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<font size="+2" face="Calibri"><i><b>January</b></i></font><font
size="+2" face="Calibri"><i><b> 10, 2024</b></i></font><font
face="Calibri"><br>
</font> <br>
<i>[ DW News is a multi-lingual news service based in Germany -- 3
min video ]</i><br>
<b>Hottest year on record: EU climate change service Copernicus
publishes climate report 2023 | DW News</b><br>
DW News<br>
Jan 9, 2024 #climatechange #globalwarming #climatecrisis<br>
Researchers have confirmed that 2023 was the hottest year on record.
The European Union's Copernicus climate change service looked at
global temperature records going back to 1850. And scientists warn
this year could be even hotter.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ft5S8RcQ2qI">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ft5S8RcQ2qI</a><br>
<br>
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[ SCOTUS abjures ]<br>
<b>US Supreme Court declines to hear Exxon, Koch Industries appeal
on venue in climate case</b><br>
By Clark Mindock<br>
January 8, 2024<br>
Jan 8 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear
a bid by major fossil fuel companies and an industry trade group to
move a lawsuit filed by Minnesota accusing them of worsening climate
change out of state court and into federal court, the energy
industry's favored venue.<br>
<br>
Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N), Koch Industries and the American Petroleum
Institute had asked the justices to review a March decision by the
St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. That court found
that Minnesota's lawsuit accusing the energy industry of engaging in
decades of deceptive marketing to undermine climate science and the
public's understanding of the dangers of burning fossil fuels
belonged in state court, where it was originally filed...<br>
- -<br>
Last year, the justices declined to consider several similar
appeals, effectively sending cases filed in California, Colorado,
Rhode Island, Hawaii, Maryland and elsewhere back to state court, a
venue often seen as more favorable to plaintiffs than federal court.<br>
<br>
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement Monday
that the decision will now allow the case to proceed toward trial in
state court, and that the decision aligns with similar decisions in
courts across the country...<br>
- -<br>
Representatives for the American Petroleum Institute, Koch and Exxon
did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<br>
<br>
Eight U.S. appeals courts have affirmed lower court decisions
remanding similar climate cases to state courts, finding generally
that the lawsuits exclusively raise state law claims and thus
federal courts do not have jurisdiction.<br>
<br>
The American Petroleum Institute, the oil and gas lobby group that
has been accused of helping to coordinate the industry's alleged
deception, and energy companies have said federal jurisdiction is
appropriate because climate change is an issue of national and
global importance...<br>
- -<br>
The fossil fuel industry has said the lawsuits effectively try to
regulate federal energy policy through state law, and that the
federal court system is the appropriate place to litigate harms
allegedly caused by greenhouse gas emissions, which are produced
across the globe and cannot be contained within state lines.<br>
<br>
Minnesota's 2020 lawsuit accused the energy companies and the
American Petroleum Institute of knowing since the 1970s and 1980s
that the fossil fuels they sold would cause climate change, but that
the companies did not disclose that risk to the Minnesota public and
instead actively sought to undermine climate change science. The
state said the coordinated efforts to downplay the risks of fossil
fuels violated state consumer protection and fraud laws, and has
caused the state billions of dollars in economic damages tied to
climate change.<br>
<br>
"Taken together, the defendants’ behavior has delayed the transition
to alternative energy sources and a lower carbon economy, resulting
in dire impacts on Minnesota’s environment and enormous costs to
Minnesotans and the world," Ellison said Monday.<br>
<br>
The companies and the institute have denied those allegations, and
told the Supreme Court in August that the case deserved to be in
federal court given the state's apparent aim to seek a remedy for
the impacts of a global phenomenon such as climate change.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-supreme-court-declines-hear-exxon-koch-industries-appeal-climate-case-2024-01-08/">https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-supreme-court-declines-hear-exxon-koch-industries-appeal-climate-case-2024-01-08/</a><br>
<p><br>
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<p><br>
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<i>[ article in the Guardian ]</i><br>
<b>Global heating will pass 1.5C threshold this year, top ex-Nasa
scientist says</b><br>
James Hansen says limit will be passed ‘for all practical purposes’
by May though other experts predict that will happen in 2030s<br>
Global heating will pass 1.5C threshold this year, top ex-Nasa
scientist says<br>
James Hansen says limit will be passed ‘for all practical purposes’
by May though other experts predict that will happen in 2030s<br>
