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Author Topic: Future Earth  (Read 36692 times)

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AGelbert

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Hope for CHEAP Hydrogen Production
« Reply #45 on: September 22, 2014, 02:33:48 pm »
UH OH! The Fossil Fueler Fascists have to BUY ANOTHER PATENT to crush ANOTHER cheap energy for everybody technology!  
Nanosized hydrogen generator uses light and two-dimensional graphene

September 19, 2014

Source:

Argonne National Laboratory

Quote

Summary:

Researchers have created a small scale “hydrogen generator” that uses light and a two-dimensional graphene platform to boost production of the hard-to-make element. The research also unveiled a previously unknown property of graphene. The two-dimensional chain of carbon atoms not only gives and receives electrons, but can also transfer them into another substance. 

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140919165440.htm


Agelbert NOTE:Please Observe the Fossil fueler REACTION to CHEAP HYDROGEN generation technology from SUNLIGHT and Graphene below:
                                 
 


He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Future Earth
« Reply #46 on: September 22, 2014, 05:59:28 pm »
What cannot continue, will not continue.



But those who are fossil fueler WEDGES (a wedge is, as any engineer would know, the SIMPLEST TOOL  ), the above graphs are NOT representative of an exponential function.   
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Future Earth?
« Reply #47 on: October 07, 2014, 07:41:38 pm »
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4l3pBovB_c&feature=player_embedded
Excellent quote from the Venus Project founder:
Quote
If you were raised by headhunters, you would collect shrunken heads. If I asked you if it bothered you to have 6 shrunken heads, you would probably say, "Yes! My brother has a dozen!"  ;D
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz-hnyVRvpM&feature=player_embedded
Democratic Womanism 

PART 1 of the Ex Curia Solution   


Golden Rule Government - A Legal Lawful System Based on Caring instead of Conquest
by Jailhouse Judge Agelbert

Please excuse the nunc pro tunc (I'll fix the typos, spaces and add emphasis fonts and smileys  later - be patient) in this proposed world wide (and humbly submitted, of course!) legislation.  ;D


Background:

Golden Rule Government, not to be confused with fiscal policy in government (today mostly given lip service) where borrowing is only authorised except for investment, is a total ex curia replacement ot our hopelessly elitist, fascist, dysfunctional, profit over planet, biosphere destroying and human misery producing (and so on) social governing structure.

This new approach is not a reform of the old; it requires the scrapping of the old because the status quo is based on conquest. This new system mat be labeled "feminine" because it is based on caring.

However, overall, it is utilitarian in its application , not "sentimental", as anything labeled "femine" by our society disingenuously, pejoratively and patronizingly might claim.
In philosophy the male-centered versus the feminine approach are considered areas of moral

psychology:
Quote
... area of moral psychology focuses on whether there is a distinctly female approach to ethics that is grounded in the psychological differences between men and women.
Discussions of this issue focus on two claims:
(1) traditional morality is male-centered, and
(2) there is a unique female perspective of the world which can be shaped into a value theory.
According to many feminist philosophers, traditional morality is male-centered since it is modeled after practices that have been traditionally male-dominated, such as acquiring property, engaging in business contracts, and governing societies. The rigid systems of rules required for trade and government were then taken as models for the creation of equally rigid systems of moral rules, such as lists of rights and duties.

Women, by contrast, have traditionally had a nurturing role by raising children and overseeing domestic life. These tasks require less rule following, and more spontaneous and creative action. Using the woman's experience as a model for moral theory, then, the basis of morality would be spontaneously caring for others as would be appropriate in each unique circumstance. On this model, the agent becomes part of the situation and acts caringly within that context. This stands in contrast with male-modeled morality where the agent is a mechanical actor who performs his required duty, but can remain distanced from and unaffected by the situation. A care-based approach to morality, as it is sometimes called, is offered by feminist ethicists as either a replacement for or a supplement to traditional male-modeled moral systems.
http://www.iep.utm.edu/ethics/

Of course, all ethical conduct is based on some basic concept of what is right and what is wrong (i.e. morality). While there ARE people, a lot of them, out there that argue that ethics has no place in social structure UNLESS it is "situational" (see Orwell) in nature, what they are really advocating, adopting, espousing and defending is  a Machiavellian view of government of the people, by the elite and for the elite.

The issue, nevertheless, is further "muddled" by the claim that "morality" is a human invention that doesn't "do the Darwinian math" of "reality".  They claim that what is "moral/ethical" for one tribe may be "immoral" for another so the best (i.e. "real world")  course of action is to shake hands and come out fighting (i.e. Conquest is the ultimate "morality").

Actus reus
Action or conduct that is a constituent element of a crime, as opposed to the mental state of the accused.

