Climate-gate in Video!

I was waiting for these to come out. Peter Sinclair's outstanding "Climate Crock of the Week" has a two parter on those darned climate emails that came out a while back. I've posted on these videos before and Sinclair again delivers a very well produced, logical, and clear refutation of Climategate.

Part 1

Part 2


"He said "anus"".

Govt Fail #1,432

Krugman does my work for me. His post today on the problems of voting majority in the Senate says what I would say with just more Nobel prize gravitas.

It was, however, a close-run thing. And the fact that it was such a close thing shows that the Senate — and, therefore, the U.S. government as a whole — has become ominously dysfunctional.

Amen.

The Real Children's Fantasy

Here's one more children's' fantasy video. We already have Lion, Witch & the Wardrobe, Bridge to Terabithia, The Golden Compass, and all those other generic ones where the bummed out kid is befriended by a talking animal who tells them they are a prince/princess. This new one makes Where The Wild Things Are look like The Wizard of Oz. In this movie the animals don't talk but are instead all dying and the kids no longer wonder if they'll make the basketball team but if they'll even have food to eat or potable water by the time they're old.

The Right Move

Deglobalization is on. Commence the head-spinning of all mba's and biz students still wet behind the ears who have been chomping through theory after theory on the almighty-ness of globalization.

The basics:

There's also a greater appreciation on the part of Western firms that cheap labor isn't the be-all and end-all. Businesses have learned in the past two years that the longer the supply chain, the more possibilities there are for disruptions—from flu viruses, geopolitical disturbances, and spikes in energy prices. While China is still the world's factory, in an age of volatile demand, some companies have realized that manufacturing closer to home is more efficient, even if production costs are higher.

Cut out the 7000K production line that would make Alexander the Great blush and, voila, you have a local economy. Feels great to pay people who know, right?

1 Percent Doctrine

Friedman has lost a little luster in my eyes with his giant home in Maryland but he doesn't continue to provide spirited argument for massive, unconditional action to prevent climate change. His post today compares America's over the top, precautionary strategy on terrorism to it's terribly slack and unhurried pace to combat climate change.

The set-up:

“According to the Precautionary Principle, it is appropriate to respond aggressively to low-probability, high-impact events — such as climate change. Indeed, another vice president — Al Gore — can be understood to be arguing for a precautionary principle for climate change (though he believes that the chance of disaster is well over 1 percent).”

I would say it's well over 1 percent.

And now for the prestige:

When I see a problem that has even a 1 percent probability of occurring and is “irreversible” and potentially “catastrophic,” I buy insurance. That is what taking climate change seriously is all about.

Yeah, a nuke attack would be bad but it'd be mostly regional in scope and it's negative effects could be mitigated over a time span more suited to the humans who have to live through it. Climate change has a good chance of being permanent and a 100 percent change of affecting every living thing on earth on a timeline longer than most humans can comprehend.

The Nail in the Coffin

I haven't posted about the "Climategate" email thingy because frankly "it's a non-starter." (Actually you should read that link because it discusses the story more in depth). I've decided to post on it via request by one of my readers, I do have one, and because I found a satisfactory response to "Climategate" that should be the one that our "news" outlets take considering the nature of how the emails came to light, a.k.a., theft.

Here's a piece in full (because it's short) from my favorite Russian doomer, Dmitry Orlov:

I have been trying not to write this blog post, but in the end I couldn't resist. I know full well that I should just ignore this Climategate nonsense, but since what I have to say is quite short, I'll just go ahead and say it.

Update: For the past hour or so I've been busy rejecting comments that attempt to draw a false analogy between Climategate and Watergate. Um, no, this one is about science. Unlike administration or politics, science is done in the open. Every significant finding is published and subject to peer review. By definition, then, there is never anything important to "leak." Incorrect results and invalid theories are disproved and invalidated as a matter of course, ideally prior to publication, because scientists are skeptics who jealously guard their reputations. You are supposed to already know all this, so if any of it is still unclear to you, then please be sure to read point 4 below, and, unless you also happen to be cute, furry and affectionate, there will be no cat food for you.

1. The UEA emails were stolen. Data theft is a criminal activity. Use of stolen data is a criminal activity as well. People who get paid for publishing articles that are based on stolen data are dealing in stolen goods. This is no different from selling a house that you built using stolen materials.

2. Smearing some one's reputation based on lies is called libel. To defend oneself against the charge of libel, one generally has to present evidence to prove that one's statements are in fact true. Stolen data is not admissible as evidence.

3. To avoid charges of complicity, we should all try to avoid aiding and abetting people who do such things. For instance, it seems like a bad idea to let them use public airwaves and to publish their materials. Barring them would not constitute censorship, since one has to have the legal right to do something before it can be censored. This is no different from barring stolen goods from a marketplace.

4. Finally, there are the people who listen to those who are making libelous claims based on stolen data, thinking that they are valid points. This is, of course, pretty stupid of them. But how tolerant we should be of stupidity is an individual choice. For instance, my cat has no concept of cause and effect, which makes her do some really stupid things, but on the other hand she is cute and furry and affectionate. But I am glad that she doesn't have an opinion on climate change, because that might have made things a bit awkward between us.

These reasons should just about kill "Climategate" as a news story or even more importantly, as a "great unearthing" of some devious scientific conspiracy. Ethically they details of the emails are not reportable and scientifically the claims inside the emails are of nothing that hasn't been discussed in greater depth and with better documentation elsewhere.

Crop Failure Phase, Crop Failure Phase Compl...

I am routinely finding farm news as fascinatingly horrifying as a car crash. It's bad news but I can't look away. It's December 1st in Iowa and the corn harvest is only 87% complete.

The reasoning for the delay:

"Periodic rains, some shortage of grain drying capacity on farms and at grain elevators, and spot shortages of propane for drying, have prevented us from closing the books on the 2009 harvest," he adds. "But for many farmers at least the end is now in sight. Hopefully, those who spent part of Thanksgiving in a combine will not have to spend Christmas worrying about crops still in the field."

It's been a very mild and sporadic fall winter, atleast in Wisco where I live. An abnormally cold summer followed by a 3 week drought in September and a wet, mild October, November has kept corn growth down and has post-poned harvesting. Farmers should consider themselves lucky that they haven't even seen the first snow of the year yet. Snowfall in the Madison-area has been above normal the past two years. I would expend this trend to get worse as climate change continues. Then we're all really f-ed.

Famine, Pestillence, Etc

Bloomberg.com (not some hippy site) states that grain production in China will decline by 37% by 2050.

The crops affected would include wheat, corn and rice, Zheng Guoguang, head of the China Meteorological Administration, said in an article published on the agency’s Web site yesterday. Research shows that for every degree warmer the atmosphere becomes the key growing period for rice to develop properly will be shortened by an average of 7-8 days and by 17 days for the winter wheat crop, Zheng said. “Yield and quality will drop accordingly,” he said.

