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Author Topic: Future Earth  (Read 56991 times)

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AGelbert

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Re: Future Earth
« Reply #195 on: July 11, 2016, 03:44:07 pm »
Why is logging dying? Blame the Market

By George Wuerthner On June 22, 2016 · In Forest Service, Logging, Public Land Management

Environmental regulations and endangered species protections are not at fault for Western logging’s decline.
Note: the opinions expressed in this column are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of High Country News, its board or staff. If you’d like to share an opinion piece of your own, please write Betsy Marston atbetsym@hcn.org.


Critics of public lands like to say that timber jobs declined and mills closed over the last 20 years because environmental protections such as the Endangered Species Act and other laws made the cost of logging skyrocket. This complaint is repeated so often it is usually stated as unqualified truth.

If you believe the rhetoric, the way federal lands are managed has been the problem. If only there were more private owners of the land, local economies would prosper, and there would be stable, long-term stewardship.  

If only that were true. But if you compare the mostly private wood-products industry in the state of Maine to the West’s experiences on public land, you find that environmental regulations had little to do with the demise of logging.

Ninety percent of Maine is forested, and more than 93 percent of the state’s land is privately owned, mostly by large timber companies that sell trees to the wood-products industry.


If private lands lead to prosperity and healthy landscapes, Maine should be the poster child for the country.  And unlike the West, Maine, imposes minimal regulations on private landowners. There are also almost no listed endangered species in Maine to harry the timber industry.

Yet today, the forest-products industry in Maine is a shadow of its former self. In 1980, there were 25 pulp and paper mills in the state. Today, two-thirds of those mills are gone. Since 1990, the state has lost 13,000 of its approximately 17,000 paper-industry jobs, including more than 2,300 in the past five years. The decline continues. Associated wood products companies in Maine have also seen a decline – everything from wood furniture, wood flooring and clothespin producers have closed up shop.

The decline in both employment and production in Maine was caused by the same forces that drastically cut forest industry jobs in the West: foreign competition, which brought in cheaper wood products, technological advances and new automation that allowed computers instead of people to run machinery. High energy prices and labor costs also played a role as plastic :P and steel moved in to replace wood.

Think about the brightly colored plastic Adirondack chairs for sale at Home Depot now replacing the wooden chairs on which they are modeled. Instead of wood rafters, steel-beam has replaced two-by-fours in some construction, and so forth. The decline in newspapers and print materials has also dramatically altered demand for pulp production. All of these factors are affecting the West’s wood industry as much as they affect Maine.

These days, most of the new sawmills and pulp mills built in the United States are in the South. Trees grow faster there, and unlike the Western United States, they can reach harvestable age in a decade or two. To the timber industry, the longer you have to wait to cut trees, the higher the risk. Your trees might die in a forest fire, a beetle outbreak or some other natural event. So locating your mills in places where you can grow a tree to merchantable size quickly is a smart business practice.

Furthermore, most of the Southern timberlands are flat and accessible year-round. In the steep mountains of the West, road construction costs are far greater, and snow limits seasonal access.

So that’s the picture: The decline of the Western wood products industry – like that in Maine – occurred because of economic realities that favor other regions of the globe. Blaming environmentalists, endangered species protection, or environmental regulations is easy. But blame fails to explain a changing world, or help us understand its nuances.

Unlike Maine, the West has an alternative. Its abundant public lands – in particular its wilderness areas, national parks and monuments – provides the foundation for another future for the region. While not all the changes that come with the “new” economy are welcome – take sprawl and increased impacts from recreational users – they can be managed if we make intelligent choices.

The West boasts iconic wildlands like Grand Canyon and Yellowstone national parks, the Owyhee Canyonlands and the Gila Wilderness.
Quote
In the end, federal ownership and protection of wildlands and open spaces is far superior    to the Maine model  of private ownership and maximized profits.

Our model gives us the chance to manage forests sensibly, and it offers at least some potential for a more sustainable future for Western communities.

George Wuerthner 
is a contributor to Writers on the Range, the opinion service of High Country News. He lives in Bend, Oregon, and is an ecologist who has published 38 books about Western environmental issues


http://www.thewildlifenews.com/2016/06/22/why-is-logging-dying-blame-the-market/



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 #196 on: July 19, 2016, 09:30:48 pm »
Agelbert Observation: Given the trajectory of our "civilization" The Theory of Devolution, seems to have more going for it than the /theory of Evolution.   

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Organic life, we are told, has developed gradually from the protozoan to the philosopher, and this development, we are assured, is indubitably an advance. Unfortunately it is the philosopher, not the protozoan, who gives us this assurance.  Bertrand Russell

Quote
"Human nature is bad. Good is a human product . . . A warped piece of wood must be steamed and forced before it is made straight; a metal blade must be put to the whetstone before it becomes sharp. Since the nature of people is bad, to become corrected they must be taught by teachers and to be orderly they must acquire ritual and moral principles." —Sun Tzu

“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished, unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.” ― Voltaire
Quote
We are a banker constructed Imperialist nation, ruled by a consortium of global psychopaths, hell bent on destroying the very planet itself in their selfish quest for money, power and the control of all of us. At this rate the human race may not even be here for the 22nd century.


