Why are we still waiting for the EU to act?
What can we learn from the fact that the EU has still not stopped buying over 90% of Syria’s oil exports? If nothing else, it tells me that we need fossil fuel too much!
But I think the problem of wrong priorities goes much deeper than that… This is because the Limits to Growth argument (which underlies my concern over AGW) is, even though the protestor-in-the-street may not realise it, the root cause of all the problems we are now seeing in Afghanistan, Bahrain, Cairo, Damascus etc., etc… right through to Zimbabwe: Treating the symptoms of food shortages or corruption (or whatever they may be) will not succeed unless we address the root cause, which is the inevitable consequences of perpetual growth in consumption of resources and/or waste production on a finite planet [see E.F. Schumacher's Small is Beautiful (1973)].
This 5 minute video makes sobering viewing, but it also perfectly summarises everything I have learnt in the last 12 months; and all I have posted on my old MyTelegraph blog in the last 5 months!
It may not be rocket science, but can we reach Escape Velocity?
This stuff is not rocket science, but it is very unwelcome news to people with a vested interest in the continuance of “business as usual”. Unfortunately, we literally cannot go on the way we are; something has got to change…
The fact that AGW may suffer from issue fatigue, and the fact that I sometimes feel like an old-style street preacher being completely ignored by passers-by, does not change the fact that, on well above the balance of probability, we face an environmental catastrophe if we fail to take significant action within the next 5 years. Furthermore, every year we fail to act, makes taking effective action much, much harder. This is because it is the total (i.e. cumulative) amount of fossilised carbon that we (have and will) put into the atmosphere that will determine the temperature change we will see over the next 50 years or so.
Extract of paper presented by Dr Myles Allen at 4 Degrees and Beyond Conference (2009)
[...] However, with regard to this issue of civil disorder on our streets, I believe you may find this post on my new blog [...]
An open letter to James Delingpole | lackofenvironment
19 August 2011 at 18:24
[...] Lack who writes the blog, Lack of Environment, submitted a comment with a link to a piece that he had written on the 19th August that I would like to re-publish in [...]
This is rocket science! « Learning from Dogs
15 November 2011 at 07:01
[...] I suggested that the failure of the European Union to stop importing Syrian crude oil showed that we are far too dependent upon it. But that too is very easy to say; and not so easy to do anything [...]
What’s wrong with Oil? | Lack of Environment
24 November 2011 at 09:35
Alvin Toffler wrote two great books that completely explain the problem of comvincing people about Climate Change:
Future Shock – about the changes introduced by science which since they come so quickly are like a sledge-hammer on people’s minds.
The Third Wave – which explains how only a few of us, those who accept the nature of “change” will survive the events of the future.
Donald
30 November 2011 at 14:33
What The Third Wave implies is that those of us who accept change and prepare for such changes are the newest Homo sapiens – i.e. Homo superior – not because we are any smarter but because we use more common sense than the ordinary Homo sapiens
Donald
30 November 2011 at 14:35
Having studied Latin to “O” Level, I think it would be Homo superiensis or something like that!
Martin_Lack
30 November 2011 at 15:42
Homo Sapiens Superiensis means that we are still “sapiens” but I don’t see it that way as I am way too handsome to have the heavy brow set of our stone-age cousin sapiens
Donald
30 November 2011 at 16:53
[...] that would really hurt the despotic regime), we clearly need their oil too much. See also – Why are we still waiting for the EU to act? GA_googleAddAttr("AdOpt", "1"); GA_googleAddAttr("Origin", "other"); [...]
News in brief | Lack of Environment
1 December 2011 at 15:32
[...] This stuff may be complicated, but it is not Rocket Science! (N.B. You need to read to at least 3rd paragraph of this (19 August 2011) …. [...]
A response to John Kosowski | Lack of Environment
10 February 2012 at 09:41
“and the fact that I sometimes feel like an old-style street preacher being completely ignored by passers-by”
I’m starting to feel that way as well.
jpgreenword
22 July 2012 at 20:12