How is this bad? Let me count the ways. Starvation: with the 2nd largest population continually unable to feed itself there will be lots of famine related deaths. Or this could lead to the 2nd horseman, War: where an angry, nuclear China has nothing better to do than attack other nations which is a standard human reaction to desperation. And don't forget Economically. Yes, the biz folks who fear caps on carbon emissions because it'll cut into profit and growth will find less pockets available to buy their products (or make their products in China/Walmart's case) and then the agribusiness would be hurting too. Bloomberg interviewed people in a town hall and this was the average reaction.

So there's something in climate change for everyone. What's your part?

Support the EPA'ers?

Soldiers die. It's part of the job description. When they get called to duty there is a good chance they will be put in a situation that will lead to their death. Same with firemen, police, etc. Yet, the people who die don't really have any say on what they go to die for. Could be to retaliate against a homeland assault or to advance a wealthy elites access to resources. But they die nonetheless and we feel bad. Their sacrifice makes us ashamed of staying safe behind our 50" TVs. So we give them carte blanche as far as our tax dollars and support is concerned for better or worse.

Yglesias asks what if we had that same view for our other govt organizations?

And if you think about a comparable situation with the civilian bureaucracy, you’ll see that things are very difficult. It’s not a serious problem if a Republican president pursues a course that senior career officials at the Environment Protection Agency believe are destroying the planet. Nobody says we need to “support the Civil Rights Division litigators” or “give the social services workers the resources they need to finish the job” of fighting child poverty.

Instead of "Support our Troops" yellow ribbon bumper magnets how about a recycle sign magnet with "Help the Folks Who Help Us Drink Clean Water: EPA". It doesn't roll of the tongue as well but gives us something to think about.

Where the Wild Things Are

Kindergarten in the woods. Wish that was around when I was young. If the fact that most social change isn't brought about by one side winning but by the opposition dying then these kids who are growing up among the wilderness will be the "winners" of the climate battle. One can only hope.

When It Rains, It Contaminates

NYT has a pollution series or "Has science been good or bad for the world" or "No matter what we do we still lose". Today was on our lackluster sewage system.

Quick breakdown:

One goal of the Clean Water Act of 1972 was to upgrade the nation’s sewer systems, many of them built more than a century ago, to handle growing populations and increasing runoff of rainwater and waste. During the 1970s and 1980s, Congress distributed more than $60 billion to cities to make sure that what goes into toilets, industrial drains and street grates would not endanger human health.

But despite those upgrades, many sewer systems are still frequently overwhelmed, according to a New York Times analysis of environmental data. As a result, sewage is spilling into waterways.

Upgrade fail. But we punish those failures right?

But fewer than one in five sewage systems that broke the law were ever fined or otherwise sanctioned by state or federal regulators, the Times analysis shows.

Punishment fail. This points out two things: 1) we can't fix the problems we have, 2) we can't enforce the laws we have that were made to enforce the fixes, and/or 3) we don't have the balls to admit how we live is wrong. It's all three.

Prescription: We need to get over ourselves and move toward a more reasonable existence.

The Joke's On Us

Example of how we kill the planet: Man drives 1680 miles round trip to take a 3 hour improv class. Let me count the ways. A person with no vocation can drop $150 a week on gas to go to a improv class. I'll say it another way. A person who contributes nothing still has enough money to conjure up enough hydrocarbon slaves to transport him at least 2/3 the distance it took Lewis and Clark to travel in 1 year in about 15 hours so he can take an improv class. WTF.

He'd probably have a better shot spending the $150 on lottery tickets and in the mean time taking a class in Dallas (you're telling me they don't laugh in Texas?) and then when his ship comes in move to Chicago and take the class full time. Or hell, if you figure 4 x $150 is $600 I'm sure he could find a studio apartment in or around Chicago and take some public transportation to the class. Whatevs.

But the moral of the story is that someone who produces no directly measurable physical good (not necessarily meaning economically; he could volunteer in a hospice or soup kitchen) has enough resources to trade for the power to travel quite rapidly (compared to previous human history) to learn a career that has a lottery winner's chance of actually making a wage. Yep, that is a barometer of our times.

That is the answer to the "should Chicago lease it's water" question. Doing this is terrible for any lessor (?). Didn't work in Bolivia. Didn't work in Atlanta. Water is a right. You cannot live without it and should not have to do anything to earn it. Period.

Here are some quick hits of how bad water leasing is:

Mayors from Homer Glen to Urbana are threatening municipal takeovers of their local water systems, moved by complaints about skyrocketing rates and lackluster
service from corporate operators. Fort Wayne, Ind., already wrested away part of its water system and is seeking to buy back the rest after accusing a private operator of putting shareholder interests before those of customers.

And the Grand Marshall of U.S. Water Lease failures, Atlanta:

"Water is critical to a city's future management and growth," said Rob Hunter, Atlanta's commissioner of watershed management. "It's not something you want to turn over to somebody else."

That from their current mayor who is a bit wiser than the previous mayor who signed the leasing contract and is currently in jail.

The Curse of Ayn Rand

Krugman diatribes about the fetid unemployment in the U.S. versus how it was handled in the E.U., in particular, Germany, where even thought both were hit during the "Great Recession, Collapse, Pt. 1", Germany was able to keep unemployment very low.

Here's how the former Nazi's did it:

Germany came into the Great Recession with strong employment protection legislation. This has been supplemented with a “short-time work scheme,” which provides subsidies to employers who reduce workers’ hours rather than laying them off. These measures didn’t prevent a nasty recession, but Germany got through the recession with remarkably few job losses.

I'm sure Glenn Beck and all his "Tuk er Jerbs" people would say that spreading the work force or individuals sacrificing work time, as in we all work 4 days a week so we can all still be employed instead of don't touch my job or fire me so I can work full time somewhere else, as a manner of socialism.

How do the manly U.S. leaders want to accomplish it? Let's ask Larry Summers, grand-poo-bah of derivatives and boot strap thinking:

Lawrence Summers, the Obama administration’s highest-ranking economist, was dismissive: “It may be desirable to have a given amount of work shared among more people. But that’s not as desirable as expanding the total amount of work.”

That's right. Fire the fat and then rehire them when we have expanded back to normal. Right. Well, the stocks have expanded back up but that doesn't help Americans when most of the expansion is based on the growth of overseas markets.

Yes, an Ayn Rand follower declaring that you will work when we find you work. Chances are those with the stocks are not the ones complaining about job loses. The new, lean companies are only working in their favor.

We should arrest the Dept of Treasury for running a giant ponzi scheme.

Get up, Stand up

Wisconsin farmers are being taken out behind the wood shed. Agribusiness is doing nothing for them and they should stop doing anything for agribusiness.

For example(s):

-Conventional farm milk prices have dropped by nearly 50 percent over the past year. Dean Foods controls 80 percent of the fluid milk market in some states and 40 percent of the market in the U.S. Their net profits more than doubled in the last year.

-When the farm price for beef cattle dropped $0.08 per pound, consumers were paying $0.17 more per pound at the supermarket. Average retail beef processing margins across all companies increased 13 percent over 2008.

