solar plants are we building this year? How do we electrify the economy now? How are we phasing out all usage of fossil fuel? Etc.” in a way that is similar to all the confinement and mass vaccination policies we had just 3 years ago.
3) Shift from voluntary to mandatory action plans: No part of the Covid action plan was voluntary. When I went to a farmers bazaar during that time we even had cops to make sure that everyone was respecting the “masking, distance, hygiene” policy. I even remember how they intervened on someone who insisted on touching the goods while buying them. Today every action on climate change that is being done is voluntary. There is no requirement and/or deadline on any company or business for instance to go completely electric by the years 2030. And we need like near term dates for that. Today we have countries promising to phase out coal by 2070.
4. Telling the truth on the seriousness of the issue. The media coverage of the issue (since the 1990’s) is thought to be very insufficient and misleading. That’s not what happened in WWII or during the pandemic. I can still remember how Boris Johnson and his staff (or even Donald Trump and his staff with Antony Fauci) were giving almost daily briefing on the issue. On DW we had Mr. Derek William (almost every evening) updating us about the current knowledge we had on the Virus. So instead of lying and wasting our times all serious media channels suddenly got very serious and started telling us exactly what we needed to do. We still don’t have that with climate change.
Final element: No one must be left behind. Just like in wartime, just like during covid. Governments must step in and say that they are going to help all individuals and all small and medium businesses during the ending of our dependency on fossil fuels.
So all of this seems extremely feasible to me. Instead of doing blah blah blah for the decades to come doing basically nothing. This approach could take us all out of the woods, before the end of this very decade (and perhaps even before that).
People (mostly young humans) are marching in around 54 countries both in the Global north but also in India, Pakistan and several African countries:
If the media is seeing this as some king of neo-Hippy movement I think they might be terribly wrong. This time Oil + Coal + Methane has to be phased out. This is like a doctor telling you to quit smoking (I’ve been there so I know). Yes it’s very inconvenient, but no, there is absolutely no other way around it
The so called "manmade climate crisis" or "emergency" is a fucking lie. It's being peddled by the very people who stand to profit off of "green technology" that doesn't even exist, and is being rammed down our throats. Politicians, CEOs, bankers, and world leaders want the power and control over every aspect of our lives, so they need to save us from ourselves. Bullshit.
The Earth's climate has always changed, and always will. Should we do whatever we can to reduce pollution and the destruction of our own environment? Of course, but are we facing a global catastrophe like that airhead AOC claims? Can we continue to produce enough energy required to run our economies without fossil fuels, not a chance. We will still be using them for the foreseeable future.
There aren't enough raw materials in the world to build the electric cars that they tell us we have to buy, or enough electric grids to charge them. They are actually worse for the environment when you factor in the costs, hazards, and disposal of the batteries when they need to be replaced. They're also too fucking expensive.
You can't use electricity to fly a commercial jet, or move freight by truck or rail cross country, or across the world's oceans by ship.
You can't even tow a boat or trailer any distance, especially when it's heavy. The current crop of electric p/u trucks can't even do as they've claimed. The internal combustion engine isn't going anywhere soon.
If you don't want to believe that we're being lied too, you can read the writings of Dr Edwin X Berry. He's a theoretical physicist and a certified consulting meteorologist who says that we're being lied to about the amount of CO2 that stays in the atmosphere, and that human generated CO2 is different from naturally occurring CO2. Again, bullshit.
Every climate alarmist's claims about what will happen in the future has been wrong, every single one. The city off Miami will be underwater by 2015, right. Parts of the city of NY will be under water, the North Pole will be ice free during the summer, right. Everyone of these lying POS politicians and celebrities fly around the world in their private jets and tell us how we have to live our lives, yet still live in private compounds that use huge amounts of power. If the ocean levels are going to increase, then why do they all still live on the beaches and coastline? Obama has a private compound in Martha's Vineyard right on the ocean front. Apparently, they're not too worried about it.
The future of powering our globe is nuclear power, not non-existent "green energy". The gas and oil industry employs millions of people worldwide, and we have enough oil and coal reserves to last for hundreds of years. I want our grandkids to live in a world where every aspect of their lives aren't dictated by some bureaucrat who doesn't have to follow their own rules like the rest of us. I don't like being lied too.
(September 16, 2023 at 5:43 pm)MR. Macabre 666 Wrote: If the ocean levels are going to increase, then why do they all still live on the beaches and coastline? Obama has a private compound in Martha's Vineyard right on the ocean front. Apparently, they're not too worried about it.
Or they're just plain dumb? That might be how we got into this mess, after all.
