Comments on: Humanity at a crossroads

By: Deconstructing negativity – Guy McPherson's blog

Deconstructing negativity – Guy McPherson's blog — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 16:43:52 +0000

[...] our species from runaway greenhouse. To my knowledge, only complete economic collapse allows us to retain our humanity. What’s not to like about that? And what’s so negative about it? Share and [...]

By: Stan Moore

Stan Moore — Tue, 26 May 2009 13:29:47 +0000

Speaking of apathy or unawareness of the Peak Oil situation and the resulting predicament of mankind, I tried for a few days to post a message on the ornithology listserver warning that ornithologists need to seriously consider how the energy situation affects ornithology. I specifically mentioned in the posting that many profesional journals are now publishing online only and the death of the internet and/or the electrical grid, as predicted to occur in the foreseeable future, will then have a significant impact on the retrieval and archiving of accumulated knowledge
The moderator refused to post the piece and I appealed and appealed again with more and more detailed justification. I wonder what will happen to the great libraries and museumns of accumulated knowledge when the lights go out literally. If Richard Duncan is correct, power blackouts and brownouts will increasingly be a familiar experience even here in the US until they the grid blacks out permanently by 2030. The Obama infrastructure rebuilding plan, which allegedly addresses power grid concerns to some extent, will likely have a minimal net benefit, in my view, because of inadequate funding as relates to need as well as corruption and graft. I predict that U.S. corporations that ripped off the taxpayer in Iraq, making an art out of stealing billions, were just practicing for stealing bailout monies at home. We will see. We will see.
Stan Moore

By: Chad Woolley

Chad Woolley — Tue, 26 May 2009 05:17:58 +0000

“How deeply do you have to drill into your memory to come up with a
time you saw a large group of people acting compassionately,
sympathetically, considerately toward other humans or animals?”
Happens all the time, at twelve step programs. Or does that not
qualify as a large group?

By: matt

matt — Tue, 26 May 2009 00:33:16 +0000

Those images read like overly photo shopped
under grad architecture projects. It aint gonna
happen. The future will be more like the past.
Less energy = less of the fanciful, we have simply run
out of time for that, as optimistic as they may seem.
Recently I went to a book launch at my old uni,
in the architecture department.
The book is entitled ‘eco urbanism’,
It is a collection of essays by academics
about sustainable urbanism. I have not
read the book, but I can imagine
any number of French theorists have
been quoted. No doubt the text is impenetrable
to the outsider.
The answer to our enviro woes is less, less, less.
Not more complexity. We already have the answers.
ie walkable communities, local agriculture, composting
of all organic ‘waste’, local water procurement , no waste,
small is beautiful, a culture of modesty etc.
Not more engineering ‘solutions’ or fanciful ‘buckminster fuller’
like creations.
On education, how is this for laugh, my former post grad coordinator
was encouraging me to do a phd. (he was significantly inebriated at the time).
The topics he suggested were ‘the role of the cold war is shaping Australia’s urban and rural infrastructure’; ‘the role of the ephemeral in landscape architecture’ and similarly ‘the role of reflections in landscape design’. Huh?
The problem is of course is this peak oil thingy. At this stage in my ‘academic’ career, I am more interested in my compost and my chickens.
Guy, you would have been ‘proud’ (not the right word), I had one of those end of the world discussions with another neighbour. He is 45, the conversation was initiated by him, he is currently reading homer-dixon. Anyway he is convinced that a collapse in civil society is imminent and he does not read any peak oil blogs! His wife is studying a masters in Sweden on ‘sustainability and managing change’. He wants to sell up and head for the hills, where there is less people and more water. He sees a perfect storm of the GFC, climate change and peak oil colliding together. We had a ‘what if ‘(thought experiment) conversation about various scenarios. No water, no problem we reasoned. (most of us have rain water tanks, and plenty of ground fuel to sterilize it, if need be). No food, in the supermarche? We are fucked. Within a week there would be a tap on the door for food, and a week later they would be back for you. I did tell him that I was ambivalent about the likelihood of an imminent collapse of industrial society. My wife thought the topic of conversation was complete lunacy.
Anyway, I reasoned, if it comes to pass and if you want that stain on your soul (ie a witness to the degradation) and you want to survive you will. In hindsight the discussion seemed a little crazy. He wants the men folk in the street to get together and have a discussion about the ‘transition’ (a nice way to say WTSHTF) and what we can do about it. We reasoned that land base in our suburb would have only supported 20-30 people pre white settlement. We now have several thousand.
He reasons that 5% of the population is on to the peak oil thing. The number of people who listen to ‘radio national’ (a public broadcaster here). He knows of architects who have ‘bugged out’ to the hills. These are seemingly intelligent people, are we/they on to something?
The one problem I have with Ruppert (good interview by the way) and his TEOTWAWNI is when!
How is this for having a bet each way, I have been purchasing dowel 5/16 ($1 per shaft) from the local hardware store and spine testing (determining lbs) and making arrow shafts to match my long bow. The crafting and the engineering behind trad archery is fascinating.
With regards to altruism, a cousin that lived through the bush fires here, said that the disaster brought out the worst and the best in people. For example, neighbours looted other neighbours and on the other hand he had 4-5 families living with him for a few weeks after the event. The generosity of some in the community was amazing, and some of the acts committed by others was despicable.
Anyway some wisdom from Michael Leunig our national living treasure,
a cartoonist no less.
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/more-greed-and-more-loneliness-20090525-bkm7.html?page=1
Anyway, I am still waiting my first egg…