Quote
Isaiah 1:23 Your leaders are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loves gifts, and follow after rewards: they deny justice to the fatherless, neither does the plight of the widow come to them.

Isaiah 56:11 ...they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his district.

Romans 16:18 ...they serve their own belly; and by GOOD words and FAIR speeches deceive the minds of the simple.

Jer 9:5 ...they exhaust themselves in greed. Their habitation is in the midst of deceit...

Proverbs 22:16 they oppress the poor to increase their riches, and they give to the rich...

Psalm 26:10 In whose hands is mischief, and their right hand (priority) is full of bribes.

Psalm 5:9 There is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is truly wicked; their throat is an open tomb; they flatter with their tongue.

Psalm 12:2 They speak vanity every one with his neighbor: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.

Amos 5:7 They turn justice to bitterness, and neglect whats right in the earth 5:12 they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor from what's right.

2 Peter 2:18 they speak great swelling words of pride, they manipulate using the desires of the people, through much wantonness... 2:19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption...

Isaiah 59:14 judgment is turned away backward, and justice stands far off: for truth is fallen.

1Timonthy 6:5 Perverse men of corrupt minds, destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness...

2 Timothy 3:7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Romans 1:22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.

2 Peter 2:12 But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption; 2:14 Having eyes full of adultery, and cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: a mind they have exercised with greedy practices; cursed men.

Ezekiel 33:31 ...they come to you as the people come ...they hear your words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goes after their greed.

Jeremiah 9:3 they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth; they proceed from evil to evil, and they don't know God ...they deceive every one, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and exhaust themselves in greed. Their habitation is in the midst of deceit; because of deceit they refuse to know God ...their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaks deceit: he speaks peaceably to neighbors, but in his mind he lays their wait. Shall I not visit them for these things? says the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

Proverbs 28:11 The rich man is wise in his own conceit; but the poor that have understanding will search him out.
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 #197 on: July 28, 2016, 07:32:29 pm »
Quote
I spend my time writing about the economy, but the climate data hits me right in the gut

Greg Jericho

I love my graphs and get carried away by data, but if the world keeps warming like this, talking about GDP and housing affordability will all be rather quaint.

Full article with eye opening grapics, irrefutable charts and data:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/28/i-spend-my-time-writing-about-the-economy-but-the-climate-data-hits-me-right-in-the-gut

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 #198 on: August 01, 2016, 08:37:50 pm »


"In the last 40 years, our way of life has reduced the plant and animal population on this planet by 40 to 50%. We will die in a world that is HALF as flourishing with plants and animals as the world we were born to." - Kathleen Deen Moore, Writer and Senior Fellow, Spring Creek Project


Quote

"If God treats you well by teaching you a disastrous lesson, you never forget it". Ray Bradbury
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 #199 on: August 01, 2016, 10:54:36 pm »
Here's a video that is 100% accurate, if a bit melodramatic. Worshippers of fossil fuels are in total denial about the totally suicidal situation we find ourselves in. Peak DEATH is what we should be concerned with, not Peak oil.

Quote
Published on Jun 17, 2016


Part One of Two. Next is Oxygen. What can I say. We f#*ked up bad. We tried to warn you, but not scare you. Should have worried less about scaring folks.

Methane (part one) and Oxygene (part two). One we are getting too much of. The other, we are losing. We have warned of the melting methane threat, but we had no idea. The words "abrupt", "catastrophic", and "collapse" have now entered the lexicon of Climate Change discussions. While trying to soft peddle the threat, we underestimated the feedback loops and runaway affects of secondary gasses and effects. Yes, the human body CAN take an average increase in temperature of a few degrees - but our food sources (grains and rice) cannot. Many scientists are done warning the public. They are saying "Good Bye". Seriously. This is not a joke or a sensationalist grab for attention. We blew it, big time.

Next we are going to look at the unexpected consequences and the effects on our atmospheric oxygen - which NASA tries to placate the public with "greener earth due to increased CO2!", yea, all better. But it's not. Notice the words "on land" in their report. But we don't get the bulk of our oxygene from land or plants on land. We get it from the oceans. And they are dying just as fast as other planetary systems. Sorry. But I'm just the messenger.

To VIEW ALL SOURCE MATERIALS please visit our playlist on Environment/Nature Published on Jun 17, 2016


Part One of Two. Next is Oxygen. What can I say. We f#*ked up bad. We tried to warn you, but not scare you. Should have worried less about scaring folks.

