They have the wealth and power to control governments. They lobby and threaten. All they care about is profit.
Green energy is cheaper and cleaner. We could become a world leader in the new technologies. It could make us a fortune.
It needs kickstarting. We have to solve the scientific/technological problems of intermittency – new batteries/storage. A combination of wind, wave, tidal, hydroelectric, solar and geothermal could meet our needs. We need investment and some good breakthroughs. Energy storage can be solved. Intermittency is not insoluble. When the wind doesn’t blow or the sun doesn’t shine the water still flows, the tide still comes in and out, the waves still lap, the earth’s core is still molten. A well-thought-through combination makes sense to me.
Science is progressing fast.
Allowing the outdated, polluting Fossil Fuel industry to burn the world doesn’t make sense to me. You don’t shit in your own nest.
In The Wake of Progress
In the wake of progress
Who pays the price?
Stripping away the delusions
In the pursuit of plenty
As we roll the dice
Without any solutions.
Forget the trees,
The bird and butterfly,
As the chainsaws buzz.
Communities all decline.
All the creatures die
Let’s not make a fuss.
Opher – 14.12.2022
Progress is a mixed blessing. The word seems to infer improvement. If that is the case then we have to ask the question: is it progress at all?
When were human beings happiest?
As carefree hunter gatherers?
As early farmers?
As Victorian factory workers?
As present-day rat-racers?
We’ve certainly got much more in the way of material wealth and medical care. We can travel. We have the technology – but…
When was nature at its best?
Before the dawn of man?
Before the hunters wiped out all the mega fauna?
Before the forests were cut down for agriculture?
Before the cities and concrete highways?
Before the world population grew to 8 Billion?
When I look around at the slums, depravation, rubbish dumps, urban decay, wars, pollution and smog – where there used to be forests and wildlife – sometimes I wonder.
What is the price of progress?
How Much is Money Worth?
How much is money worth?
Is it worth a single tree?
A forest? Or a stream?
How much is money worth?
Is it worth a single whale?
All the gorillas?
Or an orangutan, or a tiger?
How much is money worth?
Is it worth a hurricane?
A flood or a drought?
Perhaps a forest fire?
How much is money worth?
Is it worth a lung?
A plague?
A kidney or a life?
How much is money worth?
Is it worth a single family?
Or a country?
A people or a planet?
What is the price of money?
Opher – 1.3.2020
We are already starting to pay the price for global warming. The climate is changing as a result of the things we are doing. The hurricanes, droughts, forest fires, floods, heatwaves and migrations.
Of course, there are those still in denial, who claim these are natural events and not a result of anything we are doing.
They are wrong.
The science tells us most clearly – unless we change our ways the worst is yet to come.
The deniers are leading us down a path to destruction!
8 Billion
8 billion brains
Threaten many trillion lives.
We decide what is worthy
And what is not.
8 million minds
Want to feed 8 million mouths
And they don’t care
About the damage done.
Opher – 8.12.2019
Overpopulation is the cause of the present climate and environmental problems. It is responsible for massive deforestation – as land is cleared for agriculture. It is responsible for over-hunting, over-fishing and the destruction of many habitats.
The use of pesticides is decimating insect populations.
The massive pollution creating by our vehicles, industries and domestic use is poisoning the planet.
We need to get 8 billion down to a manageable 4 billion. Problems solved!!
Nature on the Run
Nature on the run
In a great killing spree;
Chainsaws, chemicals and bullets
By political decree.
Rainforests – the lungs
Of the world –
In danger of choking
As all the trees are felled.
Displaced creatures
Crawl off to die.
As thoughtless greed
Threatens you and I.
Opher – 8.7.2019
There is a great madness at work as we continue to plunder and pillage nature without a thought for the future.
Species after species is sent tumbling to extinction so that executives of corporations and politicians can live in luxury.
Without a thought for tree or creature we are ripping up the world.
Bolsonaro puts profit before Nature.
Lucy Ellmann on 5,000 years of male-led environmental destruction
LettersThu 29 Jul 2021 18.10 BST
Arwa Mahdawi claims that men are not responsible for climate change (Don’t blame men for the climate crisis – we should point the finger at corporations, 27 July). This lets men off the hook a little too lightly. Not only are they the instigators of the ruinous Industrial Revolution, which led to the vast contamination of air, water and land, but men have also spent the last 5,000 years fighting, killing, colonising, enslaving, marauding, and yelling about football.
Who invented the capitalist system that Mahdawi agrees is so destructive? And who owns the corporations she so rightly condemns? Men.
So, no need then to quibble with the cited Swedish study. Of course we shouldn’t blame individuals. We should blame all men.
Lucy Ellmann
Edinburgh
As a man I am tempted to agree with her. Men through their greed and belligerence have created this mess.
The question is whether women would have done it any better. Looking at examples like Thatcher and Priti Patel. I reckon they’d have made as much of a mess.
But then there is Jacinda Ardern.
And most of us men are not uncaring, thoughtless, vicious, greedy bastards. We just keep voting the bad ones into power – and women are just as guilty of that!!
