14.09.2018

Links September 2018

You will not read the following notions in mainstream media, because they would be rejected as alarmist, hysterical, and outright absurd. They would be ridiculed as panicking, overreacting, and imprudent fear mongering.

You will not read the following notions in mainstream media, because they cannot be commercialized, don’t go well with advertising, don’t promote shopping, consuming, disposing and replacing of stuff.
Are you fed up with mainstream media, popular culture, consumerism, and politics? How did you come to the website here or subscribe the blog? Are you worried and furious? If so, please calm down and take it easy. And take my word: Whatever happens, it will not go on forever, it will end one day.

Do you love cats, do you love nature? Please stay.
Do you love guns, fast cars, the newest gadgets? Please leave.
Are you well informed, well-intended, still curious? Please stay.
Are you posh, imperious, unperturbed, bored? Please leave.

Anyway, for the curious, furious, and worried, right to the point:

Rapid changes, extreme circumstances, and deadly dangers demand bold and radical responses, solutions, and counteractions.

As the ecological crisis becomes more evident, the financial and political elites become more disconnected from reality, not interested in anything else than defending their loot. The ordinary citizen, facing an Orwellian control system and armies of henchmen, sycophants, and hirelings, has few options left besides dropping out of the consumer society, hiding in the forests, and becoming an ecological resistance fighter.

Personal priority lists may differ, depending on individual situations, but at the top undoubtedly should be: Preparing to survive the coming breakdown, developing or learning and implementing alternative lifestyles, organizing or joining local resistance cells. 

1. Preparing to survive the breakdown

Stockpile non-perishable essentials (the organic prepper).
Learn to produce, preserve, and cook your own food (subsistence).
Acquire tools and spare parts, learn to mend and improve things by yourself (maker movement).

2. Developing or learning and implementing alternative lifestyles

Live modestly with the lowest possible carbon footprint. No travel, no fancy gadgets, no new cloth, furniture, or appliances. Exert and promote car sharing, bicycling, sharing of tools and equipment.
Reduce, reuse, recycle, repurpose, mend, improve. Join barter or swapping groups, use flea markets, boot fairs, second hand shops, transfer stations, scavenge.
Grow your own food, learn gardening or farming without chemicals or big machines and with the highest possible production of biomass (humus, rich soil = carbon sink).
Don’t live alone, become part of a family, a team, a community. Make friends with everyone who accepts you.
Grow spiritually, breathe calmly, smile, meditate.

3. Organizing or joining local resistance cells

Talk and hook up with your neighbors, with local craftsmen, merchants, communal workers, with clergymen (even if you are an atheist), activists, notables, the mayor and members of the municipal council. Ask, listen, answer questions, inform, explain, convince.
Take part in local activities (community gardens, choirs, chamber music, art and craft workshops), join advocacy groups (consumer protection, social justice, animal rights), volunteer (care for sick, disabled, elderly, take part in waterway and forest litter cleanup, participate in tree planting).
Found or join a co-op, which serves a special local or regional need.
All this will be insufficient, as the incorrigible and unteachable will not change ways and only will lampoon your efforts. They will use mighty machines and weapons, they will build new roads, dams, mines, pipelines, power plants, factories, skyscrapers. They are enemies of life, they are evil.
The ecological resistance movement has to deal with the enemies of life in ways which cannot be openly discussed. Except: It has to be done silently, invisibly, noon-violent. The sages and saints of the resistance will find a way. You will not be involved but maybe eventually you will come across them and get a chance to support them.

Quotes:

“For the first time in a decade, the number of people who are undernourished has increased – from 777 million people in 2015 to 815 million in 2016 – fundamentally undermining our commitment to leaving no one behind….Poverty is becoming increasingly urban, with most of the world’s extreme poor projected to live in urban settings by 2035;  250 million more people in Africa have no access to clean fuels for cooking compared to 2015!!  We are seeing alarming decline in biodiversity, rising sea levels, coastal erosion, extreme weather conditions and increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases….At the same time we have not yet managed to unlock and direct the scale of the resources needed, towards the financing of the sustainable development agenda.”
UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed in her opening speech on July 16, 2018 at the UN Political Forum on Sustainable Development.

“Your discussions have made clear that we are lagging or even backtracking in other areas that are fundamental to our shared pledge to leave no one behind[…] Investment in critical sustainable infrastructure remains entirely inadequate […] At the same time, we face mounting challenges. Runaway climate change, a growing number of conflicts and inequality, an erosion of human rights., an unprecedented global humanitarian crisis and persistent pockets of poverty and hunger.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ concluding remarks on July 18 at the same event.