I don't think there's really any point in the denialism - because the various scams and idiocy and challenges you mentioned are there either way. It just so happens that we're piling that bullshit on top of a problem we really aren't doing anything to solve.
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
“No matter what men think, abortion is a fact of life. Women have always had them; they always have and they always will. Are they going to have good ones or bad ones? Will the good ones be reserved for the rich, while the poor women go to quacks?” –SHIRLEY CHISHOLM
(September 27, 2023 at 10:39 am)Anomalocaris Wrote: why do you use “eastern roman empire” as if it were an epithet?
it is without a doubt a keystone civilization on humanity’s path to modernity.
not all that many civilizations deserve comparison to it.
never forget you enemy might be a better man then you.
Of course. It took the Roman Empire 1000 years even to disintegrate. Many civilizations don’t even last that long. From 395 to 1453 Byzantium / Constantinople became “The New Rome” and in the following centuries, while the Western empire disintegrated and was taken over by some warrior societies, the new capital was a center of the arts, medicine, law, etc. In fact the age of Belisarius (And Emperor Justinian and Theodora) was sort of the height of the Byzantine Empire when they were striving to reconquer the Western parts of the Roman Empire (which were for the most part “sold” to the vandals etc. by later emperors).
But anyway, Belisarius was that general who reconquered some of the Western to the Emperor Justinian. By the way, there was a rebellion during the time of Justinian. On the night of the rebellion Theodora is believed to have said: “Emperor, if you wish to flee well and good, you have the money, the ships are ready, the sea is clear. But I shall stay. I believe in the ancient proverb Purple is the best burial sheet” Explainer: The use of purple as a royal color goes back to Augustus Caesar, the first Emperor of Rome. So we all understand what the empress is saying. So in that night, the rebel were slaughtered. The earlier Hagia Sophia (Church of Holy Wisdom) burned. Emperor Justinian built a new very grandiose Church instead which was known as one of the greatest religious monument throughout the Middle Ages. He even said “Solomon, I have outdone you”. (Meaning that his structure was even more wonderful that the Temple of Solomon that is mentioned in religious scriptures). So back to our modern era: In the beginning of the Turkish Republic the monument of Hagia Sophia was turned into a museum. That’s because its 1500 year old obviously, because the bigger and better “Blue Mosque” of Istanbul is right in front of it (if anyone feels like praying or something) and because it contains beautiful frescoes and mosaics (which is an inconvenience for both visitors who want to see these beautiful objects of art and those who go there for prayer: In Islam you are not supposed to pray if there is a relic / statue or something like that toward the direction of Mecca. So it doesn’t work very well). So the first allegory is this. President Turkish version of Donald Trump has turned this museum back into a cult place. And that’s allegory number one: I say he is remembering his past life as the main general of Emperor Justinian Allegory number two: Both my grandmother used to wear headscarves. Still the way his wife is dressed (especially the headdress) is very similar to the Headdress of Empress Theodora:
a typical Turkish Headscarf looks like this:
Theodora Type exagerated headscarf looks like this:
Third allegory is his physical resemblance to the Byzantine general Belisarius.
Fourth allegory is the way is being revered by his populist supporters. Here are the lines from an old Byzantine song that was composed to honor the deeds of Belisarius (you can find it on YouTube). I always think of this song when I see something on TV like his meeting with the Azari President after the Nagorno-Kabagh event (if you watched the news this week). See: I don’t like tough-guys in politics. This whole attitude of being tough and bold is entirely / completely Belisarius to me. Just like in these song Lyrics: I am Rome's sword. Where is our empire? Weep not, mother Rome, again shall you prosper. A citizen of Rome I am, yet without an empire I am, In barbarians' blood shall Rome be reborn! The sands of Africa, with Vandals' blood, are turned red! Weep Gelimer, king without a kingdom, I am the sword of Rome, Belisarius! The gardens of Italy, with Goth's tears, are made fertile, Weep Goths, barbarians, I am the sword of Rome, Belisarius! Finally, there is this aspect of popular culture. We as the Turks have entered Asia Minor in the year 1071. It took us some 500 year to be able to take Constantinople. Because it was so well defended. And in that era, the Byzantine Empire was but a shadow of what it once was. It was a decadent empire and even today, in our social memory, it represents a very powerful force that treated us very badly. They are to us what the original Roman where to the Germans if you see what I mean And the cause of the allegory is that: We can’t really seem to get rid of these people. No matter what we do, they are like olive oil in a glass of water. They always end up on top no matter what. So that wraps the whole thing.