The Biggest Crime in Human History is Being Ignored (Hint: It's not Seth Rich or Russiagate)
I have a question for you. What's the biggest crime that has occurred and is ongoing, a crime so immense it demands media attention? Russiagate? Seth Rich's murder and/or cover up? Donald Trump doing stupid stuff every damn day? No. It's the mass murder of life on this planet.
Scientists count just five mass extinctions in an unimaginably long expanse of 450 million years, but they warn we may well be entering a sixth.
According to a bold new paper in The Anthropocene Review, this time would be different from past mass extinctions in four crucial ways – and all of these stem from the impact of a single species that arrived on the scene just 200,000 years ago: Homo sapiens.
That's right, we human beings are the reason that millions of species, including our own, are at risk of becoming extinct. And climate change, caused in large part by our use of fossil fuels, is the single largest reason for these deaths.
Greenhouse gases from human activities are the most significant driver of observed climate change since the mid-20th century. [...]
Worldwide, net emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities increased by 35 percent from 1990 to 2010. Emissions of carbon dioxide, which account for about three-fourths of total emissions, increased by 42 percent over this period.
Indeed, the use of this outdated technology to generate energy have created feedback loops, that are accelerating the release of greenhouse gases in the Arctic, and thus accelerating the rate at which the earth's oceans and atmosphere are warming to a extremely dangerous extent.
The Alaskan tundra is warming so quickly it has become a net emitter of carbon dioxide ahead of schedule, a new study finds.
Since CO2 is the primary heat-trapping greenhouse gas — and since the permafrost contains twice as much carbon as the atmosphere does today — this means a vicious cycle has begun that will speed up global warming.
“Because it’s getting warmer, there’s more CO2 coming out which means it’s going to get warmer which means there’s more CO2 coming out,” explained Harvard researcher and lead author Roisin Commane. [...]
The study is the first to report that a major portion of the Arctic is a net source of heat-trapping emissions. As a result, Commane warns that our current climate models need to be updated: “We’re seeing this much earlier than we thought we would see it.”
And our world governments' reaction to this news? An increase in the extraction and use of coal, oil and natural gas in the United States, and around the world. Why? Because billions of dollars of profits and millions of dollars of bribes/political contributions are at stake.
Although the threat of "resource wars" over possession of oil reserves is often exaggerated, the sum total of the political effects generated by the oil industry makes oil a leading cause of war. Between one-quarter and one-half of interstate wars since 1973 have been connected to one or more oil-related causal mechanisms. No other commodity has had such an impact on international security.
Millions of people have died or suffered grievous injuries and become refugees so that the oil companies and their partners, the totalitarian regimes in Saudi Arabia and dictators throughout the world, can make untold and outrageous profits at the expense of the people not only living in the region, but also people who are directly affected by the change to our climate.
People who are suffering from wars fought over oil, famine, disease, severe weather events such as droughts and extreme precipitation events and massive wildfires. Millions have had their lives ruined. And this is because of our species addiction to the greatest weapon of mass destruction in history: fossil fuels.
And who are the people most responsible for these crimes against life? Our political leaders, and in particular our political leaders in the United States, regardless of major party affiliation, Republican or Democrat. While some have paid lip service to "solving" the climate killing catastrophe that humanity faces, their action indicate they support increased extraction of fossil fuels. Prime examples? Hillary Clinton who promoted fracking for methane around the world to support transnational oil and gas companies, and President Barrack Obama, who presided over the largest increase on drilling for oil and gas in US history.
So, millions dead, more millions at risk, and a state of constant war over old and gas resources the burning of which threatens our very survival. Yet the media ignores these crimes, the deaths of the largely anonymous victims of our corrupt political leaders and major oil companies. Big media titans also are to blame. For example, The New York Times, has even added a climate change denier as a columnist to publish lies on their op-ed page while the world burns.
Both parties receive massive donations from lobbyists for major fossil fuel companies. And our ever concentrated corporate controlled media, who rely on ads from oil and gas companies, continues to distract us with trivial stories that are pure political theater, rather than cover the greatest crisis mankind has ever faced to any significant degree. And that deliberate refusal to cover this story is a crime in itself.