Methane (part one) and Oxygene (part two). One we are getting too much of. The other, we are losing. We have warned of the melting methane threat, but we had no idea. The words "abrupt", "catastrophic", and "collapse" have now entered the lexicon of Climate Change discussions. While trying to soft peddle the threat, we underestimated the feedback loops and runaway affects of secondary gasses and effects. Yes, the human body CAN take an average increase in temperature of a few degrees - but our food sources (grains and rice) cannot. Many scientists are done warning the public. They are saying "Good Bye". Seriously. This is not a joke or a sensationalist grab for attention. We blew it, big time.

Next we are going to look at the unexpected consequences and the effects on our atmospheric oxygen - which NASA tries to placate the public with "greener earth due to increased CO2!", yea, all better. But it's not. Notice the words "on land" in their report. But we don't get the bulk of our oxygene from land or plants on land. We get it from the oceans. And they are dying just as fast as other planetary systems. Sorry. But I'm just the messenger.

To VIEW ALL SOURCE MATERIALS please visit our playlist on Environment/Nature https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...

Thanks, and best of luck in the next few years. Remember: Life's a Gas.


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 #200 on: October 02, 2016, 09:44:52 pm »
09/30/2016 01:21 PM 

Will US Give Up Great Gains Made on Renewable Energy?

SustainableBusiness.com News

Under President Obama, the US has become a world leader on clean energy (say goodbye to this if Trump is elected).

 Amazing gains on wind, solar, LED lighting and electric vehicles have all taken place since he took office in 2008.   

23 states now use renewable electricity as a primary energy source
, says the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).   

Revolution Now, Accelerating Clean Energy, an annual report on this progress from the Department of Energy (DOE), shows how much costs have dropped since 2008 - 94% for LEDs; 73% for batteries; 54% for distributed solar PV; 64% for large-scale solar; and 41% for land-based wind energy.

Last year, over two thirds of new US electric power came from wind and solar PV.


Offshore Wind   

The first (tiny) offshore wind farm in the US is built! off the coast of Rhode Island.

As of 2015, the Interior Department has auctioned 14.6 gigawatts-worth of offshore leases on the east coast. A major 194-turbine farm is moving forward for NYC and many others are in the early stages of development.

Earlier this month, DOE released a National Offshore Wind Strategy, with a goal of producing 86 gigawatts - enough electricity for 23 million homes. Offshore wind farms would serve population centers along our Atlantic and Pacific coasts, the Great Lakes and Hawaii.

Over the next five years, DOE and Interior will support development of improved turbine designs, siting and safety guidelines, and facilitate cooperation among federal agencies to accelerate the process.

Leading Cities

Over the summer, Salt Lake City formally committed to reach 100% renewable energy by 2032 and to cut carbon emissions 80% by 2040 under Climate Positive 2040. 

It joins a dozen cities with a 100% commitment, including San Diego (by 2035) and San Francisco (by 2020). Sierra Club's "Ready for 100" campaign plans to sign 50 cities up by the end of this year. 

Going Forward

 In 12 years, batteries that store energy at utility scale will be as widespread as solar panels are now, revolutionizing the way people use energy, says Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

 And in 15 years, renewables (including hydro) will overtake fracked gas, becoming the dominant energy source in the US!, they project.

This transition to a clean energy economy will drive economic growth for decades, create well-paying jobs and increasing household incomes, concludes NextGen Climate America's report, "Economic Analysis of U.S. Decarbonization Pathways."

If we really want to bring manufacturing back to the US, this is the way to do it. Homegrown companies will produce the parts, equipment, and products for deep decarbonization technologies. 

By investing in clean energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the report shows that over 1 million jobs would be created by 2030 and nearly 2 million by 2050.   

It would be the saddest thing I can think of for us to turn back the clock by electing a president and congress so stuck in the fossil past. 

Read our article, Knock, Knock, Are You Aware the US Can Run on 100% Renewable Energy?

http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/26671
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 #201 on: November 03, 2016, 09:05:38 pm »
Before the Flood

Quote
Published on Oct 30, 2016


Join Leonardo DiCaprio as he explores the topic of climate change, and discovers what must be done today to prevent catastrophic disruption of life on our planet.
➡ Subscribe: http://bit.ly/NatGeoSubscribe
➡ Get the soundtrack on iTunes: http://apple.co/2e6e9dq
➡ Discover your climate impact: http://carbotax.org/
➡ Learn more & take action: http://on.natgeo.com/2eWxnkW

Act Now #BeforeTheFlood:
For every use of #BeforeTheFlood across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram between October 24 – November 18, 21st Century Fox and National Geographic will together donate $1 to Pristine Seas and $1 to the Wildlife Conservation Society, up to $50,000 to each organization.

About Before the Flood:
Before the Flood, directed by Fisher Stevens, captures a three-year personal journey alongside Academy Award-winning actor and U.N. Messenger of Peace Leonardo DiCaprio as he interviews individuals from every facet of society in both developing and developed nations who provide unique, impassioned and pragmatic views on what must be done today and in the future to prevent catastrophic disruption of life on our planet.