Any asswipe economics guy will say that the economies of scale offered by the reach of Dean Foods and agribusiness ilk makes more sense for farmers to suckle to the agribiz tit but as we say "the numbers don't add up".

More on the Garbage Island

Maybe when you think of visiting a Pacific Island you can make your stay on new garbage island that's formed out of old toothbrushes and plastic bottles.

Something is Happening Here

Maybe years from now in a burnt out city, scrawled in ash on a wall of tiny bastion of rationality will be the words "Krugman was right." The few survivors with half a brain will remember posts like today's Paranoia post as a grim harbinger of the deservedly terrible future of people who happen to inhabit the central part of North America.

Ayn Rand is the Devil

A lot of people cringed when the fictional character Gordon Gecko declared "Greed is good." in Oliver Stone's Wall Street.

Ayn Rand who perpetuates and perpetrates selfishness throughout each of her novels and as an example of the sickness of our society, she has been a major influence on most of our economic and monetary policymakers, not to mention corporate CEO's. So when these guys go bankrupt because of "free market" occurrences then we can all blame a jilted Russian Jewess who fled their communists, adored a serial killer, two-faced all her cult-followers and who's dogmatic beliefs encourage the destruction of Main St. for corporate greed. And was a smoker!

"What a Tough Season"

"What a tough season." That'd make a great chapter title for a Ken Burn's doc if he were still making doc's in 50 years when global warming is really kicking our ass. That quote if from a Wisconsin farmer describing the utter nightmare that this season has been.

"It's all because of the weather," Lauer confirms. "July -- corn's big growing month -- was one of the coolest ever, and from mid-September on it's been damp and cool."

This is from a separate article also commenting on the potential for a moldy corn harvest or to having to leave the soy in the fields if it were to snow. Is the strange weather patterns a sign of global warming? There's a good chance of it. Though not all farmer's agree.

Grain harvest is late this year, and it's all because of the cool spring, summer and fall. "We need a little of that global warming we hear so much about," a Dane County corn grower recently said. "I really want to get the corn and beans harvested before the snow flies."

Is this not like saying Candyman five times into a mirror? I would only wish this kinda weather on Wall Street execs.

Everybody Pwned!

I post this not so much as I hate Superfreakonomics and the dust storm of crap climate throwdown it's received but so much I've never seen a more complete and extensive use of the word pwned in the proper situations. If anything it just illustrates how much total crap floats around this world waiting to get called out by anything will balls to do it.

Doomer Hope

People naturally associate "doomers" as straight up haters who don't want to see anything good happen. I disagree. Doomers, such as myself, don't want to see bad things happen but get their doomer attitude from being completely honest about the perilous situation that lies ahead. They do have hope but tend not to look at things with doe-eyed optimism when they know a giant pain tsunami is on the way.

Need an example. Check out James H. Kunstler's weekly blog today for a true Defcon 1 Doomer's call for hope:

Perhaps it's time to redefine "hope" in the greater social sense of the word. To me, hope is not synonymous with "wishes fulfilled." In fact, hope should not be about wishing at all. Hope should be based on confidence that the individual or group is reliably competent enough to meet the challenges that circumstances present. Hope is justified when people demonstrate to themselves that they can behave ably and bravely. Hope is not really possible in the face of patent untruthfulness. It is derived from a clear-eyed and courageous view of what is really going on. I don't think that defines any of the behavior in the United States these days. We've become a self-jiving nation intent on playing shell games, running Ponzi schemes, and working Polish blanket tricks on ourselves.

Doomers don't wish there to be money trees that solve all our problems. They don't fetish over technological wunder-projekts that will defy physics. Doomer Hope means having the power to let go of fantasy and make hard-nosed decisions on what needs to get done to get through the challenges that are coming.

Don't mistake this for some populist homage to hard working pipefitters who want their kids to grow up to be yuppie marketing managers so they don't have to break their backs molding pipe all day. Doomer Hope is letting go, getting back to work and enjoying the small gains achieved with much sacrifice as it has been through human existence before cheap energy.

A Real Blockbuster

Michael Ruppert brings a real Halloween horror film when Collapse comes out November 6th. It should be shown in every PTA meeting, corporation, church get-together, football game, everywhere. Cuz we need everyone to get this thing right.

Too Big To Fail

Are populations to big to fail? Ethiopia needs a massive food bailout to keep their people from starving to death. In a world wrought with global climate problems caused by massive use of hydrocarbons and overpopulation is it in the world's best interest to use more hydrocarbons to transport food in from distant countries to feed a population size larger than what it's land can sustain? Do the Federal Reserve Food Banks get to come in and control what people do with their new found lease on life or will another massive bailout be needed after only a few months?

Famine is a word that has been long vacant from Western cultures and so have been famine free for many years, a situation that I'm sure third world countries would like to reach as well. But if a country's population cannot feed itself from its own land base, does the world owe that country the food supplies to maintain its overpopulated state?

Discuss at the dinner table while trying to ignore the irony.

The Horror, The Horror

Yes, that's a bird who was found dead and decayed with a stomach filled with plastics. Even if you say you want to save the environment anytime you use plastic you roll the dice on unintentionally killing animals locally or a thousand miles away. Climate Progress has the rest.

Plastic we use floats with the ocean currents so plastics that enter the ocean off L.A. end up in Hawaii and in a giant "garbage island" in the Pacific. Vice TV had a great 12 part series which will make you cry all the milk out of your cereal.

Cuz I Like Scary Quotes

The UK Guadian has a nice little post that combines two of my favor things: government ineptitude and peak oil.

Here's a nice lil' scary snippet:

"There is a train crash about to happen from an energy point of view. But politicians everywhere seem to have entirely missed the scale of the problem," said the report's author, Simon Taylor

Yup, I'd say that's a pretty accurate assessment. Unless the govt's are working on a non-nuclear weapon based Deus Ex Machina that will save us all. Doubt that.

But that's not all folks!

The IEA expects production from existing oilfields to fall by 50% between now and 2020 and warned the world needs to find an additional 64m barrels a day of capacity by 2030 – equivalent to six times current Saudi Arabian production.

Yes, in about 10 years we'll be at 50% of our current oil capacity. Proceed to clean the crap out of your pants.

We'll Leave That There

Daily Show does probably the best non-intentional report demonstrating Neil Postman's theory on the entertainmentinzation (yes, that's a word) of the news industry. We'll leave it there? Starts at the 1:45 mark and it goes to you pee your pants with laughter.

There is so much to cover here I can't take it but I would say a news anchor questioning if she can "check the facts" has got to be as hilarious as it is soul-flattening.

ASPO No Chance

Colin Campbell, founder of ASPO, gives Obama a free pass on the peak oil issue.

Question: What about the notion of making America energy independent?

Campbell: It can’t be done voluntarily. To make America energy-independent is not something I think any government can achieve. But within 50 years that’s what nature will deliver. Countries will have to be energy independent. They have no alternative. Some may get there quicker than others, but it’s not something some government will say, well this is our plan of action. It will delivered to them by the force of nature. So America will indeed be energy independent and probably quite soon if these imports dry out. What that means and how they react to such a situation is another day’s work.