Oliver Milman<br>
@olliemilman<br>
Mon 8 Jan 2024<br>
The internationally agreed threshold to prevent the Earth from
spiraling into a new superheated era will be “passed for all
practical purposes” during 2024, the man known as the godfather of
climate science has warned.<br>
<br>
James Hansen, the former Nasa scientist credited for alerting the
world to the dangers of climate change in the 1980s, said that
global heating caused by the burning of fossil fuels, amplified by
the naturally reoccurring El Niño climatic event, will by May push
temperatures to as much as 1.7C (3F) above the average experienced
before industrialization.<br>
<br>
This temperature high, measured over the 12-month period to May,
will not by itself break the commitment made by the world’s
governments to limit global heating to 1.5C (2.7F) above the time
before the dominance of coal, oil and gas. Scientists say the 1.5C
ceiling cannot be considered breached until a string of several
years exceed this limit, with this moment considered most likely to
happen at some point in the 2030s.<br>
<br>
But Hansen said that even after the waning of El Niño, which
typically drives up average global heat, the span of subsequent
years will, taken together, still average at the 1.5C limit. The
heating of the world from greenhouse gas emissions is being
reinforced by knock-on impacts, Hansen said, such as the melting of
the planet’s ice, which is making the surface darker and therefore
absorbing even more sunlight.<br>
<br>
“We are now in the process of moving into the 1.5C world,” Hansen
told the Guardian. “You can bet $100 to a donut on this and be sure
of getting a free donut, if you can find a sucker willing to take
the bet.”...<br>
- -<br>
While the 1.5C target is a political as much as a scientific one,
researchers say there will be worsening impacts in terms of
heatwaves, droughts, flooding and other calamities should the world
exceed this temperature. For developing countries and small island
states at existential risk from sea level rise and extreme weather,
the agreed goal is a hard-fought and totemic one, with “1.5 to stay
alive” now a common mantra heard at international climate talks...<br>
- -<br>
“I do think that in worrying about some particular threshold we are
addressing the wrong question,” said Kerry Emanuel, a climate and
meteorological expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“There are no magic numbers in climate change, just rapidly growing
risks.”<br>
<br>
Emanuel pointed to recent severe heatwaves, fires and storms that
are already being supercharged by global heating of around 1.2C
(2.1F) above what it was a little more than a century ago. “Perhaps,
once half the population of the planet has experienced at least one
of these weather catastrophes, they will get their leaders to act,”
Emanuel said. “I hope it doesn’t take that much pain.”<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/08/global-temperature-over-1-5-c-climate-change">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/08/global-temperature-over-1-5-c-climate-change</a><br>
<p><br>
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<i>[ War is not healthy for the planet...]<br>
</i><b>Emissions from Israel’s war in Gaza have ‘immense’ effect on
climate catastrophe</b><i><b><br>
</b></i><b>Exclusive: First months of conflict produced more
planet-warming gases than 20 climate-vulnerable nations do in a
year, study shows</b><br>
<b>The climate costs of war and militaries can no longer be ignored</b><br>
Nina Lakhani Climate justice reporter<br>
@ninalakhani<br>
Tue 9 Jan 2024 <br>
The planet-warming emissions generated during the first two months
of the war in Gaza were greater than the annual carbon footprint of
more than 20 of the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations, new
research reveals.<br>
The vast majority (over 99%) of the 281,000 metric tonnes of carbon
dioxide (CO2 equivalent) estimated to have been generated in the
first 60 days following the 7 October Hamas attack can be attributed
to Israel’s aerial bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza,
according to a first-of-its-kind analysis by researchers in the UK
and US.<br>
<br>
According to the study, which is based on only a handful of
carbon-intensive activities and is therefore probably a significant
underestimate, the climate cost of the first 60 days of Israel’s
military response was equivalent to burning at least 150,000 tonnes
of coal.<br>
<br>
The analysis, which is yet to be peer reviewed, includes CO2 from
aircraft missions, tanks and fuel from other vehicles, as well as
emissions generated by making and exploding the bombs, artillery and
rockets. It does not include other planet-warming gases such as
methane. Almost half the total CO2 emissions were down to US cargo
planes flying military supplies to Israel.<br>
<br>
Hamas rockets fired into Israel during the same period generated
about 713 tonnes of CO2, which is equivalent to approximately 300
tonnes of coal – underscoring the asymmetry of each side’s war
machinery.<br>
<br>
The data, shared exclusively with the Guardian, provides the first,
albeit conservative estimate of the carbon cost of the current
conflict in Gaza, which is causing unprecedented human suffering,
