All over the world (at last!) people are waking up to the real root cause of the problems in this world we live in. Climate change (obviously), financial mismanagement, unfairness, exploitation, selfishness and yes, downright insanity! Finally people are joining the dots and seeing that the problems of the world are interconnected (oh really?).
At the most basic level all these issues are due to the greed, fear and stupidity of a small minority of psychopaths who have taken over the asylum. Is it human nature, or only the nature of a certain subset of humans - the ones with guns, the ones who are more aggressive and more 'dense' than all the rest? Shall we continue to allow a small minority of (clearly insane) individuals to drive us on into ruin, or shall the more aware among us say 'enough!' and 'no more!'?
People have taken to the streets in unprecedented numbers and have begun to occupy public spaces all over the world demanding change. It started in Tunisia in December 2010 (let's not forget that) and the Arab Spring was born. People in the Middle East raging against disgracefully repressive regimes, hunger, oppression and sheer desperation, hurled themselves in front of machine guns without regard for their safety or their well-being, personal concerns or even the most basic instincts of self-preservation. Their heroism has set the world alight and nothing will ever be the same again.
Before long, inspired by their courage and determination a small band of 'rebels' occupied Wall Street in New York, USA - 'ground zero' of unfettered free market Capitalism. Their slogan is 'We are the 99%'. The mainstream media, centrally controlled and driven by greed and fear as it is, was somewhat flummoxed at first as to what they were trying to communicate (or so they said). What were their aims? What did they want? Where is the list of demands? Millionaires watched from their balconies as the people marched before them, sipping champagne and smug in their belief that this was just some flash in the pan. The French aristocracy behaved in much the same way no doubt in the period leading up to Bastille Day (let them eat cake and all that jazz). The smiles were soon wiped off their powdered faces then, however, and they will be again. You know the old saying: the more things change the more they stay the same... Let us hope that it will not have to be resolved by bloodshed on this occasion if reason prevails. Hopefully we have moved on as a species... time will tell. But the genie is well and truly out of the bottle now. Ruling class beware; pay attention. Times are changing. Get used to it. You can't just ignore this and hope it goes away. It won't.This is an emergency. The planet is in danger. Civilization as we know it is in danger. You just haven't got it yet, that's all.
At the time of writing the 'occupiers' are still in place in about 100 cities around the world (and counting) and they're not going anywhere any time soon. On the contrary, their voices are growing louder, their resolve is growing stronger, their demands are becoming clearer and nothing will ever be the same again. Despite an initial mainstream media vacuum the people of the world have started to use the toys of capitalism - Facebook, Twitter, the iPhone and YouTube... against the corporations themselves. No longer will they be lulled into sleep by dreams of more toys to play with tomorrow. No longer can they be fobbed off with an illusion of a new and brighter day. They can see the emperor is naked. They know the man behind the curtain is a fake. And, no, they won't be quiet. And, no, it won't hurt their feelings if you ignore them or ridicule them or belittle them. Failing to hear what people are trying to tell you will only galvanise them further.
The global 'Occupy' movement has given me more cause for optimism about the state of the world than I have felt for some time. In my own home town in Melbourne, despite acts of violent repression by the state, the will of the people remains undaunted and although it's raining people have now moved the Occupation to another location.Up until recently I thought I was part of a minority who were concerned about the peril we face as a species, about the dangerous fragility of our systems and our social structures. Now I know I am not alone. Now I know I am part of a far larger group who are not only privately fretting and worrying about the future, but are prepared to take to the streets to agitate for change.
But, but, but, cry the mainstream supporters (beneficiaries) of the status quo... but what do they want? Only everything. Only an end to the madness. Only a voice. Only a habitable planet. Only a fair go for all. Only peace in our time. Only a complete change to the current way of ordering society. History is being made. Watch this space.
(Language warning - is it any wonder?)
Saturday, 22 October 2011
Friday, 15 July 2011
Change is coming
The forces of darkness and the voices of doom on both extremes of the climate change debate are always quick to say how little is being done to reduce emissions, or little can be achieved in the current economic climate, or renewable energy will never replace fossil fuels or whatever other convenient excuse springs to mind. The truth, however, as usual is far more interesting and of course complex. There is an enormous amount of work being done by governments all over the world to reduce emissions. France has just outlawed fracking, Germany is phasing out nuclear power, Japan has decided to investigate geothermal energy to replace its nuclear energy in the wake of the Fukushima disaster. China is the world's largest producer of renewable energy technology, but other countries are not so far behind. Let's not forget of course that Australia has just announced it will have a price on carbon as of next year 1 July 2012.
