The Land is Free – for Moshe.

Once upon a time, the land was free,

As free as the wind, rain and sea.

Then, on the African plain

A mutation created man.

We prospered and increased in number

Moving out across the world

Dispersing.

We formed little clans and tribes.

We were hunter-gatherers and began to think of the tracts of land we hunted in as ours.

It brought us into conflict with neighbouring tribes.

But the land was not owned. It belonged to all.

The tribes prospered and coalesced and we invented nations.

The nations had leaders who became kings and religious leaders.

They claimed the land as theirs.

They waged war against other tribes to seize their land, to pillage and plunder

And increase their own wealth and power.

The robber barons who helped them subjugate the people and conquer were rewarded.

The kings and religious leaders gave them big tracts of land.

The robber barons sold or leased off small parcels of land to the people

Thus increasing their wealth.

The people farmed or lived on the small parcels of land they were sold.

The robber barons fenced off the land and called it private.

The kings, religious leaders and robber barons waged war, set up empires and increased their wealth and power.

The ordinary masses of people were enslaved, exploited, used and abused.

Down through history.

The descendants of the robber barons, kings and religious leaders still ‘own’ the vast tracts of land they purloined from the people. They use this land to generate vast wealth.

The descendants of ordinary people still cling on to their tiny parcels of land or rent their space.

The same wealthy robber barons own Britain, the USA and Israel. They still seize land, plunder and pillage out of greed and selfishness. They do it through war, corruption, manipulation and economic control. They manipulate us through the media, through patriotism, religion, politics, nationalism, xenophobia and racism. They divide people so that we turn on each other and not on them.

So, my friend Moshe, we are the exploited ones, We are not responsible for our rulers. They are the robber barons of old. They manipulate us. History is the story of the exploits of the robber barons – not our folk.

The land is as free as we want it to be. It is never owned, only borrowed or stolen. We are just passing through.

One day we will take all the land back. Hopefully, we will find a better way of living – not part of this system of greed, inequality and environmental destruction. We will all be equally important and there will not be this inherent racism and artificial division. There will not be nations or races. There will be people.

That is why I support the UN – because it is a way of taking power from those who are presently abusing it and exploiting us, and damaging our planet.

I am idealistic, realistic and far from stupid. I clearly see what is going on.

You, Moshe, are playing into their hands.

The land is free.

How much do you know about the Human Population? Are you pessimistic or optimistic about our future?

This is a fascinating little quiz that is extremely informative. Is progress being made? Should we feel pessimistic or optimistic about the future?

 How much do you know about the achievements of the WHO? Try taking the little quiz and finding out a lot more!

https://factfulnessquiz.com/

The Paris Climate Talks – A few random thoughts.

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Firstly – well done to Prince Charles! Being an antimonarchist does not stop me from congratulating the man when he uses his power and position to do something good. I believe he does care. He wants to protect rainforest and natural habitat around the world.

Secondly – Is it possible for a bunch of capitalists, with all their vested interests, wish for perpetual growth, lust for power, and greed, to find a way forward? How bad does it have to be for the prospects of the planet before people like this see there is more money to be made out of preserving nature rather than destroying it?

Thirdly – are we in the process of preserving wild-life and jungle merely as a tourist attraction? Is the whole world a theme-park akin to Disneyland? Are the only reasons to preserve gorillas, elephants, rhinos and chimps so that rich westerners will spend money to see them? Surely they are more important than that?

Fourthly – are even the rabid industrialists beginning to realise that global warming will create more problems than they can cope with? Will the cost of warming the world prove too much? Will it be cheaper to stop it warming?

Fifthly – Are they planning to do something about the real cause of all the problems? The problems are being caused by the huge population increases. That is priority number one!

Sixthly – Issues such as deforestation, burning of jungles, pesticides, pollution, trade in wild animals, loss of natural habitat, cruel poaching of wild animals, whaling, and a hundred and one other pressing environmental issues cannot wait. They are too in need of attention to wait. It isn’t a question of money. It is a fact that we are destroying species at an unprecedented rate. We can’t afford to wait. They need protecting now!

50% of the world for humans! 50% for everything else!

The animals and plants deserve to live too!

