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  2. Another Week in the Ecological Crisis - May 25, 2014

Another Week in the Ecological Crisis - May 25, 2014

By illconsidered on May 26, 2014.

This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup

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Sipping from the Internet Firehose...

May 25, 2014

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It's always nice to start with a chuckle:

A strange and beutiful phenomenon:

  • 2014/05/24: APOD: A Circumhorizontal Arc Over Ohio

    Looking ahead to COP20 and future international climate negotiations:

    Post WG1/WG2/WG3 commentary:

    • 2014/05/23: RTCC: Saudis accused of deleting part of UN climate science report [WG3]
      British scientist expresses his surprise when parts of IPCC text were 'mutilated' at April meeting in Berlin A coalition led by Saudi Arabia attempted to mask their contribution to rising levels of greenhouse gas emissions during discussions at the UN's most recent climate science meeting. That's the charge laid by John Broome, a British philosopher and economist at Oxford University, and contributing author to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Fifth Assessment Report. He's not the first to make these accusations - that prize goes to Giovanni Baiocchi, an economist at the University of Maryland. But Broome is the first to offer a compelling narrative of how the four-day Berlin meeting of IPCC Working Group 3 scientists in April unfolded. In a detailed blog published on May 20 he says the 'Summary for Policymakers', a concise document that pulls together thousands of pages of work, was "mutilated" by government officials.
    • 2014/05/20: EnviroEthics: A Philosopher at the IPCC

    More on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet [WAIS] collapse:

    Still some comment on the US National Climate Assessment:

    This lawsuit is shaping up to define a new dimension of conflict:

    What do we have for warnings this week?

    How is the German Energy Transition [Energiewende] doing?

    And on the Bottom Line:

    Who's getting the subsidies, tax exemptions, loan guarantees & grants?

    What's new in the tussle between economists and climatologists?

    John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:

    A note on theFukushima disaster:

      It is evident that the Fukushima disaster is going to persist for some time. TEPCO says 6 to 9 months. The previous Japanese Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, said decades. Now the Japanese government is talking about 30 years. [Whoops, that has now been updated to 40 years.]
      And the IAEA is now saying 40 years too.
      [Now some people are talking about a century or more. Sealing it in concrete for 500 years.]
      We'll see.
      At any rate this situation is not going to be resolved any time soon and deserves its own section.
      Meanwhile...
      It is very difficult to know for sure what is really going on at Fukushima. Between the company [TEPCO], the Japanese government, the Japanese regulator [NISA], the international monitor [IAEA], as well as independent analysts and commentators, there is a confusing mish-mash of information. One has to evaluate both the content and the source of propagated information.
      How knowledgeable are they [about nuclear power and about Japan]?
      Do they have an agenda?
      Are they pro-nuclear or anti-nuclear?
      Do they want to write a good news story?
      Do they want to write a bad news story?
      Where do they rate on a scale of sensationalism?
      Where do they rate on a scale of play-it-down-ness?
      One fundamental question I would like to see answered:
      If the reactors are in meltdown, how can they be in cold shutdown?

    Not much good news coming out of Fukushima:

    Post Fukushima, nuclear policies are in flux around the world:

    What do we have for Fukushima related papers this week?

    The Arctic melt continues to garner attention:

    The Morlighem et al. paper on Greenland's deep glacial valleys caught a few eyes:

    As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:

    The food crisis is ongoing:

    The state of the world's fisheries is a concern. See also, and:

    Food Prices are still problematic:

    Regarding the agro-chem corps:

    Regarding the genetic modification of food:

    And how are we going to feed 9 billion, 10 billion, 15 billion?