Still all we hear, day after day, is climate change denial, whining about electricity prices, prophesies of armageddon for small business, demands for more baksheesh (cough) compensation from heavy industry and general carping about minutely small details, personal gossip about politicians' hissy fits and general foolishness of the highest order all round when this is the one thing we should be having a grown up discussion about!
Sadly, because the media is controlled by that mouthpiece of global corporatization run amok, Rupert Murdoch, and/or can't deal with the complexities of actual real world policy-making, and/or don't care because they're easily distracted by Charlie Sheen's antics (or all of the above) most people don't get to hear about all the good stuff that's actually going on.
Even in the USA, where the President has to fight a hostile upper house since the Republicans increased their majority in the mid-term elections, the Republican Party,who have fought every single attempt at legislative reform, emissions reduction targets, the clean air act, prop 23, the list goes on and on.... Even in the USA where the economic situation at the moment is so dire that the President has no choice but to focus a lot of his time and attention trying to deal with systemic domestic economic issues, like jobs, the credit limit, trying to jump start the economy and so on... Even there while all this is going on, things are happening on a State by State basis.
The US electorate, suffering high unemployment and a stalling economy, is in no mood and the US government is in no position financially to embark upon any ambitions economic restructuring, such as putting in a carbon price as we're doing in Australia. Although change is sorely needed and long overdue, nothing dramatic on a national scale is going to happen until after the next election - if ever. A lot will depend on who wins, of course. Even so, with all these difficulties and obstacles, even in the USA stuff is happening.
There's still hope. There's always hope. There's got to be.
Still all we hear, day after day, is climate change denial, whining about electricity prices, prophesies of armageddon for small business, demands for more baksheesh (cough) compensation from heavy industry and general carping about minutely small details, personal gossip about politicians' hissy fits and general foolishness of the highest order all round when this is the one thing we should be having a grown up discussion about!
Sadly, because the media is controlled by that mouthpiece of global corporatization run amok, Rupert Murdoch, and/or can't deal with the complexities of actual real world policy-making, and/or don't care because they're easily distracted by Charlie Sheen's antics (or all of the above) most people don't get to hear about all the good stuff that's actually going on.
Even in the USA, where the President has to fight a hostile upper house since the Republicans increased their majority in the mid-term elections, the Republican Party,who have fought every single attempt at legislative reform, emissions reduction targets, the clean air act, prop 23, the list goes on and on.... Even in the USA where the economic situation at the moment is so dire that the President has no choice but to focus a lot of his time and attention trying to deal with systemic domestic economic issues, like jobs, the credit limit, trying to jump start the economy and so on... Even there while all this is going on, things are happening on a State by State basis.
The US electorate, suffering high unemployment and a stalling economy, is in no mood and the US government is in no position financially to embark upon any ambitions economic restructuring, such as putting in a carbon price as we're doing in Australia. Although change is sorely needed and long overdue, nothing dramatic on a national scale is going to happen until after the next election - if ever. A lot will depend on who wins, of course. Even so, with all these difficulties and obstacles, even in the USA stuff is happening.
There's still hope. There's always hope. There's got to be.
Saturday, 2 July 2011
Hoping for the best and planning for the worst
I was watching the news about Christmas time of Cyclone Yasi bearing down on the coast of Queensland. People were taking shelter in the shopping centres. The army was distributing rations and had set up medical stations. Thousands moved to the hinterland hundreds of kilometers inland where there is higher ground. People were being strongly advised to fend for themselves as much as possible as it was no longer safe to travel on the roads and the emergency services would not be able to help anyone if they got into trouble during the cyclone. Navy ships were standing by to come in with supplies, bulldozers and helicopters once the cyclone had passed.
It was apocalyptic stuff. But human nature is amazing when they work together in sensible fashion. Aussies are quite used to weather related dramas. We are fortunate enough to live in a peaceful, civil society with a strong democracy and a competent government (despite the constant nit-picking of the opposition). Rather than 'freaking out' Queenslanders, a hardy and experienced lot, had been preparing non-stop for the past week, stocking up on food, batteries, water and bringing the outdoor furniture inside. There were stories of neighbours taking eachother in - a single mothers with small children bunking in with an older couple who had never spoken to each other although they live next door. They were as prepared as they could be and now they were just going to wait it out and trust their luck. One woman interviewed for the news camping in a shopping mall with her kids said "It really brings the reality of the situation home when you see all these people. It's like we're refugees". Indeed. It was. Indeed it is.