Get More National Geographic:
Official Site: http://bit.ly/NatGeoOfficialSite
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About National Geographic:
National Geographic is the world's premium destination for science, exploration, and adventure. Through their world-class scientists, photographers, journalists, and filmmakers, Nat Geo gets you closer to the stories that matter and past the edge of what's possible.

Before the Flood - Full Movie | National Geographic

National Geographic
https://www.youtube.com/natgeo


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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 #202 on: November 04, 2016, 02:10:23 pm »
Climate| Nov. 04, 2016 09:35AM EST

Washington Voters Step Up, Pass the Nation's First Carbon Tax   

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.


In the article body it explains that the new Carbon Tax will enable a DECREASE in the the sales tax  ;D, plus up to $1,500 for a Working Families Tax Credit for low-income families. 

Full article:

http://www.ecowatch.com/carbon-tax-robert-kennedy-jr-2077945567.html
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 #203 on: November 06, 2016, 03:39:19 pm »
Only a radical change in how Americans (and others) live can reduce carbon emissions.  A carbon tax will do next to nothing in reducing carbon consumption but it will send the message that it is OK to pollute if you can pay for it.  It will also send the message that since it is now taxed we don't have worry about carbon in the atmosphere any more.

I will not be voting for this well meaning but simple minded proposition that would cost me seventy five bucks a year just to drive.  The way the machinery of society works it could soon be a mark of status to conspicuously consume carbon just because you have the money to do so.

Typical American bullshit thinking economic manipulations can fix everything.  This is lip service and liable to interfere with effacious solutions which actually can make a difference.

I expect grief from Agelbert about this and I don't care.

 :coffee:

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"This generation has altered the composition of the atmosphere on a global scale through radioactive materials and a steady increase in carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels."

-- President Lyndon B. Johnson, Feb. 2, 1965

Quote

"God always forgives, but the earth does not. Take care of the earth so it does not respond with destruction,"

 -- Pope Francis, at a UN conference in Rome, Nov. 19, 2014

Seems I am not alone, my greatest objection is the burden would be cleverly shifted to the poor.  - K-Dog

From: http://www.progressivevotersguide.com/

Vote NO on I-732

Initiative 732 has divided groups committed to fighting climate change. It would reduce carbon pollution by taxing it and cut other taxes by a similar amount. Although it’s well-intended, puts a strong price on carbon emissions, and tackles an incredibly urgent problem, it has some serious flaws that have generated strong opposition from many progressive groups that are committed to reducing carbon pollution. Opponents have several concerns:

    Although I-732 is supposed to be revenue neutral, drafters inadvertently created huge additional tax breaks for companies like Boeing so it would cost more than it will bring in. A recent state budget analysis has determined that these tax breaks would cost taxpayers approximately $797 million over six years. As a result, I-732 would blow a giant hole in the state budget at a time when we are already failing to adequately fund schools, health care, and other essential services.
    It fails to invest any carbon tax revenue in clean energy sources. Increasing our use of clean energy like solar and wind power is a critical part of fighting climate change, as well as decreasing our use of fossil fuels. In addition, it fails to limit carbon pollution or to enforce the carbon pollution reductions already required by law.
    I-732 proponents failed to engage communities of color and workers – the ones disproportionately impacted by climate change -- in developing an approach to provide an economically just transition away from fossil fuels. The result is an initiative that does not adequately address their priorities and faces strong opposition from groups representing communities of color and labor unions.

I-732 supporters argue the urgency of fighting climate change compels us to act immediately and that we can’t afford to wait for a different proposal. Although we are highly motivated to reduce carbon pollution and appreciate the sentiments of the initiative's supporters, I-732’s flaws are serious enough that we – like most statewide environmental groups - cannot support the proposal.

We look forward to working with a wide range of advocates to create and pass a stronger plan to fight climate change in the near future.
Progressive
Opponents
Fuse WA, Washington State Labor Council, OneAmerica Votes, Front and Centered, Puget Sound Sage, Progreso, Children's Alliance

Other groups that do not support I-732: Washington Conservation Voters, Washington Environmental Council, Sierra Club


Beware Greeks bearing gifts.

     

If it is NOT really a carbon tax, but a scheme to put the burden of paying for pollution on the poor, then I am in agreement with you.

But we cannot avert our eyes from the fact that the unsustainable status quo of energy source exploitation already puts the burden of most of the health downsides from fossil fuel and mining pollution on the poor. The S.C.C. (Social Cost of Carbon)_ is disproportionately born by the poorest in the USA and in the rest of the world.

K-Dog, you and I don't see eye to eye on some issues like the level of police racism, but we are generally on the same page as to the environmental destruction going on. I apologize for berating you in the past on the social Cost of Carbon. I am way to passionate for my own good on that subject.

The problem with pricing carbon is that the most powerful energy lobbies want to game the carbon tax so that we-the-people pay for the cleanup. So, yeah, it's just like them to call something a "carbon tax" that is nothing of the kind and is elitist instead of egalitarian.