Happy Monday, America!

Disney and Global Warming

What a scary interpretation via Disney Co of what global warming would be! You could say the the government's attempt to solve the problem has been an "utter failure" of it's own.

Vermin of the Ocean

Fishermen in the NE are complaining of the return of the dogfish, the "vermin of the sea", as the reason their fishing stock is declining. The same dogfish are under federal protection. What is a culture of empire to do? Do you let the fishermen deplete the fish stock or do you let the burgeoning dogfish population devour the few cod and mackerel that are remaining due to the overfishing in the first place? If we had just learned to live within our place in the world we wouldn't have to consider any animal "vermin". Every species would have it's place and we wouldn't have fishing unions or government bureaucracies waging stupid battles that neither really knows how to solve.

Obama, the New Gorbachev?

Earlier today I alluded to Dmitry Orlov who has a running racket on the USA/USSR collapse comparison. Though he reaction to Obama's big win is a bit unsettling.

Gorbachev certainly deserves credit for making sure that the USSR disintegrated with a whimper and not a bang. May Barak Obama be just as successful in completing the dissolution of the USA, quietly and without any undue bloodshed. Moving forward, I wish him a long and happy unemployment.

The Everlasting Population Problem

It's good to see some people trying to work together to fix this nuisance of a climate problem. Something that needs to be considered is what "constants" we assume will continue as normal all the way to 2050. Growth of course is paramount but if you think of the cuts in comparison to population growth the real nature of the cuts is astounding.

Each American would emit 3 tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2050, down from 24 in 1990, if President Barack Obama achieves his goal of an 80 percent cut in national emissions from 1990 and the population rises to 400 million by 2050.

This is quite a reversal in sustainability. Dmitry Orlov loves to point out that the world can sustain 300 million people who earn $1/year or 300,000 who make $100,000/year. Think about the lifestyle that we will live if we have 400 million living at 80% of the carbon footprint of people in 1990! Think back to 1990. The population was a shade under 250 million. Cars, lot smaller and fewer, non-existent personal portable technology. (The Gameboy just came out in 1989). Think to 2009 terms where nearly everyone has a car, cellphones, ipods, computers, fancy audio/visual setups, etc.

I can think of two things: either we are going to inherit alien technology from Area 51 to make all these things run on farts or really all the world leaders know we are going to be at carbon footprint level of A.D. 200 due to a combo of peak oil/peak soil/peak water/peak fish/climate change.

Shingle Thievery

What would drive a human to steal roofing shingles? How about peak oil and/or global warming.

Investigators believe some thieves are part of an organized operation, stockpiling the materials in anticipation of hurricanes, tornadoes and other roof-ripping storms that would heighten the demand for their stolen wares. Other thefts may be isolated incidents from people looking to sell the shingles to roofers for a quick buck. Also, the soaring price of shingles, which are petroleum-based products, has driven the demand for cheaper, black-market roofing material.

Is it too early to start the insanity?

Climate Crock

DeSmogBlog has another great video from Peter Sinclair's series "Climate Denial Crock of the Week", this week we get to watch one come to life. To be able to watch a statement be chopped up, taken out of context and then blabbered all over the airwaves is something to behold. If news centers actually had people to fact check, like Peter Sinclair does, the world we be a much safer, saner place.

Also, DeSmogBlog's proprietor, James Hoggan, gets a shout out from climate-awesome blogger Climate Progress for his new book Climate Cover-Up. If you feel like crying yourself to sleep at night or need motivation to keep writing your congressman everyday than this book which covers the climate denier atrocities is right up your alley.

Real Humans, Real Hunt

Humans were built to do many things but maybe our greatest asset was endurance. Check out this "persistence hunt" from possibly the last remaining tribe to do so.

Note all the respect he pays to the animal and the personal sacrifice in energy he commits to taking down his prey. The hunter takes down a kudu (big antelope) with little more than a spear, a water bottle and some tracking knowledge. A minuscule carbon footprint compared to Western hunters and their disposable shells, scout cameras, and ATV's.

A Jumble That's for Sure

Douthat tries to make sense of something in his GOP screed today. I would say this editorial is a fairly good description of the bankrupcty of ideas that comprise the Republican way of thinking. Not once in the entire piece is there any allusion to anything that would remotely appear to be a GOP suggestion on how to fix the problems associated with the income gap.

Douthat offers us typical GOP gripes: taxes ("soaking the wealthy with higher tax rates and cutting taxes for everybody else "), big government ("one way that a Democrat majority can plausibly bring down inequality: Just let government keep growing.") and competition (" Democrats, the heroic efforts of some liberals notwithstanding, remain the party of the education bureaucracy, resistant to all but the most incremental efforts to bring choice and competition to our public schools.")

Same old, stuff right? Yup.

Douthat does touch on an interesting point:

this is because the Democrats have become as much the party of the rich as the
Republicans,

This is where it takes skill for a humble reader to read between the lines. There is no two-party system. It's one big party that just yells about different things but always does the same thing. See lobbyists for example.

Douthat also touches on immigration, taxation reform, education policy and it's all good. But aruging about these symptoms is like being trapped in an avalanche and arguing if the snow is runny or fluffy. You're already in waaaaay to deep and it won't be a clean way of solving how to get out. Not when one party won't even talk about a solution. This whole system is busted, top to bottom. It needs to be completely thrown out and rebuilt.

Douthat reaches his conclusion on the following note:

That combination could eventually create the more egalitarian America that Democrats have long promised to deliver. The question is whether Americans will thank them for it.

Will they? As the income gap increases to widen and more people fall into the crappier half of that equation with the every continuing rece-depression, more people are going to need a helping hand. How else will their kids eat? It's like when you walk into a nice government facility or get a tax break and you say to yourself "ah, this is nice". I think people will like it just fine.

What Does it Really Mean

Star Wars as were it written by environmentalists. The parody is funny but its implications for actual action are a bit more unsettling than the humor lets on.

Hallelujah

Friedman laid it all out yesterday in his End of We editorial:

The American political system was, as the saying goes, “designed by geniuses so it could be run by idiots.” But a cocktail of political and technological trends have converged in the last decade that are making it possible for the idiots of all political stripes to overwhelm and paralyze the genius of our system.

Those factors are: the wild excess of money in politics; the gerrymandering of political districts, making them permanently Republican or Democratic and erasing the political middle; a 24/7 cable news cycle that makes all politics a daily battle of tactics that overwhelm strategic thinking; and a blogosphere that at its best enriches our debates, adding new checks on the establishment, and at its worst coarsens our debates to a whole new level, giving a new power to anonymous slanderers to send lies around the world. Finally, on top of it all, we now have a permanent presidential campaign that encourages all partisanship, all the time among our leading politicians.

There was a great doc that came out a couple years ago called Why We Fight. The closing line came from Karen Kwiatkowski and I think it applies here.

I think we fight because basically not enough people are standing up saying, "I'm not doing this anymore."

