First Principles First? On C99 And Issues
JtC posted a helpful essay yesterday that kicked off a discussion about c99 and issues.
Johnny said this in conclusion:
Surely I understand that electing the right politician will help with the issues before us, but my point is that this site was never fixated on electoral politics up until very recently, and hopefully someday and someday soon we can get back to the issues.
How does one think productively about the issues? One begins with first principles.
Defining the issues must begin with first principles or anything and everything could be relevant.
What then constitutes first principles? More below.
My own definition is that it is the sine qua non of our lives. (We failed Latin students love to quote Latin phrases :=)
Here's wiki on that:
Condicio sine qua non (plural: condiciones sine quibus non) is an indispensable and essential action, condition, or ingredient. It was originally a Latin legal term for "[a condition] without which it could not be", or "but for..." or "without which [there is] nothing".
First principle = condicio sine qua non = "without which it could not be."
What would that be in 2016 in North America?
What follows is my thought, with which you'll be fairly familiar. I cannot speak for you or for the site.
I offer my thoughts on these matters as a continuation of the discussion on c99 and the "issues," hoping that it would further our collective thoughts.
The first principle is species habitat. No habitat, no species, no individual, no issues.
Think about it. Species habitat because there is no sustainable individual habitat without the species having a habitat. Species habitat is the condicio sine qua non for all of us: you, me, all humans, all the planet's species as they evolve in cooperation and competition, forming the matrix which sustains species habitat.
Climate scientists almost unanimously say climate change is happening and will destroy the common habitat of the human and most other species. Furthermore, you will have noticed over the past decade that climate scientist now have only one discussion and that is over whether runaway climate change has already started. And, you will have noticed, as the decade has progressed, the number of scientists who are freaking out about runaway climate change right now has grown to a mighty, mighty chorus.
The first principle is species (your!) habitat. Do you accept that runaway climate change is underway?
We all must answer this truly existential question one way or the other.
First, to our selves, then to our families and local communities and then to our wider communities.
Have you ever decisively answered this question? Is it happening, or not?
Note: no one cares about beliefs in this context; only about the scientific reports, news, and discussion of the reports and their data. Conservatives do this nifty mental trick to avoid answering the question.
They say they question the integrity of the scientists and the scientific process. After that, they're free to say, no, we are not experiencing any kind of climate change. Herr Drumpf did it just yesterday over the CA drought :=)
Progressives, however, are pro-facts and pro-science. Yes, we know scientists and the scientific process are flawed, just as all humans and human creations are flawed.
Yet, we trust in the long slow joint calibration of scientific models as new data pours in from all over the globe's scientific communities. Millions of eyes seeing the same things.
We accept the role of emotion in human thought, but we try to follow rigorous mental processes to their logical outcomes.
So, what do you say? Is runaway climate change happening today, or not?
I accept that it is happening right now.
If I had not accepted that we are experiencing runaway climate change, then anything and everything could be relevant here or anywhere. I would pick my favourite issue - peace making, mental health, democratic socialism, etc. - and see how many others wanna talk. Just like in the coffee shop.
I also accept that there is nothing on dog's green earth that could stop it or reverse it. The cake, as they say, is baked. No climate conferences, no international actions, no carbon tax, no geo-engineering, no techno-pie-in-the-sky fantasies, nothing can stop or mitigate runaway climate change.
Whenever someone brings up any such proposals for "climate mitigation" (there's a canard), such as carbon taxes and geo-engineering, I direct them to this climate essay by Guy McPherson at the blog Nature Bats Last: http://guymcpherson.com/climate-chaos/
Guy's been writing that essay for a decade since his retirement as department chair of environmental studies. Every week he adds the latest climate science studies with links and thankfully news reports of them to the essay. He now calls it the Climate Monster Essay, it is so big :=)
For example, part two concerns the self-reinforcing feedback loops of climate change.
These feedback loops are what makes climate change grow exponentially and not linearly.
I started reading Guy's climate essay when there where 8 such known feedback loops.
Today, 29 May 16, he lists 65, of which only three may be reversible.
Take that in for a moment: there are 65 self-reinforcing climate change feedback loops, of which three may be reversible. Someone who does not accept that climate change is irreversibly exponential has to account for all 65 global-scaled feedback loops.
Saying things like "I believe..." or "I hope..." or "I think..." or pointing to one potential action, like a carbon tax, is engaging in magical thinking. Unless one accounts for all 65 and the new ones spawning.