But that doesn't take away the problem. The problem is that pollution is degrading the biosphere. So, in a sane world, you recognize that you are in a hole, and you stop digging.

Which means, ANYONE that uses polluting energy should pay for ameliorating the effects of that pollution proportionately. But the fossil fuel industry does not want to hear that because they use much more fossil fuels than they advertise in their exploitation of fossil fuels, be they coal, oil or gas. This is the dirty little (actually it's HUGE) secret to their gamed ERoEI numbers. Fossil fuels, when all the energy inputs are computed, are energy return negative. It's only because of their massive "subsidies" that they can claim a competitive product.

What I am saying is that, in a sane world, you and I would NOT pay anything for fossil fuel welfare queen "subsidies" (as we do NOW 24/7), but would pay X Carbon Tax on a fossil fuel product such as gasoline or "natural" (fossil, not from truly natural methanogenic life forms) gas and such ONLY if we are in the business of extracting fossil fuels for refining and marketing.

THEN, the fossil fuel industry can only sell the product at the correct price. But, if TPTB want to pass the buck from the fossil fuel industry straight to us, then it is obviously a scam every bit as heinous as the present "subsidy" structure.

The status quo is not sustainable. Reality will out. The poorest are already paying the highest price for the biosphere degradation for short term fossil fuel profits.

We can transition rationally and equitably or we can transition with a cascade of collapse events forcing the polluters kicking and screaming to stop polluting. Those are the only two futures that are realistic.

I think you would prefer a rational transition.
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 #204 on: November 13, 2016, 08:58:07 pm »
Abrupt Climate Change * The Hard Truth * Scientists * Guy McPherson Eric Rignot (NASA) & more 
   
Marc Haneburght

Published on Oct 9, 2016

Over and over the solution to abrupt climate change always needs to be in a way to keep this "heat engine" (check my other video with Professor Tim Garrett) of industrial civilization going. All civilizations have failed before us, and this, the most destructive civilization of all, will for sure. There is no solution to death. Most people forget that only Mother Nature could give us a solution, if any. One solution is like Mike Sliwa said, "stop controlling".

There is no controlling Mother Nature. YES, there is a solution for abrupt climate change, "to help and let Mother Nature be". I think the message from Dr. Guy McPherson is the best way going forward in dealing with this subject, and as he says, "some species might make it thru the bottle neck of extinction, and you can help".

If there is a solution it will NOT be done by us Humans but by Mother Nature alone, without our interference. If there is a 0.001% chance of a solution, it will again be only this, "to let Mother Nature be and help Mother Nature do it's own thing in any possible way and see what happens". I personally don't see any way out of this predicament, Mother Nature is in charge of us all. But if you can't live without a solution, then i recommend helping the living planet. If you want a goal going forward in life, i recommend following and maybe joining the green resistance movements and helping the species that surround you (check my other video "A Last Stand" featuring Derrick Jensen). This is not about the future of civilization but about the future of the living planet. Don't be hubris like the rest of the population. Let us be nature's warriors. All of us will die at some point, there is no escape. Thanks for watching.

Produced by Marc Haneburght.


Category
Science & Technology
 



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 #205 on: November 21, 2016, 10:13:10 pm »
Paul Douglas  Lays Out A Faith-Based Approach To Climate Change

November 20, 2016 3:30 PM

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Paul Douglas is reaching out as a man of faith and a meteorologist to talk to evangelicals about climate change.

The former WCCO chief meteorologist has co-written a new book titled “Caring for Creation,” and it aims to show readers a faith-based response to the global environmental problem.

Douglas, who was a guest on WCCO Sunday Morning, said his book in an attempt to reframe the discussion about climate change into something beyond just the science, which he describes as undeniable.

“You can pile on the science, but at some point, people tune out the science,” Douglas said. “But if you frame this under the guise of clean energy, energy freedom, energy security…it’s framing the story in a way that resonates and appeals to peoples’ faith.”

Douglas says that Christians, as stewards of the Earth, have a moral obligation to do something about climate change and the threat it poses to the world.
 

Quote
“In Matthew, Jesus said, ‘What you did not do for the least of these you did not do for me'”…Those with the least, the poorest among us, are the first to feel the impacts [of climate change],” he said.

Effects such as rising sea levels, flooding and water shortages could cause massive, global migration, dwarfing the current refugee crisis in Europe.

“We ignore [climate change] at our peril,” Douglas said. “I ask people, Do you love your kids? They say, Of course I love my kids. I say, well, do this for your kids and their kids…They are going to wonder what you did.”

“Caring for Creation” is available at bookstores and Amazon.com.

http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2016/11/20/paul-douglas-book-climate-change/



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 #206 on: November 22, 2016, 06:03:33 pm »
Spectacular Scenery and Prudent Advice for Humanity.
EARTH - One Video you NEED to see
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 #207 on: November 23, 2016, 01:21:07 pm »
11/22/2016

Teenagers Take the US Government to Trial Over Climate Change

SustainableBusiness.com News

Wouldn't it be amazing
 if teenagers   could derail Trump and the GOP's fossil fuel agenda?
 