“An important biological species – humankind – is at risk of disappearing due to the rapid and progressive elimination of its natural habitat. We are becoming aware of this problem when it is almost too late to prevent it. It must be said that the consumer societies are chiefly responsible for this appalling environmental destruction… They have poisoned the seas and rivers. They have polluted the air. They have weakened and perforated the ozone layer. They have saturated the atmosphere with gases, altering climatic conditions with the catastrophic effects we are already beginning to suffer.”
Then Cuban President Fidel Castro Ruz at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
I just read through the Dark Mountain Project manifesto, (https://dark-mountain.net/), and it is indeed very similar to the ideas, notions, analyses, and proposals published here on this blog since 2011, it is undoubtedly more lyrical and better crafted, but maybe less practical oriented and systematic.


Which again confirms, that we (readers and author of this blog) are not alone, that we belong to a broad movement. A movement, which is ignored by the media, but which grows quietly and works diligently on the foundation for a new “postindustrial” society.

It could well be a society built on ruins and graveyards, most likely distinguished by scarcity, hardship, and self-reliance. For half of todays humans it will make no difference, for many it will even be an improvement.

We should remain optimistic. Life is more resilient than one can imagine. Just look at the dandelions growing in the cracks of the tarmac.

Feline news:

Environmental news:

https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/08/16/nutrient-pollution-florida-toxic-algae-crisis-sanibel-island
https://www.ehn.org/apparent-slow-death-of-nuclear-power-2596688957.html
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/05/japan-admits-that-fukushima-worker-died-from-radiation
https://www.ecowatch.com/generational-harm-of-pesticides-2596453994.htmlWe all take part in a gigantic field test.
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/9/11/17614540/plastic-food-containers-contamination-health-risks Nothing new, but a useful compilation of facts.
https://therevelator.org/climate-pollution-mental-illness/
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/08/23/fire-a23.html Greek forest fires.
https://www.wired.com/story/germany-proves-cars-must-die/ Cars, along with guns, one will have to pry from their cold dead hands.
https://metamag.org/2018/09/11/five-worrying-things-we-just-learnt-about-the-eus-air-pollution-crisis/
https://www.consumersafety.org/legal/roundup-lawsuit/
https://news.mongabay.com/2018/08/brazils-pesticide-poisoning-problem-poses-global-dilemma-say-critics/
https://www.rt.com/news/436811-vietnam-agent-orange-compensation-monsanto/
https://thenarwhal.ca/grieving-with-the-worlds-whale/ If mass extinction is our fault, what will be our punishment?
https://thenarwhal.ca/the-lost-summer-the-emotional-and-spiritual-toll-of-the-smoke-apocalypse/
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/aug/27/air-pollution-causes-huge-reduction-in-intelligence-study-reveals Another reason the political class is not keen on implementing meaningful environmental regulations.
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-08-air-pollution-cognitive-decline-people.html
https://www.circleofblue.org/2018/india/toxic-water-toxic-crops-indias-public-health-time-bomb/ 70 percent of India’s fresh water is contaminated. Raw sewage and industrial wastewater are used for irrigation.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1429142
https://news.mongabay.com/2018/08/widespread-degradation-deforestation-in-african-woodlands/?utm
https://www.nationofchange.org/2018/09/04/87-elephants-found-dead-in-botswana-sanctuary-poaching-to-blame/ It’s human nature.
https://earther.gizmodo.com/unprecedented-poaching-frenzy-in-botswana-leaves-near-1828807354?utm
https://www.asiasentinel.com/econ-business/china-wolf-down-southeast-asia-wildlife/
https://www.treehugger.com/animals/whats-happening-all-hedgehogs-england-and-wales.html
https://www.ehn.org/monsanto-science-ghostwriting-2597869694.htmlMonsanto – the epitome of evil.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/09/11/monsanto-bayer-merger-hurts-farmers-and-consumers/ This merger will make no difference, because the two companies generally stayed out of each others territories, avoiding competition.
There was a farm crisis before and it will get worse because of climate change (droughts, floods, storms, heat waves, cold spells) and soil depletion. Small industrial farms will go bankrupt, the land bought by big corporations. But the corporations will go bankrupt too when the soil finally is destroyed by industrial farming and nothing grows anymore despite tons of fertilizer and pesticides.
Then everyone with a patch of land will grow her/his own food, without big machines or chemicals, getting their seeds from friends and neighbors. While in the bigger towns and cities there will be hunger riots.
Economic news:


Media and technology news:

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/08/23/pers-a23.html More Facebook censorship.
https://russia-insider.com/en/incompetent-facebook-identifies-former-british-ambassador-russian-troll-deletes-his-post-history Former British ambassador identified as “Russian troll.”
https://us10.campaign-archive.com/?e=0cfc6c9be8&u=8c573daa3ad72f4a095505b58&id=2ae9806bd8
http://www.atimes.com/article/mobile-phone-use-continues-to-rise-in-china/?utm Bright smartphone world.
http://www.atimes.com/article/china-now-has-802-million-internet-users-report/?utm
https://money.cnn.com/2018/08/21/technology/google-data-collection/index.html There’s no escape.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/09/06/google-and-apples-systems-to-track-you-in-person-what-the-media-isnt-telling-you/
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/09/07/pers-s07.html Google censorship.
https://digitalcontentnext.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/DCN-Google-Data-Collection-Paper.pdf
https://therealnews.com/stories/facebook-google-play-the-censor-are-our-civil-liberties-endangered Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi, hailed as a progressive and an icon of old school trustworthy journalism, tells us about censorship via Facebook and Google.
And he also wants to make us believe, that traditional media (like for instance his employer Rolling Stone) never will bow to government pressure and always will aim to inform unbiased and impartial. He refers to a golden age of journalism, when the press fought for its independence and professionals were paid for the quality and significance of their writing and not for their compliance with government propaganda.
But the fairy tale of present day ethical journalism has long been debunked, and authors in the tradition of Mark Twain, Jack London, and Ernest Hemingway, journalists like Ida Tarbell, Upton Sinclair, Murrey Marder, and Helen Thomas would not be published in todays mainstream media.
Keepers of the flame, like Seymour Hersh, Chris Hedges, William Blum, Robert Hunziker, and others indeed are blacklisted.
How can Matt Taibbi think that anybody believes his narrative of honest, principled, incorruptible media? How dump and gullible does he think his audience is?
https://boingboing.net/2018/09/05/mozart-bach-sorta-mach.html Can that really be? J.S.Bach owned by Sony? Does one now have to pay a fee to Sony every time one plays Bach?
http://medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2018/878-empire-journalism-venezuela-the-us-and-john-mccain.html 

Imperial news:

The duopoly party system plus the gigantic role of money in America means that no matter which candidate is elected, the US establishment wins. And the role of money has become central. It has been declared “free speech” by the Supreme Court. In US national politics, you can’t even play at the table without the kind of huge stakes Democrats and Republicans have in their pockets.

Winning an election means very little in the way of change. It does not change the role of big money, does not change the role of powerful lobbies, the role of the Pentagon, the role of the CIA – in short, America’s quasi-plutocratic government and its empire and its powerful organizations of support do not change no matter who wins.

In that important sense, US national elections aren’t all that different than the elections of the old Soviet Union. The US candidates just spend immensely more money and make a lot of noise in the press, and people think something is happening.

John Chuckman
Imperial conquest news:

There is almost no connection between what average Americans want and believe and what Washington does. And this has been true for a very long time. Did the public want the holocaust in Vietnam or the long list of other military intervention horrors?

They are simply dragged along for the ride when Washington is determined to do something. They have nowhere to turn with their votes even. Republican or Democrat, the results in terms of war and empire will be the same.

The United States’ power establishment doesn’t care what anyone thinks anymore when it wants to do something. Oh, I’m sure they’d rather like that the public “bought in,” but whether they do or not simply is not a “deal breaker.”

Washington ignores the UN. It ignores international law. It ignores many traditions and norms. Oh, it will offer up some excuse, some flimsy excuse for what it is doing, but, in the end, it doesn’t matter what the US public believes, any more than it matters what the other 95 percent of humanity represented by the UN believes.

The US public is virtually uninformed about what goes on abroad anyway. Their press and government representatives work hard towards that end. And the truth is the US public is largely uninterested. Many people also are just trying to keep body and soul together in the changed economic realities of contemporary America. They have no time to be concerned about what goes on “out there.” America’s establishment actually counts on such realities in its imperial calculations.

The only time the US public ever gets worked up over foreign policy matters is when US soldiers die in considerable numbers. The USA has arranged its foreign dirty work so that not too many US soldiers die, so the public is not used to bloodletting.