I accept that human habitat as a contiguous whole has mere decades left. Within two or three decades, human habitat will have shrunk to a few areas, mostly in the middle of continents (except Australia, which will race the Middle East to empty itself of humans first), where there is presently an abundance of water.
In North America, I expect contiguous human habitat to shrink within three decades to the area north of the Great Lakes, with isolated pockets in some other areas.
Having accepted that we are now experiencing runaway climate change, I, logically I hope, proceed then to deal mainly with issues relevant to personal and local factors that promote as resilient a habitat as we could create for our family and local community. Why is this logical?
With runaway climate change, we cannot think anymore in terms of "sustainability," as we did between the 80s and the 2000s.
Within decades, we will not sustain a United States or a Europe or a United Nations or a Russia or a China or anything except the most local/tribal governments.
We will not sustain global or national economies; some regional economies may continue a while longer.
There will be no global culture, no large urban centres, no national infrastructure; versions of civilization will only exist where there are islands of local stability.
Etcetera.
So I accept that the climate cake is baked. What implications does that have for how other issues sort out in consequence of that acceptance? Here is an example. See what you make of it.
It means that whether Bernie or Trump or Clinton gets elected does not matter to climate change's 65 self-reinforcing feedback loops. None would be able to reverse those 62 feedback loops. Or the new feedback loops that they are spawning right now as we speak. Do you grasp that?
"But, G, what if Trump nukes China before my house floods?"
Well, then anything you had done regarding personal resilience would come in handy, wouldn't it?
There are no international, federal, or state issues that matter more than what runaway climate change is doing to my (or your) habitat where we live right now. None.
Everything is subordinate to the Godzilla in our midst. (Sadly yes, we've gone from being sentimental about gorillas in the mist to being stupefied by the ginormous godzilla in our midst :=)
"Ah, but G, [insert favourite cause here] is vital, vital, I tell you."
Tell me, are your children practical people who could manage if the power goes out for more than three days? Tell me, if your neighbourhood gets flattened by the next tornado, would you all help each other or will you be alone? Worse, will they turn on you?
Let's pause and see how far we've come:
Discussing ideas must begin with first principles or we accept a random selection.
First principles begin with the condicio sine qua non.
The first sine qua non is species habitat.
I accept the science of climate change and the growing chorus of scientists who say runaway climate change is happening right now and is irreversible.
The cake is baked: acceptance of which does an automatic sort of all the world's known issues.
The automatic sort brings to the top all issues relating to making myself, my family, and my local community more resilient. Everything else slots in below resilience issues.
The only issues that matter are those within my personal control or the control of my local community.
The only issues that interest me are those that would make my family members more resilient during the climate chaos now arriving in all our lives.
Note I say resilient, not sustainable. I accept that there may be no generations to follow my grandchildren.
I accept that the best I could do is to help them become tough-minded, practical, skilled people in the tough times ahead and help them set up the most resilient housing and living possible.
The rest of my life is dedicated to making my family more resilient. Any discussion about about issues around monetary policy/foreign affairs/national affairs/state affairs is fairly irrelevant to my personal mission in life.
How to build a house that could survive the initial "storms of my grandchildren" is extremely relevant to me. I'm all over every issue involved in building homes for the massive heat and wind and water and fire pressing in on us all.
I used to be able to walk and chew gum simultaneously. I used to think I could talk resilience right along with mass nonviolent resistance and electoral reform and Bernie and everything else besides. In the very recent past, I have come to learn that I can't; all I can do is work on what is within my control. And very often, not even that.
So that's how I view the matter of c99 and the issues.
C99ers should choose:
Do you want to just run with everyone's favourite issues? Asked another way, do you want to shift away from the electoral and past site preoccupations to issues as they arise or as they grab people's hearts?
or
Do you want to think about first principles so as to focus discussion around core issues?
Please do not think that I want c99 to talk resilience all day long. Of course not.
I'm a very happy camper in the Resilience Group and love the discussions there. I'm already talking with like-minded c99ers about the issues. We haven't mentioned whatsisname once there :=)
The purpose of this essay was to set out my thought on c99 and the issues and contribute to the discussion.
I'm really looking forward to your comments.
"G, go suck an egg is a comment." :=)
Peace be with us, if we face scientific facts and act accordingly,
gerrit
Comments
Actually, I'm pretty close to where you are in this.