An excellent example of the LACK of "do the math" logic in our closed system biosphere by the Court System of Homo SAPs is poaching. Ask a lawyer to define poaching. While said professional may give lip service to the deleterious effects on the biosphere in general and the poached species of wildlife in particular due to this "illicit" activity, the APPROACH to this life destroying actus reus is ridiculously limited to the typical legalese tunnel vision of  'seeing the stolen healthy trees' PROPERTY, hair splitting illogic, that ignores the forest fire'. That is, the health and perpetuation of the 'impacted species' is measured only with regard to computing damages to the Homo SAP tribe or nation who 'owns' the animals being poached.

Furthermore, if the poacher is doing the bidding of a foreign government to undermine the GDP of the 'enemy' or some other 'justified' activity (according to social Darwinian situational 'ethics' Homo SAP juris-imprudent Court Systems) he is, acting 'lawfully'. It just depends (see SOPHISTRY and the practice of law) which group of Homo SAPS you base your 'fealty' too.

So what's the problem with loyalty to your tribe? Does not the life and welfare of 'your tribe' outweigh all other 'sentimental' notions of questionable ethical behavior? Well, at this point a lawyer will have a field day answering with a fascinating but thoroughly contorted and convoluted amount of 'logic' that basically says, YES (with several escape clause conditional "no" gray areas - be sure to consult a lawyer for each gray area.). The Homo SAP Court System has a sliding scale of ethics where "legal" is "lawful"(i.e. ethical/moral) sometimes but NOT ALWAYS. That's just the way it is among apex predators in a social Darwinian "real world' pecking order. Any other 'sentimental' and 'idealistic' and/or 'ridiculously utopian' notions of ethical conduct are just magical/wishful thinking for reality challenged ignoramuses. The current Court System used by Homo SAP governments  is the ONLY 'workable' system, Sniff! 

IF our concern (see trees versus forest) was exclusively occupying the king of the hill position among competing Homo SAPS, I would agree. But that fails to do the overall biosphere Darwinian (see natural selection and species extinction) MATH. Hence it is not just ridiculous to design and operate a Government/Court System predicated on Conquest, it is not ethical in any sense when the FOREST that Homo SAPS REQUIRE for the health, welfare and perpetuation of their species is COMPUTED into the MATH.

Idealist? Utopian? Try NOT OPTIONAL. In our biosphere, the ethical BOTTOM LINE is NOT some man made philosophical concept that defines "ethical" or "unethical" behavior in terms of what we do to each other and ignores other life forms. The ethical BOTTOM LINE is whether what we DO produces our DEATH or our LIFE, PERIOD.

Therefore, we must (see NOT OPTIONAL) strive, in order to save our own arses, for a Governmental/Court System that does NOT operate on a sliding scale of sophistic fun and games based on loyalty to one Homo SAP tribe/government/corporation/Bar association (you knew I would throw that in, didn't you? - I know - it's dirty pool - but like it!) over another.   

Well then, let's talk a bit about ethics that DON'T operate on a sliding scale of "morality". Let's try to get a bird's eye view of the BIG picture in regard to ethics.
Philosophy says this about that:

Quote
...The term "meta" means after or beyond, and, consequently, the notion of metaethics involves a removed, or bird's eye view of the entire project of ethics. We may define metaethics as the study of the origin and meaning of ethical concepts. When compared to normative ethics and applied ethics, the field of metaethics is the least precisely defined area of moral philosophy. It covers issues from moral semantics to moral epistemology. ]

That doesn't seem to get us anywhere. But this is a good start.

Quote
Two issues, though, are prominent:
(1) metaphysical issues concerning whether morality exists independently of humans, and
(2)psychological issues concerning the underlying mental basis of our moral judgments and conduct.

Since the  metaphysical issue is a gigantic can of worms in regard to ethics and morality, I have not referenced that contentious area in formulating the utilitarian "math" of Golden Rule Government.

Quote
... area of meta-ethics involves the psychological basis of our moral judgments and conduct, particularly understanding what motivates us to be moral.
We might explore this subject by asking the simple question, "Why be moral?" Even if I am aware of basic moral standards, such as don't kill and don't steal, this does not necessarily mean that I will be psychologically compelled to act on them.

Some answers to the question "Why be moral?" are to avoid punishment, to gain praise, to attain happiness, to be dignified, or to fit in with society.
Many will claim THEIR "mental basis of moral judgements and conduct is the only VALID mental basis for moral judgements and conduct.

Without evidence to back this claim, they are just smoking that crack pipe of "do as I say, not as I do". The "best of all possible worlds" argument is also fallacious simply because all the alternatives out there are willfully disdained, discarded or simply ignored. See Procrustean bed.
The mental basis of our moral judgements and conduct can only be justified if the following takes place as a result of the said moral judgements and conduct:
1. A steadily improving and diverse fauna and flora in the biosphere.
2. A steady Bioremediation of all toxins in the biosphere.
3. A steady and consistent policy of emulating nature in bringing about a zero waste economy for the benefit of all earthlings.
4. Equal protection among humans from other humans.
5. Equal representation among humans (vote, petition, proposed legislation and law enforcement).
6. Equal access to services.
7. Equal punishment for wrong conduct.
8. Guaranteed Minimum standard of health, education and income to insure the dignity of even the most poverty stricken, disabled, handicapped or just plain dysfunctional from mental disease or laziness. "A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones." Gandhi
9. No statute of limitations on any crime for any reason and no limited liability for any human in any form of business, corporate charter, club, police, military governmental, bath club, etc. You do the crime, you do the time and you pay your share of the fine.   
10. Legal tender laws are carbon footprint/energy based (yeah, it's complicated but is VERY specific about SUBTRACTING the value of any product the EXACT amount of planetary piggery used to manufacture it, PERIOD.