I, for one, am not.

Problem Olympics

People say Obama's trying to do too much. If so then exactly which one of these problems do we not address? That's what I thought. If worker productivity has been up in recent months shouldn't this bout of efficiency also apply to the legislative branch of government? It should.

On top of all this Obama's in Denmark shilling for the Chicago olympic bid which not everyone is excited about. Maybe Daley should go and do some'splaining.

End of Poverty? Think Again.

In case you didn't feel any guilt today for being born in America than you should watch the trailer for The End of Poverty? It carries on with some of what was touched on in my EHM post.

I can honestly say that in an overpopulated world there should not be massive push to send resources all over the world to help populations maintain a level higher than what they can produce locally. But I would say the exploitation of the impoverished peoples environments to where they can't support themselves and their family has got to go. And the money we would save from fighting terrorism that poverty breeds could be spent, you know, on healthcare.

I would have to think though that in the battle of 50" LCD's vs. not having a threat advisory color scheme Americans would like to go the consumer route: buy a bigger gun rather than live within our means. It's the consumerists way!

A Moment for Dispair

Krugman seems to be overtaking Friedmann as the man to go to for consistent, weekly commentary geared towards focusing on what should be the main topic for the country though not given the coverage it deserves. Last week, the economic possibilities of a climate bill. He is spot on again this week in his discussion of the massive, massive, massive need for climate change legislation.

They’re what come out of the most widely respected climate models, devised by the leading researchers. The prognosis for the planet has gotten much, much worse in just the last few years.

What’s driving this new pessimism? Partly it’s the fact that some predicted changes, like a decline in Arctic Sea ice, are happening much faster than expected. Partly it’s growing evidence that feedback loops amplifying the effects of man-made greenhouse gas emissions are stronger than previously realized. For example, it has long been understood that global warming will cause the tundra to thaw, releasing carbon dioxide, which will cause even more warming, but new research shows far more carbon locked in the permafrost than previously thought, which means a much bigger feedback effect.

As Billy Madison would say, goo.

What would cause us to ignore all this pressing data? Money. And the people who have enough money are using it to keep them on top.

Responding to climate change with the vigor that the threat deserves would not, contrary to legend, be devastating for the economy as a whole. But it would shuffle the economic deck, hurting some powerful vested interests even as it created new economic opportunities. And the industries of the past have armies of lobbyists in place right now; the industries of the future don’t.

If you don't think we live in a world that's molded behind closed doors and the idea derived there rammed down our throats than you must be a space alien.

UPDATE****: Climate Progress shares my love but just says it better. And with more links.

Government Failure No. 2,529,683,942

I just love Climate Progress. Every time I need to get motivated for a new week of dealing with incompetent elected officials or bold-face lying or just substantial media ineptitude I can always count on Climate Progress to get me going. And the site was just recognized by a time-to-time inept weekly, Time Magazine, as an "environmental hero".

But on to the motivation. U.S. Senator James Inhofe went on TV this weekend and made this comment:

INHOFE: I think he’s right. I think what he’s saying is God’s still up there. We’re going through these cycles. … I really believe that a lot of people are in denial who want to hang their hat on the fact, that they believe is a fact, that man-made gases, anthropogenic gases, are causing global warming. The science really isn’t there.

I was going to say "absurd comment" but I figured any rational human would pick them up without a cue from me. Any senator can go out on a limb and make a comment like that but should a comment like that come from the ranking minority member of the Environmental and Public Works committee? Probably not. How can a chairmen of a committee that's supposedly looking out for the best interests of the land and sea, the foundation of what sustains life on this planet, for its citizens base a solution to (any!) problem on a literal Deus Ex Machina to come and save us? And that the media takes him seriously at all is unbelievable.

Beside that, Inhofe speaks for the 3 million people of Oklahoma, about 1% of the US population of 300 million. He has the same amount of voting power as the EPW committee majority ranking member, Barbara Boxer of California, who speaks for 36.5 million people, or 12% of the US pop. What?! I must be on crazy pills to have ever thought this was a representative government.

Let me just sum up by saying the government is joke, the media is a joke and Inhofe is not much a joke but as close to being a white collar terrorist as we can imagine.

"What is our Legacy?"

For a baby boomer, that is a legit question to ask. The largest by volume generation in American history and one that we can't get enough of has a lot of questions to answer about it's legacy. Does it want to be known as the generation in which half of all natural resources were consumed during their time on earth? Or the generation that did nothing about climate change? How about health care? Well, at least one baby boomer, Jon Kitzhaber, the former Oregon governor, has something to say about it.

John Kitzhaber, M.D., politician, and son who watched both parents die in a dignified way, cannot stop talking about it. His parents’ generation won the war, built the interstate highway system, cured polio, eradicated smallpox and created the two greatest social programs of the 20th century — Social Security and Medicare.

Now the baton has been passed to the Baby Boomers. But the hour is late, Kitzhaber says, with no answer to a pressing generational question: “What is our legacy?”

Indeed. The previous generation escaped the Great Depression, defeated the Nazi's and created Social Security. The boomers? Well, they did invent psychedelic rock and helped with equal rights, something their parents weren't to keen on. But once they hit 30 they just about said screw it, lets make cash and now that they're old they just want to live free again (but chained to a 401k free). And they are even going to kill Social Security too! That's talent.

I just want to know who they think is gonna pick up their tab?

Economic Hit Men

I just finished the book Confessions of an Economic Hit man by John Perkins and if there it did a good job of lying out the twisted nature of world politics over the past half century. If anyone out there is confused as to why all these countries hate us, this book would be a good intro to getting your answers.

In short, the U.S./World Bank/IMF gives out loans to countries that have no chance of paying back the loan and any leader of said country who refuses gets assassinated or, as a last resort, invaded and then executed. And if you say it's the World Bank and not he US Bank then how come "the Bank President has always been a US citizen nominated by the President of the United States, the largest shareholder in the bank."

Makes you look at breaking news like this a whole lot differently.

The country's Congress and Supreme Court, alarmed by Zelaya's political shift into a close alliance with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, backed Zelaya's removal, arguing that he violated the constitution, even if many officials say he should have been arrested rather than sent abroad.

To the untrained American ear we say "Damn straight this Zelaya should be ousted. Chavez should be ousted too!" Well, the U.S. tried that back in '02 and came up empty.

I (kinda) remember that back from '02 being lost in my college haze and that's exactly what Perkins' admits is our biggest problem, the citizens. When we turn a blind eye to what happens and continue to support the institutions that continuously abuse the poor countries then we deserve all the bad karma that comes from it.

America: A Nation of Peasants

It's striking how much American society (especially the Teabagges) compare to typical peasants in this excerpt from Peter Farb's 1978 bookd "Humankind" posted by The Oil Drum on Monday.

A brief common description of peasants anywhere:

Almost anywhere that peasants are encountered, they are likely to give the same impression of being conservative, individualistic, prone to suspicion, jealous, violent, superstitious and unthrifty.