    In the Bay of Bengal, a numbered system is lumbering northward:

    In the Eastern Pacific, Tropical Storm Amanda looks to be staying offshore ... so far:

  • 2014/05/23: Wunderground: Tropical Storm Amanda Forms in the Eastern Pacific; Not a Threat to Land
  • 2014/05/23: NASA: Dawn Breaks on Tropical Storm Amanda [1E] in Eastern Pacific

    While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:

  • 2014/05/23: SciAm:Obs: One Hurricane Is Enough to Ruin Your Year
  • 2014/05/22: NOAANews: NOAA predicts near-normal or below-normal 2014 Atlantic hurricane season
    El Niño expected to develop and suppress the number and intensity of tropical cyclones
  • 2014/05/22: NOAANews: NOAA predicts near-normal or above-normal Eastern Pacific hurricane season
  • 2014/05/22: NOAANews: NOAA expects near-normal or above-normal Central Pacific hurricane season
  • 2014/05/22: CBC: 2014 hurricane season forecast released
    The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Thursday predicted a "near or below normal" 2014 Atlantic hurricane season, with eight to 13 tropical storms and three to six hurricanes, one or two of which would reach major Category 3 status.
  • 2014/05/22: MetOffice: Met Office predicts below average Atlantic hurricane season
  • 2014/05/22: Wunderground: NOAA Predicts a Quiet Atlantic Hurricane Season: 8 - 13 Named Storms
  • 2014/05/22: PLNA: NOAA Predicts Near or Below Normal 2014 Atlantic Hurricane Season

    This week in notable weather:

    This week in the New Normal -- extreme weather:

    Polar Vortex? Rossby Waves? Blocking Patterns? Arctic Oscillation?
    What is the Arctic melt doing to our weather?

    • 2014/05/24: PSinclair: The Weekend Wonk: Did Tropical Heat Spin up the Polar Vortex?
    • 2014/05/20: CNN: What is causing Balkans weather misery?
      The Balkans are enduring the worst flooding in 120 years, since record keeping began - 26 bodies have been recovered, and rescuers expect to find more as waters recede - The low pressure system drenching the peninsula is known as a "cutoff low" - Last week, the cutoff low lasted up to four days and dumped two months' worth of rain
      [...]
      A cutoff low is similar to an eddy in the curve of a river that becomes isolated from the main current. Like a curve in a river, a cutoff low begins as a dip (trough) in the winds known as the westerlies. When one of these eddies becomes cut off from the main westerly flow, the closed circulation can last for two to three days on average. In the case of last week, the cutoff low lasted up to four days and dumped two months' worth of rain. During the first stage of a cutoff low, a deep trough of cold air will dip south resembling an upside-down Omega-type shape in the jetstream. Cold air will then start to encircle the low on the west side, as the warm humid air moves north along the east side of the low. Eventually the warm air will wrap completely around, creating a pocket of cold air within the core of the low pressure system. The low will now drift slower than if it was a part of the main jetstream. Over the course of an average of two to three days -- occasionally as much as 10 or more -- the low-pressure system will merge back with the jetstream as the next dip (trough) digs southward and picks up the cutoff low.

    As for GHGs:

    And in the carbon cycle:

    And in the nitrogen cycle:

    What's up with volcanoes this week?

    Regarding ozone:

    And on the ENSO front:

    As for the temperature record:

    While in the paleoclimate:

    In the attribution debate:

    What's the State of the Oceans?

    What's the State of the Biosphere?

    And on the extinction watch:

    • 2014/05/21: UN: UN adopts new global platform to tackle wildlife, forest crime
      In response to the rising levels of illicit trafficking of fauna and flora, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has adopted a new global platform taking aim at this "particularly devastating' form of organized crime involving a raft of illegal activities - from poaching to timber smuggling and money laundering.

    The bees and Colony Collapse Disorder are a constant concern. And then, there are the Neonicotinoids:

    More GW impacts are being seen:

    And then there are the world's forests:

    Climate refugees are becoming an issue:

    Emerging diseases accompany ecological change:

    On the tornado front:

    As for heatwaves and wild fires:

    Glaciers are melting:

    Sea levels are rising:

    As for hydrological cycle disruptions [floods & droughts]:

    After the Balkan flood:

  • 2014/05/24: RT: Inspiring images: People risk their lives saving animals from devastating Balkans flood
  • 2014/05/23: SwissInfo: Swiss increase aid to victims of Balkan floods
  • 2014/05/23: EurActiv: Waters recede in Western Balkans, but danger remains
  • 2014/05/23: AntiWar: Deluge in Serbia and Bosnia
  • 2014/05/23: UN: Landslides, disease pose threats in wake of epic flooding in Balkans - UN
  • 2014/05/22: TP:JR: 'This Is Worse Than War': Balkans Flooding Is Latest In A String Of Severe Rainfall Events
  • 2014/05/22: al Jazeera: Balkan flood devastation 'exceeds war damage'
    Officials in Bosnia and Serbia say floods that killed scores and displaced half a million will cost countries billions.
  • 2014/05/21: DD: Floods affect over 1 million in Balkans, destruction to cost billions of euros
    "This country has not experienced such a natural cataclysm ever in its history"
  • 2014/05/21: WMO: Floods in Balkans highlight need for resilience programme
  • 2014/05/20: UN: Ban expresses concern for flood-hit Balkans as UN scales up disaster response
  • 2014/05/20: EurActiv: EU committed to helping flooded Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • 2014/05/20: PlanetArk: Floods affect over 1 million in Balkans, destruction "terrifying"
  • 2014/05/20: al Jazeera: After the Balkan floods: Unity and compassion
    The Balkans floods have unleashed an unprecedented humanitarian response that cuts across borders.
  • 2014/05/20: CBC: Balkans flooding leaves tons of dead livestock -- Army helping to remove carcasses posing health hazard
  • 2014/05/20: Xinhuanet: Nearly 1 million people affected in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) floods
  • 2014/05/20: ABC(Au): Balkan floods may have dislodged thousands of landmines: expert [pix]
  • 2014/05/20: WSWS: The Balkan floods and the break-up of Yugoslavia
  • 2014/05/20: al Jazeera: Fresh Balkan floods prompt more evacuations
    At least 12 towns along Sava River given warning as catastrophic flooding threatens Serbia's largest power plant.
  • 2014/05/19: al Jazeera: Radio amateurs assist in Serbia flood rescues
    Serbians fleeing flooding are helped by amateur radio operators who coordinate rescue missions.
  • 2014/05/20: IOTD: Severe Flooding in the Balkans [on May 18,19]
  • 2014/05/19: BBC: Balkan floods: 'Quarter of Bosnia' without clean water
  • 2014/05/19: WFP: WFP Scales Up Emergency Response To Flood Victims In The Balkans
  • 2014/05/19: UN: UN humanitarian chief rallies support for flood-hit Balkan regions
  • 2014/05/19: BBC: Balkans floods: Appeal for aid as rescue continues
    Serbia and Bosnia have called for international help to rescue people from inundated areas after the worst flooding since modern records began.
  • 2014/05/18: TP:JR: More Than One Million Suffer Worst [Balkan] Flooding In Over A Century
  • 2014/05/18: BBC: Balkan floods: Fears of new surge on Serbia's River Sava

    First, stop putting GHGs into the atmosphere,
    Second, begin to reduce current levels of GHGs,
    Third, save as many species as possible,
    Fourth, begin to reduce the human population,
    And elsewhere on the mitigation front:

    Consider transportation & GHG production:

    While in the endless quest for zero energy, sustainable buildings and practical codes:

    As for carbon sequestration:

    Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

    What's new in conservation?

    While on the adaptation front:

    Meanwhile in the journals:

    And other significant documents:

    As for miscellaneous science:

    What developments in the ongoing struggle for Open Science?

    Regarding Hansen:

    Meanwhile at the UN:

    And on the carbon trading front:

    • 2014/05/22: BBC: 'Callous' firms in carbon credit scam shut down
      A web of firms that sold carbon credits to vulnerable investors at inflated prices has been shut down in the High Court on grounds of public interest. Eco-Synergies Ltd bought credits for 65p each, selling them to investors via other firms for up to an 869% profit.
    • 2014/05/19: EurActiv: EU figures show carbon credit glut persists, but offset data withheld
      Environmentalists reacted with dismay after new EU figures for 2013 showed that the flagship Emissions Trading System (ETS) was still over-supplied by 2.1 billion carbon allowances and data on carbon offsetting was partially withheld. The ETS is supposed to drive carbon dioxide emissions reductions in Europe and help EU states meet the bloc's climate targets. But at E5 per tonne of CO2, carbon allowances provide industry with little incentive to switch from cheap coal to more expensive alternatives, such as renewable energy, or gas.

