Biodiversity----->Healthy Ecosystems----->Healthy Humans

Here's a nontechnical, concise explanation of the importance of biodiversity in maintaining healthy ecosystems, and how those ecosystems provide value to us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCH1Gre3Mg0

The clip is only nine minutes long.

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Biodiversity loss rivals climate disruption as an existential threat to humans for many more reasons than those covered in the piece at the link above.  Am working on a second book, tentatively titled "Biodiversity - the Bedrock of Human Existence".  Have barely started the journal research, but already I can see that biodiversity has deep and crucial connections to soil health, plant and animal health, and ecosystem functioning in general.  Plus, due to critical biogeochemical cycles and biodiversity's part in them, it helps regulate climate.  Everything is interconnected.

Unfortunately, I suspect not nearly enough people on Main Street grasp the significance of declining populations in the wild and ultimately, species extinction.  We're already in dire straits with this situation, and not doing enough to mitigate it.  More on mitigation at a later time.

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well

Better Than Nothing, But Falls Way Short of What's Needed NOW

Commentary on the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) by two fellows at inequality.org - 

https://www.newsweek.com/trillionaires-burning-planet-package-deal-opinion-1731955

The IRA is a paltry start on a few (certainly not all) major problems.  For example, while boosting development of renewable energy, it also greatly favors fossil fuels.  Now there's an oxymoron, eh?  As to taxing the Rich Polluters, forget it.  Health care - paltry, paltry, paltry.

On a related note---

Just as bad, there are no significant, proposed legislative bills which address toxic pollution, biodiversity loss, soil degradation, and more.  They all are just as much an existential threat as is climate disruption.

On a separate note---

Yes, despite what the elites are saying, we are in a recession.  The last Jobs Report is being touted as proof to the contrary, but is anyone asking the following?  How many of those jobs are part-time?  How many are temporary?  How many are low-paying?  How many are some combination of the preceding?  How many workers have two jobs, and still can't get ahead of inflation?  Why not? Because the jobs are relatively low-paying and have close to zero benefits.

Then, too, consider this:  according to the U.S. Debt Clock, the median income here is a tad under $36K/year.  That means half our workers make LESS than $36K.  Half.  So, how is the economy surviving?  On DEBT, massive debt - national, corporate, and personal debt.  Total U.S. debt is now over $92 trillion.  Our GDP is under $25 trillion, and decreasing every second.  [See usdebtclock.org ]  All Bubbles (including Debt Bubbles) burst sooner or later.  The whole situation is unsustainable.

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well

Recession, Politics, and Avoidable Dystopia

 Below is an email I sent recently.  The things described apply mostly to the USA.  Many other Lands are on a better track.

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Our Gov't has defined "Recession" for decades, & by its own definition, we're in one.  Nevertheless, Biden & several other national politicians deny it.    This is so typical of national politicians.  They can't face the consequences of a Boom-Bust, unsustainable, highly polluting economic system, aka, neoliberal capitalism...or simply, neoliberalism.  So they deny the facts.

The Repubs are blaming the current Administration, but Repubs are as much (or more) to blame as the Dems.  They all spend beyond the means of the Gov't.  They all (with very few exceptions) adhere to a system which shoots for infinite "growth" in a finite habitat.  They all push for overconsumption and ecological overshoot.  Some truly ignorant guy has a book out in which he claims the USA should aim for a population of one billion...because we have lots of empty space in our land.  

Oh lawdy momma!  A lack of common sense abounds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB97iwcm_Qc&list=WL&index=78  [If you absolutely are intolerant of "bad" language, then perhaps you shouldn't watch this very funny & tragic clip by Bill Maher.]

It has been estimated that if all countries consumed energy & goods at the current rate the USA does so, five planet Earths would be required to sustain world population.  And yet, it seems most Americans believe such overconsumption is "normal", "good", & beneficial for us.  Good grief!  This is why I keep saying a paradigm shift in our worldview is necessary.  Without it, our future will be dystopian...& that already has started.  Those who deny it are either uninformed, or burying their heads in the sand...just like the politicians in the 1st paragraph above.  Wake up, folks:  the Crisis isn't looming anymore; it's here now.  We have about ten years or so to change course...perhaps less.  Let's opt for sustainability.  Other than "Greenwashing", politicians won't do it unless we demand it.

Everyone Take Care

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-beginning-of-the-path-to-human-extinction-and-how-to-get-off-it-scott-haley/1141364431?ean=2940160947181

http://individualsovereignty.blogspot.com/ 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09Z4QL6NB

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Not only my opinion.

Nuclear Wastes: Excerpt Number 2 from "The Beginning of the Path to Human Extinction, and How to Get Off It..."

