Silent Spring

Kristof seems to be toxic hound at the NYT. His latest piece highlights many of the same arguments from Silent Spring.

“There are diseases that are increasing in the population that we have no known cause for,” said Alan M. Goldberg, a professor of toxicology at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. “Breast cancer, prostate cancer, autism are three examples. The potential is for these diseases to be on the rise because of chemicals in the environment.”

"And now we are in trouble."

Little kids believe ghost stories because in part, they don't enough for it to be not true and two, because they haven't been around enough people to tell them it isn't as well. Peak Oil is like a ghost story for adults except adult ghost stories usually are true, i.e. STD's, divorce settlement's, etc. The Oil Drum has a nice article on how the poorly educated (only men can read) Italian gypsies get Peak Oil while the "gadje" are indifferent to the truth after being told by so many folks that technology, "they", will save us.

The closing quote is particularly and hauntingly poignant.

You see, professor, I think you were right with your lesson. Yeah, you told us that things are not going to be so easy as they used to be. Right, we saw that, too. It is what's happening. You know, I remember when we came here from Yugoslavia. I was a child; I was 10 years old but I remember that very well. It was so different, here. We saw so much wealth: lights and cars and houses and stuff in the supermarkets. Yeah, we had never seen anything like that.

In Yugoslavia there was nothing. And so, we were all very happy, but I think we made a big mistake. You know; I remember my grandfather. He was a good man; he could work metals; he could fix pots and pans and sharpen knives. So, he told me that I should learn his job; but I didn't want to. I was very young; I wasn't that smart but, see, professor, I think we all made the same mistake. Many of the old folks could do things. Like singing or playing instruments, buying and selling horses.

But we can't do that any more. We didn't want to learn. We saw all this wealth, here, and we thought that there was no need of working so hard. If there was so much wealth; why couldn't we share a little of it? We didn't want to be rich; we just wanted a little - enough to live in peace. And we thought it would last forever. But, you are right, professor, it is not going to last forever. And now we are in trouble.

Pictures of Collapse

Here's a glimpse of what the world might look like as the abundant, cheap energy so prevelent today fades into oblivion. Spookily awesome.

Is It Worth Saving?

Haiti was one the countries Jared Diamond chose to highlight in his book Collapse along with China, Australia and a few others. It's basically deforested most of it's half of the island to add to it's incredible over-population problem. Some people think this latest disaster is a wake-up call to the Haitians imminent extinction. With a population density 10x the U.S., will this mass destruction of Haiti's infrastructure allow them to survive? Is it even worth it.

They Are Rolling in Their Graves

Look at how far we've fallen. 51% of Americans would give up some liberties for security. I can only see this as a clear indictment of the media's portrayal of terrorist events causing Americans to abandon all rational thought on the matter. There's even a book about it.

Who makes up this 51%? It would have to be folks from both blue and red states and would have to include some "Tea Party'ers" (or it is Partiers?). This is what makes it truly astonishing. Our country was founded by a collective of rationalist, Deist thinkers yet this fact seems to be lost on most Americans. The founding fathers real ideas and goals have been dashed upon the shit pile that most Americans root from to achieve an "education". We love the line, "Give me liberty or give me death", which we only apply to injustices (gun control, increased taxes, etc) that haven't actually happened yet seem to ignore quotes like Ben Franklin's,"Those who give up their liberty for security deserve neither liberty or security." Yes, it's widely used post-9/11 and is something I feel falls too far into the problems of civilization to be something humans should follow but the fact that people calmly neglect this truth from the cries of patriotism is full proof the level of ignorance that encases most Americans view of reality.

The reality is that terror attacks in the world, let alone on American civilians, and even more so on American soil are incredibly rare. Yes, there are plotters our there and yes, there are weekly bombings in Iraq/Afghanistan/Pakistan but nearly all of that was brought upon by U.S. encroachment in those countries. But the fact is that 9/11's or WTC '93 bombings or even Richard Reid shoe bombers are statistically insignificant. People are afraid to fly but willingly drive in cars daily though car fatalities are way more common than plane crashes. Toss terror-influenced plan crashes into the mix and the ration is even more lopsided. We do need to keep an ever-watching eye on our enemies but at the same time we don't have to cut off the leg for an infection on the pinkie toe.

The Cost of Community

John Michael Greer, my favorite Druid, has a great post on community. It's something I think a lot about. His point about cherry-picking a community of like minded folks to start a community still doesn't allow you to evade the emotional and time sacrifices needed for a community to actually be a community. You can start by showing up, shaking hands and a smile. Then doing that at each meeting and turning off Lost a few minutes early to spend some time working on it.

I'd have posted the excerpt but I'm having technical difficulties.

Scary Speech

Michael Ruppert has a scary documentary that I believe it out of theaters already. (who would have thought?!) But he gives a scarier speech. Here's some snippets from 2005.

From Grandpa Dick Cheney:

“…For the world as a whole, oil companies are expected to keep finding and developing enough oil to offset our 71 million-plus barrel a day of oil depletion [today it’s 84 million], but also to meet new demand. By some estimates there will be an average of two percent annual growth in global oil demand over the years ahead along with conservatively a three percent natural decline in production from existing reserves. That means by 2010 we will need on the order of an additional 50 million barrels a day… So where is the oil going to come from? ....