That sounds a lot like anyone from the South or really any red-state. The unthrifty part is particularly applicable to all Americans with their entirely negative savings rate till the recent depression-recession.

The excerpt wasn't there to talk about how idiotic peasants/americans are but more to describe that peasants have these characteristics because they live in a finite world which is very un-American.

Their behavior is not irrational at all, given the realities of their existence. In fact, the attitude of peasants is probably the only one possible for them. A modern observer of peasant life has defined their adaptation in terms of "the image of limited good." In other words, peasants view their total environment as one in which all the good things of life-land, wealth, power, friendship, sex, health, and honor-exist in only lim­ited quantities. As they see it, the limitation exists for two reasons: 'There are more of themselves than there are of good things, and they consider themselves powerless
to increase the quantities available. Peasants have unconsciously extended a truth about the limited nature of their arable land to include all aspects of life. Like the land itself, good things can be divided and their ownership changed-but they cannot be increased.

Because not enough good exists to go around, a peasant family can improve its position only at the expense of other families in the community. A family that actively works to improve its lot thus represents a threat; whatever extra good it obtains must inevitably be taken from someone else. Peasants consequently regard modern farming techniques as ways to deprive others of their rightful share of wealth rather than as ways to increase productivity and thus to create new wealth. Even enlightened peasants realize that they cannot modernize, although they understand the advantages in doing so, simply because the other villagers would see it as taking unfair ad­vantage if they were to augment their share of the limited good. 'The peasant belief that everything desirable is limited lies behind the social behavior that to outsiders often appears ludicrous, pathetic, or maddening.

This is why it's so awkward when you stroll into a lil ol' native village in some country we bankrupted via the IMF and World Bank and wonder if they hate us. Nooooooo, that's just your imagination.

Now it's great that peasants typically totally local and self-sufficient. This is typically how things existed until China made things cheap as shit. But this self-sufficency also has a big negative, lack of cooperation which is what defeated nearly all hunter-gather societies (ie. Native Americans and the story of Tecumsah) and is eerily familiar to the "DIY" attitudes of the Tea-baggers.

No wonder, then, that peasant behavior is characterized by extreme individualism and the absence of cooperation. To cooperate, peasants would have to delegate authority - but no one wishes to assume leadership lest gossiping neighbors com­plain that their own share of authority is being taken away from them. In thus shirking community responsibilities that might thrust them into prominence, peasants deprive their own community of the leadership essential for breaking the cycle of poverty. They pay no immediate penalty for their lack of cooperation, as do hunter-gatherers (whose very sur­vival may depend upon it) or people living in modern socie­ties (whose complex political, social, and economic systems could not function without it).

And just a little shout out to Idiocracy, a very hilarious and frighteningly relative film:

And while seemingly making no attempt to lift themselves out of inherited poverty, they even worsen the situation by rejecting birth-control measures.

Bono is a Hypocrite

The Chicago Bears have to replace all the sod at Soldier Field after the artistic abomination that was U2's current tour rolled through there last weekend. Bono likes to think he is good leader for progressive issues but anyone who can destroy some 9800 square yards of turf in 3 days so he can dangle from a megawatt-sucking videolight display before his encore has got to get his priorities checked.

If anything he should be more like Radiohead. Tour infrequently at venues that allow them to control who pimps what.

Presidents Have NO Balls

Got this little interview of Robert Hirsch via JHK wherein Hirsch, former big wig at DOE and publisher of the 2005 DOE Peak Oil report, pulls back the covers to reveal the nutless sacks that hang between the legs of our presidents.

Question: Under pressure from whom?

Hirsch: From people in the hierarchy of the DOE. This was true in both Republican and Democrat administrations. There is, I think, ample evidence, and some people in DOE have gone so far as to say it specifically, that people in the hierarchy of DOE, under both administrations, understood that there was a problem and suppressed work in the area. Under President Bush, we were not only able to do the first study but also a follow-on study that looked at mitigation economics. After that, visibility apparently got so high that NETL was told to stop any further work on peak oil.

Yes, that was terrible. And it was strictly politics and political appointees—I have no idea how far up in either administration (the current one and previous one) these issues went or now go. People in the Clinton administration had talked about peak oil, including President Clinton and Vice President Gore, and the same thing is true in the Bush administration, and the same is true, to the best of my knowledge, in the Obama administration.

Does anyone know what Leadership with a capital L stands for anymore? Can American just not handle bad news anymore? I can't believe what a clan of pansies we've become.

And no doubt Peak Oil is a downer. It's not a happy ending. Peak Oil won't kill itself via cyanide capsule in a Berlin bunker. It won't collapse like the Berlin wall. It's coming whether we like it or not and everyone is going to have to start dealing with it sooner or later. And the later it gets, the worse it will be:

We found that because the decline rate in world oil production was going to be in multiple percents per year, it was going to take a very long time for mitigation to catch up to the decline in world oil production. Basically, the best we found was that starting a worldwide crash program 20 years before the problem hits avoid serious problems. If you started 10 years before-hand, you are in a lot of trouble; and if you wait to the last minute until the problem is obvious, then you’re in deep trouble for much longer than a decade. As it turns out, we no longer have the 10 or 20 years that were two of our scenarios.

I don't know how anyone in government sleeps knowing they sit on their hands while all this goes down.

High Five Nation

Brooks reminisces in the NYT about older times when people were more humble, you know, like when our country won the biggest war in the history of the planet. Making it through a decade long depression and a war where real rationing (not this health care b.s.) took place would be a cause for massive taunting and braggarded-ness-esque things, right? Let's see what the Mr. Bing Crosby had to say:

“All anybody can do is thank God it’s over,” Bing Crosby, the show’s host, said. “Today our deep down feeling is one of humility,” he added.

Whoa, big talk. I guess when most people actually know someone who died in the war and you had to grow your own vegetables (the horror) you don't really feel like doing an end zone dance in your enemies face.

Nowadays we're all a little too trophy-happy. Anytime we knock a few heads we get to roll out the big "Mission Accomplished" banners. FDR really should have taken the time to bump his #'s a bit more after Midway or the Sicily invasion with a lavish victory parade. Oh, wait, he actually had dignity.

And I'd just like to toss out something the baby boomers, the self-centered offspring of the greatest generation, brought as their gift to our culture. Rampant individualism.

But that humility came under attack in the ensuing decades. Self-effacement became identified with conformity and self-repression. A different ethos came to the fore, which the sociologists call “expressive individualism.” Instead of being humble before God and history, moral salvation could be found through intimate contact with oneself and by exposing the beauty, the power and the divinity within.

Seems like working behind a plow doesn't offer as many ways to express oneself as smoking dope and taking time off that degree in Beat poetry to write a psychedelic rock album. Don't forget to facebook me. My kids are way more exciting than your kids.

Welcome Fake Mexico, Goodbye Real Mexico

Ron Mexico is back. Unfortunately, the real Mexico is about to fade away. Cantarell, the salsa of giant oil fields is in massive decline.

