A current book about how we are doing (not very well)

Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate Collapse,

David W. Orr - January 2012

Singled out as "one of the country''s leading environmental thinkers" by Bill McKibben in the New York Review of Books, David W. Orr offers an exacting analysis of where we are in terms of climate change, how we got here, and what we must now do. Orr shows how political negligence, an economy based on the insatiable consumption of trivial goods, and a disdain for the well-being of future generations have brought us to the tipping point. We now face a long emergency of rising temperatures, rising sea-levels, and a host of other related problems that will increasingly undermine human civilization. Down to the Wire is a major wake-up call.


But this is not a doomsday book. Orr offers a wide range of pragmatic, far-reaching proposals - some of which have already been adopted by the Obama administration - for how we might reconnect public policy with rigorous science, bring our economy into alignment with ecological realities, and begin to regard ourselves as planetary trustees for future generations.



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More Miserable Than Ever Before

It may be that the "Me . . . . . Generation" has become so lost in trivialities that it cannot be conscious of its own peril. If so, the young people of today will be as complicit in the extinction of humanity as are we who have carried out a lifetime of planetary destruction.

If this is true, should we ask ourselves if it is worth our time and effort to try to save future generations from themselves? The answer is still "Yes" because we have a moral responsibility to the future created by our ability and imperative to reproduce our species. This responsibility extends beyond our children to encompass the totality of life on Earth, most if not all of which is being threatened by human activity.

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They have a reputation for being environmentally minded do-gooders. But an academic analysis of surveys spanning more than 40 years has found that today's young Americans are less interested in the environment and in conserving resources — and often less civic-minded overall — than their elders were when they were young.

The findings go against the widespread belief that environmental issues have hit home with today's young adults, known as Millennials, who have grown up amid climate change discussion and the mantra "reduce, reuse, recycle." The environment is often listed among top concerns of young voters.

"I was shocked," said Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University who is one of the study's authors. "We have the perception that we're getting through to people. But at least compared to previous eras, we're not."

Twenge, author of the book "Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled — and More Miserable Than Ever Before," has spent much of her career publishing work that challenges or attempts to explain commonly held beliefs about young people.

. . . . . read the full article

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" So too every being has rights to be recognized and revered. Trees have tree rights, insects have insect rights, rivers have river rights, mountains have mountain rights. So too with the entire range of beings throughout the universe. All rights are limited and relative. So too with humans. We have rights to the nourishment and shelter we need. We have rights to habitat. But we have no rights to deprive other species of their proper habitat." — Thomas Berry - The Great Work 1999



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We're gonna have a Rev-o-lu-tion

I woke up this morning, you were on my mi_i_i_i_i_ind - no - I woke up this morning thinking about Quaility of Life. Gotta get back from the 60's! I have felt, indeed known for at least 30 years that the quality of my life has been on a slippery, downhill slope. As my Standard of Living has risen, my Quality of Life has fallen in a relatively constant and inverse relationship. A first look at my Twitter account had a tweet that pointed to a story about people who are more concerned about Q-O-L than about S-O-L and who are willing to make real sacrifices to back up their values, even when no one is willing to listen.
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"Journalists wouldn't be able to do their jobs without whistleblowers. Theirs is the lone voice emerging from the din, the one that tips us off, gets us started, delivers the key documents, provides an insider's view of an otherwise unknown world."

Consider the case of Leyla Wydler, a broker who, back in 2003, sent a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) about her former employer, the Stanford Financial Group. A year earlier, it had fired her for refusing to sell certificates of deposit that she rightly suspected were being misleadingly advertised to investors. The company, Wydler warned in her letter, “is the subject of a lingering corporate fraud scandal perpetrated as a ‘massive Ponzi scheme’ that will destroy the life savings of many, damage the reputation of all associated parties, ridicule securities and banking authorities, and shame the United States of America.”

It was a letter that should have woken the dead and, as it happened, couldn’t have been more on target. Wydler didn’t stop with the SEC either. She also sent copies to the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), the trade group responsible for enforcing regulations throughout the industry, as well as various newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. No one responded. No one at all.

In the fall of 2004, Wydler called the examination branch of the SEC’s Fort Worth District Office to relay her concerns. A staff person did hear her out, but once again nothing happened. More than four years later, as the aftershocks of the global financial meltdown continued to play out, the news finally broke that Stanford had orchestrated a $7 billion Ponzi scheme which cost thousands of defrauded investors their savings.
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Some surveys done in the US have indicated that the feeling of individuals' satisfaction with their lives was increasing until the mid 1960's and then began falling, a trend that continues to this day. The increased complexities and stress we have been building into our societies and lives is outpacing any increase in enjoyment.

The only thing we gain is a pile of junk which has to be disposed of by those we leave behind, thereby causing them extra stress and costing them time and effort. All of which ties in with the stresses we have put on the planet through our manufacturing, transporting, consuming and disposing of our junk — but that's my other story!



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Crisis Hits the General Consciousness - 50 years late.

Could this article in The Guardian be the mainstream media finally using the language that scientists and authors have been using for decades? This is the language that I have been reading in books written over the last 25 years and, I suspect, the language that scared the crap out of my parents when they read Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" in 1962.

Celebrated scientists and development thinkers today warn that civilisation is faced with a perfect storm of ecological and social problems driven by overpopulation, overconsumption and environmentally malign technologies.

In the face of an "absolutely unprecedented emergency", say the 18 past winners of the Blue Planet prize – the unofficial Nobel for the environment – society has "no choice but to take dramatic action to avert a collapse of civilisation. Either we will change our ways and build an entirely new kind of global society, or they will be changed for us".

Real scientists (not the kind that claim "Cigarettes won't hurt you" and "There is no such thing as man-made climate change") have been using this language to talk about the gathering storm of crises for many years. They have also been paying the price with their freedom to speak if they were unlucky enough to be working for the governments of industrialized countries.

Mainsteam news media, depending as they do on corporate advertizing for their revenue, have also never dared to use this language even though we depend on them to be the wordsmiths of our stream of knowledge.

So we are also faced with a crisis of self-induced ignorance which is bolstered by our elected 'leaders' and their corporate patrons and which goes un-countered by those we look to for our window on the world. This leaves us singularly unprepared to take action as we begin to realize that we are facing the most devastating destruction that the human species has witnessed and that it is largely of our own doing.

Deep inside, knowledgeable people are aware of impending catastrophe but seem transfixed in time and space and unable to speak or act. They must understand that continuing to support and live the status quo is simply deferring the inevitable and transferring the consequences of our actions to our descendants; not much of a legacy to give our grandchildren is it?

There are things that we can do as individuals. First and foremost, we can make ourselves aware of the facts, of what needs to be done and how to do it. We can also take every opportunity to insist that our political leaders, educators, journalists, family, friends and neighbours understand (as opportunities present themselves). This last part is important as talking when we should be listening is not only ineffective, but counter-productive. Under extreme circumstances, it can also get you a punch in the nose!

There are many organizations that promote awareness and organize action against the worst of the negative influences in society. By joining these and taking an active part, a person takes risks ranging from getting cold and wet to getting pepper sprayed, tear gassed, rubber bulleted and arrested. Refusing to take ANY risk is simply accepting the status quo but you can certainly pick the level of risk you are comfortable with. If you are more concerned with your social status than the survival of the human species, stay home and be a part of the problem instead of the solution.



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