Utopic? Nope. In fact, anything else, as in what we are doing NOW, is criminally negligent suicide. The status quo is not a measured, prudent, logical, or even social Darwinian approach to survival of the species. And forget about thriving when you are arrogantly eliminating diversity of life in a closed system such as our biosphere without even understanding scientifically WTF all these many and varied life forms out there do to contribute to our welfare.

Get this, people. What we are doing IS NOT WORKING. What part of that do you not understand?  ???

As reasonable, logical, intelligent (and so on) humans, it's time to give this strange idea born of the apparent benefits YOU have gotten from the dysfunctional human structure that you are not shooting yourself in the foot. Incremental measures and working within the "system" are doomed to failure because the "system" is based on unscientific principles of conquest.

We live in a closed system. A bubble of life, if you will. The only morality of life is, hello?, A LIFE GIVING social structure. Al the rest is baloney. We aren't talking about singing cumbaya and dancing with permaculture flowers in our head, people! we are talking about DOING THE MATH for a closed SYSTEM called the biosphere! YES, there are scads of life forms here that we can trample willy nilly and they don't fight back because they aren't self aware. SO WHAT!!? Are you going to sit there and tell me that we are going to promote LIFE by continuing to increase the rate of DEATH of non-self aware species as well as the MISERY of ours? GET OUTTA HERE with that Orwellian mindfork!

So you don't believe in God or right or wrong. And? Do you believe in breathing? Yep. Same with eating (and so on). See defecating where you eat. We are there. What part of that can't you wrap your head around? The MORALITY/ETHICS of a LIFE GIVING modus operandi and modus vivendi are not optional if you want to ensure the survival of your species. That is the math.

What's all that got to do with Golden Government Rule?

EVERYTHING!

Let us now move to WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD, so to speak.

Quote
Normative Ethics

Normative ethics involves arriving at moral standards that regulate right and wrong conduct. In a sense, it is a search for an ideal litmus test of proper behavior. The Golden Rule is a classic example of a normative principle: We should do to others what we would want others to do to us. Since I do not want my neighbor to steal my car, then it is wrong for me to steal her car. Since I would want people to feed me if I was starving, then I should help feed starving people. Using this same reasoning, I can theoretically determine whether any possible action is right or wrong. So, based on the Golden Rule, it would also be wrong for me to lie to, harass, victimize, assault, or kill others. The Golden Rule is an example of a normative theory that establishes a single principle against which we judge all actions. Other normative theories focus on a set of foundational principles, or a set of good character traits.

The key assumption in normative ethics is that there is only one ultimate criterion of moral conduct, whether it is a single rule or a set of principles.

The Golden Rule Government social structure uses computers (a LOT!) to DO THE MATH. This "math" is a biosphere life giving math MORALITY that is sine qua none for the perpetuation of the human species. You may say it is the formula for transitioning from Homo SAP to Homo sapiens as a society. There are many among us that are there already. But the Homo SAPS defending the biosphere ignoring LAW of CONQUEST "morality" are in the way.

I will discuss how to, through friendly persuasion, logic, prudent, measured, consistent, confident (and so on) PEACEFUL activity (or the lack of it - lack of activity, RE, not lack of peace - watch it!  ;D), we can save our arses along with thousands of other earthling species.

But not now. I want to see how the worthies here respond. If I see genuine interest born of a realization of seriousness of our plight and respect for the value of a REAL "do the math" Golden Rule Government proposal, rather than accusations of ignorance, puffery, hypocrisy or flatulence accompanied with disdain, sarcasm or branding of my post as flower child whining utopian blather, then I will get the message, loud and clear that, no matter what the risk of our current suicidal trajectory, you are not interested in a working solution and prefer the delusion that incremental reforms (see lipstick on a four footed truffle forager) will save Thelma and Louise from the laws of physics.

It is true, that once implemented, the Golden Rule Government will be the new "curia", among other things, but since the status quo will fight to the death to prevent said system change, the Golden Rule Government is an EX CURIA solution to our dysfunctional and brutal system. And, of course, if you want to implement Golden Rule Government, you are going to have believe in it to the point of willing to lose everything you have, including your life, simply for adopting the peaceful activities (and lack of them) required to get the Homo SAPs to wake up and smell the Grand Canyon of species extinction.