The casualty numbers at a certain point during the Vietnam war began to generate something like a national discontent and division. Through many mechanisms, such a discontent and division have never been allowed to happen again.

Look at the dirty work in Syria. We know, right now, a new phony gas attack is being planned around Idlib. There is significant intelligence on the matter. And it is just a set-up for a new round of bombing Syria, a country with which America is not legally at war and a country where it has no business having any forces without permission.

John Bolton’s ugly public threat about even more devastating bombing if chemical weapons are used again (“again,” entirely begging the question of whether such weapons had ever been used by the government, with virtually all indicators saying they had not) serves as a public invitation to the paid mercenaries in al-Nusra and such affiliates as the phony humanitarians of the White Helmets, to get on with the job of generating a needed provocation.

And will even one newspaper or network in the US question the fraud? Or question the excessive response?

And what will it matter if the public supports it or not? They know absolutely nothing anyway about what goes on in Syria and the US’s big, long-term role in it on behalf of Israel and others, including Saudi Arabia, to work towards destroying a legitimate government and cripple a beautiful country.

John Chuckman
Armageddon news:

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/08/17/hothouse-earth/ After this summer, runaway global warming and a catastrophic breakdown of the ecosphere (and human civilization) becomes a plausible scenario.
http://www.atimes.com/article/kerala-flood-disaster-made-worse-by-bad-development/?utm “We ignored the importance of wetlands. We ignored the sensitivity of ecologically fragile land. And in cities, we built buildings on leveled farmland. Now, where will the water drain?” T. Gangadharan, president of the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/greenhouse-gases-continue-their-massive-rise/5651274
https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2018/august/1533045600/james-bradley/end-oceans The maritime nightmare, well documented. Yet, people, numbed by the virtual reality of electronic devices, remain indifferent and may only look up from their screens when it’s already too late. What will be then? Mayhem, lawlessness, fascist dictatorships, a breakdown of civilization?
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2018-rich-new-zealand-doomsday-preppers/?srnd=premium
https://www.globalresearch.ca/climate-refugees-will-vastly-outweigh-recent-migrant-numbers/5653683 

Uncategorized news:

https://chinachannel.org/2018/08/27/dragonfly-eyes/
http://www.atimes.com/dissent-is-being-muzzled-across-our-planet/?utm
https://godsandradicals.org/2018/08/30/expert-opinion/ This is not exactly news, but nevertheless recommended reading.
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/09/04/braz-s04.html Brazil’s national museum burned down and with it the most valuable artifacts of indigenous culture. They lost their land, their last hideouts in the Amazon jungle, their freedom, and now their history.
Anyway, in an age of globalized and commercialized culture, who needs a national museum?

News from cat land:

It is a bit cold today and I have to admit, that one really could get used to global warming, if it were not for the drought. Unfortunately, as warmer air can absorb more water, a warmer climate inevitably means less rain. Less precipitation together with more evaporation then cause drought.

Despite drought, the garden harvest was incredible with yields higher than I ever expected or dreamed of. All four freezers in the cellar are completely full and there are still huge amounts of peaches and grapes to pluck. I thought about buying a fifth freezer, but that would only postpone the problem, because I hardly can consume the content of the four freezers (they are large chest freezers the size of dining tables). Tomatoes will be canned, but I don’t make jam because sugar is banned here. After considering all options I decided, that every friend and acquaintance will be offered grapes and peaches for free. I will also give away fruits at the next meeting of the barter group and carry a few boxes to the animal asylum where I volunteer (not for the animals but for the other volunteers).

The cats are happy and healthy, I wonder, how long this idyllic situation will last. It will not last forever, as we all get older, day by day.
I’m currently reading reports about the drought in Europe and its impact on agriculture. The farmers want money (from the taxpayers). That they destroy the soil with their intensive mechanized agriculture and poison the environment with pesticides and fertilizer is still not an issue. That their big machines, the chemical fertilizers, and livestock emit greenhouse gases (CO2, N2O, methane) doesn’t bother. That they bought with borrowed money machinery far too big for their farm just to impress the neighbors is not mentioned. It will take a few more drought catastrophes to make these people understand whats going on, and some will never learn the lesson.

The inveterate und unteachable farmers shall go bankrupt, they shall lose the land which they treated so carelessly. This is a punishment still far too mild for their environmental crimes which make us all suffer.