Yikes, he also basically admits that we went into Iraq for oil the second time too.

“… Energy is truly fundamental to the world’s economy. The Gulf War was a reflection of that reality… It is the basic, fundamental building block of the world’s economy…

But Ruppert gets scary when he talks about the real government solution. That sounds about exactly how they'd handle it.

We are witnessing government response to Peak Oil now. In my earlier
presentation I have made it clear that that response will include only measures
which protect the financial elites and major corporations.

They include:

1. Rationing

2. More Coal and Nuclear – Emphasis on Fisher-Tropsch Coal-to-Liquids
Conversion.

3. Suspended Environmental and Drilling Restrictions

4. Protection of Critical Infrastructure

5. Strengthening and Reinforcing Domestic Military
Operations – Suspension of Posse Comitatus

6. Suspension and Relaxation of Labor and Minimum Wage Laws.

7. Changing and Tightening the Bankruptcy Laws Allowing Fewer Distressed Consumers to Discharge Debts.

8. Allowing and Facilitating Population Reduction through Famine and Disease.

9. Strengthening and Giving More Power to FEMA. (this Fema)

10. Destroying Demand Through Economic Collapse and Allocating Scarce Resources – by Force if Necessary – to Protect the Interests of the Wealthiest Communities and Interests in the Country.

Sounds about right.

Avatar, Enough Said

Lots of conservatives hate Avatar. It only reflects poorly on them.

My thoughts (taken from a written conversation):

I have seen it and it was an awesome time. The movie really is a spectacle for the eye. The 3d adds so much depth to just about any scene and made the actions scenes exhilarating. When I left I was so bummed out to walk into drab dreary grey slush. You really need to go see it 3d in theatres. Prob the 2nd best action film only to Dark Knight.

It does have a lot of environmentalism, feminism, etc and it's along those lines that people will be divided. The movie brings in a lot of issues and people should wonder why they are so offended by them. If they are then they should just sit through the bucolic crap of any Marvel blockbuster or R rated shootem up. Issues though are what make great cinema. It's true conflict. Even Dark Knight was a commentary on terrorism. See the Slate review. Tthe Dark Knight's critique was based in this world with a lunatic villain who we were never supposed to side with. In Avatar, the villain is us.

Avatar's issues are all issues we haven't dealt with. It focuses on natural resource and native cultural abuses that have been part of civilization for forever. If Americans think fair play and giving a hand are part of what it means to be an American than there is a conflict of interest in how we, today, and how the human characters in the movie conduct themselves. We go into countries, mostly with a smile and a knife behind our back, or if they doesn't work, with tanks and cruise missiles, and setup agreements or just plain take what we want. Avatar parallels what happened to the Sioux in the Black Hills, the Incas in the Andes, and is happening now to the Iraqis. These are big time open sores that make for great cinema and hurt as well.

I would question why they hate it. Cinema wise it's not the most unique script. There are plenty of movies that say the same thing but that's the same in any genre. Do you not like the downer human message? Then you prob don't like Schindler's list or any movie that showcases negative human behavior. Do you not like feminism or anti-Americanism? Then you're not comfortable with the reality of what America does in the real world and not a student of history. Only until civilization was created did women become unequal and cultures wipe out other cultures for resources. You end up looking like a fool or a bigot or a philistine. Your pick.

On a cinematic note, the Navi are the underdog which has a big place in American culture. We were UD's against the Brits but now that we are in charge do we not like that side of the bed. The humans in the film and in reality have the technology to basically kill or conquer anything they want which basically puts anything non-human as an underdog. Star Wars is an underdog story? The Empire could blow up planets in one shot so why is no one complaining about rebel humans blowing up the big bad Death Star?

I get worked up about this stuff.

More Conservative dislike on pantheism.

His piece is fatalist and skews the message of Avatar, Dances with Wolves, etc. His basic problem seems to be that humans love pantheism because they feel guilty about there relationship to nature and are jealous of the freedom that pantheism offers. He finally questions Nature as religion in purely human terms: can nature classify right and wrong. He complains that in nature there is death and ruthlessness and for this reason nature can never be a religion.

There is a saying that there is no right or wrong but thinking makes it so and this is the first step down the wrong path Douthat travels. He declares we "live in two worlds" and so therefore the religion nature could provide is not enough for us. We need to go beyond natural laws to create laws only applicable to human behavior. The problem is we already had laws to govern human behavior. Native Americans watched how animals and nature behaved are coordinated their lives by the same rules. Religion condones the human right to dominate the world by putting man at the center of the equation. If we followed a religion that focused more on nature we'd have think twice about mowing down forests, poisoning and choking off rivers, etc. The fact is we do live in both worlds and we have to respect both worlds because if we don't, Douthat will be right, there will go back to ashes along with everything else.

On a side note, the fact that pantheism is packaged to America in giant, expensive, blockbuster movies and is commercialised in the book racks is something that is not lost on me. I figured that if he mounted a legal campaign against a major polluter or bought up land for a reserve with that 500 million that it'd be a better example of pantheism than blue giant aliens fighting humans. But that's his talent and if it can help change some people maybe they will do the real work.