Yikes. Mexico is the third largest supplier of oil to the U.S. which means bad news for the gringo al Norte. Now Mexico does have some other fields but unfortunately those are failing to deliver like anyone drafted by the Los Angeles Clippers.

Now the oil in KMZ is proving to be much heavier than that from Cantarell and so may not decline at quite the same rate, but given the very rapid increase in production, and that the peak is already here, this does not bode well for sustaining Mexican production using that region for any great period into the future. Rather it might increase the already precipitate drop in total production levels going into 2011.

But all is not gloomy, especially if you're a oil industry puppet like Michael Lynch who's total b.s. editorial in the NYT got much pub (sorry, too lazy to post at the time) but and was thoroughly debunked the next day on both his credibility and the factual merit of his argument.

Here's what escaped from the puppet's mouth:

Michael C. Lynch, president, Strategic Energy & Economic Research Inc., differs from the generally pessimistic consensus on Mexico. “I think Mexico will probably surprise many,” he said.

Lynch said, “[Pemex’s] first need has been capital; the government has a long tendency to starve them of money, and only recently has this been reversed. Mexican drilling activity is twice what it was a couple of years ago, and they have a lot of medium-sized fields that could make a serious contribution. (The decline in rigs rates has helped them, but the peso decline offset that somewhat). Deregulation and outside investment would certainly help, but capital is the main thing.”

Perhaps too much Tony Robbins is a bad thing.

High oil prices/shortages are not just all that's bad for the U.S. Mexico is quickly becoming (or is already) a very fragile country. The drug cartels are Walmart-like in power and as soon as the Mexican government loses the 40% of their budget that comes from oil they could have a (even more) serious problem on their hands with the well-funded drug cartels. Oh, the possibilities!

New Global Temp Record in Next 1-2 Years

Greenfyre's set my heart on fire with news that the world we be turned into fire (kinda) in the next couple years. The culprit: that Chris Farrelly dodging cyclical weather phenomenon known as "El Nino".



This info is presented in a very informative video from the Climate Denier Crock of th Week series hosted by Peter Sinclair via Youtube.



And for those who like to see things not just read them here's a sweet little graph of the avg temps over the last decade. (Sorry, don't know if that's in F or C but I would assume C since those foreigners are way over our heads when it comes to climate change.)
***UPDATE: It is in Celsius so it's like a 2-3 degree increase. As with Ron Burgundy "it's kinda a big deal."

Help Wanted: Some to Get Boot-Heel Crushed

I'm feeling particularly antagonistic today so I'm gonna beef about civilization briefly. My job entails being nice enough to someone so they buy the product I sell for my than my company pays for it. That's being pretty simple about it but that's the gist.

Now, because I'm trying to be extra nice and helpful and since the customer knows I want his $$$$, certain societal codes of conduct that get thrown out in our "business transactions". Example, if I were to show up late to a scheduled call the customer could have a giant baby about it and take his $$$$ elsewhere even if I was helping a different customer out on an emergency which the first customer would be glad I did not leave his convo early if he was in the same situation. However, if the customer is late, well I have to just eat it since he's the founder of the sales feast and he can cancel dinner whenever.

Most people would say "duh" to this and being conditioned in the society we live in that response would make sense. It's just "business". But "business" or more so "successful business" really depends on how people treat each other so there is some personal roots in how it all goes down.

That's not the point I'm trying to make. Do hunter/gatherer societies demean themselves and play false to secure some sort of profit? Perhaps but I still think in a barter system there is far less boot-heel-licking than in our civilized world. Both sides would maintain reasonable expectations of conduct in both personal and "business" settings because there is no other way.

**Bonus: The phrase "too have a baby" about something just reflects how big a deal a baby is and would explain the notoriously annoying Facebook posts of people with children. I don't have one so maybe I don't get it but at the same time I said I'd never have a dog and I got one and love the dog very much but my whole life doesn't revolve around broadcasting his day-to-day to everyone within earshot.

They'd Be Easier to Spot if They Wore Masks in Real Life

If you don't like the public option then you probably don't see the humor in this cartoon.

Much Easier Without Competion

Friedman makes the point that our one-party Democracy is a complete failure.

Our one-party democracy is worse. The fact is, on both the energy/climate
legislation and health care legislation, only the Democrats are really playing. With a few notable exceptions, the Republican Party is standing, arms folded and saying “no.” Many of them just want President Obama to fail. Such a waste. Mr. Obama is not a socialist; he’s a centrist. But if he’s forced to depend entirely on his own party to pass legislation, he will be whipsawed by its different factions.

Compared to China's autocracy we are a bunch of nincompoops and to that statement I would agree. I post this to point out the fractious nature of the American system of goverment compared to what it was when it was created. We have gone from an all-male, white-only, government with a slave-based agricultural economy to a all-inclusive almagasm of varying interests trying to make decisions based on the half-truths and misinformation the major news dispersing agencies vomit up each day. How can we possibly get anything done like this. And on top of all that the people in the only party playing the game can't do their jobs in the first plac.e

FP on Oil

Foreign Policy has a cool little symposium on oil going on at their site. It's a nice little smattering of the failure of green tech, the current state of oil and the (bleak) future of a world coming to grips with a declining oil supply.

Maybe this will do some good or maybe it's just another brain jam for the elites who read these sites yet never fail to be amazed by the politicians who play lip service to possibly the biggest foreseeable disaster in the history of humanity.

Go Outside

I have a tendency to align with the camp the believes that most of societies problem are inherent in what society is. Class warfare, workforce exploitation, climate change, mass extinction are all basics of a civilization based on consuming everything in it's wake to make sure nothing stands in the way of it's almighty growth. But if you were to just go outside and partake in nature, you might not fix everything but you'd be a lot nicer to your neighbors. You gotta start somewhere.

"A series of studies suggests immersion in nature "brings individuals closer to others, whereas human-made environments orient goals toward more selfish or
self-interested ends."

Think being in traffic makes you edgy? Simmering under those grating flourescent lights all day? It could very well be those things and all that stale recycled air that's got you ripped up. It's been said hunter/gatherers have the most leisure time of any type of society.

"Nature affords individuals the chance to follow their interests and reduces pressures, fears, introjects and social expectations."

I guess working 60 hours a week just to blow the paycheck on on giant plasma isn't what we really want.

The Volt: Shock and Awe 2.0

GM made a big hullabaloo last week with it's introduction of the it's electric car, the Volt which supposedly gets 200 miles to the charge beside being able to save floundering behemoth automotive companies.

My fave doomer J. H. Kunstler points out the incredibly glaring farce that the Volt will be with it's exorbitant price tag:

We're told the Volt will get the equivalent of over 200 miles-per-gallon, at less than 25 cents a charge from the plug on your garage wall, blah blah.
They estimate that it'll cost about $40,000. Do we detect a little problem right there? Like, the whole adult US population is going to rush out and buy new cars priced the same as today's Mercedes Benz? Good luck with that, GM, especially when money for car loans will be about as easy to get as a royal flush in online poker.