In many ways this is reflective in microcosm of our response to climate change. When faced by an imminent emergency that we understand and have experienced before (although perhaps not on the same scale) we know what to do and we become very focussed. In those emergencies people can pull together amazingly and become suddenly hyper-cooperative (if they live in a peaceful, civil society as above). If the danger is perceived as distant or nebulous, we fight eachother, argue about what to do, bicker, try to look out for our own interests first and foremost, jockey for attention and generally behave rather foolishly ....
But climate change is about to become 'imminent' so we'd best start battening down some hatches. I am forming a plan over the next five years or so as to what I can achieve in my home and my immediate community to prepare us for the coming extreme weather.
I will be stocking up on jars, seeds, rice and various other non-perishable but useful items. I will be rethinking my water situation and seeing how independent I can be of the grid for my electricity. I will be making sure my children start doing the same.
In my local community I am going to start campaigning to remove as many cars as possible from residential areas at least, replace streets with community farms, get some local renewable energy projects going and rethink our water management in general.
What would others think would be good personal preparations that could be made over the next 5-10 years to brace for the coming climate instability and also contribute to mitigation?
There's a storm coming. What would you do if you knew this was going to happen? That's my question I guess.
It was apocalyptic stuff. But human nature is amazing when they work together in sensible fashion. Aussies are quite used to weather related dramas. We are fortunate enough to live in a peaceful, civil society with a strong democracy and a competent government (despite the constant nit-picking of the opposition). Rather than 'freaking out' Queenslanders, a hardy and experienced lot, had been preparing non-stop for the past week, stocking up on food, batteries, water and bringing the outdoor furniture inside. There were stories of neighbours taking eachother in - a single mothers with small children bunking in with an older couple who had never spoken to each other although they live next door. They were as prepared as they could be and now they were just going to wait it out and trust their luck. One woman interviewed for the news camping in a shopping mall with her kids said "It really brings the reality of the situation home when you see all these people. It's like we're refugees". Indeed. It was. Indeed it is.
In many ways this is reflective in microcosm of our response to climate change. When faced by an imminent emergency that we understand and have experienced before (although perhaps not on the same scale) we know what to do and we become very focussed. In those emergencies people can pull together amazingly and become suddenly hyper-cooperative (if they live in a peaceful, civil society as above). If the danger is perceived as distant or nebulous, we fight eachother, argue about what to do, bicker, try to look out for our own interests first and foremost, jockey for attention and generally behave rather foolishly ....
But climate change is about to become 'imminent' so we'd best start battening down some hatches. I am forming a plan over the next five years or so as to what I can achieve in my home and my immediate community to prepare us for the coming extreme weather.
I will be stocking up on jars, seeds, rice and various other non-perishable but useful items. I will be rethinking my water situation and seeing how independent I can be of the grid for my electricity. I will be making sure my children start doing the same.
In my local community I am going to start campaigning to remove as many cars as possible from residential areas at least, replace streets with community farms, get some local renewable energy projects going and rethink our water management in general.
What would others think would be good personal preparations that could be made over the next 5-10 years to brace for the coming climate instability and also contribute to mitigation?
There's a storm coming. What would you do if you knew this was going to happen? That's my question I guess.
Friday, 24 June 2011
What's wrong with the world? I mean, really?
Is 'the love of money' truly the 'root of all evil'? Is cupidity now the new black? Will we ever be able to save the planet while Capitalism rules the world and a tiny proportion of people control the vast proportion of the world's wealth and wield a corresponding proportion of the world's power? Do we need to smash the system or do we need to take back power to the people? I dunno. Do you?
Like all the 'isms' - Capitalism, Communism, Socialism, Fascism, Anarchism, Globalism, Monarchism... you name it ... they all sound great on paper. But, it's the way they are carried out that is the problem. "Reality" (human nature) is a complicating factor in all kinds of well laid plans.
What we have now operating in the 'west' is supposed to be various flavours of democratic, free market capitalism. It sounds great on paper and indeed, it's the 'best of a bad lot' system that we have. The problem though, is the way it should work as opposed to how it actually works. What we really have is an oligarchy with a veneer of democracy over the top (of varying thicknesses depending on what country you're talking about). This began in the 1960-80s with the rise of the Corporation and globalization when corporations became large enough, rich enough, internationally powerful and influential enough to challenge governments. Maybe you could even trace the start of this back to the start of the industrial revolution or more depending on how you define these things. But in any case, in the past 200 years or so Democratic Capitalism has somehow turned into the new 'ism' - Consumerism.
