"Minerals and Materials Blindness"

Here's another case of speaking Truth to Power:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0pt3ioQuNc&list=WL&index=70&t=11s

Prof. Nate Hagens and Prof. Simon Michaux address the human predicament re energy, the economy, fossils, renewables, recycling, minerals, materials required, and the present & future.  It's highly informative and down-to-earth...and a must-see interview.

The following points are obvious to ecologists:

yes, we must get off fossil energy;  yes, we must transition to renewable energy; but Green infinite economic growth is an oxymoron.  Conclusion:  we must start to reduce economic throughput ASAP.  In other words, we must embrace degrowth if we are to survive and thrive.  Economic development does NOT require constant economic growth.  Many books and articles have been published which explain how such is done.

To put it another way, we must move from high energy use to low energy use.  A paradigm shift.  Because all the foregoing is politically unpopular, we are being told by the Powers-That-Be:  we can eat our cake and have it too, if we just "Go Green".  If you believe that, then please watch the piece at the link above.

If you can't (or won't) watch the entire interview, at least start it at about 45 minutes in and continue to about the 60 minute mark.  Just those fifteen minutes will show you why infinite economic growth must be abandoned.  And again, yes, we must "Go Green"; but it's folly to believe we then can still pursue infinite economic growth without catastrophic consequences to all life on Earth, including us.  Hagens and Michaux explain why with great specificity.  It's a dynamite discourse.  Most politicians would  hate it (if they ever bothered to see it).

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well 

Speaking Truth to Power: Dr. Peter Kalmus

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rJHlFME480

Spend 3.33 minutes and watch Dr. Kalmus speak Truth to Power.  What the Powers-That-Be are doing is "insanity".  [Perhaps it should be characterized as on the brink of insanity, or outrageously ignorant.  Whatever the case, it's extremely harmful to all life on Earth.]

In the USA, the Democrats are almost as bad as the Republicans.  The Dems talk-the-talk better than the Repubs, but rarely do they ever walk-the-walk.  Maybe when the Food Crisis gets worse (probably within ten years) they'll be forced to do so in high gear.

When Dems say they "follow the Science", they mean medical science, not ecology or climatology.  Too bad for us.  When everything continues to get worse, hopefully that will change.

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Not only my opinion.  Take Care

Holism & Reductionism REDUX

This is being reposted because understanding it is crucial to dealing with our current socio-eco-econ-ethical Crisis.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_kbt7h1YRw&list=WL&index=63

There's plenty of evidence indicating both public and private Powers-That-Be are, for the most part, relying strictly on the reductionist method of analysis when working on our current, worldwide problems.  It appears little thought is given to the holistic approach.  If such really is true, then efforts to mitigate or eliminate those problems most likely will fall short.

All the primary aspects of our Crisis are interconnected, and THE main problem is ecological overshoot.  Ocean acidification, excessive natural resource depletion, pollution of water, air, and land, soil degradation, food insecurity, famine, decreasing fresh water availability, drought, climate change, social unrest, and more are all caused by humans engaging in eco-overshoot.  This all means the problem is extremely complex, and that means addressing it must include a holistic synthesis.  "Systems thinking" is required.

Details are in the short video at the link above.

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Not only my opinion, Be Well

Genocide in Gaza

https://www.democracynow.org/2023/10/26/judith_butler_ceasefire_gaza_israel

Isn't the killing of over 7,000 civilians (almost 3,000 of them CHILDREN) enough?  According to Israeli Leadership thinking, apparently not.  

If you truly don't believe the actions of Israel are genocide, then perhaps you should listen carefully to the philosopher, Professor Butler, at the link above.

No one I've heard is justifying the brutal murders of Israeli civilians by Hamas.  Those actions were criminality at its worst.  On the other hand, the actions ordered by the Leadership of Israel in response are over-the-top, beyond-the-pale, immoral, and unethical.  Even many Jewish people, in Israel, the USA, and other countries, are strongly protesting that response.

In Israel and the USA, government spokespersons essentially have stated:  this is war, it's messy, and civilians get killed.  In other words, too bad, such is life.

Sorry, that's not an ethically acceptable reason for the wholesale bombing of Gaza, which includes killing people in hospitals, schools, UN shelters, residences, and the like.  Nor is it justifiable to bomb entire neighborhoods because Hamas tunnels are under those neighborhoods.  Israeli Leaders seem to be assuming everyone living in such places was complicit in the construction and use of those tunnels.  The Leaders also appear to be assuming that all Gazans support the brutal murder of Israeli civilians.  Or, maybe they just think:  hey, tough luck, but that's war.

Here's a recent hypothesis proposed (which I believe is probable):  because some people in the Government of Israel seem to believe ALL Palestinians support terrorism, the current crisis is being used to make life in Gaza so unbearable that all the residents migrate out of the area, or alternatively, die from lack of food, water, medicine, and other supplies.

Israel claims it is targeting only Hamas.  Come on, that doesn't hold water, not a drop.  Why?  In addition to the bombing, Israel has laid siege to Gaza - no food, no water, no fuel for generators, no medical supplies, etc.  A siege targets everyone.  Yes, they finally allowed numerous supply trucks to enter.  For two million people, the amount of supplies was a pittance.  Inadequate.

All civil people everywhere should be objecting to the actions of Israel in Gaza.  Not only is the situation tragic and brutal, it's not ethically justifiable.  Finally, how extremely ironic it is that Israel is committing genocide.

Here's another irony:  the three Abrahamic religions ALL worship the God of Abraham, but often still can't be civil to one another.  It makes one wonder:  will humans ever "live and let live"?

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well

Attached photo is in the public domain.

Wars, Governance, Complexity, the Astonishing Decline of USA's Diplomacy, and More

 The ecologist, Nate Hagens, interviews Chuck Watson, an expert with decades of experience in the geopolitics of the Middle East, the USA, and Russia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMVe4nxvQ6U

AT LEAST watch the first 20 minutes or so of this penetrating piece.

In our evolutionary history, we humans have moved further and further away from the reality of Nature.  Instead of Nature, we've used social constructs to make up our own reality.  Mistakenly, it seems most humans now believe the constructs of economics, politics, formal religion, and various other ideologies have placed us in a position superior to and separate from Nature.  That's a false belief, and destructive to our habitat.

Such a view can cause, and is causing, catastrophic consequences.  For example, many governments now appear to believe planetary biophysical limits can be ignored.  As a result of such a belief, natural resources - essential to life - are being depleted or damaged or destroyed at astronomical rates.  One result of that is:  governments are going to WAR over land, water, minerals, fertile soil, natural gas deposits, oil, and the like.  

[See the last online link in the post immediately prior to this piece.  Also see:  https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/6/21/palestines-forgotten-oil-and-gas-resources ]

Nothing can excuse the brutal murder of civilians by Hamas; however, the context of Israel essentially strangling Gaza and the West Bank Palestinians for decades should not be ignored.  It isn't only about religion.  Immediately adjacent to Israel, sitting underneath the surface of Palestinian land are deposits of oil and natural gas.  Israel needs such for economic growth.  Like most countries, it believes in infinite economic growth on a finite planet.

Are our made-up constructs necessary?  Yes, that's a given.  But they must be implemented with care and comprehensive thinking, and if we desire to thrive as a species, they must not ignore the Laws of Nature.  In modern times, our social constructs have made our lives more and more complex.  In fact, the complexity now is so enormous it's beginning to look as though our governments are on the brink of not being able to cope with the situation.  Underneath it all is the monstrous mistake we made after our discovery and development of a bonanza - fossil energy.  Instead of thinking comprehensively and sustainably, we went on a 150-year energy binge.  We're still on it.

That binge brought about (and it's ongoing) an exponential increase in the complexity of society in general.  Complexity doesn't have to be harmful.  An ecosystem is orders of magnitude more complex than any machine ever built by humans.  What can be harmful is having the Powers-That-Be (both public and private) analyzing and dealing with complexity using only linear thinking and a reductionist method of analysis.  A nonlinear, holistic approach needs to be in the mix.  Reductionism can be useful in certain circumstances, but holism (or systems thinking) is required for successfully navigating through complexity.  Very few political Leaders of today appear to have any clue whatsoever of holistic thinking.  If they had such a clue, perhaps we wouldn't be entering an era of natural resource scarcity; and maybe there would be a lot fewer wars, especially during troubling environmental catastrophes.  Perhaps differences among us would no longer impede peaceful cooperation.

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well

"The System" is a Superorganism, & it craves GROWTH at any cost

  "The System" is a Superorganism which started about 10,000 yrs ago with the advent of the raising of annual grains which could be stored.  Ag surplus made division of labor possible, and that yielded hierarchy and inequality.  No conspiracy, just social evolution.  The System kept growing and expanding until eventually it was a runaway machine...with no one at the helm.  Exactly what we have today.  And it just keeps expanding.  It ignores biophysical limits, which means it's bound to collapse.  The only thing in question is "when".