Sure, it might not work. But what we are doing now has a 100% probability of not working. Stupid is as stupid does. Have a nice day.



He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Future Earth
« Reply #49 on: October 20, 2014, 07:48:19 pm »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oH9i1n_eXko&feature=player_embedded


Pequeño: How Everyone is Capable of Doing Their Part to ‘Change the World’


Stefanie Spear | October 20, 2014 4:13 pm

Pequeño, part of the Action4Climate video competition, sets out to find ways people living in Mexico can reduce their impact on the Earth. From eating to commuting to work, filmmakers Diego Martinez, Ana Gutiérrez and Juan Pablo Mayorga, ask, “So, what can a group of persons do to face climate change?”

Throughout the film they provide alternatives on how to live life in a more sustainable way, including growing your own food and using bikes to generate power for community events. This inspiring and thoughtful film shows how everyone is capable of doing their part. As Rachel Kyte, World Bank’s vice president and special envoy for climate change, wrote in her blog post the week after the UN Climate Summit in New York City, “It was Margaret Mead who said, ‘Never doubt that a small number of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.’”

The Action4Climate video competition received more than 230 entries from 70 countries from students inspired to share their climate change stories. To watch other Action4Climate videos, click here (at link below).

http://ecowatch.com/2014/10/20/everyone-capable-change-world/
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Future Earth
« Reply #50 on: November 07, 2014, 10:08:34 pm »
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-dzfnXVM1w&feature=player_embedded
This is NOT the "worse case scenario" in the future because the main ENEMY is supposed to be fellow Homo SAPS. That is entertaining but rather quaint. We've been through the Middle Ages and various world wars. The NEXT mess will have a climate catastrophe woven into the "fun".
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Future Earth
« Reply #51 on: November 10, 2014, 02:10:32 am »
11/07/2014 05:58 PM     

IPCC Issues Final Warning on Climate Change

SustainableBusiness.com News

 

While we mentioned the IPCC's final climate report earlier this week, we'd be remiss if we didn't provide you with more details about it.

The Climate Change 2014 Synthesis Report summarizes the three reports the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued over the past two years and contains even sterner warnings - if that's possible.

 Keep in mind that, as in every report the IPCC has issued, scientists err on the conservative side. Many of the extreme weather events we're seeing today were first predicted to begin in the second half of this century. 800 scientists from across the world contributed to this most comprehensive assessment of climate change ever. 

The upshot is, the extreme weather events we've been seeing are nothing - they will get unimaginably worse unless the world responds much more aggressively NOW.   

IPCC 2014

Let's start with their blockbuster statement:


Because there must be an absolute limit on cumulative greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere (to support life on earth), the use of fossil fuels must be significantly scaled back in the coming decades, and eliminated entirely by 2100 (unless all carbon is captured).

This is the result of the world waiting so long to take action. The more we pump into the atmosphere, the less room there is for more. 

"We have little time before the window of opportunity to stay within 2ºC of warming closes," states Rajendra Pachauri, Chair of the IPCC. 

"To keep a good chance of staying below the 2C, and at manageable costs, our emissions should drop 40-70% globally by 2050, and fall to zero or below by 2100."  At the same time, renewable energy must grow from 30% now (including to hydro) to 80% by 2050.

If greenhouse gas emissions simply continue as they are now, we are "increasing the likelihood of widespread and profound impacts affecting all levels of society and the natural world."

"We have the opportunity, and the choice is in our hands. The solutions are many and allow for continued economic and human development. All we need is the will to change."

At this point, halting emissions isn't enough, we must also take strong adaptation measures to deal with what's already baked into the climate system, they say. The longer this takes, the more it will cost.

But We Can Still Turn This Into An Opportunity

Yes, this is frightening, there's no doubt about it, and while getting to zero emissions may seem impossible, we need to see it as the opportunity that it is.

"Phasing out fossil fuels is about different investment opportunities: the IPCC estimates that annual investment in low-carbon electricity will increase by $147 billion and investment for energy efficiency in transport, industry and buildings by $336 billion compared to a business-as-usual scenario from 2010-2029. Zero emissions do not imply zero growth," says Sean Kidney, President of Climate Bonds. 

And these technologies are now much more affordable now, with solar and wind able to compete on price with fossil fuels.

"What we need to fund is essentially a shift to green (climate-smart) infrastructure. The good news is that infrastructure investment is nothing new, and while the massive scale and speed of change required is unprecedented, the tools and instruments are well-known and well-proven; from regulation to floor
 pricing and partial guarantees. All policy makers need to do is pull them out of the bottom drawer and put them to work for the climate," says Kidney.

Unfortunately, that step is the hardest, because every action is a drag-out fight with Republicans, who are now taking over Congress.   