I saw what I thought was the writing on the wall during Bush2's tenure and started planning options accordingly. Family nixed those for near-term purposes, so I figured I'd die before they're taken care of. It sucks, but you can't force someone to accept the best of a lot of lousy outcomes (there's a parallel in the "lesser evil" voting question there).
That said, I actually am rather good at planning, and I think we need to start planning, even if my little piece of the input into that will be for someone else's benefit. If we are unable to weather individually all the shitstorms that are lining up on the horizon, what are the steps and provisions that will make more of us, with additional skills -- a community, in other words -- resilient the longest? There are not just the storms themselves to think of, the climatic changes, but also the reactions of survivors to the threat of those storms -- reactions that will be little storms of their own, like police states, and military options, and 1%er scourings of the land for anything they can hoard to themselves. I certainly have my thoughts about that, but it isn't going to be for me. It'll be for someone else. So what are those someone elses' thoughts about what they will endure and how? Once we establish a sizable body of those bits of input, we can get started contemplating how we pull it off.
This bodes to be a very dark thread here, Gerrit.
But the definitions we choose for "family" or "community" can also solve some of the issues that many want to fix before they go down their prioritized issues lists to get to climate change. So there's a place for anyone to participate, even if climate change is not the Great Issue in their minds.
Hi DYM and thanks very much for your thoughts. We're in the same
position. I am all busted up body and brain from a military career. All I can do - and I'm happily doing it - is help my kids and their kids get organized and set up in some sort of resilient climate ark (knowing it's not going to be a long sail.) And if I can talk with and learn from folks here on c99 in the resilience group and on the com-page, more the better. folks for whom it is too late, like you and I, could help others plan and prepare for climate resiliency here on c99.
You do sound good at planning. I focus on family (including my stuff) and local community resilience. Perhaps you could help figure out how to expand the concentric circles, maybe: family, community, region, national, global. I dunno. For example, I think national and international climate mitigation efforts are too late, but other would disagree. They then would see a carbon tax as a project worth pushing at the national circle.
I look forward to hearing more of your ideas as you develop them. Enjoy your day, my friend.
Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.
Build a house to weather the storm?
Check hempcrete out. Simple recipe on line, breathable, fireproof(for all intents and purposes), high insulation value(no pun intended) carbon negative, long lasting(rediscovered in a bridge pier from the 1600's). If I ever get a chance to build new(or extensively remodel), that's how I'm going. End thread jack here.
Excellent essay.
peace
Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .
Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .
If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march
Not to say anything negative about hemp
but Industry led by our friend Mitch McConnell is already investing in hemp products. That was once (and bobbing still) the major cash crop in Kentucky, pre-tobacco. So beware. They are interested in its tensile strength.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
Hempcrete, eh? That does sound interesting, mate. Consider
writing up something small for us to discuss and learn in the Resiliency Group. We'd be all over that. Write it any way you wish and just add the tag "resilience" and it will slide into the group essay queue. Cheers, eh :=)
Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.
I'm in your camp . . .
However, I am still hoping that Bernie will get elected, fight climate change big time, and it will make a difference. That fact that the we will experience the consequences of climate change is undeniable. I just hope we can mediate, adapt, and survive.
I am sitting here in Texas experiencing climate change. It is supposed to rain all week. Sadly, some have died again from the rain recently. Another county south of here got 16 inches in one day. We don't have the infrastructure for big rains in Texas, so it is costing billions to constantly repair the roads. I don't trust the integrity of many local bridges because the river banks have washed out underneath them.
I feel sort of guilty about this, but at the moment, I am also benefitting from climate change. I have the best garden I have ever ever had since I moved to Texas 24 years ago. It is raining and raining. The rain killed the grasshoppers - a wonderful thing. All of the cloud cover has kept it much cooler.
Part of resilience is seizing the opportunity to get the best crop you can while you have the chance? And then you prepare for the day the good weather goes away by building that underground greenhouse, windmill, solar array, and water collection system.
This is just a feeling I have (based on climate facts though) . . . I don't believe there will be any climate deniers by the end of the year.
Texas is becoming a rainforest (without a forest everywhere) while northern Canada is hot, dry, and burning down??? WTF??
My two kids are teenagers and like you, I want to prepare them and create a paradigm for resilience and survival. And I want to include friends, family, neighbors, folks I don't know yet.
I like how the Leap Manifesto came into being by this group of people getting together and saying to each other, "Let's dream about the way it could be (not verbatim). The Manifesto begins by stating . . .