In 2016, the major networks’ coverage of climate change dropped by two thirds compared to 2015.
In fact, climate coverage last year was close to its lowest levels since 2009, according to a new analysis by MediaMatters of the evening and Sunday news programs that air on ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox. This drop is despite historic wildfires, extreme weather events like Hurricane Matthew, and month after month of record-breaking global temperatures.
My heart goes out to the family of Seth Rich, a young man who was born the same year as my own son. I cannot begin to imagine what they are going through.
But how many other people, both in the United States and abroad have suffered and died because our government is owned by corporations and financial institutions with a vested interest in the continued production and use of oil and gas and coal? People whose lives we will never know. People about whose whose fate our government's leaders couldn't care less, regardless of what they say for public consumption. People whose deaths have been ignored and dismissed as the "cost of doing business." People of all races, religions and nationalities.
So spare me the ADD hyped, 24/7 media focus on stories such as the murder of Seth Rich and the alleged "treason" of Donald Trump. We have far bigger concerns and face a far greater threat to our nation's security and to the security of people around the world. I don't have time for the Kabuki plays the media and corrupt governments around the world broadcast as infotainment, while the far greater danger to human beings posed by anthropogenic climate disruption, which they would just as soon we ignore, continues unabated and unaddressed.
Comments
Preach!
Preach!
It is not too late
We still have options to stave off the worst, ones we can afford.
My favourite is the soletta and for $1 to $10 trillion we can stick a parasol between us and the sun to cut down on insolation by a fraction of a percent. Problem solved, and it's fine tunable and no there is no worst case scenario that cannot be solved by destroying it which will be trivial to do.
There are a lot of other geo-engineering approaches that have no negative impacts to major that humans could survive.
But we have to act now - ACC, wealth inequality and equal rights are inextricably linked they are the tripod of our progressive alliance that is getting ready for 2018.
"geo-engineering approaches that have no negative impacts"
yeah right, no negative impacts, where have I heard that before? Just everywhere in California, every day since I was born, almost. "That's the system." Good luck with it in 2018, these eyes are on a different prize now, not the shitty group of bribe suckers currently installed. Or the ones coming after, who will become the new cogs in the money machine. No thanks.
The Green Energy revolution is McBullShit to profit the new billionaire class. Musk is the "clean" energy guru going to save us? No, he is simultaneously planning escape to Mars, just in case what now? In case the kool-aid runs out. Some day students will read about him in school books, like Henry Ford, if there are any schools or books left I guess. See how well the ICE (internal combustion engine) has done? Made history! No negative impacts ;-).
There's a sucker born every minute in California, it is what drives the economy unfortunately. I'm sure there is a geo-engineer that says Boring a bunch more tunnels in San Francisco has no negative impacts either. Which immigrant group will the "We're capitalists" party pick to drill 'em? Oh wait it's robots from here on out, sorry workforce. Get an education why don't ya?! The bank is that way -->. Get in line.
I want progress, but it has to be sustainable and not just a copy of the past mistakes with a new veneer. The current kabuki shit show is not sustainable it is draining. Voting is not going to stop ecocide-by-oligarchy, it is too little too late but it is all some of us have left. Thanks.
Peace
One thing you've got to admit, Steven
is that unlike our global war to secure fossil fuels, climate change is an equal opportunity killer. Yes, the ultra-rich will die when there is no more arable land to produce food for them, even if robots were to do the harvesting. They remind me of the story of the monkey who put its hand into a jar with a narrow neck to retrieve a peanut. Although the monkey refused to let go the peanut, it could not extract its hand from jar unless it did so.
Sad to say, I think the ultra-wealthy plan to live in
underground lairs with vast hydroponic gardens to feed themselves and the fortunate few chosen to serve them. That or some other type of castle mentality, whereby they construct a self-contained Eden for themselves while the rest of us are left to the ravages of a climate they created.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
@Lily O Lady They clearly think they
They clearly think they have an out.