"In the starkest terms ever used, the scientific community is looking world leaders directly in the eye and demanding
 they wake up. To fight global poverty, sustain stable governments and societies, and maintain a livable planet, all findings indicate that we should kick fossil fuels to the curb. The silver lining to the report is that it recognizes clean energy climate solutions are affordable and ready to deploy," says Michael Brune, Executive Director of Sierra Club.   

"We do not need any more reports - we need action. We don't have any more time to coddle fossil fuel billionaires or politicians who will eschew responsibility at every corner. That's what the 400,000 people who marched in September demanded and that is what the scientific community is again confirming. The stakes for negotiations in Lima and Paris are now obvious, and the table is set for world leaders to take significant, immediate action to avert catastrophe."



Read our articles on the three reports issued in 2013-2014:

IPCC Releases Climate Research Update: Warming is Unequivocal

IPCC Update Emphasizes Series of Multiplying Risks

3rd Installment of IPCC Report: We CAN Do It If We Act NOW

Here's the Synthesis report:
 
Website: www.ipcc.ch/

http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/25995
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Future Earth
« Reply #52 on: November 13, 2014, 08:00:11 pm »
Pope Francis: ‘Unbridled Consumerism’ Is Destroying Our Planet

http://ecowatch.com/2014/11/13/pope-francis-unbridled-consumerism-g20/

Agelbert NOTE about the Fossil Fuel Forked UP Future (In pictures...  ;D):

             



The 1%'s Responsibility to Shoulder 80% of the COST of a 100% Renewable Energy World.
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Future Earth
« Reply #54 on: November 24, 2014, 02:55:48 pm »


Extreme Weather Will Be ‘New Climate Normal’      Without Immediate Action, Warns World Bank   


Anastasia Pantsios | November 24, 2014 10:37 am

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said this weekend that the organization’s investment focus will be on clean energy and that it will back coal-fired and other fossil fuel projects only when there is “extreme need.” Flying in the face of a popular climate denier narrative that says phasing out fossil fuels and addressing extreme poverty can’t be done at the same time, Kim said climate change threatened efforts to tackle poverty.

His remarks followed the release of the World Bank’s new report, Turn Down the Heat: Confronting the New Climate Normal. It said among other things that the extreme weather impacts of climate change may now be unavoidable and that they are impacting people’s food and water security as well as threatening their safety. But it also said, “More and more voices are arguing that is possible to grow greener without necessarily growing slower. Today, we know that action is urgently needed on climate change, but it does not have to come at the expense of economic growth.”

“There is growing evidence that warming close to 1.5 Centigrade above pre-industrial levels is locked in to the Earth’s atmospheric system due to past and predicted emissions of greenhouse gases, and climate change impacts such as extreme heat events may now be unavoidable,” the report asserted. “As the planet warms, climatic conditions, heat and other weather extremes which occur once in hundreds of years, if ever, and considered highly unusual or unprecedented today would become the ‘new climate normal’ as we approach 4°C—a frightening world of increased risks and global instability.”

“Today’s report confirms what scientists have been saying—past emissions have set an unavoidable course to warming over the next two decades, which will affect the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people the most,” said Kim. “We’re already seeing record-breaking temperatures occurring more frequently, rainfall increasing in intensity in some places and drought-prone regions like the Mediterranean becoming drier. “These changes make it more difficult to reduce poverty and put in jeopardy the livelihoods of millions of people. They also have serious consequences for development budgets, and for institutions like the World Bank Group, where our investments, support and advice must now also build resilience and help affected populations adapt.”

The 200-plus page report enumerated the impacts of heat waves, prolonged droughts, disappearing glaciers, rising sea levels, heavy rainfall and vanishing forests on different parts of the world from Mexico City to Benghazi to Central Asia and spotlighted what it called “The Case for Immediate Action.”

Immediate action, the report said, meant acting quickly to disinvest in what it called “the carbon intensive, fossil-fuel-based infrastructure” which releases climate change-causing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. It said that in some cases, there might be no alternative to funding fossil fuel projects to supply electricity to impoverished areas, but overall, the World Bank’s priority would be backing clean, renewable energy projects.

“At the World Bank Group we will use our financial capacity to help tackle climate change,” said the report. “We will innovate and bring forward new financial instruments. We will use our knowledge and our convening power. We will use our evidence and data to advocate and persuade. In short, we will do everything we can to help countries and communities build resilience and adapt to the climate impacts already being felt today and ensure that finance flows to where it is most needed.”

“The good news is that we can take action that reduces the rate of climate change and promotes economic growth, ultimately stopping our journey down this dangerous path,” said Kim. “World leaders and policy makers should embrace affordable solutions like carbon pricing and policy choices that shift investment to clean public transport, cleaner energy and more energy efficient factories, buildings and appliances.”

http://ecowatch.com/2014/11/24/extreme-weather-world-bank/
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Future Earth
« Reply #55 on: November 24, 2014, 04:07:28 pm »
Quote
There is nothing rational about rebellion.

To rebel against insurmountable odds is an act of faith. And without this faith the rebel is doomed. This faith is intrinsic to the rebel the way caution and prudence are intrinsic to those who seek to fit into existing power structures.