The Population explosion and the future! Anthropocene Apocalypse

 The Population explosion and the future!

Anthropocene Apocalypse

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In Scenario 1 the population continued to grow eating up space, wilderness and destroying all naturally living creatures. Technology dealt with the problems of food, water, energy, weather and even oxygen in the atmosphere. We lived in huge urban developments and the world is devoid of wild-life and natural areas.

Scenario 2.

The premise:

a. We realise the impact of our actions on the environment and limit our numbers, conserve the wilderness and wild-life, stop our habitat destruction and pollution.

b. We lay aside 50% of the planet for wilderness and wild-life. We do not allow roads, hunters or development in these areas.

We are extremely good at solving problems. We can easily create a sustainable future where wilderness and wild-life has a place.

The result:

a. We introduce contraception, education and family planning on a global scale and successfully reduce our population.

b. We use technology to produce better transport, housing, energy production, and food.

c. We do not have urban sprawl, deforestation, overfishing, or other unsustainable exploitation of the environment.

d. We raise the standards of life for all people globally so that there is no longer war, conflict or poverty. There are social services, pensions and sick pay enabling people to live without requiring large numbers of children to support them through hard times.

e. We produce technology that is not polluting and is sustainable. We have ample energy (probably through nuclear fusion and solar) and our farming methods are not cruel or ineffective. We can produce ample good food to support the population without encroaching on the wilderness areas.

f. The forests are conserved. Fishing is sustainable. The weather and global warming is controlled.

g. 50% of the world is teeming with wild-life that we can marvel at. The air, water and soil are not contaminated with carcinogens. We globally control the weather and global warming. Everything regarding conservation and pollution is controlled and enforced globally.

I know which of the two possible future scenarios I would prefer to live in.

The future is for our grandchildren’s grandchildren. In my own life-time we have destroyed over half of the world. I feel we are at the precipice. Will we jump?

The natural conclusion to our population explosion

Anthropocene Apocalypse – Scenario 1 – The natural conclusion to our population explosion

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Let us look into the future and extrapolate from where we are to where we are heading.

Scenario 1

The premise:

a. The population continues to grow

b. There are no catastrophes that wipe us out

Man is extremely good at solving problems. So let us assume that we negotiate our way through problem after problem. We do not annihilate ourselves through nuclear war or manufactured biological warfare. We do not succumb to a virus. We merely continue to grow in numbers.

These are the consequences:

a. Space and shelter. We need land and housing and our cities, towns and villages grow. The countryside becomes consumed in plastic and concrete. Roads connect and transport systems enable easy access.

b. The Wilderness. The wilderness and natural world become open to us and exploited for farming, mining, logging and habitation until there is no more inaccessible wilderness areas. Roads run through every place.

c. The Wild-life. The wild-life now has no habitat left, no food, shelter or way of living. It is butchered for meat, hunted for ivory or medicine (The rarer it gets, the more it is worth, the higher the price, the more worth the risk). The remnants of the wild things are corralled into parks or zoos and confined, protected and used as objects of tourism. Those considered pests, unpleasant or dangerous are eradicated.

d. Food. Even with all the wilderness opened up for farming, the seas fully harvested and hydroponics, genetic modifications and intensive farming methods there is not sufficient food for the burgeoning population. Food is produced from bacteria and fungus in vast industrial vats (Pruteen, mycoprotein etc. – already produced in large quantities – in our pies, sausages etc.), textured, flavoured and used as a meat substitute. Proper meat is a luxury food item.

e. Water. Water is a dwindling resource and desalination plants provide supplies.

f. Energy. Fossil fuels are replaced by large-scale sustainable technology – probably nuclear fusion supplemented with solar.

g. Weather. The effects of global warming are alleviated. The hurricanes and extreme weather conditions are now able to be controlled.

h. Oxygen. Oxygen is a natural product of photosynthesis. With the destruction of the forests and pollution of the oceans it is no longer being produced in sufficient quantities. Oceans are seeded to produce algal blooms and hydrolysis plants produce oxygen from water.

Our lives in these huge metropolises are highly controlled. Our environment is plastic. Our food, water and even the air we breathe is manufactured. We take our children to see the last remaining trees in the tree museum. We then go to the zoo to get a glimpse of and wonder at the little animals that used to run free in the wild.