In a huge victory , 21 teenagers who filed a climate change lawsuit against the federal government will have their day in court.

They are suing the government for not taking effective action on climate change - which requires an end to the production and combustion of fossil fuels - claiming this violates their constitutional rights to life and liberty.  They want the court to order President Obama to immediately implement a national plan that lowers atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide to 350 ppm by 2100.

Three fossil fuel trade associations joined the US government to fight the case. In April, a federal judge rebuffed their calls to dismiss the case and this month, another federal judge refused again to throw the case out.

That means, the teenagers and the federal government will go to trial over climate change.

Climate scientist James Hansen and the Global Catholic Climate Movement, which includes Pope Francis, are also parties to the lawsuit.

Quote
"Youth stand together , and even as the seas are rising... so are we," says 17-year-old, Victoria Barrett.

"My generation is rewriting history. We're doing what so many people told us we were incapable of doing: holding our leaders accountable for their disastrous and dangerous actions. I and my co-plaintiffs are demanding justice for our generation and justice for all future generations. This is going to be the trial of our lifetimes," says 16-year-old Xiuhtezcatl Martinez. 

In her decision in favor of the plaintiffs, Oregon District Court Judge Ann Aiken notes, "Federal courts too often have been cautious and overly deferential in the arena of environmental law and the world has suffered for it."

"Now we must ask the court to require the government to reduce fossil fuel emissions at a rate consistent with the science," says Dr. James Hansen.

 Since the Obama administration is on its way out and can't implement any strategy without facing reversal from a Republican majority, we hope this case can apply to the new government when it takes over.

Lawsuits filed in every state will also move forward
, demanding state legislatures take science-based action on climate change. They have already won cases in Washington State and Massachusetts.

For similar cases across the world, read our article: Momentum Builds for Court Action on Climate Change. '

http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/26696
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 #208 on: November 24, 2016, 01:16:12 pm »
Agelbert REMINDER to those who will be "offended" (because they are supporters of the President Elect) by the hard truths stated in the article below:
 



TOPICS: Democracy & Government

TAGS: 2016 election, donald trump, hillary clinton, media criticism
Democracy & Government


Farewell, America
 

No matter how the rest of the world looked at us on Nov. 7, they will now look at us differently.

By Neal Gabler | November 10, 2016

The sun sets behind the Jefferson Memorial in Washington. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

America died on Nov. 8, 2016, not with a bang or a whimper, but at its own hand via electoral suicide. We the people chose a man who has shredded our values, our morals, our compassion, our tolerance, our decency, our sense of common purpose, our very identity — all the things that, however tenuously, made a nation out of a country.

Whatever place we now live in is not the same place it was on Nov. 7. No matter how the rest of the world looked at us on Nov. 7, they will now look at us differently. We are likely to be a pariah country. And we are lost for it. As I surveyed the ruin of that country this gray Wednesday morning, I found weary consolation in W.H. Auden’s poem, September 1, 1939, which concludes:


Quote
BY Neal Gabler | November 8, 2016

“Defenseless under the night
 Our world in stupor lies;
 Yet, dotted everywhere,
 Ironic points of light
 Flash out wherever the Just
 Exchange their messages:
 May I, composed like them
 Of Eros and of dust,
 Beleaguered by the same
 Negation and despair,
 Show an affirming flame.”

I hunt for that affirming flame.

This generally has been called the “hate election” because everyone professed to hate both candidates. It turned out to be the hate election because, and let’s not mince words, of the hatefulness of the electorate. In the years to come, we will brace for the violence, the anger, the racism, the misogyny, the xenophobia, the nativism, the white sense of grievance that will undoubtedly be unleashed now that we have destroyed the values that have bound us.

Quote
We all knew these hatreds lurked under the thinnest veneer of civility. That civility finally is gone.

We all knew these hatreds lurked under the thinnest veneer of civility. That civility finally is gone. In its absence, we may realize just how imperative that politesse was. It is the way we managed to coexist.

If there is a single sentence that characterizes the election, it is this: “He says the things I’m thinking.” That may be what is so terrifying. Who knew that so many tens of millions of white Americans were thinking unconscionable things about their fellow Americans? Who knew that tens of millions of white men felt so emasculated by women and challenged by minorities? Who knew that after years of seeming progress on race and gender, tens of millions of white Americans lived in seething resentment, waiting for a demagogue to arrive who would legitimize their worst selves and channel them into political power? Perhaps we had been living in a fool’s paradise. Now we aren’t.

This country has survived a civil war, two world wars, and a great depression. There are many who say we will survive this, too. Maybe we will, but we won’t survive unscathed. We know too much about each other to heal. No more can we pretend that we are exceptional or good or progressive or united. We are none of those things. Nor can we pretend that democracy works and that elections have more or less happy endings. Democracy only functions when its participants abide by certain conventions, certain codes of conduct and a respect for the process.