The rebel, possessed by inner demons and angels, is driven by visions familiar to religious mystics. And it is the rebel alone who can save us from corporate tyranny.

I do not know if these rebels will succeed. But I do know that a world without them is hopeless.


Chris Hedges

Why We Need Professional Revolutionists   


Posted on Nov 24, 2014

By Chris Hedges


http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/why_we_need_professional_revolutionists_20141123
 

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

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Re: Future Earth
« Reply #56 on: November 27, 2014, 02:40:57 pm »

Storm surge: Hurricane Sandy

On the second anniversary of Superstorm Sandy making landfall, we are running an extract from a new book by Adam Sobel “Storm Surge: Hurricane Sandy, Our Changing Climate, and Extreme Weather of the Past and Future”. It’s a great read covering the meteorology of the event, the preparation, the response and the implications for the future.

SNIPPET:

Quote
Sandy didn’t need climate change in order to happen, and the story of the disaster doesn’t need climate change to make it important. The main subject of this book is Sandy, and you can read large fractions of the book without seeing climate change mentioned at all. But climate change looms large when we try to think about what Sandy means for the future.

Sandy was not just an extreme fluke, something that we can assume won’t happen for another few hundred years. But neither is it “the new normal”—something that is sure to happen again soon, and often from now on.

Almost certainly it’s somewhere in between. We’re very unlikely to see another Sandy this year, or next, or even in the next decade or two. We’re not that much more vulnerable today than we were a few decades ago. But at the time of Sandy, we were always more vulnerable than we realized. And the pace of change is quickening.

Steven T. Corneliussen says: 30 Oct 2014 at 6:16 PM

Thanks for this informative posting and for the emphasis on shoreline overdevelopment–national folly that continues despite growing awareness of rising seas. Yes, the “most serious problems highlighted by Sandy were not in the preparations right before the disaster or in the response right after. They were in the construction of our coastlines over the span of many decades.”

In Virginia there’s a potential national symbol of the problem and the folly: the new national monument–a form of national park–at low-lying, ocean-facing Fort Monroe, the Chesapeake Bay’s flat Gibraltar. The Army left in 2011.

Developer-kowtowing politicians then contrived a token national monument, a form of national park. They bizarrely bifurcated it on the bayfront for developers. Earlier this year, the Union of Concerned Scientists issued the report National Landmarks at Risk: How Rising Seas, Floods and Wildfires are Threatening the United States’ Most Cherished Historic Sites.

The report devotes three pages to Fort Monroe, emphasizing that Hurricane Isabel caused more than $100 million in damage there in 2003. That was long before anybody contemplated blanketing the sand spit with condos that politicians  , apparently unaware of George Orwell  ;D, insist must be called historically compatible residences.

Wetlands Watch has charged that despite “significant new residential development investments” planned for this “increasingly fragile and potentially dangerous landscape,” Fort Monroe’s newly approved development plan “does not consider the long-term costs/benefits.”   >:(

That mid-Atlantic environmental group, sometimes cited in New York Times coverage of sea rise, called the development plan simply “stupid.” Note please that this 570-acre sand spit ranks high among US national treasures. It saw slavery’s 1619 beginning and then–as told in the 2011 New York Times feature “How Slavery Really Ended in America”–it also saw the 1861 start of slavery’s demise, in events that Civil War historian Edward Ayers once called “the greatest moment in American history.”

Yet despite both sea-level rise and historic importance, politicians plan condos for the huge gap in the fake national monument that they contrived. 

Last year, the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot warned “a national treasure will be squandered.” The National Parks Conservation Association exclaimed “We can’t let this happen.” But we are letting it happen.

It’s well worth noting, though, that the situation stands ready to be made a national symbol of our continuing national fecklessness and foolishness concerning sea-level rise.  >:( For links and for more information, please see http://www.fortmonroenationalpark.org/ .

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2014/10/storm-surge-hurricane-sandy/#sthash.eENX0JxB.dpuf


THE ABOVE is the RESULT of a WAVY JET STREAM.

The ABOVE is due to GLOBAL WARMING which is due to the burning of fossil fuels and massive fossil fuel industry profit over planet.    Get it?

Agelbert NOTE: This is really quite simple, sports fans; it costs money to clean up our act and those that profited from the polluting energy industries DON'T WANT TO PAY IT.  They did the crime. MAKE THEM do the time and pay the fine. Suicide is stupid. Are we stupid?  ???


 TINA to a Low Carbon Economy!