It’s a vision of the future. It is quite possible. But is that the way we really want to live? Is that the world we want to pass on to our children?

Will A/I be the greatest threat or the biggest boon?

I feel that we are on the cusp of a major shift.

We’ve had the agricultural revolution, the industrial revolution and the digital revolution but all those are peanuts compared to the Artificial Intelligence revolution that is on its way.

Soon we will live in an age of driverless cars, robotic surgery, automated factories and distribution, self-stocking supermarkets, total surveillance, automated greenhouses and wars through drones.

We won’t need people to do the jobs. The need for most work will have gone.

So what do we do with the excess workers?

Do we continue to concentrate the wealth at the top? Do the factory owners automate, employ few staff, and pocket the profits?

Do we go down to a three day week (on the same pay) and distribute the work?

Do we give people a share of the increased profits and free time?

Will we all share in the additional wealth?

Do we retrain people into the caring professions – teaching, nursing, caring for the elderly?

Do we use technology to protect nature or destroy it?

Do we encourage creativity and leisure or narcotise with TV and computer games?

Do we give our weapons over to machines that can think and respond more quickly?

Do we simply do away with surplus population?

Do we have a two tier society of gross inequality with a super-rich elite and a miserably poor and controlled mass of drones?

Is anybody trying to deal with the possibilities and coming up with answers?

The world’s about to change – is it going to be better or worse?

Who’s going to be left behind this time?

Wave Goodbye? Overpopulation Blues.

Wave Goodbye

There is a giant Tsunami coming – a wave of biblical proportions that will sweep everything before it. It is already inundating the land and wiping the earth, sea and air clean. The flood is coming. But where is the Ark? Where is our present day Noah to come to the rescue? Nowhere to be seen.

The wave is already building. I can see it rising before me – a wave so great that it is already flooding the whole world and drowning all that lives.

The super-tsunami is driven by us. We are being burying ourselves alive with tuk-tuks, mopeds and cars, drifts of rubbish and litter, and people – swarms of people – like locusts, stripping everything clean.

In Manilla our peddle rickshaw man, in his twenties, boasted of his seven children. In Oman the average family is five or six and we were told of one man with four wives and twenty eight children. Then there was India, Vietnam, Africa and the spectre of China.

We passed the tuna nets in the sea and saw only three distant sea birds. There were no dolphins jumping or whales blowing.

Our planet is being systematically sterilised. The tsunami is rearing above our heads. The flood is already upon us. Where is Noah?

Anthropocene Apocalypse – Malthus and the catastrophe of overpopulation.

Overpopulation

Thomas Robert Malthus was a reverend from the eighteenth century who foresaw the effects of a huge burgeoning world population. He thought it would be a catastrophe. It would take room, use up resources and create famine and pestilence. He proposed that measures needed to be taken in order to restrict the population.

He was a man of vision.

Unfortunately Malthus’s ideas were aimed at restricting the increase of the working class! He was a trifle elitist.

Malthus is being proved right though. The population increase is building in pace, threatening food, water, mineral resources, the natural environment and most wild animals. It is changing the climate of the planet.

The answer does not lie in forcing poor people from breeding. It requires a much greater application of intelligence. We have to address the social issues that create the need for big families, the religious stupidity that is preventing people from regulating the number of progeny, the political policies that encourage big families and do not penalise  having too many children and the means to access contraception and use it effectively.

Education and social change is the answer.

Step 1 – recognise that we have a major global problem.

Step 2 – bring in social changes so that there is health care and pensions which remove the need for large families

Step 3 – Bring in contraception and education to limit children

Step 4 – begin an awareness raising campaign to highlight the need to reduce population

Step 5 – limit the places that humans can live, exploit nature or hunt and conserve the wilderness (50% for humans – 50% for the rest of life)

Step 6 – Stop religions going through their silly games to try to win through sheer weight of numbers by encouraging large families

Step 7 – Bring in political inducements and disincentives to encourage small families.

If action is not taken now we will be heading for disaster – a virus, a catastrophe, famine, starvation, emigration, climate change and the devastation of the wilderness.

I don’t want that. I want a beautiful world for my beautiful grandchildren. I want action!