Quote
No more can we pretend that we are exceptional or good or progressive or united. We are none of those things.

The virus that kills democracy is extremism because extremism disables those codes. Republicans have disrespected the process for decades. They have regarded any Democratic president as illegitimate. They have proudly boasted of preventing popularly elected Democrats from effecting policy and have asserted that only Republicans have the right to determine the nation’s course. They have worked tirelessly to make sure that the government cannot govern and to redefine the purpose of government as prevention rather than effectuation. In short, they haven’t believed in democracy for a long time, and the media never called them out on it.

Democracy can’t cope with extremism. Only violence and time can defeat it. The first is unacceptable, the second takes too long. Though Trump is an extremist, I have a feeling that he will be a very popular president and one likely to be re-elected by a substantial margin, no matter what he does or fails to do. That’s because ever since the days of Ronald Reagan, rhetoric has obviated action, speechifying has superseded governing.

Trump was absolutely correct when he bragged that he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and his supporters wouldn’t care. It was a dictator’s ugly vaunt , but one that recognized this election never was about policy or economics or the “right path/wrong path,” or even values. It was about venting. So long as Trump vented their grievances, his all-white supporters didn’t care about anything else. He is smart enough to know that won’t change in the presidency. In fact, it is only likely to intensify. White America, Trump’s America, just wants to hear its anger bellowed. This is one time when the Bully Pulpit will be literal.

The media can’t be let off the hook for enabling an authoritarian to get to the White House. Long before he considered a presidential run, he was a media creation — a regular in the gossip pages, a photo on magazine covers, the bankrupt (morally and otherwise) mogul who hired and fired on The Apprentice. When he ran, the media treated him not as a candidate, but as a celebrity, and so treated him differently from ordinary pols. The media gave him free publicity, trumpeted his shenanigans, blasted out his tweets, allowed him to phone in his interviews, fell into his traps and generally kowtowed until they suddenly discovered that this joke could actually become president.

Just as Trump has shredded our values, our nation and our democracy, he has shredded the media. In this, as in his politics, he is only the latest avatar of a process that began long before his candidacy. Just as the sainted Ronald Reagan created an unbridgeable chasm between rich and poor that the Republicans would later exploit against Democrats, conservatives delegitimized mainstream journalism so that they could fill the vacuum.

Quote
With Trump’s election, I think that the ideal of an objective, truthful journalism is dead, never to be revived.

Retiring conservative talk show host Charlie Sykes complained that after years of bashing from the right wing, the mainstream media no longer could perform their function as reporters, observers, fact dispensers, and even truth tellers, and he said we needed them. Like Goebbels before them, conservatives understood that they had to create their own facts, their own truths, their own reality. They have done so, and in so doing effectively destroyed the very idea of objectivity. Trump can lie constantly only because white America has accepted an Orwellian sense of truth the truth pulled inside out.

With Trump’s election, I think that the ideal of an objective, truthful journalism is dead, never to be revived. Like Nixon and Sarah Palin before him, Trump ran against the media, boomeranging off the public’s contempt for the press. He ran against what he regarded as media elitism and bias, and he ran on the idea that the press disdained working-class white America. Among the many now-widening divides in the country, this is a big one, the divide between the media and working-class whites, because it creates a Wild West of information – a media ecology in which nothing can be believed except what you already believe.

With the mainstream media so delegitimized — a delegitimization for which they bear a good deal of blame, not having had the courage to take on lies and expose false equivalencies — they have very little role to play going forward in our politics. I suspect most of them will surrender to Trumpism — if they were able to normalize Trump as a candidate, they will no doubt normalize him as president.


Cable news may even welcome him as a continuous entertainment and ratings booster. And in any case, like Reagan, he is bulletproof. The media cannot touch him, even if they wanted to. Presumably, there will be some courageous guerillas in the mainstream press, a kind of Resistance, who will try to fact-check him. But there will be few of them, and they will be whistling in the wind. Trump, like all dictators, is his own truth.

What’s more, Trump already has promised to take his war on the press into courtrooms and the halls of Congress. He wants to loosen libel protections, and he has threatened Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos of Amazon with an antitrust suit. Individual journalists have reason to fear him as well. He has already singled out NBC’s Katy Tur, perhaps the best of the television reporters, so that she needed the Secret Service to escort her from one of his rallies. Jewish journalists who have criticized Trump have been subjected to vicious anti-Semitism and intimidation from the alt-right. For the press, this is likely to be the new normal in an America in which white supremacists, neo-Nazi militias, racists, sexists, homophobes and anti-Semites have been legitimized by a new president who “says what I’m thinking.” It will be open season.