Renewable energy=                                 =Fossil Fuelers
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Future Earth
« Reply #57 on: December 03, 2014, 08:04:32 pm »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTkxheYBgHU&feature=player_embedded
Is Extinction on the Table at the Lima Climate Talks?   ???
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Future Earth
« Reply #58 on: December 04, 2014, 02:51:19 pm »
Preparing the Next Generation for Skilled Jobs in the Clean Energy Sector

Maria Blais Costello 
December 04, 2014  |  1 Comments 

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Internship Program, created and managed by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC), is providing valuable support to Massachusetts’ growing clean energy economy. By connecting Massachusetts students and recent graduates with paid internships at clean energy companies across the state, MassCEC is helping to ensure that there is a steady stream of prepared, talented, and experienced young professionals ready to meet the growing market demand.

Training the Clean Energy Economy Leaders of Tomorrow

The clean energy industry in Massachusetts is experiencing significant growth. MassCEC’s 2014 Clean Energy Industry Report notes that MA clean energy jobs grew by 10.5 percent from 2013. Massachusetts has over 88,000 clean energy workers and nearly 6,000 clean energy firms. This growing market sector presents both an opportunity and a challenge. In order for industry growth to continue, businesses need to be able to hire new employees, which requires both the capital to afford those workers, and an experienced labor pool to draw from.

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center saw the need to connect prospective employers and new clean energy start-ups with promising entrants into the workforce. The Massachusetts Clean Energy Internship Program has matched two key resources: a growing population of environmentally conscious college students and a growing clean energy sector in search of skilled workers.

Since its creation four years ago, the program has placed 952 interns at 228 companies. More than 50 interns have gained permanent positions at their host companies, while many others have found positions elsewhere in the state clean energy industry.

How the Program Works

Through the Massachusetts Clean Energy Internship Program, MassCEC provides paid internships for college students interested in working for a clean energy company in Massachusetts. Applicants submit their resume, unofficial transcript, and proof of Massachusetts residency into an online database, developed by MassCEC. The database serves to match students with prospective employers. To be eligible, participating students must either be enrolled at a higher education institution in Massachusetts, a permanent Massachusetts resident attending an out of state institution, or recently graduated within the previous year. Students and recent graduates gain valuable workforce experience through their internships and build connections in the Massachusetts clean energy industry.

Employer participation in contingent upon submitting to MassCEC an application detailing the company’s clean energy focus and then determining if they qualify as a “clean energy” company as defined by MassCEC’s founding legislation. Additionally, employers must also have a Massachusetts-based office and be registered to do business in the state. Employers deemed eligible to participate in the program by MassCEC staff are able to search the online database and select candidate(s) to interview for an internship. Once the eligible candidate is found, MassCEC then issues an award letter to the employer before allowing the student to begin their work.

Businesses that participate in the internship program are reimbursed up to $12 an hour for the intern’s labor; the $12 amount can be counted towards wages and taxes. Employers are allowed to pay their interns a higher was than the maximum reimbursable hourly rate, with the employer paying the difference.  This is a significant benefit for companies, especially for startups that would not otherwise be able to afford new interns or employees. Upon completion of the internship session, employers are required to respond to an online survey before any reimbursements are made; similarly, a survey is also sent out to participating students to gather their input on the program. The information from both parties has allowed MassCEC to correct any potential oversights and to streamline the application process.

The impacts of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Internship Program are long-term. By helping clean energy companies grow and by training workers entering the field, MassCEC is helping to prepare the next generation of clean energy leaders and ensuring future market growth.

Leveraging Available Resources for Maximum Impact

The success of the program is due to a smart and simple concept: linking one of Massachusetts’ largest and strongest populations, the higher education sector, with one of its fastest growing industries, the clean energy sector. MassCEC actively promotes this program to colleges across the state, providing career centers with the information they need to successfully leverage the program. After MassCEC’s initial work to launch the initiative, the program has developed considerable momentum, because people in the two sectors have a strong interest in promoting it widely. MassCEC now only has to put continued funding and provide modest administrative work to keep the program going strong.

Additional benefits of the Internship Program have included increased exposure for Massachusetts-based clean energy companies, in both urban and less populated areas of the state, as well as alleviating stubbornly high unemployment among college students, especially during the summer months. Due to heavy interest from both applicants and employers, the program has expanded from a summer-only internship to a year-round program, offering part-time positions in the fall and spring, and full-time positions in the summer.

A Model for other States

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Internship Program could be replicated in other states at any scale: state-wide or regional, technology-specific or all-inclusive. Primary components needed for replication are funding for reimbursements, a population of interested college students, and interested clean energy companies. Since an agency or organization hosting the program is simply serving to facilitate the selection process, very little logistical work is required to administer a similar program once sufficient protocols have been established. As the application process continues to evolve and take on a more digital component, it will also require far less administration on the part of the host entity in the future.

Learn More about this Program

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Internship Program was one of eight recipients of the 2014 State Leadership in Clean Energy Awards, an initiative of the Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA) to highlight exemplary state and municipal programs that advance clean energy markets. (See my previous blog from November 24, 2014.) CESA will be hosting a webinar featuring this program on December 8th. The webinar is free to attend, but registration is required. You can learn more and register here.