    On the international political front, tensions continue as the empire leans on Iran:

    South [& East] China Sea tension persists, as the empire leans on China:

    Tensions continue as the empire leans on Syria, Ukraine, Russia...:

    Geopolitics: A major geopolitical shift seems to be underway, of which the Syria, Ukraine, Russia, China and Iran tensions are aspects. I do not know how this will turn out. We may be looking at a return to a bipolar world, although unipolar and multipolar results are possible. Hopefully, without resorting to war.

    These 'free trade' treaties should be called the corporate control treaties:

    Well damn! They dragged the FQD [Fuel Quality Directive] debate out so long the dilbit is shipping:

    Remember the YPF - Repsol fandango in Argentina?

    • 2014/05/24: BBC: Spanish oil company Repsol ends operations in Argentina
      Spanish oil company Repsol has ended its operations in Argentina, two years after the government seized its assets. Last month the Argentine congress gave final approval to pay $5bn (£3bn) in compensation for Repsol's stake in Argentine oil firm YPF. The Spanish company has now announced that it has sold the last batch of bonds it received to cover its losses.

    Climate Change is a threat multiplier exacerbating existing conflicts in food, energy, water, race, resources, religion, ideology ... etc.:

    The issue of the law and activism is playing out around the world:

    What are the activists up to?

    The move to divest from fossil fuel investments is growing slowly:

    Polls! We have polls!

    Regarding Water Politics and Business; See also:

    Among the world's religions:

    Regarding science education:

    From time to time artists are inspired/driven by the climate change crisis:

    While in the UK:

    And in Europe:

    Meanwhile in Australia:

    Now we get to watch the suppository of wisdom destroy what little Australia has done to fight climate change:

    Deutsche Bank has ruled out funding the Abbot Point coal terminal:

    After years of wrangling, the Murray Darling Basin Plan is in place, but the water management fights are far from finished:

    The Warburton investigation of the Renewable Energy Target is designed to kill it:

    The fight over coal seam gas continues:

    The Federal and now the State Liberals are bent on trashing the hard won Tasmanian forest deal:

    And in the Indian subcontinent:

    While in China:

    And elsewhere in Asia:

    And South America:

    In Canada, neocon PM Harper, aka The Blight, pushes petroleum while ignoring the climate and ecology:

    Resonances of the Lac Mégantic tragedy linger:

    The Harper gang is pushing some fundamentally destructive science policies:

    The grain backlog persists:

    Trudeau's pro-choice resolution has tongues a wagging:

    Incoming PR campaign! Expect more lies and spin:

    • 2014/05/22: BBerg: Canada Said to Aim to Bolster Aboriginal Pipeline Support
      The Canadian government is poised to take another step to boost support for pipelines as it prepares to rule on Enbridge Inc.'s proposed Northern Gateway project. Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford plans to announce his department will set up a new branch office based in British Columbia to oversee discussions with aboriginal groups, two people briefed on the matter said yesterday. The announcement may take place as early as next week, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information isn't public.
    • 2014/05/20: CBC: Resource sector launches [pro-pipeline] PR campaign
    • 2014/05/19: NNW: Resource sector takes matters into its own hands with PR campaign
      When it comes to persuading Canadians and the U.S. of the merits of oil pipelines and natural resources, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been no Don Draper. The Keystone XL pipeline appears to be caught in a perpetual American political limbo, and Enbridge's Northern Gateway plan is hampered by strong local opposition, to name just two projects. A cabinet approach that involved attacking environmental groups has been roundly criticized as poor strategy. Now a variety of Canadian sectors are taking a page from those same environmentalist groups, coming together behind a public relations strategy meant to mobilize the public in a way the feds haven't been able to. The latest high-level campaign hosted by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, called the Partnership for Resource Trade, includes among its advisory members major oil and gas, mining, forestry, agrifood and transportation associations, as well as academics.

    There are getting to be so manyoil [2] andnatural gas [2]pipelines, one almost needs a scorecard:

      1. The battle over the Northern Gateway pipeline rages on
      2. There are hearings for the Kinder Morgan expansion coming up
      3. The Enbridge Line 9 reversal is before the NEB
      4. CNRL saga

      The battle over the Northern Gateway pipeline rages on:

      There is wrangling over the NEB trying to restrict the Kinder Morgan expansion hearings:

      The Enbridge Line 9 reversal has been approved. Let the lawsuits begin:

      A strange story of the ongoing CNRL seep:

      What's the state of the West Coast salmon fishery?