This converts the media from reporters to targets, and they have little recourse. Still, if anyone points the way forward, it may be New York Times columnist David Brooks. Brooks is no paragon. He always had seemed to willfully neglect modern Republicanism’s incipient fascism (now no longer incipient), and he was an apologist for conservative self-enrichment and bigotry. But this campaign season, Brooks pretty much dispensed with politics. He seemed to have arrived at the conclusion that no good could possibly come of any of this and retreated into spirituality. What Brooks promoted were values of mutual respect, a bolder sense of civic engagement, an emphasis on community and neighborhood, and overall a belief in trickle-up decency rather than trickle-down economics. He is not hopeful, but he hasn’t lost all hope.

For those of us now languishing in despair, this may be a prescription for rejuvenation. We have lost the country, but by refocusing, we may have gained our own little patch of the world and, more granularly, our own family. For journalists, Brooks may show how political reporting, which, as I said, is likely to be irrelevant in the Trump age, might yield to a broader moral context in which one considers the effect that policy, strategy and governance have not only on our physical and economic well-being but also on our spiritual well-being. In a society that is likely to be fractious and odious, we need a national conversation on values. The media could help start it.

But the disempowered media may have one more role to fill: They must bear witness. Many years from now, future generations will need to know what happened to us and how it happened. They will need to know how disgruntled white Americans, full of self-righteous indignation, found a way to take back a country they felt they were entitled to and which they believed had been lost. They will need to know about the ugliness and evil that destroyed us as a nation after great men like Lincoln and Roosevelt guided us through previous crises and kept our values intact. They will need to know, and they will need a vigorous, engaged, moral media to tell them. They will also need us.

We are not living for ourselves anymore in this country. Now we are living for history.

Neal Gabler is an author of five books and the recipient of two LA Times Book Prizes, Time magazine's non-fiction book of the year, USA Today's biography of the year and other awards. He is also a senior fellow at The Norman Lear Center at the University of Southern California, and is currently writing a biography of Sen. Edward Kennedy.

http://billmoyers.com/story/farewell-america/

Agelbert NOTE: Great article, but, unlike the author, many millions of Americans, like myself, KNEW about this suicidal trajectory, of which the ubiquitous racism is but one symptom of America's moral decay.

Neal Gabler is a good man of principle. He is clear on what is right and what is wrong. However, as the reality of the WAY things REALLY are in the USA struck him like a kick in the groin, Neal Gabler's surprise is evidence that he was a victim of white privileged liberal wishful thinking. None of the following was a surprise to me and millions of other Americans of mixed ancestry that know the score.

Quote
If there is a single sentence that characterizes the election, it is this: “He says the things I’m thinking.” That may be what is so terrifying. Who knew that so many tens of millions of white Americans were thinking unconscionable things about their fellow Americans? Who knew that tens of millions of white men felt so emasculated by women and challenged by minorities? Who knew that after years of seeming progress on race and gender, tens of millions of white Americans lived in seething resentment, waiting for a demagogue to arrive who would legitimize their worst selves and channel them into political power? Perhaps we had been living in a fool’s paradise. Now we aren’t.

I have been warning about it to deaf ears for over a decade.   


Also, unlike Neal Gabler, I dated the final nail in the coffin of American Democracy much earlier than this election.

I dated it to when THIS GUY had the nomination for VP stolen from him so the Truman party hack could do the bidding of the M.I.C. when Roosevelt died.
But, you know what? The abysmally stupid and morally corruptive embrace of greed, xenophobia and racism is the LEAST of our worries as a people in this perfect storm of Wall Street 'dial a reality' that so many fools and knaves wish to celebrate.

Below please find, America TODAY:
Quote
Like Goebbels before them, conservatives understood that they had to create their own facts, their own truths, their own reality. They have done so, and in so doing effectively destroyed the very idea of objectivity. Trump can lie constantly only because white America has accepted an Orwellian sense of truth the truth pulled inside out.


BUT, THIS is America in the NEAR FUTURE:

« Last Edit: January 13, 2017, 08:59:58 pm by AGelbert »
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 #209 on: December 05, 2016, 06:09:58 pm »
You’re Buying a Home. Have You Considered Climate Change? ???


By RON LIEBERDEC. 2, 2016

SNIPPET:
 
So you want to buy a home in a global warming zone.   

Wait, you weren’t thinking of it that way? You didn’t even realize it or think to check? Well, it’s time to adjust your outlook.

That was my conclusion, at least, after reading my colleague Ian Urbina’s recent article about climate change and the residential real estate market. No one knows when (or if) a panic may set in among insurance companies, lenders or home buyers — one that causes prices to fall and never recover in vulnerable areas. But given that homes are the most expensive thing that many of us ever purchase, it’s foolish not to consider the long-term implications of owning one in a growing number of increasingly damage-prone places.

This is also an area of financial life that is ripe for mistakes and delusional thinking. Buying a home involves an enormous amount of money, and few people do it often enough to be experts. Given the realities of climate change, the process is now set against a backdrop of radical uncertainty about the very ground you will live on and the air you will breathe. Throw political uncertainty into the mix and — well, good luck keeping your head on straight.



http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/02/your-money/youre-buying-a-home-have-you-considered-climate-change.html?_r=0
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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