For more information about the Massachusetts Clean Energy Internship Program visit www.masscec.com/intern or contact Tamika Jacques, Director of Workforce Development, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center at TJacques@MassCEC.com.

To learn more about CESA, please visit www.cesa.org. The next blog will highlight the New Mexico Renewable Energy Production Tax Credit program, which will also be featured on the December 8th webinar.

The information and views expressed in this blog post are solely those of the author and not necessarily those of RenewableEnergyWorld.com or the companies that advertise on this Web site and other publications. This blog was posted directly by the author and was not reviewed for accuracy, spelling or grammar.

1 Comments

A. G. Gelbert   
 December 4, 2014 

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Internship Program is a prudent, intelligent and much needed application of common sense.
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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SNIPPET from a May 27, 2008 (but every bit as applicable today, if not more so!) Review of the Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too, by James K. Galbraith. New York, London, Toronto, Sydney: Free Press, 2008.

Quote

 Jamie provides a careful analysis of the frontline battles on many of the most important issues--Social Security, health care, inequality, immigration, security after 9-11, trade and outsourcing, and global warming—showing how “market solutions” are designed to enrich a favored oligarchy through a spoils system administered through the state’s structure.

The policy “mistakes” in Iraq or New Orleans or at Bear-Stearns do not result from incompetence—indeed they only appear to be failures because we apply inappropriate measures of success. There is no common good, no public purpose, no shareholder’s interest; we are the prey and governments as well as corporations are run by and for predators. The “failures” enrich the proper beneficiaries even as they “prove” government is no solution.

http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2008/05/the-predator-st.html

Noni Mausa said... 

I have been writing about this topic in my own amateur way since at least 1992. I found it weird that when the idea was accepted at all, it was as a metaphor.

One thing to remember about predators is this: they are animals. By that, I mean they are driven by appetite and competition, and foresight is not part of their repertoire. Perhaps what I mean is that if one is driven by appetite and competition, without foresight, this defines one as an animal despite whatever human potential may be present.

Expecting foresight from predators is to convert them into farmers or feedlot operators, efficient predators who look ahead in the management of their livestock. We really DON'T want to go there.

Noni
Tuesday, May 27, 2008 at 07:08 PM 


Uncle Billy Cunctator said in reply to Noni Mausa...

I think we're there.
Monday, January 24, 2011 at 11:29 PM 


SqueakyRat said in reply to Noni Mausa...

Excellent insight about predators, Noni, though even the lions and tigers seem (implicitly, of course) to estimate whether a given hunt is worth the effort, given the probability of failure. Still, the short time-horizon of capitalist enterprises is pretty notable.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011 at 11:48 AM

Agelbert NOTE: The profit over planet plutocrats and their sycophants fancy themselves to be predators like lions, tigers, giant grizzly bears and so on.       They relish the "we make a daily KILLING   " mindset. They use powerful wild animals as a Darwinian metaphor that places these conscience free, biosphere math challenged morons at the top of the Apex Predator, Alpha Male species pecking order. 

This is an excellent example of arrogant, stupid, self serving wishful thinking, Bernays MINDF UCK.

WHY? Because wild animal predators ONLY attack prey when they are hungry. And the planning and hunting activity they engage in. like whales making bubble traps for fish schools, DOES NOT kill the fish they don't eat. EVERYTHING they do works to PROMOTE a viable biosphere, not DEGRADE it.

If these humans that fancy themselves as "predators" had a lick of sense, they would realize that, in Darwinian terms, they are an EVOLUTIONARY DEAD END! Sure, they technically ARE "predators". But they are predators that DEPLETE their FUTURE food supply based on THE WISHFUL THINKING that they'll "figure something out" when the "supply" is hurting their profits.

HELLO? Any biologist will tell you that when populations get below a certain level, they crash. If the predators are the main contributors to said crash, they go extinct along with their prey.

Animal predators do not have long cognitive time horizons. In that respect, they are similar to the Wall Street predators. However, they have biosphere preserving instincts that DEFINES THEM as SUCCESSFUL predators.

Wall Street Smaht guys, do NOT have that sine qua non  of a successful predator.

They aren't even Dinosaurs except as a cheap shot to the Dinosaurs! The dinosaurs did NOTHING to warrant their extinction; the fossil fuelers INSIST on industrially defecating where they EAT.
 

Their ridiculously short cognitive time horizon will, if we survive them , earn them a place in history as a perfect example of a dysfunctional and self defeating modus operandi. In the ENTIRE natural history of DERANGED and destructive outlier members of, not just our species, BUT ANY species on this planet, the fossil fuelers are number one! 


(Bernays Narcissistic Wild Animal Metaphor stripped) "Predatory" Fossil Fueler profit over planet Energy Resource "Free" Market Solutions 


Wall Streeters in general and fossil fuelers in particular are Evolutionary DEAD END "predators" because, unlike us, they poison their (and our)  home! Tell them to put their Apex Predator metaphor where the sun don't shine!   >:(
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

 

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