Peak Oil haters point to the Theory of "Theys". They will fix. They will invent something, etc. But the reality is even if there is a new technology (not to mention expensive) that requires the whole public to switch over from a current (very expensive) technology, where will they get the money to do so when there is no trade in value for the old stuff or have credit so bad that they can't get a loan for it? What a cluster this will be.

Though JHK gets a bit scary when he talks about the "pitchfork and torch" outcomes for the future:

Then, of course, there is the political problem that nobody is thinking
about, namely, what happens when a substantial portion of the public is permanently foreclosed from motoring because they've lost jobs and incomes and positions and vocations that they will never get back -- ? Do you think they'll just hike down the breakdown lanes with colorful bundles on their heads like the impoverished folk in other lands? Or will they put all those home arsenals to work? I can't wait to find out.

I'd Like to Return this Education

This is something I've thought about before: getting a refund on my college education. I spent four years getting a degree in a field I don't work in. What I did get is a piece of paper saying that I'm good at achieving in institutionalized education system and that should transfer nicely into a institutionalized workforce.

I know I wouldn't stand a chance that I'd get a refund and that college did teach me a few things. But the interesting thing about the student's case here is that the school she choose is vocational, meaning it doesn't exist to advance education like my big state school and all it's fancy engineering modeling tests. It exists to get people with marginal educational backgrounds a job.

The lawyers out there would love to William Jennings Bryan the poo-poo out of this case.

If you want a Russian's opinion on the failure of school at any level and, in particular, the American education system, see here.

We Need More Bruce Willis'

Nasa's got 20,000 problems and a dead Mars robot ain't one. Humans can worry about peak oil, climate change, rogue nukes and all the like but those are all human-created problems. We could all be worried about single nuke getting loose and maybe we lose a city. What happens when a football stadium boulder is lost in space that could destroy the entire planet?

NASA estimates that there are about 20,000 asteroids and comets in our solar system that are potential threats to Earth. They are larger than 460 feet in diameter — slightly smaller than the Superdome in New Orleans. So far, scientists know where about 6,000 of these objects are.

All the Young Dudes

Don't have jobs. Herbert tries to bring the unemployment to a head in his piece this week. The U.S. had dropped jobs like they were hot since last summer but the real scariness is the unemployment in our young men.

Only 65 of every 100 men aged 20 through 24 years old were working on any
given day in the first six months of this year. In the age group 25 through 34 years old, traditionally a prime age range for getting married and starting a family, just 81 of 100 men were employed.

For male teenagers, the numbers were disastrous: only 28 of every 100 males were employed in the 16- through 19-year-old age group. For minority teenagers, forget about it. The numbers are beyond scary; they’re catastrophic.

This is bad news. We all know what happens when young men go unemployed for extended periods of time. If things don't get better and we are not honest to ourselves about the challenges we face, things like this can get out of control.

Heinberg Brings the Epic

Richard Heinberg had a great post the other day for The Oil Drum. It is probably the clearest, most inclusive description of the current state of peak oil that I've read. Truly epic.

The U.S. Moved Towards Facism: 8 years ago

For all the talk of the current itteration of U.S. government being facist or socialist it's not really or atleast not as much as the goverment was post-9/11. I fail to see how trying to offer a public option for health care is anywhere close to wire taps, media control, and Guantanamo-esque imprisonment.

Saddam Is Still Alive

Something funny:

A Week of Doom

I don't think there's anything I like more than collapse talk and Slate's got a whole week of it. Today is America vs. Climate Change day. We get to take bets on what parts of the country are most likely to be hardest hit (Southwest, coast cities) and where we'll go if things get bad (Canada). I've hedged my bets and will be residing in Wisconsin.

But maybe I should have booked my ticket for Buffalo, NY:

As for Buffalo's winning characteristics, Shibley notes that "you've got
agricultural land around our perimeter, you have the power from the water and [Niagara] Falls, and you have the industrial infrastructure to die for, the roads and railroads." And even with all of those enticements, there's still plenty of primo waterfront land available for purchase. As he points out one inviting tract, Shibley shouts: "Come home, we're ready to go!"

Smoke'm if you Got'em

Sharon Begley just put an environmental Freddy Kreuger in my dreams with her post in Newsweek. When a major news source reports some real stats and with the sense of urgency they deserve it makes my heart flutter.

Here's scary quote #1:

The loss of Arctic sea ice "is well ahead of" what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change forecast, largely because emissions of carbon dioxide have topped what the panel—which foolishly expected nations to care enough about global warming to do something about it—projected. "The models just aren't keeping up"

Right now climate change is "off" everything: radar, charts, the hook, the chain, the wall. Everything.

Scary quote #2:

So while the IPCC projected that sea level would rise 16 inches this century, "now a more likely figure is one meter [39 inches] at the least," says Carlson. "Chest high instead of knee high, with half to two thirds of that due to Greenland." Hence the "no idea how bad it was."

Let's reiterate: No Idea How Bad It Was. That's probably one epitaph that's underused.

And because bad things come in three's, Scary quote #3:

But estimates of how much carbon is locked into Arctic permafrost were, it turns out, woefully off. "It's about three times as much as was thought, about 1.6
trillion metric tons, which has surprised a lot of people," says Edward Schuur of the University of Florida. "It means the potential for positive feedbacks is greatly increased." That 1.6 trillion tons is about twice the amount now in the atmosphere. And Schuur's measurements of how quickly CO2 can come out of permafrost, reported in May, were also a surprise: 1 billion to 2 billion tons per year. Cars and light trucks in the U.S. emit about 300 million tons per year.

So this is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an incapable species.

And just to further my point that the U.S. government and just about all other governments are walking zombie epic fails:

In an insightful observation in The Guardian this month, Jim Watson of the University of Sussex wrote that "a new breed of climate sceptic is becoming more common": someone who doubts not the science but the policy response. Given the pathetic (non)action on global warming at the G8 summit, and the fact that the energy/climate bill passed by the House of Representatives is so full of holes and escape hatches that it has barely a prayer of averting dangerous climate change, skepticism that the world will get its act together seems appropriate.

We are literally looking extinction in the face and we are worried about the 4 year presidential cycle. May shame be cast upon all our souls.

Funny Thing Happened on the Way to 2050

There's a lot of people looking for green shoots out there. The economy sucks, climate change, the flip-flopping want/lack of desire for health care reform. So who better to turn to than Global Business Network who acts as a consultant for govt's and businesses alike. What do they consult on: the future. (Weeeee!)

Just so happens Slate has a piece on the GBN's predictions for 2050 of which they give 4 possible outcomes. These outcomes aren't "set in stone" predictions but when two of the four involve the dissolution of the United States and the third being a "global Napoleon" you know things are going to be good.

Just a snippet (gotta love those African hackers):

One of the timelines, the "Long Crisis," begins with "global storming," a
run of catastrophic weather events around the world. By 2023, the United States has defaulted on its debts to China. Eventually, in the aftermath of Global Famine II, the U.S. breaks into eight pieces. On the plus side, African biohackers find a cure for AIDS in 2026. Yippee!