10.08.13
Gemini version available ♊︎Phantom ‘Threats’ and Real Threats
Summary: Assessment of climate factors as a threat to human civilisation
Natural disasters are a major killer — far more major than “terrorism” or whatever we are typically told is our primary threat (deaths by car accidents and diseases by far outnumber all of those combined). Some natural disasters, like those caused by tectonic plates [1], are hard to avert except by improving response to them (e.g. better alarming, construction, and rescue teams). Others, to which humans contribute, can be avoided or at least their impact mitigated. We are ignoring warning signs [2,3] because our politicians (actually, corporations’ politicians) ignore those latter risks and new forms of natural disasters are now in the making, promising to poison our water supply [4,5] in exchange for energy when far better energy sources are known to be viable [6] even if they are a bit more expensive in the short term [7]. The problem is that a PR campaign, coordinated by major polluters, has contributed to a bogus, manufactured consensus among the population (including politicians) [8,9] and groups which seek to use cleaner energy sources are being demonised or even banned/marginalised [10].
The role of the corporate media is worth noting here. When GE-run TV channels promote nuclear energy (GE’s business) and right-wing TV channels actively deny climate change (because of their sponsors) we are clearly heading towards inescapable disaster. We are shown phantom enemies and told that we need to go to war while the far right gets propped up [11] to permit both the left and the right to move right-wards, pretending to be “moderate”. Right now in the West we may find that even the so-called ‘left’ is actively participating in marginalising the debate about climate change and unless the political system changes (along with the media), the biggest future killers (climate change contributes to famine) will take their toll. Hunger is even a problem in the UK right now [11]. █
Related/contextual items from the news:
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NASA releases images of Pakistan’s ‘Earthquake Island
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We Are Terrifyingly Close to the Climate’s ‘Point of No Return’
Should fossil fuel use continue on its current trajectory, the future for life on planet Earth is bleak.
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The world does need a red line – on climate change
Activists agree we must fight the Keystone XL pipeline in the US, but also chip away at the political power of the fossil fuel industry
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Radioactive Wastewater From Fracking Found In Pennsylvania Stream
The Smithsonian is reporting that scientists from Duke University have found high levels of radium, as well as chloride and bromide in
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Is Oil Industry Funding of a Fracking Study a Problem? Let’s Ask an Oil-Funded Expert
The New York Times had a report yesterday (9/18/13) on a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on methane releases associated with natural gas fracking. The study, Times reporter Michael Wines writes, “bolsters the contention by advocates of fracking–and some environmental groups as well–that shale gas is cleaner and better than coal, at least until more renewable-energy sources are developed.”
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Adelaide’s Solar Buses Could Be the World’s Greenest Public Transports
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Road Map to the Next Repricing of Oil: September Issue of TerraJoule.us
Each issue of TerraJoule.us contains: a Main Essay, a Model Portfolio, a Data Brief, and a link to a Downloadable Podcast. Gregor Macdonald, Editor.
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Climate deniers in their own universe
When 259 authors from 39 countries examine hundreds of scientific papers and arrive at a consensus, perhaps it’s worth listening.
But in Canada, at any rate, about 30 per cent of the population remains convinced that climate change isn’t happening – or, if it is, that it’s caused by natural events, sunspots or just about anything other than human activity, notably burning fossil fuels.
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Gaia and all that
The process started when I heard on World Service radio a gentleman from the International Panel on Climate Change discussing their latest report. As you know, I tend to accept the established opinion on climate change, and rather take the view that if all our industrial activity were not affecting the atmosphere, that would be strange.
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Russia versus Greenpeace
Russia is casting around for legal measures it can use against Greenpeace.
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Greek Golden Dawn party leader due in court
Wednesday’s court appearance comes after three MPs from the far-right party are freed pending trial.
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First UK student-run foodbank opens in Manchester
The first student-run foodbank in Britain is opening in Manchester.
Manchester Central Foodbank, which is based at the University of Manchester Roman Catholic Chaplaincy, is an initiative from the students.
It grew out of a mobile soup kitchen also operated by students, who found growing food poverty among people who had just become homeless.
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