A recent study, published in Nature Sustainability, found, that 29 percent of all farms on the planet use sustainable farming techniques like for instance: a. little or no tilling to maintain healthy soils, b. integrating fruit trees with crops to promote biodiversity and supplement harvests with valuable tree fruits, c. collecting rain water for irrigation, d. using humus rich soil, composting heaps, shrubs, ground cover plants as natural water storage, e. reducing machinery, chemical fertilizer, pesticides to cut general operating costs.

29 percent of farmers got it, but these are small farms with not more than 10 percent of global farmland, and the small farms are economically threatened because subsidies for Big Ag keep commodity prices artificially low, GM-seeds and patented heirloom seeds force all land holders regardless of size to buy expensive seeds from corporations (some countries even make it illegal to save seeds), and nationwide supermarket chains put local groceries, street vendors, and farmers markets out of business. The small farmers and gardeners also have no money to employ lobbyists and bribe politicians.

“Tilting at windmills” or “constant dropping wears away the stone“?

While many small farmers understand what’s going on, the politicians, bureaucrats, technocrats, and corporate managers are clueless (or malevolent). The European Union offers derogations from specific greening requirements, namely crop diversification and ecological focus area rules on land lying fallow, to allow such land to be used for the production of animal feed. Which means: After the farmers have ruined their soil by intensive industrial farming they are allowed to destroy the land which until now was spared for ecological reasons.

In addition to that in many countries around the world farms and big agricultural companies who recklessly exploited the soil and have declared themselves “drought victims” are rewarded with generous relief payments, while the farmers who worked responsibly and preserved the soil get nothing.

Big Ag gets bailed out just like the big banks in 2008. This is the true meaning of “free market capitalism,” where not the best and brightest, but the most ruthless and best connected succeed.
After having published countless photographs of MATO’s cat family, this month post concludes with pictures from the already mentioned animal asylum. The asylum is still overcrowded, but people come to look and cats are constantly adopted to start a fresh and hopefully happy life with their new human host and guardian.
Posted by Keine Kommentare:

11.08.2018

Links August 2018

Another hastily compiled blog post with hyperlinks plus a few thought splinters and questions. Like for instance:

What shall we do, to save nature and ourselves from ourselves? Shall we fight the system and prevalent paradigms (centralism, capitalism, globalism, speciesism, etc.), or change our own life, develop our personality, learn new skills?

According to left wing theorists, changing ones personal habits, ones lifestyle will not achieve anything, because it’s the social and economic system which matters, not the individual conduct. But isn’t the system essentially the summation of individual dependencies and interactions?

Is “the system” a convenient excuse to avoid personal change?

“You must be the change you want to see in the world.” Mahatma Gandhi

There is no doubt that gathering strengths, improving oneself, thinking about the situation and possible strategies will make us act more effective, but imminent dangers nevertheless demand imminent responses. There is no time to ruminate, meditate, or contemplate, if flames are about to engulf our home, if flood waters rise, if food runs out, or malevolent political leaders are about to start the next war.

In order not to be overwhelmed, shocked, and helpless we have to think through all possible scenarios and prepare for emergencies. Preppers and survivalists are onto something, though their individualistic and militaristic approach is unhelpful.

Lone and isolated actors will not achieve much, so one should go out, join communities, organize, teach, persuade, convince. In order to be convincing one better should be a role model, an example of perfect virtue, a saint. Falling short of this it maybe is sufficient if one is sincere, humble, well intended, and unpretentious.

Feline news:


Hot environmental news:

For three decades climate models have predicted prolonged and intense heat waves and the predictions are coming true this summer across the Northern Hemisphere. According to meteorologists it will get even hotter and todays records will be the future norm. In the past weeks temperatures have soared to unseen highs. Here’s just a small sample:

•Death Valley National Park, California: 52 C (July 8)
• Ouargla, Algeria: The highest reliable recorded temperature of 51 C (July 5)
• Bardufoss, in Norway’s far north, a record was compiled of 33.5 C (July 19)
• Northern Siberia: Consecutive days with forecast above 30 C (July 9–16)
• Chino, Californiaå: Daytime record of 48.9 C (July 7)
• Tajimi, Japan: Record-setting temperature of 40.7 (July 17) 
• Kumagaya, Japan reported a temperature of 41.1C (July 23)

Japan has declared a heatwave sweeping the country a natural disaster, with at least 80 deaths recorded. More than 22,000 people have been admitted to hospital with heat stroke, nearly half of them elderly. Parts of Sweden, Norway, and Finland are recording temperatures almost twice the average.

In Sweden at least one person has been killed and dozens more injured by forest fires. More than 40 wildfires were raging from the south as far north as the Arctic Circle.

Neighboring Norway experienced its hottest May temperatures on record and has also suffered forest fires.

Parts of the UK are experiencing a prolonged heatwave and the government has issued a “heat-health watch” alert in the east and south-east of England.

Scorching temperatures have devastated crops across Europe, with parts of France and northern Germany showing serious damage to wheat yields. The European Union is ready to disburse funds to help farmers cope. German farmers have asked their government for 1 billion euros in financial aid to help cover losses from this year’s poor harvest.

In Greece more than 90 people have died in wildfires in the Attica region around Athens. Greece, Sweden, and Latvia have requested support from the EU to fight wild fires and neighboring states are sending fire brigades with aircraft, ground forces, and vehicles.

Wildfires burning in Siberia sent smoke plumes across the Arctic all the way to New England.

Reports from Algeria say that Africa’s hottest ever recorded temperature was registered in the northern city of Ouargla with 51.3 C (July 5).

A dry winter has intensified the worst drought in living memory in New South Wales, Australia. The area produces about a quarter of Australia’s agricultural output. Farmers tell harrowing stories of failing crops, severe water shortages, and being unable to feed livestock.

Eastern Canada suffered a deadly heatwave in early July, with at least 70 deaths in Quebec province alone.

A heatwave in Southern California saw record-breaking temperatures in some areas including 48.9 C in Chino, outside Los Angeles. A major wildfire burning on the western edge of the Yosemite National Park has generated so much smoke that air pollution levels in Yosemite Valley are worse than in Beijing. The National Park has since been evacuated.

Fueled by an incendiary combination of scorching temperatures, dry air and unpredictable winds, the deadly Carr Fire has forced thousands to flee, scorched more than 160,000 acres, torched 1000 buildings, and killed seven people until now. Across the western United States, 50 major wildfires are burning in 14 states.

The Mendocino Complex fire in Northern California is even bigger and has burned more than 300,000 acres, making it the largest blaze in the state’s history.
Nobody can complain. Meteorologists and climate scientists have forecast this development since years and all evidence point to the fact, that it is of our own making. Yet authorities around the world are quiet about possible causes of hot weather and persistent drought. The farmers will get additional subsidies and tax relief, the public is being advised to drink plenty of water, to use air conditioning, and to rest often. Nothing else is done. 

Our descendants will hate us.

https://www.vox.com/2018/8/7/17661096/california-wildfires-2018-mendocino-carr-ferguson-climate
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/08/10/fire-a10.html
https://www.globalresearch.ca/hothouse-earth-demise-of-the-planetary-life-support-system/5649902
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-el-salvador-drought/el-salvador-declares-emergency-to-ensure-food-supply-in-severe-drought-idUSKBN1KE338
https://godsandradicals.org/2018/07/19/questions-of-water/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-44923654 Brown is the new green. The monthlong heat wave is breaking all records and a water shortage has left Britains lush parks and meadows parched and brown.
http://medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2018/875-world-on-fire-climate-breakdown.html
https://www.globalresearch.ca/mainstream-media-obscure-most-important-issues-from-public-eyes/5648348
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/07/27/the-burning-planet/
https://global.handelsblatt.com/politics/heat-affecting-german-agriculture-business-950181
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/08/atmospheric-carbon-last-year-reached-levels-not-seen-800000-years
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/08/solar-geo-engineering-cant-save-the-worlds-crops/567017/ 

Other environmental news:

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/07/four-rs-reduce-reuse-recycle-repair.html
https://truthout.org/articles/wealth-cant-protect-environmentally-ravaged-silicon-valley-from-climate-change/
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/18/asthma-deaths-rise-25-amid-growing-air-pollution-crisis If you thought, that the problem of air pollution has been solved long time ago by outsourcing all manufacturing to China, you were wrong.
http://www.atimes.com/article/health-fears-as-ozone-level-hits-20-year-high-in-hong-kong/
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/19/rising-global-meat-consumption-will-devastate-environment
https://www.publicintegrity.org/2018/07/16/21834/plutonium-missing-government-says-nothing
https://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/hanford/article215575310.html
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/23/earths-resources-consumed-in-ever-greater-destructive-volumes
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/07/environmental-defenders-death-report/ R I P.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/tomorrow/fast-food-nation-inside-india-s-growing-crisis-a-1218839.html Western modernization in India.
https://www.dw.com/en/biodiversity-collapse-imminent-in-worlds-tropics-study-says/a-44821288 We will kill it all.
https://e360.yale.edu/features/how-deforestation-affecting-global-water-cycles-climate-change
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/07/ocean-wilderness-vanishing.html
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-45097490 What kind of article can one expect from the BBC? The rich are supposedly saving a tropical paradise, even as their air travel generates more CO2 than a Bangladeshi farmer will produce in her/his whole lifetime. And exotic species are saved by killing animals which humans themselves brought to the island paradise. Saving the world by killing our fellow animals, how convenient, easy, and gratifying! Because killing other living beings is our true passion – that is what we do best.
http://nautil.us/issue/63/horizons/when-climate-change-starts-wars-rp?utm 
Economic news:

http://evonomics.com/how-maximizing-shareholder-value-turns-nice-people-into-psychopaths/?utm Maximizing shareholder value.
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/07/18/pers-j18.html Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos made another 50 billion US$ this year.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/07/can-globalization-reversed.html An article that ends with the phrase “hamper long-term growth” is highly questionable and only useful to prove, that globalization, GDP growth, and environmental destruction are unavoidably linked.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/transformation/jeremy-lent/five-ways-to-curb-power-of-corporations?utm 
Media and technology news:

Imperial news:

To set things straight: The USA, with the largest prison population and the highest rate of incarceration on earth, has about 100 times more people per capita in prison than Syria.

Media splinters who give some thought:

Fleeing the Carr Fire, Greg and Terri Hill evacuated their Redding home in the middle of the night with little more than medications, photo albums, clothes, and firearms, assuming they’d be back home in a few days. They returned two days later to find little more than ash. [Now we know, what a mainstream US family regards as the most precious possessions.]

81-year-old contract bulldozer operator Don Ray Smith died, as he was working to clear brush and vegetation to contain the Carr Fire and his position was overtaken by the blaze. [When do US citizens retire?]

The monthly anti-US rant by John Chuckman:

I’ve always regarded American football as resembling imperial Rome’s arena spectacles.

It’s a sports culture designed to reinforce the attitudes and values of American empire.

Marching bands in the full splendor of Ruritanian palace guards, monster flags carried by an obligatory real-soldier color guard with rifles and white shoulder straps, gals in Ruritanian military caps high-stepping with short skirts, sequined panties, and matching booties while twirling batons, the unsingable imperial anthem with a loud-speaker demand for all to rise, not infrequently sung by someone who can’t sing or garbles the words, and the crowds of tens of thousands straining their vocal cords.

A big war parade before armor-clad players come out the field to hit and smash each other.

They are very similar types of gatherings to those of Rome with the noise and displays and bloodlust, only football doesn’t kill the players, it just hurts them.

But I’m sure if it were possible America would have a big audience for the exact Roman spectacles.

Maybe it will come to that with all the spirit of killing, from the colonial wars abroad to local cops who kill about three people a day in America, with ignoring great human misery, as in the refugees of the Middle East or in the horrors of Gaza, and with readiness to accept the violation of many traditional laws and ethical principles and agreements that today characterizes America.

After all, in America’s South, well into the 1930s, while FDR was in the White House, lynchings were often treated as family picnic occasions with gatherings on the town square while a man was hanged. Eleanor complained to Franklin about it and asked him to intervene, but he said he could do nothing without losing his support from Southern Democrats.

Ah, yes, America, you do have some proud moments. The rah-rah is good for the guys you send off to places like Vietnam where you managed to kill 3 million souls or Iraq where you killed another million.

Imperial conquest news:

A bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation that would impose “the most hard-hitting ever” sanctions, would require a two-thirds majority vote in the Senate to allow the US to withdraw from NATO, and would require the State Department to determine whether Russia is a state sponsor of terrorism. Co-sponsor Republican Senator Lindsay Graham: ”“Our goal is to change the status quo and impose crushing sanctions and other measures against Putin’s Russia until he ceases and desists meddling in the US electoral process, halts cyberattacks on US infrastructure, removes Russia from Ukraine, and ceases efforts to create chaos in Syria.” 

Armageddon news:

From a DGR-post:

In my moments of greater clarity, I want to absolve myself of all political inclination. If I ask myself, point blank, “what is it I am most concerned about?” the answer comes quickly: Ecology, the living world. My great worry regarding the world at large centers on the fact that human industrial civilization is every day bringing the web of life closer to the brink of total collapse. Through climate change, extinctions, pollution, the promulgation of invasive species, and the conversion of wild spaces into regions managed and exploited for extraction and production, human civilization is destroying everything upon which it stands. With such an insurmountable threat bearing down, it seems silly to get drawn into conflicts over petty human arguments. Of course, most of what is trumpeted by TV and print news seems to be just this, at least in comparison to the storm looming over us.


Uncategorized news:


News from cat land:

Sitting on the computer is an unappealing option if the garden needs tending and fruits need to be harvested. Three weeks of scorching heat were concluded yesterday with a thunderstorm and torrential rain. Which means that for at least three days I don’t have to go up at 4 AM to start irrigating the garden.

The rainwater barrels were nearly empty, after the rain they are full again. Nine of the barrels are directly fed by two downpipe diverters from the house and another two diverters from the big greenhouse, the other 15 barrels have to be filled up by transferring water from the first group with an electric pump. When I see that the directly fed barrels are all full I have to rush out into the rain, putting the pump in one of the full barrels and the hose in one of the empty ones. This is very inconvenient but a fully integrated system would be too complicated and prone to technical defects.

The pouring rain overwhelmed the drainage system and flooded the garage for a few minutes, it took me an hour to clean up the floor with towel and bucket. No damage done fortunately.

The cats are fine, only a bit dazed by the heat. Some of the cats and I slept for a few days in the cellar where it is still pleasantly cool. Gandhi Jr. got his own fan from my collection of industry parts and he really appreciated it.
Since years I have prepared the garden for hot summers with protracted heatwaves. There is no lawn or meadow and at least half of the garden is covered by a tight canopy of leaves. More than 30 fruit trees, 18 grape vines, hundreds of berry bushes, and high growing herbs like mint, lemon balm, nettle, and sage protect the soil from sunlight. The vines climb on trellises, blackberry bushes don’t climb but they are tied to posts or trellises and together with the vines and fruit trees form arcades through which one can walk completely shielded from the sun.

Will this be enough to cope with rising temperatures or will it only delay the ecological collapse for a few years?
“It’s Not Climate Change-It’s Everything Change,” as Margaret Atwood wrote 2015 in her notable and widely discussed essay.

I’m worried about mass extinction. There are no bats and only few owls in the forest. A huge hedgehog has discovered the garden but it is the only one I’ve seen for a long time. Bumblebees have disappeared. In March there were a few visiting but now they are gone. They liked the echinacea blooms so much, but at the moment only wild bees and butterflies are enjoying the echinacea.

Bumblebees are one of my favorite insects. I’ve touched them gently and I’ve held them in my hand, they never stung me. Butterflies are more fragile, I seldom touch them. A few days ago I heaved one carefully out of a spider web. It was unharmed and only a bit disoriented, when I sat it down on top of a box. It staggered around a little bit, flapped it’s wings, and flew away unceremoniously. There are many butterflies here, they like the butterfly bushes in the garden.

Will I see a bumblebee again? Will I be able to maintain my little paradise, the “cat paradise” for a few more years?
Will I have to watch powerlessly the ecological collapse?

City dwellers have no idea whats going on, because they are disconnected from nature and experience the world mostly via displays, which they are watching all the time. Country folks see the change, but many are clueless or indifferent. One neighbor just paved over a part of his scorched lawn with artful tiles. He will replant some of the dead bushes, others will be replaced by plastic plants.

Artificial plants will be in high demand in the coming years.
To hinder the forces which destroy nature, to obstruct and sabotage ecological genocide is a criminal offense. It is a crime because it impedes profits. Even suggesting and calling for actions to prevent destructive projects is regarded as criminal.

Such things cannot be discussed publicly. They can though be disguised as fiction. Writing crime stories never was a criminal offense, even if they inspired sinister plots, even if they were used as a template for criminal acts.

So, why not write stories which can be used as a template for ecological resistance?

In winter, when garden work is over, some short tales may appear here and on other blogs.
Beautiful Earth
With my beautiful fellow living beings
Can we protect and shield them
From the charlatans of modernity
Who have a chemical for every chore and a pill for every ill
Poisoning and sickening everything?

Swimming against the tide
How insignificant are we?
How insignificant are humans?
Will they destroy live for a million years?
Or only for a mere thousand years?
Questions that never will be answered

And yet I stubbornly resist
Posted by Keine Kommentare:
Abonnieren Posts (Atom)