 Excerpt Number 2---

No one gave too much thought to nuke waste at the beginning of the nuclear era. In the 1950’s, small amounts were put into 55-gallon drums and buried or placed in pools of water… as an interim storage solution. Larger amounts were placed in huge storage tanks, first single-shelled and later double-shelled. The 55-gallon drums soon were replaced with steel and concrete “casks”. The Fed Government tried to mandate a few permanent geologic storage sites in Kansas and Nevada over the years, but all were eventually terminated because of tech uncertainties or local opposition, or both. The Yucca Mountain repository site in Nevada was proposed in the 1980’s, and all work on it ended in 2011. It never came to be. Incredible!

So, you might ask, where are the tons of radioactive waste being stored currently? The answer is: on whichever site they are generated. Three-fourths of all States in the USA have such sites. All of the storage is temporary until the Feds locate a permanent site and get it built and operating. We have been generating nuclear waste since 1945, and still don’t have a permanent repository for it. The high-level waste remains radioactive for thousands of years.

For almost two decades just prior to 1975, Dow Chemical - a private contractor -operated the Atomic Energy Commission's Rocky Flats bomb factory in Colorado.  Because of Dow's improper storage of thousands of drums of oil contaminated with plutonium, those drums corroded and leaked plutonium into the soil, water, and air.  Dow also "disposed" of contaminated water by spraying it on fields surrounding the facility...claiming that was "irrigation".  A Whistleblower by the name of James Stone brought this all to light, and of course, he was fired or forced to resign.  In 1975, a new Government Department took over and a different contractor was hired.

Throughout the 1980's and culminating (in 1989) in an FBI raid on the Department of Energy (DOE) Rocky Flats nuclear bomb manufacturing facility, Rockwell International (the other private contractor) was illegally disposing of hazardous waste contaminated with plutonium.  Plutonium has a half-life of 24,000 years and is considered by many to be the most toxic substance on Earth.

The illegal disposal resulted in plutonium contaminating not only soil, but the air, the groundwater, and surface streams as well.  Over sixty pounds of the toxic substance were found to have accumulated in the ductworks of just one building of the plant.  The US EPA and the Colorado Dept. of Health both were prohibited by DOE from inspecting the key areas of the entire facility.  "National Security".  Meanwhile, plutonium was contaminating the air, soil, and streams that wound up in drinking water reservoirs.  Eventually, DOE succumbed to pressure and submitted a huge Report detailing the hazardous waste and what was done with it.  The FBI studied all 27 volumes of the Report, and even took water samples just offsite of Rocky Flats.  That all led to the raid on the facility...one Agency raiding another.

There's more to the story, going into the 1990's.  If interested, go online to YouTube and do a Search for "Rocky Flats"; you'll find several documentaries or clips.  In particular, look for PBS Frontline's--- Rocky Flats Secrets of a Bomb Factory.

In the 1970’s, I took an Advanced Ecology class of mine on a trip to visit the Hanford Site in the State of Washington. Back then, it was a nuclear production facility covering 586 square miles. In 1943, Hanford was the world’s first plutonium production plant, and part of the A-Bomb Manhattan Project. It generated a lot of high-level nuke waste over the years. At the end of the Cold War, it was decommissioned. Today, it’s the most contaminated nuclear site in the United States. When it closed down, it left behind 53 million gallons of liquid high-level radioactive waste and 25 million cubic feet of solid nuke waste.

In 1989, Hanford became the largest environmental/Superfund cleanup site in the country. In 2011 and 2012, it was discovered that several of the large tanks were leaking nuclear waste into both groundwater and surface water. During its operating years, the site used Columbia River water to cool its reactors. All of this resulted in nuclear contamination being detected over 200 miles from Hanford.

When my class and I were there, of course, we were not aware of any of these problems. We were given the typical tourist-type tour, and were impressed with how spiffy and clean everything appeared to be. So much for appearances.

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Plutonium is believed by many scientists to be the most toxic substance on Earth.

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

"Paper Straws Are Not Enough..." - Necessary Precursors to Solving Our Existential Threats

 https://www.democracynow.org/2022/7/21/heat_wave_europe_climate_crisis_extreme

George Monbiot is right on the mark.  "Only 'System Change' Can Halt Climate Crisis."

Paper straws, recycling aluminum, recycling cardboard, using cloth grocery bags, etc. are all well & good, but they are orders of magnitude short of what's needed to deal with Climate Disruption.  Furthermore, solar panels and electric vehicles are in the same boat.  A paradigm shift in economics, ethics, and worldview is needed if we are to survive and thrive in the coming years.

Keep in mind, too, the Climate Crisis is only one of the existential threats we're facing.  Worldwide toxic pollution of our environment, ecosystem damage/destruction by human activities, the threat of nuke weapons & nuke waste, overpopulation, ecological overshoot, and more all are part of our predicament.