infrastructure damage and environmental catastrophe.<br>
<br>
It comes amid growing calls for greater accountability of military
greenhouse gas emissions, which play an outsize role in the climate
crisis but are largely kept secret and unaccounted for in the annual
UN negotiations on climate action.<br>
<br>
“This study is only a snapshot of the larger military boot print of
war … a partial picture of the massive carbon emissions and wider
toxic pollutants that will remain long after the fighting is over,”
said Benjamin Neimark, a senior lecturer at Queen Mary, University
of London (QMUL), and co-author of the research published on Tuesday
on Social Science Research Network...<br>
- -<br>
Previous studies suggest the true carbon footprint could be five to
eight times higher – if emissions from the entire war supply chain
were included.<br>
- -<br>
“The military’s environmental exceptionalism allows them to pollute
with impunity, as if the carbon emissions spitting from their tanks
and fighter jets don’t count. This has to stop, to tackle the
climate crisis we need accountability,” added Neimark, who partnered
with researchers at University of Lancaster and the Climate and
Community Project (CCP), a US-based climate policy thinktank.<br>
<br>
Israel’s unprecedented bombardment of Gaza since Hamas killed as
many as 1,200 Israelis has caused widespread death and destruction.
According to the Gaza health authority, almost 23,000 Palestinians –
mostly women and children – have been killed, with thousands more
buried under the rubble presumed dead. About 85% of the population
has been forcibly displaced and faces life-threatening food and
water shortages, according to UN agencies. More than 100 Israeli
hostages remain captive in Gaza and hundreds of Israeli soldiers
have been killed.<br>
<br>
In addition to the immediate suffering, the conflict is exacerbating
the global climate emergency, which goes far beyond the CO2
emissions from bombs and planes...<br>
- -<br>
The new research calculates that the carbon cost of rebuilding
Gaza’s 100,000 damaged buildings using contemporary construction
techniques will generate at least 30m metric tonnes of warming
gases. This is on a par with New Zealand’s annual CO2 emissions and
higher than 135 other countries and territories including Sri Lanka,
Lebanon and Uruguay.<br>
<br>
David Boyd, the UN special rapporteur for human rights and the
environment, said: “This research helps us understand the immense
magnitude of military emissions – from preparing for war, carrying
out war and rebuilding after war. Armed conflict pushes humanity
even closer to the precipice of climate catastrophe, and is an
idiotic way to spend our shrinking carbon budget.”<br>
<br>
Climate consequences including sea level rise, drought and extreme
heat were already threatening water supplies and food security in
Palestine. The environmental situation in Gaza is now catastrophic,
as much of the farmland, energy and water infrastructure has been
destroyed or polluted, with devastating health implications probably
for decades to come, experts have warned. Between 36% and 45% of
Gaza’s buildings – homes, schools, mosques, hospitals, shops – have
so far been destroyed or damaged, and construction is a major driver
of global heating...<br>
- -<br>
“The catastrophic aerial attack on Gaza will not fade when a
ceasefire comes,” said Zena Agha, policy analyst at Al-Shabaka, the
Palestinian Policy Network, who writes about the climate crisis and
the Israeli occupation. “The military detritus will continue to live
in the soil, the earth, the sea and the bodies of the Palestinians
living in Gaza – just as it does in other postwar contexts such as
Iraq.”<br>
<br>
<b>An opaque military carbon footprint</b><br>
Overall, the climate consequences of war and occupation are poorly
understood. Thanks in large part to pressure from the US, reporting
military emissions is voluntary, and only four countries submit some
incomplete data to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC), which organises the annual climate talks.<br>
<br>
Even without comprehensive data, one recent study found that
militaries account for almost 5.5% of global greenhouse gas
emissions annually – more than the aviation and shipping industries
combined. This makes the global military carbon footprint – even
without factoring in conflict-related emission spikes – the fourth
largest after only the US, China and India.<br>
<br>
At Cop28 in Dubai last month, the unfolding humanitarian and
environmental catastrophe in Gaza and Ukraine put war, security and
the climate crisis on the agenda, but did not lead to any meaningful
steps towards increasing transparency and accountability for armed
forces or the military industry.<br>
The Israeli delegation was mostly promoting its burgeoning climate
tech industry in areas such as carbon capture and storage, water
harvesting and plant-based meat alternatives. “Israel’s biggest
contribution to the climate crisis comes in the form of the
solutions,” said Gideon Behar, special envoy for climate change and
sustainability.<br>
<br>
Ran Peleg, Israel’s director of Middle East economic relations, told
the Guardian that the question of calculating greenhouse gas
emissions from IDF operations – current or previous – had not been