Constant "Growth" requires ever more fossil ENERGY.  The problem is:  "easy energy" (cheap in cost and easily extractable from the ecosphere) - for all practical purposes - is gone.  Never mind (not really) the environmental damage caused by fossil energy; soon the "Energy Return on Investment" (EROI) will discourage investors.  Plus, compounding the problem, manufacturing renewable energy at the required scale requires:  (1) massive amounts of new mining and refining of dozens of metals and other minerals, many of which also are no longer "easy"; and (2) a huge expansion of power transmission lines, the "energy grid".  Both (1) & (2) require significant amounts of time and investment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=undp6sgCIX4

Growth requires more energy, and more of that enables our society to become more complex, and then more complexity requires even more energy.  Establishment thinkers believe such a situation can continue without restraint.  Infinite Growth.  They appear to think Technology and increasing efficiency will allow such to continue.  The Laws of Nature (especially in Physics and Ecology) say otherwise.  We must convert from high-energy use to low-energy use if we are to survive and thrive.

BOTTOM LINE---  Growth of "The System" needs to be not only reduced, but also eventually eliminated.  We humans have used more energy in the last thirty years than in the prior 150 years, and demand for energy still is increasing.  Such a scenario simply is not sustainable.

RELATED NOTE---  Growth also can be one of several causes of war:  https://steadystate.org/the-crisis-in-the-middle-east-is-a-crisis-of-growth/?blm_aid=122634 

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well

Censorship on the political Right and the political Left equals INTOLERANCE on both sides

 Some on the Right ban books (really? - in this day & age?!), and those books are not breaking the Law.  They don't contain libel, or promote something illegal such as child pornography or insurrection.  Writing about gender issues or systemic racism is not against the Law.  Neither is writing about socialism.  All this is not rocket science; it's simply common sense, right?

Some on the Left engage in cancel culture and beyond-the-pale political correctness.  They try to shame people and/or cause speaking events to be cancelled.  The targets of their "holier-than-thou" onslaught have not broken any laws.  Instead, they have views different from those on the Left.  Now, obviously, if a speaker is advocating insurrection, or some other illegal action, then of course the event should be shut down.  Threatening anyone with bodily harm (even if it's not related to insurrection) is a form of assault, and is against the Law.  Having different views is not.

Here's a clip for all the holier-than-thou True Believers on the Right and the Left---

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDTi2eMW26U

WARNING:  for people who, for whatever reason, are psychologically fragile when it comes to coarse language (so-called "cussing"), be aware that such is contained in this less-than-eight-minute clip.

I imagine the practitioners of intolerance think they have really good reasons for their actions, or even believe it's not intolerance at all.  But here's the thing:  if the target of your action is not breaking the Law, then your activity regarding the person(s) demonstrates your intolerance of their freedom.  For some odd reason, you believe they should act as you act, think as you think, believe as you believe.  Even if they aren't breaking the Law, you can't tolerate whatever they're doing because their view of something doesn't fit in with yours.  So, come hell or high water, you're going to see their book banned, or their speech cancelled, or the like.  Apparently, you're the self-appointed guardian of society.

I realize some of this banning of books, for example, revolves around the concept of "protecting children" in school.  As a former teacher, I agree some books may not be appropriate for children of a certain age.  That doesn't mean those books must be banned for all children of all ages.  It also doesn't mean historical TRUTH should kept from children.  Pretending racism doesn't exist, or gender issues are not real, or democratic socialism is evil, etc. are all examples of little else but IGNORANCE.  Indoctrinating children into such beliefs, and/or preventing them from learning the truth is wrong, and harmful to their social development.

As to cancelling speeches by means of disruption or other methods, that also is as wrong as wrong can be.  Boycotting a speech is okay, of course, but preventing others from even hearing views which don't agree with yours is an insult to freedom.  There are lots of opinions in the world, not only yours.  Allow people to hear all sides, not just your holier-than-thou view.

As I navigate through old age, I continue to wonder if members of our species ever are going to "live and let live".  I've wondered about such for decades.  Will cooperation among us ever exceed competition?  Must we all too often try and cram our particular beliefs down someone else's throat?  Some cooperation is going on in the world, but not anywhere near the scale required if we are to survive (and thrive beyond) the current socio-eco-econ-ethical Crisis.  Intolerance certainly is not helping.  It often leads to hatred, and then violence.

In our evolutionary history, despite violence and the dark side of innate tribalism, we managed to thrive due to our intelligence and cooperative leanings.  Other species had more physical prowess and were more efficient predators, plus they were better adapted to survive the Ice Age; but we exhibited more group cooperation than most of the others.  That's required now more than ever before.

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well