Hot Air

Something to keep in mind…

We are now in the midst of the 6th extinction,
with a very rapid destruction of other species
and of the kind of environment in which they can survive,
like wilderness for example.
~
We are pushing to the edge of not only our own survival,
but that of much of life on earth.
So, is this the most gravest moment in my life?
Yes,
but also in all of human history.

Noam Chomsky

When my daughter was in the 3rd grade she came home from school one day and said "Mom, you have to pay me a penny for every time you cuss." Three bucks a day. That lasted for two days. I told her I would stop. That was my coffee money. I was in grad school, on welfare, a single mother and eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day for lunch. Bad, but worse without coffee.

So, allow me to vent for just a moment. I will step back from my amygdala after I calm down.

The elections have come and gone and they mean jack shit for Climate Breakdown.

Any glimmer of truth uttered about the unraveling state of the climate is refuted, re-storied, ripped asunder. The few measures that were on the ballot were voted down, except for one which I can't find right now. God forbid that a half a mile buffer between peoples' homes and oil drilling operations could be voted in. Every penny of profit must be made and fuck people. Let the useless eaters suffer, die, shed their mortal coils and go to hell. But do make their lives miserable while they are here. 40 million dollars they spent to defeat that proposal. Surprised? Nah.

We, the people, are covered in Bernays sauce and put on the back burner.

I do not believe for a moment that anything will ever be said to anyone or anything done about the encroaching sea level, the onslaught of glacial disintegration, the exponentially increasing disappearance of species...

People do not even know what exponential means, apparently. And the PTB ain't sayin'.

Santa Cruz for Bernie at one point was going to change our name - a pointless endeavor that never happened. The name I submitted was: Furthering Unexamined Collective Knowledge To Help Initiate Strategic Shifts in Hierarchical Institutional Tyranny.

It's Not Just About Removing CO2, It's About Maintaining Biodiversity

Stop biodiversity loss or we could face our own extinction, warns UN
The Guardian November 3, 2018

zx Indonesian deforestation.jpg

The world has two years to secure a deal for nature to halt a ‘silent killer’ as dangerous as climate change, says biodiversity chief.

But overall, she says, the picture is worrying. The already high rates of biodiversity loss from habitat destruction, chemical pollution and invasive species will accelerate in the coming 30 years as a result of climate change and growing human populations. By 2050, Africa is expected to lose 50% of its birds and mammals, and Asian fisheries to completely collapse. The loss of plants and sea life will reduce the Earth’s ability to absorb carbon, creating a vicious cycle.

“The numbers are staggering,” says the former Romanian environment minister. “I hope we aren’t the first species to document our own extinction.

Almost all of the Earth’s land and ocean wilderness has disappeared
Cosmos November 1, 2018

An international team, led by Australia’s University of Queensland (UQ), has just mapped intact ocean ecosystems

… “A century ago, only 15% of the Earth's surface was used by humans to grow crops and raise livestock,” says James Watson, from UQ's School of Earth and Environmental Sciences.

“Today, more than 77% of land – excluding Antarctica – and 87% per cent of the ocean has been modified by the direct effects of human activities.

How global warming caused mass extinctions TWICE in Earth's history
The Daily Mail October 23, 2018

Study finds they caused ocean acidity to rise and coral reefs to collapse
• Researchers analyzed extinction rates from the Late Triassic and Early Toarcian
• It's been thought these warming events intensified extinction already underway
• But, new analysis shows the warming dramatically changed extinction patterns
• Researchers say reef systems collapsed as ocean temperatures and acidity rose

B.C. approved 83 logging cut blocks in endangered caribou habitat in last six months
The Narwhal October 23, 2018
[video:https://vimeo.com/284036743]

The B.C. government has approved dozens of new logging cut blocks in endangered mountain caribou critical habitat since May, conservation groups revealed at a Monday news conference that included renowned Canadian naturalist and artist Robert Bateman.

The 83 new logging cut blocks, the equivalent of 11 Stanley Parks in size, are in the critical habitat of B.C.’s eight most imperilled southern mountain caribou populations, found mainly along the province’s eastern border.

Indonesia's Last Forest Frontier: 3 Facts to Know About Papua
World Resources Institute November 6, 2018

With declining forest cover in Sumatra and Kalimantan, Papua is the last frontier of intact forest in Indonesia. Indonesian Papua—which occupies the western half of New Guinea, the world's second-largest island, and includes the provinces of Papua and West Papua—held 38 percent of Indonesia's remaining primary forest in 2012. Home to one of the most biodiverse forests on Earth, as many as 20,000 plant species, 602 birds, 125 mammals and 223 reptiles live in Indonesian Papua. The forest also supports local people who rely on it for traditional sources of livelihood.

Tree cover loss peaked in Papua in 2015—and regional leaders responded. In 2015 West Papua became the world's first conservation province, a commitment echoed by the current governor in 2018. He also plans to review all forestry and plantations licenses across West Papua Province. Meanwhile, neighboring Papua Province has already established a roadmap document, Papua Province Vision by 2100, which aims to maintain 90 percent forest cover over the entire province while achieving low-carbon development objectives.

HOT AIR NEWS ROUNDUP

It’s drummed into us. America is number one in the world. And America is nowhere near number one in many areas. It has the highest rate of child poverty in the western world by a lot. It’s probably number 20th now in average wages. It has the highest number of people in jail per capita in the western world and it’s probably 20th, 22nd ranked in terms of our health care system and infant mortality. So, we have to get over the idea that America is number one. Ralph Nadar

Ballot measures taking aim at climate change, fossil fuels fall short
Washington Post November 7, 2018

The failure of environmental ballot measures in Arizona, Colorado — and the likely defeat of a proposal to impose fees on carbon emissions in Washington state — underscore the difficulty of tackling a global problem like climate change at the state and local level, where huge sums of money poured in on both sides.