By: Stan Moore

Stan Moore — Mon, 25 May 2009 12:04:40 +0000

Note to Mr. Kim Gyr –
After reviewing your words here and your website, I conclude that you are somewhat misinformed about what is possible at this stage of world affairs. Perhaps you should take up your architectural schemes with James Howard Kunstler, who has spoken widely about human living arrangements in our evolving world. You can check out his website at http://www.kunstler.com
Good luck!
Stan Moore

By: Mr. Kim Gyr

Mr. Kim Gyr — Mon, 25 May 2009 00:49:29 +0000

Born in Michigan and having spent 31 of the last 32 years in England and Switzerland, I have a very different perspective. I also had my heart stop for 10 minutes following a car accident in 1980, requiring that I stagger, walk and jog more than 330 miles before I could walk, speak and remember half of what was said to me. Please see my website at, http://www.greenmillennium.eu for some conclusions and graphics that come from this experience – basically that we’re no worse off than those who worked in the dark satanic mills of the Industrial Revolution, with the exception that we can see ahead, partly because of the Internet, much better!
There are ways to use current and future technologies to make ourselves 100% sustainable for the only “things” that matter – the components of our genes that have combined and recombined ever since life first began here – they are the only scientifically provable form of eternal life, so why not do our best to make the future sustainable for them, our children?
My open-source solutions are simple, and not that much more expensive than President Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway System, to give us the possibility to free ourselves forever from fossil fuels, which is the guillotine by which we will all die unless we do it sooner than later.
Please have a look, for unless you can do better, none of our children will ever live lives like we have!
Thank you!

By: Mr. Kim Gyr

Mr. Kim Gyr — Mon, 25 May 2009 00:04:24 +0000

Born in Michigan and having spent 31 of the last 32 years in England and Switzerland, I have a very different perspective. I also had my heart stop for 10 minutes following a car accident in 1980, requiring that I stagger, walk and jog more than 330 miles before I could walk, speak and remember half of what was said to me. Please see my website at, http://www.greenmillennium.eu for some conclusions and graphics that come from this experience – basically that we’re no worse off than those who worked in the dark satanic mills of the Industrial Revolution, with the exception that we can see ahead, partly because of the Internet, much better!
There are ways to use current and future technologies to make ourselves 100% sustainable for the only “things” that matter – the components of our genes that have combined and recombined ever since life first began here – they are the only scientifically provable form of eternal life, so why not do our best to make the future sustainable for them, our children?
My open-source solutions are simple, and not that much more expensive than Presidnt Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway System, to give us the possibility to free ourselves forever from fossil fuels, which is the guillotine by which we will all die unless we do it sooner than later.
Please have a look, for unless you can do better, none of our children will ever live lives like we have!
Thank you!

By: Stan Moore

Stan Moore — Sun, 24 May 2009 22:50:31 +0000

see: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13716
Here is another very good essay that should be read by Obama’s delirious supporters with the theme: “Don’t be happy. Worry.”
Alberto Gonzales is still guiding U.S. policy as Obamas’ de facto counselor.
Stan Moore

By: Stan Moore

Stan Moore — Sun, 24 May 2009 16:01:57 +0000

A very good interview with Michael Ruppert is on the same EnergyBulletin.net page that includes Guy’s latest essay. Ruppert explains very well the connection between the energy crisis and the financial crisis and why the “elephants” (big banks, financial/securities instutions, etc.) cannot survive. The world of energy is changing and they cannot adapt. It is as simple as that. Ruppert also opines that our society just has a few years left before it goes down for the count. I could not find a word with which to disagree.
More than one story has reached the ether about the vulnerability of the internet, which will be a victim of the energy crisis. The internet as we have known it uses a huge amount of electrical power, which is getting increasingly more expensive just as advertisement revenues are diminishing. The internet will die before the power grid dies, and a major collapse of the economy will doom both and sooner than most people would ever think.
Even GPS systems are at risk because the U.S. Air Force has mismanaged a satellite replacement program and one of the major satellites on which the GPS system (used in cell phones, mapping software, etc.) needs to be replaced but has fallen way behind schedule and out of budget. This by itself will not permanently destroy GPS technology, but is indicative of a larger situation in which even the most modern technologies are on an increasingly tenuous logistics stream due inevitably to energy issues and their cascading effect.
As Guy said, humanity IS at a crossroads and people are still looking for things to return to “normal”. And they will, but “normal” is not what life has been like in the past twenty years. That was abnormal and we are going to learn once again what normal life is like, whether we like it or not.
Stan Moore

By: Frank Mezek

Frank Mezek — Sat, 23 May 2009 16:17:49 +0000

—————–and they are getting it in the neck.2/3′s of the homeowners in Las Vegas have negative equity in their homes.Just saw a list showing many California counties have seen a reduction of 2/3′s in home values in one year.