      Meanwhile in BC:

      Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

      Also in Alberta:

      While in Saskatchewan:

      In Ontario, Wynne has been forced into an election. Poll date is June 12th:

      As for miscellaneous Canadiana:

      • 2014/05/20: CBC: Resolute sues Rainforest Alliance over 'biased' audit
        Canada's biggest forest products company is suing because of an unflattering audit of its logging practices in northern Ontario. Resolute Forest Products is suing the Rainforest Alliance because their draft audit recommended the company's FSC certificate -- an environmental stamp of approval for the industry -- be suspended. According to court documents filed by the company, the 2014 audit said Resolute is not complying with good environmental standards.

      And on the American political front:

      The Keystone XL wheel grinds slowly. And it grinds woe:

      Leaks and spills:

        Jeez! It's getting hard to keep all the spills and leaks straight. You need a map. Let's see...:

      1. In North Caroline, Duke Energy spilled coal ash slurry into the Dan River
      2. In the Gulf of Mexico, BP and company had the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
      3. Atwater Village strip club inundated

      In North Carolina, Duke Energy spilled coal ash slurry into the Dan River:

      The BP disaster continues to twist US politics. See also:

      An Atwater Village strip club in Los Angeles was anointed with 10,000 gallons of crude oil:

      The GOP War on Women continues. See also:

      The NorthWest coal export debate remains heated:

      Looking ahead to the 2014 & 2016 elections:

      The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

      As for what is going on in Congress:

      The movement toward a long term ecologically viable economics is glacial:

      What comes after Capitalism?

      In nature, there is no garbage:

      IPAT [Impact = Population * Affluence * Technology] raised its head once again:

      Apocalypso anyone?

      Okay hot shot, how are we gonna fix this?

      How do the corporate media measure up?

      Here is something for your library:

      And for your film & video enjoyment:

      As for podcasts:

      Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

      This Equador suit against Chevron/Texaco has been going on for decades:

      It looks like these BP trials over the Gulf oil spill are going to take a long while:

      Developing a new energy infrastructure is a fundamental challenge of the current generation:

      What do you have in energy comparisons and transitions?

      What's changing in energy investments?

      Hey! Let's contaminate the aquifers for thousands of years! It'll be a fracking gas!

      On the coal front:

      On the gas and oil front:

      In the fossil fuel corps:

      Regarding oil and the economy:

      Ships and boats and trains -- How to tranport the stuff?

      A rush of American triumphalism pervades the energy independence PR campaign. Think it will last?

      Biofuel bickering abounds:

      The answer my friend...

      Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

      The nuclear energy controversy continues:

      Nuclear waste storage requires _very_ long term thinking:

      Nuclear fusion has been 'Just 20 years away' for the past 50 years:

      Like a mirage, the dream of a Hydrogen Economy shimmers on the horizon:

      How are the utilities adjusting (or not)?

      And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:

      Automakers & lawyers, engineers & activists argue over the future of the car:

      This week in the Gee Whiz File:

      As for Energy Storage:

      The reaction of business to climate change will be critical:

      Insurance and re-insurance companies are feeling the heat:

      What do we have in (weekly) lists?

      Anything in pithy (or piffling) quotes this week?

      The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

      More silliness a la Bengtsson:

    • 2014/05/25: Stoat: Lacis at Curry's on Bengtsson
    • 2014/05/24: C&S: The Bengtsson Affair - Part 2
    • 2014/05/23: DerSpiegel: A Heated Debate: Are Climate Scientists Being Forced to Toe the Line?
      After joining a controversial lobby group critical of climate change, meteorologist Lennart Bengtsson claims he was shunned by colleagues, leading him to quit. Some scientists complain pressure to conform to consensus opinion has become a serious hindrance in the field.
    • 2014/05/21: Stoat: Adventures in the denialosphere
    • 2014/05/20: DeSmogBlog: Did Lennart Bengtsson Know Global Warming Policy Foundation And Heartland Institute?
    • 2014/05/20: ERW: Dispute arises over rejected climate-science paper
    • 2014/05/19: DeSmogBlog: Environment Journal Editor Responds To Conservative Media Storm Over Rejected Climate Manuscript
    • 2014/05/19: CCP: Referees' reports on Lennart Bengtsson paper submitted to ERL: Statement from IOP Publishing on story in The Times
    • 2014/05/19: CCP: Lennart Bengtsson's rejected paper - what really happened
    • 2014/05/19: SkS: Behind The Times - another manufactured climate controversy conspiracy theory by dana1981
    • 2014/05/19: ERabett: The Third Referee Waits In The Wings
    • 2014/05/18: ATTPh: Politicised science?
    • 2014/05/18: V V: Resignation letter Lennart Bengtsson is inconsistent

      Meanwhile in the 'clean coal' saga:

    • 2014/05/21: CW: Ashes to Ashes -- In the heart of coal country, Utahns worry about a toxic mountain of pollution

      This week in intimidation:

    • 2014/05/22: ICN: Jailed & Shot for Fighting Coal: Q&A With Ramesh Agrawal, Goldman Prize Winner

      As for climate miscellanea:

      And here are a couple of sites you may find interesting and/or useful:

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      Dear hopeless,

      This is not a time to give up or give in. Likely your hopelessness is at least partially driven by the abject failure of so many self-proclaimed experts and other kno...wledgeable people to say out loud what they know to be true about the way the world we inhabit actually works as well as about the placement of human species within the natural order of living things. Not speaking out loudly, clearly and often regarding what is known to be true and real gives rise to the hopelessness so many feel and to the false idea that there is nothing we can do. Perhaps the silence of so many 'plays the lead role' when it comes to killing the world as we know it. Not speaking truth to the powerful is unethical, morally outrageous, intellectually dishonest and a preposterous failure of nerve. Never in the course of human events have human failings had such profound implications for the future of life on Earth.
      Steven Earl Salmony
      AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population
      established 2001
      Chapel Hill, NC

      PS: I do not have to win or even believe I will win the human-induced struggle that is presented to all of us in order to speak openly, honestly and hopefully "the whole truth" about what could be real.

      Hopeless > stevenearlsalmony • 4 days ago

      What an eloquent description of the situation. The subject is taboo across all disciplines. No environmental orgs will touch it -- even Zero Population Growth has disappeared. Talk about ignoring the gigantic elephant in the living room. What a bizarre species we are...and one that has limited time on the planet. Sadly we are taking many, many other species with us.

      stevenearlsalmony • 12 days ago

      What is true, real and somehow right can never be trivial. And yet 'the brightest and best' ignore, avoid and willfully refuse to examine, discuss and report on all as well as, perhaps, the best scientific research on the subject of human population dynamics. Knowledge of the population dynamics of the human species remains off limits, a taboo even among those in the newly established 'Scientific Consensus on...Humanity...', the relatively 'ancient' Royal Society, the modern American Academy for the Advancement of Science, other national academies of science, the Union of Concerned Scientists, demographers and economists everywhere. When and where are the self-proclaimed experts in population biology, other sciences and relevant disciplines going to openly acknowledge the uncontested scientific evidence of human population dynamics that appears to disclose simply and elegantly how human population dynamics is essentially common to, not different from, the population dynamics of other species; how human population numbers appear as a function of an available food supply? How more food equals more people; less food equals less people; and no food, no people.
      Are the overproduction, overconsumption and overpopulation activities of many too many people not the primary problem confronting humankind in our time? Scientists have been seeing what is happening during the past 70 years as human population numbers skyrocketed worldwide. Scientists have been regularly reporting this widely shared and consensually validated scientific knowledge. But that is not the end of the story. There is at least one other question to ask that calls out to us for an answer, a question that any reasonable and sensible person would ask, I suppose. And that question is, “Why is the human population on Earth exploding? Why?” The question is straightforward. Where are the scientists with knowledge concerning why the global human population is skyrocketing on our watch? They are electively mute.Their conscious and deliberate collusion makes it possible for silence to prevail over science. This cannot be construed as correct behavior, especially by top-rank scientists. In diametrical opposition to the evolution of science extant, uncontested research related to the question of ‘why' has been ubiquitously avoided or denied by many too many of the very experts on human population matters who are in agreement about ‘what is happening’ regarding the unbridled colossal growth of the human population on Earth. If science of ‘why global human population numbers are exploding’ is willfully ignored, how is the human community ever to respond ably to emergent and convergent human-induced threats to future human well being and environmental health? How can we speak about the necessity for advances in science, for fidelity to scientific facts and truth, for the individual and collective will to go wheresoever the evidence leads while first class scientists with appropriate expertise deny scientific evidence of human population dynamics/overpopulation? For self-proclaimed experts to refuse to examine and share findings of scientific research regarding ‘why the human population is exploding’ has got to be overcome, fast. Such a breach of one’s duty to science & humanity is a personal and collective betrayal of both.