One bright spot for environmental advocates came in Nevada, where voters appeared poised to pass a measure similar to the one Arizonans rejected. It would require utilities to generate 50 percent of their electricity from renewables by 2030. The proposal was leading handily with most votes tallied Wednesday. But before the measure could become law, it has to survive a second vote in 2020.

Excellent breakdown of the Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5ºC for and by the Democratic Socialists of America…

Information for DSAers on the 2018 IPCC Report
DSA October 2018 h/t Lookout

In this document, we will break down the specific predictions and recommendations of the IPCC report so that you can understand its content, importance, and application to work in your community.

The IPCC Report Isn’t a Death Knell. It’s a Wake-Up Call.
NDRC October 22, 2018 h/t Lookout

NRDC’s approach illustrates how three key strategies could actually take us 90 percent of the way to the 80 percent goal. Meeting the more stringent target to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius will require going even faster on these key strategies (as well as the others described in our report):

• We cut energy use by nearly half through ramped-up investment in efficient and/or electric vehicles, appliances, buildings, and industrial plants. The basic idea: If we use less energy to begin with, we’ll automatically shrink the demand for fossil fuels to heat our homes or power our gadgets. Less use of fossil fuels means less harmful and climate-changing pollution. Waste less, use less, pollute less!
• We greatly expand our production of renewable energy so that wind and solar power represent at least 70 percent of our electricity mix by 2050—and renewable energy, as a whole, accounts for at least 80 percent.
• We use this near-zero-carbon electricity to displace direct use of fossil fuels. Think electric vehicles that charge overnight using wind power, or electric heat pumps instead of natural-gas heating in our homes.

A Field Guide to the Petrochemical and Plastics Industry
Desmog October 28, 2018

The shale gas industry has been trying to build demand for fossil fuels from its fracked oil and gas wells by promoting the construction of a new petrochemical corridor in America's Rust Belt and expanding the corridor on the Gulf Coast. To help demystify terms like “natural gas liquids” and “cracker plants,” DeSmog has begun building a guide to some of the equipment and terms used in the plastics and petrochemical industries.

Bangladesh: A Country Underwater, a Culture on the Move
NRDC September 12, 2018

In Bangladesh, the next big storm is always just on the horizon. A four-month monsoon season, from June through September, routinely inundates this riverine country. Meanwhile, a quarter of Bangladesh’s landmass, bound on the south by the northern Indian Ocean, hovers less than seven feet above sea level. And as floods grow increasingly frequent and severe, the 163 million who make their home in Bangladesh, the world’s most populous delta, know little escape from water.

Often referred to as “ground zero for climate change,” Bangladesh ranked sixth on the 2018 Global Climate Risk Index, and for many Bangladeshis, particularly the rural communities in low-lying coastal areas, those risks are already unmanageable. Riverbank erosion displaces 50,000 to 200,000 people here each year.

UK Activists Kick Off ‘Extinction Rebellion’
EcoWatch November 1, 2018

The newly formed group Extinction Rebellion seeks to push the UK government to declare a state of emergency, work towards a carbon free economy by 2025 and convene an assembly of ordinary citizens to plan out the country's carbon-free future. The group's message has caught on in the wake of increasingly dire reports about the pace of climate change. Organizers had expected a few hundred to show up to the opening salvo near the seat of UK government. Instead, more than a thousand came and decided to block one of London's busiest intersections for more than two hours.

This Supreme Court Decision Is the Best News of the Weekend
EcoWatch November 5, 2018

Friday afternoon, the U.S. Supreme Court kicked it off with a hopeful decision: The Trump administration can't stop the historic youth climate lawsuit Juliana v. United States from going to trial.

Our Children's Trust, the organization supporting the young people behind the case, summed up the mood with a tweet featuring a quote from 22-year-old plaintiff Kelsey Juliana: "Stay with us, in hope and in the pursuit of justice."

The lawsuit was first filed back in 2015 on behalf of 21 young people who argue that their constitutional rights to life, liberty and property have been violated by the government's scandalous inaction on climate change. In a year of historic wildfires and hurricanes, it's pretty easy to see where they're coming from.

Bolsonaro’s election is catastrophic news for Brazil’s indigenous tribes
The Guardian October 31, 2018

Brazil has just elected as its president a far-right nationalist with authoritarian tendencies and fascist inclinations. The country’s 900,000-strong indigenous people are among the many minority groups Jair Bolsonaro has frequently targeted with vitriolic hostility. “It’s a shame that the Brazilian cavalry wasn’t as efficient as the Americans, who exterminated their Indians,” he once said. If he enacts his campaign promises, the first peoples of Brazil face catastrophe; in some cases, genocide.

There are around 100 uncontacted tribes in Brazil, more than anywhere else on earth, and all are in peril unless their land is protected. Bolsonaro has threatened to close down FUNAI, the government’s indigenous affairs department, which is charged with protecting indigenous land. Already battling against budget cuts, if it disappears uncontacted peoples face annihilation.

Two articles about Pine Island Glacier calving…
From the Antarctic ice broke off an iceberg the size of Zaporozhye
Global Engineering News November 2, 2018

Monstrous icebergs have been breaking from Pine Island Glacier for the past five years, which is a worrying sign that western Antarctica is destabilizing. The last break occurred on the weekend.