Those who cling to neoliberalism are burying their heads in the sand relative to the existential threats upon us.  For at least 50 years, the deniers have ignored warnings from credible scientists as to the Crisis once looming, and now here.  Amazingly, even now they deny reality.  Unfortunately, many of them are in positions of power.  Thus no significant mitigation is taking place.  Lots of talk, but actions which amount to only tinkering around the edges of the problem.

It's time to face the music, as follows.  While micro scale mitigation efforts certainly are helpful, they will not suffice.  Technology alone also will not suffice.  The problems are systemic, and massive; thus, macro scale intervention is required.  It will take national governments and intergovernmental associations in cooperation with each other to tackle the crises in any significant way.  So, what can be done?  Following are a few suggestions for a start.

First, where (in the USA) is the written plan to transition away from fossil fuels?  I don't see one anywhere.  That transition won't happen by means of magic, and without a plan, most likely it won't happen at all.  Some Leader or group of Leaders needs to get the ball rolling, ASAP.  You may be thinking:  but not everyone agrees we need to make that transition.  True, but after about 50 years of warnings from credible researchers, if the deniers of the existential threats can't see the light by now, they probably never will.  We can't wait for them.

Secondly,  the cleanup at well over 1,300 Superfund toxic sites (scattered ALL across the country) needs to be put back into high gear.  High level toxic wastes are leaking into our water, and/or our air, and/or our soil.  Our previous disaster of a President essentially shut down most of that program.  What's happening under Biden?  Is the National Priorities List (NPL) of sites being addressed?  The former plutonium production facility at Hanford, WA still is the largest toxic site (586 square miles) in the country.  Cleanup there has been going on for about 30 years...and counting.  Dozens of other contaminated sites are waiting to be added to the NPL.

This next suggestion is similar to the first, but more expansive.  Where is the written plan to convert our Boom-Bust, highly polluting, unsustainable economic system to one of sustainability?  Along with that, are Fed Gov't contracts going "Green"?  Are there any requirements for sustainability?  Who, or which Executive Branch Dept., is coordinating this country's transition to a sustainable future?  Anyone?  If not, exactly what is the plan for that necessary transition?  Is there even a broad plan, or do our Powers-That-Be think the "Market" will accomplish the task?  [The Market didn't pull us out of the Great Depression of the 1930's, nor did it put men on the moon, nor did it heal the massive Dust Bowl of the 1930's.  Government management did those things.]

Finally, it would seem the Executive Branch is in need of some new appointees and/or advisors who are competent in the area of sustainability science.  The current crop of advisors apparently is perplexed by the existential threats we're facing.  They seem to believe that we'll muddle through without a plan, without consideration of biophysical constraints, and that the status quo somehow will save us from catastrophe.  [I'm sure at least a few departments have people who are educated in the natural sciences (beyond the high school level), but apparently they are being ignored, or they're at an administrative level with no access to the Executive, or both.]

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well

Start preparing your grandchildren to be subsistence farmers

My latest email (slightly edited) to family and a few friends is titled:  Biden could...but chances are, he won't.  Here's the text---

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 https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/energy-justice/pdfs/Climate-Emergency-Powers-Report.pdf

The above Report was put out earlier this year by the Center for Biological Diversity.  At least read a bit of the Executive Summary, starting on p. 3.  Biden (or any President) already has the emergency powers to mitigate climate disruption, but the probability is high he won't use them.  Here's why---

Joe & most of our politicians adhere to neoliberal economics, & that requires infinite growth or else the system collapses.  Growth of that type requires more & more energy.  In the last 30 years, we humans have used more energy than we did in the previous 5,000 years.  [Best estimate by scientists who study such things.]  Climate mitigation will require a reversal of that trend.  In general, our politicians can't face the music because doing so will risk losing re-election, and re-election is their primary concern.

So, again, start preparing your grandkids to be subsistence farmers.  Why?  Because it is only agricultural surplus which allows us to pursue any other vocation.  The cascading effects of climate disruption + long-term soil degradation & erosion + loss of available fresh water + toxic pollution of plants + global overpopulation + more & more expense to obtain energy + biodiversity loss + other factors sooner or later will sharply reduce ag surplus, & eventually eliminate it.  Once again, each family (or each community) will have to raise its own food.  The worldwide Food Crisis already has started.

Infinite economic & population growth in a finite habitat is not possible.  If we humans stay on such a path, in about 30 more years or so we'll need all the energy available just to extract needed energy from the ecosphere.  And that's at a growth rate of only 2-3% per year, which is what most countries are shooting for.  There are more sensible, sustainable options, but they require a paradigm shift in values & lifestyle.