discussed. “This is actually the first time this issue has been
raised, and I’m not aware that there are any ways to count these
kinds of things.”<br>
<br>
Hadeel Ikhmais, head of the climate change office at the Palestinian
Environmental Quality Authority, said: “We are trying to do our part
on the climate crisis but even before the war in Gaza, it is hard to
adapt and mitigate when we cannot access water or land or any
technologies without Israel’s permission.”<br>
<br>
Neither the Israel government nor Palestinian authorities appear to
have ever reported military emissions figures to the UNFCCC.<br>
<br>
Using its defence budget as a proxy, the new study estimates that
Israel’s annual baseline military carbon footprint – without
accounting for conflict – was almost 7m metric tonnes of CO2
equivalent in 2019. This is about equivalent to the CO2 emitted by
the entire nation of Cyprus, and 55% more emissions than the whole
of Palestine.<br>
No comparable military emissions calculation was possible for
Palestine, due to Hamas’s ad hoc offensive capabilities, according
to researchers.<br>
<br>
But the Israel-Palestine situation was unique even before 7 October.
In occupied Gaza, most Palestinians already faced significant food,
water and energy insecurity due to the Israeli occupation, blockade,
population density and the worsening climate crisis. Israelis
meanwhile have long lived under the threat of rocket fire.<br>
<br>
In order to capture some of the climate consequences of this
militarized setting, researchers calculated the carbon footprint of
war-related concrete infrastructure – walls and tunnels –
constructed by Hamas and Israel since 2007.<br>
<br>
Constructing the Gaza Metro – the 500km underground network of
tunnels used to move and hide everything from basic supplies to
weapons, Hamas fighters and hostages – generated an estimated
176,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, more than the island
nation of Tonga emits annually, according to the study.<br>
<br>
Building Israel’s iron wall, which runs 65km along most of its
border with Gaza and features surveillance cameras, underground
sensors, razor wire, a 20ft high metal fence and large concrete
barriers, contributed almost 274,000 tonnes of CO2. This is almost
on par with the entire 2022 emissions by Central African Republic,
one of the most climate vulnerable countries in the world.<br>
<b>- -</b><br>
“The role of the US in the human and environmental destruction of
Gaza cannot be overstated,” said co-author Patrick Bigger, research
director at the thinktank CCP.<br>
<br>
And not just in Gaza. In 2022, the US military reported that it
generated an estimated 48m metric tonnes of CO2 , according to
separate research by Neta Crawford, author of The Pentagon, Climate
Change and War. This baseline military carbon footprint, which
excludes emissions generated by attacks on Islamic State oil
infrastructure in 2022, was higher than the annual emissions of 150
individual countries and territories including Norway, Ireland and
Azerbaijan.<br>
<br>
According to Crawford, about 20% of the US military’s annual
operational emissions go towards protecting fossil fuel interests in
the Gulf region – a climate change hotspot, warming twice as fast as
the rest of the inhabited world. Yet the US – like other Nato
countries – is mostly focused on the climate crisis as a national
security risk, rather than on its contribution to it.<br>
<br>
“Quite simply we’re preparing for the wrong risks by putting too
many of our eggs in the military basket, when actually we have a
much more dire emergency facing all of us. Moving military resources
into the [energy] transition is low-hanging fruit,” said Crawford,
who is the Montague Burton professor of International Relations at
Oxford University.<br>
<br>
Responding to the carbon analysis, Lior Haiat, a spokesperson for
the Israeli ministry of foreign affairs, said: “Israel did not want
this war. It was imposed on us by the Hamas terror organization that
killed, murdered, executed hundreds of people and kidnapped over 240
including children, women and the elderly.<br>
<br>
“Among all the problems facing the state of Palestine in the coming
decades, climate change is the most immediate and certain – and this
has been amplified by the occupation and war on Gaza since the 7
October,” said Ikhmais, the Palestinian climate director. “The
carbon emissions from the military attacks contradict the UNFCCC and
Paris agreement goal … recognizing the environmental impact of war
is crucial.”<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/09/emissions-gaza-israel-hamas-war-climate-change">https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/09/emissions-gaza-israel-hamas-war-climate-change</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
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<i>[ from Canada's National Observer ]</i><br>
<b>The West’s gentle fall is a bad omen</b><br>
By Max Fawcett | Opinion, Politics | January 9th 2024<br>
It used to be the case that a gentle fall was a welcome blessing to
most Albertans. But after a summer of wildfires, drought and other
climate-related catastrophes, the record-setting warmth has a
foreboding quality to it that’s hard to ignore. In November, the
city of Edmonton didn’t see any snow for the first time since 1928,
while Calgary just enjoyed the warmest December on record in over
141 years of data.<br>
<br>
As a result, scientists — and, belatedly, the Alberta government —
are warning this summer could be even more difficult as the absence
of moisture makes the forecast for wildfire season even more
ominous. “These regions still don’t have snow cover,” University of
Saskatchewan professor John Pomeroy told Global News. “Soil moisture
levels are less than 40 per cent of normal. The snowpacks have not
built up this year. And we know snow is how we got into trouble last
year with the drought: the snowpacks were below normal and then they
melted early.”<br>
<br>
Pomeroy, who’s also the Canada Research Chair in water resources and
climate change, says this is what the new normal looks like in a
rapidly warming world. “We’re going to keep seeing these effects
year on year. Alberta was over five degrees above normal in
December. If we have those conditions in the spring again, then
we’re back into an agricultural disaster.”...<br>
Believe it or not, there are still wildfires burning in Alberta
right now because there hasn’t been enough precipitation or cold to
help the province’s firefighters finish off fires that kicked off
last summer.<br>
<br>
The province’s environment minister, who seems to spend most of her
time advocating for new oil and gas development, has finally
cottoned on to the scale of the threat. In the coming weeks, the
Alberta government will apparently be awarding a contract for
drought-modelling work and a drought advisory committee will be
struck. “Our province has navigated droughts before. We have a long,
proud history of coming together during tough times, and we will get
through this together,” Rebecca Schulz said in a statement.<br>
<br>
Schulz’s remarks make it seem like this is business as usual and
that there isn’t anything new or unusual about the scale and scope
of the threat her province faces. Residents in southern Alberta,
which is in the midst of the worst drought in half a century, would
probably beg to differ. There’s also no mention of the role climate
change is playing here. Under the United Conservative Party’s
leadership, it’s the truth that dare not be spoken aloud.<br>
But as a recent review of more than a century of scientific
literature by a team of academics at the University of Alberta makes
clear, climate change cannot be ignored anymore. Their data shows a
consistent trend of rising air temperatures, less snowfall and more
disruptive and destructive weather events. Most worrisome was the
increase in the minimum air temperature, which rose from 1 C to 4.5
C. Emmanuel Mapfumo, an adjunct professor at the University of
Alberta, describes that as a “significant finding” since it means
winters are getting less cold. “That can result in mid-season
snowmelt, lower snow levels and less moisture in the early spring,
which is important for sustaining early-stage crop growth...<br>
Yes, the higher temperatures could theoretically allow for crops
like corn and wheat to grow at higher latitudes, but those gains may
quickly be subsumed by the spread of disease and pests like the
wheat midge. As we saw in British Columbia’s forests and the
catastrophic spread of the mountain pine beetle, relatively small
changes in temperature can have enormous impacts.<br>
<br>
Ironically, rural and remote communities where resistance to climate
science is most widespread stand to get hit the hardest. As a team
of academics noted in a 2019 survey of attitudes among Alberta beef
and grain producers, “Even in comparison to general public samples,
farmers also stand out in their particularly high levels of climate
skepticism, preferring to attribute observed changes in climate to
natural causes.”<br>
<br>
Last summer’s wildfires in Western Canada were brutally bad. Thanks
to a historically warm fall, this year’s might be even worse — and
yes, climate change is the driving force behind it all.<br>
In those circles, you can bet this year’s drought will be blamed on
El Niño, the weather pattern that sees warm water in the Pacific
shove the Pacific jet stream south of its natural position and
create warmer and drier weather in the West. But, of course, climate
change is exacerbating this natural phenomenon and making its
impacts more intense than they might otherwise be. Sound familiar?<br>
<br>
Not everyone is determined to miss this particular forest for the
trees. Paul McLauchlin, the reeve of Ponoka County and president of
the Rural Municipalities of Alberta, seems to understand the
challenge posed by climate change to people in his community. "We
have to have probably some hard conversations that we probably have
never really had provincewide as opposed to our localized drought
events that have happened historically," he told the CBC. Those
include the oversized impact of agriculture and the oil and gas
industry on water usage, and how they can better co-exist with the
needs of ordinary people.<br>
<br>
But with the United Conservative Party in power and fringe elements
like Take Back Alberta holding its reins, those conversations won’t
include climate change or Alberta’s disproportionate role in
advancing it. This is an area where conservative politicians, who
dominate rural parts of this country, could play a leadership role.