Then again, they also think they can have a nuclear war and continue their emperor-like existences. So maybe they're just crazy.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Well, they have some sort of deep-seated personality
disorder and it's killing the whole damn world.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
Dear LOL, it's called psychopathy
In its mildest forms it can be likened to "Fuck You, I've got mine". In it's worst forms it is Hillary and Trump. (I did not want to extend the list of murdering dictators from Alexander the Great to Barack Obama).
Sadly, they are the scum that rise to the top, allowing
them to run the whole show right off the rails.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
Actually the danger with Arctic melting
is the CH4 coming out -- the methane clathrates. Even though methane lasts maybe seven years at most in the Earth's atmosphere, it's a far more effective greenhouse gas per unit than CO2 because it traps solar radiation over a much broader spectrum.
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
Clathrates not just in the arctic
Are methane hydrates the next big energy source? Japan hopes so.
How much energy are we talking about? Potentially, a staggering amount. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that gas hydrates could contain between 10,000 trillion cubic feet to more than 100,000 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
@Cassiodorus In re: your sig:
In re: your sig:
the biggest asset the asshole Democrats have is Trump, as well.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
California blowout led to largest U.S. methane release ever
thanks for reminding about Aliso Canyon. I don't know the molecular details, not sure anyone knows for sure. Thanks goodness someone took mearsurements:
California blowout led to largest U.S. methane release ever
But we're a "green energy" state, so don't WSPA in any ear who really pulls the puppet strings, that would be bad. Hollywood makes the best propaganda in the world too, match made in heaven.
The Invisible Catastrophe
I think the governor's reputation is fine, doesn't every one? Legacy, dynasty, whatever.
Thanks
There appears to be another positive feedback loop at play now
- wealth acquisition and accretion.
Maybe the 0.01% feel they can isolate themselves from the coming calamity of global warming with their affluence. With this wealth, they can move throughout the world with relative ease, purchase increasingly expensive commodities and fund the militias they will need for protection.
Imagine a dystopian world where a small percentage live on isolated well protected pockets of land, who send out armed brigades to bring back the necessities of life they cannot themselves provide.
Damn we already have the prototype - the United States.
I have imagined such a world for many years now. Such
a scenario guarantees that the wealthy have no common interests with the rest of the world, nor indeed with the 99% of Americans.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
Europe maintains a variety of small exclusive sovereign hideouts
in which the ultra-rich and their corporate fronts can and do take refuge — Liechtenstein, Luxemburg, Monaco, etc. come to mind.
The principle of exclusive havens for people with enough money is thus well established in Europe. It’s exploited mostly for tax purposes right now, but the elites can decide to extend the precedent to any other facet of life at any time.
The Davos Malthusians are not only causing the sixth extinction
they are also the greatest mass murderers on the planet. Willing to see the deaths of billions so they can live comfortably.
Tobacco, Lead, Climate - and many more preceding it. This paradigm of someone profiting from someone else's misery or death, and fighting tooth and nail to keep it going, using precisely the same strategies of delay, obfuscate and perjury is always happening everywhere.
In the 50s before the Green Revolution the Malthusians were looking at the prospect of billions of humans starving to death. At the same time they were being told about C02 and anthropogenic climate change. In 1971 the innocuous World Economic Forum is established and meets every year in Davos, Switzerland (if you don't know about this, you really need to read up on this event). Since then it has morphed into all state leaders and business leaders getting together to co-ordinate their activities globally.
It is my contention (other people's tin-foil-hat-wearing-conspiracy so ymmv) that these Davos Malthusians are largely sociopaths of leaded gasoline & post-WWII approach to rearing children that seemed perfected to churn out sociopaths and borderlines. From Bhopal to Exxon to slavery in the Mariana Islands to Vietnam, the crimes these titans of industry and their governments permit are already ghastly, already surpass the hurdle of war crimes. Before the Green Revolution when faced with the prospect of not enough food to go around they decided, oh well. Then the food problem was solved, as such, and here we are with ACC set to burn everything between the tropics. All those people are going to need to move north and south.