      stevenearlsalmony • 12 days ago

      http://planet3.org/2013/05/30/...

      Hope on Earth: A Conversation | MAHB

      mahb.stanford.edu

      Steven Earl Salmony A comment from a remarkably astute observer and friend.... Just to jump in to the discussion: Every so often this group hits the target. This amounts to an eloquent prologue for a undescribed action that should follow. But closer to a bulls eye would be something like a revolution.

      But now we hit a wall, a singularity moment, where we know something big and important has to happen, will happen -- we don't know or agree just what, or perhaps we know, but are afraid to describe the ruthless immensity of the purpose driven change needed. The horror is - we know huge changes loom -- generally predictable but not specifics of time or event. We can influence so little. But we are unable to call for changes to mitigate the looming decimation.

      Our impact will be minute - we might mitigate global warming so slightly as to permit a select sample of multigenerational humanity to survive. Otherwise we are condemned to silently witnessing our demise - and by our silence, hastening it somewhat.

      I am struck by the descriptions of various revolutions - where historians note that no one caught up in them knows they are revolutions, nor knows what that means, or what must come next. They know only that change must come, and so pushed forward with a different way of doing things. Perhaps called revolutions by their success, otherwise they would be a failed loss. Now comes the great test of our civilization, whether it can change sufficiently to allow human survival. I don't think pure wealth will suffice. Nor ruthless power. Although wealth and power will positively bias short term survival for some - unless it is so organized and refocused - it means little for the survival of the human species.

      Our planet is locked in to warming of 3° to 10° C no matter what we do about it. And the higher heating would assure violent extinction. The lower end merely great suffering and loss. We appear to be making choices that increase danger. It is a poor response to argue about the scientific validity of the projections. As if to see a house on fire, with far more fuel inside, instead of applying water, we try to exclaim and explain that it is not really aflame. Our house is next, and within, we don't have enough denial left for facing that.

      We have describe it well, we are fully engaged in losing the first great battle - the battle of perception. Since the 1980s - where media consolidation completely dominated and controlled messages we receive - we have lost the battle for truth or even open minded perception. But our defeat has been painless, accompanied by growing affluence, we have been surviving against a real enemy that contains and controls our mass communication. Carbon commerce has built its own media empires, and now completely dominates.

      So now we are left to observe or witness - that our friendly media enemy has been promoting so much commerce that the real harms of overpopulation and climate change are side effects, collateral damage. Now the only hope is that mass media simply surrenders to the reality of the situation - and now must change completely to promote survival messages. All mass media turn around... like it did in WW2. Nothing will change until overwhelming message-making compels it. We can see the need, we can demand it, but until all mass media compels and promote fundamental changes, until then we are losing the battle to slow down our demise.

      It just does not seem very likely. Indeed it may be a losing battle. In which case all we can do is witness. "There are now more 22 year olds in America, than any other age." They must decide to radically change in ways that amount to revolutions. All we can do is exhort behavior that encourages survival.

      Future, historians deciding our tumult was a revolution, means purposeful change would have succeeded. Whereas, extinction will be unrecognized, undescribed from within.

      Interesting times.

      Richard Pauli
      http://climatemanifesto.com/

      Climate Manifesto climatemanifesto.com

      climate manifesto political action for the future

      By Steven Earl Salmony (not verified) on 26 May 2014 #permalink