They could help steer a more productive conversation on the subject,
one that avoids polarization and partisanship and instead tries to
help educate and inform. Alas, these conservatives just aren’t
interested in any of that — and it’s their rural voters who will pay
the highest price for it.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.nationalobserver.com/2024/01/09/opinion/west-gentle-fall-bad-omen">https://www.nationalobserver.com/2024/01/09/opinion/west-gentle-fall-bad-omen</a><br>
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</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<i>[ Understanding Doomerism - often the doomerist philosophy is
adopted by despairing youth and older folks. Generally, climate
scientists describe many different models for a few more decades
of inevitable heating and intensifying chaos - this is enabled by
human passivity -- unless humans move to specific mechanical
intervention to make specific changes to the atmosphere. So
viewers may want to start this video introduction a few minutes
in. ]</i><br>
<b>B: "This Is How All Civilizations End: In Denial, Followed by
Panic"</b><br>
Collapse Chronicles<br>
Jan 9, 2024 DUNNELLON<br>
In today's Chronicle of the collapse, we dive into an essay by "B"
(aka "the honest sorcerer") entitled, "Death Cults, Doomers and an
End of a Civilization." Here is a link to the rest of the essay on
Medium.com:<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://thehonestsorcerer.medium.com/death-cults-doomers-and-an-end-of-a-civilization-363c8fe033e9">https://thehonestsorcerer.medium.com/death-cults-doomers-and-an-end-of-a-civilization-363c8fe033e9</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAHpWYx5AB4">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAHpWYx5AB4</a><br>
- -<br>
<i>[ text from The Medium - starts with a poem by Shelley ]</i><br>
<b>Death Cults, Doomers and an End of a Civilization</b><br>
(the author is named) B<br>
<blockquote>I met a traveller from an antique land,<br>
Who said — “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone<br>
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,<br>
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,<br>
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,<br>
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read<br>
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,<br>
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;<br>
And on the pedestal, these words appear:<br>
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;<br>
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!<br>
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay<br>
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare<br>
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”<br>
Percy Bysshe Shelley<br>
</blockquote>
Our industrial civilization is in full denial of its mortality. We
teach Ozymandias to our children, yet somehow manage to remain fully
oblivious to the temporal nature of our culture. Why do I tell such
“depressing” stories? Well, while I’m fully aware that the decline
of our modern age is inevitable, I do believe that we ‘doomers’ and
‘collapseniks’ have an important role to play.<br>
<br>
Depression, doom, and despair are important emotions, but they are
not the end state. These feelings must be contended with, and then
passed by in the process of grief felt over the loss of this way of
life, and the world we came to know as a child. I do believe that
learning to mourn your losses then move on is an important step in
becoming a grown adult. And while some prefer the mushroom treatment
(kept in the dark and fed BS), I suspect that there are quite a few
who would like to understand what is really going on, and why.<br>
<br>
It’s like becoming aware that you are neither invulnerable nor going
to live forever. Some never learn this lesson and fail to grow up,
or end up in the mortuary much sooner than it would be otherwise
expected. Others, and I believe this is the vast majority, accept
the first part but somehow struggle to fully embrace the second.
Unfortunately, they learn this at the very end to their lives, when
they finally get their terminal diagnosis. It is only then, when
they really start to process their grief felt over the loss of all
their future prospects, they realize that they could’ve lived a
different life...<br>
- -<br>
Just like you cannot save yourself from death, although many still
believe they can, you cannot save a civilization either. Having a
high-tech society is a one time offer in any intelligent species
life. Something which is bound to have a beginning, a high point and
an end, as resources run out and pollution takes over. Without
accepting this simple fact of life we are preparing our children for
a future which is physically impossible to bring about...<br>
- - <br>
Even though our situation looks special — thanks to our massive
overuse of technology — our civilization’s decline will share many
of its traits with its predecessors. Knowing how deeply unaware both
the general public and the ruling classes are, I bet once things
starts slipping there will be little if any chance of anyone
stopping the landslide before the whole shebang hits the bottom of
the valley. The reasons, as always, are panic and compounding
mistakes...<br>
<blockquote><b>This is how all civilizations end: in denial,
followed by panic.</b><br>
</blockquote>
Knowing that any civilization on the planet was a time limited offer
— ours included — makes acceptance much easier though. I feel no
resentment neither towards the political class, nor industrialists.
Sure, our civilization could’ve been managed much better — at least
in theory — but this is what we got. While keeping this in mind
might be a heavy burden, it also saves one from falling for
demagogues, tyrants and death cultists insisting how we must all
fight (and die) in the cleansing flames of a holy war. No. The end
of a civilization is not God’s punishment, but a fact of life due to
a number of factors simultaneously at play. Resource depletion is
just one of them. There is no one to blame, and no one can bring
back the good old days either. Instead, we need to look forward, no
matter how dark or light the future might seem, and focus on
managing a graceful landing for this unsustainable little
civilization of ours.<br>
<br>
Until next time,<br>
B<br>
Written by B<br>
A critic of modern times - offering ideas for honest contemplation.
Also on Substack: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://thehonestsorcerer.substack.com/">https://thehonestsorcerer.substack.com/</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://thehonestsorcerer.medium.com/death-cults-doomers-and-an-end-of-a-civilization-363c8fe033e9">https://thehonestsorcerer.medium.com/death-cults-doomers-and-an-end-of-a-civilization-363c8fe033e9</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<font face="Calibri"> <i>[The news archive - interview with a
climate scientist ]</i></font><br>
<font face="Calibri"> <font size="+2"><i><b>January 10, 2006 </b></i></font>
</font><br>
<font face="Calibri"> </font> January 10, 2006: The New York Times
interviews MIT's Kerry Emanuel regarding his research on climate
change and hurricanes.<br>
There is no doubt that in the last 20 years, the earth has been
warming up. And it's warming up much too fast to ascribe to any
natural process we know about.<br>
We still don't have a good grasp of how clouds and water vapor, the
two big feedbacks in the climate system, will respond to global
warming. What we are seeing is a modest increase in the intensity of
hurricanes.<br>
<br>
I predicted years ago that if you warmed the tropical oceans by a
degree Centigrade, you should see something on the order of a 5
percent increase in the wind speed during hurricanes. We've seen a
larger increase, more like 10 percent, for an ocean temperature
increase of only one-half degree Centigrade.<br>
<br>
Q. So what are the implications of increased ocean temperatures?<br>
<br>
A. Not much for storms at the time of landfall. But if you look at
the whole life of storms in large ocean basins, we are seeing
changes. And even if that doesn't have an immediate effect, people
ought to be concerned about this because it is a large change in a
natural phenomenon.<br>
<br>
Q. There are scientists who say of fossil fuel consumption and
global warming, We may not have all the evidence yet, but we ought
to be acting as if the worst could happen. Do you agree?<br>
<br>
A. It's always struck me as odd that this country hasn't put far
more resources into research on alternative energy. Europeans are.
France has managed to go 85 percent nuclear in its electrical
generation. And the Europeans have gotten together to fund a major
nuclear fusion project. It almost offends my pride as a U.S.
scientist that we've fallen down so badly in this competition...<br>
- -<br>
Q. Would you ever buy a house on the beach?<br>
<br>
A. I'd love to! But if I could do that, I'd insist on paying for my
risk. And I'd do what is now being called "the Fire Island option,"
which involves putting up flimsy houses that you don't mind losing
to a storm. You don't insure them.<br>
<br>
Q. Almost concurrent to Hurricane Katrina, you published a
beautifully packaged book, "Divine Wind: The History and Science of
Hurricanes." How did you feel about the timing of its publication?<br>
<br>
A. Not terribly good. If one is just interested in sales, I suppose
it was fortuitous. But I was trying to convey a sense of hurricanes
as not just things of scientific interest, but as beautiful. A
leopard is a very beautiful animal. But if you took it out of its
cage, it would go for your jugular. Anyone can understand that
neither a leopard nor a hurricane is a willful killer.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/10/science/10conv.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0">http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/10/science/10conv.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><font face="Calibri"> <br>
</font><font face="Calibri"><br>
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