The people who were pumping the CO2 out into the atmosphere knew what its consequences would be. Do you think they don't have a plan? We can see them buying bugout farms in Paraguay and New Zealand. That is not the strategy of someone working to save everyone, that is the strategy of someone willing to let the world burn.
Look at North Africa and the Middle East? It is literally on fire and then there is the moat of the Med. One asks oneself, given what we know what they know, is that really an accident?
With automation coming the elite are starting to believe that the billions of humanity are now surplus to requirements. A nice little climate change catastrophe would really solve the population problem. It is how the leaders of empires think about people, Connemara, After the Famine reveals the attitudes of the English to the impact of the famine on the Irish in 1853. It's common enough in Irish history, and when you read into any other empire's history it's there too.
Why did Obama need to go right out and earn $400k on top of the $65 million book deal? Why did the Clintons? Is the minimum entry price to Elysium $100million? $250?
I think I have more evidence for my CT than RussiaGate does but can't get no traction. Must be doing it wrong.
As Cassadorus has noted
the greatest danger is the methane, some 25 times as devastating as co2.
But it dissapates in as little as seven years.
The uber wealthy need only a seven year supply of food and a place to wait it out. Mabe have to wear some oxygen tubes if going outside. The payoff?The entire planet to themselves. With a greatly reduced population, say 1 million people, the earth would rebound in just decades. A century at most.
A place to hide out is all they need.
Food for thought.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
There's too much methane locked up. Due to positive feedback
Even after the polar seas are free from ice, the oceans will continue warm and cause the release of ever increasing amounts of methane. It could take tens of thousands of years for the earth to stabilize at current temperatures again.
Here's what happened when the last permafrost meltdown occurred:
So, there's no such thing as a "methane bomb"?
It's been my understanding that once the methane starts to be released in earnest its effects will multiply rapidly, something like 25 times more rapidly than the effects of co2 in atmospheric heat trapping.
Then too, the 5th extinction event was only 10 million years prior to the petm event your cut and paste indicated, a relatively short period of time.
Were they connected? With the cataclysmic asteroid strike that hit the Yucatan peninsula, did it cause a major global warming event or a nuclear winter event?
I'm more interested in what happened when the ice sheets of 10,000 years ago receded and exposed the frozen and dead foliage below. One would think a methane/co2 burst would have happened then also.
There is much we don't know.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
That event was a methane "bomb".
Only the "trigger" is different. Today the trigger is man made - excess burning of fossil fuels. Once triggered, the events proceed similarly.
The Yucatan asteroid caused a period of global cooling called an impact winter due to material thrust into the higher atmosphere. The initial heat blast destroyed much of the vegetation. This was followed by the blocking of the sun's energy needed for photosynthesis and then a period of global winter to top it off. Without plankton, algae and other plants, animals died off in massive numbers.
There is a narrow temperature band that Gaia, as we know her, prefers. There are other forms of life that can thrive in environments that would be fatal to us. Maybe it will be their turn to see if they can do a better job.
Edit: methane is another form of carbon, CH4. One carbon atom surrounded by 4 hydrogen atoms. The hydrogen atoms get "burned" off by the oxygen in the atmosphere to produce water and as the methane disintegrates.
There have been a number of mini ice ages
The last one ended 10,000 years ago but did not end up with a major warming. The temperatures were similar to those of the last several thousand years. Ice caps fully covered, permafrost intact, methane locked away. Just lost a few thousand species. Normal give and take over the millennia.
@earthling1 I've been wondering if
I've been wondering if they are setting up bunkers, building a space station, or if they've watched Interstellar one too many times.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
There is plenty of evidence that TPTB are building
bailout bunkers all over the world. There are rumored to be a huge one underneath Denver airport, in Kansas and other states here. I don't know what type of bunkers are being built in other countries, but I'm sure that the elites have many contingencies lined up for them.
Try doing a search for bunkers underneath Denver airport and see what they say and I bet you will find other links to other places.
It's just mind boggling to think that they don't consider the murder of billions of people as something they should avoid doing, but there's no doubt that what they are doing is intentional.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
@earthling1 In re: your sig:
In re: your sig:
the biggest asset the asshole Democrats have is Trump, as well.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I think the Dubai towers
are one such bunker. They are totally climate controlled, thoroughly defensible, and iirc, have their own desalination plant. I have heard that there is an enormous underground city.
Who says you have to live underground when the world goes to crap?
A space station? I dunno. But there is one billionaire planning an inflatable orbiting hotel. I think his timing is way off though. We don't have that much time left, IMHO.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
That's why I have been collecting 'special' recipes.
You guys will only be good for bone soup. I prefer more succulent fare.
I remember reading somewhere
that the British dried and pulverized the bones of fallen soldiers and horses after the battle of Waterloo, and used the bonemeal to replenish the soils of England.
Not sure if its true or not though. Our soils already need replenishing.
Could become our plight.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Speaking of population growth, here's a remarkable statistic.
There are now more people alive on the face of the earth than have lived and died since homo sapiens stood up and walked on two feet.
Here's another stat.
One linear centimeter of your colon contains more microorganisms than all the humans that ever existed.
Per Neil deGrass Tyson.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Exponential growth will do that to ya.
Fifty years ago, I remember seeing little ads in magazines for ZPG — Zero Population Growth. Somehow the group never got any traction and, I guess, eventually disbanded. Even with the Club of Rome’s Limits to Growth study in hand, environmentalists and other future-prognosticating experts simply stopped talking about it.
Here’s every country’s birthrate listed in descending order, from the CIA Factbook:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/20...
@lotlizard As I remember, we
As I remember, we stopped talking about it in the late 80s, because every time we did, somebody accused us of being racist genocidal Nazis.
An early use of accusations of racism to shut down a discussion, perhaps...
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Doing population math in the 80s
does every being know that 7% growth per year doubles (anything) in 10 short years? Why not? Here's Al Bartlett math-splaining "doubling time" ages ago:
The Most IMPORTANT Video You'll Ever See Al Bartlett
Infinite growth against a finite planet, the math doesn't add up it never did. And now we are at the bottle neck, just like he described in the 80s. Chamber of Commerce needs a new plan, stat!
Peace & Love
oops: fixed the video title.
We think we’re better than those we call climate-change deniers
Perhaps we’re in denial about population growth and mass migration. (The Alt-Right / “Alt-White” would say we are.)
It probably is impossible to raise the subject without sounding racist, when 24 of the 25 countries with the fastest growing populations are in Africa.
Scott Adams, creator of the comic strip Dilbert, asks: Where are the models predicting the effects of Muslim immigration?
http://blog.dilbert.com/post/160447583616/wheres-my-immigration-predicti...
Whereby “You’re a racist for even asking the question / having that thought” is not an answer, let alone no-drama, look-at-the-facts science.
@lotlizard What I heard was
What I heard was mostly not even that fact-based; usually it was accusations that what I wanted was a genocide of Black people. The same stuff they said when we advocated that every woman should have a right to abortion; Black people often said that the reason we wanted that was so that we could keep Black people from reproducing and maintain our majority status.
Really, all I wanted was for humanity to survive, preferably on a living, healthy planet with lots of other life on it and abundant resources; I'm not fussed as to what color their skin is.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
“Racism: the last refuge of us all”
http://takimag.com/article/racism_the_last_refuge_of_us_all_david_cole/p...
FWIW, the website and author would generally be categorized as Alt-Right.
Correct, of course.
Similarly, the constant jabbing of a cattle prod into the other superpowers, with the apparent aim of starting a nuclear war, strikes me as being criminal.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I guess all those bunkers
are completed, inspected, stocked, and move in ready, huh?
No reason to wait for climate change to do its magic.
Armageddon now! No waiting,folks. Step right up!
What? Jesus? Oh yeah, he'll be along shortly. Yeaaah, and you need to go through THAT door over there. Yeah.......that one.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
@earthling1 They must have invented
They must have invented Rad-Away.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Redacted.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
On the other hand, I don't discount politically-motivated
murders of leakers as unimportant.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver