Coming Soon to a Planet Near You

May 15, 2012

Quiet and kind of warm here this early Tuesday morning on California’s northern coast, a disarming false front to the hushed riot building all over the world.

As US peoples go ga-ga over gay rights — who gives a fat-rat’s-ass who the couple is next door when the neighborhood is on the brink of a firestorm.
Strong, relatable words from the film ‘Titanic:’ Yes. In an hour or so…all this…will be at the bottom of the Atlantic.

(Illustration found here).

One route to reducing the obesity problem in the US — no more stuff to eat.
From Businessweek/Bloomberg this morning:

“We are living as if we have an extra planet at our disposal,” WWF International Director General Jim Leape said in the report.
“We are using 50 percent more resources than the Earth can provide, and unless we change course that number will grow very fast.
By 2030, even two planets will not be enough.”

“Similar to overdrawing a bank account, eventually the resources will be depleted,” the study’s authors wrote. “At current consumption rates some ecosystems will collapse even before the resource is completely gone.”

The results from the World Wildlife Forum in its biennial Living Planet report and this a boost to the all-growth concept of Western civilization, which it appears as a type of suicide.

And in more simple terms as explained by the director of conservation sciences at the WWF, Colby Loucks, who  compared mankind to bad houseguests: “We’re emptying the fridge, we’re not really taking care of the lawn, we’re not weeding the flower beds and we’re certainly not taking out the garbage,” Loucks said.

The problem, of course, is such death-throes bullshit such as this on the oil shale supposedly underneath Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, and why should we worry:

But with current U.S. daily oil consumption running at about 19.5 million barrels, the staggering amount of Green River reserves would by itself supply domestic oil consumption for more than 200 years!

Even if development is 15-20 years away, the vast untapped energy resources of Green River, the largest oil shale deposit in the world, provide additional support for the idea that “peak oil” is “peak idiocy.”

Climate change is the biggest nut humanity will ever crack — if we can, but the odds are appearing less and less in the good range with most people only way-dimly aware of the horror coming.
In this the more-neglected peoples are responding, such as the trials and tribulations of Bangladesh,  due to the fact climate change has become an every-day reality to them, not just a far-away theory.
From Climate Central and the problem in a nutshell:

“I am quite amazed at how people are grappling with climate change and are adapting,” said Saleemul Huq, a Bangladeshi scientist who is head of the climate change group at the International Institute for Environment and Development in London and an adviser to the Bangladesh government on how to adapt to climate change.
“It’s by far the most aware society on climate change in the world,” Huq said.
“It has seen the enemy and is arming itself to deal with it.
The country is now on a war footing against climate change.
They are grappling with solutions.
They don’t have them all yet but they will.
I see Bangladesh as a pioneer.

But Foreign Minister Dipu Moni notes the rub:

“The people being affected are not the big banks but the poor.
Our plight goes quite unnoticed.
It does not make the rich countries produce trillions of dollars overnight.
It’s a shame, but we keep trying.”

Yes, a dying shame, and not a good sign at all.

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