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well

Excerpt from "The Beginning of the Path to Human Extinction, and How to Get Off It..."

Biden's recent statements or actions regarding the Middle East and (separately) drilling leases for fossil fuels brought to mind the following portion of my first book.  [It's good that Biden defeated the King of Liars in the last election, but Joe is no prize.  He's either a neoliberal, or a puppet of neoliberalism.]

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The Right and the Left

One of the main hindrances to effective political action in this country is the uncivil battle between the Right and the Left. The intolerance, hatred, and vitriol from the two factions often is beyond the pale. The “holier-than-thou” attitudes from each (at times) must change if we as a society ever are going to make significant progress toward genuine sustainability. More than ever, what the world needs now is cooperation rather than divisive competition.

The competitive battle often revolves around perceptions of “capitalism” versus “socialism”. In my opinion, those perceptions too often are shallow, or worse, false.  Consider the following.  The Left usually lumps the different types of capitalism all into one basket – plutocratic monopolies/egregious mega business/elitist trickle-down economics. The Right does something similar with socialism – it’s all harsh totalitarianism to them. More often than not, it’s considered communism. In both cases, the reality is much different.

Today’s neoliberal capitalism is not Adam Smith’s capitalism. Smith was for small business, not mega monopolies. Democratic socialism is quite different from dictatorial socialism. And here’s the kicker in all of it: most governments (including ours in the USA) today have a Mixed Economy in their countries, part capitalism and part socialism.

When you use a publicly owned road, water system, library, museum, or public school, that’s all due to socialism. The V.A. Health Care System is socialism, so too are Social Security and Medicare. If any two people engage in a private sale of private goods, that’s capitalism. So, if I sell a painting of mine, or if this book results in even one sale, that’s capitalism. When you go to a privately owned grocery store and purchase goods, that’s due to capitalism.

The Right and the Left need to understand it isn’t a matter of one or the other. We have both, and we need both. For example, if all roads were privately owned toll roads, that would be a nightmare. Some people could be refused use of them, or charges for use could go up for little to no reason. If all grocery stores were owned by the State, that too would be a nightmare. There would be no reason to have “sales” (offer bargains), or a wide variety of goods in order to attract more buyers. What for? Stores of any one type (e.g., grocery, hardware, clothing, etc.,) would all be more or less the same.

Bottom line: EVERYTHING being run by capitalists (private owners) simply isn’t best for the good of all people. The same is true for everything being run by the State, i.e., socialism. Economic systems have evolved into a mixture of both. Unfortunately, at present that mixture is unbalanced in favor of mega business elites/plutocrats. Even worse, they are seriously pushing for private ownership of everything.

The political Right here (in the USA) was co-opted decades ago, first by neocons, then by neolibs... and most of the Right on Main Street appear to be completely unaware of the coup.  They seem to think they're still in the "Conservative Movement".  That movement, started by Russell Kirk in the 1950's, is long dead.  The so-called conservatives of today are supporting an ideology which would be anathema to the original modern-day conservatives of the Kirk Era.  That ideology they're supporting is corporatist-globalist-neoliberalism, and it doesn't want to conserve much of anything, except for maybe Plutocratic Rule.  It's against Small Biz, anything rural, anything natural, and is working to utterly destroy Nature by  favoring infinite growth at any cost to our finite habitat.  Its goal is to have the entire world run by Big Biz Elites.  Forget family farms, the mom-and-pop corner store, and any kind of level playing field in the business-financial-economic-labor arena.  In general, neoliberals and the Super-Rich are against all of that.  The kicker is this:  they finance most national political election campaigns.  That's why, in the USA, we've seen little progress toward sustainability over the past few decades.

Political prejudice reigns supreme (in general) among people on the Right & the Left, which means each views "the other side" as ALL (or at least, an overwhelming majority) having the same characteristics as the few who are running the show on each side.  As long as that continues, we will not have a civil society. The truth is, no group ever has been as homogeneous as what the Right and Left say the other side is today. 

I've seen ranchers on the Right and environmentalists on the Left work together to oppose mega corporate/government projects which would have harmed the commons.  They had to overcome deep prejudices about each other, and they did.  Unfortunately, such collaboration is extremely rare because of those deep prejudices.

We all should make sincere efforts to overcome political stereotypes regarding people who do not share our particular beliefs. There are some very good people all across the political spectrum. Why focus only on those who seemingly are filled with hate? I believe they are an extreme minority. It really is time for civil political discourse, and for efforts to find some common ground.

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-beginning-of-the-path-to-human-extinction-and-how-to-get-off-it-scott-haley/1141364431?ean=2940160947181  or

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09Z4QL6NB