Capitalism has had many benefits and has many virtues, but we are in danger of the ideals of Democracy, fairness, government operating for the benefit of 'the people' rather than the elite, openess, accountability - all these things which are currently being eroded disappearing altogether, just when we need them most. It's up to 'the people' to start clawing back some power from the oligarchs. Until this imbalance can be addressed we're not going to see real, deep and swift change that we need to build a safe, healthy, bright green future for our children and grandchildren.
Let's all stop and take a long hard look at ourselves. That's all I'm saying.
Like all the 'isms' - Capitalism, Communism, Socialism, Fascism, Anarchism, Globalism, Monarchism... you name it ... they all sound great on paper. But, it's the way they are carried out that is the problem. "Reality" (human nature) is a complicating factor in all kinds of well laid plans.
What we have now operating in the 'west' is supposed to be various flavours of democratic, free market capitalism. It sounds great on paper and indeed, it's the 'best of a bad lot' system that we have. The problem though, is the way it should work as opposed to how it actually works. What we really have is an oligarchy with a veneer of democracy over the top (of varying thicknesses depending on what country you're talking about). This began in the 1960-80s with the rise of the Corporation and globalization when corporations became large enough, rich enough, internationally powerful and influential enough to challenge governments. Maybe you could even trace the start of this back to the start of the industrial revolution or more depending on how you define these things. But in any case, in the past 200 years or so Democratic Capitalism has somehow turned into the new 'ism' - Consumerism.
Capitalism has had many benefits and has many virtues, but we are in danger of the ideals of Democracy, fairness, government operating for the benefit of 'the people' rather than the elite, openess, accountability - all these things which are currently being eroded disappearing altogether, just when we need them most. It's up to 'the people' to start clawing back some power from the oligarchs. Until this imbalance can be addressed we're not going to see real, deep and swift change that we need to build a safe, healthy, bright green future for our children and grandchildren.
Let's all stop and take a long hard look at ourselves. That's all I'm saying.
The prostitution of journalism
I was thinking about the problem of the way climate change is reported a bit today. The circus surrounding the carbon tax at the moment has to be seen to be believed. If I want to find out where negotiations are up to I can find out easily enough by looking up the Greens website and hunting around. Otherwise, you'd think the problem was all about the Gillard and Abbott Punch and Judy Show.
Climate change denial, and their buddies the fossil fuel industry lobby, are not just dragging the scientific method and the peer review process through the mud. It's also journalists and journalism in general who have been tainted. Once upon a time (back when I was a kid in the 1960s for instance) journalism was considered quite a high calling, journalists were regarded as heroes; protectors of the public's right to know and seekers after truth. View any number of movies from the old days where journalists are portrayed as champions of 'the people' and all round good guys. (Superman/Clark Kent anyone?). Nowadays there are still a lot of very hard working, dedicated and honest journalists out there but sadly, there are also a lot of the other kind.
I blame Rupert Murdoch fairly and squarely for the large part of this decline in journalistic ethics and standards, but he has been aided and abetted by the 'PR' industry and their evil twins, the political spin-meisters. I'm sure Watergate was a bit of a wake up call to a lot of politicans that they'd better 'do something' about pesky journalists, but the bastardization of journalism in general has been getting worse and worse ever since the 1970s.
I read an article recently about the rise of the PR industry at the expense of journalism. These days there are about 3 PR people to every working journalist and they're usually much better paid and it's getting worse as print media contracts and ownership has been concentrated, corporatized, consolidated and globalized (Hi Rupert!).
PR Industry Fills Vacuum Left by Shrinking Newsrooms - ProPublica
To make matters worse every politician in Washington will often have up to 100 lobbyists working only on trying to influence them, night and day, whatever it takes.
Surely something is badly out of whack here? Surely this is not Democracy working as intended? The public have grown increasingly more suspicious of what they read in the paper and see on the TV news (quite rightly). They don't know who to trust or who to believe. They have grown more and more cynical and often more disengaged in a process they see as corrupt.
The climate change misinformation campaign of course plays on this innate public mistrust. Put this together with the repeated slurs thrown at the United Nations, IPCC, UNFCC and various academic institutions (such as during the climategate nonsense) and it's little wonder that the 'average punter' just switches off the whole thing.