Anthropocene Apolcalypse – 5 Easy steps to sustain the environment.

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Step 1 – Human population.

Reduce human population and maintain it at a sustainable level.

We are currently 7 Billion and heading for 10 Billion. That is at least 2 Billion too many already. We need to take urgent steps to reduce our population to a manageable, sustainable 5 Billion.

This can be achieved by:

a. Creating greater global equality with health care, education, sickness benefit and pensions reducing the need for bigger families

b. Using education and contraception to control family size

c. Use the education and the media to get the message across in whatever form is best coupled with incentives to reduce family size

d. Have wide-spread family planning and abortion centres.

e. Counter religious irresponsibility. The last thing we need is to go forth and multiply!

2. – Prevent Deforestation

The massive irresponsible destruction of our tropical rain-forests is robbing our wild-life of habitat, reducing biodiversity, creating mass extinction, altering the climate, creating soil erosion, altering our atmosphere and is a calamity. It has to be halted.

We have to persuade politicians that a short-term profit will lead to a disastrous long-term loss for them and everybody else.

Stop it now!

3. – Prevent further pollution

Pollutants know no boundaries. They are not contained by national borders. We need globally enforced standards on effluents, air pollution and radiation. They need to be backed up with draconian penalties and stringently enforced.

4. – Conserve our Dwindling Fauna

It is not just the large iconic mammals and birds that need protecting. We have to conserve our insects, fish and crustacean. Without food chains everything dies. The 56% reduction in arthropods is catastrophic.

a. Give 50% of the planet to wild-life.

b. Stop the slaughter through pesticides

c. Stop the trafficking of endangered animals, ivory, Chinese medicines, bush-meat, hunting, poaching and transgression into habitats.

d. Conserve our dwindling populations before they are gone forever!

5. – Carbon Output – Global Warming

Reduce our carbon output. This can be done without restricting travel or altering life-style. Simply change to renewable green energy and produce much more efficient technology.

There is nothing difficult about saving the world. It merely requires a bit more intelligence and a lot less greed!

 

Anthropocene Apocalypse pt. 60

Nuclear dumps

One major problem with the nuclear industry is the difficulty of getting rid of the nuclear waste. It remains dangerous for hundreds of thousands of years. The half-life of uranium is 4.7 billion years. That means that if you were to put a ton of it into the ground in 4.7 billion years time you’d still have half a ton of the stuff.

That doesn’t sound good to me.

It makes you wonder what British Nuclear Fuels were thinking when they were dumping that stuff off the sides iof ships into shallow water in concrete lined barrels that degrade in double quick time? Were they stupid or thoughtless?

In my opinion there is only one way to deal with nuclear waste. It needs vitrifying into glass cubes and storing deepo undeground in specially prepared chambers in rock that is stable and not subject to seismic activity. I know that is expensive but that price needs building in to the overall plan.

So when the government proposed a cheap plan to set up a nuclear dump on the site of a disused power station on the South Bank of the Humber I opposed it. I did not think that it was safe to put high level radio-active waste in barrels in a concrete lined dump on land. In my opinion concrete does not last thousands of years. Radio-active material would leak and contaminate groundwater. That is precisely what has happened in America with similar projects.

Doing things on the cheap is not a viable alternative.

So I went on a march through Hull carrying my banner. I did not take my kids because they vwere not yet old enough to make up their own mind and I do not believe in indoctrination.

Shortly after a man knocked on my door with a poster advertising a public meeting in the town library regarding the nuclear dump. He asked if I was going and could I display the poster. I readily agreed to both.

On the night of the meeting I went along to the library. I was expecting a big turn-out so I was a bit surprised to find I could park directly outside. I went in expecting the meeting to be in the main hall and was directed down to a basement room. It was very quiet.

When I went into the room there were only five people in there but they were delighted to see me and welcomed me i n. We had a great chat about the wrongs of nuclear dumping. Seemingly they were a small ultr-left wing group. They seemed nice guys.

The following week my phone was tapped. There was a click when I picked the receiver up and when my friends called their calls were intercepted and they were questioned as to who they were and who they were after and why.

That caused a bit of a stir.

When I rang the telephone people they assured me it was merely to check nuisance calls.