Convergence

The Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street, Peak Oil, Global Climate Change, financial chaos, a multitude of books about a perfect storm of world crises, "What does it mean?", "What can I do?", "What, me worry?"

This plethora of problems seems to beg for a convergence of clarifications, don't you think? Here's a selection of reading material I've come across lately that, for me anyway, really puts all these events into a coherent perspective.

The Arab Spring was a series of revolutions against oppressive regimes, each one building on the success of those that preceded it. What made it mostly work and what has not been available in the past was the instant communication provided by 'Social Media' services on the Internet.

Moving Planet was a worldwide day to move beyond fossil fuels, with over 2000 events in more than 175 countries. While many groups pitched in to provide support, logistics and help getting the word out, this was mainly an effort of Bill McKibben and 350.org Again, success could be traced to the use of the Internet to spread ideas, bring news of arrests by the Empire as they happened and the creation of instant community.

Occupy Wall Street started pretty much as a single event in Now York City but momentum, communications and the pent-up frustration and anger of several generations soon turned it into a 1,500 city, global movement. Many people who had never been part of a bottom-up, ground-swell movement did not 'Get it', and still don't. The clearest explanation that I have seen for those who have spent their whole lives subservient to The Empire appeared in !yes Magazine.

The Great Turning, a book by David C. Korten lays out the case for and the course to, a peaceful and just world that works for all people which he calls "Earth Community". Korten writes from a variety of perspectives including those of economist, historian, journalist, statistician, spritualist, humanitarian, dreamer and pragmatist. He also draws on the work of numerous colleagues from a wide array of disciplines and has the ability to present the resulting superabundance of ideas, anecdotes and concepts as a unified and lucid whole.

And finally, if anyone was wondering if this is some new idea that was cooked up in a short time, with little thought to back it up, here is a re-issue by rabble.ca of a story about the New Politics Initiative 10 years after   —   "What goes around, comes around".

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MY WEBSITE   —   ANewHumanity.CA

Is Harper trying to increase Canada's military might?

We [Canada] are fast becoming no more than an an insignificant backwater of the most powerful and destructive Empire the world has known. If we are even remembered in the post collapse world it will be as one of the minor players in the great degradation of humanity.

Our real wealth (land, water, all other resources both renewable and non) are in the hands of greedy, uncaring and low functioning individuals, as is our less important financial wealth and our so-called 'democratic' governments whose members and bought and paid for at election time. We have intelligent thinkers who can see through the futility and stupidity of Empire after 5,000 years of failure but, because their alternate social and financial systems do not offer the unsustainable, and for most, unattainable lifestyles of Empire they are denigrated as doomsayers and lunatics.

The world is quickly approaching a convergence of many crises which, taken together, have the potential to comprise the most general and most devastating cataclysm the human species has ever encountered - we could use some good thinkers, planners, stewards and humanitarians. And we had better listen to them if we don't want our grandchildren and their grandchildren to spit on our graves.

It is completely within the human capacity to design and initiate a new way for us to interact with the world around us and with each other but it would require adjustments and upheavals that only a few are currently willing to agree to. So here we are, rushing headlong towards the cliff edge, hoping that an unknown someone will fill the valley before we get there. They won't.

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Could this be the start of a Smart Grid that actually is — or is not?

If the "Smart Meter" push by BC Hydro could have a result like this, then I would support it, at least in principle.

I am not 100% positive that RF radiation is safe but, with the air full of it already, I believe this will only be an insignificant addition. The privacy issue is another matter altogether. We are already being logged, CCTV'd, chipped, swiped, bar-coded, GPS'd, triangulated and having our privacy stripped from us every time we wake up in the morning so I'm really not that happy with some 14 year-old hacker tuning into when I do my laundry or have a shower.

If, however, telling our inanimate and mechanical metering devices to "Smarten Up" was going to allow me to adjust my power usage for optimal efficiency (from my perspective) and even to hang enough PV's on the roof and erect enough windmills on the front lawn to actually save some money and the world at the same time, that would [probably] be good - except for the PO'd neighbours.

Because it is pretty hard to imagine any business enabling this or even allowing to happen right under its nose, I would want to have a closer look however. If this is just to allow BC Hydro to collect data at my expense, I will refuse to have one installed if I can catch them at it.

Let the neighbours laugh because I am the only one on the block with an old and dumb meter, it just seems to suit me better. And, I can always remind them about the noisy windmills and glaring PV panels, maybe even the smell from a possible biogas co-generating set-up and the pigs required to run it . . . . . YEAH!

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I had no Idea . . .

Two items I came across today:


1 -
CBC News - Saturday, January 8, 2011

Icelandic singer Bjork is on a three-day karaoke marathon to protest the potential takeover of one of her country's largest geothermal companies by a Canadian firm. The event, called Voice of the People, is the singer's way of encouraging her countrymen to sign a petition forcing the government to hold a referendum on the sale of HS Orka to Vancouver's Magma Energy.

"I had no idea at all that we would be so controversial in Iceland," Magma CEO Ross Beaty told stockhouse.com recently.

2 -
http://www.alterrapower.ca/ - Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Alterra Power Corp is a leading global renewable energy company, formed in 2011 through the merger of Magma Energy Corp and Plutonic Power Corp.

We have an extensive portfolio of exploration and development projects, a skilled international team of explorers, builders & operators and strong financial capacity to support our aggressive growth plans.


Mt summary of these two items:

"I had no idea at all that our aggressive growth plans would be so controversial in Iceland."

Then you should start listening!

Could the "Doomers" be right?

All the books I've been reading lately have predicted the riots in the streets (currently in the UK and before that Greece) which are occasioned by government austerity programs. They have also predicted chaos and collapse in financial systems around the world, increases in the price of petroleum products and food, and increases in severe weather events. It's beginning to look as if they are right . . . . . isn't it?

Thomas Homer-Dixon (The Ingenuity Gap, The Upside of Down), Carolyn Baker (Sacred Demise), Richard Heinberg (Peak Everything, The Oil Depletion Protocol), James Howard Kunstler (The Long Emergency), Bill McKibben (Eaarth), David C. Korten (The Great Turning) and Rob Hopkins (The Transition Handbook) along with many others, have alluded to this kind of mayhem as a reaction to the twin crises of the decline of cheap oil and global climate change so I am reading the forecasts and the actual news reports alongside one another.

These same authors have offered ways of softening the transition required by the collapse of the industrial world, all of which require a single starting point; that we get through the denial stage and start to take positive action, both in our personal lives and in the life and structure of the communities in which we live. Re-localization, re-skilling and down-sizing all rate high on the list of necessary actions to prepare for, and cope in a post-oil world.

Eventually, our children, our grandchildren, our friends and our neighbours will all be facing the water cannon, tear gas, pepper spray and plastic bullets as our police and military are put in the untenable position of propping up a system of law, order and governance which has become obsolete. This burgeoning obsolescence is due to our overindulgence and our view of the world as being a host of resources spread before us for our use. The truth is that we are but one very recent evolutionary quirk which is currently looking to be short lived.

If we would like to extend the tenure of our species, we need to accept the facts, prepare and act. There is the distinct possibility of a new humanity being created out of the detritus of the industrial world but it will be very different from anything we have experienced in the last 150 years. Many aspects of that new humanity will be diminished from the present but many could actually be beneficial, especially to our well-being and quality of life.

Think about it, read about it and talk about it; you may find it hard to converse with a great many people so find other people who share your vision and talk to them. Creating this New Humanity may seem hard and may put you at odds with friends and family but ultimately, there will be no alternative.

So, stay positive, look for the silver lining in the gathering clouds and start picking up those new/old skills from the past that will be required to transition into the future with some comfort and confidence.

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The US is after our integrity - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

The US is after our integrity - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

The Real Scarecrows

I have to point you to an article on the CBC News site, I hope you read it.

My comment:

I know those birds have really good eyesight but a scarecrow on the shore of a 3 km wide lake, gimme a break. This without the fact that migrating birds usually land after sunset.

A better idea would be to have the CEO of Syncrude and the ministers from both the Alberta and federal governments who are supposed to be responsible for the environment dress up as scarecrows and spend one full migratory cycle (N to S and S to N) on an island of floating crude in the middle of the lake making noise and looking scary.

If no birds died in the hellish "Pit of Doom" during this period, let The Three Stooges come ashore. It just might work, they sure scare the hell out of me.