Al Gore has written a nice piece for Rolling Stone this month on the way the media has handled the climate change 'debate' which speaks directly to this problem and is well worth a read.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics...enial-20110622
Climate change denial, and their buddies the fossil fuel industry lobby, are not just dragging the scientific method and the peer review process through the mud. It's also journalists and journalism in general who have been tainted. Once upon a time (back when I was a kid in the 1960s for instance) journalism was considered quite a high calling, journalists were regarded as heroes; protectors of the public's right to know and seekers after truth. View any number of movies from the old days where journalists are portrayed as champions of 'the people' and all round good guys. (Superman/Clark Kent anyone?). Nowadays there are still a lot of very hard working, dedicated and honest journalists out there but sadly, there are also a lot of the other kind.
I blame Rupert Murdoch fairly and squarely for the large part of this decline in journalistic ethics and standards, but he has been aided and abetted by the 'PR' industry and their evil twins, the political spin-meisters. I'm sure Watergate was a bit of a wake up call to a lot of politicans that they'd better 'do something' about pesky journalists, but the bastardization of journalism in general has been getting worse and worse ever since the 1970s.
I read an article recently about the rise of the PR industry at the expense of journalism. These days there are about 3 PR people to every working journalist and they're usually much better paid and it's getting worse as print media contracts and ownership has been concentrated, corporatized, consolidated and globalized (Hi Rupert!).
PR Industry Fills Vacuum Left by Shrinking Newsrooms - ProPublica
Quote:
| "You would go into these hearings and there would be more PR people representing these big players than there were reporters, sometimes by a factor of two or three," Barstow said. "There were platoons of PR people." An investigative reporter for The New York Times, Barstow has written several big [4] stories [5] about the shoving match between the media and public relations in what eventually becomes the national dialogue. As the crowd at the hearing clearly showed, the game has been changing.... |
To make matters worse every politician in Washington will often have up to 100 lobbyists working only on trying to influence them, night and day, whatever it takes.
Surely something is badly out of whack here? Surely this is not Democracy working as intended? The public have grown increasingly more suspicious of what they read in the paper and see on the TV news (quite rightly). They don't know who to trust or who to believe. They have grown more and more cynical and often more disengaged in a process they see as corrupt.
The climate change misinformation campaign of course plays on this innate public mistrust. Put this together with the repeated slurs thrown at the United Nations, IPCC, UNFCC and various academic institutions (such as during the climategate nonsense) and it's little wonder that the 'average punter' just switches off the whole thing.
Al Gore has written a nice piece for Rolling Stone this month on the way the media has handled the climate change 'debate' which speaks directly to this problem and is well worth a read.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics...enial-20110622
Quote:
| "...Admittedly, the contest over global warming is a challenge for the referee because it's a tag-team match, a real free-for-all. In one corner of the ring are Science and Reason. In the other corner: Poisonous Polluters and Right-wing Ideologues. The referee — in this analogy, the news media — seems confused about whether he is in the news business or the entertainment business. Is he responsible for ensuring a fair match? Or is he part of the show, selling tickets and building the audience? The referee certainly seems distracted: by Donald Trump, Charlie Sheen, the latest reality show — the list of serial obsessions is too long to enumerate here..." |
Wednesday, 22 June 2011
So what would you do about climate change if it was up to you?
I think by now most people with any brains have got their head around the whole 'climate change is real' thing.
In any case, the question of 'what's going on' has been pretty thoroughly gone over by now until I for one am certainly becoming rather bored with it. The next question is 'what shall we do about it'? It's not an easy question to answer probably because there is no single answer, but I think it's a much more interesting discussion than 'is this really happening'.
If you were in charge - if you were the magical ruler of the world and could do anything you wanted - what would you do first and why? It's easy to carp and criticize what others are doing, but what would you do if it was up to you?
Given that we have about one decade, maybe slightly less, to turn this thing around before there's no going back, where would you start? Bear in mind, you could say things like 'ban all coal fired power stations tomorrow' but that would plunge the global economy into instant meltdown and would cause all kinds of problems, so maybe that's not the right approach.
In any case, the question of 'what's going on' has been pretty thoroughly gone over by now until I for one am certainly becoming rather bored with it. The next question is 'what shall we do about it'? It's not an easy question to answer probably because there is no single answer, but I think it's a much more interesting discussion than 'is this really happening'.
If you were in charge - if you were the magical ruler of the world and could do anything you wanted - what would you do first and why? It's easy to carp and criticize what others are doing, but what would you do if it was up to you?
Given that we have about one decade, maybe slightly less, to turn this thing around before there's no going back, where would you start? Bear in mind, you could say things like 'ban all coal fired power stations tomorrow' but that would plunge the global economy into instant meltdown and would cause all kinds of problems, so maybe that's not the right approach.
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