All that activity has contributed to making Pine Island Glacier the most rapidly receding glacier on Earth. In addition to the calving area retreating, the ice has gotten thinner by about a meter annually over the past 15 years while shedding a staggering 45 billion tons annually. Much of that is driven by warm water eating away at it from underneath.

An Iceberg Five Times the Size of Manhattan Just Popped off West Antarctica
Earther October 30, 2018

The Pine Island Glacier ... is destabilizing. The latest occurred this weekend. Satellite imagery shows an iceberg roughly 115 square miles—five times the size of Manhattan—breaking off the front of the glacier.

“What is mostly remarkable about this event is that the frequency of calving seems to increase,”

“It’s a Ghost Page”: EPA Site’s Climate Change Section May Be Gone for Good
Mother Jones November 3, 2108

More than a year after the US Environmental Protection Agency took down information on climate change from its website for an “update”, it now seems uncertain whether it will ever reappear.

In April last year, the EPA replaced its online climate change section with a holding page that said the content was being updated to “reflect the agency’s new direction under President Donald Trump”.

Information previously found at epa.gov/climatechange made it clear that human activity was warming the planet, resulting in harm to Americans’ health as well as crucial ecosystems on which humans depend.

The “update” page has now given way to a page that simply states: “We want to help you find what you are looking for.” Below, there are links to search other areas of the EPA website, as well as to an archived “snapshot” of the site from the day before Trump became president in January 2017. The switch was observed by the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative, which tracks changes in government websites.

Climate Adaption

We Have to Save the Planet. So I’m Donating $1 Billion.
NYT October 29, 2018

But some scientists, including the Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson, have concluded that at least half the planet needs to be protected to save a large majority of plant and wildlife species from extinction. Indeed, the food, clean water and air we need to survive and prosper depends on our ability to protect the planet’s biological diversity. In other words, we have to protect half to save the whole.

I, [Hansjörg Wyss, a philanthropist and conservationist.] have decided to donate $1 billion over the next decade to help accelerate land and ocean conservation efforts around the world, with the goal of protecting 30 percent of the planet’s surface by 2030. This money will support locally led conservation efforts around the world, push for increased global targets for land and ocean protection, seek to raise public awareness about the importance of this effort, and fund scientific studies to identify the best strategies to reach our target.

Short video, please watch it…
Protect the Boreal Forests NRDC November 2, 2018

The [Canadian] boreal forest, a major carbon storehouse, is a critical part of the fight against climate change. The rapid degradation of this forest threatens to have a global impact, exacerbating the effects of climate change on species, communities, and ecosystems around the world. In just 20 years, an area nearly the size of Ohio has been cut, with a huge portion of this harvested wood converted into pulps that are used to manufacture newsprint, paper, and tissue. We must protect the boreal.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3OU--05AdQ&feature=youtu.be]

Want to Save the Climate? Break Up the Big Banks.
In These Times October 30, 2018

Despite regularly claiming new commitments to “green finance,” the big banks continue to lend billions to the fossil fuel industry every year—including for the most extreme climate-damaging activities, like exploiting tar sands oils and burning coal.

Continuing to invest in fossil fuels goes against all of the evidence about what needs to be done to tackle climate change. An estimated 80 percent or more of the world’s known fossil fuel reserves need to remain in the ground if we're to have any chance of avoiding catastrophic consequences, like rising sea levels and melting glaciers.

Negative Emissions:  Scientists Meet in Australia to Discuss Removing CO2 from Air
Climate Change News November 7, 2018

An international group of researchers and policymakers met in Australia’s capital this week for the country’s first major conference dedicated to the topic of “negative emissions”.

This is a 15 page PDF on phasing out coal…
A Coal Phase-Out Pathway for 1.5°C
Coalswarm & Greenpeace October 2018

CoalSwarm is a global network of researchers developing collaborative informational resources on fossil fuels and alternatives. Current projects include the Global Coal Plant Tracker, the Global Fossil Projects Tracker (coal, oil, and gas infrastructure), the CoalWire newsletter, and the CoalSwarm and FrackSwarm wiki portals.

A rapid transition away from coal is technically and economically possible, but it will require aggressive retirement of coal plants coupled with equally aggressive deployment of efficiency measures and low-carbon power sources. The briefing explores the specifics of how such reductions could be implemented over the coming three decades, given the geographical distribution and age structure of the global coal plant fleet and the new coal plant pipeline.

This is an article on the above report…
How can we cut enough coal to get to 1.5?
Unearthed October 10, 2018

According to a new report – courtesy of Greenpeace and CoalSwarm – it can be done. The world must (a) stop new coal plant projects (b) reduce the utilisation of existing coal plants and (c ) close them as soon as possible. This may sound straightforward but it in reality it is anything but.
In a bit more detail, the 1.5 pathway looks something like this:
• All coal plants in the pre-construction phase are cancelled.
• Existing coal power capacity is cut in half by 2030.
• A full-phase out in OECD countries by 2030.
• A near-total global coal power phase-out by 2050.

Oak Ridge Inches Closer to 15-⁠Minute Wireless EV Charging
Climate Change News November 7, 2018

Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee have developed wireless charging technology that they say could fill up a typical electric car today in under an hour.  This represents a six-fold improvement over a similar wireless charging system they announced in 2016.  That plugless EV charging technology, they report, is now being modified for commercial applications including delivery trucks.

Wildlife & the Environment

Capitalism is killing the world's wildlife populations, not 'humanity'
PHYS ORG November 2, 2018

The latest Living Planet report from the WWF makes for grim reading: a 60% decline in wild animal populations since 1970, collapsing ecosystems, and a distinct possibility that the human species will not be far behind. The report repeatedly stresses that humanity's consumption is to blame for this mass extinction, and journalists have been quick to amplify the message. The Guardian headline reads "Humanity has wiped out 60% of animal populations", while the BBC runs with "Mass wildlife loss caused by human consumption". No wonder: in the 148-page report, the word "humanity" appears 14 times, and "consumption" an impressive 54 times.

There is one word, however, that fails to make a single appearance: capitalism. It might seem, when 83% of the world's freshwater ecosystems are collapsing (another horrifying statistic from the report), that this is no time to quibble over semantics. And yet, as the ecologist Robin Wall Kimmerer has written, "finding the words is another step in learning to see"

The WWF report is right to highlight "exploding human consumption", not population growth, as the main cause of mass extinction, and it goes to great lengths to illustrate the link between levels of consumption and biodiversity loss.

Antarctic's future in doubt after plan for world's biggest marine reserve is blocked
The Guardian November 2, 2018

A plan to turn a huge tract of pristine Antarctic ocean into the world’s biggest sanctuary has been rejected, throwing the future of one of the Earth’s most important ecosystems into doubt.

Environmental groups said Russia, China and Norway had played a part in blocking the proposal, with the other 22 members of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, the organisation set up to protect Antarctic waters, backing the proposal.

The 1.8m sq km reserve – five times the size of Germany – would have banned all fishing in a vast area of the Weddell Sea and parts of the Antarctic peninsula, safeguarding species including penguins, killer whales, leopard seals and blue whales.

Canada's Tar Sands: The most destructive project on Earth?
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sjia7BsP4Bw]
Greenpeace

Canada's Tar Sands is the third-largest proven crude oil reserve in the world behind Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. In 2011 it was believed the reserve amounted to 170.2 billion barrels of oil, or about 11% of total global oil reserves. But the development of Canada's Oil Sands is concerning environmentalists for several reasons, not least the fact that producing "tar oil", or "sand oil" as it's also known, releases three times the volume of greenhouse gas emissions as conventional oil.

Canada’s northern ‘zombie mines’ are a lingering multi-billion dollar problem
The Narwhal October 29, 2018

The arsenic trioxide dust, released from the rock as it was roasted to get the gold, was pumped underground during most of the mine’s life. Better there than in the air (in the early days of the mine, it was sending up to 7,400 kg of the dust out into the environment, sickening locals and even killing a Yellowknives Dene child) but it presents its own problems underground.

Dealing with the arsenic trioxide has been the central headache for the federal government since 2004, when it took over remediation of the mine from its bankrupt owner. The dust has meant that, barring an unforeseen technological breakthrough or unthinkable disaster, there will never be an end to the government’s role in keeping the site secure.

Climate Studies

Here's a real surprise...

Study Suggests Global Warming is Faster than Scientists Estimated
IISD November 6, 2018

Researchers at Princeton University and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography published a study that warns that global warming may be happening faster than scientists have previously estimated. The study, published in Nature, suggests that these findings may mean that emitted greenhouse (GHG) gases have generated far more heat than scientists originally predicted, meaning that the Earth is more sensitive to carbon dioxide than scientists thought.

Models suggest injection of sulfate aerosols into the stratosphere could have unintended consequences

PHYS ORG October 30, 2018

Instead of curbing gas emissions, it might be possible to cool the planet in other ways, such as by injecting sulfate aerosols into the stratosphere. The idea is to mimic the cooling effect of volcanic eruptions.

The researchers report that overall, the models showed the desired cooling impact. But they also showed something less helpful—reduced global rainfall. The models showed that the changes in rainfall would not be uniform, either.

Earth's oceans have absorbed 60 percent more heat than previously thought
Science Daily October 31, 2018

Since 1991, the world's oceans have absorbed an amount of heat energy each year that is 150 times the energy humans produce as electricity annually, according to a new study. The strong ocean warming the researchers found suggests that Earth is more sensitive to fossil-fuel emissions than previously thought.

Nutrient-recycling microbes may feel the heat
PHYS ORG November 5, 2018

While microbial communities are the engines driving the breakdown of dead plants and animals, little is known about whether they are equipped to handle big changes in climate. In a paper published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Glassman and colleagues at UC Irvine examined what happens after microbial communities move into new climate conditions. The study is a first step toward understanding the vulnerability of these ecosystems to climate change.

To mimic a warming planet, the researchers chose five study sites that differ in climate along the San Jacinto Mountains in southern California, three of which are in natural reserves operated by the University of California. Each site has its own set of resident microbes accustomed to the local climate.

Swiss researchers set out how to decarbonise cement
Climate Change News November 2, 2018

The construction sector can cut polluting emissions up to 80% by applying efficiency measures along the whole value chain, according to new research. If combined with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, emissions could even be brought down to zero by 2050, they argue.

Achieving carbon neutrality in the cement and concrete sector won’t be easy but it’s technologically feasible

“However, given the cost and complexity of CCS it is important to first reduce CO2 emissions to a minimum by other means,” she added, saying this is best achieved by working through the whole value chain – “not only at the cement level, but also at the level of concrete and structure.”

The report identifies 10 technologies that can be implemented at different stages of the construction value chain – from concrete and gravel production, to engineering offices, construction and demolition companies.

African smoke-cloud connection target of NASA airborne flights
NASA September 21, 2018

Over the southeast Atlantic Ocean, a 2,000-mile-long plume of smoke from African agricultural fires meets a near-permanent cloud bank offshore. Their meeting makes a natural laboratory for studying the interactions between cloud droplets and the tiny airborne smoke particles. This month, NASA's P-3 research aircraft and a team of scientists return on their third deployment to this region as part of the Observations of Aerosols Above Clouds and their Interactions mission, or ORACLES, gathering data on how aerosols (such as smoke) affect clouds, and in turn, Earth's climate.

Study: Impact of mercury-controlling policies shrinks with every five-year delay
MIT News November 1, 2018

Mercury is an incredibly stubborn toxin. Once it is emitted from the smokestacks of coal-fired power plants, among other sources, the gas can drift through the atmosphere for up to a year before settling into oceans and lakes. It can then accumulate in fish as toxic methylmercury, and eventually harm the people who consume the fish.

What’s more, mercury that was previously emitted can actually re-enter the atmosphere through evaporation. These “legacy emissions” can drift and be deposited elsewhere, setting off a cycle in which a growing pool of toxic mercury can circulate and contaminate the environment for decades or even centuries.

A new MIT study finds that the longer countries wait to reduce mercury emissions, the more legacy emissions will accumulate in the environment, and the less effective any emissions-reducing policies will be when they are eventually implemented.

Global Warnings

QMS: Time to disconnect greed from the welfare of earth, if survival means anything. I like trees.

Paul Beckwith: "I declare a global climate change emergency to claw back up the rock face to attempt to regain system stability, or face an untenable calamity of biblical proportions."

Kevin Hester: "There is no past analogue for the rapidity of what we are baring witness to. There has been a flood of articles ... 2C is no longer attainable and that we are heading for dangerous climate change"

Guy McPherson: "The recent and near-future rises in temperature are occurring and will occur at least an order of magnitude faster than the worst of all prior Mass Extinctions. Habitat for human animals is disappearing throughout the world, and abrupt climate change has barely begun."

me… We need to turn on a dime at mach nine!

Enjoy!
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magiamma's picture

a stitch in time
not a wrinkle
rhythms
revolution
the sounds of knitting falls
softly into the folds scattering

[video:https://youtu.be/4I3Qmvii944?list=RD4I3Qmvii944&t=30]

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lotlizard's picture

https://www.populationconnection.org/

Is wanting to have more and more children, or as many children as possible, a kind of greed? If “greed” isn’t the right word, what would be the right word?

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@lotlizard thanks, I guess they want to brainwash all the world's children, not have them.

Programs, programs, if it says "program" I'm out. The system is corrupt, it takes tax write-offs from people who still have income to spare, and begets more useless programs. Yet the same problems continue to exist everywhere in the world. I guess I could look up cui bono, who profits from the zero population growth site, but I am too sick and tired of finding garbage people running broken systems on the web. meh

What if every "program" ceased to exist? Freedom.

amerika's coming attraction
the future happens here first
death row suicides

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enhydra lutris's picture

@lotlizard
This includes not merely Catholics, but a lot of protestant sects, including the "quiver full" fanatics. Some simply have a runaway dynastic impulse. Some of them simply aren't good at anything else and like to have something to brag about. Some, a great many, actually adore children, finding them cute, and wonderful, and such; a cultural phenomenon which has been constantly used, exploited, reinforced, and regenerated by various marketing techniques for innumerable purposes. This is overlaid on a lot of the above types and also exists independently of them.

In certain marginal economic niches it can be beneficial to have a fistful of kids, many of whom will die young, in generating sustenance for the family and providing eldercare. That is remedial (only?) by lifting them out of that cycle of poverty and subsistence.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

magiamma's picture

@lotlizard
Complex question. When I was in India someone told me that the women used the contraceptive pill to make jewelery with. Odd bit of info.

The wiki has a chart of average number of children per woman per country. Africa comes out the highest with an average 4.6 children per woman with an average of 7.2 in Niger.

Women who can make choices on their own, imho, have fewer children. I would like to know what kind of cultural pressures there are for women who have a bunch. As el says religion plays a big part in that for many. What those are in Africa, I have no idea but am curious.

So, greed or selfishness, yes, probably, but there are a lot of other factors that influence as well. Smile

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mimi's picture

@magiamma
how many children per family or woman die in their young age to get the real picture. In many families in African countries women have more children, because more or those who were born die in their early age, more than in other countries. At least that's what I learned from women there in the late seventies.

Even if contraceptiva are available African women still got more children on average.

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magiamma's picture

@mimi @mimi
Right, that is what I was thinking to. Infant mortality? Here's a link to wiki. Highest numbers, with a quick pass, look like Africa, Afghanistan and Iraq and India. The other thing to consider is that countries with low infant mortality rate and low birth rates often have a much higher rate of consumption per child. edit

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For keeping the lights on the struggle to save the ecosystem. Daunting as it is, here is my nickel's worth of things we are trying to do to help earth.
~ support alternative energy initiatives (installing rooftop solar panel)
~ reduce extractive resource use (hybrid car, dial down heat, wood stove use)
~ use / purchase less plastic packaging
~ recycle and repurpose as much as possible (get creative)
~ compost and mulch (make dirt not war)
~ passive solar considerations in our local micro climate
~ allow trees to grow, use native plantings
~ buy fewer chemicals (natural cleaners)
~ unplug devices when not in use (remote control power strips)
~ using rechargeable batteries - with solar chargers
~ recycle used batteries instead of tossing them (like single use and cell phone)
~ home canning / pickling / fermenting local produce
~ reduce water usage and waste
~ drive less, walk / bike more
~ use clothesline whenever possible
~ purchase domestically manufactured products
~ buy and sell / trade local goods
~ promote peace (signs, vigils, organizations)

It seems like a small effort compared to the huge institutional waste capitalistic systems employ. We've got to do something more. Working on that too.
Cheers!

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enhydra lutris's picture

@QMS
build on if possible.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

magiamma's picture

@QMS
Good list. Pleasantly surprised at how many of those things I can check off. And happy to see more that I can work on. Vinegar is my favorite cleaning chemical. It sanitizes almost as well as bleach without the toxins. Baking soda is great for laundry. The skin is the biggest organ and absorbs everything we put on it and next to it. Sesame oil is the most absorbable oil for the skin according to one of the Ayurvedic Drs here. Organic, cold pressed. A little goes a long ways.

Thanks for the list. Lots to think about and work on.

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I say we start by getting rid of the top 1%.

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@Battle of Blair Mountain Let's see now, perhaps retraining the leech class too. Banksta's, pentagon brass, lobbyists, career politicians, capitalists making over a million a year, mercenaries, think tanks and war profiteers. Teach them a trade or something useful to society.

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lotlizard's picture

@QMS  
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/19thcpcnationalcongress/2010-11/24/co...

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@Battle of Blair Mountain thanks, I remember when all the head hairs were on fire about too many people. Erlich was all over the media, kinda like the 365org guy is today: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Population_Bomb

Ehrlich was certainly not unique in his neo-Malthusian predictions, and there was a widespread belief in the 1960s and 70s that increasingly catastrophic famines were on their way.
[...]
Desrochers and Hoffbauer go on to conclude that it seems hard to deny that using an alarmist tone and emotional appeal were the main lessons that the present generation of environmentalists learned from Ehrlich's success.

Alarmist tone, check. Emotional appeal, check. People still starving media still profiting, checkity check check.

There are way too many people in California already, what's another few million on top of too many?

amerika's coming attraction
get people enrolled in the federal disability program
good luck

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magiamma's picture

@Battle of Blair Mountain
heh! love it. needs to change... thanks for stopping by. Smile

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Lookout's picture

Do things that help the ecosystem. Consider this approach on a 1/10 acre lot outside of Melborne. The 15 min clip is worth your time if you want to see a lifestyle in harmony with the planet. As mentioned in the clip it is a process not a destination.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeNaMlibiak]

We are witnessing a collapse of the biosphere as we know it. As individuals we can address the capitalist consumption of the ecosystem. Small steps are okay. Everyone can plant food, even urbanites. Consider this approach if you've never grown food (15 min)-
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IXn2t8GLh0]
Lettuce all winter...

Think global, act local! Thanks for the OT and climate updates.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

magiamma's picture

@Lookout
Thanks for the videos. Just watched them both. The first one brought tears. What they are doing is remarkable. If we all could do even part of that. Sweet.

Love the lettuce hothouse video. I have both a plastic container and soil. Seeds for purslane and a sunny spot on the front porch. She said 10 minutes. I'm guessing 20.

It's not only about how much sun, but also about how much heat at night. Plants grow at night I have been told and having a heat sink (mulch or whatever) around them helps. Maybe I will also put something on the bottom to insulate.

Cool beans. Smile

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"Stay with us", they say. "Of course", I say, "no question".
For all our children, daughters and sons.

Capitalism is the elephant in the room, humanity could devise a more sustainable system if given the chance.

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magiamma's picture

@randtntx
Thanks for the music - for the children. Yes, absolutely for the children. Capitalism, resource extraction and unnecessary consumption are destroying our planet. It is simply unsustainable as it stands.

I am making another plug for the Jem Bendall's paper on Deep Adaption. Also a there is 'conversation' with him is here. And my hot air synopsis here.

It is a very readable 'paper'.

His paper has been promoted by heavy weight, Kevin Hester.

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@magiamma all your work here and thank you for plugging that Bendall paper again. mhagle brought that last week and I intended to re-read it, now I will. Thank you for the other links as well.
Chomsky at the top of your OT...well, I think he is using the last of his breath trying to get us to see.
Your cussing story is funny. Cussing or coffee; in my world, hands down, coffee wins out.

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The Amazon is the World's lung. Over 20% of the World's oxygen is produced there and in so doing, a whole bunch of climate change causing CO2 is sucked up. Put a stake in us, we're done, if the Amazon is privatized.

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Beware the bullshit factories.

magiamma's picture

@Timmethy2.0
Lungs indeed! Very scary. Thanks for stopping by. Smile

From The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben.

"Of all the plants, trees have the largest surface area covered in leaves. For every square yard of forest, 27 square yards of leaves and needles blanket the crowns. Part of every rainfall is intercepted in the canopy and immediately evaporates again. In addition, each summer, trees use up to 8,500 cubic yards of water per square mile, which they release into the air through transpiration. This water vapor creates new clouds that travel farther inland to release their rain. As the cycle continues, water reaches even the most remote areas. This water pump works so well that the downpours in some large areas of the world, such as the Amazon Basin, are almost as heavy thousands of miles inland as they are on the coast. ... the whole process breaks down if coastal forest are cleared."

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smiley7's picture

A visual from The Guardian about the excellent Queensland's study you post from Cosmos.

Just five countries hold 70% of the world’s remaining untouched wilderness areas and urgent international action is needed to protect them, according to new research.

And from Nature

"The few measures that were on the ballot were voted down, except for one which I can't find right now."

A ballot initiative on renewable energy in Nevada passed: "Question 6 on Tuesday, which calls for the state to use 50 percent renewable energy by the year 2030. Supporters say Question 6 will generate hundreds of millions of dollars in economic activity and create thousands of new Nevada jobs." https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/midterms-2018-mixed-results...

The oil and gas industry spent quite a lot of money opposing all of these pro-climate ballot initiatives. The campaign against Washington’s carbon fee “raised $20 million, 99 percent of which has come from oil and gas,” according to Vox. The carbon fee was thus one of the most expensive ballot initiative fights in Washington state history. The renewable energy fight in Arizona was also the most expensive in state history because of oil industry spending. The same was true for Colorado’s anti-fracking measure, as the oil and gas industry clearly spent nearly $40 million opposing it.

While Tuesday’s results show the impact of massive political spending by the fossil fuel lobby, they also shine a light on Democrats’ failure to mobilize voters on the issue. The Democratic Party has failed to treat climate change with much, if any urgency this election season. According to The New York Times, the “vast majority” of the party’s candidates did not mention the problem “in digital or TV ads, in their campaign literature or on social media.” And the party’s leaders in Congress have given little indication that they intend to prioritize climate change in the future. Is it any wonder voters weren’t excited about solving the problem, either?

I look forward to Thursday's OT; thank you for your continued work because in the larger picture, all the efforts to improve our culture, sustain the good values that people died for across civilizations will be for naught, if in the process of living, we condemn our climate to collapse.

Big cheers for the Lisa Fischer. Smile

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magiamma's picture

@smiley7

Well said...

in the larger picture, all the efforts to improve our culture, sustain the good values that people died for across civilizations will be for naught, if in the process of living, we condemn our climate to collapse.

Thanks for the maps showing the existing uncontaminated forests and ocean. It's shocking how much of the ocean is white, modified by the direct effects of human activity. All of the Atlantic is white! There is a upsetting article about the logging of the Boreal forest in Canada in the roundup. I wonder what is happening in Russia.

It is mind boggling how much money was spent to defeat the environmental initiatives. Also, here in CA a number of rent control props were defeated with enormous financial backing from the CAA (CA Apartment Association). Rent seekers win again.

Dems are so lame. I only hope some of the progressives that got elected on small donations can influence. We need an 'Extinction Rebellion' here. The Brits thought a few hundred folks would show up and a thousand people came. Hope it grows globally. Btw, thanks for the persimmon pudding recipe. Have a good one... Smile

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enhydra lutris's picture

Another major environmental initiative that lost Tuesday is the LA public bank. Another big reason to get out of banks and into credit unions (or community banks where available) which wasn't emphasized in my OT yesterday (https://caucus99percent.com/content/wednesday-open-thread-deja-vu-vu-vu-vu) is the horrible effect banks have on the environment.

One thing, which you note via DeSmog is the impact of the fracking industry and all that is doing to try to create or enhance demand. That industry is largely supported and kept afloat by banks and brokerages. The banks aren't calling the frackers' bad loans and are giving them new ones. This is largely driving that part of the oil & gas sector. (That isn't the only environmentally rapacious industry they finance, mining and logging are two of the others.) As you note, In These Times also says: "Want to Save the Climate? Break Up the Big Banks."

Sure, we are all small fry, but every buck withdrawn and transferred to other insitutions is 10 or more (the multiplier) they can't misuse. Also, all of us shoulc be dedicated to "first do no harm", even indirectly, as an action maxim. Long before trying to ascertain how to maximize the total good, we need to stop abetting the bad. "Don't fuck it up!" is, after all, an instinctive motto.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

magiamma's picture

@enhydra lutris
I soooo needed that. Laughed so hard I cried. LOL.

The name I submitted for sc4b:

Furthering Unexamined Collective Knowledge To Help Initiate Strategic Shifts in Hierarchical Institutional Tyranny

The acronym is, wait, drum roll... (maybe you caught it?) FUCK THIS SHIT... That was just after Bernie abnegated. Lol

Thanks again for your OT on the banks and for your comments here. It is not a small thing - every dollar counts. As you say. Have a great day! Smile

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enhydra lutris's picture

@magiamma
why they would reject it Wink

Glad you liked the song. The trick is to try to live the "unfucker" part.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

magiamma's picture

@enhydra lutris
The interesting thing is that so many people became passionately involved with the name change. So many opinions. People are funny. My name was really just a joke. We are a county wide group after all. We won SC county for Bernie. One of two counties in the state iirc. Had a great group and ran a great campaign. None of us knew each other before. Went on the win two city council seats for our side. All the old politicians said it couldn't be done. But we did it. We are 30 miles away from the silicon valley and they are salivating. I dropped out to work on climate change. Not sure it'll make enough difference but at least it's something.

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@magiamma
why they would reject it Wink

Glad you liked the song. The trick is to try to live the "unfucker" part.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Gov. Brown warns against being too aggressive in fighting President Trump

Brown is preparing to hand off power to Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who ran on his promise to stand up to Trump and promote California’s liberal values.

“I see the central challenge of America is pulling itself together and minimizing the deepening divergence of our people,” Brown told reporters in a rare availability in the Capitol office he’ll vacate in two months.

California must stand up for human rights and the environment, he said, “but we have to do it in a way that finds greater commonality, we have to maximize the sense of being Americans.”

Iz amerika still consuming 25% of global resources? hm, math ouchy

He said he doesn’t care for framing California’s role as the “resistance” to Trump. Rather, he said, the state follows its own path and fights those who get in the way.

Get out of the way, more groaf.

“At our best, we always stand up. We step in and we fight for what’s right,” Newsom said. “There’s a reason why California’s dream is America’s leading brand. Because California’s dream will always be too big to fail and too powerful to bully.”

Too easy to bribe(TM). Who is writing that nonsense, which consultant group? Sounds like Disney.

At the request of Brown and Newsom, a state water board delayed a vote scheduled for Wednesday on a controversial plan to increase the amount of water allowed to flow through the Lower San Joaquin River and its tributaries to protect habitat for fish in the delta. The move would result in less water for farmers.

"farmers" LOL! Who on earth believes Big Agriculture lobbyists are "farmers"? c'mon

The Water Resources Control Board delayed the decision until Dec. 11.

I'll put that on my kabuki calendar next to the DNC fraud lawsuit. heh

Brown called providing government-funded insurance to everyone in the state — an idea known as “single-payer” that’s popular with liberal activists and embraced by Newsom — “an intriguing idea.” But he said aside from the cost, it would take cooperation with the federal government. Estimated costs have been as high as $400 billion per year.

Who in hell is asking for "government-funded insurance"? The Insurance Industry lobby, that's who. Normal people want health care, not insurance. Bernays is best served fresh, with lemon. One last pasta, for old time's sake, good riddance:

"I'd say, we're not going to adopt the socialist system with Leninism and all the rest of it.... The modern economy is based on individual reward, with most of the money moving toward the top. That's the system."

He added, "We try to mitigate that."

Mitigation failure supreme, like father like son. Next?

amerika’s coming attraction
death row suicides
cage free chickens

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magiamma's picture

@eyo
Brown has tried to do some nutty stuff which can only be attributed to being bought off. Like building a water tunnel to take water from the Bay down LA ways. Not sure what the final outcome was. What a bad idea. And I have no idea how corrupt Newsom is. Bottom line 'California’s dream' is still about profit which starts with P, which rhymes with C which stands for consumerism which rhymes with D which stands for dead end. Thanks for your comments and have a very good one... Smile

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mhagle's picture

Thanks!

Have to say I was pretty upset about the election in Texas. Mellowed out since yesterday. Seems like 99% of the population is still blind to climate.

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

magiamma's picture

@mhagle
Yeah, the TX election was pretty disturbing. Same as it always was. Keep on keeping on. Jem Bendell is getting a lot of press. That's good news. Take good care... Smile

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dystopian's picture

Great work magi... thanks! Thanks E.L. for the Katie Goodman vid. At least this mass extinction event will be well-documented and the causes clear: Homo stupidicus.

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

magiamma's picture

@dystopian
Thank you and thanks for stopping by. Have a good one... Smile

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mimi's picture

redacted the rest, because it sounded impolite. Sorry.

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magiamma's picture

@mimi
as impolite. I had the exact same questions when I saw the birthrates. You are right. African countries have higher rates of infant mortality. Be well and thank you for your comments. Smile

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I noticed there was smoke coming from the north when I was pedaling to the river this morning. Now it has covered the sky and everything has a strange orange glow. I had to turn on the lights at noon. oh well

https://patch.com/california/albany/s/gjtbx/camp-fire-rages-butte-county...

amerika's coming attraction
never mind

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magiamma's picture

@eyo
One started up in the pogonip where I walk. Both are under control now. Smokey here. And really windy.

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@magiamma thanks, the county actually sent out emergency alerts for the smoke, but I don't get them. No cell phone. The air is awful right now, can't breath outside. People still have PTSD from the Tubbs fire and freak out about smoke.

Smoke from distant wildfire rattles nerves in Sonoma County

Brad Sherwood stepped out of his Santa Rosa office shortly after noon Thursday and was stopped cold. Smoke from a faraway wildfire had blown into Sonoma County, reviving the horror he experienced 13 months ago — to the very day.

The foul odor of burned trees, homes and possessions more than 100 miles away packed a visceral punch.

“It wasn’t the smoke, it was the smell,” Sherwood said. “It sent chills through my body.”

Up here in wine country, the plantation owners rejoice and burn their junk piles, because who's gonna notice with all the garbage in the air already? Nobody, the good ole boys got this. Bite me Beaujolais.

Random bloomberg article says everything is fine.
Smoke From California's Wildfires Is Dimming Solar Power Output

First Solar Inc., which operates more than two gigawatts of solar farms in the state -- that’s equivalent to about two nuclear reactors -- has seen production dip at installations near fires, according to spokesman Steve Krum. The slumps in generation have been “very minimal," he said, likening them to the impact of passing clouds on solar panels.

“Reductions have not reached a level of concern,” Krum said.

The state’s electric grid operator said the impact from smoke has been too small to differentiate it from cloud cover, which is higher than normal as Southern California enters its annual monsoon season, according to spokesman Steven Greenlee.

amerika's coming attraction
burn stench

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magiamma's picture

@eyo
They closed the air conditioning in the buildings in San Jose. It will probably get worse before it gets better. Keep windows closed and breath through a wet cloth once in a while. It's gotta be a lot worse up where you are. I do not think the fire is contained so it will be bigger on the next update to CalFire. I am keeping the doors and windows closed. I took a an interesting picture of the sunset when I went out for a few and now I have a headache from the smoke. Yuk.

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There is too much at this late hour to comment on except to just say: wow and thank you.
I love all of you so much for your insight and comments and music here.
It gives me momentary hope, and I treasure those moments.
There are so many tears to shed for how stupid we all are. So. fucking. stupid.
It's almost as if we don't deserve this beautiful planet we have been given....
I'm at the point of giving it over to the rest of the living things here that truly appreciate it. Deep breath. Home.

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magiamma's picture

@peachcreek
Yes, me too. This place gives me hope in the face of a lot of crazy. Thanks so much for dropping by. Take good care. Smile

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