I really hope we can get there. Do you remember how the fall of communism just seemed to happen out of nowhere? There were underlying factors of course, but it still looked like it just *poof* went away. (not meaning to sound trivial to the folks who fought against it and sacrificed) But still . . .
And this past year, it has really been a miracle that Donald Trump entered the race and fucked with the republican party so beautifully.
And Bernie Sanders is a miracle. A beacon of hope.
I hope we experience a ass-kicking environmental disaster miracle (that doesn't kill a bunch of folks) moment of grace that wakes everyone up.
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
cascade theory
the tipping point comes and you can't necessarily point to "why" something happened. I like it!
Thank you Marilyn, for these brilliant reflections. I agree so
much and you describe so well what I also experience and feel. We work to bring in the bountiful harvest of today and prepare for and store away things for the demands of tomorrow. Thank you and best wishes, my friend,
Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.
:)
Thank you so much for creating the resilience group and all of your contributions. The other writers there are doing such good work as well. I enjoy it very much!
your friend - marilyn
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
More reflections . . . Most people can't face this . . .
At this point only 9 people have "liked" this essay. And it's a really great article . . . well thought out and referenced.
I don't see many people really facing the facts about climate change. I guess it is too scary. The first time I watched an interview with Guy McPherson . . . OMG . . . I was scared shitless for a long long time. And I have been keeping up with the latest climate science since 2012 when we lost hundreds of trees to the Mexican Soapberry Beetle. I already knew that shit was going down much faster than anyone thought.
Contributing to my frightened state was the fact that I had recently gotten heavy into reading DK, and very few people were understanding the scope of the climate crisis there. There is no way you can support HRC if you grasp climate science.
Long before the March 15 decree, I knew I had to quit DK. It made me depressed. In one of my last diaries I wrote that HRC was a climate science denier. Promoting incremental change means you don't get it.
The Resilience Group and the Leap Manifesto are both positive tools for accepting and mitigating our current climate crisis. But they are just the beginning. Approaching it with greater honesty and charging forward with small local solutions are so important.
I asked my 14 year old son - who is very up on current events - if climate change scares him. He said, "I know you guys have fucked up the planet for me, but no . . . I think it is exciting." Wow.
I guess what I am trying to say, is that the message of your essay here, needs to be everywhere. It needs to be out there. And we need to meet it with hope and resolve. Hope that faces the facts, but is still hope.
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
Morning and thank you very much, Marilyn. You explain the
psychology of it so very well.
And I also appreciate you commenting on the logic of the essay. The folks who commented are like you and I, who have already digested and accepted the science best we understand it. No one grappled with the logic. So I don't know whether my logic is so faulty that folks just dismiss it, not wanting to embarrass me :=)
I don't really write for outcomes; I mainly write to help me think through stuff and to bring that to the table for discussion. It is nice when something helps someone. I was surprised at how little the post got read though. And how no one wanted to work with the logic of the thing. Thank you for helping me understand that, my friend. I appreciate that a lot!
I am glad you broke free of DK. I used to like the science posts there too. But it's culture was sick already in the beginning of 2015, which was when I left. And you are right: climate change is a five-alarm fire and any candidate who doesn't approach it such is a climate denier.
My kids see it exactly like yours. They see it straight-up: mine are a few years older. My oldest and her partner moved in with us, wanting to go build an earthship on an acreage up north. Our job is to provide the financing and the guidance; they'll provide the labour. The others get it and will help work at it so that they have a place to go when the luck runs out.
You say something really important:
That exactly it. That's the discussion I had hoped c99 could have. I do accept though that it won't happen and I am so very glad for the Resilience Group, where we can act like you propose.
We all struggle from time to time with our morale. The 99% who can't deal with it and we who try to face the facts. Talking with you is a big boost to my morale :=) Enjoy your day, my friend,
Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.
I agree most with mhagle. I am not willing to say it's
irreversible. Not being a scientist, I don't know. But we have faced and mastered challenges before. And discouragement can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. So while I see the value in learning resilience, I also want to elect Bern and other progressive politicians who get it - that we are already experiencing climate change and we have no time for incrementalism. Also people who will get us all working together, not at each others' throats. Allow the possibility that irreversibility might be wrong and let's reverse what we can. We need our scientists and technology to focus on that. Perhaps creative types like me can focus on imagining new technology that the scientists can evaluate for feasibility.
I have a friend in Oklahoma who told me that her utility company switched to wind turbines and their utility bills went DOWN. Presumably a federal grant to make the switch, but from there is was sustainable at LOWER cost. So we have the technology to not only switch away from fossil fuels, but also to keep it affordable. We should do that much, at least, and then see where we are. The only reason not to is to prop up the profits of the energy companies. They can kiss my rump.
Please check out Pet Vet Help, consider joining us to help pets, and follow me @ElenaCarlena on Twitter! Thank you.
Your attitude is what we need . . .
Yes . . . . What you are doing is what we need . . . I think the working together thing is really important . . .
I don't have the answers . . . but we just go forward . . .
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
Resilience can combat climate-fatigue
Gerrit, please continue your efforts on personal resilience, it's not discussed enough in the news. Climate, on the other hand, is. A lot. Perhaps not enough for some, but it is in the news. That's one of the reasons I couldn't put the time into my enviro news updates, besides the fact that my job is insanely busy right now. It took forever to sort through all the climate news and left little energy to include anything else. And almost all the news is dire and focused on national and world-wide policy: less on local community actions or individual actions. Yes, it's important to discuss the science and policy changes, but people need bite-sized actions that they can take personally. "We can't do anything to reduce the US's emissions, much less China's or India's. It's just too big. All of society is doomed." People can't sustain that level of freak-out for long. Without a focus on personal and community level actions, people can easily succumb to a feeling of helplessness and climate fatigue.
At the policy level, all we can do is vote and put pressure on our elected officials and on global corporations. That pressure needs to remain, because it does have an impact. The Obama Administration has been supporting renewables, has released a rule on climate emissions from power plants, has updated fuel standards, has started to incorporate resilience issues into its decision making, has promoted environmentally preferred purchasing for federal agencies, has promoted energy efficiency at government buildings. The Department of Defense, believe it or not, is hugely into climate and resilience right now. They are finding it critical to their mission and have been quite literally scared into action. Businesses are going green with their buildings --- and the green building movement has impacted manufacturing, too, with environmental product declarations. Is it enough? Is it moving fast enough? Probably not, but it is going in a good direction and that should be recognized even as folks keep the pressure on for more. Climate is a big reason why a lot of people here seem to be voting for Bernie.
At the local level, some communities are hiring resilience officers, which need to be supported. Some are using sustainable community programs (like STAR Communities) to get going on the right track, which need to be supported. Some are implementing tree canopy programs, bike share initiatives, complete streets projects, community gardening, farmers markets, promoting green buildings, and rewarding local green businesses -- all of which need to be supported. Some are converting their buses to LNG or implementing more public transportation and/or transit. Some are trying to implement stormwater fees to set up a utility or make improvements to existing infrastructure (fixing water mains and leaking pipes), which need to be supported. Some are using green infrastructure strategies to reduce urban runoff and localized flooding. Some are putting together community action plans for disaster preparedness, etc. etc. Some are trying to set up utility-sized renewables (NIMBYism gets in the way a lot, by the way, on renewables). Some are supporting resilient housing (like Fortified). Again, lots going on at the local level where we can actually see a difference and have an impact.
At the personal level, I can't afford to buy a Prius or buy 10 solar panels to put on our roof. Hell, I'd have to budget for a stormwater barrel. But our garden has region-specific, drought resistant plants and the landscaping reduces runoff. We don't use herbicides or fertilizers. I share a community garden plot. We shop at thrift stores. We live in a walkable neighborhood. We recycle and repurpose. If we were ever in the market for new appliances, they would be energy efficient. If we ever buy a house, I will factor climate change into our decision making -- and take steps to make it more resilient.
Sigh. Keep up the good resilience work and help combat the climate-fatigue!
"Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change." Stephen Hawking
NEW: http://www.twitter.com/trueblueinwdc
A great big thanks, TrueBlue. I notice how effectively you
categorize the levels of action: policy, local, and personal. That is very helpful and could be a guide for c99ers.
And you are right to commend all efforts at resilience-building at all three levels of action. Should c99ers accept to sort the issues according to first principles, all the issues would distribute naturally along those three levels in order of need. It wouldn't be difficult at all; it would happen naturally.
I also appreciate your compassion for all who try to build resilience capacities while dealing with the high pressures of modern, corporatist life. I feel similarly. There is no sense in placing pressure on people over species habitat; all of us just pickle along best we can, doing what we can when we can. In truth, the Godzilla in our midst will overwhelm us all, the resilient ones and those who are not. When the next, bigger superstorm slams into NYC and drowns everything low-lying, being resilient will be about who gets out fastest.
You also describe well the processes that lead to folks experiencing Martin Seligman's learned helplessness before climate change. There is no coherent leadership or sensible reporting or education on climate change, so people are generally defenceless against being made helpless. The only ones who rise above the learned helplessness are those who work at strengthening their will and mind.
Here is something I learned in first-year Business class. It's the Pareto power law, best known as the old 80-20 rule: "80% of this is related to 20% of that" and so on.
Learning it helped me overcome the "just-world" bias in my worldview.
In the intervening 35 years, I don't remember where it didn't apply.
It's helped me, for example, to ask myself constantly - in dealing with the things within and the things without - whether I'm dealing with the 80 or the 20.
I accept that 80% of people live with learned helplessness in most things, and the biggie is climate change.
I myself spend much time trying to move me from the 80 to the 20; that's the resilience dance.
So we muddle along, all of us, doing the resilience dance back and forth between the 80 and the 20, doing the best we can with what we have. And we try to help one another move from learned helplessness to resilience, with patience and compassion.
Thank you TrueBlue, for helping me along today. And thank you for explaining things so well. All of us will find your reasoning very helpful in moving forward. I wish you a very good evening, my friend,
Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.
Resilience Clubs
Resilience clubs
Form community clubs where anyone is welcome to join. This is specific to where I live in Texas.
This is an organization where we help each other build resilience systems.
We gain expertise and help each other build the following:
And we get together once a month for food, wine, music . . . whatever . . .
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
Ooh, Marilyn, that sounds like a lot of excitement and fun :=)
And it addresses real, practical issues! And it will strengthen friendships and families and neighbours.
Tell us more about this, will you please? Enjoy your day, my creative friend :=)
Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.
The Other Power model
http://www.otherpower.com/
This is the model. These guys have been helping people make their own wind turbines for a while now. I guess it is like Amish barn raising or Habitat for Humanity.
Where I live, we have enough friends and acquaintances to populate a "Resilience Club," but I don't know that there is enough resolve. Everyone is sort of dangling on the edge of knowing something big is going on with the climate, but they are busy with kids growing up and other distractions.
My own husband is not convinced yet. He hears what I am saying, but there are other voices bending his ear too.
I have sort of been of the opinion that we should get the hell out of Texas. However, since we have been getting all of this rain, and it is hot and dry and burning in Canada, it makes me wonder. In normal weather cycles the El Nino' fades into El Nina' and the hot ocean surface temperatures that are now located by Central America move west. (correct me if I don't have this exactly right) But if the deep ocean currents shut down like James Hansen predicts, maybe the El Nino' will stay? Maybe Texas will become a rainforest?
Where is the best and safest place to live?
I don't know if there is a best and safest place? Probably not Florida.
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
My word, Marilyn, otherpower is wonderful! I shall explore more
and often. I know exactly what you mean: everyone is so busy; they don't see how they could fit it in. Back in Africa, we used to say, "It's enough to make the monkey bite its mother" :=) The saying makes no sense, but it's a funny WTF kind of image.
You know what might help us about local resilience groups? Totnes and the Transition Network. They started from nothing and now it's global. We don't need to reinvent the wheel. They've got a practical how-to for every situation. Soon as I have a second, I'll go putter around their site for some inspiration, OK?
Meanwhile, we could see the c99 RG as an online group and use it as a vehicle to think and plan and prepare.
You and I should talk lots more about this, eh?
Especially about this:
That's the $64k question. Because what you describe about the deep current slowdown is happening and at a frightening speed. The great Atlantic current is slowing down perceptibly in real time and changing the weather patterns of millennia. So, where are the best and safest places to live? It's a huge topic, one which we in the Resilience Group should discuss regularly. I came a whisker close to buying a 30-acre oceanfront property on the Nova Scotia North Shore. Then afterward, I learned about runaway climate change. Yikes.
Lets talk lots more about this, please.
Thank you for bringing these things into our orbit, eh. You are a rare person who sees the big picture and is practical in the daily things. Have great day, my friend,
Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.
I need to invite . . .
sinkypoo and Alan West over from DK. Both of them wrote great resilience type articles. Will try to do it yet tonight.
Yes . . . let's keep this conversation going!
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
Ooh, there's a great idea! TY, we'll talk :=)
Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.
Invited
Allen Insight from DK. He had great climate articles, but is apparently a HRC supporter. I couldn't find sinkypoo anywhere. She is gone. Her diaries were often about solutions and what we can do about climate change.
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo