Our modern world is so interconnected that the absence of any one service is likely to affect others. If your internet is down your phone may be down too so you can't transfer money. If your electrical supply has gone you probably can't cook no matter how much backup food you have and your internet or phone may be unavailable because you can't charge a battery! OK, mitigate against these personal inconveniences in the short term but what of global issues in the longer term?

Yawn! . . . . . Who knows what future the changing climate will bring? But we do know it's gradually getting worse and gradually applies only if you're lucky. If you're not lucky where you live, then sudden catastrophic events such as flooding, forest fires or crop failure are more likely to overwhelm! Also, the crossing of one of several possible climate tipping points, such as rapidly melting ice sheets, could cause sudden and irreversible effects that accelerate global warming and lead crucial parts of modern society to collapse. What then?

Here's another thought experiment. Suppose the global financial system were to suddenly and completely collapse. Given present political circumstances this is not too far-fetched! Again, many other services are interconnected in our complex international economic system. The impact would be catastrophic, affecting everyone on a global level except, of course, the financial and billionaire elite with the foreknowledge and wherewithal to amass whatever reserves are necessary for their own survival!

All doom and gloom then so what's the point of doing anything at all? If we can't think ahead for ourselves consider young people - children, grandchildren and the unborn generations who must adapt to whatever lifestyle changes are needed for human wellbeing as the end of the century approaches. The days ahead may be grimmer but not necessarily disastrous if we look to ourselves and change our ways. Politicians should be deciding how the planet's resources can be used sustainably and shared equitably. Instead they encourage rampant consumerism for economic growth that actually accelerates the depletion of resources and increases carbon emissions!

Does a happy 'standard of living' have to mean acquiring yet more and more goods and services? An ecological civilisation is not impossible and there are exciting new ways of sustainable living that balance what we give to the planet with what we take. Improved human wellbeing and eco-mindfulnes is possible without selfishly exploiting other living beings and every other gift that Mother Earth can offer. The fate of the planet and humanity is in our hands. We and millions of others can only make a real difference if we leap up from our armchairs and speak truth to power!

COP29 and Mahatma Gandhi

"Oh really?" you say. "It's not clear at all, probably a hoax!" Then let's have your detailed arguments, the evidence that refutes the consensus of just about every expert on Earth. Yes, there are different conspiracy theories ranging from uninformed conjecture to webs of disinformation linking climate change to deliberate human manipulation, and so on and so forth, but not one of these emerges with any consensus.

I know that many people attending COPs do see things as they really are, whatever the official position of their masters. The distress of those from the most immediately threatened countries has been well reported as has the deceit of fossil fuel lobbyists using COP29 to promote their commercial interests. However, there's only anecdotal evidence of what many officials from the countries most responsible for the climate emergency are thinking privately. Obviously the politicians among them fear the next election and the industrialists that falling sales of their products will see them out of a job, but isn't there at least some discomfort when their behaviour disconnects with very basic beliefs and values?

I don't believe that very basic beliefs and values differ so much when it comes to culture, religion or even politics. Isn't honest recognition of the common good a universal value that must be reckoned with? Some brave souls try to work for the common good inside their commercial organizations doing what they can to end support for fossil fuel interests in ways that are likely to be at odds with their company's policies. Even sabotage has been reported inside the fossil fuel industry itself by employees who at great risk to their personal livelihood, just cannot live with a guilty conscience.

The point here is that there's not much time left and the degree of success for adaptation and mitigation for climate change depends on how quickly very large numbers of we humans can personally act for the greater good, regardless of our circumstances.

"We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a person changes their own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards them. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do."
- Mahatma Gandhi

Money! Money! Money! Is a Rich Man's World Realistic?

The trouble is the more money we have, the more power we have to take anything away from the world that we happen to want. We acquire and probably waste more and more things; food, clothes, vehicles, second homes, land, private aeroplanes - whatever! The planet's resources are finite so, inevitably, the richer we become as individuals, the less becomes available to those who really are in need, wherever they happen to be on the globe.

Unfortunately, the financial system was created years ago for a very different world where exploitation of the planet's resources was pursued as if there was no tomorrow. G

rab what you can for yourself, work hard and you might make millions creating wealth out of all proportion to what you need for a reasonably happy and fulfilling life. But there is a tomorrow and it's coming fast! Helping yourself to as much of the planet's resources as you can afford may be legal but it's certainly not sustainable.

The top 1% of the world's population already own half of the world's net wealth, giving billionaires enormous power over politicians, the media, finance and the large international companies with a vested interest in maintaining the fossil fuel industry. Is a systemic change towards a more cooperative way of sharing resources realistic? Could excessive accumulation of wealth and money be curbed somehow to achieve a more equitable distribution of the planet's resources without yet more ecological damage? Systemic change is not necessarily unrealistic as history proves with the abolition of slavery, women's rights, decolonisation etc. etc. but changing the status quo requires so many hearts and minds to change and there's not much time left! Well then, reducing the power of individual wealth is just not realistic. After all, money is absolutely necessary for everything.

Or is it? In June 1962 Satish Kumar and a friend walked from India on a 'Pilgrimage for Peace' to Moscow, Paris, London, and Washington D.C. They carried no money at all on a trip lasting two and a half years relying only on the cooperation, friendship and support of the people they happened to meet on the way. Here's what Satish Kumar says about realism:

"Look at what realists have done for us. They have led us to war and climate change, poverty on an unimaginable scale, and wholesale ecological destruction. Half of humanity goes to bed hungry because of all the realistic leaders in the world. I tell people who call me "unrealistic" to show me what their realism has done. Realism is an outdated, overplayed and wholly exaggerated concept."

Artificial Intelligence and Real Stupidity.

All well and good but apart from its huge demands for energy, careless development of AI could be disastrous. AI is already used to generate videos that create realistic but fake images of celebrities falsely advertising products. There may be worse to come. For example, how, if at all, should AI bring persons, 'back from the dead'? Seeing a realistic Elvis in new performances could be harmless enough entertainment but what if future developments make realistic face-to-face interactions with an apparently real Elvis possible? Also, the ability to create as many new episodes as you like of your favorite television programs is evidently a fascinating possibility for the future.

But fascination can be dangerous if large numbers of individuals become obsessed and isolated in unreal worlds of their own making and are also at the mercy of those seeking to broadcast disinformation about climate and political issues in ways that AI could make more and more convincing. Isn't isolation from reality the very opposite of what's needed to face the climate emergency? No easy answers but free and unregulated Artificial Intelligence is Real Stupidity!

How should we Live?

At the very least, for the sake of the young and future generations, let's think long term and actually replace whatever unsustainable lifestyles led to the climate emergency in the first place.

No easy solutions but living in smaller self-sufficient communities where everyone can meet most of their daily needs within a short walk or bike ride is an attractive ideal and has been implemented in several cities such as Paris. There's less need to travel, greatly limiting the use of energy guzzling vehicles including electric ones. As for air travel, although 1% of the population in their private jets are responsible for half the world's aviation emissions the other 99% are collectively guilty too! Perhaps greater and better use of communication technology such as virtual reality could help to reduce travel needs?

It's easy to speculate but long term plans and actions should be carefully considered and acted upon, sooner rather than later. If not, it could be too late for our wonderful planet and the inseparable part of it named 'humanity'!

Challenging Misinformation

Long threads of misleading comments and negativity in social media and websites slows understanding of climate change as an emergency requiring immediate urgent action. But what can be done short of attacking the right to free speech?

Here's a suggestion. Scatter brief comments that gently point to good information among the bad. Not comments inviting debate and engagement but simple, short, relevant and diplomatically worded statements of fact. Hopefully, long threads of negative comments and misinformation would then become more positive by the tactful insertion of helpful notes. For example .....

@igotit 2 wks ago
great to hear ppl expos the climate change hoax
@inoitall 2 wks ago
yea anybody knows weather gos up and down a lot so wot?
@EcoHelp 2 wks ago
Pleased to help - weather is about how the atmosphere changes from day to day but climate is weather averaged over a long period of time. Sad to say, changes in climate are harming the planet - and us!
@igotit 2 wks ago
Hmm .....

If done on a large organized scale could this not help reduce the influence of misinformation? Crazy idea or not? Any thoughts?

WASTE!

Imagine the waste generated all over the world by purchases of this hedge cutter as each buyer discards every page not in their own language. Imagine the energy needed to deliver these unnecessarily heavy manuals, the trees felled to make it possible and the admin costs of organising scores of translations, probably directed from a single country. It's an obvious example of waste but created in ways that can be difficult to assess because of our reliance on complex transport and communications systems.

Is waste unavoidable? Just take a look at Nature. Here's an extremely complex system of systems where recycling is the norm and nothing goes to waste. For us, production and consumption may be necessary but can't we learn to restrain our activities without exploiting natural resources so that the entire planet with all its lifeforms, including ourselves, is threatened by our wasting ways?

Electrification is the name
of the game?

My Nissan vehicle is about six years old and going strong but in a few years time we're all going electric. What to do? I like the idea of driving an electric vehicle (EV) with its great acceleration, quiet engine and zero exhaust emissions ..... The benefits are clear but looking at the larger picture, are EVs all they're cracked up to be?

Apparently, Volvo claims that emissions while constructing an electric vehicle can be 70% higher in comparison with vehicles driven by fossil fuel! The heavy lithium-ion batteries currently used by electric cars are energy-intensive in manufacture and also depend on rare earth metals with environmental and social problems caused by mining. Technological solutions are hardly on the horizon so the situation can only worsen as more and more people gradually replace their old vehicles with electric ones, using batteries with difficult disposable problems.

What can be done right now? Well, for a start, we could simply hold on to our fossil fuel vehicles but drive them less. Also, let's have some restraint on the sales culture that says you have to have a new vehicle every 3 years or so. In the long term, do we really need so many individual vehicles? Could we not make more use of public transport or cycling or even walking? Are all the highways and byways really necessary in view of the environmental problems they cause by their continual construction and maintenance? What do you think?

EcoBud

Lost in the Jungle

"If your SatNav fails - follow the sun!"

After 40 days in the Amazon jungle the child survivors of the plane crash were found. The western expertise and technology practiced by the regular soldiers along with the jungle knowhow and ancestral knowledge of indigenous helpers, led to a successful rescue. Fortunately, the children were also indigenous and the oldest, following the wisdom of her grandmother, knew how to find edible fruits and water.

This first hand example of cooperation is very clear and caused some of the soldiers to change their thoughts about Colombia's indigenous peoples. Unfortunately, ideas about 'primitive' lifestyles, 'savages' etc, handed down in western cultures are difficult to change although it's accepted by the UN and many others that the practices and traditions of indigenous peoples are important for today's social and ecological problems. For example, would modern agriculture, with its pollution and biodiversity loss, not benefit from the more sustainable practices of indigenous peoples? Respect the bonds connecting all people with the Earth and all other lifeforms?

There are many other examples of potential benefit arising from indigenous lifestyles such as respect for the wisdom of elders and real concern for unborn generations. You don't have to live in a cave or hunt with bows and arrows! Find out what's relevant for you and your community and you may be surprised.

So - I haven't thrown away my SatNav but I'll be following the sun too!

EcoBud

Be The Change!

For many of us climate change is right on our own doorsteps - now; floods, hurricanes, rising sea levels and even smoke from distant forest fires cause local damage and pollution as never before.

This ought to concentrate minds but those in power are slow to take radical collective action. So it now seems likely that global warming will continue to rise causing progressively greater disruption for all life. Expect massive migrations away from threatened areas, failures in food supply and distribution and if warming becomes really extreme, societal breakdown and even mass extinction becomes a real possibility.

All doom and gloom then? I don't think so. 'Business as usual' is not an option and lifestyle changes will be necessary but however drastic they turn out to be the opportunity is always there to lessen negative impacts for the greater good. In the absence of leadership by the powers that be massive action at a grassroots level can make a real difference. Plenty information is available about what anyone can do according to their abilities and personal circumstances.

Also, be aware that responding well to climate and environmental issues and working effectively towards solutions is driven more by emotion rather than intellect. Think of your children, grandchildren and future generations. Cultivate climate wisdom in tune with your beliefs, be they religious, philosophical, political, whatever. Choose your path wisely and with humility.

Be the change you want to see in the world!

EcoBud

Drawbridges up or Down?

Business as Usual?
Here, rolling back Green spending before elections. There, waging disinformation wars rather than turning off the oil wells. No problem, technological advances are on the way. Yes, fossil fuel emissions came down a little at first but then global warming was suddenly accelerated by thawing permafrost in the Arctic. This was the first of a cascade of tipping points causing irreversible climate damage, environmental changes and devastation never seen before. Too late for most of the human population and the natural world but not for the affluent few with the vast resources needed to isolate and insulate their gated communities.

As warming exceeded the 3C mark, up came the drawbridges with no mercy for those left outside ......

New Age?
Following a regime change, massive deforestation recontinued in the Amazon triggering popular uprisings around the world that no politician could ignore. A hastily convened international conference actually achieved majority agreement and a large UN rescue mission was funded and assembled to enforce it. Many countries adopted wartime-like measures to rein in emissions and protect the most vulnerable from the harshest lifestyle changes. Some reluctant countries, faced with invasion, finally agreed to necessary measures and funding was made available. Emissions rapidly dwindled to zero and a new era for humanity was forged ......

Extreme scenarios and speculative detail? - no doubt! So do we just muddle through in some middle way and pay the price or is there real hope for humanity?

EcoBud

The Reality of Travel

Limited travel, particularly international travel, will place demands on the Internet that current services don't usually provide. For example, consider simulating face-to-face meetings with loved ones in a remote country. Video and sound is readily available with a 2D screen but there's little perception of actually being together in the same intimate space.

The 'metaverse' is a 3D, virtual world, an internet space based on Virtual Reality (VR). Billions are being spent on this unreal world as resources in the real world dwindle and sadly, the current focus is on economic growth. But VR has the potential to play a positive role in the real world to come. Despite the clunky headsets the perception of being somewhere else with other people, immersed in a 3D, 360 degree environment, can be very convincing. But could VR transmit that special hug for your mother in a realistic way? Well, haptic technology can even provide some degree of touch and feel.

Other ways that VR can effectively replace the need for real world travel include:

Empathy building - Interact with others more directly affected by climate emergencies.

Education - Kids take lessons together in the same virtual classroom.

Medical - Detailed examinations by remote doctors in the privacy of virtual surgeries.

These approaches and others may rely on advanced VR features not yet in common use but improvements in technology are likely to reduce costs. Let's keep the virtual world but only in the service of the real one!

EcoBud

Get ready for tomorrow.

"Be The Change!" I trumpet when writing about the lifestyle changes that climate change will bring. Evidently most people are now becoming concerned about climate but what can individuals do - or not do? That is the question. Perhaps the '4 Rs' might help.

Resilience: What of value do we want to keep?
Relinquishment: What will it help to lose?
Restoration: What benefits can be restored from the past?
Reconciliation: What of morality? How to make peace with the planet - and each other!

Everyone will have their own answers and do what they are moved to do depending on their priorities, values, dedication and the time and effort required.

There are many possibilities for community action and many activist groups to join and support. There's imaginative projects such as the collection and charitable distribution of food and other materials from shops and businesses that would otherwise go to waste.

What can you do personally? Go vegan or vegetarian, fine, but no need to be perfectionist and disrespect those who enjoy the occasional beef sandwich! What about direct action and civil disobedience? Plenty to consider there but the balance might lie in doing small things well rather than risk doing big things badly. Influence others by making your views and concerns known to local politicians, community leaders and anyone else. Demand change by all means but better still, "Be the Change" yourself!

EcoBud

Writing on the Wall

Our modern societies depend on a complicated mix of interacting systems that we expect to change slowly and predictably for the better and it may not be very obvious when things gradually become worse.

It's also true that sudden system failures in one country, such as a financial crisis, can have disastrous global consequences. Climate change now produces increasing numbers of sudden and potentially catastrophic threats and more are likely. Extreme weather causing sudden crop failures followed by widespread economic disruption and migration issues, is just one example.

Are we properly equipped to deal with the urgency and complexity of climate change? I think not. Real power is held by politicians whose natural focus is on short-termism and the next election. International corporations are largely motivated by profit and have the power and influence to aggressively promote their businesses, almost regardless of the greater good. The fossil fuel industries are prime examples.

Yes, we can hope for the best while preparing for the worst as we dig our vegetable gardens but don't we now have a golden opportunity to reconsider the very fundamentals on which our currently unsustainable societies are based? Must institutions be set up to compete and divide rather than cooperate, to accumulate wealth rather than share it wisely and to viciously exploit rather than conserve the planet's resources? Let's look to ourselves for a change of hearts and minds. The writing is on the wall - we should do something about it!

EcoBud

Denial

Everyone knows and talks about climate change now but not in terms of climate breakdown. Why is this? The scientific evidence for breakdown is clear and the effects are now present for all to see in extreme weather events etc etc.

This mother of all emergencies affects the entire future of the planet, including humanity, but so far there's been little urgent action and many people, who might not deny the science, still don't recognize the urgency. Isn't that a form of denial too?

Oil and gas companies have known that burning oil and gas could cause climate change and global warming for many many years. They, and other vested interests, have persistently funded climate change denial by attempting to influence public opinion. They misrepresent climate change science by creating doubt and manipulating debate. Even now, COP28, which should be pushing for drastic reductions in global emissions, was effectively taken over in an oil-rich country, by scores of lobbyists whose aim is to delay, weaken or block policies that actually tackle climate change.

The lobbyists might be played at their own game . People could be nudged away away from shades of climate denial, rather like they were nudged away from smoking cigarettes in the past by officially funded campaigns. Would aggressive advertising of the positive aspects of climate change work? For example, farmers are more likely to be positive about change if they experience improved production from climate-friendly practices. But where are the official funds now?

EcoBud

Message from Gaia

Sorting out some old text files I came across a message from somebody called Gaia.

"I have had enough. I have given, given, given and I have been plundered, raped, stolen from, dismissed, ignored, had poisonous nuclear waste dumped in perishable containers deep in my belly. I have had all your refuse and toxic waste thrown into my pristine oceans, killing off my friends the fish and marine life whose home this is. My forests have been decimated for your consumer lifestyles. My ice caps destroyed by your obsession with getting more. For what purpose? I have had enough.

I radiate love, but this strange species that calls itself humanity and thinks it is above everything else, is the only species that has lost its roots and so lost its way that it has suffocated me and mine, and is now suffocating itself! This is not revenge, I am doing this out of love for the whole. Only as humanity suffocates in its own greed, contempt, ignorance and arrogance will it start to change its ways. Pass this message on to all who will hear. Thank you."

Well now, that's an alarming thought for tomorrow - and today! Let's face it. The cause of climate change is simply the blind pursuit of economic growth that followed our Industrial Revolution. But humans are part of the natural world so how can we shift growth to genuine human and planetary wellbeing? Now that we're all aware of the damage climate change is causing to the planet isn't it time to take stock and rethink?

EcoBud

Robert Burns on Nature and Humanity

Enjoying my whisky and haggis on Burns Day it occurred to me that Robert Burns had much to say that's very relevant to today's troubles. His work is appreciated everywhere yet his thoughts on human behaviour and nature are still at odds with many current attitudes.

Ploughing his fields he accidentally overturns a mouse's nest, needed for its survival over the winter. He's said to have composed "To a Mouse" while holding his plough.

"Little, sleek, cowering, timorous beast
Oh, what a panic is in your breast!
You need not start away so hasty
With bickering prattle!
I would be loath to run and chase you,
With murdering paddle!"

(Scots to English translations via Wikipedia)

Just imagine - he stops work to sympathise with a minute fellow creature, probably regarded as a pest and chased or even killed by other farmers. Burns was never a successful farmer and he was living in poverty. Ploughing was absolutely crucial for his own survival yet his heartfelt feeling for the survival of natural life concerned him very deeply.

He reflects on the broken bonds between nature and humanity:

I'm truly sorry man's dominion
Has broken Nature's social union,
And justifies that ill opinion
Which makes you startle
At me, your poor, earth-born companion
And fellow mortal!

And in our own day, facing thoughtless exploitation of what's considered to be 'natural resources', will Nature's social union with humanity remain broken? I'm no doomster but I'm with Burns when he ends:

"And forward, though I can't see, I guess and fear!"

EcoBud

Is Education Climate Ready?

Kids are being educated for an imaginary world that just doesn't exist any more. If education is supposed to equip people, especially children, with the tools for happy and productive lives then we need a major rethink. We are very well educated for unsustainable, competitive lifestyles that gobble up the planet's resources. Our education is directed towards employability and high salary jobs but what of plans for the future?

Climate change is likely to alter political, economic, social, health, transportation and technological systems in many different ways, including extreme failure. When, how and to what extent is not clear so education is absolutely necessary to prepare our children and grandchildren for the lifestyle changes that are already affecting many of us for the first time.

Basic know-how is likely to become more useful rather than knowledge in the traditional academic sense. Skills that could be vital in emergencies include cooking, making and lighting fires, planting, sewing, mending, community-building, medical knowledge and caring for others. All these could be gently introduced to children from a very young age.

On a more academic level, universities and colleges should present climate science and it's implications in beneficial terms. They all have an important part to play in their research and courses, questioning assumptions, counteracting disinformation and offering convincing and acceptable plans for the future. We all have plans for the future but as Mike Tyson remarked, "Everyone has a plan 'till they get punched in the mouth!"

EcoBud

Thoughts for Tomorrow

Consumerism on Ice

Apparently a New York bar imports ice from Japan, 6000 miles away! Somehow, via social media, clever ads or whatever, a pointless demand has been created, regardless of wider considerations such as waste or carbon footprint. Unfortunately, people can be persuaded and tricked into needless consumption that encourages waste, pollution and greed.

Rampant consumerism is unsustainable and definitely not wanted when it comes to tackling climate change and environmental issues. But things could get much worse as AI (Artificial Intelligence) becomes widespread and enormous databases of personal information are created. For example, consider the promotion of some product, say small electric heaters. They may be inferior to other products already on the market but human promoters, using their know-how and expertise, will place ads, videos etc aimed at the types of users most likely to purchase their product.

Now AI, given terabytes of personal info, has the ability to go much further than human activity in perfectly targeting the promotion of a product at individuals. Very select groups of potential buyers can be formed from very comprehensive records of age, ethnicity, purchasing habits and even deep recorded knowledge about human behaviour. The target groups can then be bombarded, perhaps automatically, with whatever mix of information and misinformation is most likely to persuade them to buy.

Instead of promoting yet more consumerism, could properly regulated AI not be used to demonstrate the urgency of climate change and related issues? . . . . . or should that thought be put on (non-Japanese) ice?

(Ice cubes image via Wikimedia Commons)

EcoBud

When will they ever learn?

Well, at least the issues surrounding climate change and the planet have entered mainstream debate now, if only through persistent pressure by protestors.

At the best, governments are slow to make the necessary commitments and then act on them. At the worst, they backtrack when they see public disapproval and electoral disadvantage. Terrified of promoting doom and gloom they shy away from boldly embracing the facts. For example .....

Global Warming: the planet could be warmer by 1.5℃ since industrialisation and possibly 6℃ to 7℃ by the end of this century.
Mass extinctions: Almost 60,000 species are lost each year. Of about a million species facing future extinction, half are insects with critical roles in ecosystems and food production.
Acidic Oceans: Oceans have acidified by about 25% since the beginning of the industrial revolution and this could increase to 170% by 2100.
Deforestation: There are about 50% fewer trees since the agricultural revolution.

Let's have publicly funded courses, honest advertising and educational programs tailored for children and the general public. Why can't governments focus on the social benefits of swift action, sustainable lifestyles and the popularity of more practical support for adaptation and mitigation?

But it's not all doom and gloom. Is it possible that the recent historic decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on climate change and the right to respect for private and family life, can lift climate above party politics as governments strive to stay within international law?

EcoBud

Thoughts for Tomorrow

Thought Experiments for Armchair Activists.

COP29 and Mahatma Gandhi

Money! Money! Money! Is a Rich Man's World Realistic?

Artificial Intelligence and Real Stupidity.

How should we Live?

Challenging Misinformation

WASTE!

Electrification is the nameof the game?

Lost in the Jungle

Be The Change!

Drawbridges up or Down?

The Reality of Travel

Get ready for tomorrow.

Writing on the Wall

Denial

Message from Gaia

Robert Burns on Nature and Humanity

Is Education Climate Ready?

Thoughts for Tomorrow

Consumerism on Ice

When will they ever learn?

Electrification is the name
of the game?